I have beeen working on making some old school decks, to ...

[BuboniC]

I have beeen working on making some old school decks, to teach some just starting out kids at my cardshop what it means too originate a deck. I have been testing recently and discovered that Gay Fish goes way back, if you dig deep. I made alot of versions of the deck, and I know it isn't as solid as U/R Fish of mono blue, but bear with me, this deck is too be old school and old school only, but it still has been playing very good vs. Dragon, MUD and stax, but has been losing too random aggro. Here goes the list:

4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Flying Men
4 Unstable Mutation
4 Standstill
4 Force of Will
4 Sunken City
4 Curiosity
3 Daze
3 Null Rod
2 Psionic Blast
2 Serendib Efreet

Mana:
8 Island
4 Faerie Conclave
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

Sideboard:
4 Energy Flux
4 Tormod's Crypt
3 Spiny Starfish
3 Hurkyl's Recal
1 Psionic Blast

Card Choices:
Cloud of Faeries:
Obvious card choice, is great with first turn manlands, second turn cloud, standstill=great lock. This is one of the fastest creatures in the game, and is abused in this deck.

Flying Men:
A great beat stick, I honestly can't count the number of times it's gone 1st turn Flying Men, second turn unstable mutation/curiosity.

Unstable Mutation:
Arabian Night's goodness, it lays even more early beats, and makes it painful to not be able too block 14 out of the 18 due to the flying ability.

Stanstill:
Another obvious card decision, it creates very early locks, conisdering nearly every creature can be played by second turn, Standstill locks them down so they have too take the beats, and if the play a spell, I draw three cards then Force of Will it or Daze it.

Serendib Efreet:
The final beatstick, this was a very rough decision, but proved very faithful, makes forth turn kills very possible. Along with Psionic Blast, this is the finisher.

Sunken City:
This is my cooler Lord of Atlantis, this makes a first turn Flying Men, second turn cloud of faries then this makes a third turn beat for 9. I am aware of the upkeep, but so far it hasn't bothered me, once again this is a finisher.

Curiosity:
Card advantage, and (as I have noticed) makes players strive too get rid of the creature it enchants, like it will kill them if they don't(although it will eventualy   )

Null Rod:
This is a hoser at it's finest, it stops long(although it doesn't exist anymore) Artifact Prison, and any artifact deck. I never liked artifact control- although I play Welder MUD I strongly dislike it, which is why I am building this deck   .

Daze/Force of Will:
Early counters rule my meta, expecaily free ones. Really there doesn't need to be an explanation, both of them are too remove early threats/kills.

Psionic Blast:
There are alot of negator's in my meta, and boy do I hate them, this card, amongst Sunken City and Serendib Efreet is a finisher, or a threat remover. Can be used too swat Karn, Silver Golem as well, or take out the opponents life total.

SB analysis:
Tormod's Crypt:
SB in vs. Dragon, MUD and the soon uprising(in my opinion) of Mindslaver MUD. This also beats out rectors effect, although I am not sure on it, but it was used on me when I had Rector-Tendrils togethor.

Spiny Starfish:
To be honest, I couldn't resist, it is a very neat card, and increases the matchup vs. Hulk/GAT, with a body every turn, it makes the deck very strong. Also, the token's color is blue, making this+Sunken City an old school "l33t" combo   .

Hurkyl's Recal/Energy Flux:
I strongely dislike artifact decks, it makes magic no fun to play, so I generally like too give them a taste of their own medicine, by ruining their game for good too. This is just a personal thing, even though all this hate is unessasary vs. Prison, this deck is just a little fun creation of mine.

Psionic Blast:
When playing vs. Negator's these are such a house, also if im playing vs. bargain/necropotence they never see it coming  

Remember:
I know this deck is not as viable as real Fish, but I really want too have a little bit of fun in magic, besides playing with even gayer than gay fish, MUD. If you comment "This is bad" or " not as good as Fish" then I will reply;"please read the entire article, then comment" because I am full aware on the viability of this deck. This may sound sad as well- but this deck has been doing well in playtesting matchups in the last week. I would like comments of more older cads than new, because they may be some cool old cards that I don't know about that will make the deck more tech.  .

PS: I would like too know your thoughts on the deck, how too make it cooler.

PPS: The final goal of the deck is to be all black bordered.
                                              -BuboniC

[g0dzillA]

A few questions...

1. Don't you find that 21 mana sources is too few? Most mono-U Fish builds run closer to 24, and they don't have the recurring cost of multiple Sunken Cities to deal with. It seems like you'd be running into some major mana problems with this build.

2. Is there a reason you're not running Stifle? It's gravy against Dragon and Tendrils, it can strengthen your mana denial strategy against Fetchlands, and has practical uses against most every competitive deck in the field. Daze is nice, but were it me, I'd be running Stifles in those slots. This might also allow you to open up a large portion of your sideboard, since Stifle handles many of the matchups where Energy Flux and Crypt are necessary. (Just a thought.)

3. Do you feel that FoW and boarded Hurkyl's are enough of an answer to Chalice? I know the deck wasn't created to be ultra-competitive, but even casually it seems like an important issue to be addressed in a deck packing 15 1cc cards which comprise the majority of its threatbase.

Thoughts?

[BuboniC]

The deck hasn't lost to chalice as of yet, there are too many ways too get rid of it. The decks best matchup is Prison, and from a recent expierience, Sui(with Negator). I am going too make this very playable(it is already) I have also found that 21 mana sources is good for the deck, most of the time- but every once and a whie it pisses me off alot. I will most likely throw in 2 more blue sources. Thanks for the comment.

[Puschkin]

Seriously, this deck has not a single merfolk in it, calling that one "fish" is very confusing. It is a blue weenie and has similarities to Ice Blue Zoo. Any suggestions for a better topic title? FOr now I changed it to "Oldschool blue weenie".

[BuboniC]

Good point- I just wanted too use the same beetdown+lockdown as fish. You can name it Gay(it has faeries  ) Beats, and then for the description put: Going Old School

[Puschkin]

I am really, really sick of "gay" decks. Really. Anything else? Please.

[skirge5]

For a name, what about
Running to Stand Still

U2 song iirc

[Jacob Orlove]

You might want to do a search for old "Ice Blue Zoo" decklists. You probably won't find any in the past year or so, though.

Sunken City and Unstable Mutation are fun, but they just aren't that good, especially with all 8 MD plus Curiosity, and only 10 nonland creatures. I'd cut these for some more stuff. If you want to handle aggro, you could try Waterfront Bouncer+Gilded Drake, but that doesn't feel quite as old-school. More creature enhancers than creatures seems like a recipe for trouble, though (I'm not counting the manlands, because the creature enchantments will fall off them, and the city plus conclave takes a minimum of 5 mana).