If you want to go Temur then add atleast some Blood Moon effects. Rugfolk V2.4
The problem is that this loses to BGx.
I would say it loses to a lot more then just BGx - I mean you do know that blood moon absolutely hoses the new merfolk builds - not sure why you would want to hose yourself..
If Merfolk is going to go two colours why not go to three? UG is already weak to blood moon etc now - so I don't see how going to a 3rd colour makes any substantially negative difference to the manabase - anyway this is what im going to sleeve up tomorrow.
I present TEMUR merfolk! Want removal but you massacred your manabase to fit in green? Who needs dismember when you have LIGHTNING BOLT! Sure it won't kill Tasigur, TKS etc - but you can also go to the dome and close out that game with your opponent on three life.
Got the sh*t's losing to f'ing Affinity for the millionth time - say hello to ANCIENT GRUDGE. Lantern schmucks milling your Recall, Natural State into the bin - Ancient Grudge says f*ck you ensnaring bridge!
//Mana
2 Island
3 Botanical Sanctum
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Breeding Pool
2 Steam Vents
4 Mutavault
//Creatures
2 Cursecatcher
3 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
I've been thinking about how poorly positioned E-Tron is starting to look and feel and momentarily started putting the missing pieces of Bant Eldrazi into a shopping cart...until I thought about the Storm matchup
Isn't Bant Eldrazi a dog to Storm though? It's kind of what kept me from wanting to try the deck out
EE looks fantastic right now, Tropical Fish is a thing, along with Humans reported to be everywhere on mtgo
Ive heard ppl say that the 'stock' sb is bad against Storm and it appears to me that that is a fair comment.
I bring in 3x Chalice, 2x RIP, 1x Relic, 1x Rec Sage and 1x Settle the Wreckage. Usually I have an answer to Goblin tokens and if I can get a lock with chalice or gy hate I win. Storm can get you with blood moon - but Ido have rec sage and 3x EE as outs - or sometimes you dont need an out if you have a threat on the board already
EE is fantastic right now - im not sure why you would think it isnt - I play 3x MD and wouldnt play any less. Id cut dismember. Id add Settle the Wreckage somewhere in that list and maybe 2x
Small FNM this friday with the classic Jeskai list with 3 Geist and only 4 Serum Visions. I went 2-1-1 winning against RG Valakut and RG Ponza (Disdainful stroke, wear//tear and runed halo are all stars in these two match ups!), drawing againt monoB zombie (graveyard recursion is a problem if we dont see path to exile or relic of progenitus :/ ) and losing against Abzan. How do we face this match up? between discard-lingering souls-gavony township and post board thrun the match up looked impossible! I was thinkin to swap you Supreme Verdict with the new instant exile wrath settle the wreckage, to be able to deal with cards like thrun especially now that Grixis DS is less played so we can afford not to have a second non counterable wrath! Any thoughts?
I have 2x Lil Gideon, Jace AOT, Dusk//Dawn (both first mode and aftermath are huge value), 2x EE (MVP agsint 2 drop dense decks) and Settle that come in against GBx. This may seem like a lot but these sb cards have grindy attributes while still being great in other non-grindy matchups
Lil Gideon - great against any deck where his emblem is relevant - Burn, Other Combo
Jace AOT - Affinity, any go wide deck with small dudes, also helps you dig for sb cards
Dusk/Dawn - GDS, E-Tron
EE - go wide like Affinity, utlity swiss-knife(dont leave home without them kids)
Im loving the shift towards Storm, Humans and Merfolk atm - UWR Geist is so well positioned - im doing really well with UWR atm so much so that Ive stopped playing my other decks completely in modern.
Currently the UWR "Control" list and the UWR "Tempo" list are very close - the difference is about 3 Geists in the tempo list and a bit more burn - most lists would be within about 6-8 cards of each other.
@IslandsAreBroken
See, this is probably what comes off poorly. Of course there is no literal Tier 1.5 (anymore than there is a Tier 0), and yet it is a common colloquialism used to describe a deck on the cusp of being Tier 1, but not quite there. If you are as experienced as you seem, then you know that and I have to take your response as taking the piss or, to put it another way, as simply being pointlessly quarrelsome.
