Now that RPTQ Manila is in the books, I can finally shelve my beloved UR
Storm deck. This gives me the opportunity to play my new deck, Merfolk. Despite the popularity of the blue-green sibling, I still opted with the traditional mono blue build.
25 November 2017
Century Mall Makati
hosted by MTG Vault
I felt the same when I switched from storm to zoo. However,
unlike zoo, I only have a handful of online reading merfolk materials. So
I just relied on my experience when I put up my first merfolk seventy-five. The
main deck has the following: 15 Island, 4 Mutavault, 1 Oboro, Palace in the
Clouds, 4 Cursecatcher, 4 Lord of Atlantis, 4 Master of the Pearl Trident, 4
Merrow Reejerey, 4 Silvergill Adept, 4 Master of Waves, 4 Harbinger of the
Tides, 2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, 2 Phantasmal Image, 4 Aether Vial,
and 4 Spreading Seas. And the sideboard: 3 Ceremonious Rejection, 4 Relic
of Progenitus, 3 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Negate, 2 Hurkyl's Recall, and 1
Grafdigger's Cage.
The memorable modern tournament that took place at Century Mall on the 25th of November had six rounds and cut to top eight. I faced the following:
Jund DS 1-2
UW Gideon Control 0-2
Ad Naus 2-1
Merfolk 1-2
Eldrazi Tron 2-0
Scry Red 2-0
(3-3) (8-7)
My errors
JUND Death's Shadow
It was in game three and both players were at four life points. He attacked
with three creatures: two 8/8 Death's Shadow and a 0/1 Tarmogoyf. I have in
hand a Harbinger of the Tides and on the table one of each: Merrow
Reejerey, Mutavault, Silvergill Adept, plus five other untapped
islands. I activated Mutavault declaring it as my sole blocker to the first
Death's Shadow. Then called out Harbinger to bounce the second 8/8 black tapped
creature. Before damage dealing, he casted Temur Battle Rage to pump the hell
out his Death's Shadow. I should have waited patiently before making any move. I also forgot reejerey's ability. Oh well, I'll just charge this to experience.
UW Gideon Control
Game
one, my starting seven was: 2 Islands, 2 Spreading Seas
and lord effects. I carefully evaluate my hand for the best
possible route. I decided to call out the Spreading Seas as
my early moves in a hope of denying him of white sources. My noble
intention was put into waste because of his Supreme Verdict buried my
school in one turn. The same thing happened in game two. I
never get to call another school after those incidents.
Other notes:
- Reejerey has TAP (potential blocker) (combo with Harbinger) or UNTAP
(my land) triggered ability.
- There were games that I could have won the game - only if had a Vapor
Snag at hand.
- Do not forget Aether Vial’s upkeep trigger. Also, there are combat
situations where vial plays a vital role in helping you swing
the tides into your favor.
- Auto-out Lord of Atlantis in a mirror match.
8 December 2017
MTG Vault
The changes I made are as follows:
-(main) less 1 Island for Minamo, School at Water's Edge
-(main) less a Master of Waves for an Echoing Truth
-(sb) less two Negates and 1 Grafddiger's Cage for 3 Unsubstantiate
Goblin Bushwhack 2-0
Living End 0-2
Tron 2-1
Rakdos Aggro 2-1
(3-1) (6-4)
Charge these to experience
-That Living End deck is (I think) a bad match up.
-RTFC.
-Do not forget (again) to tick Aether Vial during upkeep.
-He had blockers, I was not attacking. I forgot that I Spreading Seas-ed
him earlier in that game. Yeah, fuck that very good of me.
-Check as well the proper sequence of spells and/ or triggers. Also
include the colors being spent for every spell of ability.
-Vapor Snag < Unsubstantiate
-Need to learn more on when to properly use a Merfolk card.
-My combat skills are slowly (but surely) improving.
10 December 2017
The Block 101's Series Finale
The event has a master list of all the invited players. I tuned my
seventy-five towards the expected meta. I added two Dismembers in the
main replacing the Echoing Truth and the Kira, Great Glass-Spinner. I
removed 1 Disdainful Stroke, 1 Relic of Progenitus, and 1 Unsubstantiate to
make room for 2 Negate and 1 Sea’s Claim in the sideboard.
Scapeshift Bring to Light 0-2
Ad Naus 1-2
Tron 2-1
Ponza 2-1
Ad naus 2-0
(3-2) (7-6)
- For the nth time, I forgot to tick that Aether Vial.
