Explorations #21 - Three Articles in One
Congratulations! If you enjoy my articles at all, then today is your lucky day! Today you actually get three articles in one. Feel free to skip ahead to whichever section seems like the most interesting, although I highly recommend that you read the tournament report at the end. It is a tale of victory, defeat, Magic Online lag, and includes at least one very important life lesson. There's also a mind reading opponent mixed in there somewhere.
Here's the table of contents:
Part I: NAYA/jund Ramp
Part II: The X-Deck
Part III: Classic Merfolk Tournament Report *top 8*
Just a quick note before we get started: I REALLY wanted to make videos for the decks this week, but MTGO's severe lag and lack of replays make that pretty much impossible. Unfortunately I'm going to be unable to include videos in my articles until this gets fixed. Sorry about that everyone, take it up with Magic Online!
Part I: NAYA/jund Ramp
Last week I sketched out a bunch of decks using new cards in Conflux (you can read the article
here). Today I'm going to go a bit more in depth with one of them - the Naya Ramp deck. This is a deck based on mana ramping into some of the most badass creatures in Standard and the cool new X-spells from Conflux. If you want to read about my initial brainstorming/card selection then check out that article, I suggest getting a basic idea of this deck before reading further.
Here's the list that I'm going to start with, and then jump right into the test games:
Directly into testing!
Game 1 vs GR Warriors
I mulligan down to five with a pretty lame hand (no acceleration), but don't want to go down to four. My opponent plays out Karplusan Forest, Bramblewood Paragon, Bramblewood Paragon, and then Wren's Run Vanquisher. Before I know it I'm down to three life. I'd love a Firespout, but thankfully I manage to ramp to seven mana with Mind Stone and clear the way with Martial Coup.
I try to get in with some 1/1 tokens, but my opponent has Volcanic Fallout to not only Wrath my side of the board - but also bring me down to one life. I cast out a 10/10 Apocalypse Hydra and get in there for ten damage. My opponent gets Treetop Village and then Obsidian Battle-Axe, but I cast out a Broodmate Dragon. Double Magma Spray takes out one of my Dragons, and I have to trade my other one for his Battle-Axe wielding Civic Wayfinder in order to stay alive. Apocalypse Hydra goes all the way.
Analysis: This deck is definitely week in the early game, with most of the energy going towards ramping up mana. I fell behind early in this one to some pretty severe beatdown, but was able to get control of the game and win. Not only did I mulligan down to five, but I also ended the game with a backup Apocalypse Hydra and Meglonoth in hand.
Game 2 vs UW Mill
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My opponent plays Arcane Sanctum and then Howling Mine and Jace Beleren. I get double Mind Stone into play and then try to bring Garruk Wildspeaker onto the table, but Broken Ambitions takes care of him. Then something tragic happens - my opponent uses Telemin Performance and gets my Hellkite Overlord! This is not a good turn of events.
Not only do I have the Hellkite Overlord to deal with, but thanks to a Traumatize along with Jace and the Howling Mines - I'm in danger of being decked! I used Primal Command to gain some life and shuffle, trying to set up a win via Banefire. Memory Erosion comes down and I'm really limited by how many spells I'm able to cast. I use Naya Charm to buy a turn and drop a 14/14 Hydra with my opponent tapped out. If I can just get in with the Hydra once then I can Banefire for the win... but unfortunately Path to Exile takes out my creature and Hellkite Overlord finishes me off.
Analysis: I put up a valiant effort, but seeing my Hellkite Overlord turn against me was not an easy thing to deal with. If he grabs any other creature, then I'm able to Banefire my way to the win (I had all four in my hand) - but the Hellkite was just too much pressure. I didn't even have a second to think! I was supposed to be doing that to him - not the other way around!
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Game 3 vs RB
I start off with Fertile Ground and my opponent plays Mind Stone into Bottle Gnomes and then Lightning Elemental. I take some damage and then use a Mind Stone of my own to clear the board with Firespout. Beacon of Unrest brings back the dead Lightning Elemental and I take another four points of damage. A second Mind Stone allows me to cast Meglonoth and then take my opponent down to fourteen as he plays out a second Lightning Elemental and sends his team into my 6/6 reverse-trampler.
I untap, swing with Megnoloth, and then use Banefire for eight to finish off my opponent.
