[Decks] (French) Food for thought

[XIII]

Lately on SCG, writers tried to give new techs to the vintage community.
The following lists made at least 2 top 8 in last year French tournaments.
These lists are not drafts, they have been tested for days and proved to be good enough to made Top8.
The Sideboard are given, even if not adapted to US metagame.
I hope that my 1st contribution to TMD will give ideas to the community.
If the moderators fell that the subjet need to be moved or divided, or the description of the deck more developed, feel free to do so.



5CC UBA Stacks deck

It has been developed a Few weeks before the CDF the 14/05/05 by members of the Menhir Team, Loic Cara and Laurent Cagnon.
It reached the 11th place, missing the top8 only to pairings.
Since then, it made top8 on numerous events and won a 60 player tournament last October in Paris.
Unlike the traditional version of UBA, it runs a 5cc mana base, which allow it to run bombs like balance or tinker.
The other part of the deck is now well known, so I won't emphasize on it.
You must notice that French metagame quite never sees a CS, it may explain the fact that only the 5CC really made results.

Lands: 20
1 Tolarian Academy
3 wasteland
1 strip mine
4 city of brass
3 gem mine
4 Mishra's workshop
4 Bazaar of Baghdad

Creatures: 8
4 goblin welder
1 Karn, silver golem
1 sundering titan
1 duplicant
1 Gorilla

Artifacts: 27
5 moxen
1 black lotus
1 mana vault
1 mana crypt
1 sol ring
1 trinisphere
3 uba mask
3 crucible of worlds
3 smokestack
4 tanglewire
4 CoTV

other spells: 5
1 balance
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 tinker
1 ancestral recall

Side:
2 ray of revelation
3 red elemental blast
2 Ground Seal
3 phyrexian furnace
2 triskele
3 sphere of resistance

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Merchant.deck

The next deck is far older (18 month now) but still makes results.
Merchant.deck has been developed by Team KI.
It focus on the now widely used Merchant Scroll.
Back then, Gift Ungiven has not been printed yet.
More than 50% of the kills are with the 7/10. This guy has multi time walks included against manadrains.decks.
A lot of tech are commun with Smemmen's Gift: The primary merchant's target is the Ancestral recall and can be used to find a bounce if need be.
But here the Merchant is also used to made the merchant -> mystical tutor -> tinker or Y's will tech.
The 4 duress, the 3 EE and the 2 pyroblasts (side) allow to play the control role in most of the cases.


4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Sundering Titan
1 Mox Ruby
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Vault
3 Engineered Explosives
1 Yawgmoth's Will
4 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Force of Will
1 Echoing Truth
4 Mana Drain
4 Brainstorm
4 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Merchant Scroll
1 Sol Ring
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker
---------
3 Chalice of the Void
2 Razormane Masticore
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Pyroblast
1 rebuild
3 Pithing Needle
1 Volcanic Island

Here are my result with it in Tournament:
Dragon: 10-6 (not a single match lost since the release of pithing needle, that is to say 2 rounds in tournament)
CS: 4-1 Not as good as the figure show, but still a good matchup.
Fish: 6-0 (UW fish the 3 times, 2Cotv and 1 null rod)
FCG: 4-1 the single lost was due to a mistake
T1T: 3-4
Gift.fr: 1-1
Stacks: 3-3
BoB control: 4-1. Needle.
CA: 0-2. no needle.
Combo: 4-0 (1 death Long, 1 rector tendril)
Oath: 2-0, after a lot of test with French vintage champion Ludovic Butros and the semi finaliste Arnaud Desbois, it is definitively a good matchup.

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BFM (Black Fish Menhir)

The Next deck is a fish including Dak Confident and Dimir Cutpurse.
It was developped for a 40 peoples tournament in Rennes in 13/11/05 by the Menhir Team.
2 team mates reached the top8
Thanks to it, one of them splitting for a mox sapphire in final.
2 weeks later, it allowed once again 2 people to reach the top8 of a smaller tournament.
It is a 3cc fish featuring also cards like Top or Duress.
Since then, the Brainstroms have been removed for random slots like stifle or mana leak, according to the metagame.

Black Menhir Fish (B.F.M.)

