Old Faerie Men (Bringing life back into Old Man of the Sea)

[Evilkin]

This is the deck Dejan Rosu and myself drove 9 hours down from Canada to playtest at Gencon.  Some people may remember playing against this deck in a couple of the side tournaments.   It's a fun deck while being quite competitive at the same time.

Old Faerie Men

4x Flying Men
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Cloud of Faeires
3x Old Man of the Sea

4x Force of Will
3x Daze
3x Null Rod
2x Fire/Ice
1x Stifle

4x Standstill
2x Crucible of Worlds
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk

1x Black Lotus
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Mox Ruby
4x Mishra's Factory
4x Volcanic Island
4x Wasteland
3x Flooded Strand
2x Island
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Mountain
1x Strip Mine
1x Library of Alexandria

Sideboard

3x Red Elemental Blast
3x Rack and Ruin
3x Blood Moon
2x Blue Elemental Blast
2x Maze of Ith
1x Fire/Ice
1x Stifle

We did an aweful lot of playtesting for this deck for about 3 weeks straight.  I like a lot of the card choices, but feel it has not lived up to its full potential.  The deck could have done soo much better had a more experienced player been using it, but we still lack much needed play skill for this style of deck.  Dejan and myself each had decent records in the Friday side tournament, but made really basic play errors which easily cost us a match loss or two.  We did manage to beat some pretty prominent players with this build tho.

Card Choices:

Flying Men:  I believe this to be a really under-used 1 drop.  I have seen way too many games where he comes out turn 1 and nearly goes the distance.  His 1 cc makes multiple plays on a single turn much easier to accomplish.

Old Man of the Sea:  The tech.  This card can be a lot of fun.  His ability to steal Goblin Welders and opposing Grim Lavamancers is priceless.  He also has a nice 2/3 shell that can't be Fire'd or Lavamancer'd away.  Even if your opponent resolves a Triskelion on you, quite often you have a Grim Lavamancer out with Old Man of the Sea, and they have to pick between which to kill.  If they take the Old Man of the Sea out to get their Goblin Welder back you can usually still get rid of it with your Grim Lavamancer.  He has also proven pretty useful against Tog.  If your opponent drops a Tog too early you can attempt to steal it every turn forcing them to either let you have their Tog or pitch cards.  Against Fish, if they resolve an early Grim, you can follow that play with your Old Man of the Sea and take their Grim and gain control of the game.  He can also be quite useful against Food Chain Goblins.  Counter their Food Chain's and Recruiters, but steal their Goblin War Chiefs.  

Daze: Daze is shitt.  But we love them... must use 3.

Fire/Ice:  Tried only 1 maindeck, but there were too many games I was saying to myself, if only I could top deck a Fire.

Stifle:  We could take this out of the deck completely, but then Dragon would always own us game 1.  Perhaps removing it and just bluffing Stifle is better then actually having it in the deck tho.

Crucible of Worlds:  This card is retarded.  It's too big of a game swing a lot of times not to include maindeck.  We were siding these in almost every match, then decided to just maindeck them over Curiosity.

Black Lotus:  Fish doesn't run it and doesn't need to.  Old Faeire Men likes it.  3x Old Man of the Sea + 2x Crucible of Worlds maindeck, then 3x Blood Moon and 3x Rack and Ruin in the sideboard.  Sometimes first turn Land, Lotus, Cloud, Standstill comes up and is a fun play as well.

Mox Ruby:  First turn Grim Lavamancer + Flying Men or a rare Ancestral Recall. Speeds up the play of Null Rod's, Standstills, Crucible, and Old Man of the Sea.  Is nice to have an extra red for REB and to speed up play of Blood Moon and Rack and Ruin after boarding.

Mountain/Wooded Foothills:  The deck would work without it, but we find having 1 Mountain and 1 Wooded Foothills in the deck significantly helps prevent mana screwage from opposing Wastelands and Crucible of Worlds trying to shut down Grim Lavamancer or Rack and Ruin.

Blood Moon:  We love them vs 4cc and Dragon.  Usually, the Null Rods are left in the deck and the 3x Blood Moon are brought in for the Old Man of the Sea after boarding in an attempt to go for a lock.  Can even work against unsuspecting Fish or Landstill decks as a surprise, but is a bit of a gamble.

