Latest posts of: Naixin

Excited for this. Sort of like a reverse FoF. Can see potential with drain. Thoughts?

This looks like it has potential. If it survives, it can wrath all the mentor or pyromancer tokens. It also dodges bolt.

Do you have decklists for 5-8?

Quote from: msg67183 on February 15, 2016, 12:36:52 pm

I know someone who played White Trash recently at an event and he said his worst matchup is Mentor. What can this deck do to combat Mentor decks?

This is a hard topic to approach. 2 cards i've found that were great against mentor was Jitte and Batterskull with SFM, but mentor decks run dack so it's a tough call.

I'd say the best bet is a combination of thalia and canonsworn to limit their prowess triggers.

Quote from: xouman on February 10, 2016, 02:38:30 am

Miquel is probably the best bomberman player in the league. If he plays FoF and 0 Faydens, probably it's because of good reasons Smile

I'd also play fayden if I'm playing volcanics, even over Jace. And about Fact, it's really powerful. Not only you are digging deeper, often it gives more CA and most important of all, it's not hosed by Notion Thief or SotL. If this deck had black instead red, probably gifts would be better than FoF,

Btw, I assume the hydroblast in the sb is actually a pyroblast...

I tested his list and I actually really like it. I'd personally probably run either a mentor as a 1-of or some other alternate win con.

I'm still iffy on the Fact or fiction though haha. However I really do like his 2 MD fluster and 2 MD mindbreak trap for the storm matchups.

Which list would you run in a shops/storm heavy meta?

I'd probably play something similar to his but instead of white, maybe go deeper in red

Any opinions on this list that top 8ed?

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=19468&iddeck=148110

I'm not sure how I feel about Fact or Fiction over Thirst. It seems like Thirst is better. Also, i'd probably run atleast 1 Dack.

Quote from: xouman on February 06, 2016, 05:20:32 am

depending on the deck you face (lots of cases where you want null rod), standstill is still powerful. Any non-aggro deck is going to crack it before you, specially if you play mutavaults.

I discussed this with antoniss some more and it seems that both vial and null rod has their uses. However, the issue is which one has MORE uses.

Right now, I feel like Vial helps so much with G1 against Shops. Null Rod helps so much against Storm and Vault Key. I think depending on the meta, the numbers can change, but right now I am leaning towards maindecking Vials and SBing Null Rods. And you are correct. Standstill is great against many decks.

My current list:

Artifacts: 7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 Aether Vial

Creatures: 19
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
3 True-Name Nemesis

Instants: 9
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep

Sorceries:1
1 Time Walk

Enchantments:4
4 Standstill

Lands:20
3 Cavern of Souls
7 Island
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Riptide Laboratory
4 Mutavault

SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 3 Steel Sabotage
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 3 Null Rod
SB: 1 Propaganda

Quote from: msg67183 on February 05, 2016, 02:21:31 pm

Quote from: Naixin on February 05, 2016, 02:15:39 pm

Aight so. After more testing, I got wrecked by vault/key like 8 times. I think Null Rod is needed. have to decide now if there is any way to make it so I'm still better against shops.

Null Rod is still strong against Shops. I never had an issue with Workshops when I played Merfolk. Maybe instead of Null Rod, we fit in Revokers to go with Aether Vial to hit Vault Key or other shenanigans?

Well, right now in testing, I have Vial/Standstill in the MD and null rod in the SB now. Whenever I switch in Null Rods, I take out vials+standstill.

Aight so. After more testing, I got wrecked by vault/key like 8 times. I think Null Rod is needed. have to decide now if there is any way to make it so I'm still better against shops.

Hmm. Thank you for your feedback!

The issue i've come across with from merfolks is that if you try to go aggro, the "control decks" like pyromancer or mentor can simply race you. Plus playing 1 fish a turn seemed a little too fair. I was hoping that the initial investment of vial plus card advantage of standtill can make merfolk a little more "unfair".

I guess I need to test out my idea more and work with the numbers. Right now, I think the classic builds of straight 20 lands, 4 caverns, and lots of fish is the better build. I'm hoping to eventually come across a spicer build that can compare or even surpass the standard.

On the bright side, I think adding mutavault/aethervial/standstill has yielded better results in a version I tested earlier with Stifle/Daze/Sygg lol

The issue I have with Null Rod is that if i'm on the draw, It feels too slow against the decks that you are trying to beat.

Aether Vial + Standstill though is a great way to grind out people, and with a single lord, your manlands are bigger than the manlands of Landstill or Shops.