Analysis: At the end of this one I had Godsire and Hellkite Overlord both in my hand. I wish it had gone another few turns! It's a little embarrassing that I got beat down so hard by Lightning Elementals - maybe I should swap Firespout for Volcanic Fallout?
After a few test games, I'm ready to make a few changes. First off Apocalypse Hydra is an awesome card, but I've seen way too many of them. I'm going to swap out one copy for another Martial Coup, which was absolutely amazing the one time that I've drawn it so far. I'm also going to swap out Firespout for Volcanic Fallout and test out the new hotness.
Out: 1x Apocalypse Hydra, 4x Firespout
In: 1x Martial Coup, 4x Volcanic Fallout
Back to the games...
Game 4 vs RBw Goblins with lots of Removal
My opponent plays Festering Goblin and then Goblin Outlander. I get Fertile Ground and then decide to cast Garruk Wildspeaker instead of clearing the way with Volcanic Fallout. If he doesn't have a removal spell, then I get Meglonoth on the next turn and he's in big trouble. If he does have a removal spell, then I've got a bunch of land, Volcanic Fallout, and Meglonoth is still coming. It turns out that he does have removal for my beast token (Nameless Inversion) and is able to kill Garruk.
I cast Mind Stone and then Meglonoth, but he has Dark Temper to remove my 6/6. I cast Broodmate Dragon and he uses a combination of Dark Temper and Path to Exile to remove the double dragons. This whole time he's getting in with his 1/1 and his 2/2 and I'm down under ten life. I topdeck Martial Coup and cast it for six, which wipes out his side of the board and gives me some serious pressure, You want to hear about pressure? I topdeck Hellkite Overlord (on my side this time!) and quickly win.
Analysis: My Garruk play early on made this game a lot closer than it should have been. It was a risky move, but I understood that when I went for it. The cards in my deck cost so much mana that it's tough to have a turn where I do something like, "Volcanic Fallout and then drop a creature". I can't cast Volcanic Fallout and drop Meglonoth without having access to a full nine mana, which is pretty tough to pull off. This meant that I took way too much damage from his dumb little guys.
Maybe it would have been worth it to spend some time to clear the board early on? I was worried about the fact that he had a hand full of card, but they turned out to be mostly removal spells. Live and learn.
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Game 5 vs Gold Creatures
My opponent plays Treetop Village, Ancient Ziggurat - I start off with double Vivid Grove. Rhox War Monk comes into play followed up by Tidehollow Sculler. I don't have any acceleration and get stuck at five mana. Doran, the Siege Tower hits the table and I'm in big trouble. I have triple Meglonoth in my hand, but no way to bring the big guys into play. I use double Naya Charm to Fog and then double Primal Command to gain life and stay alive... but I never get a sixth land and go down hard to big creatures.
Analysis: I needed a sixth mana source and didn't get it, which is a bummer since I'd like to have seen how this one would play out with some action on my side.
So far I've had trouble in the games where my draw is light on acceleration. I'm going to up the amount of acceleration in the deck a bit. Also I've had plenty of hands clogged up with Banefire. It's a great card, but I don't think I need so many copies.
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Out: 2x Banefire, 1x Primal Command
In: 1x Garruk Wildspeaker, 2x Rampant Growth
And then to support Rampant Growth, I'm going to add a few more basic lands into the deck.
Out: 2x Jungle Shrine
In: 1x Forest, 1x Mountain
Game 6 vs UW Mill/Halo/Declaration
Do you ever play a game of Magic where it seems like your opponent has the ability to read your mind? In real life we call this "putting the read" on someone: Look, he twitched his left eyebrow! That means he has... Pact of Negation! Every once in a while it seems like someone has the MTGO read on me, which I obviously know is impossible - unless he's pulling off some major hacker moves. This was one such game.
I start off with some sweet acceleration and then right before I lay down Meglonoth, I see Runed Halo: Meglonoth. That's weird, but I guess I can understand it. He knows I'm running red/green/white, and he knows I'm running some kind of ramp strategy and will have access to six mana next turn. It doesn't seem like Meglonoth is a completely impossible conclusion, does it? Unfortunately I have two copies and my hand with a bunch of dead cards. He starts using Jace, Howling Mine, and Font of Mythos to draw everyone a bunch of cards.
