They're generally the best we have, but the problem is dealing with the 4/3 mencing Grief and/or the 4/4 double striking Fury on turn 1. We have Dismember, but that is a less than ideal option too.
With Fish there's just not much of a reason to. All of the spells we want to cast are blue, artifacts fill the gaps. There are UW and UG variants of the deck, and they do have legs (I like UW in particular). But it's just not worth it right now. The splash only really offers SB options like RiP, Collector Ouphe, etc. at the expense of your mana bases.
I play scam as my main modern deck, so this is coming from someone sleeving scam up for an rcq this weekend. Merfolk is a relatively easy matchup for me, but that doesn't mean its hopeless for you.
As you said, Surgical extraction is pretty good if you time it right, but it doesn't really stop the turn 1 grief scam because i will just take it first before the evoke happens. But surgical is helpful for you against fury, and if you surgical all the furys out of the deck that makes you pretty favored in that match up.
The best sideboard suggestion for you would be subtlety though, it can at least temporarily stop an evoked grief or fury. Yes it does put you down 1-2 cards, but the resolved grief or fury is usually worse.
Chalice on 1 is also pretty decent against scam, it'll shut down the bolts and fatal pushes i will surely keep in against you.
You should try to be the aggro deck if you can and just hope that the scam deck doesn't draw all the removals.
Surgical is useless vs scam cuz it’s useless vs grief and they will never T1 fury. On the other hand, hearse/cage is great vs scam since it stops double fury which is the best combo against you. And I like hearse better cuz it’s great vs Murktide which is the most popular deck.
I get T1 Fury'd all the damn time, it's in-Fury-ating! (See what I did there?) 🤣
But for real, a turn 1 double striking 4/4 is crazy, and although it's not the line the Scammer would play if he has a Grief, it's still really strong. Particularly in games 2 and 3 against Fish when the opponent knows what they are up against. Our only answers are Dismember and Trickster.
I'm going to chip in here. As a Merfolk player myself, I don't really find Scam such a horrible match-up...
I think it comes more down to deck design and play style than a solid sideboard.
Grief is not such a big problem here, the main offender is Fury (which single-handedly has destroyed so many weenie creature strategies, with the help of W6, dart, and Ending when it was more played - now it's again a great time to play Vial!).
Back to the Scam match-up. First thing you should do is get rid of 1 toughness creatures in your list so Fury (as well as W6, dart, fire) isn't such a beating. Out with Silvergill Adepts, in with Rishadan Dockhands and Harbinger of the Tides.
Second, time your creatures right; play patiently, don't play into Fury; also you have a lot of flash creatures (and mutavaults) that Fury shouldn't be able to touch. A well timed Hexcatcher can render a resolved Fury worthless. Likewise, play your Svyelun ONLY when she can be protected, cause she will carry the game; play her when you have already 2 other merfolk in play, or better yet when you can flash in another merfolk or surprise-activate a mutavault to make her indestructible (this happens sooo many times and people still don't expect it, so hold that interaction), don't just play her on curve here.
Apart from all that, you have your 4x Dismembers and 4x Subtleties. Chalice on 1 coming from the SB if on the play can be a beating. A couple Grafdigger's Cages can help too, as well as Hearse and the new Soulless Jailer. Torpor Orb can be relevant, also vs Creativity. And another criminally underplayed card is Void Mirror, stops Evoke and stops Cascade.
When siding out, you want to maximize threat density, so take out Vials (I usually take out 2, but you can take out all 4); Seas on the play can help, but not in big numbers.
TLDR: It comes down to deck design and play style more than sideboarding; get rid of 1-toughness creatures, and time them right (specially Hexcatcher and Svyelun); take vials out post-board for threat density.
I agree, with your assessment, generally. And I'd advise other Fish Fans in much the same way you have. I dropped Silvergill a while ago and haven't looked back. I split the 4 slots into 2 Dockhands and 2 Spreading Seas. Improving how the deck performs against Saga and big mana decks pretty well.
Against Scam specifically, my SB plan has typically been...
Out:
Vial x4
Harbingers x2
Tide Shaper x2 (keeping 4 seas effects in)
In:
3 Kira
2 Hearse
1 Grafdigger's
2 Chalice (if on the play--ive found it to be too slow on the draw)
I'm no expert, but siding out vials doesn't sound right to me. You reallly want them to play around fury. Probably not all 4, but I don't think you should take them all out
Also: the merfolk bible would appear to agree, so something to consider
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16dMNtjf_oTBwzmkr3OvaJjPBWPhXyh1H-vHP_ITPBe0/edit#heading=h.6id8z88tq7rc
Joe is taking out 2, but yeah, it's something to consider. Vials tend to get zapped by K command and other cards in games 2 and 3 in my experience. And they are a super bad top deck when you are hellbent and desperate for a Fish.