Creatures : 14

4 meddling mage
3 dark confidant
3 dimir cutpurse
2 Waterfront Bouncer
2 kataki

Spell : 18
3 duress
4 Force of will
2 swords to plowshares
2 echoing truth
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 ancestral recall
3 brainstorm
1 time walk

Artefacts : 7
3 Sensei Divinig Top
4 aether vial

Manabase : 22
1 mox jet
1 mox pearl
1 mox sapphire
1 black lotus
2 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 tundra
2 Underground Sea
2 island
1 plain
1 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria
4 wasteland
1 strip mine

Sideboard : 15 cartes
1 kataki
1 Kira
1 True Believer
2 white Kami
1 swords to plowshares
1 balance
2 chalice of the void
3 jitter
3 pithing needle
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

KI.TT

The next deck is an other product of the Team KI
KI.TT is a storm deck featuring 7 infernal contract (4+ 3 Cruel Bargain)
His creator announces the following stats:
T1 kill: 48%
T2 kill: 32%
T3 kill: 8%
He won a small 20 people on line tournament last December organized by the French vintage website Solomoxen.com
Goldfishing is probably the best way to perceive how it works.

// Lands
    3  Polluted Delta
    3  Bayou
    2  Swamp

// Creatures
    4  Shield Sphere
    4  Phyrexian Walker
    2  Ornithopter

// Spells
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Necropotence
    1  Lotus Petal
    3  Tendrils of Agony
    4  Culling the Weak
    4  Dark Ritual
    3  Diabolic Intent
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Chrome Mox
    1  Vampiric Tutor
    4  Infernal Contract
    4  Land Grant
    4  Cabal Ritual
    3  Cruel Bargain
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Demonic Consultation
    3  Cabal Therapy

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Cabal Therapy
SB: 1  Island
SB: 2  Rebuild
SB: 2  Massacre
SB: 1  Tropical Island
SB: 3  Xantid Swarm
SB: 2  Chain of Vapor
SB: 2  Echoing Truth
SB: 1  Underground Sea

Gift/Oath/slaver .. or fish playing meddling mage, stiffle ...
+3 xantid swarm
+1 cabal therapy
+1 ancestral
+ 1 echoing truth
+ 1 chain of vaport
+1 underground sea
-1 bayou
-1 LED
-2 orni
-2 diabolic intent
-1 culling the weak
-1 phyrexian walker

against stax :
+5 rebuild/echoing truth/chain of vapor
+1 ancestral recall
+3 island/tropical island/underground sea
+1 cabal ritual
-3 cabal therapy
-2 ornithopter
-1 phyrexian walker
-2 diabolic intent
-2 culling the weak

against random (or when you don't know yet what your opponent is playing  )
+1 ancestral + 1 echoing truth + 1 chain of vaport
+1 underground sea
-1 led
-1 bayou
-1 diabolic intent
-1 ornithopter

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks, to the Members of the Menhir Team and the KI Team (Klu and Iso)

[vroman]

2 ppl on my team goldfished the shield sphere tendrils deck this weekend atleast 100 times, alternating between simulated play/draw. it does indeed win turn 1 an incredibly high percentage.
we spent a little time testing it in real games, but that got boring when tendrils lost to basicaly any disruption whatsoever.
final analysis:
"Coin-flippingest deck ever!"

[Duncan]

about the sideboarding you mention:
you side cards in that aren't even in your sideboard (ancestrall recall, cabal ritual) and also the other way (LED)

[TimeWizzle]

Actually, I T8'd in Richmond with a 5CUba Stax list back in September.  That list can be found here: http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/deckshow.php?&t%5BC1%5D=vin&start_date=2005-09-25&end_date=2005-09-25&city=Richmond&start_num=25&start_num=0&limit=25
My report is here: http://www.starcitygames.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=282393

My current 5CUba stax list is this:

5CUba-Stax
V 2.0 – Oct/Nov 2005
Adam O’Brien

Maindeck:

Lands
4 Mishra’s Workshop
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Barbarian Ring
3 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Bazaar of Baghdad

Artifacts
5 Moxes
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Vault
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
3 Chalice of the Void
4 Smokestack
4 Crucible of Worlds
1 Trinisphere
3 Uba Mask

Creatures
1 Karn, Silver Golem
1 Triskelion
1 Sundering Titan
1 Duplicant
2 Gorilla Shaman
4 Goblin Welder

Spells
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Balance
1 Tinker
1 Fastbond

Sideboard:

3 Ray of Revelation
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Sacred Ground
3 Null Rod
2 Pyroclasm
2 Tormod’s Crypt

[Pyromaniac]

I might sound a bit harsh, but what's the actual purpose for this post? It just says, and pretty well...crappy, that it France some decks were played last year that are now advertized at SCG. However, those decks have been played quite some time now and as such aren't anything new to most vintage players.

