[Deck's Discussion] - 5Colors Fish --> R a i n b o w P i g s !

[MaxxMatt]

Hi all,

I'm going to show you our last efforts on the *aggro-side* of this world.
You read from me about control decks of any sort and sometimes about combo decks, but this is our ( almost mine but with the insighting help of my italian team ) first try at revamping the worst archetypes of the game.

Aggro deck and aggro control decks are different because of the impact that they have on the game.
The first one abuse of *multiples weapons* without almost protection while the latter tend to *protect singles* with coral efforts.
 
You are clearly seeing why the first category is caractherized by subpar decks.
No instant wins and no protections is equal to *random positive results*.

On this concept, we argued about how various can be considered Fish.dec in all his appeareance and how differently should be played in different metagames. The choice of coupling some other colors to Blu is completely metagame-depending and a lot of extraordinary winning can be performed if that choice is made correctly.

Fish goes almost untouched from decades in all his bi-color or three-color appeareances.
We argued ourselves about how much it can be shaped and changed to make room to addiitonal color choices.


The task that we imposed ourselves have been:

How far can we go on this archetype?

We tried to add color after color in order to maximize the flexibility and the bombs pool available to "Rainbow Pigs".
We can fly down to 4 or 3 colors, but anytime we opted to shift back, we felt to have subpar choices.

In the end, how can, a *Fish-like deck*, be summarized ?

I traced this list of *needs* :

-Undercosted threats
-Cheap defences
-Time consuming ( from opponents' point of view )
-Coral work ( from RainbowPigs' point of view )-


Which are the worst among the Fish *flaws*

-Your clock is too slow for modern Combo and Control decks
-Commonly used Fish denial strategies can be circumvented by *correct deckbuildiing* coupled with *his own slow clock*
-Opponent-EoT-Bomb=GG


If you extend to his maximum the normally taken Fish game perspective, you can try to build a 5C-Color-Fish-Like-Deck that can abuse of all 5 colors without the needs of playing blue cards for counterspells.

Try to think about how much can be done if you shift you Fish perspective trying to avoid his flaws.


Investigation done

Best undercosted critter - Phyrexian Negator
Best undercosted drawer - Dark Confidant
Best undercosted beater - Juggernaut, Jotun Grunt
Best undercosted tutors - All the black ones, Crop Rotation
Best undercosted help to your proactive threats - Artifact ones, Stripmine, Wasteland
Best undercosted hosers - Restricted cards, Pyrostatic Pillars and Choke
Best artifact enabler - Mishra's Workshop, Crucible of the Worlds



My claim and our merit is all about seeing  these apparently not connected statements and making the needed links among them.
We had a pletora of possible other choices but the goal have been to assemble AN AGGRO-CONTROL DECK with the MOST DESIDERABLE among the *rainbowed* choices.

No way to cut something.
No way to sacrifice something in order to redux the deck to a 3 color or 4 color version of itself.
No need to cut something and add commonly used counterspells.




Test Results and Inherent Improvements

--Out deck has a good clock. Since round 4 or 5 you should have the ability to deal lethal damage to your opponents.
--I opted to use *different* threats. The deck don't die to *a single* answer your opponent had in his deck. On the contrary, the fast lock coupled with threats differently choosen usually leave opponens with their pants down.
--You had both restricted cards and tutors for *brokeness* and drawers-with-legs to abuse of them.
--The inherently best part of the deck consist on sideboard. You are not limited by colors choices at all and you can dispone of all the best ones of each colors
--Artifact's mighty raw power, coupled with denial strategies, tend to build fast lock and cheap threats.



Damned You!!! WHICH DECK ARE YOU GOING TO WRITE?!?!? I'M GOING CRAZY FOR ALL THIS REASONING!!!!

ok. this is it.


Rainbow Pigs

Rainbowed Dorks (12)
4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Juggernaut
4 Dark Confidant

Ugly Denial (17)
4 Crucible of the Worlds
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
4 Wasteland
1 Stripmine

Rainbowed BAROKEN not-so-fish-like-spells (9)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Balance
1 Trinisphere
1 Fastbond
1 Null Rod

Rainbow Mana (22)
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring

Side
3 Choke
3 Seal of Cleansil
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Pyroclasm
3 Gorilla Shaman

If you are nicely surprised by this cards' pile, I'm proud to tell you that IT IS NOT THE BEST VERSION OF THE DECK.

We played a lot it in different context and applied a lot of changes during these weeks because *sometimes* we felt the need of somthing better or something different.

We had left out of maindeck some HUGE cards.
Tinker, Y. Will and Demonic Consultation among all.
We had cheap threats, cheap defences, nice bombs and a lot of them seemed *redundant* of *too conditional*.



