Some of these cards are more vital than others. Simply put, there is no viable replacement for Lord of Atlantis without a complete change in approach for the deck. The next most valuable card in the deck is Cryptic Command which truly changes the viability of merfolk against a ton of decks out there. Cryptic Command really does turn difficult matchups into very winnable games. My record vs. Kithkin decks before Cryptic Command was 1-4 and after adding four copies to my deck my record is 5-1. At $4.66 (as of May 1, 2008) it is the most expensive card in the deck (tied with Wanderwine Hub), but it is worth it. If I were trying to build this deck on a budget, I would first work on swapping out the more expensive lands: Wanderwine Hub ($4.66), Faerie Conclave ($2.67), and Adarkar Wastes ($4.41) can be dumped for more Plains, Islands, or even the much less expensive Boreal Shelf ($0.86). I would only move to the Boreal Shelf if I were removing the Faerie Conclaves because having more than 4 lands that come into play tapped is likely to slow down the deck too much for many match-ups. The last modereately expensive card in the deck is Psionic Blast. The are a number of ways you can go if wapping out Psionic Blast, but the one I would recommend first, especially with the current standard environment, is Piracy Charm ($0.02). It can do much of the same thing as Psionic Blast though not in the same ways, plus it has the potential to work very nicely with Riptide Pilferer. See, one of the main reasons Psionic Blast is so good is that it can eliminate opposing creatures or hit the opponent directly. Piracy Charm can deal with opposing creatures, though it is limited to 1 toughness creatures on its own, and it can enable attacks against the opponent by granting Islandwalk (working well with Aquitect's Will) or pumping up the power of one of your unblocked creatures by 2. Last, if you are successfully devasting an opponent's hand with the Pilferer, you can surprise them and force them to discard another card. I have had many opponents hold two cards in hand knowing that Riptide Pilferer would force the discard of one but letting them hold on to the more valuable card until they draw a land or something, Piracy Charm used at just the right moment can win the game in these instances. So, here is a more budget oriented build that comes in for a mere $38.97 as of May 1, 2008. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Now we can move on to the first goal of this installment - developing a sideboard for the deck. Sideboards have two primary uses: (a) improve the decks performance against a specific opposing deck/archetype, and (b) counter another decks sideboard changes which could turn the matchup in the opponent's favor. The sideboard is a tool to improve your chances of winning the second and third game in a match. Last week, the deck went 9-1 in the casual room play single duels. The loss to a Black Rogues deck. At the time, I noted that the deck needed cheaper removal (currently, the lowest cost removal has a converted mana cost of 3). Removal costing a (U) or (W) would help against that matchup as well as some other matchups such a faeries, kithkin, and elementals. The two options that seem best are Piracy Charm and Sunlance. Piracy Charm makes it in over Sunlance because it's an instant and it is in the deck's primary color, blue. My merfolk deck has no token generators and its creatures are often of a slightly lower quality than the creature in decks such as Treefolk, Elf, and RG big mana. This means that against a lot of existing decks, I will often fall behind in the creature race. White has an excellent way to solve this that will been completely unexepected in a deck focused around creatures: Wrath of God. Aquitect's Will is a weak link in the deck against other decks featuring Islands. While the deck still needs the card draw, I want card draw that has a more important secondary benefit. Counterspell abilities always fit into a blue deck, so Sage's Dousing makes into the deck. With the 11 wizards (Judge of Currents, Silvergill Adept, and Sygg, River Guide) in the deck, gaining the card draw ability off of the counter effect will be well worth the 2U casting cost. That leaves three sideboard slots. I want to be able to address the number of Enchantments (e.g., Bitterblossom, Grave Pact, Teferi's Moat, or Militia's Pride that see play, but I don't want to end up with a 1-for-1 trade. There are a number of white creatures that can destroy enchantments while still providing a body to use as a blocker: Wispmare, Aven Cloudchaser, Cloudchaser Kestrel, Ronom Unicorn, Shinewend. That's a lot of options to fit this role, but Aven Cloudchaser and Ronom Unicorn have to great of a cost for the role, Cloudchaser Kestrel requires WW for casting, and Shinewend is too small. Wispmare can be played for W in a pinch, has a 1/3 body that can survive as a blocker against a lot of attackers, and has flying. So three copies of Wispmare make it in. So, for a first cut, my sideboard is made of 3 Wispmare, 4 Piracy Charm, 4 Sage's Dousing, and 4 Wrath of God. The Wrath of God has a WW requirement in its casting cost and the Wispmare will almost assuredly replace a blue card in the deck. This makes me worry a little bit about my White mana. Its a small change, but the sideboard pushes me to remove one Island from the deck and replace it with a second Adarkar Wastes. So here is the final deck I will take into the tournament practice room: I will go into the cost to move this deck from the casual single games to the match play found in the tournament room later in the article. Below are details from eight consecutive games using this deck in the tournament practice room in best 2-of-3 matches. Each game description identifies the opponent, my opening hand and mulligan decisions, a summary of the game, some observation about the game, and the outcome with win-loss |
2 Comments
Part 3 will be up soon, and will be the last part.
I have a tribal classic decxk that I will discuss in depth, and then I will briefly cover standard PDC, Extendede, and EDH.
I will also try and address any comments that are posted here.
I freakin love the way you format your articles and recap your games. You are the man! Good article, and way to show the budgeteers options!