Magic:The Gathering

[killercactus]

Hey guys - in case any of you guys are interested in helping out with an old deck, I thought I'd post it here to get some ideas / critiques.

I think a lot of this stuff is Shadowmoor (whatever set the Merrow Riverways deck was in), but some is newer. It's limited by my small collection, but I should have access to everything here shortly. When I play, it's usually Vintage, but no one has super-broken decks. I think this Merfolk deck is the best combo I can come up with in my limited collection:

Spoiler Alert!

Merrow Mill

Creatures - 18
Drowner of Secrets x4 (2B, [no cost]tap a Merfolk, opponent mills 1)
Judge of Currents x4 (1W, when a Merfork is tapped, gain 1 life)
Stonybrook Schoolmaster x4 (2W, when a Merfork is tapped, but a 1/1 Merfork token in play)
Merfolk Looter x4 (1B, tap to draw 1, discard 1)
Fallowsage x2 (3B, when tapped, draw 1)

Planeswalkers - 3
Jace Beleren x3 (I don't own any Jace tMS)

Instants - 15
Brainstorm x4
Summon the School x3 (3W, tap up to 4 Merfolk and put that many 1/1 Merfork tokens in play)
Mana Leak x4
Spell Syphon x4

Enchantments - 4
Merrow Commerce x4 (1B, all Merfork you control untap at end of your turn)

Land - 20
Island x12
Plains x8

The basic idea is to draw lots of cards with Brainstorm, Jace and the Looters, and get at least the Drowner and Schoolmaster out. Drowner allows everyone to tap whenever you want and mills your opponent, and Schoolmaster starts pumping out tokens for each tapped Merfolk, which makes the Drowner's mill exponentially stronger each turn. Once Merrow Commerce is down, you can basically mill them twice per turn (once on your turn and once at the end of the opponent's turn) without fear of being attacked. Along with drawing, Jace's mill can help finish them off. Judge of Currents is also awesome with the Drowner and can make your life total really high as a way to stave off creature attacks or just not have to block with creatures you need out or tokens. My first thought is that I need some more land in here, and maybe some more counter, though I'm not sure about that. Thanks for any comments!

Thanks in advance!

[winonavampire]

Originally Posted by Zarovichx

Wow that was pretty cool. I couldn't get away with that here. Sorin is pretty much banned around here in EDH since he is stupid good. Don't even tried casting Sorin in a 3+ EDH game here, thats the quickiest way to get ganged up on...lol.

See, I think Sorin and Magister Sphynx is a balancing factor of EDH. Sometime people get hundreds or more life and these effects are the only way to end the game.



Of course, one time, I had this thing come into play three times within two turns, and did 10 damage to everyone... Winning the game of course.

Oh, and killercactus, I'm afraid I can't be real helpful with that deck as I am not real familiar with all those merfolk.. I see you have 4x Brainstorm and 4xManaLeak, so that is a good start to any blue based decks. Although I am afraid to tell you, Brainstorm is restricted in Vintage. Meaning you can only play 1. However, your deck looks Legacy legal, so I will just go with that...

If you were serious, the staples include:

Force of Will



I would look at Flooded Strand (blue/white fetchland from Onslaught) They are AMAZING with Brainstorm.


Although expensive pieces, they will add a TON to your deck.

[killercactus]

I could always go with Preordain or even Ponder instead of Brainstorm - I forgot about it's restriction.

Force of Will is pretty sick. If I can get my hands on some, I will. Counterspell is restricted, right? I own 4x Cancel, but that costs 1 more mana. I used Spell Syphon in it's place as I expect to get quite a few Blue permanents down.

[winonavampire]

Originally Posted by killercactus

I could always go with Preordain or even Ponder instead of Brainstorm - I forgot about it's restriction.

Force of Will is pretty sick. If I can get my hands on some, I will. Counterspell is restricted, right? I own 4x Cancel, but that costs 1 more mana. I used Spell Syphon in it's place as I expect to get quite a few Blue permanents down.

Preordain is amazing and un restricted. So, I would run 4x those.

Ponder is restricted as well.

Counterspell is un restricted.

Force of Will is $100.00 each, so like I said, only if you are serious.

If you want to look at a Mono Blue Merfolk base:

Counter/Disruption
Mana Leak x4
Counterspell x4
Spreading Seas x4

Draw
Pre Ordain x4
Brainstorm x1
Ponder x1

Creatures
Lord of Atlantas x4


You have room for 16 more creatures to fill in as you like. Let me know what your thoughts are.

[killercactus]

Yeah - if you go mono-blue, you lose the token creators so it makes sense to go Islandwalk and ditch drowner of secrets, too. Lord of Atlantis is obviously sick for that, though I don't own any. Other creatures to use would be stuff like Tideshaper Mystic (makes opponents lands into Islands) and Streambed Acquitects for more Islandwalk.

