May I suggest Pithing Needle as an option for the U/W build.  Welder is so common as we all know and its probably the decks biggest nemesis.  Pithing Needle is by far the best "Goblin Welder" hate card in existence.  It only costs 1 colorless mana and it can stop Welder before the come out, once it come out and it nullifies all subsequent welders.  It also is very useful for U/W because against the WTF you can stop vial, Jitte, and of course the horrendously deadly Wild Mongrel.  This card also stops Bazaar of Baghdad (for UBA and DARGON).  For those that use the Null rod version of U/W (yay null rod) pithing needle may seem to be redundant in a sense but the only real thing that it is redundant with is icatian javelineers and stp.  The Needle is truly for Goblin Welder and can be sided out when necessary but when you consider what matchups one is to expect in the top levels of any tournament.  The appropriate number is 3 IMO. 

Magnus is very clutch as a sideboard card  although there is something to be said for the speed and versatility of seal of cleansing.  Not to say that Mangus is not a bomb but there are many times where summoning sickness and the frailty of a creature can doom you when you need it the most.  Lava Dart, REB, Triskellion, RAzormane  etc. are all cards that a sb'ed Shop deck will unleash if your plan is simply bomb with the Mangus you can easily get stuck!  Beware!

Ok so basically we have determined that WTF is similar enough to fish in battling against your standard metagame fare.  You have tempo, nulls, ect.  Some WTF runs standtill, some brainstorm.  That is a just a matter of preferance.  The biggest difference is that WTF can pwn regular fish with its hands behind its back.  This is acheived with the best fishy creature of them all, river boa.  Another reason, and probably the most important is the maindecking of sut ta firewalker.  It is ironic that the 2nd choice pinger gives WTF the advantage in the fish match.  Now its unanimous that WTF pwns regular fish so why not take that and run with it.  Why not play WTF?  It has the better fish creature and it beats fish.  Nuff said.  

PS. Hidden Gibbons is ridiculously good, i'd maindeck at least 3

Peace, Chaz

Leo i'm most defiantly down for testing. Then we shall see whose deck will prevail! LoL. I stepped back a bit my conclusion is that my sideboard will look like this now

4x Null Rod
3x REB
2x BEB
3x Rack and Ruin
3x Fire/Ice

I think that this sideboard makes things very very balanced. Oh and by the way its official. Every third Saturday of the month The Gathering Grounds, on Hampton rd. half a mile south of highway 44 in St. Louis, will be holding 5 proxy tournaments. There will be no more switching back between proxy and non proxy. So make sure to come out next month prepared.

Well nice job again.  I really enjoyed the whole tournament and was very impressed with Leo's deck and the way my deck preformed overall.  To any who might be intrested the deck list is posted below.  I felt like Leo truly outplayed me in the finals dispite a mess of errors on both sides.  I really liked my chances going into the matchup but my play was stifled by early lavamancers both games!  No worries tho.  You will see the sideboarding changes below.  Since i was not able to watch Leo's matches at all except for the last one i'll give you a little insight into my deck and its day at my shop.

The deck plays like fish with the man lands, standstill and early creature based advantage, however insted of running light, weaker creatures the deck runs moxen and powerful threats.  Heavy guns like Exalted Angel, Serendib Efreet, and the Sword of Fire and Ice poise to take over the game once they hit.  They are accelerated out through the mana drains and artifact mana present in the deck. Grim Lavamancer wipes up aggro and welders among other things and the meddling mage, although much maligned, is a star in many matches if it is played right.  Standstill was a recent addition (acually thats an understatement.  The deck didn't run standstill until at least 4 minutes before my first match started against MrZeroPing).  Standstill seemed like a naturally fitting engine for the deck.  Before that addition i got the feeling like the deck would stall out at times leaving me with none of the grade A prime rump roast that i so desired...didn't come out so well.... I have found through testing that Sword of fire and ice is an absolute house.  It is a clock like none other.  Just laying that baby down and dropping a standstill is so sexy you can't even discribe.  The pro blue comes in handy against tog not only because of the pressure that it places on them, but also because it forces them to berserk (not always an easy task when they have to constantly wish for answers to your mages).  The null rods are in the sideboard and come out against workshop based decks.  I have found that not having them in the main and being able to run artifact mana is better than not having artifact mana to pump out the beats.  This deck is not fish and that should be the most important statement.  There are really no strips, mana denial is not as important.  This is just a powerful aggro-control deck that  has the versitlity to go toe to toe with the whole feild.  So without further ado:

Star.Dec

The Creatures

4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Meddling Mage
3x Serendib Efreet
3x Exalted Angel

Spells and such

4x Mana Drain
4x Force of Will
3x Swords to plowshares
4x Standstill
3x Sword of Fire and Ice

Braaaaazoken

1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Fact or Fiction

Manas and Menchildren

1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mana Crypt
1x Sol Ring
1x Black Lotus
2x Faerie Conclave
4x Mishra's Factory (4 seasons Biatch!)
4x Tundra
3x Volcanic Island
1x Plateau
3x Flooded Strand
2x Polluted Delta

Siziid Bizord

4x Null Rod (the pwn toni)
3x Rack and Ruin
3x REB
3x BEB
1x Mox Monkey
1x Strip Mine

(new board takes out a BEB and a REB for 2x pyroclasm (aggro tech), and a mox monkey for a fire/ice)

NOW for the Matches

Round 1: VS. MrZeroPing with RectorBargain

Now i have the habit of thinking everything that plays a blue based dual is tog when i first play it.  I have no idea why but this definatly would not be the first time i have made that mistake.  We start off the match amicably.  I congragulate ZeroPing on having 20 life and we start the match.  A first turn duress reveals a hand full of my goodies and i recall he took a standtill in shock.   He really had no idea what the hell i was playing and i still thought this cat was going to do the tog dance on me.  I lay a mage for tog and then lay an some men-land-chillins and start the beatdown.  He cabal therapies me and i realize my mage mistake.  He then tutors for a necropotence but its already too late for him to use it as he dies to my beats.

Game 2 was like this.  Ping takes one look at his hand and says hokay i love it.  I think great as a look at my mage with fow backup.  He fetches a scrubland and first turn therapies for a fow.  I discard it and know exactly whats in his hand.  I lay the mage for rector after a long conversation with him trying to deduce if he ran the old-skool trix kill or the newer tendrils one.  It was all for naught as i swooped in to kill my stalled out opponent with angels.

1-0

Round 2:  VS Big dude with powered Dragon Combo

So i feel like i know what to do against this matchup.  Dragon doesn't like disruption and it doesn't like creature removal and i have both.  I have tested against dragon and won many a times.  The first game just was domination on my part.  I countered his business and showed him how nasty an angel with a sword can be.  The standstills were showing me tons of love so far and i was feelin the love.  I didn't feel the love the next game.  He went brazoken on me.  I'm talking quad-squee brazoken.  I felt really out of my rhythm he was gaining so much card advantage that he was controling me with counters and duress.  Much to my dismay i lose that matchup.

Game three was one of the worst cases of roll missassignment = game loss.  I was reeling from that game 2 loss and you could say i was on tilt.  He got 1 squee in the grave along with the kill and i immediatly felt like i needed to answer will card advantage.  I had an irrational fear that i needed to put him on a clock before he started to gain squee advantage over me even tho he just had one in the grave.  So on turn three I decide to tap out and play sword of fire and ice with the rationale that i will play a 4th turn  standstill and attack with an equiped manland.  I had Fow backup and felt ok with the gamble.  Well the man rivered the blue card he needed to get his fow online and then played the animate dead.  I fowed and he fowed for the win.  

My hand when i lost: FOW, Stanstill, BEB, Mana drain, Tundra

Thats bad magic and i was frustrated with my mistake beliving that there would be no t8 and i would be stuck with a consolation prize.  On to round 3

1-1-0

Round 3: VS Old-Skool Keeper w/ morphling

Well this match was pretty breezy i will not get into it because i don't really remember anything of importance except for when he tapped out to play a morphling which i sworded eot.  I said whew cause i had no answers for that.

