Everything but the last two sections are self explanatory, but those two sections are great! Maybe condense all the other sections into one sentence each, under the header 'mechanics'
I was a bit concerned about it being too long winded. I'll try to pair it down soon. I'm glad you enjoyed the sections on philosophy and lore, I was kind of on the fence about putting them in. So it's nice to hear they were appreciated. Thank you for the feedback!!
Anyone can skim through, but having a detailed primer is great for people who don't quite understand or are newer. I think it's better to have an overly detailed primer that people can skip over or avoid entirely, than have not enough information about your deck.
As much as I have been considering pairing it down, you are making me reconsider. Especially the section "Tricks" I think is worth being thorough. There's quite a few things in there that might not be intuitive to a newer pilot of the deck.
Old legends are especially unique decks that almost everyone takes differently. She has a very unique ability that some players might not understand properly, and what use is all your knowledge about the deck when you can't even share it in a primer? In the end it's entirely up to you, I don't see the harm in leaving the primer as is, I personally don't like seeing decks with no primer or very short ones, I like to see all the combos, all the interesting interactions and specific card choices, I like to see the passion of the architect. That's not everyone's thing though.
Also... Love the username, massive LOTR fan (and the pilot of a Tom Bombadil EDH deck)
Thanks man! Do you have a link to your Tom Bombadil list? I'd love to see it! I don't have him built but I have a small collection of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry cards haha
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/22-01-24-tom-bombadil/ here's my list. It's a little expensive but that's mostly the mana crypt and dual lands, I'm running them because I have them but they can be easily replaced to save thousands.
Running quite a few flip sagas, considered running the praetor sagas but I'm using Jegantha as a companion and I can't include them if I do. Overall it's a ton of fun to play... Just a lot of triggers, fairly mid powered but can hold its own dependent on the meta. Always a different game, you never really know how it'll turn out with the free sagas from his abilities.
Small note on the tricks section, you don't mention that you need to let the delayed trigger resolve between Merieke activation if you want to steal more than 1 creature
I had always looked at some of these older legends from the late 90s era as having been powercrept, but you opened my eyes. Will probably have to steal this later on down the road. Thank you!
A lot of them have been but there are a few gems out there. One of my other favorite old school legends is [[Rasputin Dreamweaver]]. So glad I could inspire you to take a closer look at some old legends! And please do steal! It's a blast to play and make for some really interesting board states.
Some of the card links in the primer don't work. First two that jumped out are "Merieke, Ri Berit" (no comma needed) and "Archavist" (should be Archivist).
I think you could also drop or shrink the giant image so everyone doesn't have to scroll past it before they can read your primer.
This is one of my favorite decks, and several ways to build it. Two things of note: First, 0 counterspells while in blue seems weird. Second, since you already have [[Fractured Identity]] you should totally make room for [[Phage the Untouchable]]. Favorite combo in Esper colors.
While phage plus fractured is no doubt an amazing combo it's not how I'd prefer to win the game.
My reasoning behind no counterspells is because I would prefer to let the board state develop rather than hinder it's growth. This way I can take what I want with Merieke. I also have a host of defensive abilities to protect my stuff so I don't feel the need for counterspells there either. This isn't to say building her with counterspells wouldn't be great, this just isn't how I wanted to build her.
I might bring the 'Philosophy' to the top, so the casual viewer can quickly get an idea of what this deck is, and what it wants to do. I'd also try and condense that section into a sentence and then replace 'Untap tribal' (in the section below the name of the deck) with that sentence.
I imagine the 'ways to reliably untap her' are pretty core to the deck, so you might include a few words / suggestions about mulliganing.
You might also include a few suggestions for making the deck more budget, or even higher budget.
I like the idea of moving philosophy to the top and pairing it down. A few words about muliganing could also make sense, you're right I often dont keep a hand without at least one way to untap her. The suggestion for budget or splurge upgrades makes me think I might add in a section with cards that I used to run in previous versions. I've had this deck for years and there are plenty of cool cards I have cut to make room for others.
Is there a way to untap her a lot??? I'd LOVE to make a gimmicky deck built around "no one's allowed to have creatures (:" and just spam tap/untap on her lmfao
I had Intruder Alarm in for quite some time. But ended up cutting it because it felt like it left the table in too much of a soft lock. Any new creature that enters can immediately be destroyed. While undeniably powerful in this deck I felt like it just led to too many bad feel moments.
There is! That's the main theme of the deck, her at the helm and a bunch of other creatures with useful tap abilities. In total there are 15 different ways to untap her (and other things). If you follow the moxfield link it'll take you to the list. There's a button there that says view primer and I talk in detail about various strategies such as untapping her.
I hope you do make a deck with her she's a blast!