Then it lists a few decks that are, imho, quite underpowered and/or not very well thought out. If you want a fast goldfish, just play Belcher or Meandeck Tendrils. Why play a mono-B deck that loses to any disruption whatsoever?

I'd definetaly like to see some elaboration on what you expect from us

Hero

[klu]

@Pyromaniac about KI.TT (monoblack combo) : You are talking about loosing aginst any disruption... I don't think you really tried the deck. Belcher and SX are 2 decks that will pile back their cards while opponent plays a sphere or a chalice, even on game 2.
These decks have no card advantage stuff and it is really difficult for them to go after the opponent played a duress or a fow. With the Draw4 engine, opponent duress can only reveal that you got 2 sort of acceleration and same about drawing/tutoring.
I have to say that the deck is perfectly able to win on turn 5-6 or more, even if your opponent has a bunch of counterspell playable. Just begin wait for the therapy, your opponent will help you to storm.
The deck must bot be thought as a 1 chance combo as are Belcher and Tendrils but mostly as a tps, where you have the choice to accumulate storm in hand against controls decks. And you have then to consider each match up one by one.

-Playing against oath is just an easy match, even if he plays a bunch of counterspell, because it will be hard for him to activate oath and he will just give you food for therapy and culling.
-Gift can be thought as a hard match but, but some cards like therapy makes a great job. Just try tutoring it to kill the turn after, it works perfectly. After sb, just exchange some orni and walker for xantid swarm. Opponent just has to Fow..
Stax is usually the worst match up for these kind of decks. SoR or chalice and the 3sphere are just win against belcher and SX, even post side. here you have mutch more lands and the goal is to sacrifice speed (SB out some crea, some culling and some tutors to bring in the lands and all the bounce). In game, play lands and wait to have the right bounces to storm out your opponent. Because stax is unable to kill, just use it and play draw4. TT has 11lands (including 3 basics) and 4 land grant and 7 bounces in sb. U can use it as a way to storm. Last tests i have played made me winner on more than 50% of the case. The good cards of stax are : chalice, tangle and SoR. All the others are just useless (smokestack, welder, aggro, ...). I'd say that stax MUST have 2 of the good cards to stop you.
against all the kind of fish, you have to bring in some bounces, and the match will be ok...

Why ancestral in sb? because you cannot run blue in the MD (because of land grant, you won't run a tropical island...) and at the moment you bring in blue, what is the best blue card you wanna get in hand?
I will stipulate that you should not bring the deck in a full blue-chalice metagame


KI.Merchant has been shown because it is a deck we created 18months ago. At the time where tournament where full of keeper, merchant had already a goldfish playing sundering or ywill on turn 3 systematicaly. We made many top8 with the deck (something like 15 top8 with 40+ people). The list of the deck i play at the time i a much more controle deck than gift can be while goldfishing nearly as fast.
// Lands
    1  Tolarian Academy
    2  Flooded Strand
    3  Polluted Delta
    3  Underground Sea
    4  Island
    1  Volcanic Island
    2  Wasteland
    1  Strip Mine

// Creatures
    1  Darksteel Colossus
    1  Sundering Titan
    1  Gorilla Shaman (2)

// Spells
    4  Brainstorm
    4  Force of Will
    4  Mana Drain
    1  Tinker
    1  Mystical Tutor
    1  Echoing Truth
    1  Yawgmoth's Will
    1  Demonic Tutor
    1  Mana Crypt
    1  Black Lotus
    1  Sol Ring
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Time Walk
    1  Mox Pearl
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Ruby
    1  Mox Jet
    1  Mox Emerald
    4  Merchant Scroll
    1  Crucible of Worlds
    2  Engineered Explosives
    3  Thirst for Knowledge
    1  Recoup
    2  Gifts Ungiven

// Sideboard
SB: 1  Volcanic Island
SB: 1  Blue Elemental Blast
SB: 2  Claws of Gix
SB: 1  Pentavus
SB: 2  Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1  Stream of Consciousness
SB: 2  Rack and Ruin
SB: 3  Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1  Rebuild
SB: 1  Library of Alexandria

I hope you will think about these 2 decks at least without flaming them playstestingless.

