You could run both SFM and stony silence in the same list. Just tutor batterskull. The living weapon still triggers under rod or stony silence. It's not quite a 13/13 but then again you get rod or stony, so it may be worth it. You can just run the additional equipment in the side board.

Splash red for 3 main deck ancient grudges. That card it the nuts with life and intuition!

Wouldn't signal pest be just better then noble, and Sinister Strength would be a another good aura to use. Also if you added dark rits you could use any of the 3 drops, like Septic Rats, Ichor Rats, and  Phyrexian Crusader. If you wanted more disruption, duress and wasteland effects are quite good and easy to fit in the deck.

I really liked your article in general, but I just have one question. Why do you have brass squire at the top of all of your MB lists? If you cold at least explain the vintage reasoning, that would be great.

G/W has quite a few options actually, but for some reason most G/W players rarely never use them; I'm referring to serenity, seeds of innocence, kataki, Caustic Wasps, and dust to dust. Also, with the new set you have leonin relic-warder and phyrexian revoker, both of which have many uses against stax.

There's a good chance that if Phyrexian Revoker becomes popular, then jace with decrease in numbers as well.

I to disagree with you troy, but this guys is just great in fish. It's stops plainswalkers, any mana producing artifact, any creature with an activated ability (pridemage, Hierarch, welder, triskelion, metal worker, steel hellkite, just about very elf ever, hexmage, and so much more..), and those snazzy artifacts (timevault, key, top, crypt, relic, spellbombs, jitte, and explosives). There is not a good enough reason why this shouldn't be main decked, expect the fact that it is an artifact, thus fragile. Which may in fact be a blessing, since it might just save your null rods from being blown up. I do think this guy would probably be better suited for vial decks.

It can also get selkie, trygon, tarmogoyf, and Hierarch. But it seems better in a gush deck, with lotus cobra maybe.

POO ON A STICK! Honestly, I didn't get included in the Kentucky crew nonsense. I only came in the top four when we all came last. But I do hope that I'll be able to come to this one...maybe then you'll bloody remember me.....

   My list was missing a Vampiric Tutor.

     You could splash blue if you want, but I didn't just to keep the deck consistent. There aren't any cards that aren't black in the main deck. The bayous are just for sideboard options. The point of wastelands in this build are there not to deny my opponent colors, but to slow them down, so that I can cast a sacrament without the fear of it being drained. Imperial seal proved to be a dead card most times I had it. I have been much happier with the whispers. And one last note, you need the urborg, they will allow depths to be somewhat useful without hexmages.

   I know I mentioned that hexmage works on Tezz as it comes into play. And there are quite a few morons that play magic out there..lol

    I agree with you Stormanimagus, about the DD combo. Probble overall gofys are the consistent and possibly best big creature for this deck. But Storm, don't forget that Hexmage is not useless by itself. it can kill a Tezz as it comes into play, and its first strike abiblity is very good versus the aggro match. The best reason actually to run the Hx mage combo is agaist control decks actually. If they find out that you have the DD combo, they with counter every hexmage. In this regard you can use Hexmage as a red herring and let all you other spells resolve. This has happened a few times last week win I played the deck. I had my Hexmage drained few times, which let me cast a rit into sacrament without a problem. 

    I would still keep the 8 duress effects. Taking your opponents best card is almost always better then two at random. The only time I can think of a time when hymn is better is if you get extremely lucky and hit their mana sources. Plus the duress effects can let you resolve a turn one null rod/confidant with just a rit.

     That may be the case, your 6 god like hands, but here's the rub, what about all your hands that have rites and no piece of the combo. Also drawing rites when the combo is not out is a dead draw. It's simply not needed and takes up space in your deck with a card that is only relevant when two other cards have been played. Also I think the DD combo is neat but its not the focus of this deck. Sacrament is the core of this deck. I think the DD combo is side tracking people from what really makes this deck shine. Which is the 8 duress effects, sacraments, and a edict with legs. The DD combo has wow factor for sure, but the duress effects and sacraments are going to win you the most games.

   You don't really need that either. 4 gatekeepers should become the sui-standard from here on out, and they kill Akroma.

    It seems alright overall. I would add duress and cut  the stifles and a spell Perice. If I was going to play this deck I would build it like BUG fish but cut the goyfs for the dark depths combo. Even with that being said, I'm not sure if a deck focused on the dark depths combo will work out in the end, but you never know. Let me know how it works out though.

   Here's an updated deck list after I played last weekend. I won that tourney by the way. I had no problem with any deck, with one expection, a R/W aggro deck with plainswalkers in it. I had to update the sideboard for Stax.

Creatures
4 Dark Confidants
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Vampire Hexmage

Sorcery and Instants
4 Dark Ritual
4 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Vamp. tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Night's Whisper
2 Cabal Rituals

Artifacts
3 Null Rod
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal

Lands
3 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Bayou
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawmoth
2 Dark Depths

Sideboard:
2 Jailer
2 Ravenous trap
2 Jette
3 Tarmogofy
3 Korsan Grips
3 Oxidize

   I have played all the fish decks mentioned (even the U/R ones) and I agree with Pierce, BUG fish is the best fish deck currently being played. The only match up that I felt I couldn't win is the Zoo match up; Oath, Tezz, Stacks, and other fish builds have all be cake to beat with BUG. Also this fish build is the only one that I can think of that can surive without a Null Rod in play for the longest span of time.

    I have never had a problem with not being able to play Forces. That's honestly way this deck runs Clique, they are Force fodder if need be, and if you didn't Force anything on your opponents turn then just flash them into play. After I added Guile, life loss is no longer a problem, plus Coliseum by itself is great in the mid to late game where your hand gets filled with dead moxen, extra Confidants, and extra Null Rods. And I would never cut Life from the Loam, it has single handedly won me games, and if you play it with a Null Rod out, it's basicly "good game" from there.