I guess i'm just trying to test out new ideas since I feel like Merfolk isn't in a super viable place in the meta right now. I've tried to play the standard lists, but I always ran into several problems.
1. Deciding between dropping a threat or wastelanding.
2. Getting locked out by Lodestone Golem
3. Not having enough card draw

So I feel like Aether vial helps with 1 and 2, where as standstill helps with problem 3.

Hmm, hopefully someone more experienced can chime in and give me feedback on what theyd play in a relatively diverse field of Shops, Storm, Gush, and Oath.

I've been testing various non-mainstream merfolk builds in my attempt to make it somewhat viable and here is a current test list. It's basically a standstill/vial list. It's not close to being optimal or top tier, but I feel like it has potential. This deck trades null rod for vial (not sure if correct or not, I just feel like a lot of the meta decks can ignore null rod right now). Vial is also pretty good against shops (atleast compared to traditional merfolk builds). And standstill is an ok draw engine. With this list, it's basically a worst standstill deck than landstill and a worse aggro deck than merfolks, but it has more flexibility. Opinions?

Lands: 20
3 Cavern of Souls
7 Island
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Riptide Laboratory
4 Mutavault

Artifacts: 7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Lotus Petal
4 AEther Vial

Creatures: 19
4 Cursecatcher
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
4 Silvergill Adept
3 True-Name Nemesis

Instants: 9
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep

Sorceries: 1
1 Time Walk

Enchantments: 4
4 Standstill

SB: 15
SB: 4 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Dismember
SB: 3 Steel Sabotage
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Propaganda

I like how this+consecrated sphinx makes sphinx tribal actually a thing instead of just a deck name.

Opinions of merfolk in the current metagame?

Any love for Izzet Statticaster? It answers both mentor and pyromancer tokens and can be jammed out with cavern of souls. Also has flash

I think this would be a good time to revisit how to answer mentor due to recent metagame changes. Because Chalice is no longer there to keep Moxes in check, mentor decks can now afford to jam 4 Mentor and MoxSolCrypt and wreck havoc.

So far i've been using moat in my SB. I want to test Ghostly Prison, Supreme Verdict, Sudden Shock, or Balance.

I currently play bomberman. Any other answers?

I think of remora as a sideboard option that is maindeckable in certain metas. It just eats up the opponent in a blue mirror. If anything, I don't think it's comparable to baby jace, but comparable to mystic remora. I think with the current meta, preordain is much better since it filters your next 2 draws, where as remora is either heavy card draw or heavy useless mana sink.

Seems like it'd be ok in shops. Power out lock pieces, fast mana, and work shops. Lock a blue player to 7 cards in hand. Drop this monster, repeat.

Quote from: John Cox on October 28, 2015, 09:30:16 pm

Quote from: Naixin on October 23, 2015, 05:23:58 pm

Here is my current list

Artifacts: 12
1 Black Lotus
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Pyrite Spellbomb
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring

Creatures: 8
2 Auriok Salvagers
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Magus of the Future
1 Monastery Mentor
3 Trinket Mage

Instants:
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Dig Through Time
1 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Pyroblast
1 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thirst for Knowledge

Sorceries: 2
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

Planeswalkers: 3
2 Dack Fayden
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands: 16
2 Cavern of Souls
2 Flooded Strand
2 Tundra
2 Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Plains

SB: 1 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Containment Priest
SB: 2 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Wear // Tear
SB: 2 Magus of the Unseen
SB: 1 Moat
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage

I want to try to find room for a maindeck Wear//Tear and either a second flusterstorm or mindbreak trap. I also want to test either a second spell bomb or a lion's eye diamond.

How does everyone feel about Mana Drain in this TFK meta? Having 3 mana open is insane because it can represent either TFK or Mana Drain but i feel like the UU cost of drain is constricting.

Could you see cutting some counter magic and/or some number of planeswalkers for 2-3 gushes?

Gush doesn't fit in bomberman the same way it fits in pyromancer or mentor. Those decks run cheap spells that cost 1 or 2 so losing 2 land drops isn't an issue. Bomberman requires 4 mana to cast Salvagers (6 mana to go off the same turn with lotus in yard) so it's a lot more mana intensive.

Now that chalice is restricted along with Dig, I think bomberman may be an ok choice again.

Maybe you're both right. Maybe baby jace and ojutai aren't "busted" in the same sense as recall, lotus, gush, dig, etc is, but it's still really good. Yes, a deck with 56 good cards is probably going to generate a lot of card advantage and any finisher will make the deck complete. However, out of the finishers, what is the best choice? For me, I use a slot for ojutai because it doesn't get hated out by mentor hate. Perhaps a SFM+batterskull would have worked or even a frost Titan. The bottom line is the cards work, and at the end of the day, I think it's more of a stylistic thing if anything. Some people like tokens so they end with mentor, some like dragons so they use ojutai, I bet someone has found success using Elspeth or Ajani. The shells in vintage are busted enough that finishers are more of a personality thing IMO.

