[DECK] Italian Gay Red Fish - looking for advice

[Axor_the_Superman]

Hi, I am a new user coming from Italy.  
I post here my deck to feel councils and different opinion from Italy.
I play now gay red and I believe in this deck.

DECK LIST - SUPERMAN GAY RED

Counter effects:

4 Force of will
3 Daze

Draw engine:

4 Curiosity
3 Brainstorm
3 Standstill

Creatures:

4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Grim lavamancer
2 Gorilla shaman

Utilities:

3 Stifle
3 Fire/ice

Artifacts:

3 Null rod
1 Crucible

Lands:

4 Polluted delta
4 Volcanic island
4 Island
3 Factory
4 Waste
1 Strip

SIDE:

3 REB
3 BEB
2 Energy flux
2 Echoing Truth
3 Maze of Ith
2 Rack'n'Ruin

EXPLANATION OF DECK:

FOW: I haven't any comment... The best counter in magic!!

Daze: great in the logic of mana denial!

Curiosity: the real draw engine of this deck. Cloud of faeries + curiosity is the best way to go on advantage!!

Brainstorm: if my oppo is in board advantge and I can't play standstill or curiosity on my fish I must search solution with this spell. With fetchland it can change trash on my hand with new cards shuffling my deck.

Standstill: If I am in board advantage thi is the card that can make me the winner of game. If oppo play spell I draw 3 cards, and counter of stifle or f/i will make their must!

Cloud of Faeries: this creature is great! 1/1 flying a cc 0. On the second turn is too strong if enchanted with curiosity.

Spiketail Hatchling: this creature is fundamental to control the oppo. A combo player must do its combo after a turn, and with daze spiketail may be lethal!

Grim Lavamancer: the reason to splash fish with red. This is a great creature, with have many functions: remove opponent's creatures, make damage and he can be casted with 1 red mana!

Gorilla Shaman: with null rod the jewelery op opponent is death! I play only 2 shaman because I have 3 null rod that can make the same effect. If casted on 1st turn I can destroy Calice of the Void.

Stifle:this card can be used in many ways: stifle on fetch, on worldgorger, on tendrils, on perniciuos, on charbelcher.... Great Card!!

Fire/Ice: this is another great card! It can wash the board by creatures of the opponent, or tap creatures or permanents that are annoying...

Null Rod: Have you got moxes? Have you got a Charlbelcher? Have you got artifacts? Eh eh eh...  This a card that can give me the victory, and it can make mana denial on jewelery...  

Crucible: This card is.... More than Great! Extra with strip mine, Super with waste... Regenerate Mishra's factory.... 1000 fetch... Strong!!

Polluted: .....................

Volcanic Island: .............

Island: ...............

Waste+Strip: great for mana denial and to control the oppo.

Factory: beh, what I can say? Great manland, better with standstill!


SIDEBOARD:

3 REB Vs mirror, tps, smemmen-monoblue (    ), Stacks ur
3 BEB Vs worgorger, mirror, aggro/gobbelinz, stacks ur
2 Energy flux Vs ws.deck, stacks ur, stacker
2 Echoing Truth Vs Dragon (and verdant), tps (for Colossus), aggro
3 Maze of Ith Vs hulk smash, dragon (for verdant)
2 Rack'n'Ruin Vs artifact deck


I WANT NOT USE:

MISDIRECTION: 1x is too casual, in tournament of 26/09 @ Piacenza (239 peoples), classified 36° for rating, I never used it, never. Death Card.  

LOTUS PETAL: also this is too casual. In 1° turn may be ok, but after... And if oppo has a welder in play he can change your great null rod with this small black lotus.....  


Thank you for reading, and I wait your opinions!  

Axor the Superman

[Covetous]

You have about 3 too few lands--23-24 is considered a good number.  5-6 fetchlands are also considered good.  The usual Gay/R manabase is:
4 volcanic island
5 blue-based fetches
2 island
1 library of alexandria (optional but generally good b/c or standstill)
4 wasteland
4 mishra's factory
1 strip mine
2 faerie conclave
1 mox sapphire (or another U land)

[True Lies Ownz]

If I were you, I would consider changing your stance on misdirection. When I play Fish, I always want use misdirection.  If you want not use misdirection, you are missing out, as it provides a 5th fow and all sorts of crazyness. Misding and turn1 recall is definetly something I want occur.