I decide to move onto plan B: Banefire him out, when Declaration of Naught: Banefire hits the table. This guy is definitely on the money, but again with a little analysis it's not too hard to figure out that I'm running Banefire. He plays out Traumatize and I'm running out of time. I resolve Primal Command to buy some time, but another Traumatize puts him way in the lead once again. And not only does he play Traumatize, but he lays down Runed Halo: Apocalypse Hydra. I had enough mana by now to create a 20/20 Hydra. I was planning on going for it in one big swing. Eventually I deck myself, while he sits back with protection from my whole deck. What can I say? He had the read on me.
Analysis: Of course, he didn't have the read. He had Telepathy, which I somehow missed way back on turn one. It's late and I'm tired, cut me some slack!
Game 7 vs RBU Control
I start off with a mulligan, but get a good start of double Fertile Ground and Garruk Wildspeaker. My opponent spends this time playing out all kinds of Vivid lands (mostly Vivid Creek) and Reflecting Pools. I make a beast token and go on the offensive, thinking that anything I cast is likely to get countered with all of that untapped blue mana.
My opponent uses Volcanic Fallout to take out Garruk, and then piles on a Magma Spray to finish off the beast token. I play Rampant Growth and then a 12/12 Apocalypse Hydra, but Cruel Edict forces me to sacrifice the monster. I saved some mana to pay for the Broken Ambitions that never came while I was attempting to resolve Apocalypse Hydra, so I was able to activate his ability twice and get some damage through.
I tap out for a 16/16 Hydra, which resolves - but another Cruel Edict denies my big monster. I draw Banefire, which makes two in my hand, so I spend the next two turns burning out my opponent for the win.
Analysis: As soon as I take two copies of Banefires out of my deck, the red x-spell becomes my path to victory. I guess if you're lucky enough to draw both of them when you need 'em, then two copies is plenty!
Game 8 vs RG Warriors
I keep a hand of six lands and Mind Stone, which is not ideal. I topdeck like a champion and start off with Mind Stone, Rampant Growth, and then Garruk Wildspeaker. My opponent plays Scuzzback Scrapper, Rip-Clan Crasher, and then uses Incinerate to take down Garruk. I play out a 10/10 Apocalypse Hydra and all that my opponent can do is use Puncture Blast to knock the Hydra down to a 7/7 and then drop Bramblewood Paragon into play. I untap and draw Meglonoth, my opponent concedes when the 6/6 comes into play.
Analysis: It must be a bummer when you Puncture Blast your opponent's best threat and you still have to deal with a 7/7. I guess that's more manageable. You can now kill it with Stomping Slabs, so that has got to count for something. Gargantuan Gorilla works too.
Part II: The X-Deck
After playing a bunch of games with this deck, I figure that I have a decent grasp on it. It's a fun deck to play that lets you cast many powerful spells and huge creatures. If this is your thing, then by all means play the deck. I started working on a budget version of the deck, but the necessary cheap manabase was making it tough to run the variety of huge monsters that I thought made the deck unique. I then started thinking about something that some dude named Peter said in the forums of my last article: "I want to fit Rosheen Meanderer into that Naya ramp deck somehow."
That got me thinking. I decided to take another look at this card in order to see if it was worth building around. I knew what Rosheen Meanderer did, in broad strokes, but I was wrong about some of the specifics. Namely:
- I didn't realize that this dude was a 4/4, I thought it was a 3/3.
- I thought it cost five mana instead of four.
Well a 4/4 for four is certainly better than a 3/3 for five. Four mana is a huge boost in the ramp department, and a 4/4 for four is nothing to sneeze at - so it's not like we're looking at a dead weight card when the 'combo' isn't around. I decided that I would try to work out a ramp deck based around Rosheen Meanderer and spells that cost X. I wanted to make it budget friendly, so I'm going to stick to two colors: green and red. First I'll start off by figuring out a list of the available X-spells in these colors. I've decided to make this deck for Classic in order to maximize the availability of sweet X-spells.
Here are some cards to consider:
First off I want to get a bunch of similar options out of the way. Take a look at the options that are some variation of this: 'RX - do X damage to something'.