- Kept some bad hands.
- Unsubstantiate is great!
- I miss having an Echoing Truth in the seventy-five.
- All of a sudden Cryptic Command comes across my mind, will it be a
good idea to bring it into the mix?
- Dismember becomes a dead card when you reached four and below life points.
- Always maximize your resources (value wise).
After spending three tournaments on mono blue merfolk, I registered nine
wins out of sixteen rounds (21-17). Numbers are not that impressive. Even though the breaks are not going my
way (yet), I will continue using this mono blue merfolk for my next
modern outings.
Days after the Block 101's Finale, while browsing the world wide web, I rediscovered these cards again that I think could be a good reinforcements.
One of the best defensive card ever printed. A 3/1, flying, flash, and can
totally disrupt the tempo of your opponent. I will definitely include this in my next tournaments.
Some of its positive traits are: (i) it feeds Master of
Waves' devotion ability; (ii) it flies with a 3/3 body, well, that
is after paying 2; (iii) becomes another lord but
only after paying 4.
In case those red and/ or green creatures will be that rampant, I think this is
going to be a very good addition to the sideboard.
The only thing I do not like about this is its condition.
One to cast counter spells
I almost forgot about these guys (Dispel, Spell Snare, Spell Pierce, and
Swan Song). I think I'll bring two to three of them, in any combination, into my 75.
A lot of people are saying that it is the merfolk's equivalent of Kira,
Great Glass-Spinner. Well, at one point, maybe. But overall Kira, Great Glass-Spinner is probably
a little better than Kopala because of the following: (i) yes both cards slow
your opponent in depleting your school (spot removals) but
this is where Kira shines better, it mandates your opponent to use two spot removals for every creature he wishes to kill unlike that of kopala's in which all he have to do is to add two per spot removal. Another reason I
think why kira better is because (ii) with it, your creatures are still
protected to those comes into play triggered abilities. Kopala only
protects your creatures from your opponent's activated abilities. To be fair,
in the case of Abrupt Decay and the like
uncounterable spot removal spell, he will still be required to
pay two before he can kill your fish whereas
in Kira's, it simply ignores the latter's ability.
Magical Dream Portal's (MDP) christmas party (modern)
Friday Quest's (FQ) christmas party (modern)
I brought this 75 to those two events.
4 Spreading Seas
4 Aether Vial
3 Dismember
1 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Kopala, Warden of Waves
3 Master of Waves
4 Silvergill Adept
4 Curesecatcher
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
13 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
Sideboard
1 Tidebinder Mage
1 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Unsubstantiate
3 Ceremonious Rejection
2 Negate
2 Unified Will
Yes, still on mono blue. I do not like the feeling of getting Blood Moon-ed
that is why I am not shifting (yet) to its blue-green sibling. Here are my
chronological match results from two christmas party event.
MDP
bye
Elves 0-2
Elves 1-2
RW goat 1-2
FQ
Boros Burn 2-0
UW Control 0-2
UW DnT 2-0
UW DnT 2-0
Grix DS 2-0
Learning is a never ending process, so here are some of
my mistakes that I can still recall from the December 17 events.
Elves
One thing is I am sure, merfolk is no match
for their speed. My first error was: at one point my
board had the following: 3 Cursecathcers and 2 lord effects. He
tapped all his mana, cast this and that elf before bringing on to the
table a Collected Company. I assumed that
he had 4 more floating. When I gave the green light to his,
while he was looking at the top six cards for those duo, and mentally
double check his mana. DAMN he just had one floating. Moral lesson: (*sing
to the tune of rite med) Huwag Mahihiyang magtanong, kung ilan ang mana
mo. My second error was forgetting that Collective Company is an
instant.
UW Death and Taxes
Even though I had two Dismembers at hand early in the game, I did not immediately use
them for his Wall of Omens. I simply waited for my buff giving lords to deal with his walls. Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident are the MVPs.
UW Control
Though I think I had no error in this game, I just like
to put into record that it was an uphill battle due to the deck's tons of spot
and mass removals plus life gain shenanigans. Cavern of Souls was not a big factor in this game because I think he side out his counters.
I was suppose to play in one of the modern events that are scheduled today, 23rd of December. But due to unforeseen circumstances, I was unable to attend to it. There you have it, I think I already played my last tournament for the year 2017. If in case a hobby shop will have its modern year end this December 30th, I hope my schedule permits. Thank you very much for reading! MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
-Paeng4983
6214089146
RD 1 Naya burn 2-1
