{From Right Field is a column for Magic players on a budget or players who don’t want to play netdecks. The decks are designed to let the budget-conscious player be competitive in local, Saturday tournaments. They are not decks that will qualify a player for The Pro Tour. As such, the decks written about in this column are, almost by necessity, rogue decks. The author tries to limit the number of non-land rares as a way to limit the cost of the decks. When they do contain rares, those cards will either be cheap rares or staples of which new players should be trying to collect a set of four, such as Dark Confidant, Birds of Paradise, or Wrath of God. The decks are also tested by the author, who isn’t very good at playing Magic. He will never claim that a deck has an 85% winning percentage against the entire field. He will also let you know when the decks are just plain lousy. Readers should never consider these decks "set in stone" or "done." If you think you can change some cards to make them better, well, you probably can, and the author encourages you to do so.}
A few months ago, I opined that Lord of Atlantis should have been re-Oracled the same way that Elvish Champion, Goblin King, and Lord of the Undead had been. In other words, they gained the creature type of the creatures over whom they ruled. That always made perfect sense to me, and, in fact, I had been bitching about it for years. How could you be the champion of the Elves and not be an Elf? How could you be the king of Goblins without being a Goblin? I mean, duh-uh! (Zombie Master was a weird case. You can rule the Zombies and not be a Zombie yourself. It actually helps if you aren’t. I met a couple of Zombie Queens when I lived in New Orleans. They were quite lively… if you know what I mean.) If you’re not going to be the king of the Goblins without being a Goblin, you sure as chip aren’t going to be the Merfolk Lord without being a merman.
However, while his regal buddies were getting +1/+1 boosts, the Fisher King was being told that he didn’t deserve the same treatment. Huh? What was the reasoning there? As best I can figure, Wizards decided not to change Lord of Atlantis because he wasn’t Standard- or Extended-legal anymore. Who would care about Lord of Atlantis getting +1/+1 and Islandwalk? Um, me.
Someone listened to me. Or maybe they had the idea all along. Whatever the reason, Lord of Atlantis was reprinted in Time Spiral’s Timeshifted subset and got all of the trapping of being a true Lord. Yeah! That was the good news.
The bad news is that he gets a whopping three other Merfolk to play with in Standard right now. Those are Coral Trickster, Merfolk Assassin, and… well, think about it. Do you know who it is? Don’t use the Gatherer because he/it doesn’t show up as a Merfolk. Nope, that fourth Standard-legal Merfolk is Mistform Ultimus.
That’s it. Four whole Merfolk in Standard.
No way can we build a deck around that. Can’t be done. Impossible.
So, of course, I had to try.
One great thing about designing this deck is that I don’t have to fret over a lot of creatures. Go try to build a White Weenie deck right now. There’s only, at last count, sixteen-thousand-four-hundred-ninety-seven good White Weenies. Merfolk don’t have that problem. You want to build a Merfolk deck in Standard? You’re starting right here:
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Merfolk Assassin
4 Coral Trickster
4 Mistform Ultimus
Oh my Gott in himmel! Look at all of those rares! We’ve already got twelve in the deck!!!! What are we gonna do?!??!?!? Okay, simmer down, Beavis. Those twelve rares clock in at a whopping – are you sitting down? – thirteen dollars, or fifty cents more than a single Demonfire. We may be pushing the rare count, but the budget is still very much intact.
Of course, if I’m going to play Merfolk like that, I have to add War Barge, don’t I? Holy mackerel (now that’s humor, folks), it can grant Islandwalk if Lord of Atlantis isn’t out. Even though it’s a rare in Timeshifted, War Barges are only fifty cents each. Wow. We’re up to fifteen dollars worth of rares. “Stop me before I kill again.”
I need to back up half a step, first. The presumption in all of this is that there’s going to be an Island on the other side of the table more times than not. Look at the decks out there now. Other than Boros Deck Wins, you’re probably going to sit across from an Island, even if it is an Island–Mountain. What if the other guy doesn’t have an Island, though? We can either just overwhelm the opponent with Merfolk superiority, or we can use Vedalken Plotter to give him an Island.
Vedalken Plotter? Man, this deck is going to blow big fish chunks, isn’t it?
Probably… but maybe not. It does have one fantastic trick, a trick that can bring down any creature you really care about killing except for Scryb Sprite and Scragnoth. Of course, if Scryb Sprite scares you… you’re in a bad way, Clem. The trick is to use the War Barge to give a creature Islandwalk, and then use the Merfolk Assassin to kill that creature. Boo and yah. Gotta love a Blue deck that can blow Akroma up. Blue used to be able to counter her, bounce her, or even steal her. Now, it can make her go kaboom. Yummy.
