actually loved that first game against humans. it had back'n'forth, a one-of-fun-of winning the game, corner cases, dramatic top decks. nail biter ending. top tier content
Hey, I was your titan opponent in round 2! Titan is a hard matchup from game 2, in the interest of helping everyone who’s interested, at 20:00 here’s what works against titan: bring in your force of negations and chalices. Aggressively force amulets and put chalice on 0 so summoners pacts are dead. Subtlety is your best card in the matchup cause titan has no way to deal with it. I personally don’t like people bringing in dismember against titan because it doesn’t deal with titan and oftentimes killing a dryad or Azusa doesn’t matter, but like if it works for your consistently great. Sorry I had t3 titan both times, kinda rough for any deck to beat that
Seth you weren't supposed to let everyone know that while everyone was laughing at our fish over the last decade or so we were slowly biding our time until our triumphant return to the top of the modern format
Well, considering the mindslaver the tron player would have evoked a subtlety probably exiling the last merfolk left in his hand, leaving one subtlety. Move back to the tron player's turn and they had 12 mana. They spend 10 on walking ballista, then 1 on killing the hexcatcher for the ward cost. Svyelun loses indestructible -> 4 off ballista for svyelun -> 1 off ballista for tide shaper. Then they would have had a 4/4 ballista left on the board after wiping all the merfolk, plus 2 mana left and whatever tron land they played. Of course he would have lived another turn, but I doubt he could have won.
Really been enjoying SaffronOlive's content since discovering it, I loved that play narration turn by turn, I can put the videos on when I'm doing chores and come watch the big plays, it adds a lot for me.
Hexcatcher is such a strong card for merfolk. Let's not forget that typically, the best counter for a deck that goes too wide is a sweeper. Hexlord puts a stop to that - if not outright, at least delaying it for long enough to win via your tribal damage.
This deck is legit. I got my ass kicked pretty hard by it at the last FNM. Tide Shaper and Spreading Seas can really mess with your manabase if you are running at least 2 colours and are a little short on lands. And these spells cost just 2 mana and you still get a creature with Tide Shaper or just draw another card with Spreading Seas. Attacking Lands usually costs at least 3 mana with Stone Rain or Pillage or Blood Moon etc, and then you get no creature and no card draw. Of course the effect is not as powerful, but it can work out really well, especially since the first few turns are so important in modern now.
Every single match, once Seth realized what he was up against: "Ughhhh, this is going to be a struggle." Haha, Merfolk is fun but just wayyy too fair. :(
Thanks for giving merfolk a go! It's a punishing deck because every little decision matters. With some deck edits and different sideboarding choices, you could definitely change some of those game outcomes. But also, your opponents had really amazing draws.
It removes the abilities because it turns it into an island, but it doesn't remove the enchantment type or Saga subtype. The new Enchantment Land - Island Saga has more counters on it than its highest chapter ability (zero because it lost its abilities) so it is sacced.
What do you think of a variant of Hammer Time, where it’s white/blue? It might be a little harder to find the hammer, but you can take advantage of blue’s unblockable shenanigans, draw, counters, etc..
The main issue with Merfolk, like many AEther Vial decks, is that if you don't have AEther Vial on turn one, you're basically playing a very bad midrange deck. I think that's what holds most decks back, why we don't really see AEther Vial at all anymore in my opinion.
The main issue is mostly just the MH2 metagame overshadowing it's viability, especially since almost every tier 1-2 deck has phenomenal answers to creature tribe archetypes. I would also not liken merfolk to a midrange deck, as it is much more tempo/aggro focused even without aether vial, much like spirits in the same vein (that deck being much more tempo than aggro). however, for goblins, I'd agree more that they can lean more towards midrange/combo without vial, since they actually have a significant portion of their deck being in the 3-5 drop slots
@@rpglover5955 Merfolk being midrange is a bit of a stretch, but I just feel like it's a better way to describe all AEther vial decks as a whole :) I agree as well. The MH and MH2 metagame specifically are just.. absolutely insane and completely blow basically every other archetype out of the water If you are not using cards from MH2, no matter your deck, you're playing the game wrong. Which is sad
Yeah, Vial is interesting. When you have it on turn one it's almost broken, if you have it later it's the worst card in the deck. I think it's probably still worth it though.
