Hello Merfolk community! I am new to mtg Reddit and am looking for some help deck building. I've been playing Magic for several years but have never put a "meta" deck together. My previous builds have been jank spice like Orzhov Devotion, Heartless Valuetown and Allosaurus Rider/Eldritch evolution combo. I am a sucker for an interesting build and being the guy that spikes a few games with a fun deck. Merfolk really caught my eye lately due to its interactivity. I've got all/most of the cards together in paper needed to play and customize in this archetype. I'd like some help from the community putting together a deck that suits my tastes.
A short wishlist for what I'd like to build...
- An Azorious build
-A heavy emphasis of white situational sideboard hate
-1 or 2 "fun-of's" for some memorable moments
-More of a tribal/aggressive gameplay feel than a control-like feel
-A modular approach so I can tweak every week to suit the meta game at my store
-A mathematically sound mana base that will handle what I throw at it
I'd like to put the same list together on MGTO as well to regularly practice, tweak and build a sideboarding guide for myself. I'd love to meet some of y'all as well for some friendly matches.
Without further ado, here are the cards I have to build with...
-4 Aether Vial
-4 Benthic Biomancer
-3 Cavern of Souls
-3 Ceremonious Rejection
-1 Cursecatcher
-1 Force of Negation
-4 Glasspool Mimic/Glasspool Shore
-3 Hallowed Fountain
-3 Harbinger of the Tides
-3 Hurkyl's Recall
-3 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
-3 Kopala, Warden of Waves
-4 Lord of Atlantis
-4 Master of the Pearl Trident
-4 Merfolk Trickster
-2 Merrow Reejerey
-4 Mistcaller
-1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
-4 Mutavault
-3 Mystical Dispute
-1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
-1 Psionic Blast
-3 Rest in Peace
-4 Rishadan Dockhand
-3 Seachrome Coast
-4 Silvergill Adept
-1 Skaab Ruinator
-11 Snow-Covered Island
-4 Spreading Seas
-3 Stony Silence
-4 Svyelun of Sea and Sky
-3 Theiving Skydiver
-3 Tidebinder Mage
-4 Tideshaper
-4 Wanderwine Hub
-4 Waterlogged Grove
Any direction/guidance on a preliminary build would be super helpful. Anything from a full list to a hot take on a card choice would be appreciated. I'm looking forward to meeting and interacting with everybody for the build process. Thanks in advance for all the help and mentorship. I'm really looking forward to diving into this archetype, pun ver
... keep reading on reddit β‘
Anyone have any new archetypes they've tried and surprised themselves with how much you enjoyed it?
I have always been an aristocrat/reanimator/combo player. For me, the colors where I feel comfortable and gravitate to are all within Grixis (Red, Blue, Black) with small ventures into green for ramp and graveyard shenanigans. A friend of mine, tired of my fuckery requested I do something out of my comfort zone and make a Selesnya deck (white, green) as I had always said it just never interested me as it was "only counters and tokens, boring" in my words.
So for Christmas I got a fat pack of Crimson Vow and pulled [[Torens, Fist of Angels]] and finally said, you know what? I'll do it just to pacify my friend. Welp, I now have a token/+1/+1 counter human tribal deck and holy shit is it a blast to play. I stand corrected. Selesnya is pretty damn cool even if it is all tokens and counters.
Personally I'd love to experience some of the bigger storylines like the entirety of the lore behind spellbooks/endymion/magistus cards for once without having to look through conflicting scources. Same applies for the true king and abyss lore (though the ladder is far better documented).
As for a storyline I'd like to see get expanded I've gotta see the world legacy lore to the end. It sucks that they just end it right after *spoiler* Ib dies and right before the two remaining mc's split off.
This game's history has had some ridiculous competitive decks, but most of them have relied on foreing support on the form of off-archetype engines or sacky one-off that ultimately put the deck rolling (lets say Grinder Spyrals or Nordern Zoodiac). But of all the pure archetypes that has came in and out, there are still some ridiculous designed archetypes and that's what i'd like to talk about today. So lets start:
β’Zoodiac: For anyone who has been playing for the last 5 years, the sole word Zoodiac can trigger a PTSD so strong of one of the biggest tier 0 formats ever. What made them ridiculous? The one card XYZ mechanic. A single normal summon Ratpier could turn to three XYZ monsters on field, with at least one pop and another one protecting the others from targeting, all of this backed up by whatever else ypu happened to open.
β’Sworsould: Very recent but very ridiculous from a desinging point of view. Just like Zoos are one-card-XYZs, Swordsoul are one-card-synchros, revitalizing the synchro summoning mechaning, but in a way that seems borderline broken. Tuner tokens? Surely we could never could have thought of that during Blackwing era.