...and here are the cards that do something similar, but have the ability to spread the damage out:
Here are cards that do some version of 'X to each creature':
Finally here are cards that have some version of 'create an X/X creature or create X creatures':
So there's a huge list of red and green cards that cost X and fulfill some broad strategic functions. Within each mini-list there are strengths and weaknesses, minor differences, and budget concerns. I'm not going to discuss every single one of these, but instead I'll just present the lists and leave an exercise for the reader. You'll see the cards that I decided to go with in just a bit, so it may be fun to see how your selections match up.
Here's a list of some additional cards that we may want to think about:
If we're planning on going into the red zone at all, then this equipment should turn any of our threats into huge monsters.
I love beating down with this giant, scary monster!
Stream of Life 2k9. Is it worth splashing a bit of white to be able to gain huge amounts of life?
How hard is it for this deck to make 100 mana? It may not actually be that difficult...
Urza's Power Plant,
Urza's Mine,
Urza's Tower
Many Magic players have turned to the Urzatron for the ability to generate huge amounts of mana.
Another variation on the Urzatron, 8-post provides a higher mana ceiling at the expense of some speed.
2/2 blocker who can draw cards and also fetch up a land. This guy does so many things, he's like a little mini Phelddagrif! Kind of...
Solemn Simulacrum Jr.
These cards are awesome at getting either 8-post or the Urzatron into play.
So based on all of the ideas, I threw together this list. I was keeping a budget in mind, so I went for some less expensive options:
As mentioned above, there is a ton of flexibility in building this deck. You start out with a base of Rosheen Meanderers, Cloudposts, Vesuvas, and ways to get that land into play. Add on top of that a few ways to survive into the late game, and then finish off with a whole bunch of expensive/X-spell. This expensive spell package is very customizable, depending on what you're going for. As mentioned above, one of my main concerns here was the budget - so that's what ended up driving a lot of my decisions.
The only expensive cards in this list are Vesuva and Apocalypse Hydra at just under $3 each. Everything else in the list can be bought for under a ticket. If you want to cut down the cost then you should replace Apocalypse Hydra with something like Feral Hydra or Wurmcalling. If Vesuva is out of your price range, then you can replace the Eight-Post package with a Urzatron package. Time to take this list out for a test drive:
Game 1 vs White Weenie
I start off with Cloudpost on turn one, and then Vesuva and Gruul Signet on turn two. Not a bad start. My opponent plays out
Savannah Lions, Savannah Lion,
Order of Leitbur, and then
Serra Avenger. I take a bunch of damage, but manage to get a sweet four-for-one with Starfire after dropping a Mountain into play.
I play out a Forest and then land Rosheen Meanderer, while my opponent spends a turn to play
Umezawa's Jitte. Vesuva comes into play and I drop an Orochi Hatchery with seven counters on it. My opponent plays
Knight of the White Orchid and then
Soltari Priest, but I make a ton of Snakes and then use Demonfire for the win.
Analysis: This is pretty much how I had hoped things would go when I designed this deck. Things were a little scary for a while there, but I managed to hit RR without too much trouble. If this proves difficult, then this deck may need to look elsewhere for aggro protection. If you have a bunch of cash to spare, then I'd recommend adding Taiga and some fetchlands into this deck. There's also Moment's Peace, but why stall them when you can wipe them all out?
I'm sorry that there aren't more playtest games/evolutions in this section. I've been in the Casual Room for almost TWO HOURS and have only managed to get a single game in. This is just too frustrating! Normally I'd feel very bad, but there's a lot of other info in this article - so I'm going to post it anyways. I guess this is more like 2.5 articles instead of 3... Two-Point-Five Articles in one definitely doesn't have the same ring to it...
Sorry everybody!
Part III: Classic Merfolk Tournament Report *Top 8*
Last weekend I had a bit of free time and decided to play in the morning Classic daily event. I wasn't sure what to play, other than I knew I didn't want to play NecroSpike and I wanted to run something with
Force of Will,
Daze, and
Stifle. Here's what I ended up with:
The basic idea is to take a Classic Merfolk deck and add in the awesome Phyrexian Dreadnought/Stifle combination. This idea is, in my opinion, the future of Merfolk. There were a few games that I just won with turn two: Dreadnought/Stifle. The ability to bring a solid threat to the table without a swarm of Merfolk on the board is one thing that this deck has lacked in the past. The closest thing that I had seen run in convention lists was Wake Thrasher, which I'm personally not a big fan of. Adding in Phyrexian Dreadnought alters drastically the type of threat that Classic Merfolk is capable of bringing to the table, in exchange for a bit less Merfolk synergy.