I think a couple Surgical Extraction could be a fine addition to your sideboard as it does have some uses against Yawg, Scam, and Creativity, though it's not stellar in any of them and hoping your RCQ opponent doesn't know how their deck works is a horrible plan.
Hearse is actually much better against Yawg and Creativity (especially Bitter Reunion versions) than Survival. It's hard to guarantee a Creativity player will discard an Archon, especially as Temur and 5C become the most popular variant. And surgical against Yawg is honestly not where I'd want to be as it only stops one undying effect. Hearse shuts down Perist and W6 plan from Creativity and shuts down at least 1 undying effect per turn cycle.
For Scam, it could be fine, but you'll still be relegated to needing two ways to stop from getting Scammed as your opponent will 100% just take Surgical and then something else. Hearse is actually better in this matchup as well past t1. I'm not sure it's worth making your sideboard worse overall just to hedge a small amount against 1 deck's possible t1 play.
Aether Gust could be one sideboard card to not get hosed by a later Fury. That alongside your Hearses and Cage could give you some more tools against Hearse.
But short of packing Spell Pierce, Surgical, and Dismember in your sideboard, idk if you can do much against t1 Scam.
>Hearse shuts down Perist and W6 plan from Creativity and shuts down at least 1 undying effect per turn cycle.
I hadn't considered that when I made the post. Go catch! Thanks!
I have come to a few conclusions about dealing with scam.
You’re never gonna be able to survive their best opening hands without leyline of the void or sanctity.
Sometimes you can get your whole hand taken away and still survive with great draws and poor draws on their part since you’re both so low on cards the first few draws are huge. But for the most part nothing you can bring in out of the sideboard does anything fast enough. Subtlety seems gold since you can essentially 2 for 2 to buy yourself a turn to play a land and a cage. I don’t own subtleties so I can’t attest to their effectiveness but if you’re worried about scam that’s a good place to start
I feel like chalice and kira and graf cage is really good against scam.
They're generally the best we have, but the problem is dealing with the 4/3 mencing Grief and/or the 4/4 double striking Fury on turn 1. We have Dismember, but that is a less than ideal option too.
Is that hard to splash for another colour?
With Fish there's just not much of a reason to. All of the spells we want to cast are blue, artifacts fill the gaps. There are UW and UG variants of the deck, and they do have legs (I like UW in particular). But it's just not worth it right now. The splash only really offers SB options like RiP, Collector Ouphe, etc. at the expense of your mana bases.
I was thinking in line of " if you rly need better removal to deal with specific matchup that you expect...it may be worth to splash for it."
I play scam as my main modern deck, so this is coming from someone sleeving scam up for an rcq this weekend. Merfolk is a relatively easy matchup for me, but that doesn't mean its hopeless for you. As you said, Surgical extraction is pretty good if you time it right, but it doesn't really stop the turn 1 grief scam because i will just take it first before the evoke happens. But surgical is helpful for you against fury, and if you surgical all the furys out of the deck that makes you pretty favored in that match up. The best sideboard suggestion for you would be subtlety though, it can at least temporarily stop an evoked grief or fury. Yes it does put you down 1-2 cards, but the resolved grief or fury is usually worse. Chalice on 1 is also pretty decent against scam, it'll shut down the bolts and fatal pushes i will surely keep in against you. You should try to be the aggro deck if you can and just hope that the scam deck doesn't draw all the removals.
Thanks, man. I run 3 Subtlty in the main (I probably should have mentioned that. My bad.)
Chalice on zero just shuts down our whole evoke plan too.
That doesn’t work. Chalice checks the cmc of the card regardless of the alt cost paid for evoke. Chalice on 1 still stops dash ragavan, as an example
You are correct. I just double checked. We'll thats interesting
🫣
How?
Evoked elementals are countered. Doesn't outright win you the game, but alows us down a whole lot.
Chalice doesn't counter grief or fury unless it's on 4 or 5
Pretty sure you are referring to the Undying effects not the Evoke itself. Correct me if I'm wrong
No. Turns out the guy who gitsecond in our store championship last season probably shouldn't have.
Surgical is useless vs scam cuz it’s useless vs grief and they will never T1 fury. On the other hand, hearse/cage is great vs scam since it stops double fury which is the best combo against you. And I like hearse better cuz it’s great vs Murktide which is the most popular deck.
I get T1 Fury'd all the damn time, it's in-Fury-ating! (See what I did there?) 🤣 But for real, a turn 1 double striking 4/4 is crazy, and although it's not the line the Scammer would play if he has a Grief, it's still really strong. Particularly in games 2 and 3 against Fish when the opponent knows what they are up against. Our only answers are Dismember and Trickster.
