Tapperfish

[BruiZar]

TapperFish

In my search for an unpowered rogue deck in order to try and gain a small advantage over the other competitors, I have come up with a list that abuses cards from nearly all other archtypes. I have made a powered list and will make an unpowered one when I find some time.

The powered build:

Charge Counters:
4   AEther Vial
4   Umezawa's Jitte
4   Chalice of the Void
12

Draw:
1   Time Walk
1   Ancestral Recall
2   Standstill
2   Sword of Fire and Ice
5

Disrupt:
2   Aura of Silence
4   Force of Will
2   Swords to Plowshares
8

Creatures:
4   Coretapper
2   Magus of the Unseen
4   Meddling Mage
2   Rootwater Thief
4   Skyhunter Skirmisher
16

Mana:
1   Mox Sapphire
1   Black Lotus
4   Flooded Strand
3   Island
3   Plains
1   Strip Mine
3   Tundra
3   Wasteland
19


Card Breakdown

AEther Vial:
An excellent 1 drop, combined with a first turn chalice or a first turn standstill is great.
I would not run less than 4 no matter what.

Umezawa’s Jitte
It’s removal, it’s beatdown and it can safe your life total versus oath or other aggro decks. Skyhunter Skirmisher double the effectiveness of Jitte.
I run 4 and would not run any less cause it’s just too good not to have around. This wins games.

Chalice of the Void:
This card is superb in everyway. Not only does It shut down first turn moxen/lotus/mana-tormod’s crypt. This card is extremely versatile when you get a coretapper into play. Imagine having 1 chalice in play, another in your hand and a coretapper out. Tap coretapper to adjust chalice, play another chalice for zero. This way you can disallow your opponent his moxen for the entire game. It also shuts opposing fish decks off.
Run 4 no matter what. The ability to adjust with coretapper is too powerful to have any less than 4.

Time Walk:
Not really draw, but broken none the less. And it actually does give you a draw phase.

Ancestrall Recall:
This needs no further explanation. 3 for 1.

Standstill:
Although standstill is really good, it doesn’t help you get down to business in that it is not an immediate threat to your opponent. The occasional draw 3 is really good but I wouldn’t run any more than 2. When running 2 it always came when I needed it. When running 4 it was often a dead card in that it slowed me down too much.

Sword of Fire and ice:
This is another really good card, although the casting cost is pretty steep at 3 colorless, it protects Meddling Mage/Magus/Skirmisher/Rootwater Thief/Coretapper. These are all cards that have a significant ability. The ability to shoot platinum angels and draw 2 with a skirmisher is unbelievably cool.
I included 2 because I’m already running 4 Jitte equipments and I’m running 16 creatures. A 2.6 to 1 creature / equip ratio.

Aura of Silence:
At 1WW its pretty expensive, however it slows oath, stax and other fish decks. It serves as a double sphere of resistance for your stax opponents without affecting yourself. I Chose Aura of Silence above Seal of Cleansing for it’s continuous disruption that might give you one extra turn to do lethal damage. Aura of Silence primary target should be Null Rod.
I included 2 maindeck since so many decks use artifacts/enchantments. (Standstill, Oath of Druids, Chalice of the Void, Vial, Moxen+other mana Artifacts, Uba Mask, etc.)

Force of Will:
It needs no further explanation. There are 13 pitchable cards not including the forces themselves.
4 fows have been included.

Swords to Plowshares:
Although Jitte can remove creatures itself, a darksteel colossus really asks for a plow. Akroma, Goblin Welder, Triskelion and Spirit of the Night deserve plows aswell.
I added 2 since I think any more would be overkill looking at the amount of disruption in the deck.

