I don't have one. But come to think of it, there was never really a time when I needed it. It seems like more of a win-more, as it's only *really* good in the deck when you have a Curious man down.

What makes you hate Call so avidly? What's your meta? I play against 4cc and Fish mostly, and it's great against both - such a great late-game backbreaker.

Bear in mind that that maindeck *is* 58 cards. So, #59 and #60 could be Null Rod #3 and Daze/Stifle #2.

The metagame call of fewer Rods surprised me as well. From what I've heard, if anything there's far more successful combo in Europe than in the US, especially Italy.

There's an interesting little WTF/r decklist from a recent Finnish tourney. It placed 7th in a field of 64:

4 Grim Lavamancer
*4 Cloud of Faeries*
4 River Boa
3 Spiketail Hatchling

4 Force of Will
*1 Misdirection*
2 Null Rod
1 Stifle
*1 Echoing Truth*

4 Curiosity
*4 Standstill*
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall

4 Mishra's Factory
*2 Faerie Conclave*
4 Flooded Strand
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tropical Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Island

SB:
4 Oxidize
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Null Rod
1 Black Vise
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Seal of Removal

There are two missing slots. I'd ordinarily say Call of the Herd should be there, but the deck has cut Brainstorm for Standstill, with according modifications - -1 Spiketail Hatchling, -2 Call of the Herd, -1 Gorilla Shaman +4 Cloud of Faeries, -1 Fetchland, -1 Mox Sapphire +2 Faerie Conclave.

Also interesting are the maindeck tech slots. Echoing Truth and Misdirection. Misdirection seems a bit weak, with so few targets in the present metagame, but Echoing Truth seems quite good - bouncing Decree and Siege-Gang tokens, and bouncing problem permanents, IE Blood Moon.

Thirdly, Lightning Bolt in the sideboard - for random aggro? Is this matchup hard enough to devote four full sideboard slots to? Or is this Food Chain hate?

Seal of Removal for GAT seems rather good. Drop it extremely early, and as GAT has no maindeck enchantment removal, they either have to waste a Wish to kill it, or just play through it. Interesting.

Discuss!

@honkeyb5

Four things:

One - Interesting list. Did you find you had enough proactive threats without Call of the Herd / a creature in its place? From the report, it seems like you used Crucible mostly from a defensive standpoint, and Crucible appears to be taking Call of the Herd's place in your list.

Two - How was Standstill over Brainstorm? It seems like the 2cc slot on your mana curve gets overly clogged while playing Standstill. Would Brainstorm have been better?

Three - Why the Firewalker over Grim Lavamancer #4?

Four - How was Artifact Mutation in the sideboard? It seems awesome on paper, but OTOH I could see problems keeping RG on the board against the decks Mutation is really good against.

7/23/04
Dreamers Friday Tournament
Jacob Orlove's "WTF/r"

THE METAGAME:
3 U/r Fish
2 4cc
2 TriniStax
1 WTF/r
1 Food Chain
1 CoinFlip.dec
1 Unknown

Let's get straight to the report.

-Round 1-
Jon, 4cc

Game 1:
Him: Me:
20    20
19    19
16    18
15    17
14
12
9
SCOOP

He wins the roll, and elects to play first. We trade early blows. A fetchland on my side is Stifled on my first turn (!). The Stifle itself, however, garners a timely Force of Will, as I have kept a mana-light hand, and the Volcanic Island it fetches is tapped for a Grim Lavamancer. After Lavamancer has seen two turns on the board, I make a River Boa, and true beatdown commences. At this point, he plays a Crucible of Worlds (!), but luckily, he was no Wasteland or Strip Mine in his graveyard, so I elect to allow it to resolve. Somewhere during the beatdown, he cycles Decree of Justice, but I have the Stifle for the Soldier token trigger. With him at 9, I draw into Call of the Herd, he has no more answers, and we move to Game 2.

IN: 3 Red Elemental Blast, 2 Oxidize (fearing more Crucibles)
OUT: 3 Null Rod, 2 Daze

Game 2:
Him: Me:
20    20
19    19
17    18
16
13
8
3
2
X

He again has Stifle for my turn one Polluted Delta activation (!!), which again garners a Force of Will. I hold off on a turn one play, allowing me to delay his development by bluffing the Stifle. Second turn land, Mox, River Boa with regeneration mana up makes for very good times, as he does not have immediate access to a Swords to Plowshares. A Curiosity later, the beats become truly savage. A Lavamancer joins the party, and the dynamic duo beat down for a while, eventually joined by a Call of the Herd. The first Call is countered, but the flashback gives me the game, despite his effort to slow the kill by Icing the Call token.

