Something that may be interesting is using a mainly artifact base, then Salvage Titian / Bomberman combo / Leviathan for the win.

4x Dark Ritual
4x Duress / Sieze

5x Moxen
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus
4x Chromatic Star
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Tinker
4x Salvage Titian
4x Bitter Ordeal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Sol Ring
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Brainstorm
1x Engineered Explosives
2x Trinket Mage
2x Auriok Savagers
1x Pyrite Spellbomb
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Time Walk

2x Seat of the Synod
2x Vault of Whispers
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
3x Polluted Delta
3x Swamp
2x Island

What I did here is I took the combo idea and put it into a control - lite bomberman shell. Explosives + top with the combo allows you to draw your deck (as well as a number of the 1-drop artifacts in here). Tinker/Leviathan is a mid-late game threat, although if I find it mana light, I will cut him for lands. Salvage Titian allows for a turn 1-2 ordeal for at least 4, more if you have extra chromatic stars. I will test this, and tweak it as I can. Thoughts?

Very interesting concept, but the way I see it, you only really have 4 cards that can get the Magus in your grave (other than discarding at EOT). These are Thoughtseize, LED, and Entomb. I would agree with John, and add at least 1-2 Careful Study to this deck. Otherwise, looks like a blast to play. That'll tear through your deck really fast. The only other problem is vs a control matchup, where you are possibly allowing them to tear through their libraries just as fast, increasing the chances of a Trickbind / Stifle / other combo-stopping spells. (Orim's chant comes to mind). I would suggest running chant in your main, just so you can prevent this from happening.

Do you have any playtesting data? any explanations of why your list is better than mine? Any comparisons at all? I really don't want to just "try this sometime" because you say so. Please support your list. I appreciate your contributions, but unless you can explain why stuff is in there, I really don't see a reason to change my list.

Tutors don't seem to be very solid, as the life loss generally hurts. The only thing that I could see including that causes life loss is Thoughseize, and that is because that is proactive disruption, rather than 1 mana and 2 life for a card that I would probably draw into in a few turns anyways. Also, Stifle is overrated. Against Long variants, I would much rather play Trinisphere or Sphere of Resistance. Even just countering key cards in their spell chain works really well, and you don't even need to hate specific cards. Dreadnaught is overkill. Period. If I need something like that, I'll run Tinker/DSC. A 2-of Dreadnaught does nothing in your library, where as a 2-of DSC is active protection against Painterstone. Also, the idea is to hate artifacts and artifact mana, not to run it. Crypt, Top, and the Moxen are only counter-intuitive, and eating up your card slots.

@Juggernaut - I can see cutting the Standstills, but not the Null Rod. Null Rod wins games, which is also why I am not including artifact mana. Although I do have to admit that a Black Lotus would not be out of place, I was not running Jewelry or Mana Crypt-type accelerators because they end up being dead draws lategame. This is also why I am not running Tormod's Crypt, Top, or Spellbomb, simply because they all require activation, which conflicts with Null Rod. I am considering upping the Needle count to 2-3 though, and adding a Chalice or two.

@Duressed - I agree with you on the Old Man point, he was mostly in there so I could try him out. I have not drawn him as yet, and I can see him being a dead draw against many decks lategame. Meddling Mage is currently in the board, and I put him there because I was not sure what to take out. I may end up cutting at least 2 Jotun Grunt for him, because I really like him in most matchups.

Changes:
-1 Old Man
-2 Jotun Grunt
-1 Swamp
-3 Standstill

+1 Black Lotus
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Chalice of the Void
+3 Meddling Mage
_____________

-3 SB Meddling Mage

+1 SB Energy Flux
+2 SB Icatian Javelineers (Bob, Welder, Lavamancer, Cats, ect.

Some game results with this list:

Fish: 2/0
I just walked all over this guy, countering his threats and STPing his guys. I eventually dropped a Jotun Grunt with both of our GYs being over 10 cards, and he conceded. I sided heavily for the second game, starting with a Lotus, Bob, Sea, Duress, Daze his Force, Extirpate on Force. He conceded 4 turns later.

  Mana'd Ichorid: 2/1
I lost to him first game, SBd heavily second game. He conceded to a first turn Pithing Needle on Bazaar, and we went into third game. I Extirpated his Grave Troll early, and landed a Pithing Needle on Bazaar. I made a play mistake that left him with 2 Zombie tokens. After a few turns that made it feel like I WAS playing Standstill, I eventually got the upper hand and he conceded.

I am pretty impressed with this list. I love it. It wins, its fast at establishing itself, and it can deal with most threats. It also walks right over  Fish through pure CA with Bob, and can handle almost anything they drop.

