U/W Merfolk Aggro

Crystopher · Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 7

I've been toying around with the idea since Lorwyn first came out. Most of my inspiration comes from another merfolk aggro deck I saw on here about awhile back, and with the coming of Shadowmoor I added and changed a few things:

Lands
4x Wanderwine Hub
4x Adarkwar Wastes
3x Faerie Conclave
2x Mutavault
8x Island

Creatures
4x Merrow Reejery
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Silvergill Adept
3x Sygg, River Guide
2x Voidmage Prodigy/Grimoire Thief
2x Ink Dissolver

Spells
4x Psionic Blast
4x Cryptic Command
4x Rune Snag
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Aquitect's Will

Sideboard
2x Teferi's Moat
2x Sygg, River Cutthroat
4x Flashfreeze
4x Honorable Passage
3x Ancestral Vision

I'm still debating whether to run Voidmage Prodigy or Grimoire Thief, I'm not sure which one would work better in this case. What do you think of it?

cheesypirate · Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Posts: 90

no one drops? i think curse catcher/tideshaper mystic has a good spot in this deck

skilla420 · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 258

My buddy runs a deck very much like this and it placed first at our DCI FNM. Let me lend you some advice.

Take out voidmage prodigy, you'll have enough counter power as it is trust me, I've seen it in action. And there's a reason voidmage prodigy isn't widely played (unless you're going mono U wiz) and it's because it's not that great. The deck has a base of aggro with your merfolk, and sacrificing them will only slow you down. Same case with the thief, too much counter power, unless that's what you want.

Decide what you want your deck to be. Looks like you have a mix of aggro merfolk and merfolk mill. Usually not a good combo. You can do either one or the other, but a hybrid is only at half-strength.

Either maindeck or take out ancestral visions all together. It usually doesn't belong on the sb.

Instead of honorable passage on the sb, I'd put in 4 dragon's claw. With burn decks/RDW they usually don't use massive burn spells unless it's something like a beacon of destruction or more likely a flame javelin. And the point with good competitive red decks are to chip away at you fast and with little damage. Plus story circle >>> honorable passage imo.

The last thing would be to put in 2 more mutavaults for 4 maindeck MVs. Faerie conclave.....aiight, but kinda unnecessary. Don't be worried if you play faeries, they'll be too concerned about dealing with the horde of 3/3 or 4/4 island walking merfolk. My friend beat a good, national-style faerie deck with his no problem.

Sorry that was a lot, but it's too powerful of a deck to let be mediocre, but it's all your call dude. Enjoy

Metsa · Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 2

I also have a deck similar to this, and skilla is right. You either want to go aggro or mill, not both. At least, not both maindeck. If you REALLY want to go both, then make a transformative sideboard. But the deck really is powerful.

Also, the Merfolk Harbinger is really useful. I also have Sage of Fables in, and between those two, I can tutor up my Lords and Reejereys. Another thing I've noticed is that the deck can bounce back faster than most any deck from a wrath, so you may even want to use 1-2 of those for emergency situations.

Another thing I've noticed is that instead of running counters like rune snag, my deck does just fine with using Surgespanner as repeated bounce. Also, I've tried the deck with Psionic Blast, but it's always been one of the last cards I play because I'm almost always better off drawing more cards(from a Diviner's Wand) or just casting more merfolk.

And as a final note, I've found that the Grimoire Thief can be really potent. It also gives one extra way to counter spells, albeit not as reliably. And Voidmage Prodigy really has no place in the deck whatsoever, I think, and the same goes for Ink Dissolver. The Voidmage just slows down your assault and Cryptic Command, Grimoire Thief, and Surgespanner have always seemed to be enough for me, but if you really want more, I like Sigil Tracer, because you can just use it to copy their counterspell. I actually forgot to bring a legacy deck to a local tournament, and I was able to win the entire thing with only one loss, and I replayed the guy during the finals and won.