I have looked, and these are the councils that I have given.

[Axor_the_Superman]

In my opinion, fish is a deck born to played without power nines.
For thoses reasons, it plays null rod.

@Covetous: The mana base is weak, with wasteland the opponent can easy lock me..

@ True Lies Ownz: mono misdi is useless... Too causal!!  The best way to use misdi is to redirect an A recall or a Mindtwist, or I can use it in a counter-war... But in my opinion play only a misdi is really useless... At least 2......!

[Duffy]

In my opinion, fish is a deck born to played without power nines.
For thoses reasons, it plays null rod.

@Covetous: The mana base is weak, with wasteland the opponent can easy lock me..

@ True Lies Ownz: mono misdi is useless... Too causal!!  The best way to use misdi is to redirect an A recall or a Mindtwist, or I can use it in a counter-war... But in my opinion play only a misdi is really useless... At least 2......!

Well, in my experience as a Fish player I can't see a Fish deck without P9 really. Recall and Time Walk are far too important for this deck. Lord knows how many times I've won a game by topdecking Time Walk which I wouldn't have drawn if it weren't for the Recall.

I agree on the fact that Misdirection is not as useful or necessary as it once was, but I disagree with the misdirections being useless. The first Fish build played 3 Misdirections main, but due to it's succes, the metagame shifting and the rise of new archetypes, the targets of Misdirection grew smaller.

Still, almost half the decks currently being played use blue and thus counters in any way, therefore it's my opinion that Misdirection still could have an impact on the current scene. I'm not even taking into consideration any non-blue decks with appealing to-be-misdirected spells.

Fish strenght is that it can lay down early, cheap creatures with quality abilities. However you won't have early mana available this way to counter any threats towards you or your creatures. That is way FoW and MisD got their place among the first builds. Today you find Daze and the Spiketail replaced the MisD as you play in your build and keeping it a succesfull deck.

Hope to've been of some use. g'luck.

Edit: spelling

[Chaos Blade]

How have your matches been? Specially against Workshop based decks?
One-line posts are unacceptable. Verbal warning.
-Jacob

[Axor_the_Superman]

My matches have been extra easy vs mirror UW and mirror URW, 2 keeper where I won without difficoulties, 1 elf-combo GW that lost in few time, extra easy game vs tps UB full power.....

 I suk from 1 stacks ur, 1 monobrown and a Dragon Unspoil (who arrived in top 8, best unpowered)

@ Jacob sorry but I don't understand you warning... Please send me a private message where I can understand me errors. Thx

[freakish777]

Axor, he wasn't referring to you, he was referring to the post that he editted to include his warning in.  Creating a post with only one line in it contributes almost nothing to the thread (such as his did) and is therefore looked upon as spam.  So you don't need to worry, the warning wasn't directed at you.

In any event, I agree with True Lies Ownz, you may want to reconsider Misdirection, as it gives you an additional Force of Will against the control match-up, your own Fire/Ice in the mirror to make sure they haven't just sealed the game with their own Curious Faeries, and it also helps out in "random" situations (it's not all that random considering you draw a fair amount with Curiosity and Standstill) such as when your opponent casts Ancestral Recall, Mind Twist, Rack and Ruin (on your Null Rod and Crucible), Hurkyl's Recall (when DeathLong/MeanDeath) gets it from the SB to deal with Null Rod, etc.

Really, its a support card, so it doesn't deserve a full 3 or 4 slots worth of cards in the deck, but it is still useful enough to merit it's use in the deck as a 1 of card.

