Playing in MDSS tournaments in Toronto has always been a great experience. The venue is sweet with lots of space, food, and access to a cold efficient water bottle station (dehydration reduces the likelihood of winning). Tournament organizer Face to Face Games is always very accommodating and professional – you can tell by how seamless the MDSS events are run. The best part of all is getting together with over one hundred competitively minded peers who all want to achieve the same goal – win the MDSS and hoist the trophy.
The deck of choice for me was Merfolk. I felt the deck was extremely well positioned in the meta-game as it was fair to expect a lot of decks that play Islands (UR/Grixis Twin and Grixis/UW Control variants) resulting in some good matchups. Historically, the deck’s poor matchups are Affinity, Tron, and Amulet Bloom. The main lure to play this specific list of Merfolk are the 4 copies of [card]Harbinger of the Tides[/card] and 4 copies of [card]Vapor Snag[/card] in the main deck. These cards are able to heavily improve already winnable matchups such as Burn, Infect, and Abzan Company by keeping the opponent off tempo and not allowing them to piece their cards together efficiently. More importantly, they also improve the bad matchups mentioned above. Bouncing a lethally equipped [card]Vault Skirge[/card] / [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card], a lifelinking [card]Wurmcoil Engine[/card], or a double striking [card]Primeval Titan[/card] can be game changing if available and timed properly. These matchups are still very difficult to win on a consistent basis, but 8 main deck ways to disrupt these strategies seemed like a good plan.
Here is the list I sleeved up:
[deck]
[Lands]
2 Cavern of Souls
13 Island
4 Mutavault
1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds
[/Lands]
[Spells]
2 Spell Pierce
4 Spreading Seas
4 Vapor Snag
4 Aether Vial
[/Spells]
[Creatures]
4 Cursecatcher
4 Harbinger of the Tides
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Master of the Pearl Trident
2 Master of Waves
4 Merrow Reejerey
4 Silvergill Adept
[/Creatures]
[Sideboard]
1 Pithing Needle
2 Spellskite
4 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Negate
2 Flashfreeze
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
2 Hibernation
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]
The one card I could not find before the event was one [card]Minamo, School at Water’s Edge[/card] to help matchups against Choke (more on this later).
Onto the main event!
Round 1 vs. Dredgevine (L – 0-2), Adam
Game 1:
Adam is a local player that is known for playing Dredgevine very effectively. Adam curved [card]Faithless Looting[/card] into a couple [card]Gravecrawler[/card]s into 2 [card]Vengevine[/card]s quite early while I was stuck casting creatures honestly (no [card]Aether Vial[/card]). The game ended very quickly and I immediately wondered if not including any copies of [card]Relic of Progenitus[/card] in the 75 would prevent me from going deep into this event.
Sideboard:
IN: +2 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
OUT: -2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card]
Game 2:
Adam had a slow start spending his first few turns dredging and setting up while I was able to quickly reduce his life to 10. He needed to do something or else he was dead the next turn. It turned out [card]Gnaw to the Bone[/card] into a flashbacked [card]Gnaw to the Bone[/card] bought him more than enough time to assemble a team of [card]Vengevine[/card]s and [card]Gravecrawler[/card]s that were able to easily overpower my board and eventually kill me. With no turn 1 [card]Aether Vial[/card] and no [card]Spreading Seas[/card] combined with not being able to interact with my opponent’s strategy made this match almost impossible to win.
Record after Round 1: (0-1, 0 points)
Round 2 vs Infect (W – 2-1), Brad
This match had feel bad written all over it. Brad is a good friend and player at our local store who came to the event with us. With both of us 0-1 and matched up against each other, we knew one of us almost certainly wouldn’t be in Top 8 contention.
Game 1:
Brad was light on mana and I was able to curve out my Merfolk while leaving up [card]Vapor Snag[/card] interaction. Variance wasn’t kind to Brad as he never had that extra mana to disrupt whatever I was using to out-tempo his creatures and spells. The game ended with me attacking for lethal against Brad’s unfortunate threat and mana deprived board.
