merfolk control

[corebay]

creatures
4x merfolk spy
4x merfolk sovereign
4x merfolk wayfinder
3x merfolk seastalkers
2x scroll thief
1x clone


instants
2x mana leak
2x unsummon
2x deprive
2x cancel
2x diminish

sorcery
3x tome scour
2x call to mind
2x sleep
1x rite of replication

enchantment
4x spreading seas
1x jaces erasure

land
4x halimar depths
15x island

this deck mills you while denyin you field control

fix and rate please cheers

[Dyce]

Looks like a pretty solid list, the mill seems a bit slow at least on paper but then as your denying people board position that may not be a major issue. I would consider playing Merfolk looter works well with the Jace's erasure, unless you are building a deck thats ready for the october rotation.

Thada Adel, Acquisitor probably isn't that great now but as we move towards the next block it could become more playable as people start playing crystal balls, sword of vengeance, and if the  Phylactery Lich deck becomes popular maybe consider as something for the sideboard

the rite of replication seems like fun tech but it always makes me think of Lullmage Mentor. It would be funny but I think he is probably just a little to fragile to play.

Oviously either Jace would be good in the deck (but then when isn't he ) and its trying to get them. I would be tempted to take the 2 deprives out for an extra manaleak and an extra cancel mainly because you don't have any acceleration and cant afford to fall behind really.

Against other  decks: I could see you having issues with fast decks like jund and dregevine (not that anyone has vengevines around here). RDW's will depend on if you can break their early game and hope not to mill unearth stuff and all the slow decks should have problems against this, but then alot of this is speculation how has the deck done so far?

[chairlord]

The first thing I would say about this deck is that I think it's a bit of a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none."

I don't think there's nearly enough mill cards in here to make the mill worth persuing, I'd personally just drop all the mill cards right off the bat. You have the makings of a nice solid fish deck here that will be pretty cheap to build and a blast to play with some tweaks.

Firstly, I looked at your mana. There's not enough, 19 lands will be nowhere near enough to service the needs of this deck, essentially you're playing a semi-control deck, and control decks really can't afford to miss mana drops.

The mana curve is currently not too bad, working out at 9 1-drops, 9 2-drops, 14 3-drops and 7 4-drops. Possibly a little heavy on the two drops, but perfectly playable, if the land numbers were right.

First change I would make would be to play 24 lands, playtest it a bit, but I'd be surprised if 24 isn't bang on for this kind of deck.

With this in mind I'd change the land make-up to the following.

• 16 Island
• 4 Halimar Depths
• 4 Fetch lands (either Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds or any combination of the two).

This leaves you with 36 slots, you want to play a combination of Merfolk and counters. I like the use of Spreading Seas and would say a good way to go would be to play a bunch of Islandwalking Merfolk, with the Spreading Seas you'll be nicely unblockable and can fend off your opponents plays with a load of counters.

I'll continue this on another post as I'm starting to lose track.

[chairlord]

Okay, so after a bit of thought and Gatherer research I think I have a list that's pretty cheap to assemble and fun to play.

I think there's a good Islandwalk & Flyers theme you can persue here, and this is what I'd do to build it.

Firstly, I'll cover what I scrubbed from your list.

• Merfolk Spy: While one blue mana for a 1/1 Islandwalker with a peek ability is actually kinda awesome, I really don't think the peek helps you that much. With this deck you can keep it pretty simple, if it's a threat to you or your fish counter it, if not, so what. The advantage of seeing what's coming doesn't really help that much.
• Scroll Thief: You're not going to be able to attack with this until turn 4 at the earliest, with no evasion he's just too easily blockable at this point, or too easily boltable. Plenty of other ways for card draw, including the awesome new one in M11 that can be used in your opponent's end step.
• Merfolk Wayfinder: No, no, no. This thing sucks. You really don't want to be essentially milling your own counters to the bottom of your library.
• Unsummon: I would drop the two of these in favour of two extra Diminish, much better to shrink your opponents Baneslayer and kill it with one of your fish than simply bounce it only to have it bother you another turn. Sure, you could bounce and counter, but then you've used two cards to kill one.
• Deprive: This deck is going for the long game win, putting you back a land drop will be more of a hindrance than a help, Mana Leak and Cancel should be adequate for all your counter needs. If someone is playing something agressive like RDW you can always sideboard out Cancel for Negate to have a cheaper way to counter their burn.
• Tome Scour: Dropped the mill.
• Call To Mind: I'd probably have this in the sideboard for the mirror match-up. Those extra counters you can pull back may give you the edge.
• Sleep: With all the Islandwalkers and few flyers that will be in here there should be plenty of evasion, so you can afford to drop Sleep.
• Rite of Replication: Yeah this thing is kinda cool, I wouldn't be upset if you decided to drop one of any other card to put this back in, down to personal preference this one. I only dropped it mainly because it's a one-of and won't appear consistently enough.
• Jace's Erasure: While I'm sure Jace has an excellent collection of Erasure records, you don't need them in this deck. (If anyone doens't get this reference, ask your parents. )

Next post, what I'd put in.

[chairlord]

Okay, stuff I'd put in or stuff that was there already and you should keep. Starting with the creatures, then the other spells.