He was mind slavered, the opponent would have burned his subtleties on nothing and run out the ballista their next turn and he wouldn't have had anything to respond with.
Yooo who is the editor? He is cookin S.O. in the editors notes 📝. He didn’t even gotta do em like that 🤣. Editors note: ease up off my manz 😂 be smooth 😂
Merfolk and Spirits are both very strong. But people don’t know how to play them well. Blue based tribes are very strong since they have access to countermagic, protection, and anti-counter tools (cavern/Vial). I have a 75% winrate in leagues with spirits. And my last three leagues were 4-1’s. Three 5-0’s as well - And I play about once a week. You beat Titan with Subtlety. That’s it. T3 Titan most decks lose against.
Couldn't you have countered Hammer with your Hexcatcher in the first game? They tapped out to cast with flash from Sigarda Aid. It counters noncreature spells in general, right?
from what I understand, tropical fish was fine but had many of the same weaknesses as OG fish. It feels like with hexcatcher there isn't a reason to go green anymore either
There’s just not much reason to play it anymore. The reasons to play it before would be for the one drop and extra 2 mana lord, but those have both been replaced with better blue variants now.
34:27 you bounce the walking ballista by pitching tide shaper to subtlety, on your turn you swing for 7. If you draw any other blue card in your deck then you have another subtlety to bounce the walking ballista again on their next turn. Then you just need to swing for 8 meaning you'd need to draw any one of the 12 lords in your deck to win. Seems pretty likely for you to win at the time you scooped.
@@lucasbreton4143 Opponent can't sac the board unless Seth draws an Aether Vial as Hexcatcher needs a noncreature spell on the stack to activate. Opponent would burn the Subtleys, though, and probably brick Seth's next draw with Tide Shaper unless he drew a Islandwalk Lord.
EVERYBODY underestimates spreading seas, even the people playing merfolk half the time. If you're wondering which card to sideboard in, unless you're playing another blue deck, then it's probably spreading seas.
Is Pioneer Fish a thing? Personally I'm against modern because every modern deck has to play MH2 cards and I think that's no where close to healthy. And if I remember correctly, that's the reason Mental Mistep was banned because EVERY deck had to play 4 MM, and they deemed that unhealthy
When you do the cleric lord. You gotta build it as a tool box deck. Not Because that's good. But it's so much fun, to play cleric aggro, and then occasionally cheat into play some stupidly large black effect heavy creature at instant speed. Just hold up the ability to cheat out a creature answering whatever nonsense they're doing. No feeling like, getting people with this xD
Yeah I think its been powercrept by the kicker merfolk. It gives you a body and a similar effect so its not worth it unless you need 5+ of the same effect in the main
Seth: "Merfolk haven't been a good deck in Modern in a long time!" Me Who Wins with my Budget Deck at least 4/10 games: "Eh not so much we're bad it's that we have to face the monster that is Hammer Time." **Flicks my Hyrkul's Recall onto the field** "But even then the ocean provides us answers." Nah we do have some power issues but I do tend to at least get in some decent whacks and enough to earn my pack most nights at Modern with my budget monoblue with it's one Hall of the Storm Giants, one Aether Vial and sadly only one Cavern of Souls. TuT Damn you Wizards for making Modern Masters 2022 just a cash grab most stores ran out of in days.
HECK YEAH MERFOLK! MERFOLK IS NUMBER ONE! MERFOLK IS THE BEST MODERN DECK! ITS NUMBER ONE! ITS THE BEST! THE BEST! GOING FISHING WITH THE BOYS, ISLAND WALK ISLAND WALK ISLAND WALK! PUT SOME RESPECT ON THE FISH
my friend has a disgusting merfolk deck. it gets online so fast and is so aggressive and hard to counter, especially considering river sneak kicks a lot of booty
I'm curious as to why he didn't use the reprint of lord of Atlantis, I don't play online mtg... so I don't know if I'm just stupid or not. Can someone explain?