I am not at all convinced at all on the merits of
Shapesharer. People who have tried this deck before seem to really like that inclusion, but I personally just don't see it. Imagine this play though:
- End of turn use Aether Vial to drop Shapesharer into play.
- Use Shapesharer to copy the most badass creature on the board. Maybe Phyrexian Dreadnought?
- Hope that your opponent doesn't have Swords to Plowshares!
Doesn't that sound awesome? It seemed excited enough to me to convince me to run three copies, but this poor little fisherman was a completely dead card in every match of the tournament. Maybe it's really good, but I didn't see it in my limited experience with the deck. The other problem is that in addition to running the 'too much Shapesharer' tech, I was also running the 'not enough land' tech. This forced me into a huge number of mulligans on the day. I definitely want to add another land.
Here's what I would run if I were to play the deck tomorrow:
Out: 3x Shapesharer, 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
In: 1x Island, 1x Silvergill Adept, 2x Ponder
I'd have to think some more about the sideboard.
Is Ponder over Brainstorm crazy? Maybe, but Ponder makes it easier to keep one-land hands. There's nothing worse than desperately needing a land, casting Brainstorm, and knowing that you're not going to see one for three turns. At least Ponder gives you the opportunity to shuffle and hope for the best. Adding in that twentieth land should also help a lot. On the other hand, being able to save your mana for Stifle or something and then Brainstorm on the end of your opponent's turn is also very powerful. I'll have to try out both options.
Back to the tournament.
Round one was a total battle against Affinity. I ended up going down 1-2, but I think that this match could have gone either way. I brought in Pithing Needles to fight
Skullclamp and
Arcbound Ravager, but saw a total of ZERO in the two sideboarded games. I ended up losing game 3 with him at one life and one minute on his play clock. This was just a very close, fun, match.
Round two I played against Goblins. Let's see, the blue tribe vs. the red tribe... I wonder who wins? Remember that this is Magic: The Gathering we're talking about! Hopefully the answer is obvious.
Round three was against a Rb burn deck. It seems impossible to make a mistake with Standstill against burn, but I definitely did. Despite my best efforts to throw the match away I managed to ride Phyrexian Dreadnought, Wasteland, and a few awkward Standstills to the win.
Round four I lost to a deck with CounterTop,
Engineered Explosives,
Academy Ruins, etc. I managed to win game one after mulliganing no land, no land, no land, down to four cards... keep double Island and double Mutavault. It's always good when you win after a mulligan to four, but unfortunately it was all downhill from there. In game two I had lethal next turn when he cast Engineered Explosives. I used Force of Will to counter it and he was able to Sensei's Divining Top into a Force of his own, which let him start to recur Engineered Explosives and Academy Ruins. I was within one attack phase of winning, but from that point on I had basically no chance. Game three was more of the same, and I went down hard.
Round five I played against Dragon Stompy. During game two I made a big mistake with Merrow Reejerey, and you should learn from it. This guy's ability can untap your own lands! If I had realized this (of course I did as soon as I clicked on one of his creatures), then I would have been able to Standstill for the win. I had three Islands and cast Lord of Atlantis. I should have untapped one of my Islands and played out Standstill, but instead I tapped an irrelevant creature and delayed Standstill by a turn. I was under
Chalice of the Void for one at the time, which is a nightmare for my deck, and was planning on drawing Mutavault out of it. Instead of that I decided to drop every single card in my deck that is either an Island or has a casting cost of one. I discarded over and over while he set up another explosive hand.
Eventually he breaks Standstill with
Seething Song, and here we go. I draw two Dazes and do my best to slow him down, but it is not to be. He ends up playing more acceleration and then summoning a
Taurean Mauler alongside the four letters that a mono-blue deck never wants to see... B-O-I-L. I, obviously, was obliterated from this position. In game three I ended up pulling off a sweet move and ambushing his 6/6, Jitte-equipped Taurean Mauler with Phyrexian Dreadnought off of Aether Vial. Yes! Maybe I have a shot at the top 8 after all?
