Intruder Alarm:
One of the main combo pieces. Combining this with Drowner of Secrets and Stonybrook Schoolmaster was the original inspiration for this deck, in fact! Now we can also use this with
Retraction Helix
and Mothdust Changeling too. Basically we are using this as an engine to change nice synergy into infinite combos by resetting our board state.
Retraction Helix
:An alternate wincon separate from Intruder Alarm which allows us to use alternate cards to win. It makes a lot of our creatures combo pieces, and in turn, threats. I will go over some of the conditions for
Retraction Helix
wins in the wincon section.
Stonybrook Schoolmaster:This guy makes a 1/1 when he becomes tapped. Fortunately for us we can tap him for free with Mothdust Changeling, Drowner of Secrets or Paradise Mantle and untap him with Intruder Alarm or Merrow Reejerey when we combo off with
Retraction Helix
.
Paradise Mantle:This card isn't as important to the deck as it used to be but its still a great card for producing mana especially with Intruder Alarm. The tapping effect is much better than our other two tap-outlets but it lacks relevant types (Creature, Merfolk) and the ability to be used on creatures with summoning sickness, which is a bit of a shame.
Stonybrook Banneret:This is basically our Goblin Electromancer which is really helpful for speed and certain specifics in
Retraction Helix
combos. She can also become a good beat-down card with Merrow Reejerey.
Fallowsage:Draw your whole deck! This card is a get out of jail free card that lets you dig more than an excavator. Generally leads to a victory with Freed from the Real + Paradise Mantle
on him, Merrow Reejerey and a single mana open. Works great with Intruder Alarm and the afore mentioned combo.
Silvergill Adept:This card replaced our cantrip for a few reasons.
- It's a creature, and a merfolk at that!
- It draws on etb, great synergy with
Retraction Helix
and it can replace Fallowsage in that combo, but being bounced rather than tapped to draw cards.
- It's an unsuspecting threat. The modern deck that plays this is Merfolk Aggro. It'll be rare they Lightning Bolt our little 2/1 as they'd want to keep them for the lords that deck runs as they're more of a threat so this little guy can stick around for a bit.
Merrow Reejerey:
This guy has two relevant abilities. The +1/+1 to other merfolk makes this guy a target, unfortunately, because he is a great card to us for the second ability. He works in
Retraction Helix
combo, he works in Intruder Alarm combo, and he validates our beat down backup plan. An all star for the deck! He can even tap down the opponent to shut down counter spells!
Mothdust Changeling:Mothdust Changeling is our one drop merfolk basically. It lets
Retraction Helix
combo function without Stonybrook Banneret. Its also a cheap way to continuously trigger Stonybrook Schoolmaster and Fallowsage.
Drowner of Secrets:Plays our very similar to Mothdust Changeling but we don't use it for
Retraction Helix
. Is mostly used to mill out our opponent and is our primary wincon. Also note that Leyline of Sanctity forces us to mill ourselves so try avoid going head first into leyline.
Blue Sun's Zenith
:Make a lot of mana, make them draw a lot of cards...too many cards...This is our 'out' against Eldrazi and it also wins on the turn its played rather than giving them an upkeep before the draw. There are a few ways to get infinite mana in this deck so it's just a matter of drawing it. We run one mainboard because Eldrazi are really common and can be 4-ofs in decks that run them.
Freed from the Real:Combos with Paradise Mantle for as much tap/untap as you want. Slap these guys on Fallowsage and you can pick up your deck if you would like. This is even good with a tap outlet and no mantle, . Draw a card is not to be scoffed at! Stonybrook Schoolmaster is a good target too but less so without Paradise Mantle.
Grimoire Thief:Grimoire Thief is used to exile the opposing deck as opposed to milling it. For when
Blue Sun's Zenith
gets countered out. Freed from the Real and Paradise Mantle on this guy will straight up
Leveler
their deck, and can be executed on turn four. He's a one-of because he doesn't become cheaper with Stonybrook Banneret in play, and the deck list already seems to be tight on the support for the primary game plan, as opposed to this alternate wincon.
Currently we have three win conditions.
Drowner of Secrets
Blue Sun's Zenith
Beatdown/Infinite Tokens
1 and 2 are quite similar and are the ways we win off the combo. Beatdown is for when they drop a leyline or catch out our other wincons, although it is the worst of the three.
Victory 1: Intruder AlarmIntruder Alarm screams combo. So we're going to use Intruder Alarm + Stonybrook Schoolmaster
and one of the three following:
Mothdust Changeling for cheap infinite creatures, dodges Leyline.
Drowner of Secrets for mill, hosed by Leyline but wins faster and less fragile.
Paradise Mantle for infinite mana, draw them out with
Blue Sun's Zenith
.
Victory 2:
Retraction Helix
There's a lot of ways to execute a
Retraction Helix
loop but the general idea is to bounce a creature to your hand, and then play that creature to trigger either Intruder Alarm to untap a Paradise Mantle creature or Merrow Reejerey to untap the land(s) used to cast it.
Stonybrook Bannerets broadens the selection of creatures to bounce, as it has to be proportional to the amount of mana you can generate from playing a creature.
The
Retraction Helix
combo can win in the same ways.
An example
Mill:
Have Drowner of Secrets, Intruder Alarm, Mothdust Changeling and Merrow Reejerey. Cast
Retraction Helix
on Merrow Reejerey, tap Mothdust Changeling to Drowner of Secrets's ability, bounce the changeling and play from hand, tapping a land. Intruder Alarm untaps Merrow Reejerey, and he untaps the island from his second ability, rinse and repeat.
Creating infinite mana for
Blue Sun's Zenith
is as simple as having the Drowner of Secrets be any creature with a Paradise Mantle equipped as they would untap with the Intruder Alarm. If that creature were Stonybrook Schoolmaster, you now also have the beatdown backup plan! Infinite tokens ahoy!
