I'm sure it's been brought up before, but I haven't tried it since Harbinger of the Tides came out. Rapid Hybridization might be good to consider again since we can bounce tokens so easily. Just planting a seed in the forum, maybe it'll sprout...maybe not.
I'm thinking putting Black Vise in the sideboard for Burn would be pretty solid. Not that there is much room in the sideboard for it, but I would think at least three would make it seen enough to be used. Might help with playing cards that are specifically against blue and just only worry about hand size. I was a few years too young to be in the tournament scene in the 90's when it was in type II...so, did burn decks employ it in either the main or side?
Otherwise, any time R&D decides to ban more blue cards, I'm all for it. I'm pretty convinced that when Richard Garfield came up with this game he said something along the lines of this to people who would listen: "I want to create a card game that involves drawing power from five different elements set by certain colors...the only thing is I will create this one color to be omnipotent and have the other four just chase it incessantly until they finally figure out the joke and the gig is up."
But, it's sure good in Tiny Leaders!! This is coming from experience with a U/W Merfolk/Mill deck that was pretty freakin' good in a rather broken format.
I can see where someone is coming from when wanting to try it though. It's a 2/2 for 2 and has a quasi-Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver ability to it. The opponent can't see what they lost either. It's not the worst merfolk ever...however, I still think Triton Shorestalker is worth playing, so what do I know?? hahaha
I know it's rather common, but I just got a HUGE kick out of what just went down on MTGO to me:
Playing against Junk. He rails me game 1 as per usual when they win the flip, I wrecked him with Relic of Progenitus owning game two.
Then, game three comes in. Turn one, some shockland. Noble Hierarch. I go. Island. Turn two, he goes for Tarmogoyf. I Spell Snare it. Long pause after I hit f6 to go all the way to my turn cause hell, I have nothing left to accomplish. Turn two, I drop Island and Spreading Seas his shockland.
He promptly quits. I had a good laugh. Hopefully, this helped boost someone's day as Fish can have off-days all the time, just like any other deck. But, today...mark one up for the Fishies!!
Happy Birthday mofo! You talk a lot of *****. Well, it wasn't my best night. I tried. hahaha...I always lose the mirror. Tough match-up. Seeing as how you have such a better sideboard than I do...it's ok. Will not happen again!! Well, maybe...
Just wanted to let y'all know that Disdainful Stroke is worth trying out in the sideboard. I put one in there along with 2x Pithing Needle recently and have found some pretty solid success with it. I've personally had a lot of trouble with Twin and Tron on MTGO recently and both have worked well for me. Especially the stroke as I just countered the new Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger during a match with tron after Oblivion Stone blew up my 2x Spreading Seas that were keeping them at bay. Life. Saver. I was so damn excited. Also works well against Tasugir and other decks I'm not thinking of. The Needle has seen some great results too, especially against Planeswalkers and decks that can usually pay for the Spell Pierce drawback. Just some food for thought.
As a DnT and control player in general, I have to say that Merfolk is my favorite non-control deck. It is a fun tempo deck with neat elements, and if you are willing to spend the extra cash, frankly, you can, far more cheaply, have a deck that easily moves between 3 formats (Vintage, Legacy and Modern), which I don't if any other deck can claim. In other words, Merfolk can be a great investment if you like the style.
Agreed. I would say Merfolk and Burn are two of the most versatile decks when it comes to switching between formats.
When I tried it out, I had a very similar build. I cut the Vapor Snags for the Harbingers, so that was 2 open slots right away. Then, a Cursecatcher (because 3 seems like enough for me) and a land because that guy that did so well (Paul R. Can't remember his last name) in some big modern tournament recently ran with 19 lands. I had fun and some success, but it would get hosed by certain decks...however, it was much easier to sideboard against those matches when taking out 4 cards right off the bat haha!
Good match minus that fluke of a third game. Kinda stupid question as I used to be able to do it via Shift and ALT key together...how do you always zoom in on specific cards in your hand? It must've changed or it's something with my computer...not sure.
On a pc you can click with both mouse buttons at the same time to zoom
Can't believe I missed this post. Thank you for the insight!! That will help a bunch...and hell, I might even try my hand at streaming!