β’Six Samurai: The oldest one today, but for sure a worthy one to include. Gateway of the Six might be the most broken in-archetype spell ever, gaining counters every time a Six Samurai monster hits the field, and oh surprise, most Six Sams recruit themselves alongside Gateway which can summon them infinitely to gain in-theory infinite counters, swarming the field, making XYZ plays, synchro plays and even leting you draw your entire deck in the process.
Any other ideas of broken designed archetypes out there.
The blue-baller is someone who, multiple times throughout the season, has both the means and social connections to make moves that would a) benefit their game and b) make the season significantly more entertaining. However, for whatever reason, they consistently choose not to. They will bring up the possibility of making these moves, and the editors can use that to create some suspense at tribal council, but they will never pull the trigger. These players will sometimes even have a move fall into their lap -- someone else has set it in motion, and all they have to do is Stick to the Planβ’. But the blue-baller will rarely follow through or, even worse, actively sabotage the plan. Uncoincidentally, this player is oftentimes dragged to the end as a goat.
Examples: Laurel, Dean, Xander
And please tell me why you think the way you do
EDIT: For anyone confused, Tasha introduced new sorcerer archetypes that gave a lot more spells known for free, which wasn't done in the PHB or in Xanathar.
Title.
For me, it's when there's a discussion about Red-Eyes, and people say "but hey you got Red-Eyes Dark Dragoon" as if the card was legitimately a reason that would make Red-Eyes good.
Dragoon doesn't help the deck do what it wants to whatsoever, and most if not every other decks can abuse it better than Red-Eyes.
Whats that one sentence for you?
Also if you will what are some other ideas based on other media you'd like? I know there are some seemingly based on Wizard of Oz, one someone said is very similar to Kingdom Hearts, thanks.
I love beating a Face Hunter. I take that whole deck so personally, and then they go and use my minions for rhino food.
Lately, DH has been treating me very well in the fight against them.
For example I remember when tri-brigade was first revealed many people though it was mediocre deck; and now it is one of the best decks this format.
So, I want to have a discussion about combo and how it's viewed in the community. I'll try to be as detailed as I can here, because to help the stigma of combo decks, it's become necessary to educate.
Frequently, combo decks are described as playing solitaire or solo games. Which is frankly untrue, and born from a misunderstanding on how the decks work.
This issue comes from the fact that while aggro decks, or engine decks play the game they are playing using the board to setup, they have to to keep the ball rolling over multiple turns. The combo player does not HAVE to use the board to setup, meaning private information via setup in hand. So, with that said how does the combo deck setup, and how as his opponent can I glean what's coming?
Simple, look at what they are playing and not playing.
- Something like playing removal of large threats can signal that the combo player is no where near ready, and wants to make sure things that can chip his life down significantly are not in play. Take time here to chip some life away, you don't need to kill, but letting them know you're willing to hit them means they have to think more critically about who might swing.
- Playing stax pieces? Similarly they are trying to get ready to search or dig for the combo, and want to buy time where they aren't being attacked or fussed with. This is a great time to interact with the combo player, remove the stax piece and keep the pressure on.
- Drawing via spells? Brainstorm, Fact or Fiction, etc - They don't have a tutor in hand, and are still missing a or some pieces of the combo. They're currently digging to try and find that, you are probably safe for a turn or two while they're doing this.
- Casting tutors? This is the danger zone. If someones playing combo, ask them during rule 0 what pieces they need, most good people will tell you. I'd rather someone confidently play vs my combo deck than attack recklessly, it makes the game more dynamic. If someone is tutoring their pieces, they are 1-2 turns away from attempting the combo.
Now that I know what the signs are, what kind of things can I do to interact with the combo player and gain more information before they combo off? This is a great question, more information means playing more confidently, and there's always little ways to slow down the combo player!
- Counter tutors, draw and ramp! Don't let the combo player speed up, seriously it might sound rude, but sometimes c
... keep reading on reddit β‘A protagonist who lacks conventional heroic qualities
A hero whose actions are questionable
Complex characters who have a dark side
Ultimately guided by good intentions
They might do the right thing, but mostly out of self interest
I've been trying to think of new characters that we could see in the reboot that we haven't really seen before, and I'm coming up short.
Are there any high school character tropes that we haven't seen from Degrassi?
I think all of us have one or two archetypes that we love wholeheartedly even if they won't ever raze the tournament scene.
What are your favorites?
I have an insanely soft spot for Yang Zings.
