Silvergill Adept
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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
Freeform Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Historic Brawl Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pioneer Legal
Planar Constructed Legal
Planechase Legal
PreDH Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Tiny Leaders Legal
Vanguard Legal
Vintage Legal

Silvergill Adept

Creature — Merfolk Wizard

As an additional cost to cast Silvergill Adept, reveal a Merfolk card from your hand or pay .

When Silvergill Adept enters the battlefield, draw a card.

Neotrup on Can I buyback a spell …

1 year ago

Yes. When you cast a spell without paying it's mana cost, you can still pay additional costs like buyback, and must still pay additional costs like those imposed by Sphere of Resistance or Silvergill Adept.

nuperokaso on

1 year ago

Puzzle_Master12 on Noob needs help with merfolk

3 years ago

I'm a big modern merfolk player, but some all time star Merfolk (that are pretty cheap) you could include are. - Silvergill Adept, Merfolk Trickster, Master of the Pearl Trident, Svyelun of Sea and Sky, & Vodalian Hexcatcher!

multimedia on Blue/white merfolk tribal deck

3 years ago

Consider cutting some nonMerfolk creatures for more Merfolk and cutting some control for more Merfolk?

Spreading Seas is a good control card for draw, opponent land disruption and because against nonblue opponents it activates islandwalk with Master of the Pearl Trident making your Merfolk unblockable in any matchup. Master is a reason to play Merfolk, 4x of him gives you more chances to draw him and more of him in your control makes all your Merfolk more powerful.

4x Silvergill Adept is more draw and more Merfolk. Cursecatcher is one drop Merfolk who can also be control. Merfolk Trickster because it has flash can be control and it can do a lot for a two drop Merfolk.

Islands are more important than Plains with Merfolk. Consider cutting some basic Plains for some budget Azorius dual lands? Port Town and Prairie Stream care about Islands and Stream is an Island. Cutting basic Plains for dual lands will also help to cast mana cost cards such as Counterspell.

Swords to Plowshares is the best control card here for Merfolk, you don't really need all the other removal instants. Counterspell is good, but Negate is a sideboard card for more control in some matchups. Disenchant is a sideboard card to bring in matchups if an artifact or enchantment are giving you problems.

Example of a budget core for Merfolk control.

Good luck with your deck.

zapyourtumor on Blue/Green Merfolk

4 years ago

Budget merfolk suggestions: Cursecatcher , Harbinger of the Tides , Merfolk Trickster , Silvergill Adept , Merfolk Sovereign

Sort of expensive: Master of the Pearl Trident , Lord of Atlantis

For sideboard: Mistcaller , Tidebinder Mage

I would go up to 4x Merfolk Mistbinder as well.

lagotripha on

5 years ago

Plan your sideboard alongside your first 60 cards- knowing all the tools you have available will help immensely. Knowing you have Tidebinder Mage for RDW or Deeproot Waters for control/midrange.

Bringing down the average CMC or upping the levels of interaction will do a lot;

In terms of 'raw power', Hardened Scales/The Ozolith offer the biggest boosts.

Jade Bearer, Kumena's Speaker, Brineborn Cutthroat, Harbinger of the Tides, Merfolk Trickster Mistcaller, Mist-Cloaked Herald/Triton Shorestalker, River Sneak, Silvergill Adept and Merfolk Skydiver will all let you operate at a lower CMC.

Lowering the curve also means you can run Neoform in place of evolution.

Traditionally merfolk is a tempo list using creatures that delay your opponent, then unblockability (previously islandwalk/flood effects) to finish them off. Its one of the few lists where a bounce effect is often just as effective as a kill spell. Its place in modern was defined by Blood Moon reslience from an all-island manabase combined with land disruption in Aquitect's Will, but that is not relevant in pioneer, so you will need to experiment to find a new nieche. It might be able to emulate affinity with ozolith support, with some luck and a favourable meta.

Augur of Bolas/Deeproot Champion offers a version of the list that wants to spellsling, but I can't say that I've thought through what that would look like.

abby315 on Simic Merfolk

5 years ago

A few suggestions:

I think Silvergill Adept should definitely be a 4-of. Correspondingly, I don't think Incubation/Incongruity is good enough for Pioneer. I'd recommend cutting that card and going up to 4 Adept.

With the remaining two slots, I highly highly recommend Merfolk Branchwalker. I'd add +2 Branchwalker, and then cut 2 Deeproot Waters for an additional +2. This will really help consistency and speed. Deeproot Waters has its place as a value engine - though maybe it should be sideboard - but I can't think of a game where you'd want to see 2+ copies. It's just slow to get going.

I'd recommend the full playset of Harbinger of the Tides. It's a Wizard, to help turn on Retort, and it's also your best interaction/tempo play. I'd either go down on Kumena, Tyrant of Orazca - which, again, comes down late and doesn't do much on the turn it's played - or on Deeproot Elite, which is awkward as a behind-curve drop in an aggro deck.

Master of Waves probably deserves a slot in the sideboard.

Finally, have you considered Metallic Mimic as a second Lord?

