Here we go again. Just want to say hey to all my readers who have stuck with me throughout this first year of duel masters. It’s hard to believe it’s been a year already, and 11 months since my first article here.

Enough reflecting, let’s get down to business. The current metagame has been warped since Rampage’s forthcoming, unleashing a force that has laid dormant since the days of Base Set. This gargantuan behemoth has slumbered, awaiting the day it would be able to spread it’s wrath upon the unsuspecting dueling world. It has devoured many, been feared by all, decimated many a duelist’s resolve to continue. It’s big, it’s mean, and it’s…… a merfolk.

Illusionary Merfolk to be precise. Here’s a decklist.

• 4 Corile
• 4 Emeral
• 4 Hypersquid Walter
• 4 Illusionary Merfolk
• 4 Locomotiver
• 2 Vampire Silphy
• 4 Ghost Touch
• 4 Death Smoke
• 2 Lost Soul
• 3 Spiral Gate
• 3 Teleportation
• 4 Terror Pit
• (42 Cards)

The deck basically morally drains you of any hope of winning the game. Here’s a quick example. Turns two and three are wound up in playing Emeral and putting a Gate/Terror Pit in the trigger zone, or playing Ghost Touch and Hypersquid Walter. Turn 4 is the crossroads of what it does, if you got lots of creatures, you get smoked, card in hand, locomotiver. Turn 5 usually turns into a relentless assault of Coriles, ending out with an Illusionary Merfolk to refuel the hand.

After that, they can simply insure they have an answer to whatever you play. Creature kill if you play a guy, hand control if you don’t. Later in the game they even get enough mana to bounce Corile, Merfolk, or Locomotiver and replay them in succession.

It’s still a fairly high tier deck, even after Survivors of the Megapocalypse. The deck gains nothing, but loses little ground. The utter brokenness of certain cards in this game are quickly becoming apparent, or at least cards that are making the game become less and less fun.

If you played at a Tournament of the Five Civilizations or even your local JDC league, you may have spied a few of these decks running around. So, what can your deck do to defeat it?

Well, their overall gameplan revolves mainly around having a cyber lord in play to fuel their Illusionary Merfolk, you can take the hero down to a zero by eliminating the 12 Cyber Lords used in the deck with Creature kill of your own. Ruthless Skyterror and Searing Wave are nice options against the oncoming assault. Burst Shot and Magmarex are also nice triggers that should prove to turn the tides if triggered while the Merfolk player is trying to establish board presence.

Also, being able to strike first is nice. Many of Light’s cheap blockers plus Screaming Sunburst allow you to crush their early game quick. Mist Rias, Sonic Guardian is very hard to stick, but if your opponents only option is Corile you’ll still be able to draw the card off of it. Holy Awe is equally annoying to their finishing game plan, but may not be enough to bail you out in the end.

A fast rush deck, followed up by a few lucky shield trigger creatures may work, especially a triggered Kolon the Oracle which is helpful in a pinch. The danger of Shield Trigger creatures may also cause enough fear to stop early Walter attacks, which in turn will cause the Merfolk player’s hand size to remain minimal until their engine is up.

Nature has very little to work with unfortunately. Barkwhip is nice for a few turns, but in Corile range, Barkwhip and the evolution crew become more asset than ally. Mana Nexus is annoying, but overall won’t hurt the Merfolk player in the long run. You also need as much mana to work with as possible.

Water and created this monster, but also have their fair share of tools against it too. Aqua Hulcus is always nice to have, since it always nets you a card, is great evo-bait, and can’t be bounced effectively due to it’s ability. Paladin does virtually nothing short of what any evo would do, and Lancer only helps slightly.

Darkness creatures in the deck are minimal, but Ballom and Chaos Worm also have their shortcomings against this deck. Since the deck relies slightly on combo, Horrid Worm and other forms of hand removal can strip them of some of their pieces, and hopefully hit all the Merfolk you can.

That’s a rap for now. In my next article I’ll talk about The Survivors of the Megapocalypse. What’s the best build for a survivor deck? What’s up with Speed Attackers? And what off the dreaded cycle of Triple Breakers?

Until then, go fishin’ for some Merfolk!

-Ronald (hydromorph) Waclawski