But, our tests seemed to underline that some of them could have been really CRUCIAL for the development of the deck itself.
So I made other changes to this initial list and this is the REALLY LAST PRODUCT of our minds on this argument:







R a I n B o W   
P i  G s


Rainbowed Dorks (11)
4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Dark Confidant
1 Sundering Titan
1 Karn, the Silver Golem
1 Triskelion

Ugly Denial (17)
4 Crucible of the Worlds
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Tangle Wire
3 Wasteland
1 Stripmine
1 Ghost Quarter

Rainbowed BAROKEN not-so-fish-like-spells (11)
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Crop Rotation
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Balance
1 Trinisphere
1 Fastbond
1 Pithing Needle / Null Rod
1 Darkblast
1 Tinker

Rainbowed Mana (22)
4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Mishra's Workshop
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard (15)
3 Choke
3 Ray of Revelationl
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Planar Void
3 Gorilla Shaman





In the end, there are a lot of things to add and say.

The use of an higher mana curve, don't negatively interact with Dark Confidants, because the game would not stand enough to produce *auto-kill*. Any card drawn magnify the number of possible threats that could quickly end the game.

The deck is *coral* enough to be considered a "Fish-Like-Deck". Cheap threats ( you can consider them *cheap* because you are cheating on their cc thanks to MW and 0cc Artifacts ) and cheap defences work in pair in order to build a fast lock.

The deck has these CRUCIAL ADDITIONS to do to his skeleton POST SIDE:

--Gorilla Shaman is here to try to neutralize opposite Welders recursions and opponent's mana development
--Choke can kill blue based deck without too much effort.
--Both Ray of Revelations and Planar Void have been added for the two worst matchups: Oath and Friggorid
--PyroPillars are the best compendium to add to any combo matchup.

In my decks' choices ( and especially in the sideboard ones ) I tried to cover all the possible opponent's archetypes without leaving out anyone.
Aggro matchups can be shut down with HUGE critters and fast lock.
Control ( non oath ) matchups are the easier among the possible ones because they are usually geared to kill/bounce specific typologies of threats and not to do the same with different and contemporary ones.
In order to win Combo matchups you usually need a good timing for your threats. The "First Lock AND Then Critters" sequence is needed in order to survive enough to win.
Welder.decs aren't so bad matchups because you should try to *choose* which threats can be played against him, carefully weigthing any situation. Your tutor/draw power is comparable ( if not strictly better ) to his one and well time Needles, Rods or CoWs can leave him opened to your own real threat. On a final balancement, your clock is usually better than their own ( excluding opponent's brokeness ).

In any matchup, I don't usually side in more than 3 or 6 cards.
The sideboard blocks are autoexplaining and their redundancy is needed for consistency reasons.
Maindeck is filled with strong 1of, while sideboard is completely dedicated to improve bad matchups with strong and speciific  choices.

Of course, I made a lot of choices on my own metagame. Maybe some of you could find them useless or simply *not needed* because a lot of the decks that I referred to, aren't played at all.
On the other hand, I think that those same choices are the *most general* at now.
I can easily cover and improve almost any matchup with them: Gifts, Storm, Oath, Grave.Strategies, Fishes and so on.



Which cards do I left out??

A lot.
Pyroclasms and Jotun Grunt above all.
Root Maze and Seal of Cleansils too.

I add more beaters not to need to take care of critters with Planar Voids and because the tendency is to pack larger creatures, if possible. Pyroclasms would have killed our Confidants too, and during these weeks; I found them being CRUCIAL for my victories.
I opted for Planar Void instead of Grunts because his impact on the game is faster and it is more resilient to creatures hate, a thing that any opponent would bring in against you. 
In the first attempt, I had Seals of Cleansil but Oath was a nightmare even with them sided in. RofR covered this role better than anything else and Gorilla Shaman can virtually eat ANY non artifact creature with this well balanced mana development.
Root Mazes have been tried and they shine against Control decks and aggro decks, when you can put pressure on their own mana base too ( killing Fetchlands and forcing to play more Duals than basics ). Those are good matchups too, so I cut them all.
All the restricted maindeck cards have been choosen in order to cover a role that usually aggrocontrol decks would not cover: the possibiity to BE BROKEN and the inherent ability to produce *inevitability*.
Look at this deck not as an experiment. Aside from real life and online tests, two of my teammates played it yesterday with minor changes and they perform well all day long. They recorded 2 losses only from first turn kills and first turn oath preside. Changes made almost went on correcting things on these directions.

On a side note, deck's name is >>> all and the deck is funny as hell to play, opponent would expect different decks and your approach on the game is as much important as when you are playing with fish.



Funny and Challenging.
Are you going to find anything better?


Enjoy,
MaxxMatt

[Nastaboi]

Nice approach. Do you really need four Crucible? Taking off one or two would make room for either Stop or Seal of Cleansing, as you have no that kind of removal maindeck.

[wethepeople]

This really doesn't seem like a five color deck. I did a quick count on the number of maindeck, white, black, green, blue, and red spells, and it came out something like this:

White had just one spell maindecked, which was Balance. In the sideboard there are an additional three Seal of Cleansings/Rays. So, four in total.

Green had two restricted spells maindeck, Crop Rotation and Fastbond, along with Choke in the sideboard, which I personally thought was worth it, because you should play Choke in practically any deck that you can. five

Blue had a few cards maindeck, which are probably worth it, those were Time Walk, Ancestral, and Tinker- all completely broken spells at that.

