Modern Mayhem: GlubGlubGlub (Modern, Magic Online)
GlubGlubGlub! This week on Modern Mayhem I'll be piloting a Merfolk deck that was piloted to a 5-0 by MHayashi.
Gameplan
We're going to flood the board with a bunch of small blue creatures. Once we draw our lord effects in Lord of Atlantis and Master of the Pearl Trident those small little blue creatures will become massive and have Islandwalk!
But wait? What if they don't have islands in their deck? Don't worry! That's what we're here for. We have a card called Spreading Seas which will turn our opponent's land into an Island. This is even better when we get paired against decks like Tron or decks that have a greedy mana base!
Outside of that, we're going to just make sweet tempo plays like tapping down big threats or blockers with Merfolk Trickster and bouncing tapped creatures with Harbinger of the Tides.
Match Recaps
Round 1: Serum Powder Eldrazi 2-0 (W): I've run into this deck a fair amount of times at my LGS. I don't know how good Serum Powder is but it is a fun card to see. Game one was a quick one as we just got an Aether Vial on turn one and then flooded the board with a bunch of fish. They did have a scary Reality Smasher but we were able to bounce it back to their hand with Harbinger. We used a timely Echoing Truth to bounce their Smuggler's Copter before they got to block to close out. Game two was a bit slower as they sat behind a Matter Reshaper while our board was a little lackluster. A few turns later they played an Eldrazi Mimic. It does trigger me when I see Eldrazi Mimic as it's a reminder of darker times in the modern format but now it's a way more fair card. We bounced it and just closed out with Faerie Conclave and Mutavault.
Round 2: Hollow One 2-1 (W): We get demolished game one as we ended up having to use our friendly fish to block. We also could've countered a late game Faithless Looting which helped get a few threats into their yard but to be honest, our start was pretty slow so if we had countered the looting, maybe we get a turn or two before getting run over. Game two we made it a bit harder for the opponent as we got Relic of Progenitus and a ton of timely bounce and tap effects between Harbinger and Trickster. Game three was the merfolk game we like seeing where we cast a few Spreading Seas to keep the opponent off of black mana. This also meant our threats weren't blockable as we had a few Lord of Atlantis to close out.
Round 3: Green Artifacts 1-2 (L): This matchup feels bad as they generate so much mana and do too many things for us to keep up with. We were lucky to pull ahead game one as they ended up having Chalice of the Void on one and two but we already had an Aether Vial in play to carry our two drops through a Chalice. Game two was a bit brutal. We also learned the hard way that Surge Node can mess with our Vial counters. Game three they dropped a ton of artifacts. They had Spellskite to protect their Astral Cornucopia and eventually had so much mana they got to play a big Walking Ballista with tons of mana to continue to pick off all of our threats.
Round 4: Merfolk 2-1 (W): Well, I jinxed myself. I thought we wouldn't run into any other Merfolk players but we ended up doing just that. I was extremely happy though as my opponent and I had a super fun match. Game one we mirrored each other's moves, with me probably giving a few percentages game one by playing a Lord of Atlantis which pumped their Merfolk. Game two we pulled it back by just doing a bunch of chip damage with our board to see if we could get any profitable blocks but in the end it was decided by a timely Merfolk Trickster nullifying their anthem effect. Game three was another grind fest where we were behind on lands all match but we drew a few more ways to interact in Dismember, Harbinger of the Tides, and Merfolk Trickster. The match was decided by a nice combination of Trickster and Dismember as we were able to tap them down and remove their blocker. Throughout our match we had a bit of fun banter as my opponent said they didn't have anything out of their sideboard as they didn't expect to run into a mirror match and then we laughed. Great match.
Round 5: Grixis Shadow 2-0 (W): Luckily in this match, the opponent's deck does a bunch of damage to itself and island type lands means we didn't need to work too hard for Islandwalk. We were on the play so we dropped a Vial on turn one. They started off with cycling Street Wraith into Watery Grave untapped and Thoughtseized which meant they already dealt six damage to themselves. They followed this play up with an Inquisition of Kozilek. They seemed to be a little light on removal as we were able to sit on Master of the Trident Pearl for awhile while also being able to attack with Faerie Conclave. The game was decided when the opponent tried to Snapcaster Mage and Fatal Push after we used all of our luck to top deck a Deprive which gave the opponent no way to block our Mutavault that had a lord sitting behind it.
Game two we had the early Relic of Progenitus eating their graveyard while we used Spreading Seas on their Watery Grave to keep them off double black. They then exiled most of their graveyard to play Gurmag Angler which we bounced back with an Echoing Truth to clear the way to do more chip damage and eventually closing out with a Master of the Pearl Trident!
Conclusion
The deck still packs the punch it did a while back. I don't know if the deck misses Master of Waves or not but I felt like I didn't need it in the mainboard. The sideboard has four Tectonic Edge which I ended up never using but I assume it's for big mana decks which we didn't run into. Four does seem a bit excessive when your deck is filled with spells that are double blue. I might swap those out for something else like a few Negate but otherwise, the deck was quite smooth. If you're a fan of tribal decks and being filled with disruption and combat tricks, this deck is definitely worth a shot!
See you at the next one.
-TheAsianAvenger