2-1-0

We ended swiss and went on to the T8.  I was paired against another Keeper deck however i had no idea really what i was facing until late in the second game

Top 8: VS crazy keeper

Game 1 was a mess of craziness.  He first turned LOA and i was regreting that i took out the strips from the deck.  i dropped som nasty shit to say the least.  I went mox, tundra, lotus, sac for morphed angel and ancestral which resolved.  He couldn't find any other land with his LOA so was forced to drop some moxen and artifact mana which he then used to tinker for a darksteel colossus to the extacy of the surrounding fans.  This was met with shock and awe as i eot sword to plowshared targeting the 11/11 indestructable.  The game ended soon after that as i had the angel and he had the nothing

So based upon game 1 i really could only guess he was playing some Workshop deck so i sided in the null rods and the rack and ruins.  Well this paid off unexpectedly.  The man whose name escapes me plays mana vault, mox, sol ring and a land.  I drop my 2nd turn null rod and he contests with me weather or not he could use his mana.  I said no i'm sure you can't and i was backed up by my surrounding posse.  I proceeded to beat this man with a nastity exalted angel weilding a sword of fire and ice.  Oh the sweetness.  I win 2-0.  On to round 2

Top 4: Vs Don Mcclean and TNT_MUD

Oh holy hell and damnation i was beaten to hell and back first match.  We're talkin about fire and brimstone smash face slaughter.  First turn trinisphere followed by 2nd turn chalice for 2 is the nuts imo.  He then dropped metal worker and then on the ensuing turn wasted me down to 1 land then played karn, juggernaut, and random other brown stuff for the win.  I conceed before he could acutally do me in and we move on to game 2

This is where it all changes.  I side out angels a mage mana crypt and the sword of fire and ices for 4 null rods, 1 mox monkey and 3 rack and ruins.
My hand was more or less very good untill a chalice for 2 made most of my hand null (forgive the pun).  My grim lavamancer picked off his first metalworker but as i expected he had a 2nd and i had no cards in my graveyard.  On the ensuing turn i draw a fact or fiction.  I have no mana in hand and 4 mana on the board.  I FOF and then get what i needed, a delta in the pile with 3 cards.  His metalworker gets toasted and he sighs with dismay.  I take advantage with hard beats and win.

Game 3 shows me a stellar hand of moxen, null rod, rack and ruin, and a sol ring among other things.  Don McClean plays a chalice for 1 on his first turn and amasses enough mana to poop out a juggernaut too thanks to mana crypt.  I then stupidly play my moxen, land and then play a sol ring which is countered by the chalice.  This misplay would be the winner for me it turns out because next turn he chalices for 2.  On my turn i sumgly rack and ruin the chalice for 2 and his jugg which leaves him high and dry.  My null rod seals his fate as his mana crypt kills him along with help from my men chillins

So i am now in the finals.  I see the Leo is finishing up and i am excited and surprised that 2 u/w/r decks will be going toe to toe in the finals.  I feel like he summed it up well in his report as Leo really took me and made me say mama with his superior play.  However in the end i still felt that my deck has the better matchup overall simply because my creatures are bigger and fight him in the air where he doesn't face much resistance normally.  The new sideboard will help tremendously when i face more fish decks to come at Origins and Starcitygame's tourny.

Thanks to all that came out and congrats Leo!

Peace, Chaz

Well forgive me but what is it that makes brainstorm a better choice than Standstill.  I think your deck is neat and particularly like the river boa however this is the one thing that is bothering me. While brainstorm smooths out decks and makes them run very consistant it is not 'draw'.  When you have a deck like fish that can develop the board early standstill is high octane jet fuel.  To keep a deck going, any deck, you need a draw engine. This is one thing that standstill is and brainstorm is not.  By replacing brainstorm with standstill you run into the problem of stalling out.  I see the curiosity but still.

Just my 2 cents.