-Curiosity:  Not running Curiosity?  That is crazy.  It almost feels as though every deck is packing answers to Fish, especially in the form of Fire/Ice.  It quite too often gives your opponent a 2 for 1 in card advantage.  Final decision was to maindeck the CoW's and extra Fire/Ice over Curiosity.  May throw these back into the deck if at some point we decide to try out Sea Sprites.

-Faerie Conclave:  I'd rather drop a turn 1 Flying Men or Grim Lavamancer with a Daze backup.  Which is a very common play running 3x Daze.  Not running them does give Landstill a big advantage tho.  Siding out Standstills is probably a good play in that matchup.

Matchups:  Most match ups are fairly equal.  Their aren't really any decks that own this or this has mutch of an advantage over.  It does have a nice surprise factor to it, when your opponent thinks your playing a typical Fish build but then drop an Old Man of the Sea.

So far playtesting against Belcher, 4cc, Fish, Dragon, Crucible Control, 7/10 Split, Meandeck's Titan, Ravager, Stax, Hulk, Food Chain Goblins have proven to be fairly equal game 1, then favorable after sideboarding.

I would say the deck's toughest match-ups would include Madness and GAT or Sui-GAT.  Maze of Ith is the only good answer here, and the GAT lists that are running Strip Mine main deck now pose a bigger threat.  Perhaps we need to fit room for a pair of Gilded Drakes in the sideboard.

People feel free to try this deck out and let us know how it does.  It looks like a pile, but has a way of just working the same as every other pile.  Certain card choices have their advantages and disadvantages over the commonly played cards.  We would like to think this decks holds a very slight advantage in areas where similar decks fall just short.  We believe it's a strong build and have much playtesting and tournament experience to back it up.

We're just two Canadian's trying to bring life back into Old Man of the Sea and Flying Men.  Nostalgia baby!

If you had any experience playing against this deck at Gencon please feel free to post your thoughts or memories.  Or just to simply tell us what terrible players we are and what a terrible pile we are running!

Not Old Faerie Men... Old Faerie Shitt!



Bryan Finch

[BreathWeapon]

SPAM DELETED. Don't waste people's time like this again.

-Jacob

[The Grim Reaper]

I would recommend the following:

-1 Daze
-2 Fire/ice
-1 Stifle

+4 CURIOSITY.

Fish really, really, REALLY needs curiosity to function. Without it, fish must rely on standstill as its only card drawing. This simply will not do. Curiosity is a very powerful card here. I would even remove standstills for them. Just add the fire/ice's to the sideboard and please use this card!

[WildWillieWonderboy]

If you're playing crucible maindeck with fetchies, why not use brainstorm instead of standstill? It's cheaper, instant speed, completely unilateral and still goes three cards deep. Also, I'd like to see how Serendib jibes with this deck, as it could essentially be Flying Men on steroids. Alternatively, you could just put in some steroids in the form of Unstable Mutation, which Justinsane did a while back and top 8'd with out here in Columbus.

[Evilkin]

I would recommend the following:

-1 Daze
-2 Fire/ice
-1 Stifle

+4 CURIOSITY.

Fish really, really, REALLY needs curiosity to function. Without it, fish must rely on standstill as its only card drawing. This simply will not do. Curiosity is a very powerful card here. I would even remove standstills for them. Just add the fire/ice's to the sideboard and please use this card!

I understand the skeptism of not running Curiosity in this deck.  The deck originally ran Curiosity but was removed in favor of the more powerful Crucible of Worlds.  This deck isn't exactly Fish, it is designed to gain more tempo advantage with Old Man of the Sea by stealing creatures and CoW by destroying land as well.  It also has a more explosive start with Flying Men.

It may seem as tho the deck shouldn't be able to survive with out the extra draw engine, but infact I have found through playtesting that the advantage CoW can give you is much more beneficial in this deck.

In order for Curiosity to be effective, you first have to resolve it on a creature, have that creature survive and be unblocked for 2 attacks to finally accumulate 1 card advantage.  CoW can generate a much more degenerate effect on the turn it resolves.

