Merfolk Secretkeeper
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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Archenemy Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper Duel Commander Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planechase Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Merfolk Secretkeeper

Creature — Merfolk Wizard

(You may cast Merfolk Secretkeeper from exile if you sent it on an adventure.)

Venture Deeper

Sorcery — Adventure

Target player puts the top four cards of their library into their graveyard.


(You may cast Venture Deeper for from anywhere that you have the permission to cast this, then exile it on an adventure instead of putting it into your graveyard. When you have not chosen to cast Venture Deeper, this card is treated only as Merfolk Secretkeeper in whatever zone it is in.)

(Example scenarios for Venture Deeper: You may cast this off of Melek, Izzet Paragon. You may not target this with Snapcaster Mage. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben increases the cost of this. Electrodominance requires X=1. You may cast this from a cascade spell if the spell has a cost greater than Merfolk Secretkeeper's cost. If you cast a Venture Deeper that another player owns, only you may cast the Merfolk Secretkeeper that gets sent on an adventure, not the owner.)

wallisface on Dredgevine

3 months ago

Some thoughts:

wallisface on Mono Blue Modern MILL

11 months ago

Some thoughts:

  • even if you’re just playing mono-blue, you’re still going to want to be running at least 8 fetchlands to make the most of the crabs.

  • in addition to the fetchlands, the main reason to play Field of Ruin is to play Archive Trap, and i’d heavily suggest playing playsets of both.

  • imo Merfolk Secretkeeper isn’t worth it. Milling 4 cards is the same as a burn deck having a spell that deals ~1.6 damage. It’s just not helpful enough to be worthwhile.

  • I would also say that Fraying Sanity isn’t worth it - and you should restrict the number of copies you run to 1x at the most. The problem is that it often does nothing on the turn you play it, and drawing additional copies are always useless. By the time you can cast it your opponent should be down to a fairly small library anyway, so it almost never does more work than a single mill spell would have anyway. Imo it’s more of a liability than anything.

  • Visions of Beyond > Thought Scour

  • i’m super skeptical of Founding the Third Path here.

  • Its worth noting that by not playing black you’re missing out on any kind of survivability. That’s an issue because there are dexks faster than mill which you won’t be able to race. Cards like Fatal Push, Drown in the Loch, and Crypt Incursion buy you a LOT of needed time.

antacidbrn on dumb mill idea

1 year ago

Honestly, this is not bad to start. I feel like you should sleeve it up and see what happens. I only recommend Merfolk Secretkeeper as an early game threat/body and/or Path to Exile since you need removal.

Two Issues,

1) Dealing with graveyards. You might fuel some decks and will need to run a lot of Sideboard pieces to clear graves so the cards you mill stay milled.

2) Handling Blood Moon. A lot of decks run this in the MAIN now. So have a plan to deal with that enchantment.

TawfulEvil on Venture Deeper

1 year ago

Thanks for commenting on my deck! This is my first time posting one.

The spells may be a little inefficient, but I chose them mostly for how they work together. I use the Oculus, Unsummon, and Thought Collapse to hold back whatever I can, while I use the Kraken's Eye to try to keep my life total high enough that I don't promptly die if something has trample. (My little brother favors green creatures)

The Sage's Row Denizen and the Murmuring Mystic both have abilities to help the Merfolk Secretkeeper, netting me chump tokens and a bit more mill when it enters.

Fractured Sanity is an excellent idea! I don't believe I've seen that card. Maybe I'd replace it for the Startled Awake  Flip cards?

The creatures conundrum is interesting to me though. I don't play super competetively, but I use the creatures for the mill, both when they enter and when they die. I actually do have Ruin Crab, but the Merfolk Secretkeeper is critical to the deck in my opinion, with it's adventures and re-entering the field.

Profane Memento... I Love It!!! Why have I never seen this beautiful evil creation!!! I may need 20 of them. Well not twenty, but definitely replacing the Kraken's Eye.

It does not have much removal, which I have encountered as a problem before. I would like to keep it mono-blue though if possible. I've mostly just handled threats through Unsummon-ing massive attacking threats, and through Thought Collapse-ing any main combo starters I see. I would love suggestions though, especially blue ones.

You're probably correct with the mana curve though... I'm just unlucky about having lands when I need them, so in frustration, I probably put in to many... Cutting back some lands is a wise suggestion, thanks.

The three costs I actually haven't had a problem with. (Probably because of the extra lands) I could maybe pack a couple of Mind Sculpts if I had to, but for my two cost department I simply wait for a Murmuring Mystic before I cast Winged Words. Unless I feel I have to of course!

wallisface on

2 years ago

Some thoughts:

  • Merfolk Secretkeeper and Wall of Lost Thoughts aren't worth running. If you compare mill to a burn deck, they're the equivalent of running a worse Shock (doing the equivalent of around 1.6 damage). That's a pretty awful return as far as milling, regardless of mana cost.