[Nastaboi]

Actually, Misdirection DOES NOT own cards like Fire or Rack n' Ruin or anything with multiple targets. It is a dead draw against Workshop decks, and it's a conditional counter at best. It depends on your meta (which could be useful to include BTW), but I haven't used it for a year. Daze is better, and some people keep telling me that Annul is thy god, you might want to test some. It is as conditional as Stifle, but overall better. Once again, it depends on what you will face.

Of course this deck benefits from power, like all decks do, but I am among the top players of my country and play an unpowered Fish variant (WTF/r) while majority of the top is powered. And Fish cannot use full P9, only Big Blue and in-color moxen are useful.

[Axor_the_Superman]

Ah, I don't know all rules of this forum (however I read the Rule Topic).

In my opinion play only one copy of misdi is useless, at least 2 are good.

I play this deck unpowered because Tournaments made here (italy) have big premiums for unpowered decks, abitually power nines, more the First premium (another p9). For sample @ Piacenza there were 1 black lotus alpha exc- for 1st place, 1 timetwister unl nm for the 2nd place, and for better unpowered a Mox Emerald Beta nm to exc. In italian meta players use deck that are majorly powered (about 60% powered and 40% unpowered). This deck has big possibility vs powered decks, because it has null rods and gorillas.
His speed is the key for the Victory, because it can beat and control at the same time.

For the deck: I think I will playtest 1 library of Alexandria (- 1 island) and 2 goblin vandal (-2 gorilla shaman).
What you think about?

Byez  

[Raven Fire]

In my opinion play only one copy of misdi is useless, at least 2 are good.

For the deck: I think I will playtest 1 library of Alexandria (- 1 island) and 2 goblin vandal (-2 gorilla shaman).
What you think about?

IMHO, two MisD in the maindeck is too many; it's a weak draw against a number of decks.  If you don't feel comfortable running singles, I would move them all to your board.

I think you'll be happy with Library; it's a card drawing machine.  Vandals are a harder call.  It really depends on which artifacts are showing up in your meta.  Having to attack without being blocked can be tough (and you won't be triggering Curiosity), but it sure is nice to be able to take out artifact fat.  I remember Hi-Val recommending them back at the beginning of the year and they can be strong against Workshop decks that pump out high cc artifacts beyond the realistic range of a Mox Monkey.  When I used Vandals I had them in my board, but if your meta calls for it run them maindeck.

[Covetous]

One of the important things about fish is the mental game--you get people to play around your hate because they fear what you might do.  In this way, Mis-D can fit.  It's not generally used, but if you can mis-d something game 1 your opponent will play around it the rest of the match regardless of whether or not you draw it.  The same with Daze.  You force your opponent to play as if you have a daze in hand.  The same is true with any number of other cards such as wasteland, etc.  

On the issue of the manabase--23 sources is a must, 24 may be optimal.  I don't understand whether or not you were saying that the manabase I posted was weak or  whether your current manabase is weak.  In fact, your current 20-source base is light and if you fear wastes you need more lands.  You can run 2x bloodstained mire + 1 mountain if you want to--it's actually pretty good.  Sure, you can cut the conclaves, but that decreases your threat density.  But again, if wastelands scare you, try the deck without conclaves but with a basic mountain.

[Negator]

That's the only Fish Ur post that I found. So I'll ask my question here.

What do you think of this modification (from a standard build)?

-2 Faerie Conclave, -2 Fire/Ice or -2 Stifle or -1 Stifle, -1 Misdirection | +2 Tundra, +2 Swords to Plowshares.

I think that this alternation can improve a lot of matchups, like Dragon, 4cc, (maybe Oath), Madness, random Aggro, etc.

Thoughts?

[Duffy]

That's the only Fish Ur post that I found. So I'll ask my question here.

What do you think of this modification (from a standard build)?

-2 Faerie Conclave, -2 Fire/Ice or -2 Stifle or -1 Stifle, -1 Misdirection | +2 Tundra, +2 Swords to Plowshares.

I think that this alternation can improve a lot of matchups, like Dragon, 4cc, (maybe Oath), Madness, random Aggro, etc.

Thoughts?