After testing more with Probe, I have come to the conclusion that for Gush type decks (mentor control or delver), I'd rather play 2-3 probes when playing online and 0-1 probes when playing in person. I feel like yes, it does dilute the power of the deck but the information gained is extremely valuable and more than makes up for the dilution IMO. You can't read people online, hence more probes but you can in person.

It seems to me that there are 2 main types of mentor decks now.

1) Plays 15-16 lands with the full set of moxen, mana crypt, sol ring, and plays bigger spells like Jace, Tinker, Dragons, etc. Typically plays 2-3 mentor. Plays less counters and draw spells in favor or higher impact spells

2) Plays 13-14 lands with only lotus, mox sapphire, mox ruby, and sometimes lotus petal. Plays 4 mentor as well as 2 snapcaster/young pyromancer and instead of bigger spells, runs more countermagic/removal

It seems that both of these decks have been placing well which leads me to think that either they're equally good and 2 different directions should be taken or that they're equally bad, and an optimized list is far from solved since if there was a solved list, people would play that instead.

Now, to think which version is better....

It's interesting how the mentor decks started running 2 mana drains and jace over dack instead of the dack-gush-dig engine

After further testing, I came to the conclusion

1. Preordain is insane. I would never run less than 4.
2. 4 Dig and 1 Cruise is a bit much. 3 Dig or 2 Dig/1 Cruise is too little. I think the correct number is 3 Dig and 1 Cruise.

Opinions?

Also, if dig get's restricted, what do you think would take its place? Instead of 4 Digs that a lot of decks run, maybe 1 Dig, 1 Merchant Scroll, 1 Mystical Tutor, 1 random bomb? Idk.

Does anyone else feel like playing 4 Digs and 1 Cruise is too taxing on the Graveyard? I used to run 3 Digs and 0 Cruise and 2 Snapcaster Mages in UWr mentor but i've been trying out 4 Dig/1 Cruise and it seems like Snapcaster just got worse. Either that or I suck.

I feel like I have come to 2 basic philosophies. I'm not sure which one is better so I was hoping for opinions.

Here is my first decklist. The idea behind this is to tutors for answers. Once you know what you need, you tutor for the answer and then win.

Artifacts:7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures: 6
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Snapcaster Mage

Instants: 23
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Dig Through Time
1 Fire // Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Gush
4 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Pyroblast
1 Swords to Plowshares

Lands: 14
2 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

Planeswalkers: 2
2 Dack Fayden

Sorceries: 8
1 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Containment Priest
SB: 3 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 2 Wear // Tear
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 1 Shattering Spree
SB: 1 Sudden Shock

The second decklist is more recent. I wanted to see what it was like to give up tutors for raw card-draw power. This is what I came up with and it's been running pretty smoothly so far. It feels more aggressive than the first list but doesn't have as good as card selection.

Artifacts:7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures: 6
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Snapcaster Mage

Instants: 24
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
4 Dig Through Time
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
2 Pyroblast
2 Swords to Plowshares

Lands: 14
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

Planeswalkers: 2
2 Dack Fayden

Sorceries: 7
1 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Containment Priest
SB: 4 Ingot Chewer
SB: 2 Wear // Tear
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 1 Shattering Spree
SB: 2 Sudden Shock

So, which direction do you think is better? Card selection or raw card advantage?

Here is my current build:

Artifacts:7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures: 5
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Snapcaster Mage

Instants: 23
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Dig Through Time
1 Fire // Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Gush
4 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Pyroblast
1 Swords to Plowshares

Lands: 14
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island

Planeswalkers: 3
2 Dack Fayden
1 Jace, the Mindsculptor

Sorceries: 8
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk

SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 3 Containment Priest
SB: 4 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 1 Wear // Tear
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 2 Shattering Spree

First thing y'all might have noticed is I opted for 4 monks. Some people prefer 3 Monks but from experience, I've lost more games due to not finding a threat than finding too many.

I run both Merchant Scroll and Mystical Tutor. This allows me 2 ways to find Pyroblast and Swords to Plowshares in a pinch. Along with the Snapcaster Mage, it gives me a fair number of ways to deal with random threats.

Finally, I know most people run 15 lands but I chose to run 14. It makes me weaker to shops but to compensate, my SB has more shops hate. I will consider going to 15 lands when I start losing a lot due to mana screw.

I really want to make Tinker+Robot work in mentor but it seems like that will be trying to do too much.