MTG Salvation

I was also at the GP! I think I met two of you... I was the Aussie guy!

I went in with no byes and had a pretty solid run, I thought. I won r1 against a weird UW delver deck, lost r2 to Shardless (bad hands and just ugh, that matchup, so soon!) then lost r3 against Enchantress (was NOT expecting that. very annoying, I had taken Echoing Truth out of my board to have another Back to Basics but really wished the whole day I had it in there). I beat Affinity r4 and Delver r5, then lost to DnT then won r7 against another delver, then r8 against Omnitell (such a good run). I only had to get one more blue matchup in round 9 to day 2.... and I played against DnT. I went down, mulliganed to 5 both games, really really disappointing luck. I had a lot of fun, though! I was only playing 3 vial and it was definitely a mistake, I should have been playing 4. I would have added an echoing truth to my SB and cut a Back to Basics if I could do it over again, but I feel like I played well and just got super unlucky to hit a DnT in the final round. I played vintage the next day unpowered with Merfolk and went 2-3, losing the last round to a mirror match (?!?!) which was also super unfortunate that I drew real bad. Still, all in all a ridiculously fun and rewarding weekend.

Warping Wail is so nuts, I love it. I've gone 3-1 the last two weeks, losing to DnT (no Wails last week) and Grixis Delver (didn't draw any Chalices)

Do y'all still run Daze? I do.

I'm getting pretty excited for Prague. We don't get big Legacy events down here [aside from Eternal Masters which I've only managed to attend once] so I'm looking forward to putting my experience to the test against a larger field. My meta has finally shifted to accomodate Chalice in the main, which has been a nice change.

Quote from Magicman657 »

This is the list I think I'm going to try for the next big thing I go to. I'm hoping to improve my non-blue matchups (Jund/Abzan, Cloudpost, DnT, Elves) without sacrificing much of the blue decks. I think this board should work a bit more favorably.

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Artifacts (9) 4 Aether Vial 3 Chalice of the Void 2 Umezawa's Jitte Spells (6) 4 Force of Will 1 Daze 1 Echoing Truth Creatures (24) 4 Cursecatcher 4 Master of the Pearl Trident 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Silvergill Adept 4 Phantasmal Image 4 True-Name Nemesis	Land (21) 3 Mutavault 3 Cavern of Souls 3 Wasteland 12 Island	Sideboard (15) 3 Flusterstorm 2 Misdirection 1 Back to Basics 1 Echoing Truth 1 Chalice of the Void 1 Pithing Needle 1 Manriki-Gusari 3 Faerie Macabre 2 Grafdigger's Cage

4 Phantasmal seems like too many - I feel like you could cut 1 and the Daze which seems pointless as a 1-of and run 2 Merrow Reejerey instead. I'd recommend trying at least 1 Waterfront Bouncer in the board instead of a second Echoing Truth as it is recurring removal and is also a Merfolk. Good manabase, I have been extolling the virtues of the 3/3/3 split for ages now.

Quote from Ayiluss »

Regarding to the non blue creature decks. In fact (playing D&T too) I think Elves and D&T are our worst mu's. For me it's like I'm fine against blue decks but non blue decks has always been a problem for Merfolk and their main weakness. Blue decks on the other hand should be mostly good mu's outside of Sneak&Show, Reanimator and Omnitel because they are too fast or have more countermagic than we do.

I find Sneak and Show to be a pretty good matchup, and Omnitell isn't a good deck any more since they lost DTT. Same with reanimator, they generally forget that Phantasmal Image does a lot of heavy lifting, and if they take a while to set up hands and have to pump all their countermagic into getting around Chalice, you can be quick enough to make Griselbrand a terrible card.

Goblins is also basically unwinnable. I have found mainboard dismembers helpful, and they also do some heavy lifting in the D&T matchup. For the most part I have begun to avoid playing Merfolk in my current meta, as it is absolute garbage - it is centered around 6 D&T decks, 4 Merfolk decks and 3 Lands decks, which is just absolute chaos and horrible for the most part. I am going to be taking the deck to GP Prague next year which means I'll have to learn to play the Chalice version properly [there is no Delver in my meta so chalices MB are pointless]

Quote from Ayiluss »

Quote from CharlieD »

I still play Daze and Wasteland in my list. They are the most important tempo cards in the deck and this is a tempo deck.

Don't you find it a bit clunky with so many UU creatures we play? Does has it happen to you that you draw a Wasteland but wish it was island instead because you have some UU Merfolk in hand but can't cast because of its double blue cost?

Honestly, no. I have hardly ever had that issue. I play 12 Islands and 3 Caverns. I added an extra island because I was worried about mana issues that did sometimes pop up and make things difficult but aside from that my deck plays pretty smoothly. Maybe I'm just lucky? But I have played the deck for almost two years with the 3/3/3 split being the best performing one I've used.

I still play Daze and Wasteland in my list. They are the most important tempo cards in the deck and this is a tempo deck.