Sideboard:
IN: +1 [card]Pithing Needle[/card], +1 [card]Flashfreeze[/card], +2 [card]Negate[/card], +2 [card]Spellskite[/card]
OUT: -4 Merrow Reejerey, -2 [card]Master of Waves[/card]
Game 2:
Brad’s deck brought him better luck with a powerful turn 3 kill. Turn 1 he played a [card]Glistener Elf[/card], turn 2 attacked for 9 Infect against my board that included a single [card]Aether Vial[/card]. Turn 3 I was ready to block the Elf with my [card]Silvergill Adept[/card] but he had [card]Apostle’s Blessing[/card] to give it protection from Blue and attack for lethal. I needed a [card]Harbinger of the Tides[/card] to prevent the turn 3 kill and didn’t see one.
Game 3:
Unfortunately for Brad, this game was very similar to Game 1 where he was short on mana, not allowing him to unload a hand full of pump spells and disruption. I was able to sustain high pressure with Lords and had some counter magic and [card]Vapor Snag[/card]s for backup to solidify the victory. Brad showed me his hand and had he drawn one more land I would’ve been the one starting the event 0-2.
Record after Round 2: (1-1, 3 points)
Round 3 vs Abzan Aggro (W – 2-1), Kaspar
Kaspar was playing a deck that seemed similar to Jacob Wilson’s Little Kid Junk list from Pro Tour Dragons of Tarkir. Differences were copies of [card]Evolutionary Leap[/card] to chain value by sacrificing [card]Lingering Souls[/card] tokens and using [card]Restoration Angel[/card] as a finisher blinking [card]Siege Rhino[/card].
Game 1:
Once I realized that Kaspar wasn’t on Abzan Company I felt better about my chances. I knew that I was the favourite to win if board states were cluttered combined with a [card]Spreading Seas[/card] (which I didn’t draw). The mid-point of the match included me casting a [card]Master of Waves[/card] that came with 8 [card]Elemental[/card] tokens. Kaspar couldn’t afford to attack due to the risk of losing on my next turn’s attack. I turned all my creatures sideways except for [card]Master of Waves[/card] and attacked for what I had hoped to be lethal. This could’ve ended up being a critical mistake as Kaspar was left at 2 life. Had I attacked with the Master it would’ve been lethal. Kaspar wasn’t able to find a [card]Path to Exile[/card] for the Master to eliminate the tokens and I won on the next attack.
Sideboard:
IN: +2 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
OUT: -2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card]
Game 2:
Kaspar had a very aggressive start that contained [card]Noble Hierarch[/card]s, [card]Loxodon Smiter[/card]s and [card]Siege Rhino[/card]s. He kept the pressure coming and I wasn’t able to win a damage race given the board state. I tried to stall by bouncing some creatures and Flashfreezeing a Rhino but the game ended with a [card]Restoration Angel[/card] blinking a [card]Siege Rhino[/card] and attacking in the air with double Exalted for 5.
Game 3:
If there ever was a match to only draw one Island, this was it. My opening hand consisted of 2 [card]Cavern of Souls[/card], 2 [card]Aether Vial[/card]s, a [card]Spreading Seas[/card] and a few Merfolk. After using the Island I drew to cast a creature, Kaspar was opportunistic and played Choke. Choke is usually devastating for Mono Blue Merfolk, but I was able to play around it with 2 [card]Aether Vial[/card]s and 2 [card]Cavern of Souls[/card]. I quickly identified that [card]Vault of the Archangel[/card] would’ve easily won Karpar the match so I used another Island I drew off the top to [card]Spreading Seas[/card] the tapped spell land (which means it also did not untap). The board states were similar to Game 1 and the match ended with [card]Master of Waves[/card] and [card]Mutavault[/card] Islandwalking me to victory.
Record after Round 3: (2-1, 6 points)
Round 4 vs. Affinity (W, 2-1), John
Game 1:
I could tell my opponent kept a slow and sketchy hand due to his facial expressions. This was validated when John casted a single [card]Signal Pest[/card] on his first turn. On turn 2, he played a [card]Relic of Progenitus[/card] and a Mox Opal which I quickly Spell Pierced. His slow start allowed me to accumulate a large board of Merfolk and hit him for 15 on turn 4 while bouncing a few pesky artifact creatures along the way with [card]Harbinger of the Tides[/card].