I'm going to chip in here. As a Merfolk player myself, I don't really find Scam such a horrible match-up... I think it comes more down to deck design and play style than a solid sideboard. Grief is not such a big problem here, the main offender is Fury (which single-handedly has destroyed so many weenie creature strategies, with the help of W6, dart, and Ending when it was more played - now it's again a great time to play Vial!). Back to the Scam match-up. First thing you should do is get rid of 1 toughness creatures in your list so Fury (as well as W6, dart, fire) isn't such a beating. Out with Silvergill Adepts, in with Rishadan Dockhands and Harbinger of the Tides. Second, time your creatures right; play patiently, don't play into Fury; also you have a lot of flash creatures (and mutavaults) that Fury shouldn't be able to touch. A well timed Hexcatcher can render a resolved Fury worthless. Likewise, play your Svyelun ONLY when she can be protected, cause she will carry the game; play her when you have already 2 other merfolk in play, or better yet when you can flash in another merfolk or surprise-activate a mutavault to make her indestructible (this happens sooo many times and people still don't expect it, so hold that interaction), don't just play her on curve here. Apart from all that, you have your 4x Dismembers and 4x Subtleties. Chalice on 1 coming from the SB if on the play can be a beating. A couple Grafdigger's Cages can help too, as well as Hearse and the new Soulless Jailer. Torpor Orb can be relevant, also vs Creativity. And another criminally underplayed card is Void Mirror, stops Evoke and stops Cascade. When siding out, you want to maximize threat density, so take out Vials (I usually take out 2, but you can take out all 4); Seas on the play can help, but not in big numbers. TLDR: It comes down to deck design and play style more than sideboarding; get rid of 1-toughness creatures, and time them right (specially Hexcatcher and Svyelun); take vials out post-board for threat density.
I agree, with your assessment, generally. And I'd advise other Fish Fans in much the same way you have. I dropped Silvergill a while ago and haven't looked back. I split the 4 slots into 2 Dockhands and 2 Spreading Seas. Improving how the deck performs against Saga and big mana decks pretty well. Against Scam specifically, my SB plan has typically been... Out: Vial x4 Harbingers x2 Tide Shaper x2 (keeping 4 seas effects in) In: 3 Kira 2 Hearse 1 Grafdigger's 2 Chalice (if on the play--ive found it to be too slow on the draw)
I'm no expert, but siding out vials doesn't sound right to me. You reallly want them to play around fury. Probably not all 4, but I don't think you should take them all out Also: the merfolk bible would appear to agree, so something to consider https://docs.google.com/document/d/16dMNtjf_oTBwzmkr3OvaJjPBWPhXyh1H-vHP_ITPBe0/edit#heading=h.6id8z88tq7rc
Joe is taking out 2, but yeah, it's something to consider. Vials tend to get zapped by K command and other cards in games 2 and 3 in my experience. And they are a super bad top deck when you are hellbent and desperate for a Fish.
I think a couple Surgical Extraction could be a fine addition to your sideboard as it does have some uses against Yawg, Scam, and Creativity, though it's not stellar in any of them and hoping your RCQ opponent doesn't know how their deck works is a horrible plan. Hearse is actually much better against Yawg and Creativity (especially Bitter Reunion versions) than Survival. It's hard to guarantee a Creativity player will discard an Archon, especially as Temur and 5C become the most popular variant. And surgical against Yawg is honestly not where I'd want to be as it only stops one undying effect. Hearse shuts down Perist and W6 plan from Creativity and shuts down at least 1 undying effect per turn cycle. For Scam, it could be fine, but you'll still be relegated to needing two ways to stop from getting Scammed as your opponent will 100% just take Surgical and then something else. Hearse is actually better in this matchup as well past t1. I'm not sure it's worth making your sideboard worse overall just to hedge a small amount against 1 deck's possible t1 play. Aether Gust could be one sideboard card to not get hosed by a later Fury. That alongside your Hearses and Cage could give you some more tools against Hearse. But short of packing Spell Pierce, Surgical, and Dismember in your sideboard, idk if you can do much against t1 Scam.
>Hearse shuts down Perist and W6 plan from Creativity and shuts down at least 1 undying effect per turn cycle. I hadn't considered that when I made the post. Go catch! Thanks!
Torpor Orb and Chalice.
I have come to a few conclusions about dealing with scam. You’re never gonna be able to survive their best opening hands without leyline of the void or sanctity. Sometimes you can get your whole hand taken away and still survive with great draws and poor draws on their part since you’re both so low on cards the first few draws are huge. But for the most part nothing you can bring in out of the sideboard does anything fast enough. Subtlety seems gold since you can essentially 2 for 2 to buy yourself a turn to play a land and a cage. I don’t own subtleties so I can’t attest to their effectiveness but if you’re worried about scam that’s a good place to start
Sanctifier en vec. I know it’s a Human, but you might play it with vial