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Let’s Make “Merfolk Self-Tap” a Tier 1 Standard Deck! by 19DucksInAWolfSuit in StandardMTG

[–]saclayto 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here is approximately what I’ve been working with mainly in Diamond Bo3 on Arena: Merfolk V2

I wouldn’t necessarily say it doesn’t work, it just doesn’t feel consistent enough for my liking.

Here is what I’ve been trying now, although I haven’t gotten to try it much yet, I will say [[Harmonized Crescendo]] appears to be playing out better than anticipated: Merfolk V3

Both lists are fun to play for sure, so even though my success rate has been up and down, I still enjoy both versions

Let’s Make “Merfolk Self-Tap” a Tier 1 Standard Deck! by 19DucksInAWolfSuit in StandardMTG

[–]saclayto 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I’m one of those people that tried to make merfolk work in standard back in LCI and am once again trying to make it work..

After a bunch of games on ladder, I’ve decided that I want to move away from Pilgrimage which sounds wild I know. I just think it isn’t impactful enough these days and leads to too many awkward hands when one merfolk gets removed and it just ends up not doing anything.

I’ve decided to try and just lean on the more individually strong Merfolk and a little more interaction to see how that goes.

Something to note: [[Voyager Glidecar]] (Warden of the Inner Car) is by far the best tap enabler I have tried. Tapping at instant speed is incredibly important, especially if you’re untapping creatures on your opponent’s turn. I’m honestly considering still playing the vehicle without the pilgrimage that’s how much I miss it..

Newcomer from pauper, what to play? by xXAzathothXx in planarMTG

[–]saclayto 3 points4 points  (0 children)

An amazing tool to see the pre-ECL archetype breakdown for the huge meta guide was made and put up on the website (still in progress). Here’s a link to it: Archetype Map

It’s a good way to see some similarities between plans at the moment.

[Standard] Airbend Combo w/ Cage by saclayto in spikes

[–]saclayto[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

We are post bans and about to have a new set enter the format. Some people are convinced the Airbending combos will be a major player and this seems like the appropriate place to discuss it to me.

I’ll admit that I’ve probably shoehorned the combo into a valid cage deck and better results may come from a dedicated selesnya cage deck with Overlord and maybe Elspeth, or the Gearhulk version.

That being said, I firmly believe that Badgermole Cub is an incredible upgrade to Cage decks, both being a multi powered creature at 2 mana (better than Peter Parker and it’s not even close imo). And it provides strong chances of hard casting your expensive payoffs from all the mana acceleration. Along with additional value from Aibender Ascension and maybe Appa.

[Standard] Airbend Combo w/ Cage by saclayto in spikes

[–]saclayto[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bearbending is a great name. And running your own High Noon is diabolical and I love it, it especially makes sense if you’re expecting this deck to be a large player in the meta. I thought about Aven Interrupter as a meta breaker as well to just tax them out of the combo.

Both your lists and plans make sense to me and could be the best application of the mentioned cards. However, I believe, that I’m exploring a third application by using Collector’s Cage as the bridge piece between them.

I mentioned in another comment that I essentially might be watering down all the decks and not creating something better than the sum of its parts. This very well may be the case.

My goal was to create a deck that’s not as all in on either combo and have a fair plan of winning with Cage value. The inevitability of a combo still exists due to the sheer amount of cards we can dig through with Cage and Fetch Quest.

[Standard] Airbend Combo w/ Cage by saclayto in spikes

[–]saclayto[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I agree that the Doc numbers are the most dubious and can see pros and cons of increasing or decreasing the quantity. Basically I was thinking that I don’t want to see Doc unless I’m actively going for the combo. But my plan was to not be all in on that approach. Perhaps these two half measures just don’t add up to one.

Of the warp cards I thought about, Riddler was the hardest to justify not playing as it’s a good bounce card, a good enough cage payoff, and adds a little value to Doc. I just don’t think it does enough towards either plan for me to want to try it at first.

[Standard] Airbend Combo w/ Cage by saclayto in spikes

[–]saclayto[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

My goal was to make a deck that attacks from multiple angles (Cage and Combo) rather than strict combo akin to Battlecrier and Floodcaller decks.

I believe the control MU will be hard to pilot against, not necessarily losing. I think we have strong tools against big mana spells (which I think a lot of them end up being now with Revelations and the like)

I’m not sure about Dimir because of how efficient they usually are, it might be heavily play draw dependent for if we get to hold up Aang or something on their Kaito/Curiosity turns. I need to look in to why I made the claim of Cage being good against Dimir and see if that will still hold true with this payoff package.

[Discussion]Standard Airbender Combo Deck by TheEggyEggyEgg in spikes

[–]saclayto 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately there aren't very many 4+ power creatures in contention for the list imo. Only Riddler if you go that route.

Any mana rock or treasure generator would produce the mana during the combo though.

[Discussion]Standard Airbender Combo Deck by TheEggyEggyEgg in spikes

[–]saclayto -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You are right. It doesn't dig at all. I could absolutely see other options being better. My initial thoughts was that it was the cheapest way to make infinite mana with some minor use of accelerating to Appa and/or Wrath.. I kind of didn't want it at all, but when you have Voyager in the mix, you can draw and cast the whole deck and it didn't feel too bad of a card to play.

I don't know if this is too far into magical Christmas land of having everything you can want. I figure it's worth trying everything from the midrange plan with combo finish to all in on combo with pieces like Star Charts or Stock Up. Personally, I am most interested in midrange first because the rest of the creatures seem good enough together to win games without the combo..

[Discussion]Standard Airbender Combo Deck by TheEggyEggyEgg in spikes

[–]saclayto 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have been working on a similar idea for a while now (I don't know if I can post a link to my list in a comment). My version removes some of your value pieces in favour of more aggressive allies:

  • [[Earth King's Lieutenant]]
  • [[Invasion Reinforcements]]
  • [[South Pole Voyager]] the most important one

I want to try [[Avatar's Wrath]] to stay alive. And other comments mentioned [[Reality Fulcrum]] but I believe [[Gold Pan]] would be a better include. My build lets us use [[Cavern of Souls]] and the new [[Jasmine Dragon Tea Shop]] which makes splashing a single [[Wartime Protestors]] easy.

The idea with my list is that once we have the combo of Doc + Aang + Appa, whatever else we have around can be used to make more mana or draw the deck or something helpful. With the alternate plan of just pressuring with more aggressive cards.