I’m going to cut to the chase, at least insofar as I’ve already been meandering, and let you know what the deck looked like when I started testing. I call it:
Originally, there were twenty-four lands and only sixteen other spells. Those were a nice four sets of four each of War Barge, Repeal, Remand, and Cancel. I quickly found that I didn’t need as many lands as I thought I would. The War Barge is a bit mana hungry, but it isn’t always needed. At about the same time, I also realized that I didn’t need four War Barges, either. The last card that wasn’t a consensus four-of was Cancel. Yes, there are some spells that I want stopped dead, but three Cancels were enough with the Remands. That gave me three slots. I filled those with some nice cheap card drawing in Think Twice. Finally, the fourth Plotter got ditched for the fourth Think Twice.
“Drugs are bad, mmmm-kay?” – Mr. Mackey, South Park
“Card drawing is good, mmmm-kay?” – Joe Al-Khazraji, Knoxville
I’m an amateur Magic historian. I guess that’s as opposed to those Magic historians who make a living at it. Anyway, one of the things I’ve noticed is that Blue tends to be strong and resurgent when it gets good, cheap, Instant-timed card drawing. Right now, there is a ton of good, cheap, Instant-timed card drawing, even though a lot of the card drawing is tied to cards whose primary purpose is ostensibly something else (i.e. they’re cantrips). For example, this deck, which isn’t really a draw-go deck, has twelve cards that say “draw a card” and can draw a total of sixteen more cards than a deck simply relying on its draw phase. That’s pretty impressive when the deck only has four dedicated card drawing spells (Think Twice).
To me this begs the question: where’s the Tier 1 Mono-Blue deck? I know there’s one in this giant pile of Standard cards. There has to be. We have the aforementioned Instant-timed card drawing, some very strong countermagic, good bounce, decent theft spells, and a finisher or two.
I’m not suggesting that Just Barge on In is that deck. Let me be categorical about that. It’s fun. It has game against some decks. Even the dreaded Pyroclasm can be dealt with either through countermagic or two Lords of Atlantis. I won’t suggest that it’s of the Pro-Tour-winning caliber.
Unless someone wins a Pro Tour with it, of course. Then, by definition, it is.
Right now, though, this deck is just plain fun.
True story. I was playing against what turned out to be a U/W Control deck with Akroma. Late in the game, the guy blew up the world with Wrath of God and then dropped Akroma. (He had Signets, and, like I said, it was late in the game.) I followed up with Merfolk Assassin, Lord of Atlantis, and War Barge on my turn. He conceded. At least I took it as a concession because he promptly “lost the connection.” Being the petty person that I am, I was quite tickled. I love watching people walk into the Casual Decks room on MTGO with decks that are clearly not casual and then get frustrated at losing to crummy decks. They act like petulant children, which, I’m sure, many of them probably are. I’ll admit it. I’m petty.
I tested this the way I seem to test most of my decks today. I started out in the Casual Decks room on MTGO. That was unusual for a deck like this because mono-Blue is not well-liked in that room. Of course, most folks quickly realized that this wasn’t a MUC (i.e. Mono-Blue Control) deck. Sure, it has a whopping seven counterspells, three of which are actual hard counters, but my opponents figured out that countering everything wasn’t what this deck did. The tip off there was usually when I dropped a Merfolk Assassin. They didn’t seem too worried that I was going to bounce and/or steal and/or counter everything. Often, though, they realized too late exactly what I was doing. Then, they disconnected.
No, seriously, people played out the games against me except for the Akroma guy. Why he was like that, I don’t know. I figure of you’re playing with Wrath and Akroma, you should be made of sterner stuff than that. You have to be able to take it as well as dish it out. If not, you’re really just a bully, aren’t you?
After posting a string of wins against only a few losses (along with a bunch of “that’s one stupid deck, dude”), I decided it was time to head to the Tournament Practice room. First, though, I needed a cheap sideboard.
Sideboard Up
The first two slots for the sideboard were easy: Spell Snare; and Flashfreeze. Four of each seemed like a no-brainer. Which was exactly how much I had left after a long Christmas weekend that included Luanne taking sick right after we started the two-hour trip back home to spend Christmas with my family. I mean, it was just far enough into the trip back to our place that it made no sense to head back to her Mom and Dad’s. And it was so bad that I almost took her to the hospital for fear of dehydration. Of course, medical personnel are the worst when it comes to being sick. “Just get me some Sprite.” Easier said than done at 6:30pm on Christmas night. I found a place that was open, and paid only $4.99 for a six pack! What a bargain!
