BUG Fish - Innovating Null Rod strategies in Vintage

[ErkBek]

Apparently some people think that Vintage is stagnant because people aren't innovating. I don't believe that there is much room left for innovation in Yawg Will strategies, maybe a couple cards you can change around but we're not going to find anything much past Strategic Planning.

There's plenty of room for innovation in strategies outside of Ritual and Drain combo. Apparently though, decks not running Yawg Will aren't considered any good because you're running "bad" cards. I'm here to say Null Rod is a not a bad card, it's a great card!

The best strategy in Vintage is not allow your opponent play all their cards and implement their strategy. There are 3 ways to do this:

1) Kill them first (combo)
2) Mana disruption so they can't cast their "better spells" (Shops, landstill, and some fish builds)
3) Counter/Duress everything they do (be a champion)

Null Rod is a great card because it's excellent piece of mana disruption. Null Rod can generate a huge amount of card advantage because it turns off more than just artifact mana and random artifact abilities; it prevents your opponent from casting their spells.

Yes, Null Rod doesn't allow you to run good cards like Yawgmoth's Will, Tinker, Intuition, and Thirst for Knowledge very effectively it forces you to run an entirely different strategy altogether. This is not a bad thing. A deck with great synergy is often times better than a deck packed with “good cards.” Just because you’re not running “good cards” doesn’t mean you have to run “bad cards.”

Introducing BUG fish:

Accel 5
1 Lotus
1 Jet
1 Sapphire
1 Emerald
1 Ruby

Lands 18
1 Strip
4 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
 
Disruption 19
4 Force of Will
4 Null Rod
2 Stifle
3 Negate
3 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
1 Echoing Truth

Dudes 12
4 Dark Confidant
4 Cursecatcher
4 Tarmogoyf

Draw/Tutor 6
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vamp Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk

This deck employs both an assault on the mana base and an impressive amount of disruption. Combine that with fast clock, and you’ve got a metagame smashing hate deck.

Slaver, Drain Tendrils, TPS, and Grim Long are all highly favorable matches. Shop and Fish aren’t bad either. Tarmogoyf really pulls his weight in those matches. Dredge can be dealt with fairly well by devoting around ~7 slots to Extirpates, Leylines, Planar Voids, or Pithing Needles.

I should probably address a few questions that I know are going to come up:

Is Cursecatcher that good? Yes, Cursecatcher is amazing! Turn 1 Cursecatcher into a Turn 2 Null Rod is an amazing start that doesn’t involve drawing any artifact mana and only needs 2 cards. Beyond Curse’s synergy with Null Rod, he’s an excellent way to slow down draw spells and hold back lethal Yawg Wills when used in conjunction many of the deck’s other disruptive elements. It’s also worth noting Cursecatcher’s 1 damage a turn often sticks around long after it’s gone since Curse pumps Tarmogoyf.

Tarmogoyf is just a vanilla creature. Doesn’t fish need to play disruptive creatures? Tarmogoyf is like a reverse Dark Confidant in this deck. Instead of drawing you cards, he limits your opponent’s draw steps and untap phases since he is a very fast clock on his own. Goyf also provides a lot of strength against sideboard cards commonly used vs. Fish decks.

What’s up Negate? Negate is good when you have a Null Rod and when you don’t. I initially ran Daze in this slot, but it was only useful for protecting my spells or locking down the opponent when my deck was already working well. Negate is a hard counter for almost all threats the opponent has, most importantly Tinker.

What’s your sideboard look like? This deck’s sideboard is highly metagame dependant. If you’re expecting Dredge to show up, you’ll need 7-8 cards to bring in. Trygon Predator and Krosan Grips are excellent against shops and Oath if you’re expecting any of those to show up. Threads are great for fish mirrors and can come in vs. shops if you are expecting any fish to show. A single Darkblast or Hyrdoblast is probably worth boarding for the slaver matchup as a solution for Goblin Welder.

How good is this deck? Really good.

[arctic79]

I really like this deck.  It's fishy enough but not too fishy to be boring.  In the current Vintage environment this deck should own.  The inclusion of Negate is a very nice touch. 
Do you think the mana base could handle supporting man lands like Conclave or Treetop as another beat option or is Tarmogoyf going to be enough?

[ErkBek]

I really like this deck.  It's fishy enough but not too fishy to be boring.  In the current Vintage environment this deck should own.  The inclusion of Negate is a very nice touch. 
Do you think the mana base could handle supporting man lands like Conclave or Treetop as another beat option or is Tarmogoyf going to be enough?

Thanks. Glad to hear you like it.

I think you'd be better off playing more creatures than lands that function as creatures. Mishra's Factory would likely get the nod before Treetop or Conclave.

[arctic79]

I kind of figured as much.  I might try this next week at my local tourny.

[EnialisLiadon]

I had difficulty against aggro decks when I took this to a tourney.  If I were to play this again, I'd probably put 2 jittes or something in the sb.