Then it lists a few decks that are, imho, quite underpowered and/or not very well thought out

I think you can remove the h of your imho

I'd definetaly like to see some elaboration on what you expect from us

I was quite surprised when i saw the list of Vroman and all the noise made around. I don't really like the list because of a high average casting cost. I was mostly surprised when i saw the list was not running tangle wire that is imo the best card of any kind of WS.deck. Just a think..

[Liam-K]

I don't like the 5c uba stax deck because it cuts lock pieces for tutors and 2 bombs.  I also think Karn and Sundering Titan are very incorrect, but that aside, the strength of Uba Stax is bazaar abuse, and making your lock pieces 3-ofs makes bazaar worse.  You're keeping 1 card in 4, so that card had better be exactly what you need.  Thinning your chances of drawing the lock you want works against your gameplan.  I'd rather activate bazaar and see what I want than activate bazaar and see a tutor, then use that to find what I want.

I don't like the merchant scroll deck because it looks like it logically eventuates in brassman gifts.

[Disburden]

I don't like the 5c uba stax deck because it cuts lock pieces for tutors and 2 bombs.  I also think Karn and Sundering Titan are very incorrect, but that aside, the strength of Uba Stax is bazaar abuse, and making your lock pieces 3-ofs makes bazaar worse.  You're keeping 1 card in 4, so that card had better be exactly what you need.  Thinning your chances of drawing the lock you want works against your gameplan.  I'd rather activate bazaar and see what I want than activate bazaar and see a tutor, then use that to find what I want.

I don't like the merchant scroll deck because it looks like it logically eventuates in brassman gifts.

I agree with this post. For Uba Stax to be most effective there should be the most redundency in lock pieces. This means 4 Smokies, 4 Crucibles, 4 Ubas, 4 Chalices. The exception is only running three Null Rods, for obvious reasons, but this would be more in the mono R anf RG versions.  I really think less than four Chalices is a poor choice that is just there to make room for other things that aren't needed to make the deck effective. Chalice is huge in Uba Stax and so is all four Bazaars.

Also about the Scroll/Gifts deck:

I really have a strong opinion that Sundering Titan is a poor choice for the deck. You kill your own lands and you don't even abuse Welder to keep the Titan in play, this also cancels out most of his effectiveness, as he is now a one time use. Also the deck relies way too much on Tinker. The only win Conditions are Titan and Colossus. What do you do when you face STP or a quick bounce? I believe all Gifts versions should run two conditions, one of which is not a Tinker-->big Artifact beater. This helps the deck find answers to hate. I also believe Tendrils in the board is bad since it's even harder to win with when Null Rod is out, this is more so than Vault-Fussilade or Severance-Belcher since you need moxen, lotus, etc to pull off Tendrils most of the time.

[Komatteru]

I also believe Tendrils in the board is bad since it's even harder to win with when Null Rod is out, this is more so than Vault-Fussilade or Severance-Belcher since you need moxen, lotus, etc to pull off Tendrils most of the time.

Um, how does that work?  It is impossible to win with Null Rod down if you're trying to use Fusillade or Belcher.  Like, that's "boat done sank and ain't left the dock."  With the Tendrils version, it is possible to fire it off at least, like you have Academy and two Seas out there (and hold back your Moxes).  Difficult, sure, but actually possible.

[Disburden]

I also believe Tendrils in the board is bad since it's even harder to win with when Null Rod is out, this is more so than Vault-Fussilade or Severance-Belcher since you need moxen, lotus, etc to pull off Tendrils most of the time.

