[Deck] Mono-U Fish

[Freelancer]

As of late I’ve been testing a mono-U fish build that utilizes no non-basics (besides the obvious wastelands/strip mine) and uses back to basics to screw with the opponent’s non-basic lands…(so lovely)
I know that there have been many decklists off fish been trow'n around the net but I think this deck is different enough to warrant a discussion about it.
First of the decklist;

4x Polluted delta
2x Flooded strand
4x Wasteland
1x Strip mine
9x Island

3x Back to basics
3x Null rod
4x Force of will
2x Daze
1x Stifle
4x Brainstorm
4x Curiosity
1x Mox sapphire
1x Black lotus
1x Ancestral recall
1x Time walk

4x Spiketail hatchling
4x Cloud of fearies
3x Thalakos seer
4x Rootwater thief

SB
4x energy flux
4x aether spellbomb
2x stifle
3x blue elemental blast
1x back to basics
1x null rod

Now over to the card choices,

Creature base
Hatchling and cloud is mandatory in any decent fish deck (tempo), the more unusual ones are rootwater thief and thalakos seer. The thalakos went in since it is the best curiosity target I could find for a mono-U fish deck it is almost always unblockable and if they are fired you still get to draw a card. The thiefs have been added to at least have a decent chance against oath game 1 (marginal I know) since these can remove the oath targets or blessing.

Disruption
I changed the mana base in such a way that back to basics doesn’t hurt it at all, this means that I can run the best mana denial tool T1 have to offer. In other words fantastic for fish since my meta consist of a lot of non-basics. Null rod is obviously also in, and so is stifle (some people say that we should cut the random 1 offs but I highly disagree they bring in a certain uncertainty about what the opponent has thus giving the opponent more to think about making mistakes more likely).
2 daze and 4 force of will is our counterbase, the daze is great in this deck because it has such a strong mana denial component (I couldn’t find room for a third daze).

Draw
Obviously curiosity is in. At first I was also considering standstill but in the end testing proofed that standstill sucked without man-lands (should’ve figured that out) the only other option I could find was coastal piracy (to expensive) and brainstorm… If anybody has any great ideas the brainstorm slots are open for discussion.

Matchup analysis
Oath
Game 1 is really really hard, the rootwater thiefs help a little bit in keeping up some pressure but only if you can keep oath from coming into play/triggering against the UGB version you have a better chance since your mana denial works better making daze and hatchling that much more effective.
Games 2/3 you bring in 2 stifles and 4 aether spellbombs, these games are much much harder for the oath player. The problem however is that they usually win game 1, which in turn means that you have to have real good sideboarding to win. Watch out for deed removing all your spellbombs…

Dragon
Game 1 you will again almost always loose but sometimes your mana denial (back to basics again) will pull you through.
Games 2/3 are again much more in your favor with aether spellbombs and stifles (don’t board in to much stifles/BEB’s though they may change to a reanimator style of deck). Again don’t go overboard with playing spellbombs because off deed (don’t forget they can also be sacked to draw a card).

4cc
A much better matchup, back to basics is really a pain in the ass for them and so are our lovely rootwater thiefs. Watch out for angel/balance however and waste there W mana sources as fast as you can.
After boarding bring in a extra back to basics and/or BEB if you suspect they side flametongue kavu’s, fire/ice or REB in. These games should be in your favor because of the virtual card advantage of back to basics.

Stax
Game 1 is a pain, sometimes you manage to resolve a rod and back to basics and gain some temp but most of the time you are going to loose horribly.
Games 2/3 bring in the dreaded energy flux and hope you will draw it combined with enough mana sources. You are running a lot of basic lands and a full complement of wastes this means that sometimes you can lock them down under there own trinisphere for a while. Although eventually they are going to find a workshop and start dropping lock components again.

Workshop aggro
Game 1 is a pain (obviously) same plan as with stax.
Games 2/3 bring in flux again and attack there manabase, chump the juggie’s and hope to survive until you can drop flux and have a decent shot at winning.


The problem this deck mainly has is that it has no real way to deal with common threads like workshop aggro/stax etc. a splash colour could potentially fix this (I know has been done before) but that would change the entire deck and would weaken the decks mana denial components.
Don't forget that my meta is still full with non-basics and this isn't going to change anytime soon. What this basicly means is that this is strictly a deck build for a specific metagame, fish is at it's heart a metagame deck.
I hope to get some positive feedback about this deck.


Ps. My meta is full with non-basics and no workshop…great place for this deck to shine…^^ Not sure though if I am going to run this deck or just UG madness…Any advise?
Pss. If you think this deserves to be in newbie forum move it at your own discretion, thx in advance…;)
Psss. Yes my English sucks…I’m from Holland if you really want to know the reason…;)

[Covetous]

I would run man-lands instead of B2B--part of what makes fish good is the ability to play standstill and then beat with man-lands.  That plan is better than the brainstorm/fetch plan in most builds because BS is a card-quality adjuster, and Fish doesn't have many good quality cards.  Card quantity a la Standstill is stronger.  I would consider Voidmage prodigy instead of Rootwater thief, because thief is just too expensive.  If you run the actual mer-man plan, then theif could be good.  But otherwise, Kai is just better.  Also, you NEED old man of the sea in the SB.  And Unsummon>>Aether spellbomb.  Black lotus is crap in fish--it can allow welder decks to get rid of your null rod.  You also need at least 2 more mana sources.  Hope this helps.

[Freelancer]

First off, b2b VS. man-lands...

I choose back to basics because I severly dislike the fact that my man-lands either get locked under back to basics (from for instance mono-U and oath) or get wasted in no more than a couple of turns. Following that logic I can't really run any standstills anymore since these aren't very good without any man-lands.

The reason why I choose to make a fish deck WITHOUT any man-lands or a splash colour is because the metagame has changed and is hating out non-basics right now. Don't forget that the high number of basics also improves the chances of getting out under first turn trinisphere. Also I want to dodge the amount off crucible of worlds played a bit, since crucible of worlds is basicly countered with a back to basics in play (have you noticed that the only land cards that are returned are non-basics?).

The rootwater thief is indeed mana intensive but in turns 3/4 you have usually more than enough mana to spent because you don't need any mana anymore for manland activations, this can than be spend on rootwater activations. It also helpes to improve the very difficult matchup of oath games 1/2/3 as I have already explained. But this spot isn't quite rocksolid as it seems, I just like the card since it gives me a sneak peek at there deck and is a potential game winner against oath/combo. This is however more of a personal preference.

I should probably up the land count a bit, maybe even removing a single copy of null rod and moving it to the sideboard. Any suggestions on what to cut?

[absolute]

The major problem is this decks inferiority to mono blue, and with the same basic strategy, its lack of answers to actual threats. Null rod and back to basics are a decent enough amount of hate, but without the countermagic to back them up, I don't see how they will be of much use. With the strait color you should have atleast 12-14 counterspells (stifle wouldnt be included here) so that you could push answers through against the average 8 counters other decks pack.

Another issue that I have seen in many fish builds is the use of black lotus boarded with null rod. Against welder decks this is inneficient, and allows them to weld your answer in and out as they please.

The final issue to address is you yourself through analysis and testing have found that the deck cannot win its first game consistantly. Do you plan on consistantly winning the second 2 games of every match you are put into, or do you see the errors in logic here? Fish is still being developed as an efficient hoser, but it lacks the fat and speed to put other decks out for the count in time.

[TheWhiteDragon]

First off, B2B + wastelad = the suck.  If you want to run a gambit of 5 strips, run null-rod-immune crucible and man-lands.  I'm suprised someone actually had to say this.  It gives you a reusable way to keep an opponent on 0 mana (if the opponent runs basics, they can destroy your B2B and have a shitload of mana thereafter) that also can kill basics with strip mine, and can recur your fallen man-lands.  It is such synergy with man-land/strip/standstill/fetchland.  OR you could drop the 5 waste/strip, add in more basic islands or business spells or intuitions and up B2B to 4.
The prob with B2B is it lets an opponent stockpile around it and lay an uberspell if they live long enough.  All I know is that B2B + strips = suck.  If you want that early disruption, run the one strip and MAYBE one waste, or perhaps some acceleration to drop an early B2B.  Sometimes you won't really need null rod like against control, where attacking the lands are key.
Lotus does suck in fish...esp. monoblue fish.  Axe it.  It's ass under null rod, doesn't help you do broken things, and is welder fodder.  Other than that, the deck seems okay.  MD critters should be looked at.  I liked the voidmage/spiketail plan of U/R fish.  I also liked the man-lands.
Against combo, you have a decent chance in FoW and spiketail...slowing storm/stopping ancestral in doomsday.  Dragon I think will eat you.
There are simple ways of hosing workshop decks besides B2B or null rod.  Red for lavamancer vs. welder just replaced the B2B threat with a few strips and 1/1s...the addition of crucible made R/U fish have game vs welder decks, and SB energy Flux helped.  But there is an easier way to just flat out own the workshop/stax match.  Unfortunately, seeing as how I run a workshop deck, I could never tell
And as a final note, since I just saw this...Thalakos Seer?  Are you on crack?  I'd rather run Merfolk of the Pearl Trident and I think I'd choose castration first.  Make those 3 voidmage prodigies (or maybe 2 and an OMotS MD as a surprise) and then you are talking business.  T. Seer is such a lil' kid card.  It's awful.  It's like Sacred Similacrum, except it sucks, doesn't get you a land, can't block juggernauts, and can't be abused by welder.  Play this card, and you deserve to lose IMO, sorry :p

[Freelancer]

I've just started testing with a mono-U fish build that cut the b2b completely added 6 man-lands replaced brainstorm for standstill added a single copy of crucible main and added two extra island...i'll tell you people my experiences later...

Now i'm not going to cut black lotus (i know you freakin welder:P) but my meta has almost no welders and in testing simply not dropping lotus was no problem (side them out games 2/3). Don't forget that even in fish it can mean huge tempo boosts dropping turn 2 cloud-null rod-hatchling is
ownage...
And please give me a break, this is going to be the first tourney where I get to play 5-proxy...

On the point of b2b having asynergy with wastes i totally disagree, they actually complement each other. Early game a b2b won't be dropped (3 mana is a lot for fish) and wasteland keeps the opponents non-basics in check early while making sure that if the player survives untill the late game i can stop him by simply wasting his untapped lands.

Don't forget that once I have b2b on the board I have 10 counters not to forget that i'm still drawing cards and my opponent is not. The problem however is getting that b2b on the board, black lotus actually helps with this problem. Going lotus-b2b with force/daze backup will almost always ensure it resolves. Also b2b can give you quite a nice tempo boost, yes eventually they will get out but this will cost time (wich they don't have since they are usually beatdown-wich they can't stop because they have mana constraints see the problem?).

Lol thalakos IMHO is highly underated, it's so great. Not being able to block is usually not a very big problem and it is almost always get's through (look at it this way; it's a 2 mana 1/1 unblockable guy that when it dies get's you a card). It's a absolute great card to dump a curiosity on, not to mention that burning one isn't the greatest of options.
Voidmage prodigy however has no evasion whatsoever and his ability is nice but not essential since i needed more good curiosity targets although voidmage with standstill rocks...^^

I also need somebody who has some rules knowledge....
If my opponent has 3 lands (same as me) no creatures (I have a single thalakos seer in play) 5 cards in hand (I have 2 cards in hand) and my opponent plays a balance how many cards must my opponent discard? 2 cards or a single card...

[that other girl]

Edit: Whoa my gawd, you posted while I was typing my post.  We seem to agree on several points, so three cheers for computer-based telepathy!  

*is too lazy to delete following information*  I have edited this post way too much already, heheh....

It seems like your current list is lacking some critical synergy.  B2B nerfs your strip effects (unless you use them right away, I guess), while null rod nerfs your power.  Furthermore, I think that brainstorm is still a poor replacement for standstill in any fish deck.

Fish runs on man lands.  A huge factor in beating control decks is that early manland beats are hard to deal with.  I think you could get away with replacing B2B with several copies of Crucible -- you'll still be able to attack your opponent's mana base with recurring strips, and you'll be able to run mishra's factory with ease.  Keeping a high amount of basic islands seems like a better defense against B2B than watering down a key component in fish's build to incorporate B2B into it.

Standstill is better than brainstorm here because standstill generates massive card advantage, not card quality.  Fish is inherently weak to begin with in comparison with many (if not all) of the highly-powered decks you'll see.  It takes 1.5 cards to equal a threat in this deck.  For instance, a single cloud of faeries is cute, but not very dangerous.  A cloud of faeries with a curiosity is something your opponent will need to deal with.  They could do something horrific like cast fire/ice to kill it... and then you just lost a huge amount of card advantage.  At that point, you have a hard time recovering without massive card quantity.  You don't want to brainstorm into that one cloud of faeries -- you need standstill to help you find your combined threats.  If you can shove a few men onto the board and drop standstill, your opponent will be forced to react and give you three cards.  If you brainstorm into one spiketail hatchling, drop it and draw a land you had to put on top of your library, you just shot yourself in the foot.

Lotus can be wonderful in an opening hand with little men and standstills, but it can be just as bad when you have an active null rod.  I've liked lotus in the past when I've used it, but the argument can go both ways very easily.  It doesn't seem as important if you choose not to run standstill, and you also won't be hurting for a particular color.  In either case, null rod is infinitely more important than the lotus, so I would happily drop it or lose the mox to reduce the null rod hosing significantly.

I'm not so sure about the Thakalos guy.  Flying is evasion, and you have plenty of it.  If your flying creature gets blocked by their morphling, you're in a bad spot anyway.  Not being able to block seems like it hurts worse than super-evasion.  When will a cloud of faeries not accomplish the same thing when you need it to?

[Freelancer]

Nice computer telepathy...

Indeed I know that brainstorm is much weaker in fish than standstill but if your running no man-lands standstill is generally weaker than brainstorm...

Against some deck you either really need null rod turn 1 (2-land belcher) and you don't really bother that you just made 2 cards dead in your deck. Against other decks the tempo boost they both provide is invaluable and shouldn't be dismissed.

This is deck is just a little 'out of the box' thinking practise...I figured what is the one card people DON'T expect in fish... It's probably true that the random wins back to basics give you don't really stand up against the synergy (that also wins games) of man-lands/standstill...
I might actually add a mon-U fish build with man-lands/standstill and several other adjustments in my first post and spur some discussion about that also...

Ps. Thanks a lot for all off the positive critism...precisly what i needed...

[breseboy]

I have tested you deck out, and tested out a deck with man lands and standstills, and to my suprise the brainstorms did better.  I just wanted to support your idea.  I found that whenever I played a man land and a standstill by land would be wasted away.
Good ideas!

[Freelancer]

Great thx a lot for testing it out...  

In my limited testing (about 10 games with each version) I noticed that whenever there where wastelands or other non-basic hate on the other side of the table the version without man-lands did much better, however when the opponent had no wastelands or b2b (or any other non-basic hate) mono-U with man-lands was a lot better because off more threads and a better draw engine...

This means that if in your meta non-basic hate thrives that mono-U fish without man-lands might actually be a better choice than a different fish build (like mono-U with man-lands or WTF/r Fish etc.), so it comes down to a meta call again.

[Morin]

i have recently been playing a build similar to your but i have ran the man lands with brainstorms and no standstills i have run 3 crusibles and 5 strip effects and the deck does really well.
the best thing i changed in my opinion is i run ophidian instead of Thalakos seer it works pretty solid and i can usually get early stabilty mana-wise.
i think i might play it in the upcoming five proxy in dec. in my area.

so far so good.

[evilmule]

How does this deck deal with threats that have already hit the table?  You only run four hard counters, so it's basically game over once a welder resolves.  Random wins from back to basics may happen, but this deck probably loses to its own lack of removal more often than not.  If you do insist on sticking with this deck however, I would suggest cutting the Seers and Thieves for Suq'Ata Firewalkers and Voidmage Prodigies.  Firewalkers are terrible, but they're better than playing a random 1/x flyer with no ability. U/x fish isn't even very good right now, so why weaken it even further by cutting off another color?