I don't think you should add another color in just for creature removal. It weakens the already iffy manabase and there are other spells (counters, Fire/Ice, Lavamancer) that help with removing creatures.

A good Fish build eats Madness and random aggro decks. If your build doesn't work for you in your meta, try and finetune it instead of making it more instable. It needs its cheap counters and pitch spells to stay alive, and it's manlands to inflict hurt on your opponent.

If you seriously are thinking of building a different version with White in it, perhaps you should start a new thread and see what others think about it.

those are my 0.02  

[Batle]

A good Fish build eats Madness

How are you able to beat 4/4 dorks with 1/1 dorks? last time i looked a 4/4 did beat a 1/1. UG Madness got bigger creatures, better counter, more stabile mana base and wonder making a mongrell able to buy wings. So saying that fish beats madness is kind of a weird statment.

About the misdirection issue, I think we should add 2 annul instead of the 2 misD. just look at the card. it's gold. with all the stax decks in the meta it's brilliant. And against 4CC you can still counter some mana, to prevent a fast angel. It's also a first turn counter for the belcher. And that's not all. It also takes the oath of druids if that will get popular again.

And never play brainstorm and standstill in the same deck. That's like asking bush and kerry to work together. Brainstorm is a great eot play and great a great mana solver, but having a standstill in play kind of makes it a bad eot, so don't run those two cards together.

There is no question about power makes the deck better though. recall and time walk are so important to the deck. I'm not sure if i'm so keen on the loa. Fish is an aggresive deck, wich means it will normaly not have 7 cards in hand.

[Axor_the_Superman]

The draw engine of fish is very strong: curiosity and standstill, more brainstorm.

In this way fish can draw when is in board advantage with curioristy e standstill, and it can draw when is not in advantage.

I'm still thinking to try goblin vandals.... In a meta populed by artifacts they could be a tech....

[Duffy]

A good Fish build eats Madness

How are you able to beat 4/4 dorks with 1/1 dorks? last time i looked a 4/4 did beat a 1/1. UG Madness got bigger creatures, better counter, more stabile mana base and wonder making a mongrell able to buy wings. So saying that fish beats madness is kind of a weird statment.

I was taking into account using the sideboard. My personal Fish build (the old style) has a 13-1-0 record vs Madness (7 tournament plays, 7 friendly games), but that aside. I agree it is somewhat a tricky match-up, but a turn 2 standstill usually brings home the victory.
If you want detailed explanation, just msg me

About the misdirection issue, I think we should add 2 annul instead of the 2 misD. just look at the card. it's gold. with all the stax decks in the meta it's brilliant. And against 4CC you can still counter some mana, to prevent a fast angel. It's also a first turn counter for the belcher. And that's not all. It also takes the oath of druids if that will get popular again.

true. although this is a metagame call, but most people will find Annul better than MisD atm.

And never play brainstorm and standstill in the same deck. That's like asking bush and kerry to work together.

[Raven Fire]

I was taking into account using the sideboard.

Well, that's not really fair unless you also consider U/G Madness gets to use their sideboard as well.  Back to Basics can just shut you down.  I have played U/G Madness at a few tournaments simply because I knew there would be a lot of Fish players in attendance.  IMHO, it has too much cheap fat for Gay/R to handle on a consistent basis.

[freakish777]

Actually, Misdirection DOES NOT own cards like Fire or Rack n' Ruin or anything with multiple targets.

Although I didn't say that Misdirection owns those cards, you're correct... for some reason I was thinking of Fork....    (I meant you got your own copy of the spell)


@Azor,  Brainstorm, Standstill and Curiosity don't all belong in the same deck (specifically Fish), although Brainstorm and Standstill did modestly well together in Landstill (digging 6 cards is decent when they have a must counter threat).