Coretapper:
Coretapper is the primary utility card. Here are the reasons why anyone should play 4 Coretappers:
It can be played through a vial of 2
It can upgrade yours and your opponent’s chalice of the void. I especially like funking around with my oppononents chalice to make it work against him/her. Upgrading your chalice for 0 to chalice for 1 then playing another chalice is very disruptive aswell.
It can upgrade chalice in respond to a gifts or an intuition then give your opponent a useless card that is leveled out by your chalice’s new charge counters.
It can ruin someone’s AEther Vial by overcharging it to 5 or more when he only needs 2.
It can speed up your own AEther Vial so you get to play a Skyhunter Skirmisher a turn faster.
It can add charge counters on Umezawa’s Jitte. Therefore you do not need to equip and attack in order to remove Goblin Welders or Goblin Piledrivers or other utility critters. This combo really destroys the fish matchup since you can sacrifice in respond to a plowshares or any other removal and add 2 counters to jitte.
It can block, tap and sacrifice for 3 charge counters on jitte.
It speeds up the Skirmisher kill enormously. An active coretapper can pump the skirmisher up for 12/12 making him hit for 18 in total. If your opponent used fetch, vampiric tutor, imperial seal, skeletal scrying, city of brass or just took 2 more damage he’s gone.
That’s 8 reasons I found out so far.

Magus of the Unseen:
It can be put into play on a vial for 2. It steals artifacts (preferably Null Rod or Smoke Stack) to sacrifice to Smoke Stack. An end of turn vial ruins someone’s Tinker/DSC plan. It can steal a mana artifact at the beginning of someone’s turn to help screw him/her.
I added 2 because it doesn’t do much versus oath. Stealing someone’s AEther Vial to add an extra counter helps to mess up fish’s game plan.

Meddling Mage:
Mage is perfect disruption. If I had any place for duress I would have put them into the deck. Duress might go in the sideboard for it’s synergy with mage and chalice.
I added 4 because they rock.

Rootwater Thief:
Eventhough I like this card, I often have a lack of spare mana to use it’s ability. Fact remains that this card is a flyer (if you activate it, sigh..) that can fetch some Jitte counters or draw some with Sword of Fire and Ice. I should concentrate on using this card for its ability instead of a bad beatstick.
2 were added. I don’t believe any more will be good for the deck, rather use my slots wiser.

Skyhunter Skirmisher:
The Skirmisher is evil. Doublestrike makes Sword of Fire and Ice, Coretapper and Jitte all twice as effective. Looking at your opponents face when this 1/1 turns into 18 damage will surely ruin someone’s happy face. I included 4. That’s 16/4= 1 out of every 4 creatures you’ll grab a Skirmisher. The rest should all help to disrupt your enemy. Equipping Skirmisher with Sword of Fire and Ice can be used to shoot down platinum angel if you are not having luck with Magus or Plowshares. Oh and it also draws 2 cards.

The mana base:
I chose to use only 3 duals for more resilience against wasteland. Some might argue that the 4th wasteland is a necessity if I’m to play an aggro deck but I feel it slows my deck down aswell. I already have Meddling Mage and Chalices for the opponent to worry about so 4 strip effects should be good enough.

Cards I have considered:
Tinker and Collosus:
Tinker has good synergy with Magus of the Unseen and colossus is just a bad ass. However I’m not playing brainstorms or anything else to ditch colossus so it might not be wise. On the other hand, it might get me a few cheap kills.

Brainstorm:
As much as I love brainstorms for Collosus and fetch, I have no room at all for storms. Erayo might have been more flippable had I put in brainstorms though.

Forbidden Orchard:
Taking care of the 1/1’s my opponent gets should not be too hard for this deck. Orchard gets rid of oath completely and it solves my colored mana. Not being able to use fetch made me decide not to use Orchards.

Duress and an Underground Sea:
Duress is powerful. Especially with Meddling Mage and chalice seeing play virtually every game. Not having to guess is very important and besides, it can take out counters and other threats too.




Original Post:

Here is my list I plan to run at a local tourney some time in the future, although not finished I think it's worth posting.

Creatures:
2 Rootwater Thief
2 Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
4 Coretapper
3 Skyhunter Skirmisher
4 Meddling Mage
15

Draw/Disrupt
4 Standstill
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
13

Chargecounters:
4 AEther Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Umezawa's Jitte
12

4 Mishra's Factory
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine   
1 Plains
1 Island

I don't like the mana base, I think it needs more basic lands. Any comments are welcome.

For those that need clarification, the key card is coretapper
Coretapper can:
Speed up the vial to 3 for Skyhunter Skirmisher/Kira
Pump up the chalice
Pump up the Jitte for a faster kill

The rest should be pretty obvious

[cssamerican]

I am not a Fish player, but I really like this idea. If I am reading everthing right an equiped Skyhunter Skirmisher with a Coretapper on the boad can inflict 14 points of damage in one swing. In many cases that will win the game right there, especially if the Jitte already had counters. Pretty impressive for a fish deck to say the least.