Um, how does that work?  It is impossible to win with Null Rod down if you're trying to use Fusillade or Belcher.  Like, that's "boat done sank and ain't left the dock."  With the Tendrils version, it is possible to fire it off at least, like you have Academy and two Seas out there (and hold back your Moxes).  Difficult, sure, but actually possible.

My point could have not been clear, so I apologize. My point was, if I am facing decks that run Null Rod, and I am aware of this, I usually want the Vault Kill more than Burning WIsh- Tendrils. The fact that I can play Time Vault quickly and just win more often than I could with Tendrils before Rod comes out is huge. The fact that You need moxen, Lotus, a resolved Will, etc means that you have to wait a while to pull off this win most of the time. Maybe I just suck, but I have always had trouble using the Tendrils kill in Gifts, a lot more than the Vault kill actually. With Ritual based combo this can be easier to achieve since you can win with Bargain or Necropotence into Tendrils a lot quicker. I just feel that the Tendrils kill requires: More mana (moxen or Lotus most of the time), Burning wish into Tendrils in hand, maybe bounce, and usually a Will turn under that. To me, that is way too much work to win when you can just drop Vault and win quicker when tutoring for Fussilade with Imperial Seal, Vamp, Demonic, etc. I have gotten Vault or Fussilade in my opening hand rather often and have won quickly because of it. I don't think I would've Tendrils for the win as quickly, which means Null Rod could've come out by then and made things a lot harder for me.  I did not mean to win through Null Rod with Vault, I simply meant I feel the kill is faster in Gifts and therefore can win the game before Rod can affect your mana more often.

[klu]

I do think tutors are really good cards in uba-stax because of 1 card : Strip mine. It is the best lock element ever done for a deck such as WS. Latest version of WS-bazaar we tried and played were not running any smokestack because this card just does nothing when you just played it. Metagame is so fast that something doing nothing until 2 turns after for  4 mana is just a food for drain.

To come back to KI.Merchant, I will arg again for the sundering titan. Because i play merchant scroll since nearly 18months, I know that a second or 3rd turn colossus for my opponent doesn't end the game. It doesn't even cost me a fow because i know that i got the right answer easily findable in the deck : echoing truth.
Why sundering and not belcher/severance or flame/vault?
Because this kill is a one card kill. You tell me about stp? what deck plays stp? fish? (lol...) and why not play ywin rather than tinker to have a hand of counterspell while your colossus will hit the table. any bounce? bounce on colosse and you will spread a tear, bounce on sundering and he will spread a tear... It gives you largely enough time to build up your will.
Sundering is not that difficult to hardcast, 8 mana is a drain for 3 with 3 lands and a crypt.

You kill your own lands

If you choose sundering, that may be because it makes you win the game. If you hardcast it, that means you had 8 mana to cast it.. what is the matter loosing 1 land. i have to say that you nearly never loose more than 1 land while your opponent looses at least 1 . And you have a 7/10, your opponent has not.

Imo, recusing a sundering or a mindslaver is not the main work of the welder because it is overkill. do it once, you will mostly win the game.

The deck just doesn't care about null rod, and it has many answers to chalice for 0 (explosives (with drain or wastes), mox monkey, echoing). Crucible is often a win card against stax and all the games i played against controls deck didn't see me siding them out. Because it makes a huge CA.

I do not like burning wish because this card just does nothing on its own. (nothing good enough but tendrils...) Why not play tendrils md then? easier to cast and counterspell-proof . belcher/severance and flame/vault just mean you have at least 3 kill cards in the main which is a lot too much IMO. I don't even specify that those 2 cards take their null rod, their pithing and Co...

[Sgt. Pepper]

@XIII: could you elaborate on the Fish build? Cards like Top, LoA and the 2 tutors seem really slow and out of place in a tempo deck. Echoing Truth is also a card that hasn't appeared in many fish decks so far, what the reasoning behind it? Also, where are the Null Rods or Chalice of the Voids? Not being able to stop broken artifact mana seems terrible. Oh, and 1 True Believer in the sideboard? Seems really random and unreliable to me.

I think a B/U/W fish decks could be pretty good, but this list looks very mediocre.

[bebe]

Well, I took the KI.TT deck to a medium sized tournament in Toronto this afternoon. I would say it was a relatively strong field with some of the better Canadian players - Andrew O., Peter O., Ray M. Rich, Arend and mor. Between the group there were at least fou guys that developed archtypes that are still being played.