  • Similarly to the above Balustrade Spy is awful, it's only going to get somewhere between 1-3 cards on average, for 4 mana. In all honesty, there's a good reason why mill decks don't run any creatures outside of Hedron Crab and Ruin Crab - it's because everything else just isn't worth it.

  • I get you want fetches for the crabs, and that's probably outside of your budget - but Evolving Wilds is not an alternative. Having lands enter tapped is disastrous, as it will slow down your tempo faaaar too much, and give your opponent too much of a chance to win. If you want ways to trigger crabs multiple times, i'd suggest Field of Ruin.

  • You have enough lands, you have absolutely no reason to run Dimir Signet

  • Mind Funeral gives terrible returns for its mana value, and will often cause the deck to lose to itself by not getting enough cards milled. Focus on running full playsets of the better mill cards (Fractured Sanity and Maddening Cacophony) instead

  • Both Crypt Incursion and Archive Trap should be mainboard, not sideboard.

  • Jace Beleren has no place in this deck. 3 mana is slow, and he doesn't do anything for you. You can't reasonably expect him to ever be able to ultimate, so often he's just going to draw a single card then die.

  • I would also ditch Drowned Secrets, because its return is just soo low - you have to play 4 blue spells after this card just to mill 8 cards. Many mill-specific cards (i.e. Maddening Cacophony) can just do that on their own. Drowned Secrets is unlikely to give you enough benefit during a game even if its played early, but becomes a terrible late-game draw.

  • Your deck currently has no interaction at all, which is going to put you in a really rough spot as most decks will be able to out-race you. Mill needs to throw the opponents plans off-track to get enough time to secure the win. I would have expected to see playsets of both Drown in the Loch and Fatal Push here, as well as a 3-4 copies of Extirpate to remove your opponents best cards from their deck.

  • While being at 65 cards might not seem much above 60, its going to lead to you having overall worse hands and draws, in both strength and consistency. You should always be aiming to cut a deck back to 60 cards.

This link here is a good example of a competitive mill deck - I think you should be aiming towards something like this, just accommodating for your particular budget

BlueSnakeMagic on Creature Collab

2 years ago

As finnicy as it can be to spread too wide, I decided to do some small edits as such.

  • Rotting Regisaur is scary as a turn 3 7/6 but... Well, he's harder for me to control, may just get dropped, and is bulky as by then I wanna be trying to take things out of my grave

  • Dropped one of the Nether Traitor's and Gravecrawler's as they both do essentially the same thing, and Nether Traitor is harder to get off in a bad field.

  • Added a playset of Merfolk Secretkeeper since alongside Stitcher's Supplier I'm much closer to guaranteeing some self mill. I also dropped Hedron Crab as though I like it (I'll test when I can to see what it does to me) I feel like the alternates I have in here work just fine, whilst also giving an easier Vengevine triggers if I need creature drops, not milling, on a turn.

  • Carrion Feeder joins the ranks, as with Gravecrawler and Nether Traitor at the very least, it lets me make something I can just pump mana into.

  • Finally, Narcomoeba. A potential free creature, maybe a Lotleth Troll discard, and if it does die? Bait for Skaab Ruinator to bite.

wallisface on Creature Collab

2 years ago

If you're interested in cards I ended up using at somestage during my Crabvine-period, here's everything I ran at one time or another, and my thoughts on playing with the card:

