Why would you have to remove the strip effects? U/G Madness runs 6 basic land. That is more than enough to splash a color in a deck that already runs fetchlands.
You would have to remove Back to Basics from the sideboard, of course, but that is a different question.
Leo
Edit, now that I've read the article:
Therefore, I am left with two alternative explanations which are not mutually exclusive with the first. It is possible that these cards should be viewed as a group instead of individually. While they appear to answer different threats, it may be that the point is that most decks can be stunted in one way or another by any of these cards and the diversity simply works to maximize the options that Fish has when none of these cards is clearly superior. Additionally, it could just be that this was a metagame call and every time this deck is considered, these ratios change to suit the prevailing winds. While these are all possibilities, the alternative hypothesis remains real: that this deck is simply misbuilt.
While these cards do change from based on the metagame, the main reason to run a mix of non-FOW "counterspells" is that each of them is notoriously easy to play around.
Stifle is played around as much as possible these days, Daze is easy to play around if you know it is there, Misdirection is easy for may decks that have fairly few targeted effects to avoid. You get the idea.
What this means is that if you run 4 of one, and none of the others your opponent will simply alter his gameplan to give you four dead cards in your deck. That alteration may cost him a little bit, but it is probably worth it if he can be reasonably sure that he is affecting your game more.
However, if you have a couple of all three he is placed in a bind. Does he play around Daze? You only have two in your deck so it seems like it would be a bad idea to do so - but that makes Daze a
very good card. How about Stifle, Misd? Same thing. If he plays around him there is a good chance he is just costing himself tempo to combat a card you haven't drawn. If he doesn't play around it these cards become very good.
Basically, the threat of these cards is at least as important as the execution. The only reason they are there at all is to stop people from ignoring them entirely.
Leo