I'm also glad you did well with Eldrazi. Irrelevant to the point, but good on you.
It did not seem like you were responding to "bad theory". After all, my comment was not an assessment of the deck or theory-crafting, but a suggestion that we need to see more results and play with it before we can really know whether it is better, worse or same in power level to UU Merfolk, and to encourage argument and discussion without unconditional pre-judgments, and yet you seem to have taken issue with what I said as if I has somehow defended particular arguments or people in favor of UG.
I can't tell if your last phrase is sarcasm or a non-sequitur. The Humans deck might be very competitive (not losing a single match in 14 rounds (he draw in last round) and then through Top 8, is quite a feat), or Collins Mullen got very lucky in his range of matches (pretty much everyone who wins a big event has some luck in getting through), or it was just a really good choice for the meta and he made the exact right call, or, most likely, all of those. It could even have been a complete fluke. That has very little to do with the viability of UG Merfolk, hence why it seems like a non-squitur.
Bickering like this doesn't strengthen any theory-crafting you have done and it doesn't encourage anyone to listen to you, which would be a shame if you are a good player and brewer. People who want UG to work need people to point out holes in their approach, to question their assumptions, and so on. They also need to have a reason to read your posts rather than to automatically ignore them.
You were the one grandstanding about your amazing track record with Eldrazi. Everyone that played the deck knows that it was garbage without Balista - you seem to know better.
Well if everyone is ignoring my posts - why do you keep reading them?
@IslandsAreBroken
Actually, E-Tron was a Tier 1.5 deck until people figured out to incorporateWalking Ballista (it was released weeks before it made it's way into the deck.) It made Top 4 at GPT Brisbane and was reasonably frequently a 5-0 deck on MTGO. Even after people realized Ballista was good, it was another month+ before it made it to an automatic 4-of, with very heated discussion of 2 vs. 4.
The point being, it takes a little time for a solid shell to develop, if one can develop and I don't why you seem invested in seeing UG fail.
Also, Jeremy Bertarioni is (was?) 11-3 with UG Merfolk in a tournament where 5-color humans started out 12-0. How many people would have said that deck was a bad decision 4 weeks ago? The only real changes are the Pirate and Unclaimed Territory. And who would have guessed that it wouldn't play Collected Company or any non-creature spells aside from Aether Vial?
EDIT:
3:25pm EST
12-3 and looking at Top 8 if his tie-breakers hold.
@redtwister - actually there is no such thing as tier 1.5 - and I've played all flavours of Eldrazi - made day 2 of a GP with Eldrazi. The deck was pretty garbage without Balista - and that is well accepted.
I'm not invested in UG failing - ppl that advocated for it had poor theory. Maybe it will be a mainstay, maybe it wont - if 4C Humans won the tournament it must have been very competitive!
UG will either pan out or it won't. No one has enough data yet. Bant Spirits looked great, didn't really pan out. Eldrazi Tron wasn't taken seriously first Open I took it too, now it is highly tuned and a Tier 1 deck.
Argue, theory craft, make points, all important to see if UG actually coalesces into a deck. Also, UG does not make UU bad. Both could be strong, both could play differently in different metas, etc.
E-tron wasnt a good deck until Walking Ballista was printed - its going to take more for UG merfolk to put up consistent results
Dude - check your own behaviour - anyone can come up with hundreds of brew ideas - when one "sort of" works - you can then point at it with "pride". Point is the green merfolk idea is not your idea - loads of ppl considered it - but you can claim merfolk pilferer - I guarantee that is an original.
All that criticism was basically directed towards me. I find it funny that most of what I seen in the last few pages basically CONFIRM what I said to everyone here in the initial days of my limited testing.
I said that:
- Kumena's Speaker was almost as good as Merfolk Branchwalker (confirmed by the scg top 8 player)
- Storm and combo overall was a difficult matchup, and I had incorporated mainboard tricks against it (merfolk pilferer)
- Master of Waves was not as good and we should consider cutting it, as most UG lists have
- The UG list is different from the monoblue list. The UG list doesn't do catchup nearly as well since cutting master, but it plays a more aggressive game
Despite being one of the first to defend and believe UG merfolk and make the accurate observations above, I didn't see anyone mentioning my name here ever since
I'm just glad the UG list worked. It truly is amazing to see how Rothgar13 and IslandsAreBroken postures are starting to shift, despite their unbelievable initial rudeness.
