When did Alarm become a common?
I also really want fish to be a thing but it just seems to weak.
Whirlpool Rider mill (with Jace's Erasure) is slow but can win.
I play Fish in Modern and what makes the deck good is an abundance of lords, something that is sadly missing from Pauper.
Decks like Grixis Delver have to play around Relic (or even the threat of Relic); it's very good against Jund (though some whose opinions I respect argue that, against Jund, you should just jam threats); it gives you a virtual auto-win against Living End; incidentally good against Burn.
Not going to touch the ban topic (okay, just this: if there's an enchantment that should be banned, I'm pretty sure it's not spreading seas).
I agree with Fannatic (sorry if I capitalized the wrong letters ), PtyLtd and Nikachu: Merfolk is the definition of a fair deck: it wins with creature damage in combat; it's versatile but doesn't completely hose any one deck; it's greatest strengths are its versatility and synergy.
Without Seas effect Allies are our nightmare matchup (they all have pro blue, lifelink, first strike, all of their dudes are Lords...) and with Company and new allies in Zendikar it could get ugly.
Agree completely. Allies (at least as they stand now; this could change post-October) is not a better deck than Fish overall but, against us, it's strong: lifelink, gain life, pro-blue, etc. I actually like Allies enough that I'm brewing with them a little. Again, though, Fish is just a more versatile deck overall.
White splash just doesn't seem worth it to me.
I want versatile SB cards like Remand and Spell Pierce. Things like Kataki and Stony Silence would certainly improve one of our weaker matchups but 1) the matchup isn't unwinnably bad anyway and 2) Kataki and Silence do pretty much literally nothing against the rest of the field.
Sure, Path would be nice but that's really the only reason I'd splash white and we don't really need Path anyway. The only time Dismember makes me feel terrible is against Burn; the card isn't even terrible against affinity.
Played in a 42-man PPTQ this weekend. Went 5-1 in the swiss; lost in the semis.
I ran Nikachu's most recent 75 (and gave credit, of course!).
I'll write up a more thorough report if anyone is interested. Quick hits for now:
-Rd. 1 vs. Affinity: 2-1. Very winnable. Game 1, he dropped his hand and killed me on turn three. Games 2 and 3 were longer and thus winnable. Harbinger is solid value, especially if there are any counters (beyond one) on Ravager. Not sure about keeping some number of dismembers in but I took all three out post-board.
-Rd. 2 vs. Epser control: 2-1. Walked into Verdict game 2. Otherwise, all that got in my way were some spirit tokens but he was playing Islands.
-Rd. 3 vs. Ad Nauseam: 1-2. My opponent cheated. Didn't realize this until later. I won one game. The match loss didn't keep me out of the top 8. When I find this player's name, I will post it as a warning to all.
-Rd. 4 vs. Grixis Delver: 2-1. Dismember and, to a lesser extent, Harbinger were boss. Wish I had the second snag here (only time I missed it all day; only cast Snag once, on my own lord, in response to Verdict in rd. 2). This match is totally winnable. Relic does some solid work here. Just use all of your options to keep them playing fair.
-Rd. 5 vs. Jund: 2-1. Tec Edges in kept him off black in game 2, off green in game 3. MoWaves is such a beating here.
-Rd. 6 vs. Grixis Delver: 2-0. Very, very easy match.
Quarters vs. Grixis Delver: 2-1. Seriously.
Semis vs. Infect: 1-2. Great player. Nice guy. I punted game 2 (he delved for Become Immense; I forgot I had Cursecatcher on board; I made my own bed in this match).
Nikachu deserves immense credit; I can't say I'd want to change a single card in the 75 save, perhaps, Grafdigger's Cage but, then, I never really needed it.
I think this card is a sleeper. Yes, it would be positively broken if you could mill yourself (especially in formats with a certain undead troll) but this seems really solid.
I know that Modern Mill isn't exactly T1 but this effectively gives it 8 Crabs available on T1. Also, Delta makes Mill a little less sucky.
In Standard, it seems a solid card against control (you play and crack a fetch, they mill 4: you get value just for playing Magic which is one way I define a good card).
