[Deck] Aggro-Control Skullclamp

[cardiffgiant]

This week, I attended a 10 proxy T1 tournament at a local cardshop. As usual, I wanted to play something different, so I chose the following deck I've been tinkering with. It's sort of Fish with Skullclamp as the  drawing engine.

Cheap Clamp Control

4 Skullclamp
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush

4 Wild Mongrel
4 Basking Rootwalla
4 Kird Ape
2 Seredib Efrets
2 Grim Lavamancers

4 Force of Will
3 Daze
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Fire/Ice
2 Artifact Mutation
1 Time Walk

4 Land Grant
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Forest
2 Tropical Island
2 Mishra's Factory
1 Mountain
1 Island
1 Taiga
1 Volcanic Island
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire

SB
3 Chill
3 Root Maze
2 Stifle
2 Goblin Welder
2 River Boa
2 Naturalize
1 Magus of the Unseen

The approach was to build a deck that used Skullclamp as a draw engine,  but didn't depend heavily on Skullclamp. I initially chose UGr because  green has great creatures, blue has great cheap disruption, and red gives me two powerful and versatile cards: Fire/Ice and Artifact Mutation.

For creatures, Mongrel and Rootwalla were obvious choices because they  are solid on their own, and get better with skullclamp. Grim Lavamancer was  also very attractive because it is one of the most powerful 1cc creatures. Initially I tried Gorilla Shaman and Goblin Welder maindeck. With the  light manabase, Gorilla Shaman really didn't work well. I chose Kird Ape  instead because he was a reasonable body. I also wanted a few finisher  creatures. Initially I looked at Horned Kavu, but I didn't want more multicolor  spells and he didn't have evasion. I settled on Dibs because they flew and  pitched to Force.

For spells, Force was obvious. From playing Fish, I am very fond of  Daze maindeck (mostly sided out game 2 and 3). The threat of Daze is better  than Daze itself. Initially I was running Obsessive Search for the  Mongrels. However with the shuffling effect from the fetchlands, and having only  4 discard outlets, Brainstorm became the obvious choice. Since I have  limited maindeck removal, Chain of Vapor seemed like a good choice for delaying  my opponent.

For the sideboard, I wanted utility but I also wanted to deal with two deck I  hate to lose to: Sligh and artifacts. Chill seem the obvious anti-tempo choice.Root Maze was cheap and slowed down most other decks. Stifle is seldom  wasted (especially with fetchlands and wastelands). I thought Welder might help me  mess with artifact decks, and it's a good clamp target. River Boa is a great creature. If he was 2/2 he'd definitely be maindeck. Naturalize for  random problems. Magus because he's just sooo cool.

Out of 16 people, I came in 2nd, losing in the finals to a modified control slaver deck. I had the following matchups.

Round 1 - Meandeck Oath variant - 1-2

The night before, I helped my friend test this deck. He had wanted to  play something new too, but work and life got the best of him. The major differences I remember from the standard build was main deck Maze of  Ith, 2 Gaea's Blessings, and the following creatures: Akroma, Phantom Nishoba,  and Plated Slagworm. The Slagworm was a late night mistake - he thought it  had trample. The Phantom Nishoba was to help against red and swarm decks.

This was the most exciting deck to play against. If I resolved a clamp, before he he got an Oath to stick, I had a very good chance of winning.  My approach was to clamp madly to get either a lot of threats or a lot of disruption. On my side, the Dibs and Mongrels were golden. He was very hesitant to run Akroma up against a double clamped Dib to give me 4  cards. On his side, the Maze and Nishoba were amazing. It made it torturously difficult to lower has life total.

Round 2 - Ravager - 2-1

Ravager can be like Sligh - sometimes it just wins. Unless you have  global removal, it can have explosive starts that are hard to recover from.  His build had very little removal or disruption aside from Defense Grid. I  won the first game, lost the second to amazing beats, and won the third  game. Root Maze and Goblin Welders made his life miserable in the third game.

Round 3 - Old School Academy - 2-0

He wisely countered the clamps whenever possible, but I had so many creatures and enough counter magic to slow him down

Round 4 - 4CC - 2-0

This felt very much like when I played 4cc at Richmond with UGw fish. I  had more early threats, enough card drawing, and enough disruption to get through.  Having my first 3 lands stripped the second game did make  things interesting, though.

Semifinals - Meandeck Oath variant - 2-1

Once again, the games were long and interesting. During the third game  my friend gained a total of 23 life from the Nishoba.