Also if I am right the Coretapper can adjust a Chalice of the Void up in response to a spell, for example you have a Chalice of the Void out with 0 counter on it and your opponent cast Tinker, you could tap and sacrifice the Coretapper add three counters to the Chalice and prevent Tinker from resolving, even if your opponent was siiting on countermagic ther would be nothing he could do.

The only problem I forsee with this is the deck is it is even more vunerable to Null Rod than other Chalice/Vial decks. But I must say this is pretty inventive, and I think you might me on to something really good with Coretapper. Good luck.

[psu42]

FYI: Your trick for adjusting Chalice with Coretapper doesn't work, it counters it when it's played, you can't respond by changing the counters.

[shirisaya]

If I am reading everthing right an equipped Skyhunter Skirmisher with a Coretapper on the board can inflict 14 points of damage in one swing. In many cases that will win the game right there, especially if the Jitte already had counters. Pretty impressive for a fish deck to say the least.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's an even larger swing than that.  Assuming an active Coretapper and Skirmisher equipped with the Jitte:  Tapping the Coretapper puts one counter on the Jitte, and then sacrificing it puts on another two.  Using the Jitte to pump the Skirmisher 3 times makes it a 7/7 double striker.  After first strike damage, two more counters go on the Jitte, and the Skirmisher can be pumped up to 11/11.  So all told 18 points of damage are done and 2 counters are left on the Jitte.

[cssamerican]

FYI: Your trick for adjusting Chalice with Coretapper doesn't work, it counters it when it's played, you can't respond by changing the counters.

Yeah, I checked this out and you are right. Guess that isn't as cool as I thought it would be, but I am not sure BruiZar was under that impression in the first place. It is just something I was assuming would work.

If I am reading everthing right an equipped Skyhunter Skirmisher with a Coretapper on the board can inflict 14 points of damage in one swing. In many cases that will win the game right there, especially if the Jitte already had counters. Pretty impressive for a fish deck to say the least.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's an even larger swing than that.  Assuming an active Coretapper and Skirmisher equipped with the Jitte:  Tapping the Coretapper puts one counter on the Jitte, and then sacrificing it puts on another two.  Using the Jitte to pump the Skirmisher 3 times makes it a 7/7 double striker.  After first strike damage, two more counters go on the Jitte, and the Skirmisher can be pumped up to 11/11.  So all told 18 points of damage are done and 2 counters are left on the Jitte.

I forgot about it triggering the Jitte for counters after the intial first strike. This is almost like a mini-combo win for Fish.

BruiZar have you done any testing versus other decks? I am curious how often or easy it is to pull off this little combo.

[Duncan]

your deck is only 59 cards :O what do u use as the 60th?

[Firefly]

your deck is only 59 cards :O what do u use as the 60th?

True 

I would consider running an extra StP as 60th card and maybe cut that Plains for a Faerie conclave.

[Arvid]

The Coretapper is still able to add counters faster, for example playing a Chalice for zero and then adding more counters to save mana for your own threats. Just a thought.

[BruiZar]

damn, where did my reply go. here i go again:

On the topic of in response upping of chalice with coretapper:
You can't counter something already announced, but you can put counters on it in response to a giftsungiven/intuition and give your opponent cards that are equal to the number of charge counters rendering it useless.

On the topic of Pyroclasm and Null Rod:
These cards hurt alot, although a chalice for 2 (not that hard with a coretapper around) can safe you from both null rods and pyroclasms.

I was thinking of adding 3 or 4 duress into the deck to use Meddling Mage and Chalice of the Void more efficiently. The mana base will again be the weaker link in the deck though. This is a first draft of the deck so it's not optimal at all yet.

The ability of coretapper being able to add chargecounters to jitte without even having to attack and do combat damage or even having to equip is pretty strong. Welders and cards alike can be shot real quickly with a Coretapper around.

Brassman also suggested Sword of Fire and Ice so I need to test that, although I don't have any idea what to cut.

