Start typing a card name and use the auto-complete feature to quickly select the card you're trying to add. Enter a quantity and add that card to your sideboard!
Submit a list of cards below to bulk import them all into your sideboard. Post one card per line using a format like "4x Birds of Paradise" or "1 Blaze", you can even enter just the card name by itself like "Wrath of God" for single cards.
Here is my challenge. Have a month off of work before going back to college. Going to make Creature/Subtype decks, and face them off against each other. 2 decks from each color as well as 2 artifacts decks will be in the tournament. Green: Elf deck and Beast deck.Blue: Fairy deck and Merfolk deck.White: Angel deck and Human deck.Red: Goblin deck and Kobold deck.Black: Vampire deck and Zombie deck. Artifact deck: Myr deck and Thopter deck.Each deck will face all of the other decks one time. The deck that has the best record out of 11 games, is the winner.So, whom is the best? Goblins? Elves? Humans? Myrs? My wife wanted to choice a creature type...So first deck of the Creature Challenge is going to be Merfolk!
True-Name Nemesis. My win condition. There is a reason he is 25 dollars a card. Ways to win with Merfolk and Nemesis:Speed= I have 12 cards that let me draw cards and I have 3 cards that provide mana ramp. With drawing cards and mana ramp, any new players reading this, it gives you speed and ability to keep cards in your hand. Group Power= I have 10 creatures that give all my other creatures +1/+1 counters. Versatility=1) I can have Cursecatcher counter a Instant/sorcery my opponent may cast. 2) I have Merfolk Sovereign that can make an opponent unblockable. 3) Merrow Reejerey can tap/untap target permanent each time I cast out a Merfolk.Bounce/Counterspell= Your other Merfolk, that are not True-Name Nemesis are easy to kill. So are your lands easy to kill. So I added in protection with Boomerang and Counterspell. Boomerang can even bounce True-Name Nemesis to my hand if they do find a way to kill him off. What do you think, does the Merfolk deck have a chance at being champion?
This deck has been viewed 1,686 times.
So...ideal game/turn system would be: Turn 1. Play Island. Play Sandbar Merfolk. Turn 2. Play Island. Play Atlantis. Attack for 2.Turn 3. Play Island. Play True-Name Nemesis. Attack for 4.Turn 4. Play Island. Play High Tide. Play Sovereign and Reejerey. Attack for 8. Turn 5. Play Island. At this point, on Turn 5. Your Sandbar Merfolk is 4/4. Your Lord of Atlantis is a 4/4. Your Sovereign is a 4/4. Your Reejerey is a 4/4, and your True-Name Nemesis is 6/4 that can not be blocked. Total Potential damage on end of Turn 5 is: 36 damage.
Permalink
Question, since I already have enough pump for my True-Name Nemesis...should I take out the Enchantments and run 3 counterspells and 3 boomerangs to add extra protection to Nemesis? He isn't 100 percent kill proof. Counterspell and Boomerang makes the deck more versatile and protects Nemesis. Help out, guys! Too late with Counterspell and Boomerang. I added them in. I considered that the Enchantments were overkill, and that Counterspell/Boomerang adds in control...which is key to representing the color Blue.
I wish that I knew mire about good legacy merfolk. such a fun creature type. But, I shall try to be as helpful as I can.
Here is the deal, i haven't went and searched out good legacy decks. I just did search for "Blue" and "Merfolk" and came out with 176 cards.http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Search/Default.aspx?action=advanced&subtype=+[%22Merfolk%22]&color=+[U]I searched through them and found, to me, what I thought were awesome cards. Then I made a deck. Going to do the same thing with all of the other decks in the challenge. Plus, since the deck is blue...I tried to keep with idea of what Blue represents: trickery, card advantage, creatures that are hard to block. Any help would be appreciated, Kazzong. By the way, you are right, it is a fun creature type, with high quality cards to choose from. Almost every card in this deck is rated 4 out of 5 stars.
ok... so way back when I first got onto MTGvault, I posted a merfolk deck. in fact it was the first deck that I uploaded. I asked for comments and advice, and there was someone on here who posted some really good tips on doing a good merfolk deck. so perhaps you could look in the comments section on that deck. It is called Merfolk counters all. and I will link it here just to make it easier to find... (although it isn't hard seeing as how it is at the very end of the list.) http://www.mtgvault.com/kazzong/decks/merfolk-counters-all/it is W/U merfolk, and it is ok I guess, all the "good" cards in it are blue and would fit your requirements here, so if you can find anything useful in it as well as the comments, great. :) If not, oh well. the comment section will probably help you out WAY more than actually looking at the deck. :)
Thanks for the advice. I am doing a Beast deck next.