Finals - Control Slaver variant - 0-2

I honestly don't know how to play against this deck. First game I made  some good headway only to suddenly lose (I think it was Mindslaver then Sundering Titan). Second game was the only game I had mana problems. Mulliganed to 4 cards - 2 lands, 2 Force of Will and had no hope of recovering. I'm looking forward to playing this deck more.

Conclusions

I was very pleased with the deck. It's a relatively busy deck to play  which I like, and really fun. For the most part the creature base works  great. The only weak creature, I feel, might be the Kird Ape, only because they  hard to clamp out. In this deck, it would be better as a conditional 2/2 for 1.  I might replace at least some of the Land Grants, since I am playing at  least a partial control game and I think revealing my hand hurt me sometimes.  I enjoyed the sideboard, especially the Root Mazes, Stifles, and Welders.  I think it could still use some work, though.

I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or any other matches you  think might be problematic.

[Stupid_Newb]

Cloud of Faeries is really nice with Skullclamp. Play it, untap, Clamp it. It works out to two cards for one mana. I tested with a deck similar to this one a little while ago and I found that Cloud of Faeries is very good.

[cardiffgiant]

I like Cloud of Faeries if you just want to use it as a weak Ancestral (cost U, draw 2 cards). The only minor downside is it can't survive clamping. It's strange to say it would be a better match if it was a 0/2 (basically a blue ornithopter).

It also feels like it could move the deck into a different feel (more control) which may not be bad.

[Legrow]

Oh, it's like Kobold-Clamp!

I have to say, Wayne, you did amazingly well with your deck, and you just had some poor luck in the finals (my topdecked Tinker for Sundering Titan was definitely what the doctor ordered).  I don't think you made any play mistakes, and your deck provided some very interesting challenges on my side of the table.

Did you side in Goblin Welder against me (CS)?  Your own Goblin Welders could have potentially hurt me (since both targets need to be legal on resolution for my own Welder to take effect).  You never saw Mutation, which is probably a good thing for me!

I might replace at least some of the Land Grants, since I am playing at least a partial control game and I think revealing my hand hurt me sometimes.

I can definitely say that Land Grant was a huge penalty since you were trying to play aggro-control.  The information I gained just by remembering the cards you had was a huge advantage for me.

I'd appreciate any constructive criticism or any other matches you think might be problematic.

I see that you didn't play against the GAT player at the tournament, who ended up giving me serious problems with Pernicious Deed.  How do you think your deck would fare against Deed?  I see your low mana curve, which makes me wonder if your deck would be resilient enough to recover from a Deed for 2-3.  (Obviously, you'd try to Daze/Force the Deed, but that's not necessarily going to keep it off the table)

General thoughts:
- I know you've tinkered around with it a little bit, mostly in other decks, but how do you think Glimpse of Nature would play out in your deck?  I think the extra card draw could really start to power out a big swing, but I'm not sure how much mana that could require.
- I'm glad to see you run the Serendib Efreets, I absolutely adore them.  Were the big bodies as good as I imagine they might have been, or was their mana cost too prohibitive?
- I understand that you were having problems controlling the board, but your removal base doesn't seem to be too bad.  How about adding some Aquamoebas (clamp as-well-as-or-better, still agressive) and Fiery Temper (seems like it'd be good with another madness outlet in the deck), removing Kird Apes (harder to clamp, you said) and a Land Grant (sometimes too disadvantageous)?

[jazzykat]

This idea is very interesting to say the least. Has anyone looked at doing a Gay/r + UGmadness  +WTF meld perhaps using skull clamp. I think that they can pack a humungous punch, because I never much liked fish's weak creatures or UG madnesses lack of annoying creatures.... off the top of my head

4 Skullclamp
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 TimeWalk

4 FOW
2 Daze


4 root maze

4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Wild Mongrel
4 Rootwalla
2 Quiron Dryads/river boa???
4 Cloud of Faeries

Lotus
sapphire
ruby
emerald
2 Pollluted Delta
2 Windswept Heath
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Tropical Island
2 Taiga
2 Volcanic
2 forest
1 island
1 mountain


I took the original list  changed the mana base a little, took some suggestions into account and three in the ever now vogue root maze for MD disruption (which is not particularly pleasant when looking at the amount of fetches but, you have a fighting chance vs. combo with it in.

[cardiffgiant]

LeGrow -
I sided in the Welders, but game two was such a dud that I didn't see anything.

