In this week’s Unlocking Legacy, we’ll look at a breakdown of Legacy’s newest decks, Merfolk. The little blue men have recently come onto the scene, thanks to some powerful new cards that amp up the power level of the archetype. This is a column for the stats-lovers, because I compiled a breakdown of the most common cards in the deck from Top 8s all over the world to bring you a Frankensteinian amalgamation of cards to form the true composite Merfolk deck. My selection criteria were to look for decks that made a Top 8 in a tournament of at least 25 people in 2009. That ensured lists that were both current and performing well. With those standards, I found 27 decks that fit the bill.
For those who haven’t had the pleasure of playing the Little Blue Men, the deck functions in many ways like the aggro-control decks we’ve seen throughout the history of Magic. They might lead the first turn with a Cursecatcher or Aether Vial, then play a Mutavault and a Standstill on their second turn. When you break that Standstill with your Dark Confidant, they draw three and then peel off a Daze to stop your creature from resolving. Their Cursecatcher stops any Daze coming out of your hand, and you start getting pounded quickly by a Lord of Atlantis and plus-size Mutavault. The game ends with you feeling shamed for losing to “a stupid Merfolk deck.”
Let’s take a look at the creatures we’re likely to encounter from a Merfolk deck. The most common were, by [number of decks running them/total number of decks]:
Merrow Reejerey 27/27
Lord of Atlantis 27/27
Cursecatcher 27/27
Silvergill Adept 27/27
Wake Thrasher 18/27
Tidal Warrior 18/27
Cold-eyed Selkie 7/27
Tarmogoyf 7/27
The first thing I noticed about this list is that these Merfolk were almost exclusively “new” Merfolk, from Lorwyn and beyond. This shows the affect of a recent set on the format to the tune of revitalizing an archetype, which is pretty cool. Cursecatcher is an unimpressive guy, but he helps the combo match and can randomly pop out of Aether Vial to foul up a big spell. It’s better than Manta Riders, the traditional card for the spot. Silvergill Adept is also a ho-hum card, but a free bear that fills out the mana curve is acceptable.
The lords are really what turn up Merfolk’s power. Lord of Atlantis has a suitably lordly Islandwalk, which means you don’t have to worry about your creatures dying to the larger beasts that commonly roam Legacy. It’s the glue that makes the deck and is the most important card in it. Merrow Reejerey is also quite nice; although you’ll be using its tap-down ability only on your turn, and only if you pay retail for your spells (no Vial tricks here!), it can be handy for stopping problem blockers against an opponent with no Islands. The two lords combine to make sure Merfolk get their damage in early and powerfully, and are universally run as 4-ofs.
I was surprised at the number of Tidal Warriors that popped up, averaging three per deck. They’re a one-drop that can let Lord of Atlantis do his thing, and they also handily shut down special lands that the opponent may run. They can stop an opposing animated Mishra’s Factory from pumping itself, nullify a Kor Haven or Maze of Ith, or prevent an opponent’s Tropical Island from making Green mana. It’s not a glamorous creature (none in Merfolk really are) but it is a role-player that lets other cards shine while slowing an opponent.
Wake Thrasher was also widely accepted, with most players running a pair of them. Thrasher can be a serious pounder in the midgame, easily becoming an 8/8 Thing That Must Be Dealt With every turn. Alongside Reejerey, it can deal massive unavoidable damage. Because Merfolk operates on a low curve, it makes sense to run only two Wake Thrashers so they don’t get mired in the hand when one would rather use mana to attack with Mutavault or toss Wastelands at the opponent.
A few players opted to run Tarmogoyf or Cold-Eyed Selkie (mostly in lieu of Standstill). Tarmogoyf is definitely good at what he does, but with Back to Basics on many sideboards, I think Merfolk players wanted to avoid the nonbo of Tropical Island with the Blue Enchantment. Merfolk is also a “budget” deck, easily built by people who play other formats, so card access issues might have mattered as well. That brings us to conclude that it’s not a necessary card for the deck by any stretch. Some players did flirt with Selkie, though. With a Lord on the table, Selkie plays her best Arcanis impersonation every turn, but I think most players couldn’t find the space for it or felt that Standstill was simply better at doing its job.
Next, let’s look at the support spells common in Merfolk:
Force of Will 27/27
Daze 27/27
Standstill 23/27
Stifle 16/27
Umezawa’s Jitte 10/27
Players agree that Force of Will and Daze, often along with Stifle, form a core counter suite in Merfolk. Cursecatcher gets an honorable mention here, as it can, with Daze, foul up a lot of careful mana math and result in tempo and card advantage for the Merfolk player. Almost all players also ran Standstill. Essentially, Standstill is there to put pressure on the opponent by forcing them to play spells when they don’t want to or give you unimpeded attacks and draws. It’s great in the early game when following an Aether Vial, Mutavault or Tidal Warrior, ensuring that you can apply pressure to the opponent and assure that they’ll be the one breaking the Standstill. Its early strengths make up for it being quite poor when drawn off the top later in the game if the Merfolk player is behind.
Several players have chosen to run Umezawa’s Jitte alongside their Merfolk. One contact with the Equipment means that a Merfolk player can compete with larger creatures on the board, and it’s a great trump to have in the deck if the Merfolk player is facing down Tombstalkers or Phyrexian Dreadnoughts. It’s a lord effect that cannot be removed by creature-sweepers, and I’m frankly surprised that more players were not supporting the Jitte.
