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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | 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 |
| Penny Dreadful | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Subtlety
Creature — Elemental Incarnation
Flash
Flying
When this enters the battlefield, choose up to one target creature spell or planeswalker spell. Its owner puts it on the top or bottom of their library.
Evoke—Exile a blue card from your hand. (You may cast this for its Evoke cost. If you do, this is sacrificed when this enters the battlefield.)
TheOfficialCreator on Card creation challenge
2 weeks ago
Create a common Incarnation, along the lines of the well-known Vigor, Grief, Subtlety, Anger, etc.
zapyourtumor on
Murky Waters
3 weeks ago
Card Suggestions Show
I think the main decision you have to make with this deck is whether you want it to be a true control deck or a tempo deck. A true control deck would try to trade one for one and build card advantage before dropping a threat like Murktide or Jace or simply winning with Snappy beatdown. A tempo deck on the other hand would try to turbo out a quick Murktide and then protect that threat.
Mixing control and tempo is nothing new, and it sometimes works quite well. But because a lot of the cards from each type of deck don't necessarily go well together, you can sometimes end up in an awkward situation.
Here, you definitely have a mix of both types (which, I'd like to emphasize, is not necessarily bad). Archmage's Charm, Counterspell, Cryptic Command, Snapcaster Mage, Devastation Tide and Jace, the Mind Sculptor are all heavily control-flavored cards in your deck. They all either break even or generate card advantage, or massively stall out the game.
On the other hand, Force of Negation, Otherworldly Gaze, Thought Scour, Spell Pierce, and Subtlety are all tempo-flavored cards.
The problem with this combination in this deck is that half of your cards aim to turbo out a Murktide Regent as fast as possible with Otherworldly Gaze and Thought Scour and then protect it in the short term with cheap spells like Dismember, Force of Negation, Subtlety, and Spell Pierce. The main problems with these cards is that they are pretty terrible topdecks late game. Scour isn't too bad because it cantrips, but topdecking a Gaze when you really needed a counterspell or card advantage engine or a Murktide would probably feel terrible. And all the control-type cards aim to reach that stage of the game.
One example of a problem that arises when you try and combine these two archetypes is in the manabase. Tempo decks typically don't need many lands; depending on the deck's mana curve, we are generally looking at 19-20 lands, and occasionally even 18 or less. On the other hand, control decks almost always want at least 22-23 lands, sometimes up to 24-26 lands in order to reliably play their more expensive spells on curve like Archmage's Charm, Cryptic Command and Snapcaster Mage, and to also always have mana held up during their opponents turn for a reactive spell.
Of course, many cards fit very flexibly into both tempo and control decks, for example Counterspell is just so strong it works in both, while Consider being a cheap cantrip also fits into both types. So in my opinion one of the most important decisions you should make, if you want to make the deck more cohesive and just function smoother as a whole, is whether you want to lean more towards tempo or control.
Quick disclaimer: I think it is definitely possible to make the deck more competitive while keeping both tempo and control aspects; however you should probably then trim both the very slow control-leaning cards (Cryptic Command, Devastation Tide, Jace, the Mind Sculptor), and the cheap tempo-leaning cards (Otherworldly Gaze, Thought Scour, Force of Negation) and replace them with cards more towards the middle ground. The rest of the cards, like Archmage's Charm, Subtlety, Force of Negation, Spell Pierce, Dismember, and of course Murktide Regent are all flexible enough that they can slot into both types of decks.
The second important decision to make is what secondary color, if any, you want for your deck in order to complement the primary color (blue). The main issue with mono blue control is that you have very few ways to deal with resolved permanents, which is why most players typically splash white or black (or occasionally red). Blue only has access to bounce spells, which are decent in tempo decks but generally bad in control decks because they are card disadvantage (and also terrible late).
Here, I see you kind of "splashed" black, but your only maindeck spell with black pips uses phyrexian mana anyways, while the only black spell in your sideboard can be casted with only blue mana. In my opinion, since you already have black lands, I would commit fully to a UB manabase by including a few more fetches (U fetches since that's your main color) because it gives you access to a lot of strong options:
Drown in the Loch is a really good spell doubling as both removal and countermagic at only 2 cmc, and only gets stronger as the game goes on. Fatal Push is another great removal spell which is generally stronger than Dismember, although it needs at least around 7 fetches to show its full potential. You can also run discard like Inquisition of Kozilek, although that is more tempo/midrange-esque so it may not be a great fit for this deck. Black also gives you an actual boardwipe in the form of Damnation, which is definitely a lot stronger than something like Devastation Tide since it gets rid of the creatures permanently and indirectly generates CA by trading with multiple enemy creature cards. It also doesn't hit Jace. If you don't think you need it in the mainboard, it can be a great sideboard inclusion. Lastly you have access to some sideboard options like Unmoored Ego.
If all of the blue pip spells like Counterspell and Archmage's Charm have you worried about mana fixing issues, you can run the filter land Sunken Ruins which is great in these types of decks to ensure you can cast both BB and UUU spells.
Those two main points aside, I have a few other card suggestions I think could work well here, some of which lean more control and some which lean more tempo.
Ledger Shredder is a great card which leans a bit more towards tempo but unlike Gaze/Thought Scour it helps turbo out a Murktide while also growing into a significant threat itself.
Aether Gust and Mystical Dispute are decent color-specific sideboard cards.
Remand is a tempo-leaning card that is generally not great in pure control lists, but could be good here if you decide to stick to the turbo murktide strategy.
Spreading Seas is probably the best sideboard option mono-blue has against Urza's Saga.