I don't think GAT would be a problem. I wouldn't play out all threats, clamp madly to get a second clamp in hand, and side in stifle and Boas. Also, I think Chain might have been a godsend for bouncing my stuff.

It's funny how with Brainstorm, shuffle effects, and drawing 4-6 cards per turn, you tend to find solutions

Glimpse is interesting. If I wanted to add it, I would have to adjust the manabase. What usually stopped me from clamping was running out of mana. However, yesterday I started thinking about a non-combo version of Kobolds. Maybe Ornithopters, Cloud of Faeries, Glimpse, Skullclamp, Frogmites as the basis.

The 2 Dibs were perfect. Being the only 3cc spells, they weren't harsh to cast, and I really needed the evasion. The life lose really had no effect except against Greg with his (expletive deleted) Maze.

The Aquamoebas are really tempting, more because it gives me Circular Logic.  My first turn would be a little weaker, though. Definitely would want to add Sol Ring and Black Lotus (I probably should have had those anyway). Really good suggestion. Maybe Clamp Madness is the sweet spot.

jazzykat-
I think that's a good direction too. Setting myself up as a target, I think Skullclamp might be the best card drawing engine in T1. There are a lot of great one and two drop creatures that you can clamp if you don't need them immediately. I definitely think it's better than Standstill or Curiosity.

[Rancor1]

It looks like you're playing the wrong game with this deck. Like I've said in the Affinity thread, Skullclamp was great in formats where players did a lot of blocking and mass removal, as you'd equip an x/2, getting you a huge threat and card advantage when he answers it. Here, equipping bigger creatures seems silly, as a lot of decks will just play Platinum, Akroma, or a big Tendrils and ignore your threat. Because of this, I'd cut the Serendibs and Kird Apes, and replace with more utilitarian creatures, like Shaman, that can be clamped if useless.

This is all without testing, so I could be totally off, of course.

[Das_Boot]

I like Cloud of Faeries if you just want to use it as a weak Ancestral (cost U, draw 2 cards). The only minor downside is it can't survive clamping. It's strange to say it would be a better match if it was a 0/2 (basically a blue ornithopter).

It also feels like it could move the deck into a different feel (more control) which may not be bad.

This definitely makes me think that you are misunderstanding Clamp (and if this would be playable as a 0/2, why not play Ornithopter instead?).  Not surviving Clamp is not a downside; it is a huge bonus.  Zuberas in T2 were raised a toughness just to survive Clamp.  Having no way to sacrifice the creatures makes it so that you have 6 Clamp-able creatures, because it's not like them getting killed in creature combat is going to really be an issue, unless it is desperate like swinging into Akroma.

If you are going for Clamp aggro-control, it seems like Gorilla Shaman would be insane, eating Moxen and drawing two, and Cloud of Faeries, if it made the cut in a deck without Clamp, could make the cut in a deck where it often is a mini-Ancestral.  Standstill seems really good also, and although it probably isn't powerful enough, Vial and Clamp and Standstill all have mad synergy.

[Legrow]

This definitely makes me think that you are misunderstanding Clamp (and if this would be playable as a 0/2, why not play Ornithopter instead?).  Not surviving Clamp is not a downside; it is a huge bonus.

While I can't speak for the original poster, I believe the reasoning is that, as an aggro-control deck in a local meta filled largely with control, producing a high level of small, obnoxious threats and forcing your opponent to deal with them is the most effective strategy.  Therefore, rather than simply using Skullclamp as a combo engine where he wants the creature to die instantly, he's using it to deter an opponent from removing a clamped creature, and giving himself more cards when his opponent does answer.

Standstill seems really good also, and although it probably isn't powerful enough, Vial and Clamp and Standstill all have mad synergy.

He isn't play AEther Vial either.  From what I saw, it looked like he had enough card draw in his deck as it was... whenever he was in a major bind (minus the game where he mulliganed to 4 against me), he was able to dig out of it.

The Aquamoebas are really tempting, more because it gives me Circular Logic. My first turn would be a little weaker, though. Definitely would want to add Sol Ring and Black Lotus (I probably should have had those anyway). Really good suggestion. Maybe Clamp Madness is the sweet spot.

