This my Mono Blue Fish list I have been trying out. Any suggestions welcome. 4 Flooded Strand 10 Island 1 Strip Mine 4 Wasteland 4 Flying Men 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 4 Spiketail Hatchling 3 Rootwater Theif 4 Brainstorm 4 Curiosity 4 Daze 4 Force of Will 3 Null Rod 4 Stifle 3 Chain of Vapor In particular I have been wondering about Chain of Vapor, I have been considering replaceing them with waterfront bouncer, but decided the ability to hit none creatures was too good. Thanks!
If I were to play a similar deck, I'd use waterfront bouncers, just to give it a fighting chance against Oath. Chain of Vapor isn't quite enough to keep Akroma and friends at bay for such small creatures to finish the job. A resolved bouncer, on the other hand, is a permanent threat. Bouncers also provide warm bodies for jitte (see below) and can help stall aggro.
I'd also play Umezawa's Jitte, along with CotV and Aether vial instead of Null Rods and Curiosity (curiosity and the ninja are a bit redundant). Jitte would let me fight aggro (something this deck can't do), while CotV+Vial almost does the same job as null rods without compromising the jitte.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I will try out bouncer in the place of the chain of vapor and I think I will end up taking the chain of vapor out.
I disagree about chalice and vail over null rod. Null rod very good right now, good enough that Stax decks even run it(Uba Stax). Not to mention that chalice is a near dead card if you are on the draw. I really am not a fan of AEther vial in fish but it and chalice and Jitte do fit nicely together. While Jitte helps vs. aggro, null rod gives me a chance vs. gifts which is much more prevelant then other aggro decks. What it basicly comes down to is chalice sucks on the draw.
Oh, the memories... My first competetive type 1 deck.
I recommend in addition to using waterfront bouncers, utalizing a pair of gilded drakes. Its such an awesome old- school combo. And where are the Standstills? Come on, man! With mono u, you can afford a shakier mana base, which means man lands, which means standstill = 2 recall on a stick. 4 Factories and 3 Conclaves could easily be added. 4 Dazes seem excesive. I would cut back to 2-3.
At my first TMD, and my first tourament, I ran a mono u fish deck (back when there were actually fish in it), and I actually won a mirror match with 20 hits from a single Flying Men. It was beautiful.
Nice too see the deck brings back memories from so many:) . After looking at some old mono blue fish lists I have made the some changes. The new list.
4 Flooded Strand
10 Island
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
2 Seasinger
4 Brainstorm
4 Curiosity
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
3 Back to Basics
My main addition here was back to basics, really the only reason to stay mono-blue. Seasinger is my answer to aggro, oath and tinker-DSC. Old man of the sea would be better vs. aggro but a can't justify shelling out $30 for him. Most list seem to run 2-3 daze but for the life of me I can't see why, it is sooooo good not to run 4.
The reason not to run 4 dazes is that they become useless late game usually, and after the first one players will tend to play around them. 1 Mana is huge in the first few turns. By the time you draw your third, it is likely, however, that you will never be able to counter anything.
I feel that Standstill is a better card than brainstorm unless you run at least 5 fetchlands, and even so, in this deck I still believe standstill should win. By going mono u, you give up a LOT of speed (no hounds or mages here). As such, you must compensate by taking a more controllish rout, laying some good, cheap creatures and then controlling game resources by punishing "good" decks. You cannot outrace decks with mono U, so you must forgo options such as Chalice and faster beats for more "control" options. Brainstorm is a MUCh more aggressive card than standstill. It lets you see a lot of cards, and coupled with fetchlands, it acts as your draw engine. Standstill, on the other hand, acts is a much different manner. It is a powerful card draw engine, true, but more important is the psychological power it posseses. While this card is out, players will hesitate to play any spells. This is extreemly benificial to your strategy, and the crux of mono u fishes game plan. By the time you cast it, you already have some good disruptive creatures out. Your opponant can't afford to not play spells, and with brainstorm you are not preventing him from doing so. Standstill, in an indirect manner, does this. As such, I would serriously recomend at least testing it.
It is in my oppinion that Curiosity is overkill with Ninja in the deck. My personal preference is towards the ninja. Curiosity is really much stronger in the Ur version, thanx for the most part to lavamancer.
B2B is a great addition, as it serves in a similare manner to standstill, in that it discourages the casting of spells.
I would definitly recomend bouncers in place of seasingers. Seasingers are a great card, true, however in many matchups (stax sticks out in my mind) they are a dead card. Bouncer always has uses. Seasinger is a great sidebaord card, however. I also would recomend for the sb Gilded Drakes and Magus of the Unseen.