1-0
2-0

-Round 2-
James, TriniStax

Game 1:
Him: Me:
20    20
18    13
16    12
15    11
12
10
8
7
5
4
X

I keep a Mox, Volcanic Island, Grim Lavamancer, Gorilla Shaman, three green card hand with great trepidation. To my great surprise, he mulligans to 5 (!), with myself on the play. Land, Mox, Gorilla Shaman is some good versus Stax I hear. He plays a land and a Welder, which I answer back to with the (inactive) Grim Lavamancer. Later in the game, after staring each other down in a creature lock, he plays an Ancient Tomb, and makes a Mana Vault and a Chalice for Zero. The turn after discarding Sundering Titan. How Lucky! However, the turn after the big man comes down, I rip a green source and play out a River Boa. After taking seven from the angry Titan, my Boa shuts him out of the attacking game, leaving a Curiositied Spiketail Hatchling and an active Lavamancer to whittle at his life total, before alpha striking him with my entire team.

IN: 2 Energy Flux, 2 Oxidize
OUT: 2 Daze, 2 Stifle

Game 2:
Him: Me:
20    20
19    19
17    18
15
13
12
10
7
4
1
X

Turn one Grim Lavamancer, turn two Null Rod with counter backup leaves him in a world of hurt. However, into the midgame, while beating with a Factory Worker, he sees his out and Rack and Ruins my Worker and my Null Rod. The first effort at such a play is Force of Will'd, but the second attempt unfortunately resolves. On his turn, he makes a Gilded Lotus for his efforts, paining him with an Ancient Tomb. On my turn, to support my mana denial plan, I Oxidize his Lotus and drop a Call of the Herd token. He is hosed fairly thoroughly by the loss of the Lotus, sticking him at five mana for the remainder of the game. Call of the Herd goes all the way.

2-0
4-0

-Round 3-
Pedro, 4cc

Game 1:
Him: Me:
20    20
18    21
16    19
14
11
8
3
X

A turn one Grim Lavamancer goes farming, paving the way for a second turn 'Wasteland, blow the Tundra, Mox, River Boa' with counter backup. Later, a Grim Lavamancer adds to the beats. Late game, a Fire/Ice at both of my men resolves, but I save the Boa, gifting him a valuable extra turn. Later on in the game, however, when I am tapped out from casting Call of the Herd, a Fire/Ice sent the way of my men resolves after he Mana Drains my Force of Will (!!!). However, he has few cards in hand, and few colored sources in play due to a second early Wasteland, and he burns for five on the mana. The Call token seals the deal two turns later, despite an Ice to dig for an answer.

IN: 3 Red Elemental Blast
OUT: 3 Null Rod

Game 2:
Him: Me:
20    20
19    19
18    18
16    17
14    16
13    18
12    17
11    16
10
9
5
1
x

This game, my deck sees two Wastelands, two REBs, and all four Force of Wills (!!) to his three answers (two Flametongue Kavus (countered) and a resolved Swords to Plowshares on a Curiositied Boa). In the early game, a Grim Lavamancer vanquishes a face-down Exalted Angel, as he can't find 2WW to unmorph it, or a Swords/Fire for my man, despite double Brainstorm on his main phase. He can force little through my virtual counter wall, and he dies to a Call of the Herd/Grim Lavamancer tagteam. I feel thoroughly like a lucksack, as I suspect I should.

3-0
6-0

-Round 4-
Sam, Food Chain Goblins

We ID into Top 4. However, at my request, we test the matchup. I ended up 5-1 in games. River Boa is, once again, a total house.

With my zero game losses, I end up as first seed.

-Top 4-
James, TriniStax

Game 1:
Him:     Me:
20        20  
SCOOP 19

He is on the draw. I go 'Polluted Delta, sacrifice for a Volcanic Island. Tap for R: Grim Lavamancer, go'. He goes 'Draw, land... Why the hell do I have EIGHT cards in hand?! Game 2...'

Unfortunate, as far as I am concerned. Experience with the deck is more important at this point than wins. But alas, Game 2 begins nonetheless.

