B/W Fish Tendrils

[mattdeballer]

Here is something I have toying around with for a little while for fun on the side. I have not really thought of this deck in any seriousness, but if I can make this into a tourney worthy deck, that would be very cool. If I have missed something blatantly obvious, like necropotence, please do not belittle me as I have not put much thought into this deck.

4   dark confidant
3   Phyrexian Negator
3   Isamaru, Hound of Konda

4   Dark Ritual
4   Cabal ritual
4   Duress
3   Orim's Chant
3   Null Rod
3   Night's Whisper
2   Tendrils of Agony
2   Seal of Cleansing
1   Swords to Plowshares
1   Demonic Tutor
1   Vampiric Tutor
1   grim tutor
1       Imperial Seal
1   Death Wish
1   Yawgmoth's Will

5   Fetches(Proably 3 black, 2 white)
4   Scrubland
2   Plains
3   Swamp
1   Black Lotus
2   Moxen (jet and pearl)
1   Lotus Petal

Sideboard(I never though about it so it is incomplete/sub optimal)
2x massacre
2x stp
1x tendrils
1x seal of cleansing
3x pithing needle
kataki???
dust to dust?
.....



I played B/W fish in a tourney once and thought it was really fun, but it lacked power to be much of anything in the format. So i took out a few creatures, and the hymn to tourachs, and added in more rituals, a couple more tutors, and another tendrils. I like the aggro combo feel, as I can beat you either with creatures, or pull the game out of thin air with tendrils. I'll comment now about what and why I put things in the deck

Creatures:
Dark Confidant:
He is the engine of the deck. Without necropotence, which will probably be the first thing I add into the deck, he is the only way you draw cards. Unfortunately, he does not provide you much card advantage, as he is most likely drawing you mana sources that are basically useless without a tutor effect. So for all intensive purposes, he finds you negators and hounds to provide beats, until you can eventually find the will or tutor effect to finish the game with a tendrils.

Phyrexian Negator and Isamaru:
They provide undercosted beats with marginal downsides. You most never see more than 1 isamaru so his legendary status does not come into play very often. Negators downside almost never comes into effect, as with many permanents on the table, he is well out of lava dart range, and is only stalled by a sundering titan, darksteel colossus, pentavus, and on occasion triskelion and jotun grunt.

Spells:
Night's Whisper:
It's on the same boat as Confidant. It allows you to see more than the one card per turn, and finds you the creatures to lay on the beats.

Orim's chant:
This is a very versatile card in the deck. The kicker effect allows you to stall aggro decks, buying you another turn to find an answer. It stops people from going broken off a will or a tutor effect for a will. You can also cast it on the cleanup step if you want a crucial spell to resolve, or you want to see if you can go off with a tendrils.

Death Wish:
This was a funny addition that I actually think is quite solid. I never really formulated a sideboard for the deck since this was a screw around deck, but the cards in the tentative sideboard would probably be there. It allows me to find an answer for colossus, an army of little guys, random activations, or an attempted lock by stax. It can also relocate negators that have been sent farming, to throw down a second time.

Artifacts/Enchantments:

Null Rod:
This allows me to keep a relatively fish-like status, allowing me to slow down other combo decks, and keep decks like stax at bay. As this deck does not really rely on its artifacts in order to combo, it seems like a good fit.

Seal of Cleansing:
It can be used to knock out moxen or a null rod before a will, to either build storm or regain usage of the moxen in the yard or hand or on the board. It also slows stax down when they try to set up a lock, keeps slaver players from dropping a slaver and passing the turn, and hits genju's or pyrostatic pillars that may hit the board.

Items left out:

Wasteland, Strip Mine:
This deck would probably be better off as more of a straight out fish deck, but these were left out as the deck needs color too much to make use of these.

Jotun Grunt:
I sometimes use my yard with a will, and it kills cabal rituals. I would put this card back in if I turned it back into fish. This should probably put this back in anyway, as it provides a legit clock like negator does, and recycles rituals, creatures, and fetches.

Necropotence:
I just forgot to put it in. I will make space for it.

Savannah Lions:
I like Isamaru better. He dies to lava dart which should come in as soon as people see confidant anyway, so another target for it does not seem very smart IMO.

Kataki, War's Wage:
He should probably sneak his way into the deck. Since this is a half-hearted combo deck at the moment, he would seem to be a good fit here. He also has very nice synergy with null rod, and to a stax player, it is a deadly combo.

Cabal Therapy:
It seems to be very hit or miss. I could probably find a place in the sideboard for it, if I can make a good enough case of it to myself.

Hymn to Tourach:
Probably a good idea, even at least as a 1-2 of. I ran this in my B/W fish build, which I should post after, to see what you guys think of that.

That's about all I can think of for things missing. Since I like rambling, I will move onto things I can change in the mainboard.