Red had six in the SB, but nothing maindeck.

Black seemed to me like an actual color. There are eleven maindeck, and three post-board, all of which seemed like necessary cards for the deck.

Colorless- A great majority of the deck consists of artifacts that run off Mishra's Workshop, they might as well stay.

In conclusion, the decks looks like a Workshop deck with a black splash, a few powerful blue spells, and a very diverse sideboard as far as colors go. I personally dont think it is that necessary that you run all of the chosen spells in exchange for a weak 5c manabase, but if you have achieved good results, go for it.

There is of course replacements in the UBx color range, for example Gorilla Shaman can easily be switched out for Pithing Needle, Null Rod, etc. As well as Pyroclasm for something like Massacre.

I really like Choke however, because it is hoses just about everything, but it doesnt necessarily have to be there. Ray of Relevation can be replaced by Naturalize incase you decide to keep green for Choke. Pyrostatic Pillar seems like the only real thing that can't be changed so easily, however there are many Combo hosers out there.

[MaxxMatt]

@wethepeople

Uh?
... I showed a deck that can possibly gain from any color and possibly choose the best cards from any colors... don't the unbalanced ratio among the colors, leave it 5colored too?

anyway. I noticed that the comment goes on proposing a color-reduction.
2 or 3 colored deck WITH Workshops, continue to have a bad mana base too.
You can add some fetches and a couple of basics, but you continue to have Duals, MW, Strips and Academy.

Was this color reduction worth a better mana base?
IMHO, the latter lands' count is as much *so-so* as the rainbow one.
Rainbow lands sometimes force you to fight *mana-screw*.
Basics, Duals and MWs force you to fight both *mana-screw* and *color-screw*.

This scenario, meanly speaking, seems even worst that mine.
I recently add more artifacts to deck to better support MWs.
Wires and full sets of CoW help me with both MW's optimization and lands protection.
They give me another way to approach the game.
I can be totally broken with lands, critters and broken spells, or take time with control board elements and MWs.
Switching the timing of those spells, I find that I didn't lose or win differently and this situation make me think that the rainbow way is the path to follow, because it gives me the best choices among the ones of each color, being it a single card ( Balance ) or multiple ones ( Black cards ).

Look at the latter of your comments. PyroPillar and Choke are Red and Green: they are nearly *unrepleaceble*. Now think about Balance and RayOfRevelations: they are white and RoR need green too. Are you going to replace Balance with something else? ...no, of course, there is nothing as much powered as Balance. It singlehandly NEED to be played in such a deck for thousands of reasons. Then you realized the impact of the black and artifact based maindeck's skeleton: isn't it enough synergic to be left as it is?

I can continue to enumerate links and connections between all the possible plays that this deck can let you do.
If they are so broken or so gamending, you have to convince yourself that derive from the RAINBOW CHOICES, too.
Even if a lot of things are *replaceable*, there isn't ANY differently colored card that is as strong as the ones I choose from that specific color for their specific role. The work done behind the deck have been enough to evaluate any Pros/Cons' rate.

I suggest you to try it against real life opponents.
Then come here and tell me what do you think about that deck


@Nastaboi.

As long as I'm going to play this deck, I feel that the correct number of CoWs for this deck is #5 or#6...
Only playing the deck a bit, would convince you that CoWs, CotVs and Wires are needed in 4 copies, because their reciprocal redundancy is crucial for *random locks and wins*. If you can start with MW, CoW and CotV@0 you are really near to lock your opponent down. Any subsequent tutor would be countered or Stripmine would lock them to one or two lands for entire lenght of the game.  CoWs, Tutors and Strips would cheat your opponent enough to win. If they know about your deck, they would counter CoWs, of course. That move would leave to your critters or bombs a safer path through counters. If they don't know about CoWs and Tutors, they would let you resolve CoW and then your mana base is  safe. Incidentally, they would counter Tutors, so you would safely go to town again with critters. It is not a *difficult to play* deck, but it is a challenging one, because you have to cheat at your moves as much as you can. You can thorugh your entire hand on board in a single turn and win, but you don't necessarily do it during your first or second turn.

StPs are good and I played 2 of them in the first version of the deck ( I don't propose it to you, because I completely change the strategy behind the dck with the addition of MWs ). After adding MWs, I found that Wires can cover the StPs' role perfectly. They would slow down DSC and other fatties as much as StPs would do, but they let you to go around Drains and Weenies, too.
I don't feel the need of  maindeck SealofCleansil and RoRevelation would cover that role against Oath in an harder to counter way.  While the couple Seal of Cleansil and Gorilla Shaman would fill 6 sideboard slots ( aside the 3 that I have to use with Seal of Cleansil ), they singlehandly would cover that same role in an harder to hose way.
Seals can one shot kill both Oath or Artifacts, but RoR can kill Oath multiple time and Shaman would eat artifacts almost forever!

Maxx