I ended up coming in eight place on breakers. At this point the sun was shining and the world outside was just too nice for me to stay inside any longer. It was, by far, the nicest day of the year. I scooped in the first round of the final 8 to go for a nice walk through the woods and up a mountain. My opponent chimes in, "Nice. A bye in the top 8 equals good." The natural response? "Sure, but hiking with my beautiful girlfriend equals better." There's the most important takeaway from all of this rambling, our life lesson for the week.
That's all for this time everyone, take care of each other!
spgmtgo@gmail.com
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18 Comments
Nice article..Nice top 8. I actually have been playing around with dreadnought in a merfolk for a bit..Its a nice little surprise :-P alot of people are noty expecting the big ugly to show its head
yeah, ths article is nice.
Firstly because it explains very well tips and it shares interesting way of playing to players. Secondly because it covers all format that is really interesting to discover format we dont know well.
A great great job ! We need more article as yours.
i would have 2 comments but only about classic, because this is the format i know better than others.
About the Dreadfolk concept : well, it is good idea to mix these 2 strategies. I didnt test this deck for the moment however i played dreadstill and merfolk many times as well, but not toghether.
My first thinking is about the strategy : usualy, the dreadnought is used in decks which provides a strong defense, in order to kill the opponent in the fastest way is it possible to do. I mean in dreadstill, almost all others cards are counter, including all the countertop stuff : the dreadnought enters in the game to kill the opponent in 2 turns, supposing you countered all opponent's threat. It works well. But here, the merfolk archetype wont provide the same defense. It gives others but not as many counter as dreadstill. So it could be a danger (you would tell me, i am not sure) : usualy, the biggest weakness i identified in merfolk is the lack of hard removal (it remains based on an aggro philosophy : you dont remove, you have to overfill the board with creatures to flood your opponent) ... and dreadnoughts dont provide any removal. The seond weakness is the "creature win condition's dependance = you cannot win without providing damage with your creatures. Dreadnought is a huge threat but wont give any solution to you vs a moat or a recuring EE ... So finaly, dreadnought improves your creature power (a lot!) but wont solve natural weakness of the deck. That being said, it does not mean it is not efficient.
Still about strategy, the deck seems "under-tutorised". Usualy this is not a problem because you are running very solid draw engine (still, adept ...). But in an optimal tempo, dreadnought cannot be played alone = you need stifle. Then, tutors seem crazy useful to avoid keeping dreadnought as a deadcard in hand. Without any tutor to get stifle (mystical, scroll...) or to get Dreadnought (as could be trinket mage, enlighted ...), it could be risky and underoptimized. Here again, you would tell me.
A last word about the choice brainstorm/ponder. Basicaly, it strongly depends of the amount of fetch cards you are running. Brainstorm is much better in many case : to play it at instant quickness, to replace a deadcard, to avoid to discard a key card because of an early duress/seize ... but it is really optimal if you are running shuffling effect (fetch land, any tutor ...). If you are running a few or no one shuffling effect card, ponder could be much better. In your deck, you are running vial too : I guess you wont have too many mana problem. So in this case, ponder should be a better choice imho.
Take care, and waiting for the next exploration :)
You are absolutely correct that Classic Merfolk has several fundamental problems, the most glaring of which is that it can't take out creatures. Some lists play Chain of Vapor main to give the deck SOME way to deal with cards on board, but for the most part if something resolves against Merfolk - it's sticking around. Adding Phyrexian Dreadnought does NOT solve this problem. If your opponent stick Tarmogoyf, then there is not a whole lot that you can do about it.
Phyrexian Dreadnought does help a lot in the aggro matchup. If you're playing against something like Zoo, Burn, or RDW - then an early Stifle+Dreadnought gives you a HUGE advantage. It's also somewhat of a surprise move against a lot of players, who will just not see it coming.
Your Stifle point is a good one, and it part of the reason why I would like to try this list with only two copies of Dreadnought. The bad news is that Dreadnought is dead without Stifle. The good news here is that Stifle fits right into your strategy - it denies your opponent mana (along with Wasteland, and probably Back to Basics once Urza's block comes online), stops troublesome threats like Engineered Explosives, etc. In my experience Stifle is rarely a dead card.
