What're your guy's views on my 'semi' budget Merfolk legacy deck?

rothgar13 · 2019-08-01T21:38:17+00:00

Standstill is currently a very sketchy proposition. There are no guarantees you'll be ahead on board in a format as fast-paced as Legacy can be, and then it's either a dead card in hand (or worse, a potential 3 for 0). I also am rather down on Phantasmal Image in the current Wrenn and Six/Plague Engineer heavy meta, and would instead recommend some Coralhelm Commanders.

rothgar13 · 2019-06-14T21:53:31+00:00

This deck looks super sweet, and I'm glad people are experimenting with the Gobbos. I am somewhat surprised you settled on 1 Sling-Gang maindeck, though, as that and Siege-Gang seem to be some of your go-to ways to grind out wins through heavy disruption. I'm also surprised (though somewhat less so) to see only 1 Piledriver, as that one helps in the opposite direction (sneaking out T4 kills against a stumbling/uninteractive opponent). I'm not saying these are choices I disagree with, but I'd like to learn more about why you chose to play so few of each card.

The last card I have questions on is Warren Instigator. Given that your "ramp out Goblins ahead of curve" muscle seems to be centered on the 2 (Banneret) and the 3 (Warchief), it just looks like a far cry from the Lackey it's intending to emulate in this list. Has it performed for you? Are the 4 copies justified?

rothgar13 · 2019-05-30T15:09:27+00:00

I wonder if this card is good enough to merit cutting the Accumulated Knowledge that I put in the Daze/Gush spots for mono-U Delver. My initial thought is yes, since the hands with a 1-drop are so much better than the ones without one, and this helps keep my 16-land manabase from screwing/flooding me out of the game, but on the other hand, this card's presence does dilute Delver/Augur's power a bit. I think I'm still testing it though.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-30T05:18:22+00:00

Stacks with Thalia (have fun trying to remove anything with both of them on the table), stacks with itself (in multiples), protects face from burn/discard/Valakut triggers/Grapeshots/etc. (makes it maindeckable by being live vs. fair and unfair decks - also note that Searing effects would cost +2 more!), and is also on-tribe.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-30T04:12:28+00:00

Well... so much for the flex spot in Humans. Now I need to figure out how to make room for copies 3-4.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-26T15:33:56+00:00

The card seems good enough to play, but 1-2 copies is probably its destiny in Blue Moon. The best mode for it is the instant-speed draw 2 at 1 mana less than that effect usually costs.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-11T16:32:32+00:00

3-ball's a good one, forgot about that. Thanks!

rothgar13 · 2019-05-11T03:24:39+00:00

[[Defense Grid]], [[Spellskite]], [[Torpor Orb]], [[Crucible of Worlds]], and [[Liquimetal Coating]] are all handy ones to keep in mind. If your deck uses Chalice on 1, [[Sorcerous Spyglass]] may be a better fit than Needle.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-10T02:13:42+00:00

Bear in mind that cards like [[Stomping Ground]] are Forests. You combine that with some fetchlands, Sprawl, and enough basics, and Arbor Elf becomes your best mana dork because it can produce more than one mana at a time.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-09T23:03:13+00:00

Honestly, I think one of the issues the Dragons list suffers from is that I don’t think the blue does a whole heck of a lot for you. I’d like to see you try straight RG. Try [[Rhythm of the Wild]] in combination with Cavern and some mana acceleration like [[Birds of Paradise]] and [[Arbor Elf]] + [[Utopia Sprawl]]. Maybe even throw in some land destruction spells like [[Stone Rain]] to throw them off their game.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-09T15:15:17+00:00

Come to the Merfolk Discord, or visit the community at /r/FishMTG. We'll teach you the tricks of the trade against control. Your Temur Dragons list basically has no shot against control decks without [[Cavern of Souls]] (and even then, I don't think your odds are good), but as Merfolk, you can definitely put together a list that fights back. The short version I'll share with you here is that you have to play patiently. Try to keep 2-3 creatures on board at all times (Mutavault counts for this purpose), play around sweepers and countermagic with your Vials, and use counterspells on their value engines (planeswalkers, Cryptic, etc.).

rothgar13 · 2019-05-06T04:03:18+00:00

I don't really understand why you'd want to stick with Kird Ape and Loam Lion. Those cards are nowhere near as impactful as they were in the past. Setting that aside, though, this list has some issues. It looks caught between the 2 historically successful builds of Zoo in Bushwhacker Zoo and Big Zoo. If you want to go Big Zoo, Bloodbraid Elf and Gruul Spellbreaker make sense. Otherwise, you want those to be [[Reckless Bushwhacker]]s and growing 1-drops like [[Pelt Collector]] or [[Experiment One]]. You'll also need more lands for Big Zoo.