As for Goblin Vandals vs. Gorilla Shaman, I think that's something that will depend entirely on how many moxen you see in comparison to how many quick Trinispheres and Crucible of Worlds you see (as in they are dropped in by a Workshop).  I favor the Shaman due to the fact that he can be activated multiple times in a turn and doesn't have to attack (and keeps your Lavamancer mana open).  I think you should playtest Vandal first in the maindeck against the decks that are likely to appear in your meta, and then test the Shaman again in the maindeck.  Also test with an extended sideboard (by however many cards you're playtesting with, so 17 card sideboard) and see what you find yourself swapping in and out the most, and what you find yourself swapping in the least.  You might find you want have both 2 Vandals and 2 Shamans spread throughout your deck and sideboard, and that there's just other cards in the sideboard that make less of an impact.

[SamTheHam]

I've been playing gay/r for a long time and i think that goblin vandals don't fir well.  You are always making conclave into a man or tapping out at end of turn with lavaman, you don't have the mana for a the one red a turn.  They are only better if you're playing against welder, and they can block in most cases.  Why not pay the one to kill a mox and stilll deal one damage with your mox monkey?  Makes more sense to me.

Also, i know you Italians have a good u/w fish build with meddling mage.  I would love the list for it or and u/w list.  Maybe a link to a list on the mana drain?

thanks

[Axor_the_Superman]

@ freakish777: My name is aXor.  

For the discussion on Brainstorm, Standstill and Curiosity I think that their target is different:

Brainstorm: with this card I can search good cards if I can't play curiosity or standstill. If I have not board advantage how can I draw solutions? Only with my draw step?

Standstill: I play it as soon as possible, with a cloud or 1-2 mishra on board this card makes pressure on the oppo.

Curiosity: with cloud is great, also with spiketail or grim lavamancer.

Those cards have different objectives: Brain for NO board advantage, standstill for board advantage and curiosity for the middle vantage (if oppo has a creature without flying I can beat with cloud and draw).

I agree for the fact to test goblin vandals and gorillas. I will try the vandals first.

@Sam: for moxes I have the great null rods... Gorilla shaman can't destroy trinisphere in few time... Vandals can do it.

For the fish u/w... I will post a link in few time!

Ciao Ciao!  

[freakish777]

If you are finding that you don't have early game board advantage to be able to drop standstill and need to run brainstorm to find answers to your opponent's threats then I think this might indicate 1 of 2 things.

Either that your build isn't fast enough or that your meta-game is shifting away from Fish being competitve as it once was.

One thing that I found odd about your build was that it only used 3 Curiosity instead of 4.  As a drawing card, Curiosity has the potential to be far more powerful than Brainstorm.  If you aren't finding yourself with a Curios creature by turn 2 or 3 then perhaps your build isn't fast enough at putting pressure on the opponent (to get that early board advantage so you can seal things up with Standstill) and you are attempting to play Fish as a control deck rather than as an aggro-control deck, or perhaps you aren't mulliganning as aggressively as you should be to ensure a fast board advantage.  Fish has a lot of tempo in its favor with a mana-denial plan, alternate casting cost counterspells, and free/cheap creatures.

The other possibility is that your meta-game has shifted away from a meta that allows Fish to be good.  If your opponent has an even better tempo advantage then you (for instance dropping a 5/3 on turn one instead of 2 1/1's one of which draws card for you on turn two), then perhaps instead of running brainstorm to try and find answers, you should instead change decks to something that has better threats or better answers for turn one Juggernaut/Trinisphere.

Just my thoughts...

[Shikari]

Sorry for double post.

[Shikari]

1) I won't use Brainstorm. Mainly because it meant to improve card quality, not quantity. Fish's cards arn't very game breaking.

2) I would definately increase the number of Standstills to 4. They're like Ancestrals + Timewalks.

3) I won't play Fire/ice. Either that, or i'll cut down on that because judging from what you described in your 'match' post, there arn't many Aggro decks in your meta.

4) Crucible + Strip Effects are good. But the combo seldom comes out. Crucible is seldom casted, and when you can, there are often better things to do. It is easily countered with an opposing Crucible, and can be easily removed. Also, most of the other decks can abuse Crucible to a much creater extent than Fish...And on top of tat, it doesn't work well with Lavamancer. Thus I do not think that Crucible warrents a slot on Fish.