Both my testing and your comments have proved that Ninja really isn't worth the slot in this list. I really want to cut the Ninjas, but I don't want to go back to the Cats n Dogs plan, because even though vanilla 2/1s and 2/2s for  is pretty good, I want my creatures to actually do something. I completely forgot STPs when making this list, a huge mistake. First change: -3 Cabal Therapy, -1 Ninja; +2 Duress, +2 STP. I really like the Katakis main, although I may drop down to 2. Old Man is good, but I either see a lot of Juggernaut and Karn, or no creatures at all. The only thing that I could see it good stealing is a Metalworker or Welder. I'll try 1 and see if I like it, but otherwise I may end up cutting them entirely. -1 Ninja, +1 Old Man. I still have to pitch one more Ninja, so I am going to go with -1 Ninja, -1 Kataki, +2 Jotun Grunt, because he's just really damn good. I will get back with my testing results later, maybe I can get a few members of ICBM to play against me. Who knows?

Anyone who wants to test with me, PM me so we can set something up. I use MWS.

Current List:

//Land
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
1 Scrubland
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra's Factory

//Creatures
2 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Dark Confidant
2 Trinket Mage
1 Old Man of the Sea
4 Jotun Grunt

//Other
3 Standstill
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Pithing Needle
3 Null Rod
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Duress
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
_____________

Sideboard

3x Extirpate
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3x Meddling Mage
2x Energy Flux
1x Null Rod
1x Duress
2x Swords to Plowshares
2x Echoing Truth

[edit] ok, I just noticed that I have 4 slots open in this deck, my math is a little funky (haha), my modifications: +2 Jotun Grunt, +1 Dark Confidant, +1 Duress. SB -1 Duress, SB +1 Extirpate.

I really hate to start a new thread, but I really do need help. Here is what I was thinking of:

//Land
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
1 Scrubland
2 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra's Factory

//Creatures
3 Kataki, War's Wage
3 Dark Confidant
2 Trinket Mage
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours


//Other
3 Standstill
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
1 Pithing Needle
3 Null Rod
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
_____________

Sideboard

2x Extirpate
1x The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
3x Meddling Mage
2x Energy Flux
1x Null Rod
3x Duress
3x ?

I'm still not quite sure how to pilot this deck, but I think that I am getting better. I am really not sure how the sideboard is gonna work out, but the mainboard seems pretty solid to me. I see a lot of Oath/Tendrils/Workshop Aggro in my meta, so I'm not quite sure how this would stand up to decks like CS or Shop Combo. I am really open to ideas, I am still learning about the format. I origionally thought of running Mystic Remora, but I was told that was a no-no in this kind of deck. The mana-base seems a little questionable to me, but I really want to keep the Strip mine/Waste effects, and the Factories are always fun with Standstill in play.

I go to the Appleton store, there are occasionally Vintage tournaments, and there are almost always people to test T1, T1.5 during FNM.

Appleton:
808 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Appleton, WI 54914
920-735-120

Fon du Lac:
820 South Main Street.
Fond du Lac, WI 54935
920-922-8338

Sepheroth is now Priest Sepheroth. He's still an ass, but his reaction is pretty funny when you kill him.

Also, I just found someone else you shouldn't play. It is game 3 of the match, he's playing Mana'd Ichorid and I am playing UWB Fish. I declare attackers with my Jotun Grunt and Mishra's Factory, he has 2 2/2 Zombie tokens in play, I have a 2nd Mishra's Factory and a STP in hand. He declares blockers with both of his tokens on my Jotun Grunt, and when I try to Swords one of them after blockers, before damage, this happens.

<UGILIS> not working that way
<UGILIS> doesnt work that way
<UGILIS> u may do that before u declare attack
<Prodigal_Sorceress> im targeting one of your zombie tokens before damage
<UGILIS> check ww.wizards.com
<UGILIS> check the rules
<System> Player Lost

I'm still at lost as to why he does this. I guess some people just don't like to admit defeat.

Hey everyone. My name is Eli (pronounced how it's spelled) and I am currently stirring up Standard in Appleton, Wisconsin. I am fairly new to MTG, I started playing when Dissension hit, and I wasn't a serious tournament player until around Future Sight. I am currently still in High school, and I am working on gathering cards for my Vintage u/w Fish deck, and my Legacy IGGy-pop pile. I enjoy playing control, combo, and crazy decks designed to win with obscure cards. (Yay Morselhoarder!)

My main pastimes are Magic, D&D, and repairing the technology of those with less knowledge of such things. My favorite color combination is  , may Izzet Combo someday take over Extended.

Cheers, everyone!