CoW can allow you to generate a permanent Mishra's Factory blocker against cards that normally you wouldn't have a main deck answer for such as Quirion Dryad, Sundering Titan, Archbound Ravager, etc.  Meanwhile you can finish the game off with your Flying Men and Grim Lavamancer activations.

Although you may on average draw a few extra cards with Curiosity, I think the addition of Old Man of the Sea, CoW along with Blood Moon in the side will give this version a refreshing chance to resolve mini bombs.

Standstill is by far a superior card drawing engine then either Curiosity or Brainstorm in THIS deck.  When played correctly it always nets you 3 new cards.  It can even be played on turn 1 (Lotus, 2 mox) or 2 a greater number of times since you never don't have a turn 1 threat.  Typically, you cast turn 1 Flying Men or Grim Lavamancer with Daze back up or FoW, then follow that with Standstill on turn 2 which is a very common play.  Quite often certain decks will attempt to break this lock right away and you will normally have a FoW plus Daze to use immediatly with a typically good hand.

If you're playing crucible maindeck with fetchies, why not use brainstorm instead of standstill? It's cheaper, instant speed, completely unilateral and still goes three cards deep.

Brainstorm is absolutely terrible in a redundant deck like this.  Even with fetch lands it is still only a cantrip.  In this deck you want to be dropping a Flying Men or Grim Lavamancer out on turn 1, then a Null Rod or Standstill turn 2.  Brainstorm has no effect on your opponents play, where Standstill can give you a huge boost in tempo or card advantage immediately.

[Kulminox]

In what ways do you consider Old Man of the Sea to be superior to Suq'ata Firewalker? They both dominate the fish mirror and dodge things like fire/ice.  The only difference I can see is that Oldy can steal welders, and walker dodges random red things.

This would make me lean toward Oldy, but I'd like to hear about your thoughts regarding both of them.

EDIT: Firewalker is also better with curiosity.

[GreatCthulhu]

What does Old Man of the Sea do to workshop aggro?  The simple plan is just to not drop a Welder and go to town.  Even if you do get a Welder, chances are you wont be able to use it right away, so you can use the Welder to block a guy, but you wont be able to really use it.

It seems that Spiketail is a better choise, as it forces people to change their game plan.  I know that I've made a few mistakes before in the face of a Spiketail.  I really have to ask you what makes Old Man of the Sea better than Hatchling.

Also, it doesn't really seem that Flying Men is the optimal choice.  I would personally like to have something that does something besides swing, even if it is a 1-drop.  I would run Curiousity in this slot, as the deck needs more drawing that can't be easily played around.

Edit: also, have you ever had trouble casting CoW, like a choice between Crucible and a few other threats?

Just my 2 cents.

[Ifflejink]

IMO, Curiosity is essential to any Fish variant, especially this one. With 12 creatures with evasion, you're bound to have a good target for it. It may be a turn or two before it starts gaining you card advantage, but once it starts it's quite effective. Personally, I'd cut Standstill before I cut Curiosity.

(This is my 150th post. )

[Zelc]

I don't think Blood Moon is a good idea.  Not only does it nullify your CoW, it also takes out your manlands as well as all but 3 (2 unaffected by Null Rod) of your sources of blue mana.  I'd seriously consider adding more basic islands if you want to play Blood Moon.

[Kerith]

Typically, you cast turn 1 Flying Men or Grim Lavamancer with Daze back up or FoW, then follow that with Standstill on turn 2 which is a very common play.  Quite often certain decks will attempt to break this lock right away and you will normally have a FoW plus Daze to use immediatly with a typically good hand.

An opposing control deck would immidiately break the Standstill .. why? You have a 20-turn-clock in Flying Men, somewhere around 15 for 'Mancer, so unless you also have double Mishra, there is absolutely no reason to ever break this "lock" right away.

[Moxlotus]

Because fish has 6 manlands,one of them should be on the board by turn 2.  Followed by a turn 3 wasteland on your most important land.  You will be getting hit for 3 a turn.  Every turn you let standstill in play you give fish a Time Walk.  Giving a tempo deck free Time Walks isn't a good idea.  You don't have time to wait until they get 7 cards in their hand to break it, because they will play a land each turn while beating you for 3.  Did you read Smmenen's article on the wizards site-it says break Standstill ASAP.