Lol - the deck has put a couple of results - the green splash is hardly "proven". Sure UG is better then I thought - you should expect ppl to criticize lists - thats what his forum is all about. To be fair most ppl had very poor theory behind why green would be useful and were simply playing G because they could. I cant see how your 'accurate' observations are really that accurate - merfolk pilferer - please..
Play Runed Halo guys - is very good against Storm (naming grapeshot; I play wreckage and EE that clean up goblins) - Halo also good against Valakut, GDS and ok against E-Tron and not terrible naming Etched Champion against Affinity.
I play 3x main deck dismember - made a huge difference vs Storm. The ug lists dont play it coz the mana base hurts them too much. Thats the difference.
I would say it loses to a lot more then just BGx - I mean you do know that blood moon absolutely hoses the new merfolk builds - not sure why you would want to hose yourself..
I present TEMUR merfolk! Want removal but you massacred your manabase to fit in green? Who needs dismember when you have LIGHTNING BOLT! Sure it won't kill Tasigur, TKS etc - but you can also go to the dome and close out that game with your opponent on three life.
Got the sh*t's losing to f'ing Affinity for the millionth time - say hello to ANCIENT GRUDGE. Lantern schmucks milling your Recall, Natural State into the bin - Ancient Grudge says f*ck you ensnaring bridge!
//Mana
2 Island
3 Botanical Sanctum
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Breeding Pool
2 Steam Vents
4 Mutavault
//Creatures
2 Cursecatcher
3 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Kumena's Speaker
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Merfolk Branchwalker
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Merrow Reejerey
//Non-creature spells
4 Æther Vial
4 Spreading Seas
4 Lightning Bolt
//Sideboard
SB: 3 Relic of Progenitus
SB: 3 Dispel
SB: 3 Ancient Grudge
SB: 2 Ceremonious Rejection
SB: 2 Unified Will
SB: 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
Ive heard ppl say that the 'stock' sb is bad against Storm and it appears to me that that is a fair comment.
I bring in 3x Chalice, 2x RIP, 1x Relic, 1x Rec Sage and 1x Settle the Wreckage. Usually I have an answer to Goblin tokens and if I can get a lock with chalice or gy hate I win. Storm can get you with blood moon - but Ido have rec sage and 3x EE as outs - or sometimes you dont need an out if you have a threat on the board already
I have 2x Lil Gideon, Jace AOT, Dusk//Dawn (both first mode and aftermath are huge value), 2x EE (MVP agsint 2 drop dense decks) and Settle that come in against GBx. This may seem like a lot but these sb cards have grindy attributes while still being great in other non-grindy matchups
Lil Gideon - great against any deck where his emblem is relevant - Burn, Other Combo
Jace AOT - Affinity, any go wide deck with small dudes, also helps you dig for sb cards
Dusk/Dawn - GDS, E-Tron
EE - go wide like Affinity, utlity swiss-knife(dont leave home without them kids)
You were the one grandstanding about your amazing track record with Eldrazi. Everyone that played the deck knows that it was garbage without Balista - you seem to know better.
Well if everyone is ignoring my posts - why do you keep reading them?
@redtwister - actually there is no such thing as tier 1.5 - and I've played all flavours of Eldrazi - made day 2 of a GP with Eldrazi. The deck was pretty garbage without Balista - and that is well accepted.
I'm not invested in UG failing - ppl that advocated for it had poor theory. Maybe it will be a mainstay, maybe it wont - if 4C Humans won the tournament it must have been very competitive!
E-tron wasnt a good deck until Walking Ballista was printed - its going to take more for UG merfolk to put up consistent results
Lol - the deck has put a couple of results - the green splash is hardly "proven". Sure UG is better then I thought - you should expect ppl to criticize lists - thats what his forum is all about. To be fair most ppl had very poor theory behind why green would be useful and were simply playing G because they could. I cant see how your 'accurate' observations are really that accurate - merfolk pilferer - please..