You might consider playing Dark Times.  This doesn't play your blue cards but it has plenty of hate without needing money cards; although technically you would play Lotus/Jet if you had them. 

I have 2 issues with this card, in descending order:

1.) It's color cost.  Double blue will often cut you off any blue spells until your next turn; this is obviously huge.

2.) Relative to Rootwater Thief, it only takes artifacts.  I guess the idea is that this is a sideboard card, but Rootwater takes Oath's creatures (making Vault/Key worthless) and Storm Combo's win conditions among other things.  Also, aggro-control decks like Fish are tempo decks, they're made to draw out the game and win through their consistency.  Trying to get cute and win through an opponent's Vault/Key is nice but it's not what the decks are built for. 

If you want to win through Vault/Key then play Vault/Key.  Rootwater Thief is more effective at what Fish wants to do in more ways than one. Extract is actually better than BOTH of these cards; Extracting Vault (and/or Key against Tezz-less Vault/Key decks) wins games, and it doesn't require you to wait a turn or cast Time Walk; it also does so for a CMC of 1.

Steve,

I notice that you didn't list Dark Depths/Dark Times.dec; was this because it's not that prevalent, not that good (in our opinion), or both?  I just wonder because it seems pretty good in the sense that it seems relatively hard to hate on (minus Iona) and it runs quite a bit of disruption (8 duress effects + Leyline or Null Rod and/or Sad Sac.) and quite a few 4 of's.  What do you feel are it's biggest weaknesses, and do you think that it can be a competitor given sufficient numbers?
 
Also, slightly off the subject but I really enjoyed my first Meandeck Open a week ago.  Vintage in the Midwest really owes you guys a debt of gratitude.

This might be slightly off-topic (though i don't think it is) but I think one of the major reasons Vintage hasn't continued on in popularity is that new players don't seem to care about the format.  I also started playing Magic in 1994 (although I was only in middle school) and almost all of the players I knew played "power" cards and decks like Big Beef Land Destruction".  Of course, I didn't have the primo cards for primo decks, but to this day I still think of those days.  Newer players aren't exposed to that, instead it's all about "standard" or extended, PTQs, etc.

If you don't hook 'em when they're young (Magic wise) you'll probably never get them at all.

That being said, Travis I don't know you & never met you but in my lurking over the past couple of years I've learned quite a bit from your posts; also you have the best avatar in the history of message boards.

Do we know for certain that all of the cards will be artifacts?  I can see where that would make sense as the words relic and artifacts are essentially synonyms, but I just wondered if anyone knows for sure.

I haven't seen a lot of movies this year, but three stand out:

I Love You, Man
Observe & Report
The Hangover

As you can see, I'm biased toward comedic films; also the Hangover is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

I also liked Philip Seymour Hoffman and Nick Frost in Pirate radio and Jeff Bridges (in his most Lebowski-esque role since TBL) in The Men Who Stare at Goats.

I'm glad to see people are still passing the word around about this guy.  I live in Indiana and on the rare occasion I go to an event in Indy (PTQ, GP, etc.) he's been there selling cards (as a dealer) to people who don't know/care that he's a crook.  I've tried to pass the word as best I can, but it's sad how few people seem to really care.  The last time I saw him was at GenCon where he and his former/maybe again current business partner had a booth. 

All I can say is that when he's at an event and cards are stolen the first people suspected are the urchins that follow in his wake at every event; that doesn't mean they're guilty but they have a reputation.  Unfortunately the guy still obviously makes money because he's still renting booth space and selling as many cards as ever.     

Blue Moon Games
Mooresville, IN

Mooresville is about 15 min. SW of I-465 & S.R. 67 in Indianapolis (for those who care but don't know).

Not sure of the exact address, but it is just west of the high school.  The owners are going to be starting bi-weekly Vintage tournaments soon, so if you live in the area, post a reply here or send me a PM and I'll do my best to give directions. 

My name is John, I'm 27 years old and just returning to college after an 8 year period of wasting my life at dead end jobs.  I've been lurking on TMD for approx. 3 1/2 years.  I've played in a hand full of Vintage tournaments, always placing poorly to a a lack of practice and playskill (mostly the former).  I haven't played at all (other than drafts on occasion) in any format since Vintage Worlds '08 (Started 1-0, finished 1-4 )  I just recently got an email address that TMD accepts so I opened an account but I probably wont post much.