Thanks, although I don't think my meta has very much Stax. It is almost all Bomberman, Shop Aggro, Shop Combo, Control Slaver (only a few), Oath, GroATog, and various Drain Tendrils/GrimLong/Other Tendrils Variant. There are a few Fish decks, but it seems we are more focused on combo or aggro than anything else. Glowrider is good aganist Bomberman, Tendrils variants, and other Fish (RBW) decks, although it is often a little late to hit the board in the meta. I will go with the STPs, although I often have trouble getting rid of Grim Lavamancer, as they usually just shock my Javelineers before I can ping it. Any suggestions? I currently have Ninja in the Glowrider slot, but I am really thinking of jamming Kataki in there.

haha, this is crazy funny. Although I would like to say that the Parallax Tide thing works, it doesn't. This is the current errata for Tide:


And the judge ruling:


Sorry to ruin your fun, but I'm afraid that does not work.

During my trials, I have noticed that Glowrider is often subpar once you have your Standstill softlock, because your opponent probably doesn't care what his cards cost to cast. I think that the card advantage off the Ninja is much better, especially because he essentially costs 1U to cast. I think I will try Glowriders sideboard for now, right next to those pesky Ronom Unicorns in my SB. Super-secret tech - Oath hates a resolved Unicorn.

One of the main problems with Caltrops is that Fish runs only a few creatures with 1 toughness, namely Icitian Javelineers and Cats (Savannah Lions), where as it also has Jotun Grunt and Dogs (Isamaru, Hound of Konda) to beat you down with no problem. Also, this only helps if you are on the play, considering that the typical fish deck will go Land, lotus/Mox/petal, threat (Cats or Dogs, usually), standstill/null rod. Unless you want to give them infi card advantage by dropping your caltrops against something with 2-4 toughness, you are kinda stuck, then. I play Fish, and I don't think that caltrops would do much. More than 1/2 of the beaters in the deck have at least 2 toughness, and, to be quite honest, Javelineers doesn't attack all that much.

I have been messing around with the list posted on the front page, and one of the problems is knowing when to mulligan. From what I have learned playing it, don't keep a hand that dosn't have at least a few combo pieces that you can drop first turn. We really need something that deals with meddling mage faster than Plague Boiler, as it doesn't seem to do all that much. Your friendly control player will just gladly bounce it, and half the time it takes out a lot of your mana sources. Are there any bounce spells that can be cast off artifacts? I know there is Crystal Shard, but that only bounces creatures. How do you guys deal with Null Rod?

Haha, this is ridiculous. I love combos like this. Another suggestion for infinite mana is to use the Basalt Monolith (or Grim Monolith) enchanted with Power Artifact. Useful on it's own, no. Useful with Demonfire / Brain Geyser / Goblin Cannon / Staff of Domination / anything-else-that-benefits-from-infinite-mana, yes.

Also, one thing that I have learned: When you make a play, stick with it. If you realize it is a mistake, don't do anything. If you loose because of it, you will learn the hard way. Learning the hard way, while definitely not easy, sticks with you. Play with people who you know will not let you take back plays, or tell your opponent ahead of time not to let you. Make sure you are behind the play 100%, and that it will help you, not hurt you, in the long run. It has been said that rewarding yourself for a job well done is the best way to learn something, and letting something slide when you make a mistake is the worst. Stick to this, your victory is your reward. Know your deck, inside and out, and have reasons why each and every card is in there.

When building, ask yourself five questions about any specific card:
1. Is this card efficient?
2. Is this card effective?
3. Does this card help me accomplish this deck's goal?
4. Are there other cards that would do the job better than this one?
5. If not, how many copies of this card do I really need?

I played Stasis a while ago, and I have found that the UG version is by far one of the fastest. You use Garruk Wildspeaker to untap your lands every other turn, trading off with making a 3/3 and smashing face. Also, cards like Rescue, Boomerang, and Chain of Vapor are useful for bouncing your Stasis at EOT, and then replaying it that turn. While Dispotic Scepter may not be the most attractive way of getting rid of Stasis when you need to untap, it does give you the option to untap before your opponent if you don't have a bounce spell, or the mana to play one. Then, either tutor up another Stasis or kill your opponent with Garruk's Overrun ability.

While my meta isn't mainly focused around CS, there are a lot of Workshop Aggro decks running around, and two of my targets are Goblin Welder (which is a bitch to deal with otherwise) and Dark Confidant. I also have trouble against decks like Goblins, and it is therefor important to take out their Goblin Lackeys as soon as possible. It also takes care of the mirror match, where I can ping Lions, opposing Javelineers, Cursecatcher, or most of the other wizards that are being run in other control decks. As of yet, I am most worried about Ichorid and Workshop. I don't know how fast Control Slaver is, but I feel that with my heavy focus towards aggro with Jotun Grunt I can take them out fairly quickly, given the lack of blockers.