And a minor detail, but you should replace 2 starnds with 2 deltas, pithing needle and all ;).
By the way I plan on playing this in a mox tourney saturday, so any help by then would be good.
Glix:See your point on standstill, it does fit mono-blue better. Would you run man-lands considering B2B and standstill? I have very little Stax in my area, mostly Gifts and TMWA(the mountains win again); so I am little torn about seasinger vs. bouncer. Seasinger is totally dead vs. non island decks, so that may tip the balance towards bouncer. I would replace starnd with delta, except I own none. I have never witnessed someone needle a fetch before, has anyone else?
My new list for critque:
13 Island
4 Mishra's factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
3 Waterfront Bouncer
4 Standstill
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
3 Back to Basics
Really not sure what do do with man-lands, B2B disyngery, so help there would be great.
What are you thinking SB wise? I would recomend 4 Chills to help those TMWA decks chillax. You should also run at least 2 Gilded Drake, a very solid card against Gifts.
Unfortunatly, you will have to make the b2b or manland decision. Although I am torn, I would lean toward the lands, as b2b can be countered, and adds a nice juicy drain target to an otherwise crappy deck to drain.
You should add some fetchlands probably, despite lacking brainstorms, as they are still good cards. Moreover, you have 22 lands, and could probably cut 2.
Is the tourament non-proxy? If not, recall, walk, and saphire are obvious inclussions.
My current board looks like this:
3 Chill
3 Energy Flux
3 Old Man of the Sea
4 Extract
2 Gilded drake
I might go -1 extract +1 gilded drake, but I really don't know. I have decided to run B2B and factories I have not had to many problems with the disynergy, I hope it works out. 22 lands may be a bit much but with factory, wasteland, strip mine I need so colored sources, I may cut an island. It is 15 proxy, but my 15 are already used up, who really plays restricted cards anyway ?
EDIT:
Ok so I played this to a 10th place finish going 3-2 and missing T8 on tie breakers. I lost my games to CS and TT Confident. I beat BGU Dragon, Oath and Pyshatog. I lost 2 games to TT Confident because of Tinker DSC, but won one via null rod and a ton of dudes. I lost to CS getting island screwed and being overpowered by draw/brokeness. My current list would be something like this:
13 Island
4 Mishra's factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
3 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Grayscaled Gharyd
4 Standstill
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timewalk
I found I lacked the number of one drops I would have liked hence the grayscale. The current list is 61 cards, still not sure what to cut. As you can see B2B is gone, it got pitched to force of will all day except vs. dragon where it saved me.
I have been testing the deck and trying out extracts in the place of stifle. Extract handles one of the decks major problems, tinker and other brokeness like yawg will. Stifle just has not been performing for me as well as I would have liked. Because of the maindecked extract, I have been also trying out psychic purge in the board, to answer confident and welders. Thoughts?
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4 Flooded Strand
10 Island
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
4 Brainstorm
4 Curiosity
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
4 Stifle
3 Chain of Vapor
In particular I have been wondering about Chain of Vapor, I have been considering replaceing them with waterfront bouncer, but decided the ability to hit none creatures was too good.
Thanks!
I'd also play Umezawa's Jitte, along with CotV and Aether vial instead of Null Rods and Curiosity (curiosity and the ninja are a bit redundant). Jitte would let me fight aggro (something this deck can't do), while CotV+Vial almost does the same job as null rods without compromising the jitte.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I disagree about chalice and vail over null rod. Null rod very good right now, good enough that Stax decks even run it(Uba Stax). Not to mention that chalice is a near dead card if you are on the draw. I really am not a fan of AEther vial in fish but it and chalice and Jitte do fit nicely together. While Jitte helps vs. aggro, null rod gives me a chance vs. gifts which is much more prevelant then other aggro decks. What it basicly comes down to is chalice sucks on the draw.
If you must do mono U for some reason and limit yourself, you should just go all out and make it FISH again...
merfolk ftw!
I recommend in addition to using waterfront bouncers, utalizing a pair of gilded drakes. Its such an awesome old- school combo. And where are the Standstills? Come on, man! With mono u, you can afford a shakier mana base, which means man lands, which means standstill = 2 recall on a stick. 4 Factories and 3 Conclaves could easily be added. 4 Dazes seem excesive. I would cut back to 2-3.
At my first TMD, and my first tourament, I ran a mono u fish deck (back when there were actually fish in it), and I actually won a mirror match with 20 hits from a single Flying Men. It was beautiful.