[Freelancer]

The basic idea is that U/x fish has troubles dealing with all the non-basic hate thats running around right now. And thus the idea off mono-U fish without man-lands was born. You are quite correct about not being able to deal with permanent threads (like welder) but a lot get's stopped because of the tempo game your playing (combined with mana denial this is a very strong strategy) just give it a trie and tell me what you think...

In my early testing I also played firewalkers but found them to slow to really deal with welders since one or more activations of this bad guy is usually game...obviously we will have a hard time with him. But if there are many workshops/welders in your meta fish isn't the right choice anyway.
Edit: I'm reconsidering firewalkers after some thought about it...I really need some form of removal main against welders/opposing fish...it is as a side note also a great curiosity target (the semi-pro red, ping to head)...^_^



In my humble opinion ophidian doesn't really cut it, since we already have curiosity as our main draw engine. Besides it costs 3 mana against the single U off curiosity (you do need a creature but you are playing plenty of those anyway) and it doesn't even has evasion...

If you are running man-lands than you almost MUST run standstills these are so much better than brainstorms in fish since you can keep up the pressure and draw 3 cards in the process (as a side effect it usually also slows down the opponent)

About the sideboard a bit, as of late I'm testing with a conversional sideboard to landstill (ie. almost all creatures go out only hatchlings stay, all sb cards go in) and kill the critters oath gives you with a spawning pit (this does mean null rod as to go to the side post board). I have played a couple of games so far but haven't found any relevant data yet (won all 4 matches post-board but my opponents either couldn't find any counters or any creatures or they mulled to 5 etc.)...any thoughts on this?

[MIZEnhauer]

I think that the creature base could definately be improved.  I would suggest running this creature base

4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Spiketail Hatchling
4x Flying Men
3x Old Man of the Sea

The reasoning is you need a One drop with evasion and Flying Men is the best at doing that.  In my Opinion Old Man of the Sea is much better than Suq Ata Firewalker.  Just because you steal your opoponents creatures and use it against them.  I would rather have a Welder that I stole from my opponent thjan have there Welder dead.  Just Because They cant really operate when you are swapping Juggys or Titans or Mindslavers for Moxes.

[Rancor1]

[ref]The reasoning is you need a One drop with evasion and Flying Men is the best at doing that.[/ref]

I am guessing that you want this one drop for the purposes of curiosity. however, do you really need eight creatures that do nothing? I would definately cut the flying men (at least two) for voidmage prodigies.

I also think that suq'ata is the better choice. I have seen slaver, 7/10, etc. bring in REB, Fire/Ice, and in one bizzare case, flametongue kavu, and in all of those cases, suq'ata is better.

[Freelancer]

Not to forget that suq'ata firewalkers are probably the best creatures to stick a curiosity on....Btw the one-drop really isn't needed in the version with manlands faerie conclave serves as the one drop and in the version without manlands brainstorm is there...^^

On the creatures: the slots off 4x rootwater thief are basicly your own preferences, I'm sure as hell going to run the thiefs they've won me already quite a couple of games against oath/dragon where I managed to play the tempo game and still 'extract' there win conditions....^^ Besides I HATE counters I have to pay mana for especially when they are stuck on a non-evasive creature (that is in fish)....

As a side note: Why do people still run maze of ith in the sideboard? it neatly untaps the creature that attacked and thus making it possible to block with a spirit of the night this means that you have to suicide attack each time to bring there life down...and eventually they are going to find a wasteland anyway wasting the maze and your back where you started.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Freelance said

On the point of b2b having asynergy with wastes i totally disagree, they actually complement each other. Early game a b2b won't be dropped (3 mana is a lot for fish) and wasteland keeps the opponents non-basics in check early while making sure that if the player survives untill the late game i can stop him by simply wasting his untapped lands.

The two cards are antisynergistic.  One keeps non-basics from untapping, the other is a non-basic.  If you want to debate that wastelands are better at handling the early threats better than B2B, fine, but don't say it compliments it.  Using your wastes to slow your opponent til you drop B2B means you are slowing yourself by losing a land drop a turn.  This gives you no more speed in dropping a B2B.  After a B2B is in play, wastes are utter ass.
B2B and crucible/strip are two totally different locks.  Crucible/strip I feel is better as it allows you to defend against opposing wastes/strips...costs the same....gives you the advantage of turn one wasteland....and is awesome with fetchlands as well.  B2B is just ass compared to crucible/waste/strip.

