Merfolk at SCG DFW

Standard Open

This past weekend was the SCG Open in Fort Worth. I played a similar Merfolk list to the one I played last weekend. I swapped a Watertrap Weaver for a Swift Warden and made some sideboard adjustments, but nothing major. I went 3-3 in the Standard Open before dropping. My friend Will Lowry also played the same list and went 3-3-1 before dropping as well. He played it again on day two in the Standard Classic, finishing 4-4. Here are some takeaways.

Unlike last week, my opponents decks seemed much better. Almost all had a clear plan and sometimes the plans were difficult for us to beat. Thief of Sanity and Thought Erasue from both Esper and Sultai variants proved difficult to beat. Theif would be impossible to kill while using your best cards against you. Thought Erasure would let them play for the correct late game plan by preventing your countermagic from being useful or letting your midrange cards take over. Your great draws still felt very good but there seemed to be fewer and fewer of them. I think we were winless in a combined four matches against Esper Control, which I had counted on being a good matchup when preparing for the RTPQ.

My rounds were as follows:
R1 - RG Aggro W
R2 - UR Drakes L
R3 - UG Reclamation Creatures (No Nexus, Biogenic Ooze, Dream Eater, Adapt creatures) W
R4 - Temur Reclamation Niv-Mizzet L
R5 - Mono Red W
R6 - Esper Control L

I was willing to call it a loss and move on. I'll credit my RPTQ win to a few lucky matchups. Will wasn't willing to give up so he continued playing on Sunday and kept finding more and more flaws with the deck. It is still a fun deck and I think it has potential but I'm unsure what to do to fix it. I'd start with 4x Kraul Harpooner in the sideboard.

Modern Classic

I brought some of my Modern Merfolk cards just in case I didn't make day two and didn't want to play Standard again. This was exactly the situation I found myself in, so I decided to play a brew I had been thinking about. I was going to play Merfolk with 4x Lighting Bolt 4x Wizard's Lightning. I began pulling the cards out I needed and realized I forgot to bring my Mutavaults. This may have been a blessing in disguise, because it let me redo the manabase and play the following list:

3 Cursecatcher

4 Silvergil Adept

4 Benthic Biomancer

4 Harbinger of Tides

4 Merfolk Trickster

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Master of the Pearl Trident

3 Merrow Reejery

4 Wizard's Lightning

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Aether Vial

4 Spirebluff Canal

3 Steam Vents

4 Flooded Strand

4 Polluted Delta

1 Oboro, Palace in the Clouds

2 Island

Sideboard

2 Mistcaller

2 Grafdigger's Cage

4 Wizard's Retort

2 Unified Will

1 Ceremonius Rejection

2 Alpine Moon

2 Dispel

I went 6-3, losing the last round playing for prizes. The deck was a fun take but I don't think the red is entirely necessary. The bolts caught some people off guard in game one, and were very useful against other creature decks where I could never be attacked with combination of bolts, Harbinger, and Trickster. You should absolutely cut a Steam Vents for an Island if you play this again. The Alpine Moon was very impressive in the SB and something I would play again. I missed Mutavault in a couple of matchups and felt like I needed another land or two in the draws that didn't include Aether Vial. Benthic Biomancer was not as great as I thought. I would prefer 4th Cursecatcher and probably the 4th Reejery and 2 Biomancer if I were to play it again. 

My rounds were as follows:
R1 - Jeskai Control- L

R2 - UW Control - W

R3 - UW Spirits - W

R4 - MonoRed Phoenix - L

R5 - Burn - W

R6 - MonoRed Phoenix - W

R7 - Hardened Scales - W

R8 - RG Scapeshift - W

R9 - RW Prison - L

I'm probably done with Merfolk in both formats for a while, but I'm sure I'll come back to revist them at some point in the future.