Merrow Reejerey also gives all Merfolk +1/+1, and let's you untapped a permanent everytime you play a Merfolk spell. 4x those would be awesome to untap lands to get ready for your counter spells.

[winonavampire]

Originally Posted by killercactus

Yeah - if you go mono-blue, you lose the token creators so it makes sense to go Islandwalk and ditch drowner of secrets, too. Lord of Atlantis is obviously sick for that, though I don't own any. Other creatures to use would be stuff like Tideshaper Mystic (makes opponents lands into Islands) and Streambed Acquitects for more Islandwalk.

Merrow Reejerey also gives all Merfolk +1/+1, and let's you untapped a permanent everytime you play a Merfolk spell. 4x those would be awesome to untap lands to get ready for your counter spells.

You could defiantly fill in with what you have. The way I build a deck is to put the absolute best 60 cards for the deck on paper. I ignore availability, price etc. Once I have a 60 card list I am happy with, I start looking at the cost to acquire the cards and then making substitutions if I can't afford/don't want to spend the money on a card.

Example, Force of Will is obviously amazing. In Deck list one, I would have FoWx4. When you start looking into FoW and see it costs $100.00, you might say, "FoW is obviously the best choice, but I need to find a replacement." Maybe you look at Foil, being another "free" counterspell.

Again, Force of Will is better, but Foil is a .$60 card instead of a $100.00 card.

Do this for everyone of your card selections and eventually, you will have a deck, that although is not exactly what you feel it should be, but is suitable.

[Mombo101]

Speaking of decks, since a few of my friends won't be playing in tonight's EDH league, and I really don't want to play some of the people solo (they are just bad players, and not in the good way, annoying bad). I think I'll build myself an extended legal deck while I'm there. Since I'm moving, I kind of want a few deck options since I'm not sure what the popular formats are in the area.

Here's the catch, I'm giving myself some restrictions.

1) I'm limited as to what I can purchase, only $5.
2) It can be either one or two colors. Not more.
3) It has to be built tonight.

Any thoughts and suggestions? I'm leaning toward U/B Faeries or Allies. Not sure though.

[winonavampire]

Originally Posted by Mombo101

Speaking of decks, since a few of my friends won't be playing in tonight's EDH league, and I really don't want to play some of the people solo (they are just bad players, and not in the good way, annoying bad). I think I'll build myself an extended legal deck while I'm there. Since I'm moving, I kind of want a few deck options since I'm not sure what the popular formats are in the area.

Here's the catch, I'm giving myself some restrictions.

1) I'm limited as to what I can purchase, only $5.
2) It can be either one or two colors. Not more.
3) It has to be built tonight.

Any thoughts and suggestions? I'm leaning toward U/B Faeries or Allies. Not sure though.

Hard to know with out knowing your card pool. I've seen allies do some crazy things, although personally, faeries fit my play style better.

[Dredd Stev]

Little off topic...

But I pulled my first ultra rear the other day! Also picked up the Dragons vs. Knights duel decks (which is FULL of SICK creatures!). I'm gonna do a mono green regen deck centered around this guy, just need some more trolls first...

[Mombo101]

Originally Posted by winonavampire

Hard to know with out knowing your card pool. I've seen allies do some crazy things, although personally, faeries fit my play style better.

To make it easier, let's just say about two years ago I got rid of all of my Magic, and I just most recently starting buying Mirrodin.

I'm going to see how far I can extend that $5. I don't have to worry about lands though, and from drafting I have a number of stuff from the new set(s), just not Zendikar or before.

I'm leaning towards Faeries, I play aggro a little too much and I think control would be a bit more fun.

[Mombo101]

Originally Posted by Dredd Stev

Little off topic...

But I pulled my first ultra rear the other day! Also picked up the Dragons vs. Knights duel decks (which is FULL of SICK creatures!). I'm gonna do a mono green regen deck centered around this guy, just need some more trolls first...

If you're focusing on a Standard deck, he's sadly literally the last troll.

If you're not, there's a ton of awesome trolls out there. But, honestly play W/G and play Charging troll. You won't be disappointed.

[winonavampire]

Originally Posted by Mombo101

To make it easier, let's just say about two years ago I got rid of all of my Magic, and I just most recently starting buying Mirrodin.

I'm going to see how far I can extend that $5. I don't have to worry about lands though, and from drafting I have a number of stuff from the new set(s), just not Zendikar or before.

I'm leaning towards Faeries, I play aggro a little too much and I think control would be a bit more fun.

Control is just so much fun. I wish I could play EDH tonight... I don't think anyone is available around here tho. And it being American Idol night, wifey is going to be busy