5) You shouldn't cut down on Factories. You're reducing the effectiveness of Standstill and they're good against most aggro decks. Period.

6) P9 are like so powerful. Time Walk being the best in this deck. Time Walk gives you so much tempo.  

7) You say that the mana base is weak and that you're always being locked down by Wastelands. I would say its mostly player skill and playing style. Why keep a hand with 2 Volcanic Islands when opponent is playing Wastelands? Or why 'fetch' for a non-basic? Manabase is far more important than that 1st turn Lavamancer.

8) Misdirection is good. Having 1 copy keeps your opponent guessing. Removing it totally means he can cast that Mind Twist without any worries.

9) Most of the time, you won't be able to cast Energy Flux. Its too slow for Fish.
10) I won't play Maze of Ith cause of the amount of Wastelands in your meta. Bouncer helps in feeding your graveyard for Lavamancer too.

11) You're losing to Workshop and Dragons alot. The 2 Annuls should help. Stifle main is good against them too.

*Note: Don't SB in the REB against mirror. The main goal is to rid your opponent of red sources and Lavamancer. REB will be hard to cast. Ridding them will stop their Lavamancers and Fire/Ice. They'll be trying to do the same to you.

Personally, I would improve your deck this way...


DECK LIST - SUPERMAN GAY RED  

Counter effects:

4 Force of will
3 Daze

Draw engine:

4 Curiosity
4 Standstill
1 Ancestral Recall

Creatures:

4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Spiketail Hatchling
4 Grim lavamancer
1 Gorilla shaman

Utilities:

1 Time Walk
3 Stifle
2 Fire/ice

Artifacts:

3 Null rod

Lands:

5 Polluted delta
4 Volcanic island
3 Island
4 Factory
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Library of Alexandria

SIDE:

3 REB
2 BEB
2 Echoing Truth
3 Waterfront Bouncer
3 Rack'n'Ruin
2 Annul

[Axor_the_Superman]

1) brainstorm: I agree.... but only because the draw engine is strong also with only curiosity and standstill.

2) without brainstorm standstill is very important, and a strong card.

3) For f/i I think that they are really good. They can wash the board and do damage to opponent.

4) crucible is strong, 1 or 2 copies are a must.

5) 3 factories are the right nr... If I put 4 I could go on mana screw...

6) I thinked this deck without P9s... I agree they are very strong (no comment!!!) but I have only mox sapphire...  

7) I'm not a token. I know how play at first turn if oppo has on board a wasteland.

8) Misdirection is really good card. But play only a copy is not usefull without ancestral and mistycal tutor. 2 copies would be better.

9) I can play energy flux at 2 turn (if I have lotus petal). If not I cast null rod and after flux. And artifact.... Suck!

10) maze of ith is usefull with Atog and dragon (post side). Those decks doesn't have wasteland, they have not slots for them.

11) Many decks lose  Vs Ws.dec and Dragon. But null rod and flux may make a good work vs ws.deck and stifle bounces (+ beb) are good cards vs dragon.

*note Reb are very strong against mirror. Not side them is an error.

I don't comment you powered list.

       

[Shikari]

Well...I've given you my opinions. Should you heed them I don't really care. Wish my darling would be here to help you out.

Anyways......

*note Reb are very strong against mirror. Not side them is an error.

I think that REB isn't very strong in mirror. Yes, you get to counter their FoW and kill their permaments. But note that all of Fish's red sources are from non-basic lands. And they're only running 4. Like I've said, the aim when there's a Fish on Fish mirror is to cut off your opponent's red sources and/or make sure their Lavamancer dun stay active for too long. Most of the time, the person with the active Lavamancer wins. Thus, cards like Stifle and Fire/Ice are important. Stifle is good because you can Stifle your opponent's Lavamancer ability and burn it with your own on your turn. Fire/Ice is good also because you can Ice it. Tapping it ensures that you can safely cast your own 'Mancer and kill it without him burning yours away. I know you can Fire it away, but like I said, in the Fish mirror, you won't get alot of red sources...