Nice strategy - that's what I use!This deck is SO awesome, nice work.Oh, please mainboard Storybrook Banneret.
Storybrook Banneret...that is the one card i must of added/removed from the deck about 3 times. Finally decided against her for this reason...my low mana curve. All of my cards are 3 mana or less. If I were running a lot more cards that cost a lot of mana, then I might consider Banneret more seriously.But you are right, Storybrook Banneret rocks!!! Nice advice, thanks!
Beasts I know a bit better. I can give way more actual help with that :)
May I humbly suggest that you do a treefolk deck?
Later, I will indeed try. Got 12 decks to build and have a touney with.
Maybe the best Merfolk deck that I've ever seen. Great choice to be the competitor for Merfolks.
Beast deck next. For green. Fast, cheap spell creatures, trample, pump up spells, land search.
Sounds good.
Done with #2. Now, Deck 3 will be Angel. Deck 4 will be Vampire. Deck 5 will be Elf.
seas's claim might be good idea so u make sure opponent has an island. if u have lord of atlantis out all your creatures become unblockable
And that's why Merfolk rock.
VERY straight forward indeed. If this sets the bar for the other decks, then I understand why you insisted to make the Beast deck so weenie-ish. And True-Name Nemesis is such a ridiculous card, it basically carries this deck on his own. Anyway, I don't see the use of High Tide in this. It gives you one extra mana on turn three. But on turn 3 you want to play the Nemesis, what would you do with that extra mana, cast a 1/1 Merfolk? That's not worth throwing away a card. On turn 4 High Tide would net you 2 extra mana, however, this presumes that you drew 4 Islands and then what are you gonna do with 6 mana? I mean, your mana curve ends at 3 - you have probably already emptied your hand.This deck drops a creature every turn and then tries to protect what it has in order to ride a Nemesis or a horde of boosted Merfolk to victory. Daze helps with this plan because the first 3 turns are the ciritcal ones where you can't protect the creatures you play. But your opponent will most likely also have no mana to spare and will tap out when he tries to kill your fish, so Daze might be exactly what you need. Daze would replace the High Tides.Impulse, hm, maybe, maybe not. I would go with Misdirection instead, it's such a useful card - a single Lightning Bolt or Path to Exile that was about to kill your Lord of Atlantis redirected to one of your opponent's blockers instead wins the game right there.Can't be bothered to check all Merfolk right now but from top of my head I would play Triton Shorestalker over Sandbar Merfolk. And you need another 2-drop! Inkfathom Infiltrator would probably be my first pick.
Puschkin, I always love your advice. I know, or sense, that you want to bitch at me for my decks being too straight forward/child like....but you don't, and I appreciate it. I really am trying to work on just being consistent with my decks. Speaking of being inconsistent, I can see the High Tide being a waste. Umm, you mentioned Daze...and it is a great choice...but what about Mana Leak? But I am thinking you are right, since everything is 3 mana or less (and I am already running Cursecatcher) Daze was meant for this deck. And Impulse is in my top 3 favorite blue cards. It is better, in my opinion than the Gitaxian Probe? Misdirection would rock in this deck, just like Daze...but could the Probe be taken out over Impulse? Probe just lets me draw a card...but Impulse nets me the best card out of the top 4 cards of the library.
Impulse is a good card but not that useful in a deck that is already redundant. It will help you to stabilize in mid- to late game, however, this deck doesn't really want to reach late-game anyway. You can of course cut the Probes instead. If you cut them and keep the Impulses, you will prolong games and probably get more interesting games, so I am all for it :)
Redirect is a really great card. It's so much more than a counterspell - in fact, it doesn't counter at all, but is more like a MC for spells. Not only can it redirect burn and removal as Puschkin suggested, but enchantments and buffing instants as well. Mana leak is the budget
this is a great looking deck. well done. I think it has an excellent chance at doing very well in your tribal tourney. :)on a side note, I have always been confused by something. take Cursecatcher and Judge's familiar.essentially they are the same card, right? cursecatcher is U to put out, and Familiar is W/U to put out. same mana cost, but can be paid with white or blue. they have the same ability, except that Familiar can also fly. so why is Cursecatcher a $11-$15 dollar card and Familiar only $0.90-$1.50? it seems that (unless creature type is a big deal) the Familiar is a better card, isn't it? Anybody else make sense of why this is?
It's the creature type. There is no competitive Bird deck but Merfolk ("Fish") is strong Legacy deck.
yeah I get that merfolk are strong in legacy, but the concept that as a card it isn't as good as Familiar, and yet it is way more valuable just baffles me.and they should do more with birds. that would be kind of cool I think.
More? There are already 175 birds ... if you mean by that there should be more birds that boost other birds I have to disagree. On tha basis that they have been focussing on creatures types way too much now for way too long. It's about time to print creatures again where the type doesn't matter that much. So that the deckbuilders are again free to mix up whatever works together. Right now you have to deal with serious drawbacks if you DON'T focus on one creature type. Which is silly, first, that limits what I could do, secondly, that's boring and lazy - the creature type signals the deckbuilder which cards to combine right of the bat.
well, I think that as a tribal deck, birds are pretty weak compared to others like say... soldiers or vampires, or heck even knights really have more solid options than birds do. but, I may be wrong.although I do agree that they should focus less on creature type for now, as that has been overdone the past few sets. something fresh and interesting mechanic wise that isn't limited to creature type would be nice. I guess we will see what they come up with in the next block.
Well, these days that usually isn't any better. Whatever their next gimmick is, it will overshadow everything else. They are doing this since Odyssey ... which is a hell lot! I just miss the days where I built my decks myself. These days, Wizards pre-builds them for us. Look at the last block. Gods and enchantments and heroic. Try to build a deck using the last 3 sets that doesn't focus on gods, heroic or enchantments ... impossible! Anyway, I don't want to start a rant again ...
Point taken. Then what would you want them to do? Sure, maybe not a core keyword ability for the "gimmick", but just have creatures with solid abilities that can work together. But without something new players get bored.
New players get bored? How could they? Magic is the most innovative game ever. If it doesn't thrill you when everything is new, what else could excite you? No, they won't get bored, it will just be a lot more difficult for them to build good decks because they have to think for themselves now. Currently you can just start throwing together creatures that share creature type, guild and/or blockmechanic without even looking at the actual abilities. As long as you follow basic deck construction rules like following a mana curve, you'll have a better deck than any "regular" deck people build 15 years ago. If I was in charge I would still do block mechanics but I won't focus on that in every single cards and would get sure that you can go different paths. I would start printing symmetrical cards again, I would add dangerous upkeeps again on powerful cards, I would spread combos across several cards. Morph, suspend, vanishing/fading, flanking, bushido, those are examples for well executed block mechanics. Especially morph and suspend allow for a broad array of uses without forcing you to play them exclusively with other morph/suspend cards or cards that are designed to work with them.
No without something new, players get bored. That I'd what I meant. Sorry. :). I agree with you wholeheartedly, by the way.
That's where I think Wizards is wrong. See, every new expansion IS something new - Magic is an ever evolving game by definition. We need new cards, of course, but we don't need to do outrageous stuff every new set. Wizards is just trying way too hard to keep Magic "fresh" - for example artifacts with coloured mana costs? Even though the definition of an artifact is that it costs only colourless mana? This is changes for the sake of change, read: really stupid. Overdone blockmechanics are actually *limiting* the possibilities and therefore its MORE boring this way! Besides, I have never heard of any Magic player that quit Magic because things got boring, not now and not back then. Ask them why they quit and the mayority will tell you one of two reasons: It's either "I didn't have the time anymore" or, by far the most common reason, "I could not keep up with buying new cards every 3 months just to keep me, my collection and decks up to date". Ironically, the true reason why Wizards keeps on pumping out sets at the same rate and why they are forcing block mechanics and tribes down our throat is something different: If everyting focuses around block mechanics and tribes, they can control what decks will be played. Which in turn has 2 benefits for WotC: a), R&D has it easier to playtest new cards in their future league. Secondly and most importantly that way they have the best control over prices. They know exactly which and how many cards will be needed to play successfully and that means they can drive up sales. See, if cards are useful in too many decks, people might stop buying cards. But if they print cards that are strong within the current block but not so much outside, you have to keep on buying the latest product.