Chaz

Against most decks there is one optimal card to name when casting meddling mage.  Anyone who plays EBA (or other decks with mage) has this one card in their head before the match begins.  Usually an early, effectivly picked mage can parlay into a win.  This thread's purpose is to find out what is the optimal mage choice for each matchup.  Here are the picks i use:

Vs. Dragon: Animate dead.  This is the enchantment thats used the most however the matchup really requires multiple mages to ensure victory.  The next two choices would be Necromancy and then Dance of the Dead. Sometimes you can go for odds if you have countered one or two Animate deads already by naming Necromany or Dance.  This strategy can give them less outs if you pick correctly.

Vs. Both Slavers: Goblin Welder.  This is by far the best choice at anytime during the matchup.  The welder is key to their victory and by neutralizing it you stand a chance in this matchup.  This stops reoccuring slavers and the TFK super engine.  

4c Control: This poses a problem for the mage because if you are running EBA then many of your cards are going to be overlapping with theirs.  Some EBA versions run Skeletal Scrying and just a 4 angel 4 mage creature base.  This pick between scrying, angel and something else depends more on where you are in the game and the deck type because of the similarites between the two decks.

Vs. Draw 7: Tendrils of Agony.  The main plan for this matchup is to try and survive a turn or so to cast the mage for Tendrils.  You think Draw 7 was a nasty deck to begin with its twice as good going for spirit guide beatdown!  Of course first turn mage with accelerants is always the best route against this monster.

Belcher: Goblin Charbelcher.  This is by far the best matchup for meddling mage.  Against old belcher this would be game set match right there.  This changed with the addition of Welder.  Things are still on the bright side however.  Kill the welder or counter it unimpeded, or you can just set your next mage to welder and be done with it.

GAT: Quirion Dryad .  This basically comes down to which one the deck is likely to have more of.  You can stray from this path if you know that your opponent is running 3 togs (or more), as they are the better and more deadly creature.  This all changes if they have already dropped a Dryad.  If they have played one Dryad already then it is not a bad choice to drop mage for tog and swords the first dryad if you can.

Fish: Standstill/Grim lavamancer.  Here we come down to the optimal choice and the choice just to make sure the first mage survives.  Against any deck with some burn or removal will cause problems for a mage centered strategy.  The Standstill choice basically puts a monkey wrench into their set game plan.  It makes their creatures weaker because they won't be hitting you over multiple turns.  You will then have the option to either ignore them and just attack hard with angel, or you can get rid of the creatures and move on.  The grim lavamancer strategy works well when you know they are packing lava.  It is smart to pick lavamancer anytime but of course make sure they don't have any on the board b4 you cast. (duh).  Fire/Ice is not a good choice for the most part.  Use your counters or duress to get that because they are most likely not running 4 or any.  Standstill is the only sure choice if you have no information about the deck.

MaskNaught: Illusionary Mask.  This is the best choice only if they have not slapped down that kookie card already.  They only really need one to get going.  You can't name Phyrexian Dreadnought because mage only prevents players from playing cards from hand.  If they are running the deck with a survival engine, and they have already placed a mask pick survival as a sure choice.

Hulk Smash: Cunning Wish.  Between Cunning Wish and Psychatog Cunning Wish is the one that seems to be the best choice.  They need the wish to get the berserk, but obviously they can win without berserk.  The reason that you choose cunning wish is that it lets you take care of the tog with your swords and makes sure that your mage survives the day. Without the wish Hulks only form of creature kill is probably a lone deed if that.  For the most part you can ride your angels to the win from there.  

Food Chain Goblins: Goblin Recruiter.  Although you can go for the Food Chain in this matchup by cutting out the Recruiter you can kill two birds with one stone.  Without the Recruiter the Food Chain does nothing for the FCG player.  The strategey in this matchup is to get the mages out in droves named to recruiter because of the uncounterable Gempalm Incinerator.  What a jerk he can be.  By setting for recruiter you can also make sure the FCG player doesn't just forget about Food Chain an go for topdecking 40 goblins for the win.  

If there are anyother things that i have left out feel free to post your opinions.  Until then may all your mages hit and your swords farm freely.

-Chaz