Null Rod ==> Pithing Needle/Kataki:
Though Null Rod is most times never really a dead card, in many match ups, it is hindered greatly. Pithing needle can most times name at least something. Kataki can lay down beats, allowing me to tendrils people out more easily. He screws over stax pretty efficiently, but works best with wastelands and null rods.

Seal of Cleansing ==> Serenity/ Aura of Silence:
Seal of Cleansing is cool to slow down stax, and sometimes to shut off gifts from mana, and killing random jittes or aether vials that may be floating around, serenity kills them very dead. Aura of Silence is also a very cool idea that completely screws over stax. In addition to their effects making things cost more, I can do the same.

The downsides of Serenity and Aura is that they do not have much use outside of the stax matchup. Aura can delay gifts for a while, but they can just tinker colossus, so you are screwed anyway. Serenity does not hit colossus, and has to sit on the table for a turn in order to actually work, making it relatively easy to deal with.



All right, now that I have assuredly bored you out of your mind, I am almost finished. I am going to post my B/W fish list to show you where I was coming from when I made this deck:
4   dark confidant
3   isamaru, hound of konda
4   phyrexian negator
3   jotun grunt
2   kataki
1   exalted angel
   
4   duress
3   swords to plowshares
1   seal of cleansing
3   null rod
4   dark ritual
1   yawgmoth's will
1   demonic tutor
1   vampiric tutor
1   pithing needle
3   hymn to tourach
1   tendrils of agony

1   black lotus
1   mox jet
1   mox pearl
   
5   fetch
4   duals
3   wasteland
1   strip
2   plains
2   swamp

Sideboard:
2   exalted angel
3   orim's chant
3   withered wretch
2   kataki, war's wage
1   swords to plowshares
2   seal of cleansing
1   pithing needle
1   darkblast


I thought I had a more recent list, but I guess not. I really liked Exalted Angel in the deck, as it provided a solid late game in the deck.

Well thats all for me. I hope those of you that actually got to this point enjoyed this article, I thank you, and I look forwards to your comments.

[chrissss]

How about Cabal therapy?
If the negators or the confidants become dangerous, you can use them, and they are good with tendrils, since they cost a creature to sac, so for 1 Black mana, you can have 2 spells, and stop potential counters/ stifles/ trickbinds.
I would try this over the Hymns, because misdirection is played a lot nowadays, and getting a hymn misdirected, isnt something you want.

Why the exalted angel? It just seems a bit random putting this in the deck, plus its a expensive card to cast, and if you morph it, its very weak, and a repeal target.

[rmn]

Sensei's Divining Top springs to mind.  Not only is it good with Confidant, not only do you already run 8+ shuffle effects, but if you draw 2 of them, they give you storm at a rate of 1 for 1 mana.  Plus Top lets you keep a couple of rituals out of our hand and in your library until you're ready to combo out.

[mattdeballer]

How about Cabal therapy?
If the negators or the confidants become dangerous, you can use them, and they are good with tendrils, since they cost a creature to sac, so for 1 Black mana, you can have 2 spells, and stop potential counters/ stifles/ trickbinds.
I would try this over the Hymns, because misdirection is played a lot nowadays, and getting a hymn misdirected, isnt something you want.

Why the exalted angel? It just seems a bit random putting this in the deck, plus its a expensive card to cast, and if you morph it, its very weak, and a repeal target.

You are talking about the fish list, I presume? Simply, I did not own any cabal therapies at the time in order to use them. This was a kick around deck, and I was playing in a mostly stax and fish environment, where I did not see any misdirections. Good call though.

The exalted angel was just a fun idea i had, and because the deck was really slow to begin with, I thought, why not add her in. She actually worked out quite well (not seeing any repeals helped out though). In the future, she will not be included, as I do not have much protection for her in the deck, making her quite vulnerable, as you previously stated.

Sensei's Divining Top springs to mind.  Not only is it good with Confidant, not only do you already run 8+ shuffle effects, but if you draw 2 of them, they give you storm at a rate of 1 for 1 mana.  Plus Top lets you keep a couple of rituals out of our hand and in your library until you're ready to combo out.

I like the idea of sensei top, but I run null rod at the moment. Since this deck is very slow to combo, the null rods seem better to pack than tops. They do their job very well against stax, and slow down other combo decks to the point where I can win either by beats, or by the tendrils.



I would like to thank you for your ideas. I will consider them in the future. Anyone else?

[AmbivalentDuck]

I don't know how valuable this is, but I'd recommend that if you think Isamaru has a place in a "final" list, you replace him with Sarcomancy.  Unlike Isamaru, Sarcomancy is good in multiples.  It also randomly gives you an enchantment to sack to Stax.

[Purple Hat]

-1 something +1 necropotence