Oh for Pete's sake, Seth It's "Otawara", not "Ottowa" (the capital of Canada, btw) And it's "Svyelun", not "Sevulun". Over and over again, these mispronunciations drive me up a wall.
honestly I cannot fathom playing Titan or a similaire combo deck they look so boring it always exacly the same thing every game to etch there own I guess p.s. I do like jank combo
I feel like Force of Will could be a better option than Force of Negation in the side board. That could be how you beat creature decks? Seems like such a fun deck.
MtGGoldfish playing a Fish deck feels fitting
Flavor win.
actually loved that first game against humans. it had back'n'forth, a one-of-fun-of winning the game, corner cases, dramatic top decks. nail biter ending. top tier content
Yeah! That was some good, clean Magic (and a very close game).
Hey, I was your titan opponent in round 2! Titan is a hard matchup from game 2, in the interest of helping everyone who’s interested, at 20:00 here’s what works against titan: bring in your force of negations and chalices. Aggressively force amulets and put chalice on 0 so summoners pacts are dead. Subtlety is your best card in the matchup cause titan has no way to deal with it. I personally don’t like people bringing in dismember against titan because it doesn’t deal with titan and oftentimes killing a dryad or Azusa doesn’t matter, but like if it works for your consistently great. Sorry I had t3 titan both times, kinda rough for any deck to beat that
Yeah, Amultet Titan seems like a tough matchup for the Fish, altough I'm sure I could have sideboarded better for it. Good game!
Seth you weren't supposed to let everyone know that while everyone was laughing at our fish over the last decade or so we were slowly biding our time until our triumphant return to the top of the modern format
That's pretty impressive considering your Hammer Time opponent had the exact perfect curve all three games
That was a wild match.
I do not know why but when Seth said "to do some fishin" in the intro I absolutely lost it.
But Svyelun gives all your Merfolk ward 1. Shouldn't have scooped to Walking Ballista...
Would it really be seth to play a whole league without punting?
Well, considering the mindslaver the tron player would have evoked a subtlety probably exiling the last merfolk left in his hand, leaving one subtlety. Move back to the tron player's turn and they had 12 mana. They spend 10 on walking ballista, then 1 on killing the hexcatcher for the ward cost. Svyelun loses indestructible -> 4 off ballista for svyelun -> 1 off ballista for tide shaper. Then they would have had a 4/4 ballista left on the board after wiping all the merfolk, plus 2 mana left and whatever tron land they played. Of course he would have lived another turn, but I doubt he could have won.
Really been enjoying SaffronOlive's content since discovering it, I loved that play narration turn by turn, I can put the videos on when I'm doing chores and come watch the big plays, it adds a lot for me.
With kicking Tide Shaper, this deck feels like it is 95% 2 drops and land
hopefully one day it can be 100% two drops
Would have been incredible to have a cameo from the professor in this video
I think Merfolk are getting closer and closer to Slivers. So many "All merfolk gets X"
Ah, yes, Much Abrew About Fishing
Hope the cleric deck can be a return to the Zendikar budget modern clerics list but as much abrew.
Merfolk has been good since svylon, i played it in last year and it feel really good
Hexcatcher is such a strong card for merfolk. Let's not forget that typically, the best counter for a deck that goes too wide is a sweeper. Hexlord puts a stop to that - if not outright, at least delaying it for long enough to win via your tribal damage.
Meanwhile the Fishman himself pulls a Tabernacle on camera from a single, loose pack.
I was waiting for the Prof name drop.
The only man I ever see trying to make Merfolk stick in /every/ format.