With the addition of Aquamoeba, Circular Logic, and Arrogant Wurm, you've pretty much got the entire madness base there.  However, in doing so, you would probably end up cutting Kird Apes, which drops the number of red cards in your deck to 2 Lavamancer, 2 Fire/Ice, 2 Mutation, 2 Welder (SB), which I'm not sure is a great enough commitment to justify the third color.
At what point do you think the deck would degenerate into a bad U/G/r madness deck?  Is the madness deck going to benefit significantly from Clamp?  Perhaps the best route would be to scrap the red, and build a U/G madness deck with Clamp, and see what benefits/problems that has.
Certainly seems like it'd be interesting to play around with...

[E Face]

This is very similar to a deck I designed a while back. The basis was Skullclamp and Kobolds as a draw engine in Gro. Here's the list, I figure it may be interesting for you to see it.

10 Kobolds
4 Skullclamp
4 Quirion Dryad
3 Serendib Efreet
1 Darksteel Colossus
4 Force of Will
4 Mana Leak
4 Brainstorm
1 Tinker
1 Regrowth
1 Ancestrall Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Crop Rotation
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal

1 Tolarian Academy
1 Gaea's Cradle
2 Wooded Foothills
2 Flooded Strand
4 Tropical Island
3 Island
2 Forest
1 Strip Mine

That's just an old copy and pasted decklist from a thread I made a long while back, and looking at the list I'd make some changes to it for sure. Things like Gush, Stifle, Daze and Misdirection would help the deck a bunch probly. Hope that sparks a few ideas in your head for any changes or what not for ya. Let me know what you think about my deck.

[cardiffgiant]

Das_Boot -

There is nothing wrong with Cloud of Faeries. It's great. It's a balancing act, and for me, for the current deck, it doesn't feel like it adds much. I have enough small creatures I can clamp for cards. Rootwalla's cool because it can survive a double clamp initially. In the mid-game I usually had two or three clamps. Paying 1 to draw 2 cards is very good. Paying 1 for a 1/1 flyer that if it dies, will draw 2 cards is better. Playing 2 to draw 4 cards is great.

The only problem with Ornithopter is that I can't pitch it to Force. Otherwise it's perfect.

LeGrow -

It does seem to be converging on a Madness build. I know Arrogant Wurm wouldn't work with the current mana. I really like Circular Logic, but adding another 2cc creature will probably force other changes to maintain the pressure. Probably adding Aether Vial, which I'm on the border of including anyway. Uncounterable creatures rock. It also gets me to the required number of artifacts for the Tinker/Colossus combo.

E Face -

Man, that's a cool approach. Different direction, but really good. If I could suggest a few changes,

-4 Mana Leak (I don't think you need the colorless)
-1 Dib
-1 Mana Crypt
-1 Lotus Petal
+2 Daze
+2 Chain of Vapor
+3 Glimpse of Nature (This may improve some otherwise weak hands and make it less imperative that you get a clamp)

How well did it work?

[/quote]

[Khahan]

It looks like you're playing the wrong game with this deck. Like I've said in the Affinity thread, Skullclamp was great in formats where players did a lot of blocking and mass removal, as you'd equip an x/2, getting you a huge threat and card advantage when he answers it. Here, equipping bigger creatures seems silly, as a lot of decks will just play Platinum, Akroma, or a big Tendrils and ignore your threat. Because of this, I'd cut the Serendibs and Kird Apes, and replace with more utilitarian creatures, like Shaman, that can be clamped if useless.

This is all without testing, so I could be totally off, of course.

Unfortunately, this time, yes you are off. I didn't read the affinity thread so I don't know how your statements apply there. But in Cardiffgiant's deck they work well. And [card]platinum angel[/card] is no problem for his deck.

Why? Because he knows how to use clamp properly and dig for answers.
I should know, I am the Meandeck Oath player  he mentioned in post 1.


I played him in the finals, round 1, game 2, I had the platinum angel on the board (along with an akroma).  He simply clamped like mad until he got a naturalize in his hand. Then he continued to clamp like mad  until he drew into 2 FoW's to back him up.
At that point, I was at something like -3 life, so getting rid of the angel was game over.

His serindib efreets proved extremely effective against my creature base.
When you get down to it, I think a play mistake cost me the game (not taking out one of his efreets when I could).  I think if I hadn't made the mistake, I would have had the momentum to force a game 3 (since he won game 1), but you never know.

At any rate, I agree with Cardiff that the weakest card in the deck right now is the kird ape.  In the 5 games we played throughout the tourney, I can't think of a single time they helped you.

Just off the top of my head, skyshroud ridgeback would be superior to the apes as an aggro creature.  But that still seems weak.
Perhaps, as suggested above, removing the apes for gorilla shamans would be a help.
Since I don't run too many artifacts, it would not have done much against me, but there werew plenty of other times that cheap artifact removal would have been great.