    Fish decks aren't hard to deal with post board. Game 1 may be a bit tricky, but don't forget you have a edict with legs, a first striking vampire, sacrament (which can remove creatures from your opponent's deck), and a combo to poo out a 20/20 indestructible flyer. In game 2 and 3 I would board out the null rods, duresses, and 2 scraments. In their places i would put in 4 tarmogoyfs, 3 jailers, and 2 jittes. With this sideboard option, you now have 17 creatures (4 of which are kill spells), and jitte to deal with fish. The only aggro deck that could be a pain is Zoo.
    For MUD, I would keep in the duress and null rods. I would put in gofys and grips and take out 4 sacraments, 2 cabal ritual, and either a duress or gatekeeper.


    Fish isn't that bad of a match up really, now MUD game 1 would be a bit hard to win, but its still not impossible. I would never cut Null Rod, without them, your deck becomes competely dependent on scarament to beat Tez. Null Rod simply slows down the game to give you a fighting chance to cast and resolve a sacrament. Plus if Timevault gets out then you lose if you don' have Null Rod, most likely.

    I have only pulled off Sacrament's Kicker if I had Yangmoth Will.  But I have played 3 Sacraments in a few games though. I do agree that the clamp/bloodghast engine is good, but it will take up many slots and you lose Null Rod. I think that Null Rod is just simply too good to cut. I will try out Consultation, since I'm cutting tendrils, that'll open up a slot. Right now that slot is mind Twist but that might just be a "win more" card right now...

   Right now, I like the ratio of 3:2 of Hexmages to Depths. Its a fun and good combo, but adding more I think would be over kill. I like to think of this combo almost like Tinker for mono black in a way. You could build this deck based around those two, but you also might open yourself up to more hate, like Pithing Needles and Wastlelands.

    DD was awesome, playing a creature that even Oath can't handle is just well...priceless. In place of Tendrils, I have put in a Mind Twist so far. The clamp draw engine is very good, but Null Rod just seems to powerful to completely omit.

    Our local tourney at S2D, voted last week in favor of allowing Zendikar cards to be played early.  Thus I switched to Suicide this week, and wow was it ever fun yo!

Creatures: 11
4 Dark Confidants
4 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Vampire Hexmage

Sorcery and Instants: 22
4 Dark Ritual
2 cabal Ritual
4 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Vamp. tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
1 Imperial seal
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony

Artifacts: 8
3 Null Rod
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal

Lands: 18
3 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 bayou
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawmoth
2 Dark Depths

Sideboard: 15
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Korsan Grip
3 Yixlid Jailer
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Umezawa's Jette


    The deck overall was perfect in almost every game. I did find out quite early that Tendrils was terrible in this deck. It seemed good on paper and in gold fishing, but nope... awful. Almost every game, I played a turn one Sacrament, man that card is so good!! But the real star of the deck turned out to be the Hexmage and Dark Depths combo. I beat Oath, Dredge, and a U/B deck (Not quite sure what he was playing) with the Marit Lage token. Gatekeeper also proved useful in just about every game, I'm glade I keep him as a 4 of. I only had a day to throw this together, so there's a lot of room for improvement, but still I haven't had so much fun in ages....

   I did, scroll down a bit more and you'll find an updated deck list.

      Here's the version of merfolk I would run at the moment Bone. I like the splash of another color in merfok, I just don't think mono-blue is good enough these days. Even with that being said, I have been playing BUG fish for the past two months though.


Main Deck:
Creatures: 17
4 Lord of Atlantis
4 Cursecatcher
3 Slivergil Adept
2 Merrow Reejerey
2 Wake Thrasher
2 Sygg, River Cutthroat

Spells: 18
4 Force of Will
3 Daze
3 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Brainstorm
1 A-Call
1 Timewalk
1 Vamp Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 H. Recall


Artifacts: 7
4 Null Rod
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet

Lands: 18
4 Wastelands
1 Strip Mine
2 Mutavault
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Island

Side Board:
2 Jitte
2 Yixlid Jailer
2 Planar Void
2 Relic of Progenitus
3 Energy Flux
2 Spell Snare
2 Curfew

   Smother's good, but I've been finding that Doom Blade is better overall. Plus, other fsh decks are not the problem here, it's the GWx-beatz decks. those decks run 20 or more creatures, while BUG can get away with 13 or 14 at most. I have found, that as odd as this will sound, that Damnation has been the best card versus the beatz decks.

   Life from the Loam has been one of the best performing cards in my deck, with the execption of Null Rod. Many decks in our local meta are branching into 4 and 5 color Tezz builds, which makes Loam a very powerful tool to have. Null Rod plus wasting each turn, has won me the most games right now.


    Well, over the past two month of playing wiht BUG, Dark Confidants life loss has matter 1 out of every 2 games. The card advantage has been great versus most decks, but storm is on the rise and so are aggro decks. Confidant has been the sole reason why I have lost many times and won as well. Just about every single game Confidant reveals a Force or Will, and I'm not joking about this. It has become rare that Force doesn't get revealed. Now after playing a tourney with Guile has made me like that card even more. Confidants total damge rarely exceeds 4 life points with Guile out. Thats a big difference when he was averaging 8 to 10 life points lost a game.

   Confidant damage can really get high sometimes while playing BUG. I've lost my far share of games just to Bob's life loss alone, but on the flip side, he won many games because of his card advantage. Loam has tested very well over the past month at our local tourney, there were many games in which I shouldn't have won, but did only on the account of Loam. One suggestion to test out is adding one to two Mirri's Guile to the deck. Just being able to control Confidants life loss makes this card more then worth it.