This deck is legit. I got my ass kicked pretty hard by it at the last FNM. Tide Shaper and Spreading Seas can really mess with your manabase if you are running at least 2 colours and are a little short on lands. And these spells cost just 2 mana and you still get a creature with Tide Shaper or just draw another card with Spreading Seas. Attacking Lands usually costs at least 3 mana with Stone Rain or Pillage or Blood Moon etc, and then you get no creature and no card draw. Of course the effect is not as powerful, but it can work out really well, especially since the first few turns are so important in modern now.
Every single match, once Seth realized what he was up against: "Ughhhh, this is going to be a struggle." Haha, Merfolk is fun but just wayyy too fair. :(
I want a format that is modern without modern horizons 2 cards
So old Extended before the HUGE power spike
The thumbnail artist always knocks it out of the park.
Merfolk in Modern?
*Tolarian Professor has entered the chat*
Thanks for giving merfolk a go! It's a punishing deck because every little decision matters. With some deck edits and different sideboarding choices, you could definitely change some of those game outcomes. But also, your opponents had really amazing draws.
I've played Merfolk for a while now, and this is awesome seeing Seth play it!
Why does Tide Shaper kill Urza's Saga? Because it doesn't have counters on it?
It removes the abilities because it turns it into an island, but it doesn't remove the enchantment type or Saga subtype. The new Enchantment Land - Island Saga has more counters on it than its highest chapter ability (zero because it lost its abilities) so it is sacced.
@@Niuttuc Gotcha tks man
What do you think of a variant of Hammer Time, where it’s white/blue? It might be a little harder to find the hammer, but you can take advantage of blue’s unblockable shenanigans, draw, counters, etc..
The normal version of hammer time is blue white?
@@zackestin1368 I’ve only seen red/white.
@@daggeranddoctor blue white for spell pierce is infinitely more popular
The main issue with Merfolk, like many AEther Vial decks, is that if you don't have AEther Vial on turn one, you're basically playing a very bad midrange deck. I think that's what holds most decks back, why we don't really see AEther Vial at all anymore in my opinion.
The main issue is mostly just the MH2 metagame overshadowing it's viability, especially since almost every tier 1-2 deck has phenomenal answers to creature tribe archetypes. I would also not liken merfolk to a midrange deck, as it is much more tempo/aggro focused even without aether vial, much like spirits in the same vein (that deck being much more tempo than aggro). however, for goblins, I'd agree more that they can lean more towards midrange/combo without vial, since they actually have a significant portion of their deck being in the 3-5 drop slots
@@rpglover5955 Merfolk being midrange is a bit of a stretch, but I just feel like it's a better way to describe all AEther vial decks as a whole :)
I agree as well. The MH and MH2 metagame specifically are just.. absolutely insane and completely blow basically every other archetype out of the water
If you are not using cards from MH2, no matter your deck, you're playing the game wrong. Which is sad
Yeah, Vial is interesting. When you have it on turn one it's almost broken, if you have it later it's the worst card in the deck. I think it's probably still worth it though.
BTW, Grafdiggers cage doesnt stop living end. Id up to 3 herse or 2 relic
34:23 why concede? you got 2 Subtlety up for Ballista and a 3 turn clock (2 turns if you find a lord within the top 4 cards even)
Seth was completely blind to his Subtleties this whole video
He was mind slavered, the opponent would have burned his subtleties on nothing and run out the ballista their next turn and he wouldn't have had anything to respond with.
Yooo who is the editor? He is cookin S.O. in the editors notes 📝. He didn’t even gotta do em like that 🤣.
Editors note: ease up off my manz 😂 be smooth 😂
I find myself constantly Conceding to Merfolk on the ladder, in honor of “Professor” from Tolarian Community College 😅
Merfolk and Spirits are both very strong. But people don’t know how to play them well. Blue based tribes are very strong since they have access to countermagic, protection, and anti-counter tools (cavern/Vial).
I have a 75% winrate in leagues with spirits. And my last three leagues were 4-1’s. Three 5-0’s as well - And I play about once a week.
You beat Titan with Subtlety. That’s it. T3 Titan most decks lose against.
I have a SPICY decklist for Cleric tribal when the time comes if you would like. It's W/B Soul Sisters
Let me see it!