I don't think this is a bulk rare, at any rate. At a bare minimum, this will see lots of EDH play as it hits all opponents.
Altar of the Brood, anyone?
Surprised no one's jumped all over this card. One of the difficulties mill has is not having Hedron in the opening hand. This is effectively Crab 5-8. Moreover, though it only mills two, your crabs, Augurs, Orbs, etc. all trigger it. This seems to be the most significant bone thrown (though not Throne of Bone) for mill since Polluted Delta.
Altar of the Brood, anyone?
Surprised no one's jumped all over this card. One of the difficulties mill has is not having Hedron in the opening hand. This is effectively Crab 5-8. Moreover, though it only mills two, your crabs, Augurs, Orbs, etc. all trigger it. This seems to be the most significant bone thrown (though not Throne of Bone) for mill since Polluted Delta.
Two things:
-Standard is more balanced now than I ever remember it being. Things like LBZ generally do not cripple any decks completely. LBZ is a good hate card; it's obviously not ruining the format.
-One could argue that certain cards are overpowered/ make Standard less fun. No one less than Brian Kibler has complained that Thoughtseize, a legit "broken"/"overpowered" card (this because it's almost always good, seldom merely situationally so as LBZ is), hurts Standard. But Mr. Kibler, along with other forward-thinking players who understand that the game has cards that are more powerful than others, plans and play accordingly.
I don't see the point in kvetching. This isn't affinity. This isn't even Faeries or Jund.
Milling is boring, the Heroic mechanic has always been corner-case, and 'Octopuses' is incorrect, it's 'Octopodes'
Overall, just more bombs for limited, but they'll never see constructed play.
We've now seen most of the filler in this set. So now maybe we'll see some REAL spoilers for once?
I thought it was "octopod."
I thought for years that the plural was "octopi" because it looked like a second declension Latin noun and, well, it's not, and I know very little Greek.
Phenax will appear in a T8 in a large event (5K, PTQ or bigger) during his time in Standard. Taking bets now.:)
Whelming Wave answers Robin's age old question.:)
There is an infinite mana combo in Standard, right? Hero getting arbitrarily large seems fun. That's totally kitchen table-only, I feel, at least as I see it now.
Complaining about how things "don't go (your) way" and about "luck/chance" getting in the way of winning isn't productive. I lose a lot and I've T8ed PTQs (no great feat but I'm a decent player). My point is this: if you lose and blame anything but yourself, you don't grow as a player. Magic is intrinsically a game of (in part) luck; sometimes you're gonna get screwed. Rather than complaining about how your opponent always seems to topdeck the answer (which in no way makes you a better player), maybe analyze the situations over which you actually did have control.
I've been playing twenty years and have a bunch of degrees. I should probably charge you for my advice.:)
As my wife (an elementary school teacher and a brilliant one at that) says, "Sometimes you win; sometimes you learn."
That said, your revised decklist looks wicked cool. I love the sire/bounce interaction. I will try this.
I think that 4 Evangel/2 Paladin is better than the reverse, for the curve and because Evangel wins you games and Paladin merely saves your ass.
Otherwise, I like the deck and I like that you describe the evolution of it.
I also really want fish to be a thing but it just seems to weak.
Whirlpool Rider mill (with Jace's Erasure) is slow but can win.
I play Fish in Modern and what makes the deck good is an abundance of lords, something that is sadly missing from Pauper.
I agree with Fannatic (sorry if I capitalized the wrong letters
Agree completely. Allies (at least as they stand now; this could change post-October) is not a better deck than Fish overall but, against us, it's strong: lifelink, gain life, pro-blue, etc. I actually like Allies enough that I'm brewing with them a little. Again, though, Fish is just a more versatile deck overall.
I want versatile SB cards like Remand and Spell Pierce. Things like Kataki and Stony Silence would certainly improve one of our weaker matchups but 1) the matchup isn't unwinnably bad anyway and 2) Kataki and Silence do pretty much literally nothing against the rest of the field.
Sure, Path would be nice but that's really the only reason I'd splash white and we don't really need Path anyway. The only time Dismember makes me feel terrible is against Burn; the card isn't even terrible against affinity.