But this deck is amazing and the list in the original post is stronger than the one Becker gave me back in July.  A friend played the same deck in that tournament and took 2nd.  Could've split the Ancestral, but he was up against combo...which this deck rapes.  He lost it however, due to a major error in play for game 1 and a broken start from the combo plyer in game 2.

[ErkBek]

A friend played the same deck in that tournament and took 2nd.  Could've split the Ancestral, but he was up against combo...which this deck rapes.  He lost it however, due to a major error in play for game 1 and a broken start from the combo plyer in game 2.

Also worth noting. This was your friends first magic tournament ever, right? Make the finals in your first event? Seems good.

I had difficulty against aggro decks when I took this to a tourney.  If I were to play this again, I'd probably put 2 jittes or something in the sb.

I've always been a big fan of Threads for aggro mirrors. Jitte always worries me when you're only playing 8-12 guys since often times connecting with Jitte means you're losing your creature in combat (if he's not killed by spot removal already). Threads always steals their Goyfs, Confidants, Dreadnoughts, and various other critters generating useful card advantage.

Only problem with Threads is it's REB-able. Then again, Jitte gets turned off by Null Rods and hit by artifact kill. Yes, some fish players anticipate equipment and thus board accordingly.

[EnialisLiadon]

Yeah, it was his first vintage tournament (and his only other tournaments before were small t2's and booster drafts hosted by the magic club at UofI).

@threads:  That might be a better call over jitte.  Jitte was a knee-jerk reaction to the juggernauts, trikes and dupes I was seeing from workshop aggro and the swathes of 2/3's from r/g aggro.  I'd have to test both of them, and other options.

[hitman]

With all the mana denial, would Mana Leak be as good or better than Negate?  Negate seems good against most decks but what about Shop Aggro and Fish mirrors?
The deck looks good; it reminds me of MaskNought.

[ErkBek]

With all the mana denial, would Mana Leak be as good or better than Negate?  Negate seems good against most decks but what about Shop Aggro and Fish mirrors?
The deck looks good; it reminds me of MaskNought.

Negate got the nod over Leak because it's better in games when you're mana denial isn't working so well. If you don't have a Null Rod out, it's not that unheard of for Slaver to have 3 mana lying around to resolve their Tinker of a crucial TFK.

[EnialisLiadon]

More sb info:

We also played 2 Heap Doll in the side to fight Ichorid, but Crypt or Chalice would've been better uses for those slots.

We also played 2 In the Eyes of Chaos in the sb.  I suggested them as a joke, but they were actually pretty good against slaver.  Though along with Heap Doll, I'm sure those slots can be put to better use.

Or sideboard for that July tourney was 4 leyline, 2 heap doll, 3 trygon predator, 3 oxidize, 2 in the eye, 1 darkblast.

But back to the maindeck...

I do really like Negate over Daze, in addition to Stifle over Remand and Piracy Charm.  Do you ever get screwed from not even having a single blasic Island?

[jeffthefob]

This list was very different than the list Moxlotus ran at the Vintage Champs; I am glad Brainstorm is in as I recall and am too lazy to check on the other thread.  ^^

I was about to run this list at the Black Lotus tourney in NorCal here at Eudo but decide against it last minute.  In my experiences with Fish decks tell me that I need to put my opponent on a clock.  So my biggest question is: Is 12 creature enough? Cursecatcher's function isn't to kill your opponent.  This leaves Bob and Goyfs.  While a resolved Goyf can def. kill, but this deck isn't like GAT where you draw a lot of cards.  Do you have situations where you halted your opponent but can't finish them off because of the inability to put a Goyf/Bob on the table?

The other list I saw ran 2x Trygon Predator and 2x Waterfront Bouncers; I assumed they were meta choices.  This lead to my third question: What other creature options you have? I know for a fact that people are well prepared against Fish decks; 12 guys isn't really enough.  (This obviously lead to choices of not to play the deck and etc. but w/e)

I have not been playing any Fish list in a while; but BUG Fish seems awesome.  Too bad Type 1 season is over here in NorCal.  Anyways, thanks.

[ErkBek]

I was about to run this list at the Black Lotus tourney in NorCal here at Eudo but decide against it last minute.  In my experiences with Fish decks tell me that I need to put my opponent on a clock.  So my biggest question is: Is 12 creature enough? Cursecatcher's function isn't to kill your opponent.  This leaves Bob and Goyfs.  While a resolved Goyf can def. kill, but this deck isn't like GAT where you draw a lot of cards.  Do you have situations where you halted your opponent but can't finish them off because of the inability to put a Goyf/Bob on the table?

Surprisingly no. Occasionally, I'll have game where my only clock is 2x Cursecatcher, but that means I've drawn tons of disruption and only 2 points of damage a turn is enough.