[Kerith]

Fish has 6 manlands .. but Evilkin's list has only 4 (no Conclaves), making it not only much more unlikely to have one in play by turn 2, but also making it more unlikely to get a second one when the first one is wasted. So you have 4 manlands, while your opponent most likely has 4+1 wastes (only 2 decks did not have them in the Worlds T8 .. and one of them was Belcher), and you play second turn Standstill with Flying Men/Lavamancer and Mishra on the board. Now your opponent wastes the Mishra .. and suddenly has all the time in the world. While it is usually correct to break Standstill ASAP, it is not if all your opponent does is attacking for 1.

[dicemanx]

This is a neat new Fish variant. The deck has a lot of good things going for it. Old Man is an excellent choice against many decks, and is far superior to the Firewalker (WTF are people thinking, there's no comparison). I would agree with the cutting of Curiosity; it's a tough loss in the deck, but the deck already has many subtle ways of generating card advantage (Crucible, Old Man, Standstill etc). Also, Evilkin is right: it takes a while to get your card advantage engine going with Curiosity, and your creature does indeed have to survive first.

Some other thoughts:

Blood Moon is a great choice in the SB. This deck should abuse cards that are able to win games outright against many decks.

Crucible is so good, I'd even consider a third MD. I'd consider cutting a F/I for it, as the additional burn doesn't seem too critical.

When running decks with Null Rod, I always run 4. For a card that wins games outright against certain decks, why not? Drawing multiples is NOT a big issue; if anything, you want to maximize your chances of seeing one early, and if you do draw more than one, you have a back-up in case the first one is countered.

The Flying Men, despite how good they have been to you, still don't seem right in this build sans Curiosities. I would look at utility creatures such as 4x Spiketail Hatchling, or if you must have more 1cc drops, 4x Gorilla Shaman. Shamans are very good against Control Slaver because they can negate a Welder all by themselves, something that a Null Rod cannot do. Plus, having such immense redundancy when it comes to cards that attack the mana base seems like a very good thing.


So, thumbs up on the Crucible, the Old Men, the cutting of Curiosity, and the Moons in the SB.

[Raven Fire]

This deck isn't exactly Fish, it is designed to gain more tempo advantage with Old Man of the Sea by stealing creatures and CoW by destroying land as well.

If you are trying to maximize tempo then you should go with Dicemanx's suggestion of running Spiketails.  CoW has really made Spiketail a true pain in the ass.

[Kulminox]

Why is there no comparisson between Firewalker and Old Man?  Maybe its my n00bness talking, but they both have the same cc, they both own the fish mirror, Firewalker is better with curiosity, while Old Man is better against welders.  Now I realize this is sortof a new deck, and the lack of curiosity and prevalence of workshop decks propably gives Old Man the edge, but saying that there's no comparisson seems to strong a statement.  Please explain any reason I haven't mentioned that makes you think this.

[dicemanx]

Well, since the deck doesn't run Curiosities, there goes the argument for the Firewalker (which was a weak argument to begin with). Plus, Old Man can steal a lot of stuff with toughness greater than one like Morphed Angels, Metalworker, *Ophidian*, FCG creatures etc. Old Man is better when facing down a Triskelion, and it also beats down for more damage if there are no creatures on board. It also makes for a better blocker when it still has summoning sickness. Finally, Old Man owns Firewalker in the mirror.

So as you can see, there are numerous reasons. They are quite obvious too, hence the "no comparison" part.

[Kulminox]

@dicemanx-> Thanks for clarifying, and sorry if I my question annoyed you.
Back to the deck, it seems like some number of gorilla shamens could suppliment the CoWs and Rods, perhaps replacing some number of Flying Men, which seem to be the weakest creature in the deck.

[Evilkin]

After more playtesting we have decided that a 3rd CoW is definately needed in the maindeck.  We're likely going to replace the lone Stifle with it since it is too random.  

Spiketail Hatchling's are also being considered over Flying Men currently.  They do look good with CoW, it's just more of a debate whether that extra ability is critical compaired to the painlessness of a 1cc evasion drop.

