U/G/W Fish

[Grim Lavamancer]

I couldn't really decide on whether to build WTF or U/W Fish so i built U/W/G. I've only been able to playtest against Stax so far, since I just built it. The Stax match seemed to go very well though. More playtesting results will be posted once I get them.
Here's a list of my Meta, from most played to least played.
1. Control Slaver
2. Fish (many varients)
3. Stax
4. Workshop Aggro
5. Belcher (a few varients)
6. Dragon
7. TPS
8. WTF
9. Oath
10. FCG
11. Zoo
Here's the decklist: It is a 10 proxy deck, for 10 proxy tournaments.

Creatures: 15
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla (I originally had 3, but because of Ninja, I found room fo a fourth).
4 Meddling Mage  (I originally had 2, but it was suggested that I drop the Hatchlings for them)
3 Ninja of the Deep Hours


Artifacts: 12
4 Aether Vial
4 Chalice of the Void
3 Umezawa's Jitte (1 is proxied proxied)
1 Mox Sapphire (Proxied)
1 Black Lotus (proxied)


Instants: 12
4 Force of Will (1 is proxied)
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall (proxied)
2 Sword To Plowshares (There's so much Control Slaver in my meta, I gotta have at least a couple maindecked)

Land: 21
1 Strip Mine
3 Tundra (2 are proxied)
3 Tropical Island (2 are proxied)
4 Wasteland
1 Windswept Heath
3 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Mishra's Factory


Sorceries: 1
1 Time Walk (proxied)

SB: 15
3 Blue Elemental Blast (kills Welders, Lackey's, and any other annoyance)
3 Oxidize (Good against pretty much anything, especially Workshop Aggro)
1 Swords to Plowshares
2 Kira, Glass Spinner (Fish)
3 Tormod's Crypt (obvious)
3 Ray of Revelation (pretty much the same thing as Kami, but with flashback for extra removal if needed)
Any comments/advice would be greatly appreciated.

DECK UPDATES:
8/30/05 I originally had 3 Kami of Ancient Laws boarded, but it was pointed out to me that I already have enough hate against Oath, so I replaced them with2 Kira's and 1 STP. 1 Jitte Was cut for a 4th Chalice. I also added 2 more Meddling Mages, and cut 2 Hatchlings.

8/31/05 I cut the Standstills for Brainstorms for now. I cut The javelineers from the board and replaced them with Blue Elemental Blasts. I'm also considering cutting the STP's for another Jitte, and anotherNinja. I cut the city for a 3rd jitte.

[Moxlotus]

I would cut the 2 Spiketails for Meddling Mages because Spiketails aren't that good.  Mages can name bombs like Tinker or Yawg Will or utility like Drain or TFK.

I cut Standstills from my list because I always want to be playing threats, not jacking around casting this thing which doesn't let me cast any more.  Brainstorm is really, really good.

I would cut a STP for a 4th Chalice.  A turn 1 Chalice for 0 will effectively shut down Tinker and Welders until they find Sol Ring or Darksteel Citidel.

Have you thought about more Jittes and Kira, Glass Spinner for the fish matchups?  Kami of the Ancient Law isn't really that good.  Rays of Revelation and StP should own the Oath match anyways.  Jitte is also good against CS.

[Mordred]

I'd try to find some room for Daze, to me it's the most annoying card to play against.

I'd also suggest finding the 4th Force of Will...otherwise you'll have 2 cards in hand, have a combo player at 2 life and he'll say, "Attempt to cast Foil, signed Japanese Yawgmoth's Will."  You'll do something like, "Pitch Ninja to cast my proxy Force of Will."  And now you turned a simple game of Magic into running for your life from a guy yelling, "I told you! You wouldn't like me when I'm angry!"

[Grim Lavamancer]

MOXLOTUS: I did cut the 2 Spiketails for 2 more mages. I also cut a STP for a 4th Chalice.
And for the Sideboard, I cut the Kami's and added 2 Kira's and an STP.
As for the Standstills, I'm not going to cut them yet. I will consider it though

[amidtownrocker]

As someone that players in my local area have dubbed "The Fish Guru" I can see one major flaw with your list and that is the inclusion of Standstills over the Brainstorms.  This is a deck that is much more worried about finding the right threat rather than just getting sheer card advantage.  In a deck like UW or UR Fish, Brainstorm is horrible because it will just show you three more cards that arent gonna be an amazing threat off the bat. When you Brainstorm into your first Mongrel of the game when the Vial is set to two then you are in buisness. This decks goal is to get a threat down as quickly as possible, protect it, and ride it to victory; where as UW or UR Fish's goal is to lock you out of the game with good lock cards and sheer card advantage. UW and UR Fish are also heavily based on tempo and stealing it from your opponent. If I were you, I would at least try out the Brainstorms over the Standstills, and also maybe try to squeeze in another Jitte main because when that thing hits, you are in total control of almost ANY situation involving creatures. STP are not entirely necsarry in this deck either. You are usually the player playing beat down so I would suggest cutting the 2 from the main for the 3rd Jitte and another Ninja. Having 4 Ninjas is never a bad thing when you run AetherVial Mongrels and Rootwalls to return,  they also pitch to Force of Will quite nicely. Also if you have FCG and RG in your meta, try some Blue Elemental blasts in your sideboard. Replace the Icatian J. with them. BEB's kill Lackeys and Welders as well as countering Pyroclasm which is becoming quite popular in some decks. A well timed BEB on Recoup will also win games. Well, good luck in your area.

[Dralock]

Hrm, this is a tricky one.

I would actually ditch chalice 4 for STP 3. It might seem to be a trivial change, but having a 3rd STP in the deck not only lets you see it more often, but allows for much easier sideboarding options.

