Sea's Claim vs. Spreading Seas?
Modern forum
Posted on March 20, 2016, 9:59 p.m. by CheeseBro
In Modern Merfolk, which is better?
mathimus55 says... #4
Spreading Seas is THE go to. The velocity into your deck is one of the reasons it's one of the best land destruction spells in modern. Sea's Claim is a nice extra effect but it's not near as useful.
March 20, 2016 10:20 p.m.
Eight has been tested and frankly found wanting - you can run 5-6 to good effect (and most have), but 8 is just too many of an effect you really only want once or twice (and one that is awful against 
decks, or decks that don't have fragile manabases). I'm running just my 4 Spreading Seas, and my deck has been dominating my local meta (which is pretty competitive - the winner of GP Detroit is a regular here).
March 20, 2016 10:39 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #7
Didn't actually mean that, just saying that you can play Sea's Claim in your maindeck pretty reasonably given that the metagame is how it is. I don't need to know how competitive your local store is. :)
March 20, 2016 10:46 p.m.
mathimus55 says... #8
I don't mainboard any Sea's Claim because there are too many chances for it to be an awful top deck against too many decks. Depending on how I set my sideboard up when different people show up I'll go between 2-4 in my side. If I'm playing a 3 color deck(several jund/Mardu people around) or Tron I'll bring them in, otherwise if I play stuff like burn or straightforward non-creature decks I might go down to 2 seas because the island walk might be irrelevant. 8-seas mainboard just seems super overkill.
March 20, 2016 11:15 p.m.
Well, the only reason why I mentioned it was to illustrate the validity of my testing, which led me to believe that 4 Sea's Claim can be too much of a good thing. I showed up to the weekly LGS tournament with 8-Seas a couple of times, thinking (correctly, I might add) that the meta would be swarming with the likes of Eldrazi and anti-Eldrazi decks, and that I would be able to take advantage of it that way. I found it had middling results, so I went back to 4 Seas with 4 Vapor Snags, and that has been working out tremendously. I don't recommend going over 2 Sea's Claim in the 75, personally.
rothgar13 says... #2
Spreading Seas. Always Spreading Seas. The cantrip effect is phenomenal, and always gives you utility.
March 20, 2016 10:02 p.m.