We're not sure if Gorilla Shamans are a good choice here.  They are a 1 drop, but every deck can block and kill them easily forcing them to usually become strictly a utility creature.  They may be good against Goblin Welder, but the deck is already really strong with Grim Lavamancer, Old Man of the Sea plus Fire/Ice for keeping that threat at bay.  Generally we find Null Rod, Wasteland and Rack and Ruin is strong enough against Workshop/Artifact decks which we feel this deck has a very good game against after sideboarding.

Thanks people for your input/suggestions, it is much appreciated.  

[patronvoidmage]

I took a version of this deck to the Ontario Vintage Championship 2 with some changes suggested by Balzary. There were about 40 people there, and I ended up getting 3rd place.

I had a 4-1-1 record after 6 rounds of swiss play.

Round 1: 2-1 vs 4cc
Round 2: 2-1 vs 7/10 split?
Round 3: 1-1-1 vs fish
Round 4: 1-2 vs CoW Combo
Round 5: 2-1 vs fish
Round 6: 2-0 vs survival/shapeshifter/masknaught (can't remember the deck name)

Top 8: 2-1 vs fish
Top 4: 1-2 to shockwave playing a UB Workshop deck

Old Man of the Sea helped out a lot. He stole lots of lavamancers, but the best was in round 2 where a stolen welder plus null rod allowed me to weld away his 2 pentavus (pentavi?) for a gilded lotus and a mox pearl.

I only ran 2 Old Men, but a third would have been nice, especially against fish.

[Cross]

when you pluralize colossus you can use colossuses or colossi, so following the same gramatic scheme you can use pentavuses or pentavi, the latter of which sounds better.

anyways....you mention you used a similar version and that you ran old man....how similar was it? they don't have decklists up yet so nvm if its up by the time you read this. It seems like the original decklist with no curiosity is jank because the deck has no draw engine....and no spiketails which are like clutch for the deck.

I also can't see running the old man maindeck. It seems like the 3cc is rough for fish to run. I run crucible MB but that too seems to put a lot of stress on the fish mana curve. I usually have a really difficult time dropping it turn 3. Evilkin attempts to solve this problem by running two mox and a lotus, but that to hurts the synergy with null rod.

[patronvoidmage]

Here is my deck list:

1 - Fire / Ice
2 - Old Man of the Sea
4 - Grim Lavamancer
4 - Spiketail Hatchling
4 - Cloud of Faeries
4 - Curiosity
1 - Ancestral Recall
1 - Timewalk
2 - Daze
4 - Standstill
4 - Force of Will
3 - Null Rod
3- Crucible of Worlds
1 - Mox Sapphire
1 - Library of Alexandria
1 - Strip Mine
4 - Flooded Strand
1 - Polluted Delta
3 - Island
4 - Volcanic Island
4 - Mishra's Factory
4 - Wasteland

Sideboard:
1 - Blue Elemental Blast
2 - Stifle
2 - Sigil of Sleep
2 - Fire / Ice
2 - Maze of Ith
3 - Red Elemental Blast
3 - Rack and Ruin

Evilkin and Dejan had been testing Spiketail Hatchling vs Flying Men and agreed that the hatchling would be better.

The third crucible was great, and I would have liked a third Old Man, especially against fish. I never had a hard time with the 3cc (maybe I'm just lucky ). If I resolved an Old Man first game I won. Against 4cc it gave me extra turns to attack, because he needed to get rid of the old man before he could morph in an angel. By the time he was able to, he was low enough that I could finish him off. Against workshop, stealing welders was key. Against fish, thanks for the lavamancer.

The curiosities weren't  as useful as I would have liked. Most of the time the opponent was able to deal with the creature before I got to abuse it. Swords, Lavamancer, flying blockers (including pentavite tokens), Fire, etc. all hindered my curious creatures. Still, when it did work out for me, it was great.

[Evilkin]

Congrats to patronvoidmage for placing 3rd in the Ontario Vintage Championship 2 using Old Man of the Sea tech.  The decklist he used was provided by Balzary and is more true to Fish then the one posted here originally.

Top 8 at this event included 3 Fish decks.

After I was knocked out of a top 8 spot in round 6 I got some time to watch patronvoidmage play his top 8 and top 4 matches.

