Friday Night Magic Standard Milling Merfolk Deck

[soundwave42]

I have been working on a merfolk milling deck for standard environment friday night magic.  The deck has a merfolk tribal theme with control elements to support the decks main focus of milling the opponents deck.  I am looking to tweak the deck at this point and I have no sideboard.  Below is my deck list with comments to follow:

//(Lands)
20 Island

//(Creatures)
3 Merrow Witsniper
4 Cursecatcher
4 Drowner Initiate
4 Ink Dissolver
3 Drowner of Secrets
4 Merrow Reejerey

//(Instants)
4 Broken Ambitions
4 Boomerang

//(Sorceries)
4 Memory Sluice
4 Ponder
2 Distant Melody

After playtesting I found that I didn't have any way to deal with permanents once they hit the board so I added the 4 Boomerang to assist in that area.  Once I bounce the card I can then counter with the 4 Cursecatcher or 4 Broken Ambitions.  The Broken Ambitions also give me another mill option if I win the clash.  I haven't had any problems drawing into milling options with just the 4 Ponder and 2 Distant Melody.  The stars of the deck have been Ink Dissolver and Merrow Reejerey.  You can still attack with your fish each turn as most of the milling are comes into play or pay for abilities.  I do not see any reason to spash any other color.  I want this to remain a milling deck.  I thought adding some other counters in the sideboard or more draw may be an option.  Please post any comments, suggestions or questions for the main deck and sideboard.  Thank you for taking the time to read through this.


--EDIT--

After reviewing comments for this post I am now trying out the following deck list:

//(Lands)
10 Island
10 Plains

//(Creatures)
3 Judge of Currents
3 Cursecatcher
3 Drowner Initiate
3 Ink Dissolver
3 Drowner of Secrets
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
2 Grimoire Thief

//(Instants)
2 Broken Ambitions
3 Oblivion Ring

//(Sorceries)
3 Memory Sluice
3 Ponder
3 Distant Melody

//(Enchantments)
3 Merrow Commerce

--EDIT--

My third incarnation of this deck has to run lots of three ofs because there are just so many cards that work in this deck:

//(Lands)
3 Wanderwine Hub
9 Island
9 Plains

//(Creatures)
3 Judge of Currents
3 Cursecatcher
3 Drowner Initiate
3 Ink Dissolver
3 Drowner of Secrets
3 Merrow Reejerey
3 Stonybrook Schoolmaster
3 Grimoire Thief

//(Instants)
3 Sage's Dousing
3 Dream Fracture
3 Oblivion Ring

//(Sorceries)
3 Ponder

//(Enchantments)
3 Merrow Commerce

It is still Blue with a White splash.  It is milling with control support.  I think there is still more that could be done to focus the deck but I have not been able to get in enough playtesting to determine where the focus lies.  Thank you all for the suggestions and assistance in making this deck better.

--
Soundwave42

[rikimaru75]

Have you tried running Grimoire Thief?  It doubles as milling and countermagic.

I tried running a Millfolk deck which utilizes Judge of Currents, Merrow Commerce, Grimoire Thief, and Stonybrook Schoolmaster in addition to the Drowner of Secrets.  With Merrow Commerces in play, you can mill in reponse to each enchantment and have stuff on the defense as well.  Since a majority of the Merfolk in Standard are Wizards, you could run Sage's Dousing to get a cantrip effect too.

[AuronVII]

I agree with pretty much everything the last poster said. I would splash  in there, so you can use judge of currents and the schoolmaster, and then you can replace boomerang with oblivion ring or crib swap, and you can also use sig if you so desire to protect your milling merfolk.

[rikimaru75]

Have you tried running wanderwine hub and making the count 10island, 6 plains, 4 wanderwine hub?  You have enough merfolk to make it worth your while.

Why not drop the memory sluice for the 4th ponder, the 3rd grimoire thief, and 4th cursecatcher?  You could probably drop the distant melody for more countermagic to protect your millers.  Sage's Dousing, Cryptic Command, Familiar's Ruse, Cancel, or Rune Snag would do it.  My biggest worry for this deck is up against Damnation, Wrath of God, Gaea's Blessing, and Pyroclasm.  Savor the Moment might work well too if you have the commerce effect going, you can mill again with your extra turn.

[AuronVII]

I've tried a build of that take with savor the moment, didn't really work too well. You're better off with more counter magic and such in its place.

[rikimaru75]

I've tried a build of that take with savor the moment, didn't really work too well. You're better off with more counter magic and such in its place.

I guess you are right.  Seems more like a win more card.  You can always eot mill at the end of their turns anyway or in response to ponder or what not.  Good pickup though.

How much counter-magic do you think is appropriate?

[AuronVII]

I've tried a build of that take with savor the moment, didn't really work too well. You're better off with more counter magic and such in its place.

I guess you are right.  Seems more like a win more card.  You can always eot mill at the end of their turns anyway or in response to ponder or what not.  Good pickup though.

How much counter-magic do you think is appropriate?

7-8 maybe? Cryptic commands are good if you have them/can get them, and then use either sages dousing (for card draw) or broken ambitions (which probably fits better in your deck for the potential mill. You could always use rune snags as well if cryptics are too hard to come by for you.

[rikimaru75]

Running Broken Ambitions might not be too advantageous although it fits with the theme of the deck.  The reason I think is because of the necessary clash feature.  Millfolk really doesn't have too many 'I win' clash cards readily available.  Also, with running 20 Mana, do you think you'll have enough to cast Cryptic Command when it matters?  Perhaps the most potential counters could be Familiar's Ruse, Sage's Dousing, Rune Snag, Cancel, Spell Syphon, and Dream Fracture?  Spell syphon might work well if you get your merfolk going and it's really cheap too.  The reason I argue for dream fracture is that it 'kinda' thins out the player's deck by 1 more card w/it's arcane denial-esque drawback and nets you a card in the process too.

[AuronVII]

Running Broken Ambitions might not be too advantageous although it fits with the theme of the deck.  The reason I think is because of the necessary clash feature.  Millfolk really doesn't have too many 'I win' clash cards readily available.  Also, with running 20 Mana, do you think you'll have enough to cast Cryptic Command when it matters?  Perhaps the most potential counters could be Familiar's Ruse, Sage's Dousing, Rune Snag, Cancel, Spell Syphon, and Dream Fracture?  Spell syphon might work well if you get your merfolk going and it's really cheap too.  The reason I argue for dream fracture is that it 'kinda' thins out the player's deck by 1 more card w/it's arcane denial-esque drawback and nets you a card in the process too.

If you're only going to run 20 land than yes, cryptic command could be risky, but  its also very powerful as it lets you bounce something in a pinch, tap all their creatures to perhaps prevent an all out attack, and can draw you a card. Dream fracture is very good in my opinion, and if you aren't going to run cryptic or broken ambitions, than running sages dousing and dream fracture would counter stuff and help you draw to what you need, so those might actually be the better play for you. I'd think about fitting some grimoire theives in there somehow though, those things can be a real beast plus useful counter at times, and it has great synergy with memory sluice. Memory sluice and conspie with two theives= mill 14 for one blue. If you ever decide to splash white, judge of currents is a must.

[rikimaru75]

I would like to think that for this deck, my 8 counters would be the following.

4 Dream Fracture
4 Sage's Dousing
4 Cursecatcher*

Both net you a cantrip effect and counter the spell within a 'reasonable' amount of time.