Equipment in GayUR/Fish

[Lord of Water]

For the past month I've been testing and tinkering with decks such as Landstill, Gay Fish, Gay Red, URPhidian, Phidless, Iso-Sligh, and Legend Sligh. My purpose is to find elements in red that can accelerate a blue deck to a quicker win, which is optimal when you're basically running Tempo.deq. In the decks that pack more critters (Legend Sligh, Gay Fish, Gay Red) I've tried a number of enchantment cards that can give the decks additional advantage over opponents or fill holes in the deck's strategy.

First, here is my comparison of Equipment to Creature Enchantments in Aggro-

1) They are, as a rule, less efficient. The most efficient is Bonesplitter, +2/+0 for 2 mana straight up. This is bad if you consider a deck's defining turn to be 2 or 3,.
2) They stay in play if the creature dies. In an aggro matchup, this can be golden! Losing card advantage to ditched creature enchantments is painful.
3) They are artifacts, not enchantments, so they are subject to the huge recent influx of anti-artifact tech.

The equipment cards I've tested are as follows:

Sword of Fire and Ice+
Banshee's Blade*
Bonesplitter?
Loxodon Warhamer*
Mask of Memory+
Dead-Iron Sledge?
Neurok Hoversail*
Lightning Greaves?
 *- Terrible
 +- Decent
 ?- Questionable!

Banshee's Blade was considered because it can turn an evasion creature into a monster that can win the game. However, this card does not contribute enough to the clock and isn't even so great in an aggro matchup, because you have to attack for the equipment to take affect.

Loxodon Warhammer is too slow and life gain sucks. It's out.

Neurok Hoversail is okay occasionally but your creatures are usually not big enough to spend extra cards giving them evasion.

Sword of Fire and Ice is great tech. It can protect your threats from burn while adding significant momentum to your clock, dealing an extra 4 damage a turn. The fact that it cantrips itself is great in addition, sometimes gaining significant card advantage.

Mask of Memory digs into your library and improves the quality of your hand. The same can be said of brainstorm, but you get an advantage every turn. Compare it to curiosity, which is commonly run in Gay Fish and Gay Red.

Lightning Greaves gives creatures haste, which is slightly useful, but better than that it protects them. In a deck where each of your threats are valuable, this is a big thing.

Dead Iron Sledge seems like an unlikely card choice, but in a meta with lots of Madness, TnT, and O Stompy, the ability to trade 1-1 with your opponent's creatures is very valuable. A Cloud of Faraes that can kill a 6/6 Wurm Token or a Juggernaught is much more valuable than a chump block.

Bonesplitter follows the same rhetoric as Dead Iron Sledge- now, a Spiketail Hatchling can put a Juggernaught or Basking Rootwalla away consistantly. The advantage of Bonesplitter is that it's cheaper and can contribute to your beats in the control/combo matcup, making it viable as a maindeck choice where Sledge is not.

What are your thoughts on these equipment cards? Are any of them viable for maindeck play? Sideboard play? Are my results accurate or have I made oversights? Equipment obviously has potential but it may not be fast and effective enough to make the cut in a winning T1 deck.

 -LoW

[nev]

Not that I have any "hands on" fish experience, I feel that possibly 2 swords of fire and ice could make the cut. The others dont help fish enough on their own. You really want an early (turn 2) curiosity, not one a turn later (mask of memory) - and íf you play mask of memory instead of curiosity, you probably want more than a just a couple. Of course, playing both is always an option (mmmm card advantage).

Bonesplitter could work against decks that will just let you play your stuff then wreck your board turn 4~6, the reason being that they actually have taken some damage by that time.

Conclussion: test 3-4 bonesplitters against controlish decks, and then a couple of swords against everything else.

Oh, I forgot, make sure you don't live in an area where you constantly have to play null rod on your second turn  

[KrauserKrauser]

Well in my experience I outright depend on Null Rod landing soon and early to stop all those nasty artifacts from killing me.  While equipment would be nice for making my cloud of faeries a 4 turn clock I just think I would rather be dropping a null rod.

[DEA]

a long player once commented that fish was the antilong
this was prompted by consistent turn 2 null rods with fow backup  :lol:

[Nastaboi]

SoFI is a decent addition to Gay/r's sideboard, and comes in in games where you board Null Rods out. I had two in my SB last 22 men tourney when I split the prize. You only have to swing once with it to turn the tables.

[Lord of Water]

How about Dead-Iron Sledge for games where rod comes out? Your opponent will not send his wurm token or Mongrel into a 1/1 with sledge equipped, and halting his beats/traiding 1-1 for his creatures is a great way to put him on the defensive where you can take control of the board. I'd like to hear more discussion on this card.

SoFI is great, I've picked up a set of them and testing has proved very successful. However, in Madness and TnT games I've usually lost by the time it comes out - between countering Survival and beats, there just aren't enough counterspells! And where SoFI is weak when you're on the defensive, Sledge is strong.

"Mmm, card advantage!" is my exact reaction to the Mask of Memory. In a recent T1 tournament I removed a maindeck Null Rod, Standstill, and Curiosity for a total of 3 MD Curiosity and 3 MD Mask. The fact is that I don't like drawing curiosity much because it commits you to one creature on your board. Mask can be moved around between your creatures. If it equips a Grim Lavamancer or Counterspell-on-Legs in the early game, it can equip a flying beater later on. It also has better synergy with manlands since you can activate them, equip the mask, and swing; using curioisty you lose it at the end of turn, but with Mask you have more flexibility.

Plain and simple, it's your card advantage that wins the game, and Mask of Memory/SoFI deliver in a big way.

[Tijnie]

SoFi is so strong. to bad your 2 "best" card hate it. Null Rod, (obvious) and Curiosity. Since it's Blue, it will jump off when you equip yor creature with SoFi, and fast cardadventage is better then alot of damage.

Killing and opponent isn't hard for fish, Stopping them from overrunning you IS. SoFi is a bit expensive too. For Agrro, I'll let my Sigils of Sleep and Maze's of Ith do the job.

[Moxlotus]

I think since Mirrodin has come out we've seen about 9134.831 and a half threads about equipment in fish or Gay/r.  Basically Null Rod is better than any of them.  For the SB SoFI might be decent depending on metagame.

[Raven Fire]

Basically Null Rod is better than any of them.

Quoted for truth.

[martyr]

Sure, Null Rod is better than any of them...in the maindeck as the one "support" slot. There's no reason not to replace a Curiousity or two with better cards, and there's no reason not to sideboard in SoFIs against decks like sligh and in the mirror. Hell, I would even suggest trying SoLI. How bad can it be, in a meta with a lot of creature hate, to gain a little life AND get Clouds and Lavamancers and such back?

The two Swords, Mask of Memory (which is awesome), and maybe Dead Iron Sledge are really the only cards that are efficient enough to be run in this deck.

[KrauserKrauser]

Swords in the side are defintely something I had not considered but I do their potential benefit.  Against aggro scrub or not it would be quite a useful tool and could even be useful in the mirror if the other person also sides out their null rods.