I disliked synchros as a concept until Yang Zings came in with their flashy/holo card arts, amazing designs of chinese dragons and extremely fun extra deck combo synergies. There was nothing quite like dropping trap-immune Beelze of the diabolic dragons with skill drain active. Good times.
Bit of a sequel to my previous post.
A few years ago I was testing out some fun decks, and I actually managed to make a passable (for the time) Reptilianne-Chronomaly deck. Mostly, it was using crystal skull and crystal bones to make Gorgonic Guardian, and having it set opponent's monsters to 0 attack, then using my normal summon for a Reptilianne that would capitalize on this.
Back in like 2014 I was experimenting with Lightsworn Frogs, and it was so fun because frogs could easily make Herald of Pure Light to retrieve a milled Judgement Dragon from grave and summon it out!
More recently, I was testing Lyrilusc-Raidraptor using the level 1 Raidraptor monsters and rank-up spells to make big xyz monsters like Ultimate Falcon.
What are some fun combinations with pleasant synergy you have found?
The easiest ones to spot are those who thought they were cast as heroes but were actually cast as narcissists/trainwrecks. <cough>Coach<cough>
Any other obvious examples?
From what I'm understanding type spam is a team archetype that includes a core with two breakers of the same type where the goal is for one to weaken the other's checks to open up a path for cleaning. The most common type spam cores are Talonflame + mega Pinsir (or staraptor) on bird spam, mega Alakazam + tapu Lele on psychic spam, and magnezone + 2+ dragon types on dragon spam/dragmag. What other types have/have had viable cores like this in OU? I would guess grass spam with bulu + serp + kart is pretty good in usum ou but that's all I can think of
For me it's control/value hunter. I always find myself trying to build a deck like this with something stupid like a Gahz'rilla/Leoroxx/Rapid Fire finisher. It works 100% of the time, around 25% of the time.
We all know the sub groups we see at every gym no matter where we are! I think for me my least favourite are teenage coloured belts with a decade training who make me feel dumb and old guys who love cheese submissions. Let me hear your least favs!
I'd like to see other people's opinions. I know it's going to take a while for the meta to settle, but I think knowing what the common archetypes are could help some of the new players. Many players are looking to the January 2021 OCG Metagame report, as this is probably the closest analog to Master Duel right now.
Here's what I've seen, in no particular order, along with links to some YGOPRO decks and any guides I could find. These decks won't be perfect because the banlist isn't the exact same, but it will allow you to get an idea of what they do.
- Adamancipator
- Dragonmaid (How to play)
- Drytron (How to play)
- Eldlich
- Invoked Shaddoll and Invoked Shaddoll Dogmatika
- Phantom Knights
- Prank Kids (How to play)
- Salamangreat
- Sky Striker (How to play)
- Tri-Brigade (How to play)
- Virtual World (How to play)
- Zoodaics
And as a reminder, checking out the top cards used in decks is a great way to see what the top staples in today's meta are (+ Maxx C, of course).
Any other Archtypes you would add?
Sorry if this is a silly question, but I've been getting into cEDH over the past few months and have been saving up to buy my first paper deck. I do have a couple of online decklists I've been brewing first (Tinybones, Vannifar, Godo, and Marwyn especially).
I was wondering if there are some archetypes within cEDH that are disliked by the majority of the community. I had to tear apart one of my favorite EDH decks because one person at my casual table refused to play against it simply because I played [[Silence]].
I guess I'm somewhat afraid of sinking in a lot of money to a deck that I enjoy but no one wants to play against me simply because of how it is built. Are there any archetypes that you or your tables refuse to play against just on principle (e.g. not fun for anyone), or does it come down more to specific cards?
In case people are unaware, a Highlander deck is a deck with 0 duplicates. Usually, these decks have very powerful win conditions for the deck building restriction.
My first experiences with Highlander decks was from Hearthstone. My favorite Highlander card was Reno Jackson, which was a 6 mana 4/6 that fully healed your hero (nexus) if there were no duplicate cards in your deck. Another favorite was Zephyrs, which gave you the βperfect cardβ for whatever scenario youβre in (very complicated AI stuff to figure out algorithm).
Personally, I think Udyr would be a perfect champ for this thematically. Heβs a lone wanderer that travels all over the place and does his own thing. However, Iβd like to see what Riot would do with his stance switching.
What do you guys think about this archetype coming to the game, and what champs would work best with this?
I'm thinking stuff like a solar bow that has a much faster method of acquisition than the only one currently available. Or a 4 round burst pulse rifle. I feel like we're gonna get a lot of stasis weapons, so I would love a stasis submachine gun with some viable endgame PvE perks.