Top 8, Game 1 Vs Fish.  In this game his opponent was able to capitalize on an early Grim Lavamancer drop even after patron had 2 fliers and Curiosity on a Cloud of Faeries.  His opponent even had 2 dead Null Rod draws in his hand.  The 2 fliers were easily plucked away as patronvoidmage couldn't draw into any answers, just Standstills.  There was ample time in this game to find an Old Man of the Sea or a Fire/Ice to answer, but only running 2 and 1 copy of each wasn't enough for this match.

I find this to be rather typical of the mirror.  Whoever resolves the first Grim Lavamancer will have a huge advantage.  Well not so, if you run Old Man of the Sea and multiple copies of Fire/Ice in your deck.  I hope in the future it's whoever resolves the first Old Man of the Sea.  

In the deciding game 3 patronvoidmage was able to resolve a turn 2 CoW and had a Factory and Wasteland to go with it.

Top 4 Game 3 Vs Shockwaves CoW Control.  patronvoidmage had an early Grim Lavamancer and Mishra's Factory, but Shockwave soon followed that up with a CotV set to 1 crippling the 2 Curiosities in patron's hand.  The game was close and both players eventually had CoW on the board but Shockwave was able to Mana Drain out a Darksteel Colossus for the win.  

Not sure if Sigil of Sleep was sided in here or not, but would have been pretty useless with a Chalice for 1 out anyways.

Deck Changes?

Curiosity:  I'm still under the belief that they are not needed and would rather run more Old Men and Fire/Ice maindeck.  I realise that Curiosity is the decks draw engine but so is Standstill.  Standstill provides enough card draw facing against Workshop, 4cc or Combo by itself.  If you are facing against other Fish, Fish Varients and Landstill it might suck, but so does Curiosity in these match ups.

Spiketail Hatchling Vs Flying Men:  Spiketail Hatchling provides more synergy with CoW.  I do still prefer the Flying Men against Stax tho.  

Mana Sources:  We still think running a Black Lotus and Mox Ruby is more beneficial then a hinderence with Null Rod.  Especially since our build is running 3x CoW and 3x Old Man of the Sea.  These accelerants provide more turn 1 Spiketails or Cloud of Faerie combos.  Hard casting Daze turn 1 with no tempo loss is much more frequent as well.

Sideboard Ideas...

It seems as though almost every deck is using Tinker/Darksteel Colossus now.  Most also run 3-4 copies of CoW.  You can bet that if your opponent is running Colossus he is going to be able to resolve it in at least 1 game of a match.  Rack and Ruin, Maze of Ith and Sigil of Sleep are all great sideboard options, but none deal with Colossus effectively enough.  Rack and Ruin doesn't destroy it, Maze gets Wasted, and your creature with Sigil gets burned.  Energy Flux is another great option, but even then there is no guarantee your opponent can't pay the upkeep.

What card can deal with both CoW and Colossus?  Some alternate ideas we have other then the ones mentioned above include...

1.  Copy Artifact:  You may run your own CoW but having a couple extra copies in your deck to guarantee your opponent doesn't get the jump on you can't hurt.  But mainly it can copy Darksteel Colossus giving yourself your very own indestructable fatty.  It is also a very nice turn 2 answer to early artifact fat that slips out.  It may not seem like a definative answer, but it should buy you the time you need.

2.  Seasinger:  This is another interesting idea that could have some merit.  Almost all decks play with Islands in them and this can steal any creature as long as they control one.  The downside is that it is relatively slow 3cc and has a not soo beefy 1 toughness.

[xaltair]

Hi!

Just wanted to add my secret tech in dealing with colossus (which i didn't really get to use since i didn't play against a deck with colossus and couldn't beat patronvoidmage to make it to top 4 and face the colossus deck) is magus of the unseen.

I opted not to play sigil of sleep in my sideboard, and played 2 maguses instead. Also, one card that many people may have overlooked when trying to deal with a darksteel colossus is none other than... sculpting steel. It's a 3 mana for a colossus, sure it doesn't kill your opponent's colossus, but for 3 mana you can get an indestructable colossus yourself to deal with his, or trade blows. It's only 3 mana, so it's playable in fish and it's much easier to resolve too, and it's also good in case you want to sculpt a triskelion, platinum angel or who knows what else, even a crucible, if your opponent has one and you haven't drawn yours.

