UW Aggro Budget

[sklay]

Hi there!

I want to play an aggro deck at my next Vintage tournament
but don't want to be a mainstream guy. Therefore I don't want to
play Fish, Birdies, FCG and anything else.

In my environment are decks like:
Cerebral Assassin
Dragon
TPS/Long Death
Birdshit
Fish
Control Slaver/Stax/...
Oath [Salvager and Standard]
random decks

My decklist and some explanations:

// Lands
    4 Flooded Strand
    4 Tundra
    9 Island
    2 Plains
    4 Wasteland
    1 Strip Mine

Wastelands and Strip Mine are mana denial in nearly every aggro deck.

// Creatures
    4 Exalted Angel
    4 Meddling Mage
    1 Darksteel Colossus

4 Exalted Angels are ready for the take off and one Darksteel Colossus as possible 2nd threat.
4 Meddling Mages main, because it's mostly obvious what kind of deck my opponent plays.

// Spells
    1 Tinker
    3 Null Rod
    4 Counterspell
    4 Force of Will
    3 Daze
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    4 Brainstorm / Impulse
    1 Sol Ring
    3 Seal of Cleansing

Null Rod kills many cards I am going to face. Such as Jester's Cap, Mindslaver, Mana Artifacts, etc.
4 Counterspell as a cheap "replacement" for Mana Drain.
Swords to Plowshares removes Goblin Welder, Dragons and other nasty creatures.
Seal of Cleansing destroys enchantments [Oath, Curiosity,...] or Artifacts.

// Sideboard
    3 Spawning Pit
    3 Energy Flux
    2 Arcane Laboratory
    4 Blue Elemental Blast
    3 Engineered Explosives / ???

Spawning Pit against Oath
Energy Flux against Stax & Co.
Arcane Laboratory against TPS, Long Death
Blue Elemental Blast against WGD, FCG and Red Elemental Blast
Engineered Explosives against Chalice, Moxes

What should I play? Brainstorm or Impulse?
4 Swords = overkill?
Any suggestions for the sideboard?

[Greenebean]

I am not a real fan or Null Rod anymore. Granted it is a great card, and makes someone like a TPS player cry when you drop it first turn, but I like Chalice a lot better in today's meta versus Null Rod. Chalice for 0 against Combo Decks slows them down massivly, as well as making them think outside of their game plan to get rid of the Chalice. Chalice for 1 hurts Fish big time, as well as FCG, and Chalice for two hurts Oath, FCG, Cerebral Assassin, etc. Chalice can play a lot bigger role in most games as opposed to Null Rod.

I do not think that 4 Swords is overkill because it is easier to draw into them when there are 4 of them (duh). Swords is a very nice card, and deals with a lot of problems that you may encounter.

I am torn between Brainstorm and Impulse because Brainstorm can put things back from your hand to your library, while Impulse lets you dig deeper through your deck.

[sklay]

Thanks for your comment. But I don't think that I can drop the Chalice fast
enough. My one and only acceleration is Sol Ring. I can hardly put more than
one counter on the Chalice in the first two turns. I could add Mana Crypt
and Lotus Petal. But I don't want to cut things just for accelerating
the Chalice and nothing else.

Should I replace the Engineered Explosive with Chalice of the Void?

[edit] Can Engineered Explosive with one or two counters on it stop WTF? [/edit]

[Luiggi]

I would imagine that Explosives with 2 counters would be really effective against them, since it takes out Wild Mongrel, Spiketail Hatchling, Gaea's Skyfolk, Rootwater Thief, Waterfront Bouncer and Meddling Mage...

Luiggi

[sklay]

Uh, yeah! And don't forget the powerful Umezawa's Jitte. Does WTF have any answers to the Explosives except Meddling Mage and Counter?

[Dralock]

Angels aren't great without power. Null rod takes out the accell that aggro needs to resolve a creature like that. Counterspell and fact or fiction have no business in an aggro deck. Mana leak would be better, but daze is king. You need speed, otherwise you are just fattie timmy with bad creatures and a counter-productive manabase.

[Null Rob]

It seems like Tinker would be trash in this deck...you only have 4 artifacts to tinker out.  I would cut Tinker and Colossus, which would free up room for 2 more counterspells...maybe Misdirections.  Also, Daze is not very effective without Spiketail Hatchling. I would consider changing the 3 Daze to Stifles, as they are WAY more versatile (Stifle a slaver activation, Stifle Dragon's CIP ability, Stifle a Fetch/Wasteland, Stifle a Standstill trigger...the list goes on and on).  I would also take Greenebean's suggestion and replace Null Rods with Chalices.  They are more versatile than Null Rod and can be played on turn 1 for 0 or turn 2 for 1...you will never be setting the Chalice to more than 1 anyways, so the issue of casting it should not be a problem, because Chalice 1 costs the same as a Null Rod.  I would lean towards Brainstorm instead of Impulse because it is cheaper and has better synergy with your fetchlands.  It seems like you have way too many plains in the deck as well.  With 4 Tundras and 4 Strands, it shouldn't be a problem finding white mana when you need it, so I would go down to maybe 2 basic Plains and up to 8 or 9 Islands.

[sklay]

OK, but without power it is hard to have speed. My card pool is limited to Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, Lotus Petal, Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, ... Should I add some of these cards?
In my opinion Exalted Angel is the best creature choice I could do. What else should I play?
Counterspells are lousy Mana Drain replacements and as soon as I can get some Drains I run them. With them I can run Angels, too.

I don't like Stifle, because Null Rod kills the Slaver in an more efficient way. Swords and after boarding Blast are nearly overkill for Dragon. Actually I'm thinking of running both, CofV and Null Rod. But when I play Chalice with one counter, my Brainstorm is dead and my Swords are dead. If I play Chalice with two counters, my Meddling Mage is dead, my Daze is dead, my Counterspell is dead and my Impulse is dead.

I'm not sure, but I don't think that you can stifle the Standstill-Trigger.

[edit] I have fixed the Plains/Islands in the first post [/edit]