4 Flooded Strand
10 Island
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
2 Seasinger
4 Brainstorm
4 Curiosity
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
3 Back to Basics
My main addition here was back to basics, really the only reason to stay mono-blue. Seasinger is my answer to aggro, oath and tinker-DSC. Old man of the sea would be better vs. aggro but a can't justify shelling out $30 for him. Most list seem to run 2-3 daze but for the life of me I can't see why, it is sooooo good not to run 4.
I feel that Standstill is a better card than brainstorm unless you run at least 5 fetchlands, and even so, in this deck I still believe standstill should win. By going mono u, you give up a LOT of speed (no hounds or mages here). As such, you must compensate by taking a more controllish rout, laying some good, cheap creatures and then controlling game resources by punishing "good" decks. You cannot outrace decks with mono U, so you must forgo options such as Chalice and faster beats for more "control" options. Brainstorm is a MUCh more aggressive card than standstill. It lets you see a lot of cards, and coupled with fetchlands, it acts as your draw engine. Standstill, on the other hand, acts is a much different manner. It is a powerful card draw engine, true, but more important is the psychological power it posseses. While this card is out, players will hesitate to play any spells. This is extreemly benificial to your strategy, and the crux of mono u fishes game plan. By the time you cast it, you already have some good disruptive creatures out. Your opponant can't afford to not play spells, and with brainstorm you are not preventing him from doing so. Standstill, in an indirect manner, does this. As such, I would serriously recomend at least testing it.
It is in my oppinion that Curiosity is overkill with Ninja in the deck. My personal preference is towards the ninja. Curiosity is really much stronger in the Ur version, thanx for the most part to lavamancer.
B2B is a great addition, as it serves in a similare manner to standstill, in that it discourages the casting of spells.
I would definitly recomend bouncers in place of seasingers. Seasingers are a great card, true, however in many matchups (stax sticks out in my mind) they are a dead card. Bouncer always has uses. Seasinger is a great sidebaord card, however. I also would recomend for the sb Gilded Drakes and Magus of the Unseen.
And a minor detail, but you should replace 2 starnds with 2 deltas, pithing needle and all ;).
Glix:See your point on standstill, it does fit mono-blue better. Would you run man-lands considering B2B and standstill? I have very little Stax in my area, mostly Gifts and TMWA(the mountains win again); so I am little torn about seasinger vs. bouncer. Seasinger is totally dead vs. non island decks, so that may tip the balance towards bouncer. I would replace starnd with delta, except I own none. I have never witnessed someone needle a fetch before, has anyone else?
My new list for critque:
13 Island
4 Mishra's factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
3 Waterfront Bouncer
4 Standstill
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
3 Back to Basics
Really not sure what do do with man-lands, B2B disyngery, so help there would be great.
I would run atleast 2 Conclaves though, because they are just good. Especially under standstill. Plus they ninja out and they fly.
Unfortunatly, you will have to make the b2b or manland decision. Although I am torn, I would lean toward the lands, as b2b can be countered, and adds a nice juicy drain target to an otherwise crappy deck to drain.
You should add some fetchlands probably, despite lacking brainstorms, as they are still good cards. Moreover, you have 22 lands, and could probably cut 2.
Is the tourament non-proxy? If not, recall, walk, and saphire are obvious inclussions.
3 Chill
3 Energy Flux
3 Old Man of the Sea
4 Extract
2 Gilded drake
I might go -1 extract +1 gilded drake, but I really don't know. I have decided to run B2B and factories I have not had to many problems with the disynergy, I hope it works out. 22 lands may be a bit much but with factory, wasteland, strip mine I need so colored sources, I may cut an island. It is 15 proxy, but my 15 are already used up, who really plays restricted cards anyway
EDIT:
Ok so I played this to a 10th place finish going 3-2 and missing T8 on tie breakers. I lost my games to CS and TT Confident. I beat BGU Dragon, Oath and Pyshatog. I lost 2 games to TT Confident because of Tinker DSC, but won one via null rod and a ton of dudes. I lost to CS getting island screwed and being overpowered by draw/brokeness. My current list would be something like this:
13 Island
4 Mishra's factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Flying Men
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spiketail Hatchling
3 Rootwater Theif
3 Waterfront Bouncer
2 Grayscaled Gharyd
4 Standstill
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Timewalk
I found I lacked the number of one drops I would have liked hence the grayscale. The current list is 61 cards, still not sure what to cut. As you can see B2B is gone, it got pitched to force of will all day except vs. dragon where it saved me.
Since flying men come out first turn, you can still ninjutsu on the second turn or cast standstill.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn