Playing against fisherman as a druid.

[healo]

Hi,

As we all know, this matchup is more then often very problematic and frustrating - pre, or post sideboard. The idea of this thread is not to solve this issue, or come up with some new broken staff. I would like you to discuss some basic and advanced tips and tricks, or strategies you know and use playing Oath deck against any kind of Fish decks. Just to give less experienced players (like me) some help when facing all those Quasali Pridemages, Meddling Mages, Trygon Predators, etc..

First off, I will throw here my decklist to see if theres some room for improvement:

creature [2]
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
instant [19]
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Pierce
4 Impulse
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Rebuild
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Krosan Reclamation
sorcery [9]
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
Enchantment [4]
4 Oath of Druids
Artifact [9]
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sensei’s Diving Top
1 Voltaic Key
1 Tme Vault
Land [17]
4 Forbidden Orchard
3 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Strip Mine
1 Wasteland

Sideboard:
1 Hellkite Overlord
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Tinker
1 Oxidize
1 Pyroclasm
1 Krosan Grip
2 Red Elemental Blast
1 Yixlid Jailer
2 Pithing Needle
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Ravenous Trap

Id like to point out, that I have pretty good results with this configuration.

However, there are several things:

 - 3rd Underground Sea could be basic Island. This is very likely to happen.
 - 4 Spell Pierce seems a lot, but I found that extremly importand against Stax (even if it does not counter Golem), which gains popularity lately. Also good card to side out.
 - I couldnt stand tinkering into Sphinx just to get it removed with StP anymore. Inkwell does just fine.
 - Pyroclasm vs. Firespout... Too many times I found myself sitting there, with Firespout in hand unable to cast it whole the game. (sometimes its even problematic to have the right colors to cast it effectively)

My basic SB plan against Fish (say Noble) is smtn like this:
 
 - in: +2 REB, +1 Pyroclasm, +1-2 Needles, +1 Tinker, +1 Inkwell, +1 Oxidize (depends.. Mainly if I fear Rod, or not..)
 - out: -2 Spell Pierce, -1 Duress, -1 Rebuild, -1 Hellkite Overlord, -1 Merchant Scroll (!), sometimes i side out Vault/Key..

I think thats enough for starters..

Thanks for response.

[median]

First off I would put one repeal/wipe away into your list to deal with meddling mage / chalice. That will help out your fish match a bit, I've also found playing multiple oaths at once helps (especially to deal with pridemage and trygon predator).
(-The idea here is that it will take Trygon predator two turns to eat them both and you only need one turn to oath. With pridmage, they need two on the board to deal with both and will be wasting resources if they don't drop pridedmages as soon they can.)
 Also I've been having alot of success against noble fish using pyroblasts main. I'm not sure how to translate that into a generalized anti fish strategy though.
 Using Pernicious Deed as a main deck wrath of god in the fish match(none of their creatures have a cc of more than three) helps, if you plan on winning off an orchard and dropping a few oaths . To get the full advantage of all of these singletons, it would make sense to add a Lim-dul's Vault.
I like your choice of robot and have had success with inkwell, that said, he's terrible in the beatz match and sphinx really shines there.
Having not played oath for a couple months thats all I can think off, so I hope that helps.

[EnialisLiadon]

Playing with a Deed in the main and one in the board is huge.  Also is having some basic lands.  A playset of Misty Rainforest allows you to run an Island and a Forest, which will allow you to drop Oath in the face of Wastelands. 

Seconded on trying Sphinx of the Steel Wind again.  Fish can sometimes race Inkwell, if they have enough creatures out.  There's also Empyrial Archangel, which is still solid against aggro.