[Disburden]

your deck is only 59 cards :O what do u use as the 60th?

This might be a slightly shitty post, but I think that this list should be reconfigured with the intentions of running lotus, sapphire, ancestral recall. I think that would considerably help the deck and that's not a lot of power to proxy.

[getandistr]

I think you should take out the Mishra's Factory.  You have way to much other stuff to which you need to devote mana plus since you have both double U and double W in casting costs you should definetly have more colored mana sources to prevent getting mana screwed.  If you do not want to take them all out at least take out one or two to smoothen the mana base.

[BruiZar]

Adding power would help no doubt, the only problem is that i am designing this deck for a zeroproxy tournament and I own no power except for a lotus and recall CE.

I don't really like the factories myself, they are colorless, wastelandable cards that don't really kill anyway. I'd rather tap 2 mana for a jitte equip than to activate factory and attack with it. Standstill has synergy with factory though but running the risk of mana screws might be lethal. I kept them in on the advise of various other players but I'm not completely sure why to keep it myself. I could always bluff, if a player sees a vial and a standstill they are going to break my standstill anyway so that is no reason to keep them in.

[getandistr]

some more basic land in those spots would not only give you more colored sources but also make it harder for people to mana screw you with wastelands also the 60th card should either be a stp or another mana source since right now you only have 19 and that's low even for fish.

[Nastaboi]

You should absolutely go up to 23 lands. WTF plays 23 w/ Brainstorm and 24 without. I play 23-land WTF with Brainstorms and pray for just one more mana quite often. And this deck has even higher curve! I would consider cutting one Jitte and two of the Standstills, Dazes or Plows for 3 islands and a delta.

[silvernail]

CREATURES:9

4 Coretapper
4 Skyhunter Skirmisher
1 Darksteel Collosus

DRAW/COUNTERS/BROKEN:19

1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Tinker
4 Thirst for Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will


ARTIFACTS:7

3 Lighning Greaves
4 Umezawa's Jitte

MANA: 25

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
2 Plains
3 Island
4 Tundra
4 Flooded Strand
4 Adarkar Wastes 
4 Ancient Tomb( workshop maybe?)

What about making  it more of a combo centric deck? The above build focuses on that though it is difficult to play a combo that costs 9-13 mana with two of that being white and requiring an attack phase. Dunno but this is a neat diea at least.

either way you decide to build the deck your list seems to try and add a combo to an aggro control deck and it seems as if the two wouldnt mesh well enough, which is why i suggested the combo list. If you decide to stick with the creature based version I would suggest axeing the factorys and wastes for 4 of each basic.

[Reverend]

Mana Drain and Workshop dont work that good togather. You have 19 spells making your workshop kinda useless. but I could be wrong . Factorys may be good again

[yespuhyren]

Rich Mattiuzo placed 3rd at the SCG before chicago with drains and shops

[BruiZar]

changed the list and gave some explanations of my cardchoices.

[Mantis]

First of all, this idea is awesome I really like it!

However, don't you often find yourself having mana-issues?
Perhaps you could try Pentad Prism out. This allows you to run more basics or the full package of moxen and has great synergy with Coretapper. This probably makes the deck a bit less consistent but adds a lot of brokeness, and opens a whole new world for ideas.
And the whole purpose for the card is to store your mana which it can be used for as well.

I would try to include Tinker/Colossus in your deck as well, along with Pentad Prism, CotV, the moxen and the tappers it's almost a certain cast!

I didn't test the deck out yet, but it looks very cool! I wil give it surely give it a shot.

[Reverend]

Rich Mattiuzo placed 3rd at the SCG before chicago with drains and shops

Oh my bad, what deck did he played?

[Dozer]

Oh my bad, what deck did he played?

How about looking it up yourself? I don't see Workshops working in this deck, by the way. As with almost all Fish builds, colored mana is a problem even with Vial available, and the Workshop mana cannot be used to pay equip costs, so it's just there for Vial and Coretapper and playing out the equipment. As all of these cards are perfectly in range for a non-Workshop mana base and the more expensive equipment is usually not a first turn play, Workshop makes no sense. Run colored mana instead, the deck will thank you for it.

Dozer

[Reverend]

Thank you... Sorry I didn't think about using the name search form starcity.