The reason BEB is better over REB is that this deck runs basic Islands. It doesn't run basic mountains. BEB can kill Lavamancer and counter Fire. Both of these cards are game breaking in the Fish mirror. Where as REB can only counter/kill the usual blue creatures and FoW. The only good things it can get rid off are Curiosity and FoW. But note that Curiosity is easily gotten rid with a Lavamancer in play or Fired. As for Force, the deck is only running 4 FoWs.

So in my opinion, Lavamancer and Fire/Ice are keycards, and thus BEB is more powerful than REB in the mirror.

[Raven Fire]

The reason BEB is better over REB is that this deck runs basic Islands. It doesn't run basic mountains.

In this time of BtB, Crucible/Wastelands, etc. I like to run a single basic Mountain (and thus 2 Islands) and run 3 blue and 2 red fetchies.  I feel this helps reduce the chances of having your red mana cut off (although I admit it slightly increases your mulligans due to the occasional Mountain and Wasteland/Factory draws).

[Chaos Blade]

I actually think an amount of both Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental blast are useful. But I would have to agree on Blue Elemental Blast being important as they protect/kill their main threats in the mirror which is major. I've played with an single Mountain when just Wastelands and the mirror were popular this summer, but also for my Goblin Vandals/Gorilla Shamans. I also don't know if it is good verus decks that run Back To Basics as Grim Lavamancer isn't the best verus mono blue. But then Shaman can take out their accel. Have you been having hard matchups verus TPS and Workshop based decks? Did you ever think that a green splash might be needed for River Boa and Artifact Mutations?

[Covetous]

The 2 red fetch/1 mountain plan is a good one.  If you fear wastelands, it's certainly the plan for you (think what has been said about the wasteland mirror).  Be sure you're running 24 sources or else it's no surprise that wastelands destroy you.  Running <4 each of standstill, curiosity or factory makes baby jesus cry.  The conclave is not as good and should probably be cut (it's too expensive and cipt sucks).  This would mean upping your number of castable threats in order to keep threat density up.  Again, this deck is not about brainstorm--only 2 of the cards are bombs so card quality is not as good as card quality.  Annul is very strong in the current meta--I would consider running up to 4 if you can (which is not very likely).  Mis-D is good only for the surprise factor--it's not really strong enough to run more than one and annul is usually better.  Crucible is a big sticking point in general--once it resolves, it's great.  But, you may have trouble getting a 3-mana artifact to stay on the table with all of your stripping, factory face-beating, dazing, etc.  Crucible completely owns this deck, so running crucible to prevent counter-ownage by crucible is a legitimate idea.  However, the sideboard might be a better home for the crucible.  

Energy flux is a strong SB option, but only if you expect a lot of stax in your meta.  Otherwise, R&R is usually better (although some sort of 2/1 configuration isn't bad).  I can't imagine how UG is a cake-walk for this deck.  6/6 flying wurms seriously ruin your day.  4/4 flying wurms do the same.  All of their creatures are bigger than yours and only your Grim will save you--and they run 4 more real counters than you (well, I guess you run daze).  If you really want to own the mirror, old man or suq'ata firewalker is your man.  The UR goblin dude isn't bad, either.  At one point, people ran sword of fire and ice, but it's very clunky (although it seriously owns because you both side out your null rods).

[Shikari]

Well...But if you would to run 2 Red Fetches, 1 Mountain, 2 Islands and 3 Blue Fetches, won't you be kinda er...screwed if you need to search for an Island and you happen to draw a red fetch?

I would say that against Mono-Blue, Red isn't really an important color in this deck, as the only useful card being 1X Gorilla Shaman. Thus, i would think that you'll be fetching Islands more than Mountains...also partly due to the fact that there are more blue cards than red in this deck. Cards like Voidmage need double blue, unless you plan on morphing it. Lavamancer just doesn't cut it vs U/U control.

Its only post SB that red is useful. However, Fish should be able to handle U/U even without SB if played correctly. Their only form of removal is Powder Keg...and a resolved Null Rod will stop it.

Just my 2 cents...