Hi Crimsonking,
I assume I don't have to tell you anymore I appreciate your input, which is usually excellent.
On to your suggestions :
I suggest a couple of Cavern of Souls, which would have almost no impact on your mana base, but provide some spare uncounterability to your creatures.
I took a look at your deck, which is, as you mentioned a pre-True Name Nemesis Merfolk deck.
I noticed you run two
Cavern of Souls. I have room to run two as well but the main difference between the decks is your Merfolk deck has 26 Merfolk. Every creature in your deck can benefit from the cavern.
My Illusion deck has only 12 Illusions, including 4 Phantasmal Bears which are unlikely to be countered anyway. The ones I like to get in play the most, the Lords, are
Human Wizards and the Mimics are Shapeshifters to begin with, so, I'm not sure I would get a lot out of adding a couple of caverns.
I also noticed that now that I added the
Mutavault again, I have too much land.
I'm going to take out two Islands. That will bring my
Island base to 14 and with the double blue requirement for the Lord I'm hesitant to go any lower than that.
I would move Seal of Removal and Boomerang to your sideboard (you should have one) in order to make space for other stuff.
Also, Boomerang is suboptimal here because of its double blue mana, there are a lot of equivalent spells available with a more efficient casting cost (I for instance use Echoing Truth).
I think we may be touching now on some of the finer points of the deck.
Overall, I'd say that a merfolk deck has more raw power and is more aggressive than this Illusion deck.
The illusion deck also wants to be aggressive but it plays somewhat lighter, somewhat more subtle because it doesn't have all the +1/+1 straight up boosts that the Merfolk have.
It has the Lords to boost P/T but the Mimics boost only those who enter play after them, not those who came before.
Only the
Krovikan Mist is elusive and can be pumped considerably, so in general, I'd say the Illusion deck wants to
safeguard its creatures somewhat more than a merfolk deck.
That's where the Seal of Removals come in.
They are a T1 drop who are used as a counter to removal spells.
At the same time they can bounce ( preferably costly ) opposing creatures to gain tempo advantage or to remove a deadly blocker.
In the absence of an
Aether Vial or Bear in my opening hand, I'm also perfectly alright with this opening,
T1
Island - Seal
T2
Mutavault -
StandstillI understand where you're coming from though with regards to
Seal of removal. It's not a real power card.
I don't think I've ever used it in another deck but in my plays so far I haven't regretted yet drawing one as I can usually do something with it that far outweighs their 1 mana cost.
The Boomerangs are my two fail-safe cards.
I always try to have at least two cards that can take care of a potential death-lock.
What happens if an opponent manages to put a
Worship on the table or a
Platinum Angel or anything of that kind ?
The merfolk deck can't get rid of those cards once they have hit, not before sideboarding anyway.
That could be the subject for another thread : do you account for situations like this main deck or not ?
I guess arguments can be made for both.
At the same time they can offer some protection to my permanents.
The reason I don't use
Echoing Truth here is that I don't want to bounce all my Lords or all my Mists in play when I just want to save one from destruction.
I personally think the number for Standstill is 3 instead of 4 and I'd definitely add 3 Daze as already suggested.
You could be right on the 3
Standstill vs 4.
So far however, I've been always very happy to see one in my opening hand and it's usually my T2 play. Certainly if I can start with a Vial or Bear on T1.
I tried
Daze yesterday instead of the Seals.
I had a
Daze in my opening hand and it was
dead in my hand all game.
I drew a second one later on.
If both had been Seals I would have been able to remove the two strongest opposing creatures which would have allowed me to attack with my 4 Illusions instead of having to hold back.
It was just one game though, so nothing conclusive should be drawn from it yet but it wasn't a success.
So, I agree with your statement that both decks draw some comparisons but I think that both play rather differently.
Removal may be less necessary for the Merfolk as they get pumped up better and just attack, take their losses and play reserves whereas the illusions are not as pumped up and need to be able to remove a few blockers from the board.
As always, looking forward to your suggestions.
And thanks for taking the time for it.
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