I played UG Merfolk in modern for awhile after XLN dropped, and it has a lot of the same pieces to work with in Pioneer. GLHF!

hungry000 on Faerie Rogue Tribal

5 years ago

Sure thing! I'm going to be looking at this from the perspective of someone who wants to make the deck as "competitive" as possible; I won't talk about stuff like flavor and such because then all of my opinions would clash and you'd be confused. >.<

In the main deck:

I like Quickling, but I would change those Silkbind Faeries back to Pestermite, because even though Silkbind is reusable, it uses up mana and takes a turn to get the effect. Pestermite, while only a single-use creature, gives you an immediate effect and has a more flexible ability that can tap opposing lands, untap one of your own lands to play another creature or leave up counterspell mana, untap one of your creatures to block, etc. whereas Silkbind can only tap creatures. I can't tell you how many times I've saved myself from a turn 4 sweeper or other removal spell by flashing in Pestermite on an opponent's upkeep and tapping down one of their splash colors. Also, the difference between a spell that does something on turn 3 and a spell that sits around on turn 3 then takes mana to do something on turn 4 is huge in Modern (I realize your daughter will be playing against Standard Challengers, but there's still a big difference there).

Faerie Trickery: As an aggressive deck, you want to deal with threats for as little mana as possible, even if the effect is only temporary; that way, you can play your offensive spells on top of the removal and continue to push pressure onto your opponent. This is somewhat less of a deal when you have flash creatures (makes threat evaluation a bit easier), but I've found that it still works far better to keep the cmc of removal spells low. So, I suggest you replace Faerie Trickery with Mana Leak. Exile effects won't matter as much when the deck is as proactive as this one is, so it's better to take the lower cmc and easier-to-cast colors of Mana Leak.

As for Faerie Tauntings, I just don't think it's a very good card. Three mana is a lot for a card that doesn't do much the turn it comes into play. In my opinion, it would be better to just play a couple Vapor Snag in its spot, since this deck needs a few creature removal spells to keep up with other aggressive decks. A 4:2 or 3:3 split of Vapor Snag:Mana Leak would be preferable, actually.

In the sideboard:

Peppersmoke: Generally, when building sideboards you want every card to have as much of an affect on a specific matchup as possible. Peppersmoke is just not that type of card, haha. Fun fact: against Jund specifically, Peppersmoke is pretty bad since it counts as two card types in the graveyard for Tarmogoyf, which means the creature is literally unkillable (even if it's a 0/1) and gets a +2/+2 buff if you try to do so! If you want more creature removal, I suggest playing something more powerful, like Echoing Truth (deals with tokens well), Fatal Push if you can spare the money, Victim of Night, Dismember.

Hypnotic Sprite: This is, once again, not a great sideboard card. You do not want to counter Burn spells with a 3 mana counter (3 mana spent vs 1 mana spent = mana lost and a whole turn spent on your part), and the combo decks I know of will either kill before turn 3 (Neoform combo) or have a >3 cmc spell as their most important combo piece (Past in Flames in Storm, Ad Nauseam). These 3 card slots are much better used by Duress, Spell Pierce, Negate, or Dispel since they cover the same matchups and more for a lower cmc.

Thieving Sprite: They're okay, but I wouldn't play more than 2 of them. This is another example of a card whose function can be covered by a lower cmc card (Duress). Also, Earwig Squad is a really good card in the control matchups since you can search their deck to preemptively take out removal or win conditions, and it can't be hit by Fatal Push.

Notorious Throng: To answer your question, no, the card can definitely be worth it in single player formats. Especially if you're pitting this deck up against a Standard deck. In fact, I would totally play three of them in the main if I knew I was playing against a Standard deck. But putting that aside, the card is very good in midrange matchups, like Jund and them. It's very difficult for black-based midrange to deal with tokens because of their reliance on one-for-one removal; a card that makes a bunch of tokens that fly and occasionally force discards is crazy good against them. Not to mention the Prowl ability on it. shiver

As for the other cards in your list, I think Thieves' Fortune, Latchkey Faerie, and Faerie Macabre are the best of the bunch (that's why they're in the original deck, haha). Macabre is a great graveyard hate card, and Latchkey is very good if you want to take the deck along a more aggressive path; creatures that cantrip, like Silvergill Adept and Elvish Visionary, have always been a staple of their respective tribe archetypes. The only thing that makes me particularly hesitant about playing Faerie Seer, Thornwind Faeries, Sower of Temptation, or Faerie Formation is the fact that they don't have the Rogue creature type. Putting them in the deck can lead to inconsistencies, and when two of the three lords only work with Rogues, I would rather not risk it. Of those, I think Sower has the best chance of being a decent sideboard card (because it is one). Don't play Faerie Formation. Its cmc is too high and its ability uses too much mana.

But honestly, if you think any of those cards would be good includes for their competitive value or flavor or whatnot and you think your daughter might think so too, I say just buy them (if possible) so you and your daughter can play around with numbers yourselves. That's what I did when I bought the deck (I have a set of Latchkey and a set of Cloak and Dagger that have fallen to the wayside lol). When you're trying to decide how best to build a deck, a question which has no definitive answer imo, buying cards like that saves a lot of time; the process of optimizing/customizing a deck to be your own is also a fun activity in itself. But if you want to take my opinion one more time, I believe the best way to navigate the details is to ask your daughter which cards she wants to play with herself, since at the end of the day she's the one whose opinion really matters!

Anyways, I'm really glad your daughter's happy! Have fun with the deck!!!

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