Andrew ( creator of Wild Zombies ) put together the deck for me to try out. He was somewhar skeptical as he prfers the french build tha is a bit more controllish and felt that disruption could be a problem for the deck.
I went 4-1-1 conceding my top eight spot because I had to get home. I hope it did not cost me a Mox Pearl but then I hadn't won the tournament yet, lol.

I lost the first matchto another tendrils deck - the version Andrew likes. i think my lacccc of testing an practice contributed to a shaky start but even so the first two games wer tight. The third game I doubled mulliganed  and when my land Gan was countered was Fowed the match was essenially over.
I went on to beat u_w Fish, beat Oath, beat Wild Zombies, beat a deck I never saw much of ( counters and draw? ) and draw with wokshop deck ( should have on this).

This is pretty good with a deck I ever played before. It managed to fight throughall sorts of disruption and hate - duressse, fows, chalices, meddling mages ...

My impressions ...
The deck needs to maindeck underground sea, island, chain of vapor and echoping truth. This  will free up sideboard space for pithing needles, darkblasts and crypts - depends on meta.
The dck is resiliant and redunant - this is its strengths. You should not look to combo ut first or second turn - you can but a litle patience allows you to set up a safe win. Most games werre won turn three to five afte therapies or Xantids hit the table.
If u_w fish is around massacres are bloody awesome. Do not remove these from the side. I think darkbalsts and crypt are the best sideboardinclusions for Toronto's meta.
This deck is more than capable of making top eights in N. America and would be a great budget deck to boot - although power obviously makes it stronger. 

last words ...
We should not be too hasy dismissing deks that w ave not actually played at a tournament. The build needs jut  fw minor tweaks to succeed  in our meta and a thread dedicated to this deck should lead to even a better build.



 

[XIII]

I'd definetaly like to see some elaboration on what you expect from us.

The Goal of this topic was just to show you some decks that could fit in the current metagme.
I have used this pattern (some lists of very different decks and a short explanation) just to echo Smemmen's article on SCG.
I am not claiming that all of them could be tiers 1 in the US or elsewhere, but they are worthy of a short reading.

KI..TT
A specific topic has been launch on it, so I won't speek about it here.
See http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=27005.0

Merchant.deck
7/10 is probably the best kill against control in that specific deck. Resolving an early tinker against a control deck just wins you the game. Even if your opponent manage to get ride of it, it will wreck your opponent's board and hand.
The strong point of that deck is that it can be faster than most gift.deck, and still be resistant to most hate (3 maindeck EE, 1 echoing truth + 3 merchant and 3 tutors, enforced by 4FoW, 4 drain and 4 duress).
A gift.deck resolving just an early tinker on DSC can look stupid, a merchant.deck resolving an early tinker on 7/10 will just win you the game.

B.F.M.

Cards like Top, LoA and the 2 tutors seem really slow and out of place in a tempo deck.

The fact is that it is less a tempo deck that other versions of fish. You can sometimes just play control with a top and a darkconfident.
Tutors allow you to find trall, time walk, a counter or a disrupt when needed, but also the 1of cards in your sideboard

Echoing Truth is also a card that hasn't appeared in many fish decks so far, what the reasoning behind it?

Playing Kataki is not enough to fight stacks, and it is also good against aggro or DSC.
There is also a trick with bouncing your own meddling mage (e.g. when your opponent is resolving Y's Will)

Also, where are the Null Rods or Chalice of the Voids? Not being able to stop broken artifact mana seems terrible.

Aether vial is needed in that deck so Null Rods is out, and CoTV is just weak compared to the rest of the deck.
Fish loses to broken plays, not to broken mana acceleration. This deck doesn't try to slow down your opponent, just to preventing him to go broken.
We have also tried to play stifle or mana leak in lieu of braintorm to develope the mana denial aspect of the deck. It was still strong but not what we needed for the metagame.

Oh, and 1 True Believer in the sideboard? Seems really random and unreliable to me.

BFM plays Top, fetch and tutors, often enough to find it when needed. we also needed more creature to strehghen the aggro matchup.