Having 4 chalice is redundant. You have far too many 1-drops (especially taking on brainstorm) that setting chalice for 1 is going to hurt you as much as help you in every matchup except vs TPS.

[Moxlotus]

Hrm, this is a tricky one.

I would actually ditch chalice 4 for STP 3. It might seem to be a trivial change, but having a 3rd STP in the deck not only lets you see it more often, but allows for much easier sideboarding options.

Having 4 chalice is redundant. You have far too many 1-drops (especially taking on brainstorm) that setting chalice for 1 is going to hurt you as much as help you in every matchup except vs TPS.

Have you ever played fish before?  You want to set Chalice to 0 on turn 1 every single game you play.  You want 4 Chalices.

[amidtownrocker]

The BANE of this deck more over than any other Fish deck is Tinker. If Tinker resolves then you are in trouble because most likey an 11/11 is coming to town toplay with your dogs and lizards. Having 4 Chalice in your deck is a necessiary evil because you will stop them from playing their Tinker tragets unless they have a Sol Ring or Vault or even artifact land.

[Anusien]

City of Brass you don't need; make it a basic Island or a 4th Tropical Island.

You don't want another Ninja - in fact most people have cut them from the deck in favor of Rootwater Thieves.  Thieves will greatly help your matchup versus Oath or Control Slaver because you can start stealing win conditions.  However in that field I might stay with the Ninjas - they will hit more damage and you expect games to go longer so the extra cards become more relevant.

You only run 1 Jitte.  I would try to find room for a 4th in the main (maybe just turn the City of Brass into it), but I haven't seen a deck start 3 before now.  You definitely want #3-4 in the board; it's essential to beat most forms of aggro, other Fish decks, and randomness.

Your board is pretty solid, just two quick things:
Tormod's Crypt has anti-synergy with Chalice of the Void.  I'd try Phyrexian Furnace instead.
BEB seems sub-optimal.  It only helps versus Food Chain Goblins and killing Welders.  FCG you rely more on Jittes than anything, and I would never board in BEB against CS.  You might want to consider Rushing River - it helps out in a lot of matches like Oath or Stax.

[Xyre]

The greatest advantage of Standstill is massive card advantage. While a player is locked behind a Standstill while being pummeled by creatures, that player is much more inclined to try to save themself, which means more threats for you. Brainstorm will, with this kind of deck, make you trade two draw steps in the future for three draws now. But in a deck which constantly is looking for more threats, drawing the same uselessness will not apply any pressure on an opponent who is looking for the first opportunity to win. Standstill is either a persuasive reason to stop development, or three free cards with nothing put back on top for an additional colorless mana and a sorcery-speed threat. But in a deck which shrugs off that kind of card (AEther Vial, Ninja of the Deep Hours), it overall seems that you want to apply constant pressure, rather than potentially frappe your entire strategy in the face of a player with an answer.

As for the rest of the deck, it seems fairly typical. The biggest problem is that your deck has to choose between the standard WTF threats (Wild Mongrel and Basking Rootwalla) and the standard Meandeck Fish threats (Rootwater Thief and Waterfront Bouncer). With the level of anti-Oath cards (particularly maindeck STP's), Bouncer may be useless, but the Thief is an important card, and you may wish to find room for him. Unfortunately, your hybrid deck has nothing that I would like to cut; best option is the Ninja, but again, momentum is everything for an aggro deck, and any aggro deck that runs out of threats without any draw mechanisms is a dead aggro player. It's your choice. I personally run Sword of Fire and Ice in complement with Standstill and Ninjas in Meandeck Fish, because of the value of momentum, particularly against decks with "win-now" threats, like Combo and Oath.

Above all, I would recommend replacing the Brainstorms, or adding another draw mechanism. I woudn't cut both Standstill and Ninja of the Deep Hours; doing this would leave you with no reliable card draw, which will hurt your games overall.

[Moxlotus]

The problem with Standstill is that turn 2 you want to be casting a creature.  Turn 4 you want to be casting a creature or Jitte.  This is where Standstill would be best used, but you want to be casting your dumb guys to win the game.  Brainstorm helps find the Chalice, StP, or FoW to stop your opponent's spell so you can continue to beat with dumb guys.  Standstill stops you from casting guys to end the game.  Your clock will be too slow and your opponent will have time to find bombs(Tinker, Gifts, Yawg Win) with protection to slaughter you whether or not they give you 3 cards.  You need a clock.  It took me a long time to be convinced.  Then I tried it and after 3 games I never looked back.

[Xyre]

There's always AEther Vial...meh. I'm still testing both before I can give any definitive opinions. This is just my original reaction.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

You stated that Control Slaver + Fish are the top two decks in your meta, if I may suggest drop the Ninja's because I think they are really poor choices and replace them with Old Man Of The Sea.

Ninja Of The Deep Hours usually reads...

"Hit target player once and draw card, for the rest of the game enjoy a vanilla 2/2 that will probably never get in again."

Old Man is a really great metagame card and it definetly should be tested.

[Outlaw]

Ninja of the Deep hours actually reads...

"Attack with another creature, return it and play it as an ability under mana drain.. Draw a card and slay control, for control never has any blockers. Thus also reads, replay last creature with an aether vial."

[Xyre]

Old Man also doesn't stop the actual Mindslaver. Then, the opponent takes your turn, using it to have the Old Man take something else and leave your opponent free to unleash as many Mindslaverings as he wants. If you really want a threat for Control Slaver, run Rootwater Thief, because the deck only runs one or two copies.

[The Chosen One]

I've had much success playing with swords of fire and ice in my u/w fish deck. They turn any creature into a card drawer, and give protection for r/u which is definitely a plus in the area I play in at least.