Changes to the list:
-1 Academy Ruins
+1 Ghost Quarter

Currently using Ponder in the open slot until a decision is made about Null Rod (Or I find a fourth Null Rod XD)

[edit]
Believe it or not, I played in the mirror today. It was a really mindwracking test of skill and wit, so I learned a few things.
1. If they FoW your standstill, you are winning.
2. Meddling Mage is really hard to play around, unless you play MM naming Meddling Mage.
3. Glowrider is also really hard to play round, as well as being a decent beater.
4. Ghost Quarter isn't really all that great, it just removes threats at the cost of a 1 for 2.
5. MD removal or bounce is a really good idea.

So, I want to MD some StPs or Echoing truths, but to be honest, I am not sure what to take out. I was thinking that it may take the 4th slot, where the ponder is, and I could cut one of the Dazes, as I see so many of these lists doing.

-1 Ponder
-1 Daze
+2 Echoing Truth

Huh. Well, it seems that my main problem is that I am not playing Fish like someone should play fish. I am fairly new to Vintage, and extremely new to the Fish archetype. Most of the decks that I have played are either blow-up-and-win.dec, or card_advantage.dec. This is my current decklist:

//Land
4 Flooded Strand
4 Tundra
3 Island
3 Plains
4 Mishra's Factory
1 Academy Ruins
1 Library of Alexandria
1 The Tabernacle at Pendle Valle
1 Strip Mine
1 Ghost Quarter (Wastelands are a little hard to find where I come from)

//Artifacts
3 Null Rod
4 Aether Vial

//Card draw / Spells
4 Mystic Remora
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
4 Force of Will
4 Counterspell

//Creatures
3 Meddling Mage
2 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Savannah Lions
3 Jotun Grunt
3 Glowrider

My main problem is deciding what to put in the slots that will be vacated by Aether Vial. I suppose that is where the Icatian Javelineers should go, but I can also see that there may be some problems with my mana base. If you could make some suggestions on my list, that would be great. Here is what I have already:

-4 Mystic Remora
+4 Standstill

-4 Counterspell
+4 Daze

-4 Aether Vial
+3 Icatian Javelineers
+1 ?

Also, what are your thoughts on Academy ruins to reoccur Null Rod when needed?

I would remove it. Playing through it is not worth giving your opponent the card advantage (and possibly the FoW to counter your spell), and paying the  is kinda a lot. Gogo Ronam Unicorn!

SPOILER (maybe?)
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Just wondering if I was the only one who noticed this, but where they show the "potential Batman Suspects" did anyone else notice the art from the Unhinged card Assquach? Or is it just me? I found that particularly entertaining.

Has anyone tried to run Mystic Remora over Standstill? I have found it has essentially the same effect at times, and if they just play through it, you draw tons of carrds. I also like it because it adds a liittle more meaning to "Fish". Yes, it is another 1 drop, but if you are playing in the mirror, it absolutely kills the competition. Imagine playing through that. Also, another good option is Rhystic Study. It is often a one-sided blue Sphere of Resistance, or just tons of CA to get your permission engine going. I am also running Counterspell over Daze, just because, as much as I like to counter with no mana, I prefer to just counter the spell. Also, Aether Vial at 1 and 2 work wonders until you get Null Rod out, and that has usually made up for the mana you sunk into Mystic Remora by that time. Thoughts?

Another really funny infinite combo is Morselhoarder, Sinking Feeling, and something that grants a tap effect like Fire Whip or Presence of Gond.

Really, I believe that casual is all about the player's mindset. If it is getting together to talk about strategy and to pit your Barren Glory deck against a deck that abuses Warp World, it is likely that your playing casual. My friends and I define casual as a game where it doesn't matter to you whether you win or loose, you are playing merely for playings sake. We play multiplayer, Two-Headed Giant, Emperor, Battle Royal, really anything that allows us to continuously enjoy the game. The only real rule is that proxies need to be kept to a minimum. You may take a slip of paper and call your island an Akadar Wastes, but only if you are actively trying to obtain the card in trades. I have noticed that casual games also tend to be slower, or have fewer rules, restrictions wise. We don't really care if you play with your three Lion's Eye Diamond and two Tinker, as long as you own the cards, and you are making the game fun for everyone else.

For those of you who may like a challenge, try building a fairly fast deck that wins with Coalition Victory or Barren Glory. Stuff like that is always fun.