Subject: Merfolk Tourney Report 1/11/98 Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 22:34:03 -0800 From: Laurie S Blue To: fkusumot@ix.netcom.com I just thought I would post a little tournament report here since articles about merfolk seem to be lacking. I guess no one really realizes the shear unstoppable power of a merfolk deck. :) The tournament was type II, at Matchplay in Mountain View CA. A box of tempest for first. I had been trying for a while to put together a U/R speed deck with direct damage, creatures, memory lapse, unstable mutation, etc. The deck did pretty well in the beginning of the game, then stalled with oppenents sitting at five life. Doh! So, I needed something to play. I recalled seeing a interesting merfolk deck a few days before. I decided to go with that. I basiclly used Alan Webster's "Fish" deck as my outline, since I already liked the idea of winter orb, memory lapse and fast damage. The only problem that I had with his deck, was the lack of anything to take care of artifacts and enchantments. I figured, someone puts down a couple of propaganda's while my winter orb is out and that's game. I decided it wouldn't be too hard to splash white. Not only for Disenchant, but also for Honorable Passage, because I figured a strait red deck would smoke me. I also added more Man-o-War, just because it is such an excellent creature. I swiched a few more creatures, just to make it a little more efficiant in my opinion. But it's basiclly the same. The Deck Creatures: 4 Lord of Atlantis 4 Manta Riders 3 Coral Fighter 3 Man-o-War 2 Ophidian 2 Rootwater Hunters 1 Rootwater Diver 1 Rootwater Shaman 1 Merfolk of the Pearl Trident 1 Cloud Elemental Denial: 4 Counterspell 4 Memory lapse (don't underestimate this card) Fun with mana: 4 Winter Orb 2 Flooded Shoreline Mana: 4 Quicksand 2 Undiscovered Paradise 1 Thalakos Lowlands 1 Plains 1 Sky Diamond 1 Marble Diamond 15 Islands Sideboard: 4 Hydroblast 3 Honorable Passage 2 Chill 2 Disenchants 2 Powersink 1 Seasinger 1 Legacy's Allure Okay, here we go. Round 1 vs Stompy Game 1: Things start off pretty even, we are both dropping weanies, I block and Tim a few Rouge Elephants, la de la. She plays winter orb, I drop some 1/1. I play flooded shoreline. She plays... Jorell's centuar and... Jorell's centuar. Damn that sucks. I procede to bend over to flanking, and my shorline bends over to untargetalble's. I whack away on my turn. But I sense I'm losing the battle. My last turn. I'm at four she's at six... what could I draw? LORD of Atlantis, who's 1/1's just got bigger. Take six. Whew. Game 2: Starts the same as game one. We start trading creatures. I can't attack because she has River Boa. She's held off by Quicksand. Then come the two Lhurgoyf. I know I've lost this game, and concede since I want to finish the round. Game 3: I can't tell you how cool it is Man-o-War a Rouge Elephant when someone is having mana problems. I tim away all the stupid birds and rangers, she drops the orb anyway. I lock her down at two land, drop three Lord's of Atlantis. Even though she starts dropping more elephants and muscle slivers, she can't keep up with 4/4 merfolk. Games: 2-1 Matches: 1-0 Round 2 vs Necro w/Nekrataal Game 1: He gets mana screwed, I get a good draw. Memory lapse ritualed Black Knights. Procede with the Merfolk beatdown. Game 2: He starts dropping Knights and Nekrataals, a few Edicts and that's game. Game 3: See game two. I had nothing to sideboard against this deck. The merfolk couldn't handle the first strike. This will be considered in the second draft of the deck. Games: 3-3 Matches: 1-1 Round 3 vs Mono Blue Tradewind Rider/pendrall mist/propaganda/Dream Tide Game 1: My deck is just too fast before he sideboards. I drop weenies and a Lord. I counter his pitiful attempts to stop me. Muhahahaha, feel the wrath of the Merfolk. :) Game 2: I know what is coming next, I figure I need a fast start to win. I draw no creatures and three Winter Orbs. He drops, 2 propaganda, 2 dream tides, 1 pendrall mists. He summons a Tradewind Rider, I concede. No point in sitting there while he has fun with Wispers of the Muse. Game 3: Again, I figure with a good draw I might have a chance, I draw one Manta Rider. Damn. Oh well, I play my Manta Rider for all he's worth, I hit him for five turns before I see another creature. This is where the addition of white to the deck really pays off. I see both disenchants, which in turn see two of his propaganda's straight to the graveyard. I get lucky and draw two more creatures, one of which is a Lord. I drop the orb, he gets only a Pendrall Mists, but I'm okay with both Diamonds and an Undiscovered. Then in my stupidest play of the day, while he's at six, I forget to pay the upkeep on the Mists, all three of my creatures and my sure kill go straight to the graveyard. Luck was on my side though, as I was able to draw more creatures and finish him off before he could reastablish control. Games: 5-4 Matches: 2-1 Round 4 vs G/U Tradewind Rider/Winter Orb Game 1: He draws one Undiscovered the whole game. The Merfolk roll on. Game 2: This time he boomarangs, counters and generally lays it on me, until it's my two weenies again his three Tradewind Riders and an orb. I concede, not wanting to waste time making him go through the motions. Game 3: I was a little worried, because he had so much counter magic, I wasn't sure if I could get rolling before he got the lock out. But on turn three he drops a City of Solitude, don't ask me why. I procede to drop about seven creatures and as the final insult steal a Tradewind Rider with Legacy's Allure. Games: 7-5 Matches: 3-1 This got me into the final four. Here it is. 1. Burn, Burn, Burn 2. Big Blue 3. Me with the Merfolk 4. My friend Brian Rodrigues, With his own creation, B/U counter/Aku Djinn/Firewalker. It really works pretty well, and I'm proud because it's his own idea. Round 5 vs Mono Red Burn This is the test. The deck I'm most afraid I can't handle. Game 1: He gets mana screwed for the first couple turns while I get a great draw. The merfolk are too fast, and he goes down in a hail of fish. (in goes 2/3 of the sideboard) Game 2: First four turns are, creature, Chill, Winter Orb, Coral Fighter. Game. Nothing he could do. He showed me his hand after, four Ball Lightning. I just smile and nod. The merfolk pass the test. Games: 9-5 Matches: 4-1 Brain losses to Big Blue for the second time. Me and the other guy decide to split the prize. Since he wants to play Quake, I don't even get to see who would have won. Oh well. Final thoughts: The deck preformed very well for its first time out. I think now, I might take out the Flooded Shorelines. They didn't work too well. I think Undo, or maybe even Time Ebb would have worked a lot better. The Ophidian's suck in this deck. Every time I played one I wished it was a 2/2 merfolk. More of the sideboard needs to be devoted to messing with black. That shouldn't be to hard with white in there. I did better than I thought against red. Chill with Winter Orb is very mean. Perish wouldn't have hurt either. I'm going to keep experimenting with Merfolk, I think its pretty strong deck. I want to experiment with Zur's Weirding also. I will post my further experiments up here if I have time. Thanks for everyone who spent the time to read this. I hope it gave you something to think about. And thanks to Alan Webster for posting his deck so that I could have some fun with it. Ben Blue