  • Gravecrawler: A must-have in the deck, though I found 3x was a better number to run than the full playset, as oftentimes you really only want this card to help you trigger Vengevine, and it normally doesn't do a lot else.
  • Hedron Crab: Another must-have in the deck, provided you have the landbase to support it. Without fetchlands, I don't think this would be able to get through enough card-density to be quick enough (we want a turn 2-3 vengevine swing)
  • Merfolk Secretkeeper: This felt both good and bad. Being able to mill with it immediately, and then save it for a Vengevine trigger later in the game felt pretty decent. Its also a decent blocker.
  • Stitcher's Supplier: I think I always included a playset of this in the deck, though it was always easily the worst card in the deck. Without an easy sacrifice outlet, this is just a really weak mill effect that then sits around doing nothing. It needs to die to get full value.
  • Lotleth Troll: I alternated between playing this card and not. Its one of my "pet cards" (alongside Skaab Ruinator) so I probably favored it too highly just from bias. But being able to pitch away all the cards that weren't meant to be cast did feel great, and I have had lots of games where this has steamrolled me out a win on its own... I'm just not sure its the best choice for an optimal build.
  • Satyr Wayfinder: A weird choice, but one that's done well. It can usually guarantee you'll hit your 3rd land drop, and gels pretty well with Hedron Crab, as well as giving your good odds at a turn-3 Skaab Ruinator.
  • Prized Amalgam & Vengevine: My understanding that a playset of both of these go into every Crabvine deck there is, so I don't think I need to discuss much here. They're the whole point of the deck.
  • Bloodghast: I only added these to my deck really late into playing Crabvine, but they do put up some amazing results. They combo very well with a high-fetchland deck, running alongside Altar of Dementia, to keep swinging then killing themselves to fuel the engine further. Also, probably the most aggressive way to get Prized Amalgam out of the grave if Vengevine hasn't been found yet.
  • Narcomoeba: I played these a little, and see a LOT of decks online playing them, but to be honest I don't see the hype. Very fragile, and can't come back when killed, i'm really not sold. But, again, having seen soo many decks online play them, they're probably worth considering.
  • Skaab Ruinator: My second "Pet Card", I don't think you want to run more than 1-2 in the deck, but they definitely get good results. There are a few decks where if you resolve this, it's a free-win.
  • Glimpse the Unthinkable: I started playing this late into my time with Crabvine, swapping it in, in place of the Stinkweed Imp/Golgari Thug package. There are games where you resolve this turn 2 and see all the perfect stuff hit your grave, and it becomes the most-free win you could ever hope for. But other times, you just mill yourself ten lands and non-recurable creatures, and wonder what you did to piss off the card-gods. I felt like when this card worked, it was amazing. But it also felt like there were too many times when it didn't work, and left me dead-in-the-water.
  • Golgari Thug & Stinkweed Imp: Probably my favorite way to ensure the self-mill engine keeps pumping, I ran a playset of Imp, and 2-3 Thug for the majority of my time playing Crabvine - making my build sudo-dredge. Being able to reliably keep milling felt great - and it's a good reason to justify running Lotleth Troll.
  • Creeping Chill: I'm torn on whether this card is useful or not. On one hand, being able to basically start the game at 32 life, while your opponent starts on 8, is a pretty good feeling. On the other, this doesn't help massively to help the boardstate, and there are a lot of games where its just not relevant (you can often swing for enough quite early that the extra bit of lifedrain didn't matter).
  • Silversmote Ghoul: The only reason to run this would be alongside Creeping Chill. It does feel decent, but also can be clunky with the timings of when each respective card ends up in your grave (seeing a bunch of early-Chills can be scary, as it means these guys might not be able to see play). Personally I think Bloodghast is the better choice for the 3rd "creature to recur from the grave"
  • Altar of Dementia: This actually works really well, though I wouldn't run more than 1-2 in the deck. There are a bunch of cards that just want to be in the graveyard and/or get themselves killed. Most notably Stitcher's Supplier. but also Bloodghast, Gravecrawler, and even Vengevine (assuming you can bring them back). This easily turns your attacks into very-wide landslide victories. 10/10 would recommend.
  • Carrion Feeder: I think I only ran 1-2 of these, and honestly, I think its hard to justify over Altar of Dementia or Lotleth Troll. I think it does definitely have a use-case (it seems great with Gravecrawler), but it feels a little niche to me.
  • Wonder: I only ever played one of these, in my sideboard. But it did seem very useful in some matches, particularly when it was hard to swing through the opponents creatures.

RDWDTR on General Mills

2 years ago

Thanks, I'm glad you found my suggestions helpful! 8 crabs would be ideal but I'm guessing it's 6 for budget purposes. I think you'll find the main board Dismember to be useful in almost every matchup, but you can always move it back to the sideboard if you dislike it. This looks solid for the budget, but you'll still have to play test and adjust accordingly for your meta.

BTW, when I was listing all the counterspells in my first post, I meant you could use whichever seemed best to you, not all of them :P It will probably be more useful to have a diverse range of cards in your sideboard, since a SB is essentially 15 cards to help you deal with certain matchups that your usual 60 struggles against. Jamming 6 counters might not be the most optimal choice, I was thinking more along the lines of 2-3 of one particular counter, sorry for my miscommunication lol. In most of your games, I'm assuming your 4 mainboard counters will get the job done, and then you can just bring in a pair of targeted counters like, say, 2 Essence Scatter for creature decks or 2 Mystical Dispute for other blue decks. This is going to depend entirely on your meta though. Three other cards caught my eye when I was looking at blue mill lists:

Merfolk Secretkeeper: If your budget can't allow 8 crabs, this is a good replacement for some number.

Drowned Secrets: Similar to Sphinx's Tutelage, just more milling. Not sure if it's better or worse exactly.

Vantress Gargoyle: Reminds me of Jace's Phantasm, and you can tap it to mill someone if it's unable to attack or block. It's pretty scary once it's able to swing.

A few cards you can consider for your sideboard:

Aether Gust: Great against green and/or red decks

AEtherize: Could really save you against aggro/beatdown decks

Rebuild: Good against artifact based decks (e.g., affinity, hammer, Urza).

That's about all I have for now. I imagine you'll continue to adjust as you get spins in with this. Let us know if it's at all competitive.

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