Love the editor notes
How is prime not banned? Like Wotc is banning cards in pauper but a card that has plagued modern since m11 is perfectly fine
Mutavault felt like it punishes this deck more than it helps it
Couldn't you have countered Hammer with your Hexcatcher in the first game? They tapped out to cast with flash from Sigarda Aid. It counters noncreature spells in general, right?
Sev-u-lin? You always have interesting ways of pronouncing cards lmao
First time watching Seth? He has a war on card names.
Rather than Otawara, the city that floats amongst the clouds, he says Ottowa, the capital of Canada.
I love this deck! It seems so fun to play!
Seeing white border and black border cards together still hurts my OCD to this day even worse when digital.
Don't let the The Professor see this video title Seth. I'd say you were playing with fire but you're actually kinda doing the opposite of that.
Fishin' Friday, hell yeah!
The Prof must love this
Thank you editor!
Can you please do Saprolings in Modern? I haven’t been able to find a build that’s fast enough, and I’d love to see your ideas.
Did Tropical Fish (adding green for the Ikoria Lord) never catch up with the Merfolk players?
from what I understand, tropical fish was fine but had many of the same weaknesses as OG fish. It feels like with hexcatcher there isn't a reason to go green anymore either
There’s just not much reason to play it anymore. The reasons to play it before would be for the one drop and extra 2 mana lord, but those have both been replaced with better blue variants now.
Nice video!
Would love to see some modern elves too! :)
R1 G1 chose to play the vault instead of the flip land, was a mistake imo
Hey Seth you should do an updated Jund deck with sheoldred in it. This is Nick from MN you did a couple autographs for me a month ago.
at 34:20 you shuld have tide shapered another of their lands to slow them down a bit
34:27 you bounce the walking ballista by pitching tide shaper to subtlety, on your turn you swing for 7. If you draw any other blue card in your deck then you have another subtlety to bounce the walking ballista again on their next turn. Then you just need to swing for 8 meaning you'd need to draw any one of the 12 lords in your deck to win. Seems pretty likely for you to win at the time you scooped.
Well opponent was gonna control Seth's next turn so he would have wasted those subtelty adn sacced the board
@@lucasbreton4143 Opponent can't sac the board unless Seth draws an Aether Vial as Hexcatcher needs a noncreature spell on the stack to activate. Opponent would burn the Subtleys, though, and probably brick Seth's next draw with Tide Shaper unless he drew a Islandwalk Lord.
Love Merfolk and this was awesome to watch. Prime time is a tough match up. No matter what. You have to hope they stumble.
EVERYBODY underestimates spreading seas, even the people playing merfolk half the time. If you're wondering which card to sideboard in, unless you're playing another blue deck, then it's probably spreading seas.
It amazes me that amulet of vigor is still not banned in modern.
so many cards have died to protect it
Is Pioneer Fish a thing? Personally I'm against modern because every modern deck has to play MH2 cards and I think that's no where close to healthy. And if I remember correctly, that's the reason Mental Mistep was banned because EVERY deck had to play 4 MM, and they deemed that unhealthy
Doomwake played some pioneer fish and it looked OK.
*The Professor has entered the chat*
Why are you not running spreading seas main deck!?
When you do the cleric lord.
You gotta build it as a tool box deck.
Not Because that's good.
But it's so much fun, to play cleric aggro, and then occasionally cheat into play some stupidly large black effect heavy creature at instant speed.
Just hold up the ability to cheat out a creature answering whatever nonsense they're doing.
No feeling like, getting people with this xD
I hope you play more modern tier(?) decks.
Maybe you should squeeze in another Land ~ I feel like each second sentence was “we need another land“ XD
I am saddened by the lack of Reejerey and (main deck) Aquitect's Will/Spreading Seas... but I guess they're not worth running anymore?
Yeah I think its been powercrept by the kicker merfolk. It gives you a body and a similar effect so its not worth it unless you need 5+ of the same effect in the main
Must be nice when your opponent pretty much has the nut draw 2 games in a row
The Professor has entered the chat
Speading Seas is a great Fi(ni)sher
Did Seth bring in grafdigger's cage against living end or am I going crazy?
