This list just took down an SCG IQ... and it appears to be running Abzan Colours and, wait for it, zero Elvish Visionaries! I think the deck looks great personally!
I'm intrigued. This makes me wonder if we are competitive enough for the current meta. I'm not sure as I've found Elves very clunky recently.
I keep trying to play this deck but out of 10 games, I've won 2. I either never get a creature, enough mana, or I get my hand torn apart with big spells left over. What am I suppose to do to get this deck working properly. What is a proper starting hand?
Your primary priority is to stop Daybreak Coronet. You can work around a Bogle equipped with virtually anything else (though admittedly, Spirit Link and/or Unflinching Courage are also a pain) by either chump-blocking or racing them, but not the Coronet. My preferred way to do so is a mix of counterspells (Chalice of the Void buries that deck by not letting them use the cheap Auras they need for Coronet to be useful, but Negate and Unified Will are also handy) and bounce (Echoing Truth helps buy you a reprieve if they did manage to stick the Coronet).
I've also been having trouble with Rancor though. When they resolve it with an Etheral Armour (without a Daybreak), I haven't been able to race them.
I've happily got the mindset that in the current meta, Merfolk is my best positioned deck. It has a bit of everything, and it's tribal! Haha. So I'm making Merfolk my main deck of choice. I've finally figured I must need improving in certain matchups to understand how to fight them and it's not Merfolk's fault. To help improve my gameplay, what is my best defence / strategy versus Bogles? From my point of view, I should counter / bounce and lifelink or trample enchantments for the victory. Is that the best way to go about it?
How could you not? Flavour text of the lullmages (which are all Merfolk) as well as a physical merfolk with a sea-shell shield. So much better than the usual Negate art which I've never been able to make out what it is...
Hey guys, I am about ready to wash my hands of Modern, looking to jump over. I have a shock/fetch base, Snapcasters, and all of Modern Burn. I would like a competitive deck, really ideally some kind of tempo deck, I would love to be able to use the Snapcasters, but that is not a deal-breaker. I will have a couple hundred to put into it after I sell my Modern decks, but for now, I can't afford Goyf, Forces, the real expensive staples. I would love a deck that I can use a budget version and slowly sink more money in to upgrade
Sounds like Legacy burn with only a few hundred to sink in and the lack of Legacy staples. It's basically a deck everyone in Legacy thinks sucks or is for unskilled pilot when really many people just don't prefer the strategy. It's brutal and commonly dealing lethal turn 3.
I actually do enjoy Burn in Modern, and have most of the cards to play it in Legacy, but it does not seem like a proper Legacy deck to me, it is just an aggro deck, same as I can have in any format. There has to be something that feels more like a deck Modern would not have that isn't as pricey as the car I currently drive? Some FoW-less Delver deck maybe? I have a fair number of the bread and butter UR cards
With your current budget, I don't know what else you could build for a few hundred dollars. Tempo usually requires duals and Forces. Since your after competitive, Burn is really the only thing you could build for competition play. If you want budget Legacy, that's when we can help you as the decks you can choose from that are semi-competitive.
Hi again, I'm trying to put together a competitive modern deck under about $850 (because that's about how much I could get for my pair of duals). I like combo, control, and tempo (not so much aggro), and I'd like to take it to a GPand place decently (assuming I'm not an ass and 1-3 drop because no skill). Any decks fit?
Grixis Control or BW Eldrazi. Grixis Control has the tempo/control package, and BW Eldrazi acts just like Jund/Abzan but without green/lightning bolt.
Yeah its still 600 big ones and the rock is 1100 but I have pucatrade but still I don't want to make the wrong decision I don't even know what kind of deck midrange aggro control etc. Is my favorite I've played all. I don't want things to get old fast and I would like to win differently what would you do? (Also I suck at making decisions until it's too late).
Well, you might be looking at things the wrong way. If you want to win differently, then you want decks that are non-linear, or perhaps something with a large decision tree. Affinity is somewhere in the middle of linearity, it's usually going to try the same plan of dumping its hand as fast as possible and winning quickly. That said, the win condition varies from game to game based on how you draw and how the game plays out. Sometimes you win with Steel Overseer, sometimes with Arcbound Ravager, sometimes with Inkmoth, sometimes with Cranial Plating, or even Etched Champion. So you get a bit of variance there, but you're more or less dumping your hand and going all-in. Jund will play out similarly in a lot of games as well because of the grindy nature. Spot removal and targeted discard, then play bigger creatures and use manlands. It has enough variance from the cards it plays though, and the manlands and targeted discard offer enough variations on your decision trees.
It's surprising that you didn't like Twin though, because based on this post, it would have been the deck I recommended. It was extremely non-linear, having a lot of different game plans depending on the matchup, and with Grixis Twin being a cheap migration from UR Twin, easy to build different versions as well. What exactly did you dislike about Twin? I think I'd have a better shot at recommending a deck if I knew what it was you didn't like. Was it too slow for you? You didn't want to play a control game? Did you not like winning with the combo? Felt like you were forced into a combo?
I'll state as an old Affinity player, the deck gets old when you finally figure out the combat math in 5 seconds of the opponent's end step. Literally, if you are good and fast at combat math, this deck will seem boring and your turns will be literally 10 seconds long, with the opponent taking up 5 of them. That's how I found it after playing it for 6 months.
Hey guys, I am about ready to wash my hands of Modern, looking to jump over. I have a shock/fetch base, Snapcasters, and all of Modern Burn. I would like a competitive deck, really ideally some kind of tempo deck, I would love to be able to use the Snapcasters, but that is not a deal-breaker. I will have a couple hundred to put into it after I sell my Modern decks, but for now, I can't afford Goyf, Forces, the real expensive staples. I would love a deck that I can use a budget version and slowly sink more money in to upgrade
Sounds like Legacy burn with only a few hundred to sink in and the lack of Legacy staples. It's basically a deck everyone in Legacy thinks sucks or is for unskilled pilot when really many people just don't prefer the strategy. It's brutal and commonly dealing lethal turn 3.