Puschkin, you make a really good point. I feel that many cards are too focused on the block and/or type. A great example of this is in the way powerful cards are played - few players notice the fact that frontline Medic's blocking ability is so cool.The high point of Magic, in my opinion, was the Timespiral block. The cards weren't just powerful, but encouraged players to come up with crazy combos. The level of innovation was huge! Magic competitions and casual play turned into awesome duels, since you had to constantly look out for crazy combos.The way that Wizards makes cards now somewhat stifles innovative players, and it puts so much emphasis on the cards and deck. What happened to clever strategies and the dedication to the elimination of rich kid syndrome? I want to be able to have fun in an environment where I don't have to run 12 kinds of removal or run with a predefined deck. Snow White and the 7 dwarves? Why not!I feel that one way to get "around" types and subtypes is focusing on the abilities. Also, cards with drawbacks need to come back. There has to be a disadvantage to every strategy, so that you don't have to run a anti Eldrazi deck against Eldrazi!
Yes, Time Spiral is one of my favourite blocks. Not only because it features old school mechanics and themes, it was just well rounded and very open for innovation, strong cards but nothing too powerful. Another very good one was Invasion, albeit not powerful enouogh for today's standards, but back then it was good for casuals and pros alike.
The high point of Magic...in my point...was around the time that the creator left. Richard Garfield. He just created a fun game. But when Urza came out...and people started playing so many broken cards like Academy and Memory Jar...that was when Magic went from a game to a way for people to win tourneys/money. When Magic became a career for some people...maybe that was the low point. I think Garfield realized what Magic was about to come, and walked away.
And i think Magic realized what went wrong...and tried to weaken the cards with stuff like Invansion. Nemesis. Prophecy....but...of the last few years..it has went back to Jace, Dark Confidant, and other 50-100 dollar cards...that are wayyyy too powerful. When you need 1000 dollars for one deck in a game that is meant for fun...Mythical rares like Pokemon? Changing what is Standard so damn fast...it is, a lot now, all about the money. And that is sad.
Example...for my tournament. The beast deck and the thopter deck are both under 40 dollars. But do you think they hold a handle in comparison to the Faerie deck or the Merfolk deck? Both of which are over 250 dollars.
doesn't matter. things can be uber powerful and still be fairly cheap. unless you are talking about vintage and legacy tourney level money, then it does matter.
Okay guys. First match of tournament is over. Around 2 hours and 8 pieces of paper later...I have Merfolk vs Beast game over.Beast came out very strong with 2 Kalonian Tuskers, one with Rancor. Merfolk were quickly down to 10 life by Turn 4. However, by turn 5 Merfolks had Lord of Atlantis, True-Name Nemesis, and Merfolk Sovereign on the board AND Impulse, Counterspell, and MIsdirection in hand. It was game over when the Merfolk deck played Counterspell on the Beast deck followed my a Misdirected Rancor put onto True-Name Nemesis. A 7/4 Nemesis meant game over.Turn 6. Merfolk 10 life. Beast 0 life.Merfolk are 1-0Beast are 0-1P.S. Great job at suggestion Misdirection, Puschkin! It went a long way in ensuring Merfolk's victory.
Hm, but are you allowed to misdirect the Rancor to your Nemesis? Since it has protection from your opponent. Yes, you pick the new target but the Rancor is still controlled by your opponent, so I really don't know if this is a legal move or not.BTW, please don't play the other decks that I haven't reviewed yet :) I will be able to check some of them later today.
Oops...crap. It probably wasn't legal. Regardless...Merfolk had control. But yeah...probably should not of done it.
I love you, Honey! (shameless spam because Jessie's my husband and I can assert my authoritah all over his junk): go view my first ever, newbie deck, kids!