Quote from rujasu »

Yeah, Chalice is huge vs. Delver and good against nearly all other blue decks. It's also very good against Burn and Elves. It's not so great against decks like D&T.

If D&T is really that big in your meta, maybe you could consider maindeck slots for Dismember and Umezawa's Jitte?

I used to play Dismember main but moved it to SB to try out Chalice, but I think I'll switch back. I have always played at least one Jitte main. One thing I did want to try to get around the DnT that is very heavily represented in my meta was a black splash for Virtue's Ruin out of the board (Also provides Perish v Elves/Jund, Thoughtseize) but it feels a bit clunky. I also don't want to buy underground seas - which admittedly isn't an issue as I can easily borrow them/play Urborg instead.

Edit: Didn't see this whole new page

Wasteland is just so insanely good. The 3/3/3 split is perfect and I recommend everybody tries it out. It is great against DnT as it can keep them off Karakas/Cavern tricks, it is amazing against Delver as it ruins their mana and forces them to use extremely limited manabases. Wasteland won me the match this week against Stoneblade - I wasted two Tundras, she had no white mana and three Swords to Plowshares in hand. It is the most aggressive tempo card in the deck, aside from Daze.

Well, I've been testing 3 Chalice in the main and I see why it is there, now. I still think it is too slow when you can't play it turn 1, but still good. I get why it is insanely good in Delver heavy metas but every man and his dog plays DnT here, super lame. Went 4-0 tonight at my local, 29 players. Beat Stoneblade, Reanimator, a weird 4 colour brew and then drew with Miracles but he scooped me into the win after we went to time as I had been paired down.

I have kept 4 Daze in my list as I still think it is a crazy important card. Current manabase is 3 Wasteland/3 Cavern/3 Mutavault/12 Island, the extra seems to be helping a lot. Current sideboard is:


Days Undoing is ******* awesome and I cannot wait to try it out now.

Quote from Magicman657 »

I played this list in a small Duel for Duals event on Sunday and walked away with 1st place with this list:

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Artifacts (8) 4 Aether Vial 3 Chalice of the Void 1 Umezawa's Jitte Spells (7) 4 Force of Will 2 Daze 1 Echoing Truth Creatures (25) 4 Cursecatcher 4 Master of the Pearl Trident 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Silvergill Adept 4 True-Name Nemesis 3 Phantasmal Image 1 Merrow Reejerey 1 Vendilion Clique	Land (20) 4 Mutavault 3 Cavern of Souls 13 Island	Sideboard (15) 1 Chalice of the Void 2 Flusterstorm 2 Swan Song 1 Stifle 2 Submerge 2 Ensnare 1 Echoing Truth 1 Sower of Temptation 3 Faerie Macabre

I lost to Death and Taxes round 1. His game 1 he opened with both Batterskull and Sword of Fire and Ice, then dropped Stoneforge Mystic to find Jitte - not coming back from that Game 2 featured Brimaz beating me down with no TNNs in sight. Round 2 I played Miracles and won pretty easily. Round 3 I played High Tide, and had the absolute nuts on the play for a T4 kill. Game 2 I mulled to 5 but had the Flusterstorm when he went for Time Spiral and proceded to get there with Silvergil + Image. R4 I played my friend who was 3-0 on Miracles; he conceded to me as he was already locked for top 4. (We normally play pretty often and I win probably 70+% of the time; we did play it out for fun and he did manage to win 2-1 solely on the back of a Monastery Mentor while I was on a mull in game 3.) I played Death and Taxes again in top 4, where I was able to beat him (Ensnare and True-Name Nemesis decided to show up in full force). Played against Tendrils Storm in the last round. Maindeck Chalice of the Void turned out to be awesome; I opened with turn 1 Chalice on 0 and turn 2 Chalice on 1. I had a Faerie in hand when he went for Past in Flames (last card in hand) in game 2 with Ponder, Brainstorm, and Infernal Tutor in the yard. I exiled Brainstorm and Ponder, somehow missing the Tutor because I'm stupid apparently. Game 3 I was on the play and had a solid beatdown going, forced him to attempt to combo early with just 5 life left, and once he had to go for Past in Flames again I exiled his only two draw spells in the yard with Faerie for the win.

The only changes I would make now are -1 Merrow Reejerey, +1 Phantasmal Image in the main, and -1 Ensnare, +1 Manriki-Gusari in the side. I'm really liking this deck a lot.

Great job!

Ensnare is so good, I have been playing it in vintage Merfolk! I definitely need to test it out. It also seems insanely good in the mirror as it can shut down Islandwalk.

It took me way too long to work out that a Chalice on 0 against Storm is basically an auto-win.

Quote from L0rdAceX »

CharlieD, I'm interested to see what your current list looks like.

I'll be playing a Legacy event if all goes well tonight (probably with something close to Nikachu's list) and then I'll change the list accordingly for the GP side event tomorrow (Didn't play the GP even though its right here in Dallas; I don't like sealed that much). I'm pretty excited!

