Really, what the primary point many posters were making was that Mage on Tendrils must be answered, probably with, and only with, Chain of Vapor. As such, your goal becomes solely to protect the Mage with any disruption you have, and as a UW Fish deck, you are in a pretty bad situation if you can't counter a single spell (2 if Will is involved.)

Keeping it seems like a reasonable move. A first turn Fact or Fiction would likely result in a respectable hand with mana, and Fish was unlikely to do anything really broken early. Worst case scenario was Null Rod, and you had the answer to that in hand, so in all likelihood, you would come out ahead.

Sorry I misread the counter number. Glad I was able to help.

In all honesty, I like the concept. However, I see several problems in execution:
Tangle Wire is essentially your main disruption, particularly for forcing the Oath through. That is inadequate, not to mension unsynergistic with Orchard. Your countermagic will not be very useful for getting Oath to stick: by the time you have (1)(G)(U)(U) open, I expect that a control opponent would have a counter ready, as well as Force backup.
I have trouble imagining you "out counter" control opponents, with only four in the deck and no Force.
Additionally, you have very few ways to search out Oath.
Lastly, about the mana base... Any 5 color Stax player is likely to tell you that City of Brass is far better than Gemstone Mine. Beyond that, in the current meta, even with the recent dip in Stax, Wasteland is a threat that you need to consider, and counter with fetch into basics, as you don't really want to rely on Crucible to keep lands on the board.
Overall I might begin by suggesting
-3 Mine
-4 Wire
-1 Crucible
-1 Bayou
-1 Trop
-1 Sea
-4 Mana Drain

+2 Island
+4 FOW
+8 fetch
+1 City

Good luck, and let me know how it ends up! 

Kudos on the excellent primer. Personally, I can easily see how the added synergies in your list can improve the deck relative to more traditional Stax. I will test the build, although the transition could be a tough one!

Hi. I'm Luke, a 17 year old high school senior in the suburbs of Chicago. I started playing Magic about the time that Darksteel came out. Since then, I have started playing Vintage and Legacy, and am partial to Stax. I have only been to two Vintage tournaments, both local, as a result of transportation and time difficulties, but made top 8 in the second in a field filled with ICBM and GWS.