Anyway, the first eight of the fifteen sideboard cards seemed like an easy choice, and I needed easy at that point. The other seven were tough, though. So, I started looking at what other Blue decks – or at least decks running Blue – had in their sideboards. I went with four Shadow of Doubt and three Confiscates. The Shadow of Doubt prevents people from search with four or five copies of Dragonstorm on the stack. Confiscate, well, confiscates their good stuff. Thus, the sideboard was:
4 Spell Snare
4 Flashfreeze
4 Shadow of Doubt
3 Confiscate
With this, I headed into the Tourney Practice room.
Match 1: Against a W/B deck, I fared none too well in game 1. He kept hammering my hand and hammering it. Remand was less than spectacular since it often meant that he was getting an even better card to Castigate, for example. After making sure that my hand was empty, his Hypnotic Specters and Skeletal Vampire went all the way.
For game 2, Remand went away for Spell Snare. I already explained my reasoning on that. War Barge also hit the bench for Confiscate. My opponent was running Wrath, and, once he saw War Barge with Merfolk Assassin, he used it as often as he could. My changes were right, and I won this one handily. Spell Snare stopped all of the Castigates, my Merfolk did their tricks, and Confiscate took what I wanted. The Cancels I held until Wrath showed up. It was a good game. (One note for this game: he had Watery Graves, which allowed my Lord-powered Merfolk to walk through. I don’t know what the Blue was for except possibly to show that he had Ravnica “Shock” lands. I saw nothing Blue in any of the three games.)
Game 3, I was mana hosed. I kept a three-land hand. I drew no more for many turns, and he hit me with Stupor. Ouch. Yet the game took over forty minutes and lasted twenty-six turns. In real life, he and I would have played to a draw. So, how did I last so long? Vedalken Plotter. I used the Plotters to take his Black mana sources. I Repealed him when I could, and I even got help when my opponent Repealed him. (It sounds bad, but it wasn’t. He was at one, and couldn’t take the damage.) However, he finally got Wrath and followed it with a Swamp and a Dark Confidant. I had no answers, and he finished me off, dropping me from seven to zero in the last three turns. As I said, IRL, I’d be saying I drew, 1-1-1. Not on MTGO, though. (0-1, 1-2)
Match 2: I hate playing against U/R Land Destruction (a.k.a. ‘Vore) decks. You don’t really “play” against them. You simply try to survive. Sadly, one of the best ways to do that is to play Blue and counter all of their best spells. Well… ta da! I won game 1 simply by being able to Remand and Cancel the two spells that are doom for this deck, Pyroclasm and Wildfire. Coral Trickster also came up huge in this game, un-Morphing during my opponent’s Upkeep to keep sources of Red mana tapped down. The Plotter came in handy too, taking Steam Vents and keeping Wildfire at bay until it almost didn’t matter.
For game 2 I dropped the Remands and War Barges along with one Repeal to bring in Spell Snare and Flashfreeze. The game was essentially over when I dropped my first Island because he could get nothing of consequence through. Pyroclasm was met with Flashfreeze, as was Wildfire. His Remands and one Pyroclasm got stopped by Spell Snare. He never mounted any sort of offense, and the game ended rather quickly. (1-1, 3-2)
Match 3: Actually, there was no third match, at least not as of this writing. Like I said, Luanne was sick on Christmas Day. So sick that I stayed home with her the next day, too. I simply didn’t have enough time to get any more testing in before I had to send this to Craig. In other words, I can’t say for sure whether this is a tourney-winning deck or not…
Oh, heck, of course I can. It’s not. It uses Merfolk Assassin. Pyroclasm wrecks it (unless you have two Lords of Atlantis out). Let’s theorize.
Against Empty the Warrens, you can’t counter all of the Stormed copies of EtW. You can counter the mana accelerating spells (the best way to go), but that will still let them cast Empty the Warrens. This deck can’t deal with fourteen 1/1 Goblin tokens, especially if they hit on turn 3.
Just Barge on In might – might – be able to handle a White Weenie deck. Spell Snare in games 2 and 3 would be huge, and being able to kill their creatures over and over would be A Very Good Thing.
Boros Deck Wins, on the other hand, I’m figuring will win game 1 easily and then will take a tighter (thanks to Spell Snare and Flashfreeze) game 2 or game 3.
Does anyone still play Solar Flare / Solar Pox? Don’t let Persecute resolve. In other words, you’re probably going to lose that match-up, too.