Running Trinket Mage to tutor for Dreadnought and awesome sideboard cards like Pithing Needle is a really interesting idea - I'll have to think about this one. I've also been wondering lately if this deck wants Chrome Mox...
I meant Echoing Truth, NOT Chain of Vapor...
i was thinking about to add some removal. If pongify, ovinize or snake form seem too weak & expansive to be relevant, maybe Psionic Blast could be interesting to try (x2 for example) : 4 damages is enough to burn many creature but it also could be a good way to finish your opponent if its control lock is being to be completed or if your creature could not attack for any reasons.
I am really not convinced for the moment because 3 CMC sounds as so slow compared to the card's effect, so maybe it is another useless idea...
Nought solves a big problem: The deck is pretty hard to beat aggro with. With him, you have a chance to kill RDW before they can kill you, outrace ZOO, etc.
that's absolutly true and this is a real good upgrade about that
Declaration of Nought on Banefire doesn't do a whole lot. Either you mixed up the halos and Declarations, or you should have won that game.
It was definitely Runed Halo: Banefire, my mistake.
Can we please have some actual testing? What was that?
Wow, you get 8 games with the first deck, a tournament report, and a third deck, and you aren't satisfied? Plus, if you've been on MTGO recently you would know about the horrible lag issues that were going on to keep games from firing. I think there was plenty in this article.
The Telepathy part was hilarious. It's not like you are physically putting your cards on the table like Magic: Pants. Easy mistake to make. Good article.
I apologize again for not including many test games for the second deck. I tried, man, I really did - I was in that stupid room for hours battling the lag (and losing).
Personally, I've been thinking about a Rosheen EDH deck. The cool part about EDH is that the very nature of the format allows you to tutor up Rosheen and bring her back over and over again if she keeps dying (at an increasing cost, of course).
I started working on a decklist. I recall having about 70 cards in the list, minus land, but I scrapped it after I realized that I didn't own a majority of the cards, and it turned out to be a quite a bit of money to spend on a casual deck I probably wouldn't play that often. Not to mention that figuring out what to cut from the deck would have been a pain.
very nice there steve, i have just finished getting mutas and the unc merfolk i need to build the blue menace and currently sower of temptation lives in my sb but they could just as eaisly come in for the noughts to help solve the agro race equation.
Dreadnought is a fantastic beatstick and will win the game , but isn't your most problematic card explosives? not only does nought die eaisly to this but you are getting rid of a very important stifle to just get your 1 mana win con exploded and now you cant even stifle the trigger just my thoughts.
btw rd 2 of classic, blue vs red tribes the answer is not obvious, i mean aparently you won since you took a loss later in the swiss but i have to feel like the red goblins is favored since they can just vomit out guys like you wouldnt believe. maybe the noughts helped you win?
Yeah, that was just a stupid joke about blue being so good...
In reality, Goblins is definitely a tough matchup. In game one they usually can't do anything at all against a resolved Dreadnought - so that's the strongest play that Merfolk has. Some decks run Goblin Tinkerer or Stingscourger main, but that's pretty much the only thing that can deal with the 12/12.
After thinking about it more, and discussion on classicquarter, I'm pretty sure that there should be Chills in the sideboard instead of Hydroblast. The three most dangerous threats coming out of Goblins are:
- Aether Vial. Blanks your counterspells, Merfolk can't deal with anything on the board, and turns Goblins into a better deck under Standstill then you are. Do not let this card resolve.
- Goblin Piledriver. Protection from your entire deck. Races faster than your deck could ever really hope to without Phyrexian Dreadnought.
- Seige Gang Commander. Turns up the clock a LOT, takes out any of your threats pretty easily and destroys your Merfolk synergy.
Step one of the plan to beating Goblins is definitely to not let Aether Vial resolve under any circumstances. If you're able to do this and then get Chill into play, then the matchup swings ridiculously into your favor.
If you can't take care of the Vial, then you are just in huge trouble. I have a tough time envisioning this deck beating Goblins with Aether Vial on the table. I guess that's an argument for more Echoing Truth? At least in this matchup.
Maybe I should write a primer on this deck, I think I understand the fundamentals of the matchups pretty well.
if your serious hit me up and we can do all the testing you want i have just about every deck you will see in a pe.
Definitely man, let's do it. I have just about every deck too - so let me know if you ever want to test something.