Merfolk Update

I decided to finally post a decklist of Merfolk in its current state. It's pretty much what I've been talking about all along but with a few cards added in after Alara Reborn's release.

Merlark 2.0

Creatures:

3 x Cursecatcher

4 x Merrow Reejerey
3 x Reveillark
3 x Mirror Entity

4 x Silvergill Adept

2 x Sower of Temptation

3 x Stonybrook Banneret

3 x Meddling Mage
3 x Sygg, River Guide

Other Spells:

3 x Sage's Dousing
3 x Path to Exile

3 x Cryptic Command

Land:

4 x Adarkar Wastes

1 x Faerie Conclave

5 x Island

4 x Mutavault

3 x Mystic Gate

2 x Plains

4 x Wanderwine Hub

Sideboard:

2 x Flashfreeze

2 x Glen Elendra Archmage

2 x Jace Beleren

4 x Burrenton Forge-Tender

2 x Celestial Purge

3 x Wispmare

The main changes to the deck consist of the addition of three Meddling Mage and a little tweaking of the sideboard for the post-regionals meta. Since everybody and their mother seems to be running BW tokens lately I decided to add Wispmare to my sideboard because of the abundance of bitterblossoms and Glorious Anthems in the current meta. I also added a couple Flashfreeze to the side because of the ridiculous Bloodbraid Elf that is going to be making Jund decks much more powerful.

You may be asking yourself why I'm running Mirror Entity instead of Wake Thrasher. The answer is simple: It's BETTER!. Wake Thrasher is able to buff itself without using up any of your resources but the versatility of Mirror Entity is much better for a deck like this. Can a wake thrasher save your entire board from a Volcanic Fallout? Can Wake Thrasher make your entire team Merfolk? Can Wake Thrasher let you pump your entire team at the same time? I didn't think so.. It's true that Wake Thrasher is a good card, I'm just not convinced it's better than Mirror Entity. That's pretty much all I have to say about this deck that hasn't already been said. Let me know what you think!

(Links & pictures provided by Mtgfanatic and Wizards of the Coast Inc. respectively)

Favorite EDH generals

Right now I'm playing an Esper EDH deck with Sharuum the Hegemon as my general. I guess I just have a thing for artifacts. I'm also building a deck around the popular general; Momir Vig, Simic Visionary. He is incredible with some of the new hybrid cards that have come out in the last couple sets and provides insane card advantage. I'm thinking of making a mostly creature deck with decent abilities so that after you play Momir, pretty much everything you get after that will trigger his ability. Also cheap hybrid cards such as Slippery Bogle will trigger both abilities because of how they are put on the stack. This means that any hybrid card is a tutor for any other creature in your deck. (Let me know if I am mistaken in this regard please!) Should be fun and I will post a decklist as soon as I get done! What generals are you using in your EDH decks and what is your favorite?

(Pictures and links provided by Wizards of the Coast Inc)

Card of the Day: Wall of Denial

When I was opening up my packs for the Alara Reborn two headed giant prerelease I happened on this card and was very pleased to see that it fit into the esper deck that I was currently constructing. It is a pretty powerful card because of its relatively low cost and powerful abilities. It is also somewhat abusable though not as much as yesterday's card (Path to Exile). It only has one big drawback: defender. But since it is a 0/8 it really wouldn't be that much better of a card without it. It's also hard to remove because of shroud so unless they counter it when you play it, its most likely not going anywhere.

Strengths
-Low mana cost (CMC=3)
-8 Toughness
-Flying
-Shroud (Doesn't die to path :):):))

Weaknesses
-0 Power
- Defender (though as mentioned before there is little this card could do even if it could shed this ability)

Ways to Abuse:
-Reveillark- This card can be brought back with your lark and it fits with the coloration of most popular Lark decks
-Play early against pretty much any aggro deck in the current meta and they will have a hard time getting past it

Overall a very fun card to play and I'm glad I managed to get it in one of my packs during the prerelase (saved my ass more than once!)

(Picture Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast inc.)

Updated "Artifatties" Decklist

Artifatties!

Creatures:
1 x Grim Poppet
1 x Platinum Angel
1 x Scarecrone
1 x Inkwell Leviathan
4 x Master Transmuter
4 x Merfolk Looter
4 x Tidehollow Sculler
1 x Magister Sphinx
1 x Sharuum the Hegemon
4 x Sphinx Summoner


Other Spells:
4 x Mind Stone
3 x Sculpting Steel
4 x Thousand-Year Elixir
3 x Makeshift Mannequin
2 x Tezzeret the Seeker


Land:
3 x Island
2 x Mystic Gate
3 x Reflecting Pool
2 x Sunken Ruins
4 x Arcane Sanctum
4 x Vivid Creek
2 x Vivid Marsh
2 x Vivid Meadow


Added the Makeshift Mannequins back in because they are more consistent than running just scarecrone. 2 more sculping steels got added into the mix because they are extremely versitile cards when paired with the Transmuter. It basically adds three more of each non-land card to the deck. Updated the mana base a little and added Tezzerets to the mix because he strengthens the deck considerably. Still needs some work as far as spot removal and aggro control but its getting there!

(Links and picture provided by MTGfanatic.com)

Artifatties!

As I opened my Conflux booster box I opened several ( 3 in fact) Master Transmuters and thought that her ability would be extremely fun to build around. Shortly after I managed to get distracted by a building my Druids! and Merfolk decks ( see earlier posts) and forgot all about the idea. Sometime later I happened upon an article on the Wizards website talking about a budget version of the deck I had already been thinking about making. I decided it was time to build the deck and after purchasing the cards that make up the main engine of the deck I decided to try and take it a few steps further. I made the mana base smaller and more efficient (though much more expensive) as well as adding more fatties from Conflux and Shards. I then proceeded to troll the Alara Reborn spoiler in search of cards from the upcoming set that would make the deck even more fun when the new set came out. Here is what I have right now:

Creatures:
4 Master Transmuter
4 Merfolk Looter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Plumeveil
4 Sphinx Summoner
1 Sharuum the Hegemon
1 Sen Triplets ( Alara Reborn)
1 Filigree Angel ( Alara Reborn)
1 Ethersworn Adjudicator
1 Platinum Angel
1 Scarecrone
1 Grim Poppet
1 Magister Sphinx
1 Inkwell Leviathan

Other Spells:
4 Thousand-Year Elixir
4 Mindstone
2 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Sculpting Steel

Lands:
3 Reflecting Pool
2 Vivid Marsh
4 Vivid Creek
2 Vivid Meadow
4 Arcane Sanctum
2 Sunken Ruins
2 Mystic Gate
3 Island

I'm not sure how stable the deck is in its current form and I'm still messing around with the creatures and numbers of cards right now so please feel free to give me suggestions! The way the deck works is by getting your Thousand-Year Elixir and Master Transmuter into play and then use the Sphinx Summoner to tutor up whatever you need for the situation you are currently in. Merfolk Looter is another key utility card because it thins your deck out quickly to get your key cards into play faster.

I decided to take out the Makeshift Mannequins that were originally in the deck in favor or Scarecrone because it has the potential to be better in most match ups (especially against control). Scarecrone is especially good with Sharuum because you can tap four colorless and tap it to return Sharuum and with its ability on the stack tap one colorless and sac it to draw a card returning both it and Sharuum to play and gaining valuable card advantage in the process. Inkwell Leviathan is amazing because once you transmute it into play it is nearly unstoppable (save for a Wrath). Filigree Angel is going to be fun because you can pop it in and out of play with your Transmuter gaining 3x the number of artifacts you control of life each time! Sen triplets is just plain good against control decks because even if they try and bounce or path it you can just use your Transmuter to keep it in play!

The deck stands up pretty well against any spot removal because you can just use your Transmuter to bounce things in and out of play (including itself!) causing your opponent's removal spells to fizzle on resolution because of a lack of valid targets. I'm also thinking of trying to replace something with Glassdust Hulk (Alara Reborn) because it has awesome synergy with Master Transmuter and the rest of this deck. I might end up putting Sen Triplets in the sideboard for control matchups and replacing it with Glassdust Hulk in the main deck. The sideboard isn't complete so any thoughts on that would be appreciated as well! The rest is pretty self explanatory and it is an extremely fun deck to play and tweak! Please let me know if you have any ideas about how to make the deck better or just more efficient!

