The MVPs were by far mana leak, tidebinder mage, and vapor snag. Spellskite in the main did a tremendous job too. I was expecting a metagame of twins, delvers, infect, burn, abzan, boggles and control decks, so I decided to play Spellskite instead of Kira in the main. It was a nice decision.
Also, don't let anyone tell you that fish is not a deck. Right now it may not be Abzan, or Twin, but it is really well positioned. People will always tell you that they have a "solid plan" against you. You don't care because the sea is your friend more than it is theirs. Because you walk UNDER THE SEA.
More seriously: burn can be tricky, but local grinders make tons of mistakes with burn decks. Your nightmare is affinity, and it's not really the best deck to play at the moment, with lingering souls everywhere. Play mana leak instead of spell snare. Mana leaks counter rhinos, eidolons, pestermites and oozes, and games tend to be more and more tempo than pure aggro, so you opponents often have 2 mana spare. I was really annoyed by spell snare in the side. I should make room for swan song and relic. Don't believe any motherf***ing merfolk player who plays less than 4 spreading seas. Period. Never.
Round 1 : UWR Aggro (Geist/Pyro/Snap) that sides into control : I won 1st game with my opponent making mistakes with islandwalk when I have some serious beatdown of the table. He switches for the more control version of his deck, where I side in Chalice and Tidebinder. He wins second game with 2 anger of the gods and a wrath, and I get the transformational sideboard he's playing. I switch back tidebinders for kiras and spell pierces. 3rd game is a joke, with a turn 4 scoop when I have 4 lords on the battlefield. :-)
1-0-0
Round 2 : UR Midrange (Snap / Strombreath / Cryptic) He plays islands and cryptics, I save one of my lord from being bolted with a vapor snag game 1. He does nothing. Game 2 I just bring Kira and spell pierce since I didn't see any stormbreath during game 1. When he taps out for dragon, I have a tidebinder in my hand and an untapped vial on 2. He then goes for batterskull and I have a mana leak. He has islands, I have big lords, and I can beatdown for 12 a turn.
2-0-0
Round 3 : UR Delver A 14 years old that plays REALLY well. He crushes me game one with some serious bluff on bolt. I bring in chalice, kira and spell pierce as well as 1 tidebinder. Game 2 I manage to cast a chalice on 1 on turn 2 where he tapped out for a serum visions, which gives me an easy win. Game 3 was extremely grindy, and I win on exact lethal on a vapor snag, with mana leak + spell pierce back up. I was dead next turn, but my draws were really slow on this one, with no lord on the table (killing him with mutavaults). I also made some bad bad bad plays, trying to tidebinder an untapped lavamancer, with no lord on the table. 3-0-0
Round 4 : Grixis Control / Cruel ultimatum All 3 games were merfolk under morphine. Stone-folks. No explovise draws, and mulligans each game. I lose game one with basically islands, mutavaults, counters in the grave and NO LORDS in hand or in the grave on turn 8 or 10. Game 2, I get in with cursecatchers, mutavaults, 2 spellskites on the board, vial on 2, but NOTHING else. No lords. I am being beaten down by tarpits. I win on a topdeck of lord, with spellskite back up, to deal 6 unblockable damages. I call it a topdeck, but when you play 11 lords + 2 images, you usually expect to see one of those in 10 turns. Right ? RIGHT ? 4-0-0 - locked for top8 100% certain
Round 5 / 6 : IDs, locking top8 in 2nd position
T8 1/4 finals : Scapeshift Game 1 is really nice, I have both vial, counters and lords, I manage to get vial up to 4 to play master of waves. He cryptics 2 times in a row, and spreading seas does a nice job of slowing the 5 mountains treshold. Game 2 I have a nice beatdown, 2 mana leak in my hand, he's down on life, but not enough and I can die on a scapeshift anytime so I don't beatdown with mutavaults and live 2 mana leaks open. I should have. Scapeshift on the top + more counters on his wins him the game. Game 3 was amazing. I have a nice opening beatdown, he has anger of the gods. I keep getting in after with some silvergills, spreading seas slows the clock of scapeshift again. He gets a second anger of the gods when I have kira + lord + lord on table (dammit), and then I realise that he has just one green mana into play. He's at 3 life, has a snapcaster in play, and I have a vapor snap in hand. He goes for cryptic bounce my vial/draw something, Topdecks a stomping ground, goes on 1 and goes all in with scapeshit because he knows he's dead next turn. I vapor snag in response and wins this. (wooo). Very nice game.
T8 1/2 finals : Abzan Very strange games. Tdebinder does a solid job of keeping oozes at home. He gos for ligering souls, but with some mana issues, where my beatdown is extremly agressive. I win game 2 with tidebinders again. Timely reinfrocements is a pain, but spreading seas serves the beatdown well. My opponent was kind of unlucky but I still think that those new abzan builds are a good match up for a well tuned fish deck.
T8 finals : DredgeVine I have never played against this deck, I have no relic in my 75, and he just crushed affinity, which is a very very bad signal for me. My opponent is being very confident on the match up, but no green deck is too strong for my buddy TBmage so I decide to play my best.
I win game one with a solid army of lords, but no spreading seas. I start to understand how his deck works, so I just make sure to keep blockers for those crappy 2/1, but still go for beatdown with my big guys. I miss one reejerey trigger, my opponent makes a mistake on his turn too, and I win on tidebinder + reejerey triggers for lethal swing.
Game 2 I bring in vapor snag and 2 tidebinders and leave counters in the side since they are kind of useless in this match up. I mull to 5. He wins with some nut draw, when my board is still very solid too, with spreading seas and lords on the board. I would have had a best shot if I hadn't been so greedy with my attacks, since my next turn would have given me 7 tokens from master of waves. I also died with 2 vial on board, and 2 in hand. Meh, this happens.
Game 3 he takes some serious damage with his mana confluence, I have 2 spreading seas on the board but no lords. 3 silvergill adepts, 2 cursecatchers and mutavault. Weakfolks. We exchange weak beatdowns, we're both super low on life, he beats me with 2/1s. goes down to 6 with some beats from my team and a serious turn of dredge/delve leaves him with 2 untapped vengevines, tasigur and one other blocker. I have five attackers with 2 or 1 power (silvergills, tidebinders and cursecatcher). I go for Phantasmal image, targetting tidebinder tap your vengevine, bounce tasigur with vapor snag, you go to 5. Best block would still deal 5. Second win on Snag in this top 8. And I am going to the RPTQ.
I am a sinner. I had lost faith in merfolk after this summer. I was converted to RUG Delver. But somehow those little guys have always loved me. I now want to go live with them under the sea.
I also wanted to thanks reddit user rougepenguin for this report (http://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comments/2val9s/modern_pptq_report_1st32_w_merfolk/), which made me want to try mana leak instead of the usual spell pierce. Strong choice.
I'll try to answer questions soon, if you guys have any.