Good match minus that fluke of a third game. Kinda stupid question as I used to be able to do it via Shift and ALT key together...how do you always zoom in on specific cards in your hand? It must've changed or it's something with my computer...not sure.
On my Mac keyboard I hold down the Command key and then left click the mouse and hold down to maintain the zoomed image. I think it's really dumb that there isn't an easier shortcut to make that happen. Everything you NEED to make MTGO playable is from LEARNING the hotkeys.
Thanks for that. I don't have a MAC, but I'm sure I can figure something out on my Toshiba. I just know what I used to do doesn't work anymore. Hopefully clicking/holding with either shift or ALT will work. Sorry about that match too...I'm glad that you post most of your matches win-or-lose, because it gives a good way for us plebeians to measure the MTGO meta overall. Also shows that not everyone is perfect (or draws the best hands all the time!)
I seem to run into all kinds of fringe decks online and it angers me so damn much sometimes hahaha! I can't even remember a lot of them. I run into that Restore Balance deck a lot, the Heartless Summoning deck, and others I'm not thinking of at the moment. Kinda funny to think that Twin decks were more-or-less a troll deck a couple of years ago...at least it was in my area.
Good match minus that fluke of a third game. Kinda stupid question as I used to be able to do it via Shift and ALT key together...how do you always zoom in on specific cards in your hand? It must've changed or it's something with my computer...not sure.
I think 19 is okay if you go with 8 seas effects especially. I run 4x Reejerey and only 2x MOW and have been doing just fine with 19. I use 20 sometimes just to see if I get too many lands...and it's kind of a 50/50 crapshoot.
I've had two in there pretty much the whole two-three years I've been playing modern Merfolk. It's great against cards like that command and several other spells. I just like to use a versatile set of counters with Negate, Annul, Spell Snare, and Unified Will just in case. I used to try and play with Cryptic Command...but that proved to be too hard to save up for/severely slowed my board presence progress. Selling those allowed me to buy two Sower of Temptations and they have been terrific for me against things like Tasugir, Eldrazi, Goyf, and the like.
Otherwise, any time R&D decides to ban more blue cards, I'm all for it. I'm pretty convinced that when Richard Garfield came up with this game he said something along the lines of this to people who would listen: "I want to create a card game that involves drawing power from five different elements set by certain colors...the only thing is I will create this one color to be omnipotent and have the other four just chase it incessantly until they finally figure out the joke and the gig is up."
So, good.
And yes...I do play Merfolk. hahahahaha
I can see where someone is coming from when wanting to try it though. It's a 2/2 for 2 and has a quasi-Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver ability to it. The opponent can't see what they lost either. It's not the worst merfolk ever...however, I still think Triton Shorestalker is worth playing, so what do I know?? hahaha
Playing against Junk. He rails me game 1 as per usual when they win the flip, I wrecked him with Relic of Progenitus owning game two.
Then, game three comes in. Turn one, some shockland. Noble Hierarch. I go. Island. Turn two, he goes for Tarmogoyf. I Spell Snare it. Long pause after I hit f6 to go all the way to my turn cause hell, I have nothing left to accomplish. Turn two, I drop Island and Spreading Seas his shockland.
He promptly quits. I had a good laugh. Hopefully, this helped boost someone's day as Fish can have off-days all the time, just like any other deck. But, today...mark one up for the Fishies!!
Happy Birthday mofo! You talk a lot of *****. Well, it wasn't my best night. I tried. hahaha...I always lose the mirror. Tough match-up. Seeing as how you have such a better sideboard than I do...it's ok. Will not happen again!! Well, maybe...
Agreed. I would say Merfolk and Burn are two of the most versatile decks when it comes to switching between formats.
Can't believe I missed this post. Thank you for the insight!! That will help a bunch...and hell, I might even try my hand at streaming!
Thanks for that. I don't have a MAC, but I'm sure I can figure something out on my Toshiba. I just know what I used to do doesn't work anymore. Hopefully clicking/holding with either shift or ALT will work. Sorry about that match too...I'm glad that you post most of your matches win-or-lose, because it gives a good way for us plebeians to measure the MTGO meta overall. Also shows that not everyone is perfect (or draws the best hands all the time!)