[Freelancer]

Oh my...I gotta disagree completely with this (wich is good:P) the point is that once the b2b is in play the wastelands won't untap anymore and this is antisynergetic indeed BUT by the time b2b hits most wastelands will already be used up in the graveyard and thus the antisynergy doesn't hurt you as much anymore...

Now we all now wastelands in the first few turns=good stuff against most decks agree? now what wastelands can't prevent is that eventually the opponent is going to build up there manabase and thus negating the usefullness of the early wastelands (ie. the opponent was disrupted but can now go on with his normal game plan) but when the opponent is disrupted by early game mana denial combined with spiketail/daze and THAN a b2b resolves they have to deal with the b2b first this takes time wich is exactly what the opponent doesn't have that is my reasoning behind b2b in fish...

I agree that crucible/wasteland is a completely different lock than b2b but I don't think b2b is worse than crucible/wasteland lock...
Because b2b is harder to remove (enchantment hate is much less prevalent nowadays) than crucible and b2b has an immediate effect on the opponent and doesn't have a turn delay I believe b2b is better than crucible/wasteland lock...besides fish doesn't need 12 lands in play 3/4 lands is usually more than enough (although I must agree that the filtering effect that they provide is awesome)...oh yeah btw my setup (ie. wastes and b2b) also gives me the goodies of turn 1 waste...

Now what makes me wonder wich one is better is that crucible also has the advantage of regrowing man-lands/fetchlands besides wastelands...My testing shows that the crucible-manlands/fetchlands/wastelands setup is probably better because off the synergy with standstill...brainstorm is afterall probably to weak for fish...

[kill doug]

why not try

Saprazzan Heir
Power/Toughness: 1/1
Casting cost: 1U
Card text: Whenever Saprazzan Heir becomes blocked, you may draw three cards

I think its at least worth testing

also it looks like you never win the first game is there anyway to remedy that? Otherwise in each matchup you board in 6 hate cards. Which seems very versitile.

[martyr]

Saprazzan Heir is wretched. Drawing cards is important with this deck, but so is doing damage with your creatures, especially if you're playing B2B, which disallows the inclusion of Man-Lands, which are a huge buffer to running out of threats in all Fish variants.

[Cross]

It seems like b2b is too slow for this deck. Without consistent acceleration its really difficult to get out the necessary early b2b.  I see that you have lotus, but lotus usually isnt run in fish because its antisynergistic with null rod. I always tried to play null rod as quickly as possible, and if you draw the lotus afterwards its a dead draw.
Standstill is incredible in fish, it's how you complete you lock. Drawing three cards if your opponent plays anything is devastating. You're almost guaranteed to counter any bombs your opponent drops. Not only that it's frustrating.
Manlands are another core of fish, they allow you to play creatures understandstill, and they're free. They're also good chump blockers, especially when a lone factory can kill a jugg. Manlands also give you more creatures, right now you're running less then 12. Remember that fish's creatures are terrible on their own, they're way better in numbers. The more threats you put on the board the quicker you can end their suffering when you have them locked.
Brainstorms are an interesting choice too, especially when you already have curiosity and standstills. Brainstorms are good when you can draw into three devasting spells, but fish just doesnt have that.

Basically it seems like you've gotten rid of a lot of tempo from the deck. I'd suggest adding it back in.

Thalakos seer seems like a weak choice in the deck. i can see why you've added him, but every now and then fish needs chump blockers, and thalakos seer can't chump when you need it. Instead of old man of the sea, I'd recomend waterfront bouncer. One of the italian builds of fish utilized bouncer mainboard. He's a decent replacement for lavamancer, and he's good against oath. He also comes out a turn earlier then old man, and he solves the problem of removing already played threats. You could also run echoing truth, just one is always useful.