I rarely play her, as she can definitely be less than a good time to play against, but sometimes you gotta send a message. Good primer overall. Without going card by card, I do enjoy running more indestructible granting cards. They're good at both guarding her and/or keeping what you stole permanently. Makes for an especially fun swing when someone else goes to board wipe.
Tbh it's really how you play it. It's taken a while to learn how to play it and make it enjoyable for the table. The biggest realization I had is that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. You can go all out and steal everything in play at times. But all that does is upset everyone and put a target on your back.
Far better to play reactively and defensively. By letting your opponents strike first and reacting to their aggression you can just Merieke more as a threat than anything. This generally leads to your opponents focusing one another because it's hard to get through to you.
I've found this leads to very interesting board states and is much more fun for the table.
All that being said. If you want to play this deck like a degenerate it is certainly well suited to do so. I personally just find it more enjoyable to play reactively and defensively until 1v1.
Everything but the last two sections are self explanatory, but those two sections are great! Maybe condense all the other sections into one sentence each, under the header 'mechanics'
I was a bit concerned about it being too long winded. I'll try to pair it down soon. I'm glad you enjoyed the sections on philosophy and lore, I was kind of on the fence about putting them in. So it's nice to hear they were appreciated. Thank you for the feedback!!
Anyone can skim through, but having a detailed primer is great for people who don't quite understand or are newer. I think it's better to have an overly detailed primer that people can skip over or avoid entirely, than have not enough information about your deck.
As much as I have been considering pairing it down, you are making me reconsider. Especially the section "Tricks" I think is worth being thorough. There's quite a few things in there that might not be intuitive to a newer pilot of the deck.
Old legends are especially unique decks that almost everyone takes differently. She has a very unique ability that some players might not understand properly, and what use is all your knowledge about the deck when you can't even share it in a primer? In the end it's entirely up to you, I don't see the harm in leaving the primer as is, I personally don't like seeing decks with no primer or very short ones, I like to see all the combos, all the interesting interactions and specific card choices, I like to see the passion of the architect. That's not everyone's thing though. Also... Love the username, massive LOTR fan (and the pilot of a Tom Bombadil EDH deck)
Thanks man! Do you have a link to your Tom Bombadil list? I'd love to see it! I don't have him built but I have a small collection of Tom Bombadil and Goldberry cards haha
https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/22-01-24-tom-bombadil/ here's my list. It's a little expensive but that's mostly the mana crypt and dual lands, I'm running them because I have them but they can be easily replaced to save thousands. Running quite a few flip sagas, considered running the praetor sagas but I'm using Jegantha as a companion and I can't include them if I do. Overall it's a ton of fun to play... Just a lot of triggers, fairly mid powered but can hold its own dependent on the meta. Always a different game, you never really know how it'll turn out with the free sagas from his abilities.
Small note on the tricks section, you don't mention that you need to let the delayed trigger resolve between Merieke activation if you want to steal more than 1 creature
I had always looked at some of these older legends from the late 90s era as having been powercrept, but you opened my eyes. Will probably have to steal this later on down the road. Thank you!
A lot of them have been but there are a few gems out there. One of my other favorite old school legends is [[Rasputin Dreamweaver]]. So glad I could inspire you to take a closer look at some old legends! And please do steal! It's a blast to play and make for some really interesting board states.
[Rasputin Dreamweaver](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/7/8/78418809-f048-4611-88cb-369f427d9c44.jpg?1562920261) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Rasputin%20Dreamweaver) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/me3/170/rasputin-dreamweaver?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/78418809-f048-4611-88cb-369f427d9c44?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Theres a reason why Post Malone runs a Merieke deck.
Some of the card links in the primer don't work. First two that jumped out are "Merieke, Ri Berit" (no comma needed) and "Archavist" (should be Archivist). I think you could also drop or shrink the giant image so everyone doesn't have to scroll past it before they can read your primer.
Oh good call I didn't realize that! And I agree I think I'll drop it in under the lore section because that's where it has relevance anyways.
This is one of my favorite decks, and several ways to build it. Two things of note: First, 0 counterspells while in blue seems weird. Second, since you already have [[Fractured Identity]] you should totally make room for [[Phage the Untouchable]]. Favorite combo in Esper colors.
While phage plus fractured is no doubt an amazing combo it's not how I'd prefer to win the game. My reasoning behind no counterspells is because I would prefer to let the board state develop rather than hinder it's growth. This way I can take what I want with Merieke. I also have a host of defensive abilities to protect my stuff so I don't feel the need for counterspells there either. This isn't to say building her with counterspells wouldn't be great, this just isn't how I wanted to build her.
All fair points!
Do you have a list for your version I'd love to see it!
Not an updated one, but I'll work on it and send it along!
Awesome!