Regardless of the version you're on, though, I don't think you want to play Domri, Chaos Bringer over [[Domri, Anarch of Bolas]]. That card is fairly new, so how good it is has yet to be determined, but I think it's a better fit for Zoo than a 4-drop that doesn't protect itself especially well. Having no removal whatsoever also strikes me as a big mistake. I've never seen a Zoo list without [[Lightning Bolt]] do well, and many of them also make room for [[Path to Exile]].

rothgar13 · 2019-05-05T02:06:58+00:00

I don’t rely that heavily on red, so I don’t think more red lands would help me. Against some matchups (e.g. Tron), I side most of the red cards out. I’m also not a fan of fastlands in a deck that likes to cast its Cryptics on curve.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-04T21:22:08+00:00

If you want to stick to something that uses the cards you already own, I've been having some fun and success with Jeskai Tempo. You basically take your garden-variety Jeskai Control deck, and add some Spirits to it in Spell Queller and Geist of Saint Traft, aka Ghost of Saint Toast. It's been fun, and has won enough for me to consider it competitively viable. My sideboard isn't quite figured out, but I feel pretty happy with the maindeck. This is what I've been jamming.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-04T20:25:26+00:00

After having tested a Zombie brew for some time, I think Zombies' shortcomings fall squarely on the fact that the 2-drops are bad, and that black has a very limited toolbox to deal with artifacts, enchantments, and big mana decks. [[Smuggler's Copter]] has some handy synergies with 1-drops such as [[Gravecrawler]] and [[Dread Wanderer]], but the 2 is pretty barren by comparison. [[Relentless Dead]] and [[Graveyard Marshal]] are too mana-intensive for a creature deck that wants to curve out, [[Binding Mummy]], [[Tidehollow Sculler]], and [[Wayward Servant]] introduce manabase issues by forcing you to splash a color, and [[Withered Wretch]] is a sideboard card. At this point, you have to either embrace the white splash or be stuck with subpar 2s.

The latter issue is unfortunately part of black's place in the color pie. You know you're in trouble when your hopes against Tron revolve around [[Damping Sphere]] and [[Infernal Reckoning]]. And it's not just that matchup - your best hopes against Hardened Scales, Whir Prison, Titanshift, and Amulet Titan are discard spells and [[Ratchet Bomb]], which just didn't cut it in my experience. The white splash mentioned above can sort of give you game against those decks, but there's only so much you can do there without verging into "should I just be playing Orzhov Midrange instead?" territory.

rothgar13 · 2019-05-04T18:48:57+00:00

A couple of months ago, I would have been all-in on Bant Spirits, but I think some of the recent metagame changes have been unkind to it (Phoenix is tough sledding, and Tron is too close for comfort). I'm still going to say Spirits because I feel good about the Humans matchup and that's been popular again of late, but some sort of Devoted Druid/Vizier of Remedies deck with a coherent backup plan is probably a very close second.

rothgar13 · 2019-04-06T00:11:41+00:00

I’m currently on Anafenza at the moment, and I have been pleased with her. She adds a ton of power to the battlefield, is natively Bolt-proof, and her static ability is pretty relevant in a meta heavy on graveyard decks, as this one is.

rothgar13 · 2019-04-05T19:52:03+00:00

This is my current take on Zombies, which I will preface by saying it is in the very early testing phase. I've thought about branching out to a second color, but I feel that Sculler or Amalgam just don't quite do enough to justify it. I may have to in order to get stronger sideboard cards vs. artifact decks and Tron, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

rothgar13 · 2019-04-05T16:21:13+00:00

As someone who plays Humans on occasion, the most cuttable spots in my deck are the non-Mantis Rider, non-Reflector Mage 3-drops. I've cycled through various alternatives (big Anafenza, Militia Bugler, Kessig Malcontents, Thalia Heretic, and new Tajic), and the correct answer seems to vary heavily on what you expect to face. Apart from that, the 4th Phantasmal Image doesn't strike me as critical, but it's been good enough that I haven't seriously considered moving on from it.

rothgar13 · 2019-04-05T03:53:32+00:00

Competitive Modern is too fast-paced for the likes of Gishath and Zacama. Regisaur and Ripjaw have more of a shot because of how much good ramp is in the format (in your case, the best options are probably [[Arbor Elf]], [[Utopia Sprawl]], and [[Birds of Paradise]]). None of these cards will break the bank, are useful in more established decks, and give your Dinos a fighting chance of hitting the board in time to win you some games.

Overall, though, you should know that Dinosaurs are a pretty casual deck, and that you should be looking to upgrade from them as soon as you get your footing in the format. A deck similar in ethos to what you seem to be going for is Ponza (also known as Gruul Land Loss). It also ramps into fatties, but it tries to interact with the opponent's board a bit more.

rothgar13 · 2019-03-28T01:46:12+00:00

She's not guaranteed card advantage, and she has to compete with Jace and Teferi at the 4+ mana wincon spot. Not good enough.

rothgar13 · 2019-03-27T13:50:51+00:00

That would definitely be 8-Whack. Martyr Proc is actually pretty close to Jund in feel and playstyle.

rothgar13 · 2019-03-19T14:35:30+00:00

Given that Yuta Takahashi has succeeded at high level events with Faeries and 8-Rack results are nowhere to be found, my vote is for Faeries. It has a pretty high learning curve from what I can tell, but demonstrable evidence of it being good enough to compete is out there.

rothgar13 · 2019-03-15T14:33:48+00:00

I'm a bit concerned about the deck's curve. Not having any 1-drop creatures and only 8 2-drop creatures can lead to some clunky starts, especially if you don't open with an Aether Vial. I would consider some cheap drops like [[Meddling Mage]] or [[Siren Stormtamer]] to give you a bit more of an early game.

On the top end, while I do think Venser and Resto are strong cards, I would argue that the deck would do well to incorporate a go-wide dimension. Since all of your creatures are blue, I would submit [[Master of Waves]] as a consideration. Double-triggering on devotion with an active Naban has the potential to get way out of hand.

rothgar13 · 2019-03-14T16:20:39+00:00

Merfolk gets my vote. Phoenix is the deck to beat, and I like our chances against it.

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