I don't play Chalices main, haven't had a chance to test them out yet but I am pretty skeptical. I'm sure they are great and I'm just holding onto Daze because I fear change. I would also play Flusterstorm over Spell Pierce.

Quote from Conburnmadman »

Omnitell s supposed to be a good matchup, but even with chalice I was getting wished upon and losing to Emmy if I couldn't win the counter war over SnT. Not sure if it was the product of bad draws or what, but how am I supposed to play this match? What type of hands should I be looking for?

Omnitell is a terrible matchup. It is super hard to win because the deck can frequently just lucksack into a Dig Through Time and just win when you are caught off guard. You need to hope for their bad hands and you need to play tight, only playing cursecatchers and keeping counterspell heavy hands. Side note - I ******* hate playing against Omnitell. It is a garbage deck for jerks.

Quote from trevablues »

I've frigging hated Dismember, but might not really understand its role.
Could someone sell me on Dismember?
Or if I can skip it, what I need in place of it...

dismember is amazing for the tilt factor. I win 9/10 delver matchups by dismembering a delver turn 1 and they lose their ***** thinking I have a stacked hand and they play VERY badly. Aside from that, it gives amazing value vs. the creature matchups that are generally unwinnable game 1 (I should mention I usually play Dismember MB) and it helps against Reanimator matchups (When you phantasmal an Elesh, you can kill theirs with a Dismember. It also makes Griselbrand hit for either 1 or 2 which is super relevant)

Quote from kreldin »

and if they're greedy and keep a hand with few hands you can just get an easy win that way.

You'd be surprised how often this wins you games with Wasteland, though, in any matchup. If they go for a brainstorm and you Wasteland them they have generally shipped their lands off Brainstorm + crack fetch and it puts them in a very awkward position.

Also, the Wasteland + Daze trick is super great too (opponent casts spell, Wasteland their fetchland in response, they crack it, then you daze in response and they are left without a mana)

Double supreme verdict is brutal. Have had that happen a few times in UW Stoneblade matchups. The key is just to play conservitavely. They aren't blocking your dudes (as they are generally light on threats, or you have islandwalk) and you generally only need one or two creatures (Mutavault is an all-star) in order to keep bashing at them. I learned the hard way to always play the deck very, very conservitavely.

Good video, but I've never found the deck to be clunky. I consistently 4-0 and 3-1 with it at my local events every week (20-30 players).

Phantasmal Image is fantastic. 3 is the perfect number. It shores up matchups like Sneak and Show/Reanimator. Same with Merrow Reejerey, it lets you set up amazing chains that win you the game, and in multiples they are even better. If not, then it is a perfect tempo card to tap blockers and make iffy combat steps very favourable. Last week I used Reejerey to tap two huge blockers in a Nic Fit matchup and win the game.

I have never been a fan of MB Chalice but I have never really given it too much testing. I'll give it a go next time I play an event (should be in two weeks time) and let you know how it goes. I have always found Daze really good but like I said, maybe I don't know any better.

I am a huge fan of 3 Wastelands in the deck, it is just extremely important and can basically be a Time Walk when you have Aether Vial.

I really like Harbinger and I wanna try it out in the sideboard.

edit - If you want to see some videos of me playing the deck very badly there is a bunch of feature matches I did last year on a channel called Fullhouse Games on YouTube. I don't play well on camera

I am most likely going to switch back to Relic, but Crypt was in because of a huge surge in Reanimator decks in my meta over the last few weeks. It paid off, as last week I played against two in rounds 3 and 4. Spreading Seas is also a new thing I'm trying out as I used to run Aquitect's Will instead as a way of getting around DnT and Elves (Just rolling over them for lethal because they don't really interact) but it doesn't work great due to Flickerwisp and the multiple Elf land-bounce creatures.

I love Merrow Reejerey but it does tend to be the first thing I sideboard out. I find if I have one down I usually win the game within a turn of it coming down, though. It does so much work.

Master of Waves and Thassa were Dismember, as Delver was a huge thing in my local meta last year and I wanted to have ways of dealing with it for game 1. There is a lot of RDW in my meta, too, so Misdirections are for that. 4 Daze is just what I've always played, never really had a problem with them at all.

Unfortunately no lists were posted for the top 8 of the Legacy event, only the Vintage event, and I was super annoyed about it! Top 8 was, from what I can remember, a Bant midrange deck, a few UR Delver decks, a BUG Delver deck and a sweet mono-R Sneak Attack brew. I beat BUG Delver in the QFs then lost to UR Delver in the semis. My run that day was 2-0 BUG Delver, 1-2 UR Delver, 2-0 OmniShow, 2-0 Sneak and Show, 2-0 RDW, 2-0 UR Delver.

I do like the Echoing Truth, would Chain of Vapor be easier to cast? I would also be running Flusterstorm over Spell Pierce if I had them, but the exchange rate in Australia to the USD is so garbage right now, it isn't a good idea for me to buy them.