***RULES QUERY: Is there any legal way to resolve this *without* giving a game loss to the player drawing the extra card? James is a really classy guy, and would be among the last people I'd *ever* suspect of cheating. Plus, in this case, I would rather have played it out and gained another game's experience, regardless of whether it led to a win or a loss by me.***

IN: 2 Oxidize, 2 Energy Flux
OUT: 2 Daze, 2 Stifle

Game 2:
Him: Me:
20    20
18    19
17    18
15    17
13    16
11    15
7      14    
5      13
4
3
2
1
X

I drop an early Boa and Lavamancer, and counter his early Trinisphere and midgame Blood Moon. A second Lavamancer joins the party. I am mana-light this game, and accidentally tap out for something inane (PLAY MISTAKE). At this point, he goes 'Tap 6: Make a Pimpbot' and in my head, I hear 'Let's go to game three'. He shoots up my team, and proceeds to beat me with his 1/1 for approximately a month, while digging with Thirsts for Knowledge. I topdeck, in order: Land, Land, Null Rod, Spiketail Hatchling, Oxidize. As the Hatchling races him, he attempts to hardcast Sundering Titan, and takes 2 from his Ancient Tomb. I, in response, go 'Float green. On comes into play, Oxidize' for the GG's. He has very few mana sources after the Null Rod and double Sundering Titan triggers, and dies to a lone Spiketail, unable to cast the Platinum Angel in his hand.

4-0
8-0

-Top 2-
Pedro, 4cc

Pedro wants to go home, so we split. All in all, excellent showing by the deck. The card quality in this deck is ludicrous - almost everything is flat-out awesome. River Boas won me at *least* three games on the night on their own, and Call of the Herd is a *fantastic* backbreaker lategame against Control. Oxidize in the sideboard is hot like crazy - it single-handedly won me *BOTH* post-sideboarding games against TriniStax. I really like this deck, as you can probably tell, and would like to see its development continue further. Now, the obligatory decklist:

-Decklist-

Mana's
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
-25-

Threats
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 River Boa
4 Spiketail Hatchling
2 Call of the Herd
1 Gorilla Shaman
-15-

Draw
4 Curiosity
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
-9-

Disruption
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
2 Stifle
2 Daze
-11-

Sideboard
2 Oxidize
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Energy Flux
   -
1 Oxidize
1 Rack and Ruin
1 Fire/Ice
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Firestorm
-15-

Props to Jason for running a fantastic tournament week in and week out, and to River Boa, for being ridiculous.

My decklist is as follows:

Colored Manas:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Tropical Island
4 Volcanic Island
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

Colorless Manas:
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland

Threats:
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 River Boa
2 Call of the Herd
1 Gorilla Shaman

Draw:
4 Curiosity
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
0 Time Walk

Disruption:
4 Force of Will
2 Daze
2 Stifle
3 Null Rod

Sideboard:
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
2 Firestorm
1 Fire/Ice
3 Red Elemental Blast
0 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Oxidize
1 Rack and Ruin
2 Energy Flux

Card Choices:
4 Fetches, 8 Duals:
My metagame is utterly INFESTED with Wastelands and Stifles. The metagame at the tourney was something along the lines of the following:

3 U/r Fish
1 U/G/r Fish (me)
2 4cc
2 Trinistax
1 Food Chain Goblins
2 Other

9 of 11 players packing 5 Strips. 5 players playing at *least* 2 Stifles maindeck. With that much fetchland and nonbasic land hate running around, I didn't feel comfortable only running 3 of each dual.

Call of the Herd:
This card won me at *least* two games against 4cc, and one in testing versus Food Chain. I hear blocking and killing two Piledrivers, or forcing your opponent to counter a threat twice is some good. I can't see cutting this for anything at this point.

Brainstorm over Standstill:
Not a ton to say here; Gay/r abuses Standstill far more intensively, and playing four almost totally dead cards maindeck in the most common matchup in my meta doesn't exactly give me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.

No Time Walk:
I simply have no access to a Walk. I'd cut either a Stifle or a Daze for it if I did (probably a Daze).

Board Choices:
No Blue Elemental Blast:
In retrospect, I should have run these to board versus Flametongue Kavu in the 4cc matchup, and for lighting up Welders. Also would have been good in the Food Chain matchup. I feel a bit stupid now. But they're getting run next week, probably cutting the random Fire/Ice and Oxidize #3.

