I think a good number for fetches in a monocolor deck is 6+. Gifts at a minimum run 5, why would a monocolor deck run the same amount. I personally run 7 in UW Fish.. The deck thinning is invaluable, especially for the long game, which is the general plan for BBS.

Can you elaborate on "too many fetches" and why it would be bad?

Humility

Stasis

Contamination

Mirari's Wake

The problem with selecting creatures for fish is that all creatures have to do something hateful/useful, not just beat. Not very many creatures can beat as well as hate efficiently.

Because Swords + Meddling Mage is just better. But the important thing is tuning Fish to your own style.


I personally think it is. Vial/Jitte/Chalice can take up to 11 slots. That's a lot.. But it also depends on how the deck is built. Cards like Rootwater Thief + Waterfront Bouncer + Voidmage Prodigy is obviously excellent with the Vial configuration; all with a CC of 2 and the mana you save from casting them can be used to bounce, counter, and remove from library. And then you have cards like Kataki, which makes your Vials and Jittes less effective but gets better with Null Rod. Rather than having moxen pay for itself, or unusable, the opponent has to decide if they're going to spend mana to keep unusable moxen around.. (with both the Rod and Kataki in play of course) ..hopefully they wont and end up not being able to Tinker/Colossus. (or at least delay them long enough to get Swords in your hand)

Personally, I love U/R.. but it has trouble handling oath, stax, workshop aggro, dragon and gifts.


They're really metagame dependent. U/W for controlish metas and U/G for workshopish metas. But they can both be tuned to handle both sides of the field quite well.


Card choices range depending on meta and preference but they're usually hate cards. I play U/W and I prefer workshop and nonbasic hate since they seem to annoy me the most. Cards like Kataki, Energy Flux, or even Annul come to mind.


For U/R you want the standard Mox Sapphire, Ancestral, and TimeWalk. Mox Ruby is optional. It would simply replace your manasources.

-2 Wooded Foothills
-1 Mountain
-1 Island

+1 Ancestral
+1 TimeWalk
+1 Mox Sapphire
+1 Mox Ruby

If you wish to increase your mana count I suggest removing MisD and/or Stifle.


I've tried that before. Lavamancers with Mages. But it always seemed like it was trying to go into too many different directions, and with a much more fragile manabase you're pretty likely to get screwed by a couple of key wastes.

Well put warble, I was actually just reminescing the good ol' days of counterpost.  I totally agree though about having a much faster clock late game and early plain/tundra fetching.

@Luiggi: KJ Outpost is a lategame card. Back in the days of CounterPost decks you would run about 2. And even though it's a waste target, a Crucible will back it up nicely. Even if you have to sac a plains.. which also gets backed up by Crucible, as you mentioned. Tempo is less of an issue late game and it packs many free counters, as silvernail said.

@warble: KJ Outposts are usable each turn so you wont have a 20 turn clock. Also tapping down to cast/recur a dragon isnt always a good idea. With the Outpost you're freely able to generate a token at EOT, it's more resiliant to creaturekill, (or StP specifically) and it's uncounterable!!

Anyone tested Burning Wish? Wishing for that critical Balance, Slice and Dice, Replenish, or even Decree (for the kill) really helps. I moved 1 of each to my board and it freed up space for more nasty enchantments (4th humility and 4th bloodmoon).

If you want to do that, why don't you just play 2land belcher. Parfait is a control deck (almost to a point where it's just a hate deck). The acceleration that gets put in is to accel silver bullets like Humility, Blood Moon, Rule of Law, or even Sacred Ground (for stax obviously) that help control the game while establishing a draw engine with Tax/Rack. I run 12 accelerants and they allow me to go first turn Tax and Rack, second turn Humility, which is just awesome against Control Slaver.

Archeologists obviously have negative synergy with Humility... All creatures do for that matter.

Mana Crypt in my experience has been really strong. A first turn Blood Moon or second turn Humility is just awesome. But unless you're playing against FCG or Workshop Aggro the Crypt is just an upkeep of 1.5 dmg per turn, which can be easily balanced out with Zuran orb.

I have not used Eternal Dragons so I don't have any experience with them. But I would think the 5 mana to bring him back is a little too much. I've also been testing Decree of Justice for the kill. They're much faster than Sacred Mesa and less vulnerable than Belcher.