• 2 Coralhelm Commander: For two blue mana to start and only one colourless to level this guy is awesome, gains flying, pumps all your other fish, what's not to like? I would probably play four of these, but since you had the Merfolk Sovereign in your original list I assume you already have some of those and it will save you money. So in this case, two of these should suffice.
• 2 Merfolk Sovereign: Similar kind of thing to the Coralhelm but doesn't need levelling, keeps your mana open for counters instead.
• 2 Stormtide Leviathan: GIANT FIIIIIIISH! This thing is quite literally, a monster. Makes all of your opponents lands Islands and builds you an Island Sanctuary, but with none of the no-draw downsides! This is your bomb, you've got enough to win without it, but every deck needs a big bomb. This is yours. There are many bombs like it, but this one is yours.
• Enclave Elite: 3 mana for a 2/2 Islandwalker is pretty respectable, the bonus is if you're playing this later in the game it can be much, much meaner. I love scalable cards like this.
• 3 Merfolk Seastalkers: At 4 mana they fit nicely into the curve and there tap down ability is pretty useful, particularly as it can be used multiple times as long as you have the mana.
• 1 Clone: I assume you already have one, so I kept it in. Late in the game clone the Leviathan and watch your opponent scoop. Early on copy the Coralhelm Commander, or the Soveriegn or whatever is causing your opponent the most problems.

Next, spells.

[chairlord]

Okay, spells as follows:

• 4 Mana Leak: I think this one's pretty obviously an auto four-of. Trade for them, buy them, do whatever you have to within the bounds of the law and good taste to get a set.
• 4 Cancel: Again, pretty self explanatory.
• 4 Diminish: This is better than Unsummon IMO, and therefore a four of. I like this card a lot in this deck.
• 4 Spreading Seas: You're not going to manage to drop the Leviathan every game, so Spreading Seas gives you the sneaky way to deal lots of unblockable damage, and a card, which is always nice.
• 3 Jace's Ingenuity: 5 mana might seem expensive, but by the time you want to top your hand up you shuold have 5 mana. The fact it's an Instant just makes it awesome, keep your mana open for counters during their turn and then if they do nothing use this in their end step to top your hand up with all the fish and counters you can muster.
• 2 Into The Roil: For when you really have to bounce a pesky Planeswalker or the like back, also lets you draw a card, which is nice.

• 1 Crystal Ball: Library manipulation is awesome, therefore Scry is awesome, therefore Crystal Ball is awesome. That is all.

Well thats my thoughts anyway, obviously, feel free to dismiss them if you like.

Full deck list for reference:

• 16 Island
• 4 Halimar Depths
• 4 Fetch Lands

24 Lands

• 2 Coralhelm Commander
• 2 Merfolk Sovereign
• 2 Stormtide Leviathan
• 4 Enclave Elite
• 3 Merfolk Seastalkers
• 1 Clone

14 Creatures

• 4 Mana Leak
• 4 Cancel
• 4 Diminish
• 4 Spreading Seas
• 3 Jace's Ingenuity
• 2 Into the Roil
• 1 Crystal Ball

22 Spells[/list]

[corebay]

ok so the list i put up was a quick put together lastnite and not doin to much research after looking at your suggestions i really like where your goin with it so iv put the cards i had of the list in i havent got about 10 of them so ill be goin to mfm tomorrow to see if i cant get any of them out of personal preference iv mad room for rite of relication i know its not gunna get played alot but wen it does imagin the field pay 9 get 5 tokens of i dunno say ............... stormtide leviathan :O lolz  do this with clone and thts maybe 7-8 of them on the field i personal think lvl creatures are abit slow i may be wrong so ill give them a go i do like its effect

[chairlord]

Fair enough on the Rite of Replication, 5 copies of Stormtide Leviathan will certainly make your opponent think twice, or probably just scoop!

Let me know when it's built as I'd love to see how it plays.

[corebay]

ill be in tomoz m8 around 12-1 if your in we can have a couple of games

[corebay]

ok so after play testing this deck it looks like ity could be a fairly good deck need abit more work tho this is how it stands at the moment

16 Island
4 Halimar Depths
2 Fetch Lands

22 Lands


2 Coralhelm Commander
2 Merfolk Sovereign
2 Stormtide Leviathan
4 Enclave Elite
3 Merfolk Seastalkers


13 Creatures


4 Mana Leak
4 Cancel
4 negate
4 Spreading Seas
3 Jace's Ingenuity
2 Into the Roil
1 Crystal Ball
1 leyline of anticipation (i think i might put this up to 2 its amazin with all the counter)
1 rite of replication

spells 24

planeswalker

1 jace beleren ( needs to go to 2)

anyone got any ideas or think of better cards let me know

[corebay]

the decks not perfect come on guys help a brother out

[Anduril135]

well in my opinion i would drop the stormtide leviathan for frost titan as you get some crowd control on your opponents creatures.

[chairlord]

well in my opinion i would drop the stormtide leviathan for frost titan as you get some crowd control on your opponents creatures.

But it's not a GIANT FISH!

[chairlord]

Also, the Leviathan is awesome crowd control. Only flyers and islandwalkers can attack when it's out. It's like a Moat with a face, and gills.

[Anduril135]

Thats true but its a huge cost and with no mana ramp in the deck its not as good as frost titan with its smaller cost. I would also consider if ou are going to keep the giant bass wall of frost as a stall for bringing in your catch of the day.