I Need Help With Mono Blue Fish

Hey all,

I play monoblue fish, mainly because I can’t afford the dual lands and fetchlands. The deck has been doing very well but I want to fine tune it some more and would appreciate your input. I’ve been winning so far but also plan on playing competitively with it.

Thus I want to be able to deal with decks I’ve not yet faced (4C Control, Workshop based decks like Slavery, MuD, 7/10 Split, TriniStax, Affinity, and TnT, Dragon, Oshawa Stompy). As far as aggro goes, I’ve only played a few games against Madness, a few against a inferior budget tog deck, and only one match against FCG. But I've played pretty much every other deck you can imagine though including all the remaining ones on the gauntlet and have won the vast majority of games I've played.

No, I have NO intention of splashing any color into fish or abandoning fish altogether so please don’t ask.

This is the version I played so far and have been winning with. My meta is mostly fast aggro with a few combo decks designed to hose aggro. But there is a little bit of pretty much everything except for Workshop based decks, Bazaar based decks, and 4C control. Some of these combo decks are stupid stuff like Sneak Attack and Reanimator that this deck completely slaughters thanks to it’s counterspells. I’ve been doing really well even against the many aggro decks I face. I’m the one of the few decks that can take on both combo and aggro. I’ve never played against control or workshop or Ravager or FCG decks much though and want to be able to.

4 Cloud of Faries
4 Spiketail Hatchling (He slows down their build up a lot allowing me time to make FoW, Counterspell easily so I don’t have to also use daze for a 2 for 1 trade.)
4 Voidmage Prodigy
4 Serendib Efreet (I found this guy to be a house against aggro. He’s a great clock, needs them to resolve two burn spells to kill, and can block and kill just about all the creatures I run into)

4 Standstill (I can’t tell you how much fun I’ve had using this guy. If I have one early on, I counter everything they try to cast, play a 1/1 flyer and play this. If not, I wait till I have serendib efreet and then cast this guy.)
4 Curiosity (Duh!)
1 Time Walk

3 Misdirections (really hurts their surprise Lightning Bolts, Swords, Hymns, and Giant Growths)
4 Dazes (You can counter their early creatures for essentially free. Aggro likes to play lots of stuff and be tapped out often, this guys wrecks this strategy)
4 Force of Will (with all the counterspells you play, I’ve never had a problem running aggro decks out of steam)
4 Counterspells (This slot originally had Flying Men but I found these to be very good at running decks out of steam. This deck easily prolongs games to beyond turn six and these guys are golden by then. Even early on, I’ve always found use for every counterspell I could draw.)

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Strip Mine
4 Mishra’s Factory
15 Island

Sideboard
3 Null Rod
3 Wasteland
3 [card]Stupefying Touch[/card] (I know this works on mongrels and welder but does it do anything to Dragon, or shut down Exalted Angel's life gain)
3 Stifle
3 Energy Flux

Am I right to believe that decree of justice can't be countered if they use cycling? If so, that could be a problem against 4c control.

I didn’t play any Null Rod and Wasteland main because power isn’t too common where I play and some of the decks are mono color which made wasteland worthless against them. I didn’t play stifles main because they’re only useful against about half the decks I face.

I’ve only played a few games against Madness but I’ve won most of those games. I hope those victories weren’t flukes. I beat Madness by countering their Wild Mongrel and Arrogant Wurm (the only stuff [card]Serendib Efreet[/card] can’t handle by himself). Dazes and Spiketails slow them down a good bit as they rarely have the mana to deal with them as well as be able to use their counterspells to make sure their threats get through. The deck doesn’t seem as fast or threatening as people make it sound. Has anyone had a similar experience playing fish against madness. I think the main reason I’ve been able to beat them was because I ran so many counterspells (most of which are free).

I only played FCG once and won thanks to good luck but it was a very difficult match. I would like to improve this match. I won the first game only because he had to mulligan down (because he had only one land and no one drops) and then was mana flooded when down to five cards. I lost the second game pretty quickly (he played too many threats to counter). I managed to win the third game but barely by the skin of my teeth. Efreets helped a bit but I missed having Flying Men in place of Counterspells to block turn one Lackeys. Would [card]Suq'Ata Firewalker[/card] help this matchup?

I am considering replacing the counterspells with something. Plus I’ve heard about a lot of cards recently that I think can really help this deck and I’ll mention some that I don’t want to add and my reasons.

[card]Fairie Conclave[/card] is something that almost everyone else plays so I’m considering it. But the tempo loss (comes into play tapped) is a big turn off for me. In addition, he eats up way too much mana. Every game I’ve played with fish was determined by whether I could seize control within the first few turns. And the main purpose of creatures in this deck is to help me draw more counterspells, I really don’t care much about the damage till much later. So early tempo loss for a card that I can only use late into the game doesn’t sound appealing. The early mana is critical to me. I know he’s good with standstill, but I’m not convinced he’s worth the tempo loss.