Sideboard:
IN: +4 [card]Hurkyl’s Recall[/card], +1 [card]Pithing Needle[/card], +2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
OUT: -3 Merrow Reejerey, -2 [card]Master of Waves[/card], -2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card]
Game 2:
This game went a lot like it is supposed to in this matchup. John unloaded his hand within the first few turns and eventually won the damage race with [card]Cranial Plating[/card] equipped to a [card]Vault Skirge[/card]. I was able to cast [card]Pithing Needle[/card] on [card]Arcbound Ravager[/card] and return his artifcats to his hand with one of my four copies of Hurky’s Recall but it still wasn’t enough as John quickly dropped his hand again and re-equipped his threats and won shortly after. Not having [card]Aether Vial[/card] made it difficult to cast threats and also hold up mana for [card]Hurkyl’s Recall[/card] – which is one of the recipes you need to beat Affinity.
Game 3:
Speaking of good recipes, this game had some great sequences on the first few turns. On the play I casted a turn 1 [card]Aether Vial[/card] and played tempo creatures and spells like [card]Harbinger of the Tides[/card] and [card]Vapor Snag[/card]s. While my hand was very strong, John’s hand was average which was very fortunate for me. The critical moment of the game was casting [card]Spreading Seas[/card] onto an [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] and winning the game with Islandwalk a few turns later.
Record after Round 4: (3-1, 9 points)
Round 5 vs Infect (W – 2-0), Wilson
Game 1:
This match better represented the Infect vs. Merfolk matchup as Wilson had reasonable mana to work with compared to Brad’s poor luck in Round 2. I was able to curve out on Merfolk and Wilson drew multiple copies of [card]Glistener Elf[/card]. Each time an Elf attacked I blocked, causing Wilson to either use a pump spell to save his Elf or otherwise lose it. He eventually lost all three [card]Glistener Elf[/card]s and when he went in for the kill with an Inkmoth + [card]Groundswell[/card] I had left blue open for [card]Spell Pierce[/card] which meant I won the game on my next attack step. Wilson not seeing a [card]Blighted Agent[/card] definitely helped here.
Sideboard:
IN: +1 [card]Pithing Needle[/card], +1 [card]Flashfreeze[/card], +2 [card]Negate[/card], +2 [card]Spellskite[/card]
OUT: -4 Merrow Reejerey, -2 [card]Master of Waves[/card]
Game 2:
The interactions of this match was similar to Game 1 and was much closer. I was able to cast [card]Cursecatcher[/card] on turn 1 followed by some Merfolk to apply some pressure. Early on Wilson casted [card]Twisted Image[/card] on my [card]Spellskite[/card] which left me feeling a little helpless. Luckily I drew into Spell Pierce and knew I wanted to save it until as late as possible. The mid-game consisted of some timely Harbinger of the Tides triggers and [card]Vapor Snag[/card]s, allowing me to get in incremental damage causing Wilson to make an alpha-strike on his next turn. On his turn he went all-in on a Groundswelled [card]Inkmoth Nexus[/card] which is when I attempted to counter with [card]Spell Pierce[/card]. Wilson paused for a while and decided not to pay for it and followed up with a kicked [card]Vines of Vastwood[/card]. After checking the board and his unavailable mana, the [card]Cursecatcher[/card] that was played on turn 1 won me the match by countering the second pump spell. I wrapped up the match by attacking him for lethal on my next turn.
Record after Round 5: (4-1, 12 points)
Round 6 vs. Grixis Delver (W – 2-0), Andrew
Game 1:
Andrew had an early [card]Mana Leak[/card] for my [card]Silvergill Adept[/card] but no early answers to consecutive Lords and a Merrow Reejerey. The damage race was on and each time Andrew killed a threat it was followed up by another through an end-of-turn [card]Aether Vial[/card]. I eventually reached a critical mass of Islandwalking Merfolk for the kill relatively early in the game. Andrew unfortunately didn’t get to flip his [card]Delver of Secrets[/card] but I don’t think it would have affected the outcome.