Seth: "Merfolk haven't been a good deck in Modern in a long time!"
Me Who Wins with my Budget Deck at least 4/10 games: "Eh not so much we're bad it's that we have to face the monster that is Hammer Time." **Flicks my Hyrkul's Recall onto the field** "But even then the ocean provides us answers."
Nah we do have some power issues but I do tend to at least get in some decent whacks and enough to earn my pack most nights at Modern with my budget monoblue with it's one Hall of the Storm Giants, one Aether Vial and sadly only one Cavern of Souls. TuT Damn you Wizards for making Modern Masters 2022 just a cash grab most stores ran out of in days.
Why is there not a pinned comment from Brian on here?
In the tron matchup couldn't you have vialed in the drawn master of pearl trident to get svyelun damage through solemn?
vial on 3
Am I the only one who thinks Hammertime deserves a ban of some sort? Sigarda's aid or something similar?
am I wrong in that subtlety could have been used to pitch most of the hand and make an actual legit board?
I don't see how exiling your hand would help against living end...
@@ccggenius you would get two subtlety back from the graveyard which would bounce his scariest cyclers back to hand
Now if only Faeries can get new support ;-;
If you ever play merfolk again, wear a fishin hat. :)
idk, merfolk has been putting up decent numbers all summer at my fnm. it's been playable since mh2
Is the title a dig at the professor? 😂
Wow, the Editor shade... 😹
1:36 Noted, there are two types of decks: creature decks and unfair decks. jk
Gotta play lullmage mentor ;)
Legendary tribal in modern? Jodah in modern?
gone fishin
Still hoping for Lullmage Mentor to pop off with the new lord!
The life of a merfolk player, so many games rely on the top deck spreading seas, lmao
HECK YEAH MERFOLK! MERFOLK IS NUMBER ONE! MERFOLK IS THE BEST MODERN DECK! ITS NUMBER ONE! ITS THE BEST! THE BEST! GOING FISHING WITH THE BOYS, ISLAND WALK ISLAND WALK ISLAND WALK! PUT SOME RESPECT ON THE FISH
Opponent has megatron? Does that mean you should be playing optimus prime (time) ?
my friend has a disgusting merfolk deck. it gets online so fast and is so aggressive and hard to counter, especially considering river sneak kicks a lot of booty
Word of the day; Violin
I'm curious as to why he didn't use the reprint of lord of Atlantis, I don't play online mtg... so I don't know if I'm just stupid or not. Can someone explain?
Because old borders are cooler?
Se view lin seems like a pretty good card
Historic merfolk feels so much better honestly
Couldn't you bounce living end with subtlety in G1?
It is creatures and planeswalkers only
Nice "brew"
Editor tearing a new one on Seth…
Merfolk good. Ha! That is cute.
I can't take it, you called the land Otowa and then you called Svyelun *Sev-u-lin* and then continued to do it the entire video Q.Q
Ottowa is the capital of Canada, smh
Now you know the pain of the people of Ay-Ganno.
Amulet Titan is so busted
Oh for Pete's sake, Seth
It's "Otawara", not "Ottowa" (the capital of Canada, btw)
And it's "Svyelun", not "Sevulun".
Over and over again, these mispronunciations drive me up a wall.
honestly I cannot fathom playing Titan or a similaire combo deck they look so boring it always exacly the same thing every game
to etch there own I guess
p.s. I do like jank combo
Svy-el-unn
Seth I love you but my head started to hurt after the 500th mispronunciation of Svyelun.
I feel like Force of Will could be a better option than Force of Negation in the side board. That could be how you beat creature decks? Seems like such a fun deck.
Force of Will isn’t legal in modern unfortunately
Subtlety is Merfolk's answer to creatures like Fury.
Bruh, this is a modern video, not a legacy video
Lmao yes FOW is better for sure 😂
If you're going to call out tcc like this you all have to at least go on the show.