So, just to keep in  mind, 2-3 sculpting steels in the sideboard may not be a bad idea for fish.

p.s. I was the guy who lost to patronvoidmage in top 8, even though i won game 1 while holding 3 null rods in my hand the whole game.  

[patronvoidmage]

Hello again.

I took Old Faerie Men to The Mana Drain Open Championship and finished sixth, winning a Mox Ruby.  

The deck list I used was closer to Evilkin's original list, with the main difference being Spiketail Hatchlings instead of Flying Men.

I did not use Curiosities this time and, in all honesty, I did not miss them. In their place I put in a third Daze, third Old Man, second Fire / Ice, and a Black Lotus. This decision was based on my matches at the OVC, and playtesting. Curiosity, while great in a true fish deck, wasn't providing me enough card advantage to make it worthwhile. Also, when I did have a curiosity out, I was usually hoping to draw into a fire/ice or old man anyways.

P.S. Congratulations Dan Rosu for finishing second . Team Nonesense bringing it home for Canada  

[Evilkin]

Grats Patron for taking OFM to your second strong finish in a row.  I'm glad you also decided to test out some of the previous sideboard suggestions as well.  

I got the chance to watch a lot of Patron's round 4 match win against  Jim DiMarsico.   Here is a little bit of what I can remember from the final game of the match:

Jim had an early Jugg out while Patron was able to resolve a turn 1 Seasinger with Lotus.  

(I believe this prevented Jim from playing an Island early in the game.)  

Jim eventually had 2 Juggs out swinging as Patron was able to block and kill a Jugg with a Factory.  Patron then dropped another Factory and a 2nd Seasinger.  

Jim then had to swing his 2nd Jugg into Patrons 2nd Factory.

(Patron could have chump blocked with a Seasinger then copied Jim's Jugg on his turn if he wanted to, but chose to save the spell incase a bigger threat came out.)  

Patron then dropped out a Grim Lavamancer.  

Jim was then able to resolve a Tinker grabbing Triskelion killing all 3 of Patrons threats.  

Patron then attempted to cast Copy Artifact on Jim's Trike which met REB.

Patron then resolved an Old Man of the Sea and preceeded to beat Jim down for the win.

This was a fun game to watch as we got to see some of the potential in these new sideboard choices currently being tested out.  We like the idea of siding Old Men out for Seasingers in the matchups vs 4cc, GAT and decks utilizing Tinker/Colossus.

Currently in the board:

3 REB
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Fire/Ice
2 BEB
3 Seasinger
2 Copy Artifact

[patronvoidmage]

Actually my board was:

3 REB
3 Rack and Ruin
2 Fire / Ice
1 BEB
2 Seasinger
2 Stifle
2 Copy Artifact

I was worried about storm decks, so I left the stifles in. However, I might have been better off with the third seasinger and second BEB.

[Raven Fire]

We like the idea of siding Old Men out for Seasingers in the matchups vs 4cc, GAT and decks utilizing Tinker/Colossus.

Would Gilded Drake be a better sideboard card than Seasinger?  It can't be pinged away and it can steal Titans, etc. from decks that aren't running any Islands.

[Evilkin]

I'm not really sure atm which of the two is better.  I like the idea of just casting the Seasinger out asap, then if your opponent counters it... whatever.  If it resolves, they have to deal with it before they drop their threat.  

I guess you could say it's a bit more proactive then the Drake which will sit in your hand most of the game.  A lot of times when you want to drop the Gilded Drake to steal say a Tog or Exalted Angel your opponent will likely have some kind of counter back up to deal with it.  Seasinger can be better in this situation cause chances are you resolved it earlier in the game when it didn't appear as a threat.

You can always screw your opponent over by taking smaller creatures earlier in the game to add tempo to your self, then if he casts bigger threats swap them up.

I'm sure there games where you wanted to use Gilded Drake to just get rid of something annoying but chose not to, and to save it for a more serious threat.

Gilded Drake is good, where just trying to playtest other options.  Seasinger may prove to be too fragile.  But whatever, it's nice to be different.

[Killertree]

I'm not really good at type I but Umezawa's Jitte seems like it would fit well in your deck.

Cut out all the spam. We've linked you to the TMD rules far more than once, so you should really know better by now.

Warning.

-Jacob