I ran Nikachu's most recent 75 (and gave credit, of course!).
I'll write up a more thorough report if anyone is interested. Quick hits for now:
-Rd. 1 vs. Affinity: 2-1. Very winnable. Game 1, he dropped his hand and killed me on turn three. Games 2 and 3 were longer and thus winnable. Harbinger is solid value, especially if there are any counters (beyond one) on Ravager. Not sure about keeping some number of dismembers in but I took all three out post-board.
-Rd. 2 vs. Epser control: 2-1. Walked into Verdict game 2. Otherwise, all that got in my way were some spirit tokens but he was playing Islands.
-Rd. 3 vs. Ad Nauseam: 1-2. My opponent cheated. Didn't realize this until later. I won one game. The match loss didn't keep me out of the top 8. When I find this player's name, I will post it as a warning to all.
-Rd. 4 vs. Grixis Delver: 2-1. Dismember and, to a lesser extent, Harbinger were boss. Wish I had the second snag here (only time I missed it all day; only cast Snag once, on my own lord, in response to Verdict in rd. 2). This match is totally winnable. Relic does some solid work here. Just use all of your options to keep them playing fair.
-Rd. 5 vs. Jund: 2-1. Tec Edges in kept him off black in game 2, off green in game 3. MoWaves is such a beating here.
-Rd. 6 vs. Grixis Delver: 2-0. Very, very easy match.
Quarters vs. Grixis Delver: 2-1. Seriously.
Semis vs. Infect: 1-2. Great player. Nice guy. I punted game 2 (he delved for Become Immense; I forgot I had Cursecatcher on board; I made my own bed in this match).
Nikachu deserves immense credit; I can't say I'd want to change a single card in the 75 save, perhaps, Grafdigger's Cage but, then, I never really needed it.
I know that Modern Mill isn't exactly T1 but this effectively gives it 8 Crabs available on T1. Also, Delta makes Mill a little less sucky.
In Standard, it seems a solid card against control (you play and crack a fetch, they mill 4: you get value just for playing Magic which is one way I define a good card).
I don't think this is a bulk rare, at any rate. At a bare minimum, this will see lots of EDH play as it hits all opponents.
Surprised no one's jumped all over this card. One of the difficulties mill has is not having Hedron in the opening hand. This is effectively Crab 5-8. Moreover, though it only mills two, your crabs, Augurs, Orbs, etc. all trigger it. This seems to be the most significant bone thrown (though not Throne of Bone) for mill since Polluted Delta.
Surprised no one's jumped all over this card. One of the difficulties mill has is not having Hedron in the opening hand. This is effectively Crab 5-8. Moreover, though it only mills two, your crabs, Augurs, Orbs, etc. all trigger it. This seems to be the most significant bone thrown (though not Throne of Bone) for mill since Polluted Delta.
-Standard is more balanced now than I ever remember it being. Things like LBZ generally do not cripple any decks completely. LBZ is a good hate card; it's obviously not ruining the format.
-One could argue that certain cards are overpowered/ make Standard less fun. No one less than Brian Kibler has complained that Thoughtseize, a legit "broken"/"overpowered" card (this because it's almost always good, seldom merely situationally so as LBZ is), hurts Standard. But Mr. Kibler, along with other forward-thinking players who understand that the game has cards that are more powerful than others, plans and play accordingly.
I don't see the point in kvetching. This isn't affinity. This isn't even Faeries or Jund.
Also, we need more Cyclops cards now.:)
I thought it was "octopod."
I thought for years that the plural was "octopi" because it looked like a second declension Latin noun and, well, it's not, and I know very little Greek.
Whelming Wave answers Robin's age old question.:)
There is an infinite mana combo in Standard, right? Hero getting arbitrarily large seems fun. That's totally kitchen table-only, I feel, at least as I see it now.
I've been playing twenty years and have a bunch of degrees. I should probably charge you for my advice.:)
As my wife (an elementary school teacher and a brilliant one at that) says, "Sometimes you win; sometimes you learn."
That said, your revised decklist looks wicked cool. I love the sire/bounce interaction. I will try this.