I think annul is a good choice for your sideboard. I'd find space for 4, you could prob drop the stifles in your board. They're good against so many decks that it's silly not to run them. They're also cheaper than energy fluxes, and make it so you don't have to mull as many times for 1st turn trinisphere protection.
I'd also take out the aether spellbombs out of your board. They have bad synergy with null rod. Unsummon works fine, as do echoing truths. 4 Blue elemental blasts are better than three. They work great against a lot of workshop builds, and the random goblin or burn decks you already have a bad matchup against.

Edit: thinking about it more, stifle is pretty versatile against all forms of combo, id probably replace energy fluxes instead and the b2b.

[Freelancer]

First I want to thank everybody for there comments...^_^

@kill doug saprazan heir is a very nice creature but it isn't usefull for fish or even for T1...(yes I know this without testing o_0) martyr say's it all and don't forget blocking is quite minimal in type 1 so drawing isn't going to happen very often...

@cross Even an late game b2b is devastating for many opponents (although very early is even worse:P) b2b also brings a bit more 'brokeness' to the deck wich means brainstorm also becomes better...And I am very well aware than man-lands/standstill is the core off fish, I am just trieing something new... Besides fish doesn't lock it gains enough tempo to barely win...(I run a total off 15 creaures not 12 )
Thalakos seer is a great creature as a curiosity target...but as off late i'm running 3 suq'ata firewalkers main wich have been great also I cutted two rootwater thiefs for 2 bouncers (less fantastic probably going to put them back in) About the side I changed it around a lot...still testing with that...

One of the great things is that energy fluxes are so great they make the workshop matches so much better...^^   (don't forget i'm almost only running basics so wastelands as no effect on me same with crucible/wasteland lock) One off the great things of this deck is that it's a suprise (after this thread the suprise is probably mostly over but still)...and the suprise factor is something really powerfull...^_^

[kill doug]

@Freelancer dropping a curiosity on saprazan heir is a way draw no matter
what. Thats the only reason I suggested it.  Mono blue fish really has no chance in a meta full of stax and oath even after board. Also i thought of it as a worse standstill for a deck that needs it.

[Freelancer]

@kill doug in a meta full off stax and oath this should certainly not be played (I told my meta at the beginning of this post ), the problem is that curiosity is on ANY creature as good as on saprazan heir and playing a curiosity on a heir is not a certain draw...(ie. stifle/swords/fire any removal, whatever) Although it is basicly unblockable....What i'm saying is that fish it's basis is small creatures with usefull ability's...although drawing is always usefull getting this creature blocked will almost never happen that is also the reason i cutted thalakos seer...it has no usefullness besides the occasional death and unblockableness (almost all my creatures have flying so this isn't very handy)

Anyway keep the suggestions coming...they are always welcome...

[andrewpate]

Instead of Saprazzan Heir, you might as well run Escape Artist.  It's still an unblockable 1/1 for 1U, and it has a special ability, too.

The truth is, you are not hard up for Curiosity targets.  In all my experience with normal U/R Fish, I can only remember a handful of games where, "Oh, crap, there's nothing I can put this Curiosity on that will get through!  If only I had a Metathran Soldier out, I would win this game!" was a real consideration.

Also, instead of Wasteland, did you consider Rishadan Port?  It is a bit worse than Wasteland in the early game and much more powerful in the lategame.  Under a Back to Basics, many decks will be getting by on one or two basic lands.  Port can shut one of these down similar to Prison using Icy Manipulator and Winter Orb.  I think it could be an interesting option, since although the Port won't untap either, it will disrupt them for a turn, possibly keeping them from finding a way out before you kill them.  Maybe it sucks, but I'm just thinking about how every turn counts under a B2B and I think it's worth a try.

[ump]

Synergy with Back to Basics?

Wastelands have synergy with Back to Basics.  Rishadan Ports do not.  Ports require a tap of Port to tap another land.  It won't untap under Back to Basics, meaning it's a one-shot deal.  When you tap Wasteland, you don't care about untapping it with Back to Basics because you are tapping and sacrificing it to destroy a land.  It is also a one-shot deal, but doesn't cost the extra mana.  When you play a Back to Basics, opponents will usually hold back tapping their lands until they have either a bomb or a way to break the Back to Basics.  Wastelanding their lands forces them to use the land earlier then they may have wanted to.

[Edited to fix spelling of Rishadan]