Energy Flux over more Rack and Ruin:
Versus most artifact decks, Flux seems like the better choice in U/G/r because of one card: River Boa. If they elect to keep only one gigantic beater (ie Sundering Titan), you can just block it forever and beat down with a Spiketail Hatchling or shoot them with Lavamancer. I won game 2 of round 2 in just such a fashion.

In short, nothing too techy. Just all-around solid card quality (and some random ridiculous topdecks) carried me on the night.

I find there's one problem with the deck, though: the mana base. I separated the categories to illustrate that this *three color* deck runs *15* colored mana sources, 3 of which are shut off by Null Rod. I think the mana base could really use a good working over to see if there's any way to make it less susceptible to Wastelands, especially with the current rise of U/r Fish.

@Pest:

Before I even begin, let me say that I am in *total* agreement that Standstill is the backbone of U/r Fish, and makes the deck as strong as it is.

However, this is a completely different deck. First off, let's look at the mana curves on each deck respectively, specifically on the curve at or above the 2cc slot. Note that I'm only counting cards that have to be played by paying mana; Cloud of Faeries and Daze aren't counted. Also, I'm not counting Standstill.

U/r Fish:
4x Spiketail Hatchling
2x Voidmage Prodigy
3x Null Rod
-9-

U/G/r Fish:
4x Spiketail Hatchling
4x River Boa
3x Null Rod
2x Call of the Herd
-13-

Having this many cards in the deck that are antisynergistic with Standstill precludes its use, in my opinion.

Also, as Jacob Orlove has pointed out before, because the individual card quality in WTF/r is so much higher than in Gay/r, this deck values card quality over card quantity. Drawing multiple threats is fine in U/r because those threats can be quickly played. In U/G/r, to draw multiple threats isn't nearly as useful, as they won't be immediately useful except as extra cards in hand, because they aren't as immediately castable without tapping necessary mana sources (for such things as Stifle, regenerating Boas, etc).

In my experience, this deck, while still a tempo deck, lacks the ability to abuse the tempo gained off Standstill that Gay/r has, and for that, plus the deck's overall antisynergy with Standstill, I can't justify running it.

@Jacob: I played this deck at my local Type One tourney (Dreamers, for those who are familiar). My matchups were (in order) 4cc, Trinistax, 4cc, FCG, Trinistax. I came in without tremendously high expectations; having played Gay/r for about eight months, it felt awful to be playing Fish without Standstill.

That said, your deck played FANTASTICALLY. In four rounds of Swiss and Top 4, I didn't lose a SINGLE GAME. It runs like an absolute dream, and the sideboard rocks against bad matchups. Fantastic work.

LOL Exactly. My deck ran three of each. *sigh*. Sometimes its just not meant to be.

I'm Chris by the way. I was your finals opponent. By the way, bad bluffing was more of 'terrible play by keeping no-counter hand against combo and drawing awfully.'

Nifty deck, by the way. It seems like Mana Drain would be really useful - with so many places to drain the mana (Show and Tell, Cunning Wish, Damping Matrix, Future Sight, Yawgmoth's Will, Mind Twist, Chalices in the sideboard). Also, if you added Mana Drain and thus moved farther into a control idea, Skeletal Scrying could be rather strong as a card drawing engine.

EDIT: Also, it seems like Demonic Consultation would be better than Impulse maindeck. Though this might be really terrible in conjunction with Mana Drain - again considering the Control vs. Combo dichotomy.

The problem with this card is that, in order to outrace some of the more common artifact hate in the format (Null Rod, Rack and Ruin, etc.), your deck almost *has* to include Workshops. However, in a deck with said Workshops, there are rarely enough sorceries *or* instants to even imprint in the first place, much less enough to reliably get a broken imprint. For example:

Welder Mud November 2003
as played by Mike "Mykeatog" Broughton

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Grim Monolith
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
4 Mishras Workshop
7 Mountain
4 Metalworker

1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
3 Mind's Eye

4 Goblin welder
2 Karn Silver Golem
2 Gorilla Shaman

4 Smokestack
4 Sphere of Resistance
4 Tangle Wire
4 Chalice of the Void

It needs an entire deck build around it, and with the bad synergy between Mishra's Workshop and this, plus the Null Rods and Racks running around, I can't see it happening anytime soon.