With so much hype going into Dragon Rulers and Prophecy, the previous best deck has dropped a lot in popularity. A couple months ago, Abyssmegalo was a $100 dollar card, and now is hoovering around $60.
Now then, many of you probably still have your Mermail cards, and right now, Elemental Dragons and Prophecy are EXPENSIVE. I doubt many of you readers today have been able to obtain the entire Dragon deck (but if you have, kudos) and if you have Prophecy, well, I'd be willing to bet you never were a fan of Mermails to begin with. Question of the day, just for my own curiosity; If you played Mermails as your main deck prior to LGTY, are you/have you given any thought to running Prophecy now? Leave your answers in the comment section.
Anyhow, Tidal, a Dragon Ruler as well, goes hand in hand with the Mermail deck, making it even stronger then it was before. Mermails can go toe to toe with Elemental Dragons, as they still have 2 card OTK's and can still make Abyssgaios to help control the opponents rush of Big Eyes and Dracosacks. However, so far Prophecy is a bit more of a struggle to fight against. Spellbook of Fate is the answer to just about every card in the game, and it's just really hard to come back from the turn 1 Judgment + 3 Spells.
Anyway, at my locals currently my deck of choice is Tidal Mermails, so here's what I'm rolling with currently
3 [ccProd]Atlantean Dragoons[/ccProd]
2 [ccProd]Atlantean Infantry[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Atlantean Marksman[/ccProd]
2 [ccProd]Deep Sea Diva[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Effect Veiler[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Mermail Abyssgunde[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Mermail Abyssleed[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Mermail Abysslinde[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Mermail Abyssmegalo[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Mermail Abysspike[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Mermail Abyssteus[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Moulinglacia the Elemental Lord[/ccProd]
2 [ccProd]Stream, Dragon Ruler of Droplets[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Tidal, Dragon Ruler of Waterfalls[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Dark Hole[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Monster Reborn[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Heavy Storm[/ccProd]
3 [ccProd]Abyssphere[/ccProd]
1 [ccProd]Ally of Justice Catastor[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Armory Arm[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Crimson Blader[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Dewloren, King Tiger of Ice Barrier[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Scrap Dragon[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Abyss Dweller[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Bahamut Shark[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Gachi Gachi[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Mecha Phantom Beast Dracosack[/ccProd] 2 [ccProd]Mermail Abyssgaios[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Mermail Abysstrite[/ccProd] 2 [ccProd]Number 11 Big Eye[/ccProd] 1 [ccProd]Wind up Zenmaines[/ccProd]
So for the Tidal lineup, I'm using 2 baby dragons and 3 Tidal. I really like the baby dragon as being able to put more level 7's on the field, allows me to make Big Eye against Prophecy, which hopefully game 2 will allow me to Eradicator them for all of their Spell cards. Also, it allows you to Xyz for a Rank 7, remove the Tidal as a material, then summon it back to the field again.
I cut 1 [ccProd]Deep Sea Diva[/ccProd] for room for other cards which I felt were important, one being a third Abyssgunde. I kept needing another to search off of Spikes and Abyssteus as I didn't want to search for Linde/Marksman, and in combination with Tidal, is very good as you can discard it with Tidal, and send any Mermail to grave which Gunde will bring back.
3 [ccProd]Effect Veiler[/ccProd] help in almost every matchup. And when you can, I use it to make [ccProd]Crimson Blader[/ccProd] with one of my Level 7 Monsters in order to shut down Dragon Rulers, and hopefully OTK them next turn.
Moulinglacia was added because the graveyard is so ridiculously easy to manipulate now with Tidals existence.
Currently, Typhoon is not that great of a card, so I moved it to the side deck. I rely mainly on Marksman to deal with backrows if need be. Right now, this deck's biggest weakness would be Evilswarm, so again, I make sure to have a good side deck for that as well.
With Tidal out, I've cut [ccProd]Pot of Avarice[/ccProd] and Abyss-Squall just leaving the deck with 3 Abyss-Sphere for Trap cards..
The extra deck is more tight then ever. I cut all level 7 Synchro monters for things which help win games, like [ccProd]Crimson Blader[/ccProd] and of course the new Dracosack (if you dont own one yet, dont worry, neither do I.)
The deck still plays almost the same as before, just has more options, and of course more options, the better. Tidal is just such a good card it just pushes Mermails further then before.
I judged the ARG Regional in Ohio, and witnessed many more Mermail decks then I thought there would be, try to take on Prophecy and Dragons. There was one player who I kept an eye on who was doing very well, but unfortunately do to some mistakes he lost some games against Dragons (ones he should have won) which knocked him out of the tournament. Most of the Mermail decks ended up 7-2 or 6-3. So Mermails aren't totally down for the count, we just have to find a way to better adapt to the meta.
Focusing again on the Prophecy matchup, Eradicator Virus is probably the best way to deal with them, but it's still not enough. Something some OCG decks have been trying is Anti-Spell Fragrance. The card if drawn early can shut Prophecy down for a turn, allowing you to hopefully OTK them, or use Marksman to pick off their important Spell cards. I myself haven't had a chance to try it yet but it's certainly something to keep in mind.
Finally, the Evilswarm matchup which is probably the most annoying, is the deck where you have to sacrifice your game 1 probably in order beat your other matchups more easily, since Evilswarm is the lesser played of the popular decks. With lack of MST and focusing more on Monsters, the deck is more vulnerable to Ophion then ever. The match-up isnt unwinable, its just very unfavorable, so again it's important to make sure you're siding things like a third Infantry and such to deal with it.
So concluding all of this, until/unless I find something nifty to run, I will probably be using some sort of varient of Mermail. Good players can still make the best out of the deck to set up great fields against Dragons, and Mermails basically destroys most rogue like decks, so with the exception of the uphill battles of Prophecy and Evilswarm, you should easily be able to win. Mermails is a very unforgiving deck in the sense that if your opponent screws up, they are very likely to just get OTK'ed in the following turns.
So duelist, until next time, good luck to everyone for their Nationals testing. Play hard, or go home.
LMJeffJones
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