R3wind · Joined: 24 Jul 2006 Posts: 927

I have some tuning for your deck. You have some cards that don't really fit the aggro-control roll that Merfolk is so perfect for. I will explain each card + and -.
16 total cards
-4 Psionic Blast
-1 Aquitect's Will
-3x Sygg, River Guide
-2x Voidmage Prodigy/Grimoire Thief
-2x Ink Dissolver
-4 Rune Snag

Aggro-Control decks are about card advantage, tempo, and disruption. Psionic Blast does not fit any of the above so it's the first to be cut from the deck. In the past some blue tempo decks would side in 2-3 Psionic Blast vs Stompy decks. (Rougue Elephant and stuff). This is so that you did not have to blow your only opening Force of Will on a 3/3 or 3/4. You have main deck Oblivion Ring to stop threats.

Aquitect's Will is really bad after the first one. You really only want one per game. So three is the right number. Some versions of the deck only play 2 copies.

Sygg, River Guide is not very good vs the decks that it should protect you from (RDW/Ramp/Commandments). There is the very real chance that you will tap your mana to give some random dude protection from red, then you scoop up all of your guys to Firspout. You are better off keeping mana open to threaten to counter.

The last four slots are not very solid at all. Well Skilla420 said something very useful. Voidmage is not good in the deck at all. Ink is not good in any deck.

Now on to the cards that should be in the deck.

+4 Ancietral Vision (Card Advantage) or +4 Ponder (Card Selection) it's a player preferance. Ponder does let you play 22 lands over 24 lands in a version with Vision.

+4 Cursecatcher (Disruption/Anti Thoughtsieze)

+3-4 Sage's Dousing (Disruption and Minor card advantage) I feel that this is a lot better then Rune Snag for the deck. The deck wants to swing for the win before turn 10 so even if you did not "counter" the spell you did get a minor "Time Walk" from the mana that they spent and the card the you drew off of Sage's Dousing.

+4 Stoneybrooke Banneret

You need one more land so add something. 22 for Ponder versions and 24 for Vision version.

The last slots need to be a meta call for your area. I would add 2 Mind Spring and plus one land or 3 Sunlance.

The side needs a lot of work also.
You will scoop the WU control (Revilark or Godhead+Crovax) you need something for them. Mostly you need to worry about Lark so Wheel of the Sun and Moon will stop most of that.

3 Dragon Claw (RDW/BEATS)
3 Wheel of the Sun and Moon (Persist/Lark/'Quin)
3 Wrath of God (Tokens/Beats)
3 Pithing Needle (Man-Lands/Stuff)
3 Disenchant or Wispmare

skilla420 · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 258

gypsy · Joined: 15 Jun 2007 Posts: 868

why would u need sb cards vs lark thats your best matchup

TekNique · Joined: 19 Mar 2008 Posts: 157

SB for merfolk:
Teferi's moat
Reveillark
Burrenton Forge-tender
Sunlance

Crystopher · Joined: 16 Jun 2005 Posts: 7

Sorry for taking so long to reply to this thread. I took what everyone said into consideration and I finally settled on a deck idea. I didn't have the funds to get every card I needed, but this deck put me in the Top 4 in tonight's FNM tournament, only losing one set due to mana screw >.<

Lands
4x Wanderwine Hub
12x Island
4x Plains

Creatures
4x Merrow Reejery
4x Lord of Atlantis
4x Silvergill Adept
4x Stonybrook Banneret
3x Sygg, River Guide
3x Cursecatcher

Spells
4x Oblivion Ring
4x Sage's Dousing
4x Cancel (to be replaced by Cryptic Command when i have $$)
3x Aquitect's Will
3x Ponder

Sideboard
4x Disenchant
4x Honorable Passage (only because i bought them before i saw the Dragon's claw thing)
4x Avian Changeling
3x Dawn Charm

As soon as possible I plan on removing the Sygg's, but I'm not sure what to replace them with as of yet. As for my s/b, i was thinking something like:

3x Dragon's Claw
3x Disenchant
3x Reveillark
2x Teferi's Moat
2x Wrath of God
2x Wheel of Sun and Moon

Any more feedback?

Juanito_ · Joined: 27 Jul 2008 Posts: 3

i don't know if you still have this deck. but if you do, whatever happens don't take out sygg. he's your only saving grace for red and black removals. and for getting through fat.

and take out the O-rings.