We’ll now turn our attention to the mana accelerators and lands:
Aether Vial 26/27
Wasteland 23/27
Mutavault 22/27
Decks with Islands and no Fetchlands 15/27
Decks with Fetchlands and Islands 12/27
Aether Vial offers up awkward combat math when it’s set at two or three, potentially offering a Reejerey or Lord to produce favorable trades on the battlefield. It also frees up mana for Mutavault and lets a player utilize Wasteland without fear of running out of mana on their own. It slips creatures through Counterbalance and Force of Will. I suggest leaving them at two until you have a reason to move them to three, such as another Aether Vial showing up.
Wasteland and Mutavault also showed up, averaging three copies each. Interesting that they aren’t maxed out to four copies! I assume that most players felt that they needed the two extra lands to be Islands to ensure a critical mass of Blue producers. Many decks chose to run no fetchlands, as the life loss from the land overwhelms the deck thinning benefit when there’s no Brainstorm in the deck. Five players without Tropical Islands opted for the Fetchlands anyway, which I think opens one needlessly to Stifle ruining the day. Those with only Islands ran an average of 13, while those with fetchlands ran an average of 7 Islands, usually with 3 Tropical Islands and 4 regular Islands.
These numbers leave us with the following composite maindeck:
Creatures (21)
Lands (6)
Spells (33)
But that’s only sixty cards. Let’s take a look at sideboards to see the most common accompaniments, knowing that there will be markedly less cohesiveness to the choices. The most common cards were:
Relic of Progenitus 23/27 (avg 3)
Blue Elemental Blast/Hydroblast 19/27 (avg 4)
Umezawa’s Jitte 13/27 (avg 2)
Back to Basics 13/27 (avg 3)
Echoing Truth 10/27 (avg 2)
Tormod’s Crypt 6/27 (avg 3)
We’ve got the usual assortment of Goblins/Burn hate, graveyard hate, and something to give control decks fits. Relic of Progenitus shrinks Tarmogoyfs and stops long-term control recursion with Crucible of Worlds, as well as the obvious application against Loam and Dredge strategies. I think it’s fine to scale back on the anti-control cards, as the Lords and Islandwalk help Merfolk enough against Blue decks already. There’s no anti-combo cards, as Merfolk is preboarded against combo decks already (and has been for a long time; remember Labarre’s performance against so many Academy decks in ’98?). Back to Basics is a good way to annoy Counterbalance-based strategies that might otherwise slow the onslaught of Merfolk. Meanwhile, Echoing Truth and Jitte can make faster aggro decks play at Merfolk’s speed. I’d likely pack a sideboard such as this:
4 Hydroblast
3 Back to Basics
4 Relic of Progenitus
2 Echoing Truth
2 Metagame slots
Also making appearances were Propaganda, Divert, Threads of Disloyalty, Mind Harness, and Chill. I don’t feel like any of these are really that strong, and I’d probably look to more Stifles or Seasinger if I didn’t know what else to fill out my sideboard with.
Merfolk is powerful deck to play, easy to learn, and inexpensive to build. It’s positioned to explode in the Legacy metagame because of its versatility. I’ve added it to my testing gauntlet and I suggest players prepare against the deck as well. I think it’s a deck that one can Top 8 with reliably, but I also rarely saw it in the first-place slot. This may be inherent to the randomness of Legacy, but it may also reflect the weaknesses the deck faces against other powerful strategies like Survival of the Fittest or Life from the Loam strategies.
I have but two small improvements that I would make to Merfolk. The first involves getting the most out of your Wake Thrasher. With most decks running a big grip of Islands, cutting one for a Minamo, School at Water’s Edge makes sense to me. The reason to do this is that you can untap Minamo with itself, effectively giving your Wake Thrasher blue Firebreathing. While it makes you slightly worse to Wastelands, you’ll see those pointed at your Mutavaults over Minamo 100% of the time anyway. Think of it as the singleton Pendelhaven that pops up in so many Green lists. If you run Sygg (either Light Side or Dark Side) as some lists do, it gets a little more utility.
The second change would be adding two Mirrorweave to the maindeck. We’ve learned from Standard that eight lords in a deck plus Mirrorweave makes for some seriously good adventures. Imagine the following scenario. You’re playing against Threshold and it’s turn 4. You’re attacking with a Cursecatcher, a Tidal Warrior and a Silvergill Adept into an opponent’s Tarmogoyf. Naturally, they choose to block and kill your Silvergill Adept, but your Mirrorweave makes everything copy Tarmogoyf, preserving your creature and serving your opponent for at least eight damage. Mirrorweave could make that same Tarmogoyf into a Silvergill Adept itself, removing the monster from the board. It can similarly scale back Progenitus and Phyrexian Dreadnought. With a Lord in play, three creatures can deal twelve damage on their own, with a fourth being lethal. While you often won’t get to make big Lord-based alpha strikes with Mirrorweave, it lets you upgrade your two Merfolk on board into Tombstalkers to end the game, or Fog the opponent’s attackers with an animated Mutavault. It gives the deck an element of tactical complexity, unexpectedness and reach that may be enough to push it to total stardom. I’m unsure whether the mana used for Mirrorweave isn’t better spent just animating a Mutavault at this point, so if someone has tried Mirrorweave extensively, I’d certainly appreciate feedback on it!
Thanks for joining me this week on a pun-free exploration of the Merfolk archetype!
Until next week…