[E Face]

E Face -

Man, that's a cool approach. Different direction, but really good. If I could suggest a few changes,

How well did it work?

I played the deck at the last SCGP9 in Richmond back in January, and I went 2-2 before I dropped out. I lost first round to Jason Stinnet of Meandeck a.k.a "theCap'n" in three games after he topdecked a second Chain of Vapor to deal with my Arcane Lab with Meandeck SX... I had a Dryad and an Efreet that would be lethal in 2 turns, but I drew into three straight lands and he got me. Then I got my ass handed to me by Bazzar Dragon on turn 1 and then on turn 3. The two decks I beat that day were Doomsday (the deck I almost played, but I developed this deck a week before the tourney) and I also beat a really pimped out Hatred deck. I remember I had a ridiculous first turn of Lotus for Dryad and Clamp, two Kobolds, Ancestral from Tropical, into two more kobolds! I had a 6/6 for two one turn one, then he dropped Lotus, Jet, Swamp into Juzam Djinn and we had to laugh cuz the Dryad was bigger than the mighty turn one Juzam! I think if I had tested and had more experience with the deck I could have fared better, but I was happy with it at the time.

[Matt]

Doesn't "clamping like mad" mean multiple Clamps for your X/2s?

[Khahan]

Doesn't "clamping like mad" mean multiple Clamps for your X/2s?

Not necessarily, Matt.  His X/2's and bigger are what he does the beating with (basically the [card]wild mongrel[/card]s and [card]serendib efreet[/card]s.
And, in some cases he did that. But, not all the time. Usually he was clamping [card]basking rootwalla[/card]s or my orchard tokens.

And for the record: By its nature, this deck is a difficult match up for Oath based around the orchard.  If I don't get a turn 1 accelerator, then I can't do the turn 2 oath with my orchard. That turns into 2 cards for him, no oath trigger for me.  Not fun.

At least in the specific match ups he had against me, clamping out the 'bigger' creatures was not an option that made him salivate with anticipation.
Now, the one match when I was <0 life and he wanted the [card]platinum angel[/card] removed, you're right, clamping like mad meant getting rid of even some of his mongrels.

[cardiffgiant]

I tried this deck again at another small tournament (Headgames, 14 people). The SB was the same but I changed the maindeck as follows:

+2 Aether Vial
+1 Tinker
+1 Darksteel Colossus
+2 Goblin Welder
+1 Black Lotus
+1 Cloud of Faeries
+4 Fetchlands
-2 Mishra's Factory
-4 Kird Apes
-2 Basking Rootwalla
-4 Land Grant

Basically I replace Land Grants with more fetches, added the mini-combo Tinker/Welder, and tried a slightly different creature blend.

Round 1 - TPS - 0-2

Lost first game reasonably quickly. Sided in at least Stifle and Root Maze. It was very close. I made the mistake of not clamping as much as possibly, leaving me with a weak hand on his turn. I think I sided out too many creatures.

Round 2 - Type 2 beast deck - 2-0

Round 3 -Aluren - 2-0

His deck failed him. Aside from a FoW and a Chain of Vapor, not much disruption was required.

Semifinals - Dragon sans Bazaar - 2-1

Lost first game on turn two (he had Force backup for my Chain of Vapor). Sided out most big creatures and sided in Stifle, Root Maze, Welders, and Naturalize. First turn Root Maze. It took a while, but I was able to put on some pressure and maintain control. Third game went similar. However at the end of the game, I noticed I had accidently shuffled half my SB into my maindeck, so I told my opponent and took a game loss.

Afterwards I played a 2 land Belcher for fun. First game I was rolled. Second game (no sideboarding) I Tinker/Colossus and beat him to one life. Welder really helped. I was playing sloppy because if I had clamped the Colossus I would have won.

I learned several things today.
- For this deck, Tinker/Colossus sucks. It seemed like a good idea, but really didn't work. Without tutors, it's mostly a waste.
- I don't need the Land Grants. Although I didn't quite get the balance right, I think the fetchlands should be sufficient.
- Root Maze is INCREDIBLE. It slows combo down REALLY well.
- Aether Vial is pretty good. I think I need at least 1 more copy for it to work.  It allowed me to more effectively be aggressive and controlling. It plays differently, though, and I need to get used to the style difference.
- Cloud of Faeries worked pretty well. I need to play with it more to figure out the balance.
- I miss the manlands and wastelands from Fish.
- I need better disruption for TPS.