Sideboard:
IN: +2 [card]Kira, Great Glass-Spinner[/card], +2 [card]Flashfreeze[/card], +2 [card]Negate[/card]
OUT: -4 [card]Aether Vial[/card], -2 [card]Spreading Seas[/card]
Game 2:
I prepared for a much longer match by sideboarding out the [card]Aether Vial[/card]s. Although they are very good against counter magic, these games tend to go longer and Merfolk needs their own counter magic to stop [card]Pyroclasm[/card], [card]Anger of the Gods[/card], [card]Kolaghan’s Command[/card], and [card]Damnation[/card]. Maintaining threat density is crucial to closing out games. Andrew kept a hand full of [card]Serum Visions[/card], [card]Thought Scour[/card]s and Delve creatures figuring he could race me. An early [card]Gurmag Angler[/card] was quickly Vapor Snaged at the end of his turn, leaving him with a seven mana creature in his hand and no graveyard for [card]Snapcaster Mage[/card] value. He couldn’t cast enough spells to refill his graveyard and match the threats I was churning out. Not being able to interact with 10+ power on the board ended the game very quickly.
Record after Round 6: (5-1, 15 points)
Round 7 vs. Unknown (Intentional Draw – 0-0-1), Matthew
As soon as we sat down at the table Matthew asked me if I wanted to draw. Knowing I got paired up to Matthew (16 points to my 15) and having good tie breakers I felt this was the right call. I spent the round watching an epic rematch from the week before’s WMCQ Finals between Hunter Platt and Ben Winokur for a win-and-in to the Top 8. Ben avenged his loss from the week before and he was guaranteed a slot into the Top 8.
Record after Round 7: (5-1-1, 16 points)
Quarter Finals vs. Bant Midrange (aka Swag Tribal) (W – 2-0), Ben
Game 1:
Ben’s deck consisted of a wide array of powerful and efficient cards from the Bant colour wedge. Although Ben’s list is disruptive in a lot of matchups, Merfolk isn’t one of them (in game 1). I knew I had the opportunity to flat out race him since he only played 13 non-creature spells and little removal in game 1. Ben was on the play and both decks had their starts of throwing creatures onto the board. As soon I saw Ben play an Island I knew I had the advantage. Merfolk were chunking large amounts of damage and Ben had to try and race me with a [card]Geist of Saint Traft[/card]. I chose not to block with my [card]Silvergill Adept[/card] to go for the kill shortly after. I had solidified game 1 with Islandwalkers.
Sideboard:
IN: +2 [card]Hibernation[/card], +2 [card]Negate[/card], +2 [card]Flashfreeze[/card]
OUT: -4 [card]Spreading Seas[/card], -2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card]
Game 2:
Game 2 gets very different with having to play around cards like [card]Engineered Explosives[/card] and [card]Supreme Verdict[/card]. Being able to side out [card]Spreading Seas[/card] and strictly upgrade the deck in games 2 and 3 is a huge advantage and I was definitely happy about that here. Unfortunately, this wasn’t much of a game since Ben’s hands forced him to mulligan and were unforgiving with terrible top decks. Merfolk did what it was supposed to and ran him over quite quickly as Ben didn’t manage to form much of a board state since he was stuck on mana. Not the way anyone wants to win but I was onto the semi-finals.
Record after Quarter Finals: (6-1-1, 19 points)
Semi Finals vs. UR Twin (W – 2-0), Edan
Game 1:
I sat across from my first Twin opponent of the day and felt very comfortable since my list was very tuned to not lose to this deck. The early game consisted of me running Merfolk onto the board and leaving up a combination of mana for Spell Pierce/Vapor Snag and/or [card]Aether Vial[/card] on 2 for a flashed in [card]Harbinger of the Tides[/card]. Edan was able to trade a [card]Roast[/card] and some [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]s for some Merfolk but couldn’t one for one them all. Knowing he was in a losing situation he was forced to go for the combo which I quickly broke up with a [card]Vapor Snag[/card] (and also had [card]Aether Vial[/card] + [card]Harbinger of the Tides[/card] as backup). The defenses were down and I swung in for the kill the next turn.