(Pictures Courtesy of Coolstuff.com, diver.com & trollandtoad.com)

Bear Down!

So I was bored and a little slap happy after trying to finish a paper for one of my classes this evening (or morning..whichever you prefer!) and I decided to make a blue/red "Bear Down!" deck in honor of the University of Arizona being so awesome...

Creatures:
4 Taurean Mauler
4 Mothdust Changeling
4 Fire-belly Changeling
4 Shapesharer
4 Amoeboid Changeling
4 Turtleshell Changeling
3 Changeling Beserker
1 Mistform Ultimus

Other Spells:
4 Wings of Velis Vel
4 Blades of Velis Vel

Lands:
10 Island
10 Mountain
4 Mutavault

The basic goal of this deck is to get as many bears into play as possible, buff the bears with spells and attack with the bears. A deck of this caliber needs no more explaination

PTQ Ravinity

Here is the decklist for the Ravinity deck I've chosen to run in this saturday's Pro Tour Qualifyier tournament in Mesa, Az:

Creatures:
4 Ornithopter
4 Arcbound Worker
4 Arcbound Ravager
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Frogmite
3 Master of Etherium

Non-Creature Artifacts:
4 Cranial Plating
4 Chromatic Star
4 Springleaf Drum

Other Spells:
4 Thoughtcast
3 Soul's Fire

Lands:
4 Ancient Den
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers
4 Great Furnace
2 Blinkmoth Nexus

Sideboard:
3 Thoughtseize
3 Relic of Progenitus
3 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Ancient Grudge
2 Path to Exile
1 Krark-Clan Shaman

This is not by any means an original idea but I tailored the deck to fit my purposes and it is a blast to play!

Fixing Merfolk

Originally I built my merfolk deck along the same lines as my druid deck; quick to hit but little defense. When I decided to run this deck at last weeks Friday Night Magic tournament I added in some control and mill cards to give me more options mid and late game. I added 2 Remove Soul, 2 Negate, 2 Coordinated Barrage, 3 Drowner of Secrets. I kept 2 or 3 Judge of Currents in the main deck just in case and he was a welcome sight against several Red/Green Beatdown variants. I also added in 2 Silvergill Dousers to keep cards like Chameleon Colossus at bay until I could manage to overrun them with tokens or mill them out. A couple games I managed to mill my opponents deck down without the addition of Grimoire Thief (which I forgot to add in before leaving my apartment :S). Oblivion Ring seemed to be the card of the night and I spent most of my negates trying to keep my Drowners and Merrow Reejerey in play. All in all my favorite card of the night was Mirrorweave. It saved my hide countless times especially against aggro decks. I would just wait until they swung out with all of their 3/3s and bigger, Mirrorweave one of my tokens and wipe their side of the board by blocking with my tokens. A perfect example of how good this card really is happened during the last match of the night:

I have a ~5 1/1 tokens, a Douser, Drowner, and two Merrow Commerce out and I'm trying to mill my opponent before he has time to beat me down with red/green goblins. I'm staring down the business ends of two Boartusk Lieges and a Boggart Ram-Gang who looked mighty hungry and my Merfolk seemed to be on the menu. A quick check of my hand showed a shiny Mirrorweave and enough mana to play it. I checked my side of the board and then his. I did some mental math estimating I needed to stall him for just one more turn to be able to mill him out. As I figured he turns his board sideways declaring that he was attacking me with everything he had. I quickly tapped four and Mirrorweaved my Douser and tapped 3 of my creatures to reduce their enemy's power to zero. I then waited for him to finish his turn and for my creatures to return to normal. After untapping, tapping to mill, untapping for one of my Commerce, re-tapping to mill, untapping for the other Commerce, re-tapping to mill again I had just enough to mill him out.

To make a long story even longer adding control elements to the deck went a long way towards increasing its effectiveness and resilience. Even though my record wasn't the greatest (2 Wins-2 Losses-1 Tie) I was very pleased with the performance of the deck in it's current form and with my play throughout the night. I will add "before" and "after" decklists when I get home tonight!