Soggy Pickles will (sorry, gotta do it) eat this deck for lunch if Teferi hits. With Teferi on board, the Merfolk deck won’t be able to counter anything, and the Repeals and Think Twices will have to be played on your turn during your main phases. Ugh. On the flip side, Merfolk Assassin plus War Barge takes care of Teferi.
So, as far as I can theorize, this deck will be a 50/50 tournament deck at best. In other words, "I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed. But I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops. Uh, depending on the breaks." I wish I had better news, but we just don’t have enough Merfolk yet. The Trickster was often very useful, and the Assassin was huge when it got active. Mostly, though, Just Barge on In was a mono-Blue beatdown deck, and, if that’s all we want, we can do better. Oh, how I hate Pyroclasm when I’m not casting it.
…
Just a couple of notes before I go. I forgot to keep you updated on my budget last week. The week before I blew almost the entire thing on four-of sets of each common and uncommon from Planar Chaos. Adding the leftover from that to last week and this, I have $22 in my Magic budget.
I also had a really good Christmas. I got my digital camera from Luanne. Her family all went in together and got me a seven-piece, 19.2-volt, hand-held power tool set from Craftsman, of course. My sister got me the Family Guy Christmas tree ornament set. Mom and Woody got me some nice clothes. I also got some spending money, and I finished my set of Blood Crypts and Breeding Pool with it. (Luanne had gotten me a Pool for Christmas, too.) So, because I know you really care, I only need to pick up three Hallowed Fountains, and I’ll have complete four-of sets of all of the Standard-legal dual lands. Yeah for me!
I also wanted to point out a new trade room that players have created on MTGO. It’s called Casual Trades. In any chat box, just type /join Casual Trades. Quotation marks are not needed like they are when you try to add a buddy whose name is two or more words. This room has yet to be infested by bots. Often, the trading doesn’t look to be too casual, what with people asking “Need Goblin Piledriver, Matron, Ringleader, Warchief, and Sharpshooter,” but it is. Often you can simply *gasp* trade cards. No tickets needed! Amazing, no?
Speaking of MTGO, a lot of people have asked where I get my MTGO money if I have only $10 per week for my Magic budget. The answer is two places. First, not all my Magic budget goes toward real cards. Since I’ve started this project, it has. But not always. Second, I have, as many people do, a Super Secret Budget. Actually, it’s not so secret. If I have twenty bucks earmarked for gas but I only spend fifteen, I put the other five aside. At the end of the month, if I don’t have other bills that need to be paid or any other unexpected expenses, I have extra money. If Luanne doesn’t want to go to dinner someplace fancy (we have non-fancy worked into our budget already), I have five dollars left to spend on MTGO.
I’ve also been on a bit of a draft winning streak lately. I haven’t been winning every draft, but I have been getting to the finals of nearly every 4-3-2-2 draft. That means three packs. During the Nix Tix Holiday Events (only three more days!), that means that I’ve won enough for another draft. When I only win round 1, I just need to find enough cards to trade for another pack. When I actually win a draft, I have an extra pack. During normal times, I just turn that into tickets. Of course, when I’m not winning, I stop drafting. I have to save more money before I draft again. However, I usually have plenty of cards by that point to make my decks.
How do I do it? I don’t know. I read all of Drafting with Rich, Drafting with Sean, Drafting with Blisterguy, and whoever else has draft advice. I couldn’t force a U/B deck if I had proof that the terrorists had WMDs and the only way to stop them was to let me have Blue and Black. I just take what’s available. Often, what’s available is really, really good, but no one else sees it. The last draft that I won outright, for example, I had three Empty the Warrens. One I got as a – seriously – fourteenth pick. “Deet duh dee!” Before that, I had two Traitor’s Clutch, one of which was a fifteenth pick. Folks, come on. So, don’t ask my draft advice. I just take what comes my way. I’m like the NBA team that doesn’t really need any specific help. I just take the best player available in the draft. If I end up Blue/Green, so be it.
Possibly my greatest strength, though, is simply creating my manabase. I almost never get hosed. I always start with seventeen lands. If I’m playing weenies, I may go down to sixteen or even fifteen in the most extreme cases. Typically, though, I will go up to eighteen. There are usually things you want to do at six or seven mana. Make sure you have that mana.
As usual, you’ve been a great audience. If you’re one of those who have been asking “Where’s my cheesecake,” rest assured that Luanne has not brought down the hammer or anything. I just haven’t found many good non-p0rn cheesecake pictures lately. Don’t you fret, though. I’m definitely looking. (Gawd, I love this job.)
Chris Romeo
FromRightField-at-Comcast-dot-net