Sideboard:
IN: +2 [card]Kira, Great Glass-Spinner[/card], +2 [card]Flashfreeze[/card], +2 [card]Negate[/card], +2 [card]Spellskite[/card]
OUT: -2 Merrow Reejerey, -2 [card]Spell Pierce[/card], -4 [card]Spreading Seas[/card]
Game 2:
The board state was very similar to game 1 except my opponent made some crucial mistakes. There were turns that Edan could’ve ran out end-of-turn Pestermite/Deceiver Exarch keeping me off balance but he elected not to. He also didn’t play them during my turn to tap down attackers. I decided to play my third Lord making all of them 4/4s, made some attacks to keep pressure on and left some mana open to interact if need be ([card]Vapor Snag[/card], [card]Negate[/card], [card]Flashfreeze[/card], etc). Edan drew for his turn and immediately and confidently slammed [card]Anger of the Gods[/card] which made me quite confused. In that moment it seemed he had trouble doing “Lord Math” and made a misplay that definitely lost him the match. None of them died and they attacked for lethal the next turn.
Record after Semi Finals: (7-1-1, 22 points)
Finals vs. RG Tron (W – 2-0), Brian
Game 1:
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article Tron is one of Merfolk’s worst matchups so I knew my odds of winning this match weren’t very high but was I still very poised. I had made it this far so at this point my confidence was high and my play was on point. I kept a hand with 1 [card]Cavern of Souls[/card], 2 [card]Mutavault[/card]s, an [card]Aether Vial[/card] and some Merfolk. Knowing I’d need threats to win the game I wasn’t fretting about not drawing an Island. I had attacked Brain a few times in the early turns and he spent his turns looking for Tron pieces. He eventually jammed a Karn, the Liberated removing one of my [card]Mutavault[/card]s. On my turn I was able to [card]Aether Vial[/card] in a Lord before damage and kill Karn which was definitely a positive but I was worried it would give Brian time to throw more giant threats onto the board. Brian wasn’t able to wipe my board with [card]Pyroclasm[/card] or [card]Ugin, the Spirit Dragon[/card] and as a result I won the game shortly after. It seemed like an odd game but I happily took it.
Sideboard:
IN: +1 [card]Pithing Needle[/card], +1 [card]Flashfreeze[/card], +2 [card]Negate[/card]
OUT: -2 [card]Vapor Snag[/card], -2 [card]Master of Waves[/card]
Game 2:
Taking game 1 on the draw felt like a stole something so I played the rest of the match with nothing to lose. My luck got a lot better when Brian mulled to 5 cards and didn’t look very pleased with what he saw. Knowing he kept an uninspiring hand, I knew my turn 1 [card]Cursecatcher[/card] had an opportunity to become a back breaker for my Tron opponent. On his second turn, Brain played one of the Chromatics, payed for the activation and sacrificed it for green mana and attempted to cast an [card]Ancient Stirrings[/card]. I realized using my [card]Cursecatcher[/card] in this spot was effectively [card]Stone Rain[/card] and countered the [card]Ancient Stirrings[/card] which set the tone the rest of the way. Anything Brian could do highly relied upon the top of his deck which meant I was in a good position to load up my board and go for the kill. With some nerves kicking in the rest of the game was a little blurry but I certainly remembered turning my Merfolk sideways and taking the day.
Record after Finals: (7-1-1, 25 points)
I was in a little disbelief I had won MDSS. To me, winning this event was a huge accomplishment since I knew some of the finest players in the area were also battling for the same goal. Playing well in local shops is nice, but taking down this event felt great about how I played and the deck I chose. I’d like to thank Noah Long for keeping me up-to-date on everything Merfolk over the past few years. Although the list was different the core principles of the deck, strategy, and board-state analysis were derived from what I had learned from one of the best Merfolk players in Canada. Thanks Noah!
If anyone has any questions about the list feel free to message me on Facebook or Twitter @boltyourlife.