[Deck] URBana Fish

[Pitlord]

@Maxxmatt - You have a solid point on the null rod, but I am honestsly still not convinced. Rod can be a good inclusion, probably better than some ranadom singletons like R&R. However, I think that there must be some sort of consistent hate card that could fit in just as well or even better than null rod. The first card that comes to my mind in that slot of consistent hoser is extract. We all know that they can be a powerful board strategy. We also know that jester's cap seems to be pretty powerful, so what would everyone think of mainboarding a couple extracts?

Also, I still feel that in general daze is a little weak. The tempo lose isn't as bad with this build as with some other fish decks, but it can still hurt. Honestly, I would try something like 4 FoW, 4 Remand, 2 Annul for a counter base. Annul seems like it needs some explaining. Annul is never dead, countering at the very least a sol ring or aether vial. At it's best though, it counters oath, hardcast big things from slaver.dec, and stax locks, helping out one of your worst matches. It also comes online the turn as daze, turn 1, but doesn't hit you with a tempo drawback.

[ErkBek]

I played cross' list last night for about 15 games. All the matches were vs. IT and Slaver. Duress really helped push the IT match to favorable. If IT is on the draw, fish can play a duress or chalice most of the time on turn 1 to disrupt IT for long enough to start drawing cards. Every game fish went first IT lost (I was playing IT too). Against Slaver, I think the matchup got a little worse, but not by much. I'd really like to test this matchup a little more. I'm gonna keep running 4 duress in the main for a while (I'll try to get some testing in vs. other decks soon). I'm also still unsure on running the swamp.

I noticed that in the 4 duress build, that Remand wasn't so amazing since the build is a little less of a tempo deck. Chalice for 1 less one sided than it used to be as well, so I'm keeping 3 chalice. I've also been considering some MD annuls as Pitlord suggested, but I don't think I'm gonna change too much at once, since I want to see each change effects the deck. So here is what I'm gonna be working with (-2 Remand +2 Mana Leak)

Mana 25
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
1 Swamp
2 Island
2 Usea
3 Volcanic
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus

Creatures 15
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Ninja
3 Waterfront Bouncer
4 Dark Confidant

Draw/stuff 5
1 Ancestral
2 BS
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical

Disruption 15
4 FoW
3 Chalice
4 duress
3 Mana Leak
1 Rack and Ruin

[Pitlord]

I can't really comment too much on the changes right now from a perspective of playing the deck, but I can comment on another hard match, from the perspective of the stax deck across from you. A few of my friends did a little testing online with Cross' list, and here is what I noted.

First of all, as the stax player, seeing the swamp was painful. Being able to cut off any color except blue really helped against this deck in it's early stages, and now I can't do so. It helps a lot agaisnt anything running wastes.

Also, duress is pretty solid, but not terrific, agasint stax. It can take a lock or soemthing, but if I resolve welder it becomes 110% chaff. Also, remand continues to be great against 5c stax, because either I will not have enough mana to re-cast a huge artifact, or be out of colors. Also, remanding the card back to my hand means I can't abuse welder either, helping a lot.

Also, I think the annuls would be a great boon to this and any other fish deck, because they come online turn 1 and can stop basically half the cards in any deck, and at the very least can mildly attack a mana base.

[Cross]

I found the combination of duress and darkblast to be excellent against stax.

Duress takes lock pieces, and the darkblast takes out welders, to ensure the pieces stay in the yard, and even shaman. Blast is better with tutors though, so I am not sure about its place in this deck.

[Pitlord]

Yea, I suggested trying darkblast on like the first or second page...    It seems OK in testing, but it has a lot of negative sides to it. You can't make use of the things it puts into the yard, it can't deal with fatties, and it is somewhat situational.

It could be worth testing, but really only if you desperatly fear slaver and stax and the mirror, and don't think annul is enough mainboard hate for the stax and slaver.