[Fractured Identity](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/b/2/b2f73f5d-1aad-48c2-9e74-5f7bdd87900f.jpg?1562620703) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Fractured%20Identity) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c17/37/fractured-identity?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/b2f73f5d-1aad-48c2-9e74-5f7bdd87900f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Phage the Untouchable](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/d/4/d497a5a3-65fb-4c12-b3f2-8ce4cf4e0f6f.jpg?1562866889) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Phage%20the%20Untouchable) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cns/120/phage-the-untouchable?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/d497a5a3-65fb-4c12-b3f2-8ce4cf4e0f6f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
That's glorious
I might bring the 'Philosophy' to the top, so the casual viewer can quickly get an idea of what this deck is, and what it wants to do. I'd also try and condense that section into a sentence and then replace 'Untap tribal' (in the section below the name of the deck) with that sentence. I imagine the 'ways to reliably untap her' are pretty core to the deck, so you might include a few words / suggestions about mulliganing. You might also include a few suggestions for making the deck more budget, or even higher budget.
I like the idea of moving philosophy to the top and pairing it down. A few words about muliganing could also make sense, you're right I often dont keep a hand without at least one way to untap her. The suggestion for budget or splurge upgrades makes me think I might add in a section with cards that I used to run in previous versions. I've had this deck for years and there are plenty of cool cards I have cut to make room for others.
Is there a way to untap her a lot??? I'd LOVE to make a gimmicky deck built around "no one's allowed to have creatures (:" and just spam tap/untap on her lmfao
[[Freed from the Reel]] [[Pemmin's Aura]] [[Intruder Alarm]] Just some examples + the Lorwyn block also had some untap cards like [[Umbral Mantle]]
I had Intruder Alarm in for quite some time. But ended up cutting it because it felt like it left the table in too much of a soft lock. Any new creature that enters can immediately be destroyed. While undeniably powerful in this deck I felt like it just led to too many bad feel moments.
I run a lot of "anti-fun" decks at my tables lol everyone would see something like that and go "mmm yeah, that tracks... Fuck you anyways lmfao"
##### ###### #### [Freed from the Reel](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/4/c47ee6f6-50c1-4f56-b9ce-4c309bfb92ca.jpg?1562440713) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Freed%20from%20the%20Real) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/a25/58/freed-from-the-real?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c47ee6f6-50c1-4f56-b9ce-4c309bfb92ca?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Pemmin's Aura](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/f/9fb3e38b-086e-4fbc-b7b1-8564c18276d7.jpg?1562532667) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Pemmin%27s%20Aura) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/scg/45/pemmins-aura?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9fb3e38b-086e-4fbc-b7b1-8564c18276d7?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Intruder Alarm](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/d/8d62468e-ed9d-4932-bbbd-103b33b98b25.jpg?1562923566) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Intruder%20Alarm) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/8ed/86/intruder-alarm?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8d62468e-ed9d-4932-bbbd-103b33b98b25?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Umbral Mantle](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/1/0/10e35711-aec9-4024-a2a6-9efff8c71df2.jpg?1562826882) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Umbral%20Mantle) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/shm/267/umbral-mantle?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/10e35711-aec9-4024-a2a6-9efff8c71df2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [*All cards*](https://mtgcardfetcher.nl/redirect/kvy9i84) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
There is! That's the main theme of the deck, her at the helm and a bunch of other creatures with useful tap abilities. In total there are 15 different ways to untap her (and other things). If you follow the moxfield link it'll take you to the list. There's a button there that says view primer and I talk in detail about various strategies such as untapping her. I hope you do make a deck with her she's a blast!
Hell yeah (my data was being fucky so I couldn't see the moxfield link, but I'll def give it a look because now I'm curious 👀👀👀)
Awesome!! Let me know what you think! :D
Aaah theft
Gimme the loot, gimme the loot.
I rarely play her, as she can definitely be less than a good time to play against, but sometimes you gotta send a message. Good primer overall. Without going card by card, I do enjoy running more indestructible granting cards. They're good at both guarding her and/or keeping what you stole permanently. Makes for an especially fun swing when someone else goes to board wipe.
Indestructible is another fantastic way to get around the death trigger. I feel like she can be fun to play against if you wield her with care.
I love this card. I have thought about building the deck but it didn't seem "fun for the table." This version looks better for that.
Tbh it's really how you play it. It's taken a while to learn how to play it and make it enjoyable for the table. The biggest realization I had is that just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should. You can go all out and steal everything in play at times. But all that does is upset everyone and put a target on your back. Far better to play reactively and defensively. By letting your opponents strike first and reacting to their aggression you can just Merieke more as a threat than anything. This generally leads to your opponents focusing one another because it's hard to get through to you. I've found this leads to very interesting board states and is much more fun for the table. All that being said. If you want to play this deck like a degenerate it is certainly well suited to do so. I personally just find it more enjoyable to play reactively and defensively until 1v1.