I think my next experiment will be something close to:
4 Mongrels
3 Dibs
3 Rootwallas
3 Cloud of Faeries
2 Welders
2 Grim Lavamancer

[Khahan]

Give me a call next time you go to headgames.
Do they allow proxies in their T1 tournies?

This sort of thing should be kept to PM.
-Matt[/color]

[Legrow]

I agree, Tinker/Colossus does seem wasted in your deck.  Did the addition of the Lotus affect anything at all?  I think 4 maindeck Aether Vials may be best, as it does slightly decrease your threat density but does allow some nifty tricks.

I think you should run Wasteland.  I also would put the basking rootwallas back in, they seem like they're pretty good in your deck.

Khahan, they do allow (nine) proxies.

[cardiffgiant]

The Lotus isn't amazing, but it is pretty good. If I cut it, I'd probably add another land.

I've fiddled with the deck some more and I think I'd have to drop a color to get Wastelands, and even then it feels a bit shaky.

I think the following is the core of the deck:
4 Wild Mongrel
2 Grim Lavamancer
2 Basking Rootwalla
2 Cloud of Faeries
2 Serendib Efreet
4 Force of Will
4 Skullclamp
4 Brainstorm
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Daze or Stifle
2 Fire/Ice
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
2 Aether Vial
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus
15 Lands

The remaining 7 are up for grabs. Where I am currently (and this is constantly changing) is

2 Artifact Mutation - Worse case it blows up a mox. At least SB this
1 Werebears - Mongrel 5
1 River Boa - Mongrel 6
1 Goblin Welder - 1cc utility creature that can bring back Skullclamp
1 Spire Owl - I want more digging
1 Sensei's Divining Top - Again more digging for solutions

Aside from the 2 slots for library manipulation, the rest feels very metagamey.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

[Legrow]

Had we discussed the Top before?  For some reason, that strikes me as being fantastic in your deck.

Concerning Mongrels 5 & 6, (a) How often would you suggest that you have threshold?  Do you get threshold reasonably fast with your fetches and such, or is it gradual? (b) What percentage of your opponents are playing islands?  Are those your easy or hard matchups?

I really think the Mutations should be in the sideboard generally, as I'm not 100% sure they're good in the majority of your matchups (at least in our local meta).  If you want a list for Waterbury, I might suggest including them.

I think the two cards in the maindeck should be Daze, since they have more of a psychological impact than Stifle does, if played in Game 1.  Sideboard could certainly produce Stifles for games 2 and 3 if the need arises.  I also think you should run 3 AEther Vial, as they really screw up opponents' math.

I agree that adding Wastelands would mean dropping a full color, and I don't think dropping a color just for Wastelands seems like you're gaining at all.

Overall, I like the direction that the deck is moving in.  I also think there's been some interesting discussion that could lead to other good decklists (like Madness-Clamp).

[Sublime]

What are your thoughts on spiketail hatchling?  I personaly really like the card.  At the moment I am proxing off the deck so have not played with it yet but just from my mind poped spiketail hatchling as an obvius choice.  What do you think?  Also in the SB I think waterfront bouncer might be powerful in many matches.

Edit:  Wastelands are not worth it!

[cardiffgiant]

I've thought about it a little. For Fish it works because of the multi-directional mana denial. It's useful for more than a few turns. Without the Wastelands and Null Rods, I think it'll end up being only overcosted clamp fodder if I get it after my opening hand.

I have the Dazes maindeck mostly to give me a chance against combo and casting it the first game makes my opponent play slower (or at least adds to their stress). Aside from combo or REALLY tight mana aggro, it always gets sided out, usually for Stifle.

Thanks for the suggestion though.

Right now, I'm looking for 1-2 cc creature, preferably blue, with either a useful ability, evasion, or a big body. Sounds like a personal ad. Some creatures I'm considering are

Werebear
Xantid Swarm
Quiron Ranger
Bloodfire Dwarf (for weanie or Goblins)
Orcish Spy
Pygmy Hippo
Waterfront Bouncer

Nimble Mongoose
Kird Ape
Skyshroud Ridgeback
Gaea's Skyfolk
Elvish Lyrist
Aquamoeba
Brown Ouphe
Gilded Drake
Riptide Mangler
Seton's Scout
Goblin Vandal

Haven't figured out what I need to strengthen in the deck. The first 7 seem to have the most potential.