Smurfs looking good?

[serracollector]

Sorry if this ends up being a totally horrible idea, but would Smurfs be a good deck type in today's meta?  Mind you I have been out of the loop for quite a bit, but I have been reading up on a lot lately through TMD, checking out the newest banned and restricted lists (Brainstorm....sigh), and the new cards being used in the current new decks.

So first before I start my argument, I am "guessing" from my reading that the top tier decks are currently:

TPS (tendrils based combo, sorry if the name has changed)
Oath (whatever build is used)
Tezzet based decks (still in the making by most I see)
Fish (r/u or u/g or 3 color)
Ichorid (mana or mana less, either way I honestly don't know enough rules to play it atm    )
New Goyf decks (seems to be used in all kinds of decks, reminds me of Tog....)
Now, based on all these cards, and the new cards that have came out, why isn't Smurfs played heavily?
And for those who don't know, I mean Smurfs as in a U/B/W fish style deck with a few fatties and heavy control base.
I am still in the works or making a full deck list, as I just recently re-down loaded apprentice and the new patches, but I was just looking at what is mainly being played, and this combo of cards all seem to have answers to these different archetypes.

Protection/Control:
Thought Seize, Mana Drain, FoW (spells)
Meddling Mage, Children of Korlis, Icatian Javelineers, Ethersworn Cannonist, Kataki, Jotun Grunt, Magus of the Unseen (creatures)
Pithing Needle, Tormod's Crypt, CotV (artifact)

Offensive:
Meddling Mage, Cannonist, Phyrexian Negator, Exalted Angel, Jotun Grunt,Dark Confident, DSC/Titan (if u use tinker) (creatures)


Creature Control:
StP, Edict, Smother, A LOT under these 3 colors.

Draw/Search:
Ak/Intuition engine, Ancestral, Dark Confident, Finkel/Ophidian (if its not too slow now?)
Tutors, Tutors, and um Tutors, think we all know them
Necro?

And of course your random brokedness such as Y. WIN, Time Walk, etc.

All these cards, used in some tandom, can stop combo, artifacts, and control (to an extent), and can be quite quick if needed. Negators are nice, especially since it seems most creatures used are small, and there isn't much burn used anymore other than the occasional single fire/ice in a deck. Mages, Korlis, Cannonist all stop combo in its tracks.  Kataki helps slow artifact based decks, Javelineer's help stop 1 tuffness critters, which there are A LOT of used now a days from what I seen. Plus everything in the deck cost 1 mana of its color only, which helps so much in a 3 color deck.  I see a low mana base, an easy mana base, and lots of answers to lots of decks that are currently being used.  So, I ask, is smurfs viable in today's Meta?

EDIT:  Finished a first try at a deck in Apprentice, might give you guys something to compliment/slaughter.  Let me know.

//NAME: Smurf 10/08
// Mana (24)
        1 Mana Crypt
        1 Chrome Mox
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Strip Mine
        3 Wasteland
        3 Flooded Strand
        2 Polluted Delta
        1 Swamp
        1 Plains
        1 Island
        3 Underground Sea
        3 Tundra
        1 Black Lotus
// Creatures (14)
        4 Dark Confidant
        3 Ethersworn Canonist
        3 Meddling Mage
        2 Jotun Grunt
        2 Phyrexian Negator
// Draw (2, not including Dark Confidants)
        1 Brainstorm
        1 Ancestral Recall
// Control (14)
        3 Null Rod
        2 Swords to Plowshares
        1 Misdirection
        4 Thoughtseize
        4 Force of Will
// Search (4)
        1 Cunning Wish
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Demonic Tutor
// Brokedness (2)
        1 Yawgmoth's Will
        1 Time Walk
// Sideboard
SB:  1 Smother
SB:  1 Diabolic Edict
SB:  1 Swords to Plowshares
SB:  3 Withered Wretch
SB:  3 Energy Flux
SB:  2 Tormod's Crypt
SB:  2 Children of Korlis
SB:  1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB:  1 Meddling Mage

Other possibilities that I can't find room for????:
Pithing Needle
Stifle
Annul
Daze
Icatian Javelineers
Negate
Merchant Scroll
???

Thanks for all positive or negative feedback.

Over 100 views so far, and only 1 reply, thats sad.  Even if its negative comments people, please leave some, I can't TRY to make this workable or better without feedback.  Thank you.

[BruiZar]

could you further eleaborate your choise for negator? What do you do against goyf, juggernauts and trikes? This deck would have to be better than bugfish which answers a lot of metagame threats at the moment. How is this a better choice?

[serracollector]

Well black add's more instantaneous kill other than white and blue, including smother, and edict, both of which will take out the single Goyf.  On top of that you have the graveyard removal of Wither Wretch which can be better than Tormod's Crypt at times, and is a body on top, which also stops goyf. Energy Flux and extra Kataki make those Nauts and Trikes extremly expensive to keep around.  Negator isn't neccesary I suppose, but it is fat, quick, and easy to get out at only 2b.  Also it has trample which makes it get thru those Trinket Mages and Welders people use as "chump blocks" to keep them alive for that 1 turn they need to Tendrils out, Tezzet>timevault, or attack 1 more time with that DSC/Titan, just a few trample damage could make a huge difference.  I don't know as I said this is a "first test" version of the deck, depending on your meta, you might want to add 2 more Jotun Grunts over the Negators, but the extra +1/+1, the lack of the cumulative upkeep, and its trample make it nice imho. 

[meadbert]

Chrome Mox is probably not that good in a Null Rod deck.

[maatn]

Serracollector, as promised I'll post some remarks on your list.

