Newb'n It Up with Fish (Myriad Games 5-17-08)

[TopSecret]

I opt to play Magic the Gathering this weekend.

I stay up late playing Super Smash Bros. Brawl the night before the tournament instead of preparing.
My little brother shows me just how 'pro' he has become during my college leave by repeatedly decimating my Ganondorf.
So sad...

The morning of the tournament, Dan and Sarah give me a lift to the store.
We arrive early so that a sound system can be installed, so I have hours to prepare my deck.
I have a UBR Painter deck all lined up, but of course I decide it's no good.
So, I start testing Turbo-Swan. I decide this is no good either.
At this point, it's time to pass in deck lists, so I create a UBW Fish deck at super speed,
with the help of Kyle, who lends me Underground Seas and Deltas.
I'm the last person to hand in a list.

Lesson #1: Prepare a full deck list and sideboard before a tournament.
                This helps with tournament success and it's better to not be 'that guy' who people are waiting on.

Here's the list I played:

UBW Fish

4 Dark Confidant
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Curse Catcher
4 Aven Mindcensor
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
2 Mind Twist
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
4 Underground Sea
4 Tundra
3 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta

Sideboard:

4 Meddling Mage
3 Kataki, War's Wage
4 Yixlid Jailer
2 Ronom Unicorn
2 Kami of Ancient Law

I anticipated some amount of Flash at this tourney, so I played a full set of Force of Wills.
I didn't play against one Flash deck. In hindsight, the Forces may have been better as something else.

Round one: Arik with Ichorid

Game one is actually pretty close. I play an early Curse Catcher and a Bob while Arik starts dredging.
Arik's early dredges are subpar, so I am allowed to stay in this game.
The turn before Arik goes off, I Swords both his Narcomoeba and his Dryad Arbor.
I sacrifice a Cursecatcher on one of my Swords and pay the cost,
removing all Ariks Bridges and his creatures. Of course,
then Arik's deck goes into extended Ichorid mode while I am just short of killing him.

Sideboarding: Out- Forces, Duresses, and Mind Twist  In- Jailers, Meddling Mage, and Ponies

Game two I get out an early Jailer with Cursecatcher backup.
Unfortunately, Arik gets a Dryad Arbor out and I don't have a Swords,
so he can pay for Contagion and wreck me.
If my Ponies had been Forces, I might have had a shot. Hmm...

Lesson #2: If one isn't playing maindeck enchantments,
                a Force of Will is better than a Pony against Ichorid.

Arik is happy about his win, since these were the first two games he ever played with Ichorid.

Round 2: Scott with BR Painter-Aggro

Game one Scott gets mana flooded,
so I don't see much of his deck.

Game two is a long drawn out battle.
After a number of turns, a creature standstill develops.
Scott tries to drop a few Magi of the Moon, which are the bane of my awful awful manabase.
Luckily for me, I have the opportunity to float a white mana and cast Swords each time.

Lesson #3: Playing all Nonbasics in a Fish deck is often a terrible idea.

Scott eventually pulls it out by having Vexing Shushers to stop my counters,
and enough REB's to kill my creatures.

Sideboarding: Out-Duress, Mind Twist, Cursecatcher, Crypt, Sol Ring In- Meddling Mage, Ponies and Kamis, and Jailers

Game three, Scott has me locked out for most of the game.
He successfully drops a Chalice at one and a Chalice at zero with a resolved Magus of the Moon.
For mana, I only have a Mox Jet and a Ruby in play in addition to my Nonbasics.
This game seems pretty hopeless, until Scott blocks my Meddling Mage naming Pyroclasm with his Magus.
This allows me to cast all the creatures stuck in my hand and ride them to victory.

Scott comments after the game that he thought my Ruby was a Pearl.
I got pretty lucky.

Round 2 1/2: Monstro, the Sandwich with ridiculous mayonnaise and chicken salad

I ordered a Myriad Meal Deal ^TM and I received the most vicious sandwich ever.
It took me all five rounds to finish it off. I hate to waste food.

Round 3: Paul with Gush Combo

Game one Paul doesn't play much at all before I kill him,
so I'm not sure what he's playing.
He kills himself with a Thoughtseize on purpose.

Game two I get Paul down to twelve before he casts Tendrils for 12
and then Tinkers for Colossus.

Sideboarding: Out-Mind Twist In-Meddling Mage

I lay down three Curse Catchers, which are soon followed by a Ninja and a Mindcensor.
Paul dies without having enough mana to cast the Bargain in his hand.

Round 4: Dan with Painter

Game one I draw ten mana sources in a row.

Sideboarding: Out- Mind Twist In: Kataki

I resolve a very early Mindcensor, which proves to be ridiculous.
I also get Kataki into play while Dan has around four artifacts and little mana.

Game three I get a first turn Mindcensor.
I play it incorrectly, though, by waiting for his turn with my fetchland uncracked.

Lesson #4: If you can play a first turn Mindcensor,
                at least crack your fetchland before passing the turn.

Dan gets to use his fetchland, since I still want to cast Mindcensor on his endstep.
Mindcensor is still ridiculous, however.
Dan drops a Flametongue Kavu on it at some point, but I have a second to back it up.
Beats take it down.

Round 5: Kyle with Ponies

Before the match starts, Kyle offers a prize split, since whoever wins makes top 8.
This is nice of Kyle, since the chances of me beating Ponies are not good.
I accept and the match is underway.

Game one I am straight up overpowered by Kyle's dudes.

Sideboarding: Out-Forces, Duress, Mind Twist, Curse Catcher, Mana Crypt In- All my dudes

Kyle has a Waste for my first three lands.

Lesson #5: Having all Nonbasics is still usually a bad idea in a Fish deck.

I have an Underground Sea and a Sol Ring left,
but I don't draw another white land to cast my white dudes until I'm staring down a Goyf and two other guys.
I'm pretty sure a Flametongue killed my Mindcensor this game, too. Savage.

I have nine points so there's a chance I can get in,
until I find out that my tiebreakers are terrible.

It's OVER!!!

Props:

Everyone
Mindcensor

Slops:

Me, for not being prepared
Monstro, the Sandwich

[Almighty]

Sorry to be the dreamcrusher, Fox. You had an unfortunate pair down when you should have been in ID mode. All well. PONIES!


The cursecatchers look like they are pretty solid. How good were they, or would you say they are just one drops to put you in ninja mode more often than not. Still, Stonecloaker(3/2) is a very respectable finish considering what little preparation you had.

[Myriad Games]

Thanks for the report, Fox. Glad you enjoyed our new Myriad Meal option.

[FadeToBlack]

Game three I get a first turn Mindcensor.
I play it incorrectly, though, by waiting for his turn with my fetchland uncracked.

Lesson #4: If you can play a first turn Mindcensor,
                at least crack your fetchland before passing the turn.

You do realize that Mindcensor only affects your opponent?

[ErkBek]

Thanks for the report.

Cursecatcher and Mindcensor seem like they'd have some nice latent synergy. Ninja seems a little out of place in your list since you generally don't want to Ninja any guys other than the Curse out of play. Cutpurse or maindeck Meddling Mages seem like a good alternative to ninja.

How were the Mind Twists? 

[Elfrago]

How were the Mind Twists? 

Considering that he always sideboarded at least one Mind Twist out, I guess they were terrible.

[TopSecret]

Game three I get a first turn Mindcensor.
I play it incorrectly, though, by waiting for his turn with my fetchland uncracked.

Lesson #4: If you can play a first turn Mindcensor,
                at least crack your fetchland before passing the turn.

You do realize that Mindcensor only affects your opponent?

The problem was not that Mindcensor effected me.
It was that I had an uncracked fetchland among my three mana
that he could respond to with his own fetchland, which limited my options a little bit more.
I don't remember why it mattered that much in the game state;
it could have been flawed reasoning.
I probably should have just cast it first turn before he could play a land.

I did not draw Mind Twist at all during the day,
except when both my opponent and I were in topdeck mode.
I ended up siding them out every game,
which was partly due to playing against creature decks a lot,
and partly because I didn't know what else to sideboard out.
I wasn't prepared with a good sideboarding strategy.

I still think they have some potential, but not in the shell I constructed under such constraints.

Curse Catchers were great against Ichorid.
Unfortunately, they were not good against Painter.dec, since they could be chumped by Servant,
and Painter.dec often had lots of excess artifact mana. The version I played against had maindeck Ancient Tomb.
Curse Catchers were bad against the three aggro decks.

I don't know if I'd play them again if I didn't have maindeck Ninjas.
I'll have to test them more. This was the first time I tried them,
and my matchups were a bit skewed against their usefulness.

They would have been much more impressive if I had been playing more mana denial.
I'm pretty sure they'd be great in UW Null Rod Fish,
or a deck with Kataki and Wastelands maindeck in addition to the Mindcensors.

I didn't draw Ninjas much during the tournament.
Meddling Mage probably would have been better.
Mage at least names something relevant when the opponent has chump blockers.

Thanks for the feedback!
Maybe I'll top 8 with a well tested Fish deck one of these days.

[Mdizzle4life85]

lol smash brothers definatly seems like the wrong plan the night before a tourney although you almost got there anyway. how did u like fish?

[TopSecret]

I actually liked fish a lot.
It seems pretty decent in the current New England meta
if it's metagamed correctly.

If Workshop Aggro starts coming back in style, though,
there could be some trouble.

If that happens, then maybe RG BEATS would be a better choice.

[Mdizzle4life85]

my buddy wants to build r/g beatz i juss keep tellin him not to lol