Memory Deluge has a bit of antisynergy with Murktide, but a very good digging spell if you decide to go towards control.
Orvar, the All-Form is another great sideboard card which instantly turns the tables on any Creativity player thinking they auto won the game after cheating out an early Archon of Cruelty.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading all of my comments. I like the deck and I'm excited to see where you can take it in the future. Happy brewing!
Joker4242 on
Day's Recasting
1 month ago
Does anyone have any suggestions for a "four of" to put in the deck. Right now I have Mishra's Bauble. Although I am considering whether I want them or having Subtlety in the main deck. I am weighing the pros and cons of each.
Mishra's Bauble
Pros:
- Free cast
- Gain information on opponents deck
- Can be found with Narset, Parter of Veils
- Lowers overall mana curve of the deck
Cons:
- Cannot be exiled with Force of Negation
- Draws a card on the next turn
- One time use artifact and cannot be recast with Snapcaster Mage
Subtlety
Pros:
- Can be free cast at instant speed
- Acts as a sudo-counterspell for creatures/planeswalkers
- Is a creature (can remain on the field and attack/defend)
- Remains on the board if hardcasted
- Can be exiled with Force of Negation
Cons:
- Expensive on its own
- Evoke is a two for one
- Ability only has a temporary effect (not a hard counter)
- Cannot be found with Narset, Parter of Veils
Both spells have their uses and I plan on playtesting both options in local tournaments.
I am also looking for instants that cost two or less that would replace both of these options. Neither card can be cast from the graveyard with Snapcaster Mage. The spell should either be an early interact with opponent or card advantage (or both).
Joker4242 on
Day's Recasting
1 month ago
Does anyone have any suggestions for a "four of" to put in the deck. Right now I have Mishra's Bauble. Although I am considering whether I want them or having Subtlety in the main deck. I am weighing the pros and cons of each.
Mishra's Bauble
Pros:
- free cast
- gain information on opponents deck
- can be found with Narset, Parter of Veils
- Lowers overall mana curve of the deck
Cons:
- cannot be exiled with Force of Negation
- Draws a card on the next turn
- One time use artifact and cannot be recast with Snapcaster Mage
Subtlety
Pros:
- Can be free cast at instant speed
- Acts as a sudo-counterspell for creatures/planeswalkers
- Is a creature (can remain on the field and attack/defend)
- Remains on the board if hardcasted
- Can be exiled with Force of Negation
Cons:
- Expensive on its own
- Evoke is a two for one
- Ability only has a temporary effect (not a hard counter)
- Cannot be found with Narset, Parter of Veils
Both spells have their uses and I plan on playtesting both options in local tournaments.
I am also looking for instants that cost two or less that would replace both of these options. Neither card can be cast from the graveyard with Snapcaster Mage which feels pretty lackluster. The spell should either be an early interact with opponent or card advantage (or both).
Dead_Blue_ on Chandra or Blood Moon?
2 months ago
I invite you to try Otherworldly Gaze, it’s sooooo good. I’ve ran Visions, Consider, Opt, Gaze is better than all of them. Being able to dig 6 cards deep at instant speed is nuts. Gaze is also what adds so much value to Devastation Tide
Thought Scour is great for Murktide but I actually included it for the interactions with Subtlety
I went 5-0 with the deck 2 days ago so I’m happy with it, just like I said could use some better SB options
Chasmolinker on
So, You Wanna Play Merfolk Yea? (Budget)
2 months ago
Thanks. I did browse the Tiered lists ont MTGTop8 and I feel there is about 85-90% of those decks represented in this list. The SB is really where the budget cuts were made along with simply running more Islands. I feel like there are some unique merfolk that simply aren’t synergistic or powerful enough to cut into the swath of lords. (There’s 16 of them!!) Even Master of Waves has been bumped for Subtlety.
It just goes to show how powerful Modern has become at the competitive level. I couldn’t even make room for Vendilion Clique. The creatures are fairly set in stone with Harbinger being the only variable from MB to SB. 31-33 creatures, 4 vials and 20 lands leaves only a few flex spots. The archetype is pretty much solved at this point.
Chasmolinker on
So, You Wanna Play Merfolk Yea? (Budget)
2 months ago
I'm always amazed at the creativity and quality of your deck builds. This one wasn't too difficult as the bulk of the list is pretty budget to begin with by Modern's standards. I came close to splashing green for some ramp and Hydroid Krasis but abandoned the idea once I gave the green Merfolk suite a closer look. It wouldn't have been a Merfolk deck in the way most people looking to play the archetype would enjoy playing. It would have just been a Simic pile with a Merfolk sub-theme. This deck really boils down to a few key cards that you HAVE to include no matter the budget. (Lord of Atlantis might not be one of them) Currently, Subtlety, Vodalian Hexcatcher, and Aether Vial definitely are. Otawara, Soaring City is also key since it can't be countered. The deck needs as much interaction and resiliency as possible in today's Modern Metagame.
wallisface on Returning to mtg
2 months ago
That list i’ve posted does have 2 copies of Glasspool Mimic Flip in the main. Also, that’s the highest quantity of that card i’ve ever seen run in competitive lists - i really don’t think you’d ever want to run more than 2 of that card.
Personally Dead_Blue_ i’m not convinced by your list. It also misses out on mainboard Subtlety, which is one of merfolks big strengths atm. Also, the sideboard feels a bit lazy/lacking
| Have (2) | Azdranax , gildan_bladeborn |
| Want (1) | Amaterasu312 |