The manabase
From what I've learned playing BUG and other fishy lists, manadenial is the list's strongest and weakest point. A good manabase is half the work, people here on TMD would say I guess. As commented by others in this topic, including Mana Crypt or even Chrome Mox isn't tech in a fish list that plays Null Rod. I would never play Chrome Mox in the first place, you'll need every card you draw. I would also be hesitant to just include basics for every color in the deck to be safe.

OUT:
-1 Mana Crypt
-1 Chorme Mox
-1 Swamp
-1 Plains

Continuing the mana-denial plan:  I suggest 4 wastelands. To smoothen out the manabase, I would suggest including a Scrubland and an off-color mox, like Mox Emerald. The off-color mox will allow you to power out Null Rod + disruption early in the game. I picked Emerald, but I guess you could also take Ruby. For more on the off-color mox / lotus petal discussion, see the BUG-fish topic by ErkBek. I would also suggest to play at least 6 fetches. For budgetairy reasons, or plain randomness, swapping one fetch for a Windswepth Heath could also be nice.

IN:

+1 Wasteland
+1 Scrubland
+1 Mox Emerald
+1 Polluted Delta

The creatures
Looking at the creatures you play, I see several fish archetypes. I see Mages and Grunts, suggesting UW-Fish, yet I see Negators and Confidants too, suggesting a more WUB-fish or even Pikula-style deck. I would suggest to make a choice of what list you want to play, and what kind of style you like. I wouldn't play all these creatures in one list though, as it dillutes your gameplan. In stead I would suggest to maximize the fav-card in the list: Cannonist.

Of course, playing Cannonist could mean to things: you want to play lots of (artifact)-spells, or you just don't want anyone to play more than one spells each turn. If you're only going to play one spell per turn, you will definitively need to play creatures that can kill opponents. The fact that you've chosen white, means you're going with Grunts. Playing just 2 means you hardly see any, 3 is a minimum. Playing 4 could be better, as you already said in this topic yourself. This brings me to another 'paradox' in the list: you want players to cast just one spell a turn (Cannonist), but you still need a huge enough graveyard to make your Grunts deadly... I would definitively look into this in testing. Do you find that in some matches, Grunts die before your opponent does? How is the aggro match up? Grunts are usually < Goyfs...
I'm a big fan of CCatchers. Also, CCatchers have little synergy with Grunts. I would definitively give them a try!

OUT:
-3 Meddling Mages
-2 Negators

+3 Cursecatchers
+1 Cannonist
+1 Grunt

The question remains however, just how strong Cannonist really is. A combo player can just cast Chain of Vapor into the nuts (a.k.a. Tendrills storm = 10). Alternatively, I would suggest cutting white all together and go for the green splash. Green gives you Goyfs, that are fat, cheap and don't cost you lives or permanents!
Then, the creaturebase could be: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36497.0

The "Other" spells
4 Null Rod is very good at the moment. The argument here is the same as with the Wastelands and Cannonists: you'll need redundancy to reliably be able to cast your disruption early on and win.
I noticed a lot of 'neat tricks' in your 'other spells' slot. They are certainly nice spells and very powerful at times. However, if you want to maximize those spells, you will need another shell to play them in. For instance, what spells are you going to be MisD-ing? Ancestrall is nice, but you play (if the CCatchers come in) only 13 blue cards. I would only go for FoW and let MisD go for the moment. The same goes for Cunning Wish. CWish is nice and a neat trick at times, but is very mana intensive. If the fish-gameplan works, you be looking at 3 or 4 mana available max per turn in a game. What will you Wish for EOT or in response? In stead, try Merchant Scroll. I found it very helpful in all my matches. Yawgmoth's Will is indeed a very strong card, but in this deck it is more like a difficult 'reanimate' card. I don't think you'll have the mana to do realy nasty stuff of a Will turn. So in your case, casting a Yagwmoth's Will means: bring back some dudes, disrupt your opponents some off Thoughtseize, bring back a land, go. I personally don't like 4 Thoughtseizes in a deck that already losses lives due to Confidants. Mind you, you do have the chance to flip up to 4 Fows with these dudes, so I would minimize the amount of life-loss cards. I suggest cutting at least 1 TSeize in favor of Duress.

OUT:
-1 Thoughtseize
-1 Misdirection
-1 Cunning Wish
-1 Yawgmoth's will

IN:
+1 Null Rod
+1 Merchant Scroll
+2 Duress


I do realize that these modifications make the list more or less on the same track as BUG Fish. Since you're not playing green (and Goyfs), that might not be a smart thing. I appear to be somewhat biased of course. These modifications, i.m.h.o., will make your list more reliable and consitant. I'm not sure if they make your list able to kill suffiantly though. I've cut the negators, nutering the list somewhat. From my experiences playing WUB-fish, I feel that Grunts aren't very good at killing opponents. But I'm no fan of maindeck 4 Negators either.

Still, please let me know about your experiences playing the list! It sure looks fun to play!

Edit: that would me the following list

// Mana (24)
        1 Scrubland
        1 Mox Emerald
        1 Mox Sapphire
        1 Mox Pearl
        1 Mox Jet
        1 Strip Mine
        4 Wasteland
        3 Flooded Strand
        3 Polluted Delta
        1 Island
        3 Underground Sea
        3 Tundra
        1 Black Lotus

// Creatures (14)
        4 Dark Confidant
        4 Ethersworn Canonist
        3 Cursecatcher
        3 Jotun Grunt

//Other spells (20)
        1 Brainstorm
        1 Ancestral Recall
        4 Null Rod
        2 Swords to Plowshares
        3 Thoughtseize
        2 Duress
        4 Force of Will
        1 Mystical Tutor
        1 Vampiric Tutor
        1 Demonic Tutor
        1 Merchant Scroll
        1 Time Walk