Jund, Nic Fit, Deadguy Ale, Stoneblade, Deathblade, Maverick are all pretty midrangey. Just depends on the flavor of disruption you like. I think Deathblade is too pricey for your range, but some of the others are a little more affordable.
what is nic fit? It seems it's the only one that is affordable for me.
Think of Birthing Pod of the past in Modern. It's like that, killing your creatures for massive benefits. Kinda like aristocrats.
i've been called a simpleton and a scrub multiple times playing online. a jund player i faced at a tournament echoed the same sentiment. as long as people keep underestimating the deck and its variable lines of play i'm happy to take my wins.
Actually I want to build on this. This is a linear deck but with many lines of play from the pieces we have. I want to know how far we can stretch those many variables before we start falling in power to the meta. I've been debating between 3 Merrow Reejery, 3 Master of Waves, and 2 Phantasmal Image, or the full playset of Master of Waves and Merrow Reejery (4/4). I want 2 Phantasmal Images as I've loved being able to make either a Merfolk I have for extra power/board presence, or copying a creature my opponent controls that is either a bomb or game changer. It also keep my curve low, with only 6 cmc 3+ drops. In the old meta, Image was not good with Twin on the prowl.
Although the power of Image is great, I'm worried that 1 less Merrow & Master might hurt the deck. In this meta is it fine to replace these bombs with Image?
In general no one addresses our deck is actually good When watching or reading coverage our deck isn't mentioned in match up (good or bad) and people just like to pretend it isn't a real deck. So by all means focus on stupid decks like infect or bogles in your sideboard hate
Yea. I even doubted this for ages when I moved to Modern from Legacy. Basically, Merfolk is the 'Death & Taxes' deck of Modern to that of Legacy. It hates on lands, it builds advantage up, it's creatures act as hate creatures in the format (cursecatcher, harbinger, merrow reejery, master of waves, etc.) and it uses Aether Vial. Took me ages to see the similarities of the two decks.
I have no clue to what I should play/buy I'm new to legacy I'm switching from modern to legacy. Mostly due to my twin deck getting banned Anyways I enjoy playing any colors but control is not my strong suit. I love midrange. What I look for in a deck is one that can survive early game and still have game when it goes late I like trading card for card value and disrupting my opponent. Any decks that are like this catagory? Budget is about 1000-1900$
Why not build Legacy Splinter Twin? Works well, does better than the Modern version, and does everything you want. Although it is a bit more combo as it gets better dig spells.
I'm intrigued. This makes me wonder if we are competitive enough for the current meta. I'm not sure as I've found Elves very clunky recently.
I've also been having trouble with Rancor though. When they resolve it with an Etheral Armour (without a Daybreak), I haven't been able to race them.
That's what made me think it's a Merfolk too.
Wow, I can't believe that. I never noticed it, but it's right there in the art. Nice pick up!
How could you not? Flavour text of the lullmages (which are all Merfolk) as well as a physical merfolk with a sea-shell shield. So much better than the usual Negate art which I've never been able to make out what it is...
With your current budget, I don't know what else you could build for a few hundred dollars. Tempo usually requires duals and Forces. Since your after competitive, Burn is really the only thing you could build for competition play. If you want budget Legacy, that's when we can help you as the decks you can choose from that are semi-competitive.
Grixis Control or BW Eldrazi. Grixis Control has the tempo/control package, and BW Eldrazi acts just like Jund/Abzan but without green/lightning bolt.
I'll state as an old Affinity player, the deck gets old when you finally figure out the combat math in 5 seconds of the opponent's end step. Literally, if you are good and fast at combat math, this deck will seem boring and your turns will be literally 10 seconds long, with the opponent taking up 5 of them. That's how I found it after playing it for 6 months.
Sounds like Legacy burn with only a few hundred to sink in and the lack of Legacy staples. It's basically a deck everyone in Legacy thinks sucks or is for unskilled pilot when really many people just don't prefer the strategy. It's brutal and commonly dealing lethal turn 3.
Think of Birthing Pod of the past in Modern. It's like that, killing your creatures for massive benefits. Kinda like aristocrats.
Actually I want to build on this. This is a linear deck but with many lines of play from the pieces we have. I want to know how far we can stretch those many variables before we start falling in power to the meta. I've been debating between 3 Merrow Reejery, 3 Master of Waves, and 2 Phantasmal Image, or the full playset of Master of Waves and Merrow Reejery (4/4). I want 2 Phantasmal Images as I've loved being able to make either a Merfolk I have for extra power/board presence, or copying a creature my opponent controls that is either a bomb or game changer. It also keep my curve low, with only 6 cmc 3+ drops. In the old meta, Image was not good with Twin on the prowl.
Although the power of Image is great, I'm worried that 1 less Merrow & Master might hurt the deck. In this meta is it fine to replace these bombs with Image?
Yea. I even doubted this for ages when I moved to Modern from Legacy. Basically, Merfolk is the 'Death & Taxes' deck of Modern to that of Legacy. It hates on lands, it builds advantage up, it's creatures act as hate creatures in the format (cursecatcher, harbinger, merrow reejery, master of waves, etc.) and it uses Aether Vial. Took me ages to see the similarities of the two decks.
Why not build Legacy Splinter Twin? Works well, does better than the Modern version, and does everything you want. Although it is a bit more combo as it gets better dig spells.