My number one concern is card drawing. Every match up I won or lost was decided by whether I had enough free counterspells to take out their major threats. When I got both curiosity and standstill, or multiples of either, I’ve been able to draw enough cards to have the number of free counterspells I’ve needed.

This is why I’m considering [card]Mask of Memory[/card] as a replacement for two of the slots that counterspells took. Spiketail Hatchling and the threat of daze make it not too difficult to delay some of their key spells till I have three mana. I would like to be able to use Mask then to draw an additional free counterspell if possible. I really want to add 2 Mask just because card drawing has been so helpful so far.

Flying Men is another card that I’m considering. He’s a great early creature that I need for Curiosity, Mask, and Standstill. But he really doesn’t have much utility, and is just a stupid 1/1 flyer. But if I add in 2 Mask, I think I should play him. I don’t know what to cut for him in addition to the two slots I still have open from cutting counterspell.

I’m not even positive if I should replace counterspell. It’s helped me in the games I’ve played and is incredible midgame and late game. But I figure more card draw or bodies to use the card draw with will help me get more free counters as well.

I’m also heavily leaning towards playing [card]Suq’Ata Firewalker[/card] main deck. I’m not sure how useful he is but he seems to have a lot of potential. I especially like the idea of attacking with a creature that has mask on it to draw two cards, then moving the mask to this guy and pinging the opponent to draw two more cards. The question then is what to cut. He’s the lavamancer replacement of sorts and might fit in place of Flying Men but then the deck loses all it’s turn one drops and has fewer early creatures to let me draw cards or standstill early. He would also fit in place of Serendib Efreet without disrupting the mana curve but I’ve been having a lot of success with Efreet. He kills quick and is incredible against just about every creature I face.

Voidmage Prodigy is one candidate I can cut for Flying Men or Suq’Ata but he’s been really useful also. At worst, he’s a good early blocker. But by midgame, he ensure that I have enough counterspells to win. He’s too good midgame for me to seriously consider cutting him, especially not that I’m cutting the four counterspells.

I have no intention of cutting daze as I’ve yet to have the card be useless even late game (he is always pitchable). But he’s been incredible early on to run opponents out of steam.

Misdirections have almost never been dead and when they’re not dead, they either give me back control of the game or act as an extra counterspell so I don’t want to cut them.

I think [card]Rootwater Thief[/card] is far too slow and dead against far too many of the decks I face to even consider. Without him, there is no reason to play a Merkfolk strategy.

I know that some people recommend [card]Waterfront Bouncer[/card] but I really hate the idea of discarding counterspells, draw spells or creatures. I also don’t have the room for him either and he is just a stupid 1/1. I have no intention of playing him.

[card]Sigil of Sleep[/card] is intriguing but I think I play far too many creature enchantments as it is and playing more would really hurt my game against control, when I play more competitively. I think I should sideboard the card though.

I heard about the the combo that Sigil of Sleep and Waterfront Bouncer have against aggro with Gilded Drake but I think it would take up too many card slots for inferior cards.

I also know that Imagecrafter combos well with Voidmage but I like Flying Men since they go so well with both Mask of Memory and Curiosity.

I was considering having some kind of bounce to return game winning permanents or huge creatures that make it to the mainboard. But I currently have no room. Also, which is better, [card]Chain of Vapor[/card], Boomerang, or Capsize. I hate the idea of them saccing a land to bounce back a creature with an enchantment on it. But Boomerang and Capsize seem too expensive. I think I should just play a bunch of free counters and hope for the best.

I also need help tuning the sideboard. Once again, I want to play competitively (against higher caliber decks, Welder/Workshop, FCG, 4c Control, Dragon, Oshawa etc.) But I know that even then, I’ll largely be playing aggro decks and many monocolored decks. So I really don’t want to maindeck stuff like null rod and wasteland (forcing me to add land slots) which will be dead against certain matchups. I figure that even against them, I can ignore the whole mana denial component of fish first game focusing instead on countering the key spells they try to cast with all this mana and drawing cards for more counters. I tested a few games against a couple of these decks on apprentice and this strategy seems to work pretty well.

Other sideboard cards I’ve liked but haven’t mentioned are Blue Elemental Blast, Maze of Ith, Psionic Blast, and Sword of Fire and Ice.

So, for now, these are the changes I’m thinking about.

-4 Counterspell
-1 Voidmage Prodigy
-1 Serendib Efreet
-1 Daze or Misdirection (not sure which one)
+3 Flying Men
+2 Suq’Ata Firewalker
+2 Mask of Memory

Not sure how to adapt the deck to make room for 2 Fairiae Conclave (a card I’m not even sure I want to play). I figure I can just cut an island and either the strip mine (to make the deck 1.5) or a maindeck card (not sure which one though). I really hate the tempo loss.

Also not sure what changes should be made to the sideboard.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to read all this, and for any comments and suggestions you have to offer up.