The other list I saw ran 2x Trygon Predator and 2x Waterfront Bouncers; I assumed they were meta choices.  This lead to my third question: What other creature options you have? I know for a fact that people are well prepared against Fish decks; 12 guys isn't really enough.  (This obviously lead to choices of not to play the deck and etc. but w/e)

This deck is the evolution of URBana fish. Basically, I was unsatisfied with Null Rod URBana fish since Null Rod overlapped with Gorilla Shaman and had to be cast on turns I wanted to do something else. URBana's unique 3 Chalice + 4 Gorilla Shaman package was much better suited for the deck than Null Rod was. Null Rod is better than ever now that Brainstorm is gone. Decks can't easily ditch their now useless artifacts without Brainstorm and their draw spells cost 3 mana, not 1. I had to try something else.

I started off with a few Waterfront Bouncers and Ninja of the Deep hours in the deck. Ninja was just terrible. I rarely ever would slide him into play early and pulling my other creatures out of play was painful especially since Cursecatcher was my only 1 drop.

With Ninja leaving the deck, I wasn't satisfied with Waterfront Bouncer. Bouncer is amazing in URBana fish because he constantly keeps the board clear so your Ninja's and 1/1's can connect. Not only are your guys connecting, but your opponent is having to invest mana in recasting their guys. This is pretty much the definition of tempo. Also, because of URBana's 4 Ninja + 4 Confidant based draw you're almost always have a card you're fine with dumping to bounce their guy. BUG fish didn't have all this going for it, thus it wasn't able to utilize Bouncer very well.

Instead, BUG fish had to incorporate Tutors + Echoing Truth as the solution to creatures bigger than Tarmogoyf. The big plus side of this is the Tutors find Ancestral all day when you don't have pressure on the board. I'd much rather have a Merchant Scroll in my hand than Waterfront Bouncer in almost any situation that arises.

Mesmeric Fiend was considered for a mini-combo with Bouncer, but then I realized he sucks.

Predator in the main is something I never had time to test, but I don't see the need for it.

Dimir Cutpurse is difficult to cast when you're playing Null Rods and are aggressively using Wastelands. His discard ability can backfire vs. slaver too.

Dryad wouldn't work b/c he's stop growing at 3/3.

Mongrel doesn't really work in here since you don't want to pitch cards in your hand. Same goes for Pyschatog.

Merfolk Looter was briefly considered, but never tested. The deck just doesn't need him.

That just about covers all the playables.

[DEA]

some random observations

BUG fish is probably best in a meta where you don't have a prevalence of random aggro
in a goyf mirror you're going to bang heads with other goyfs, who MAY have darkblast or jitte to kill your own goyfs
if any good aggro is in the meta, you can be sure people are prepared to deal with creatures
looking at your decklist, you have no maindeck solution for threats other than echoing truth, which you're going to waste one tutor for
you don't have jitte main to get rid of random creatures, welders would just play you all day, even with null rod, they're just going to recur their robots
5 artifact mana and 4 null rods seem pretty painful to me
8/12 creatures dying to darkblast, and no pump to save them
with 6 fetches, 4 wastes and 1 strip, you also run the risk of getting mana denied/colour screwed from stifles/wastes, and you run only 23 total
magus of the moon, blood moon will laugh at your mana base because you have no islands

what's the meta over at your parts? (house, etc)
good thing about this though, it probably rapes most combo/control-combo decks

[Duncan]

Again a nice deck created! Thanks for sharing!

How much do you like Merchant Scroll? Wouldn't that slot be better as a 2nd Echoing Truth (so you can tutor for one when they've duressed the one in your opening hand) or 4th Negate?

[ErkBek]

some random observations

BUG fish is probably best in a meta where you don't have a prevalence of random aggro
in a goyf mirror you're going to bang heads with other goyfs, who MAY have darkblast or jitte to kill your own goyfs
if any good aggro is in the meta, you can be sure people are prepared to deal with creatures
looking at your decklist, you have no maindeck solution for threats other than echoing truth, which you're going to waste one tutor for
you don't have jitte main to get rid of random creatures, welders would just play you all day, even with null rod, they're just going to recur their robots
5 artifact mana and 4 null rods seem pretty painful to me
8/12 creatures dying to darkblast, and no pump to save them
with 6 fetches, 4 wastes and 1 strip, you also run the risk of getting mana denied/colour screwed from stifles/wastes, and you run only 23 total
magus of the moon, blood moon will laugh at your mana base because you have no islands

Irrelevant.

good thing about this though, it probably rapes most combo/control-combo decks

Relevant.

----------

All of the critiques you've made are calculated risks. I'd lose more games to not having a land that taps for multiple colors of mana than having a single island in the deck would save me. Initially a basic Island was in the deck, but it was cut because it lost games. If you're worried about the Moon Man, play Slaughter Pact over Threads in the board. I really doubt that even the basic Island would be relevant. If I had to play a basic, I'd probably want a Swamp.

All that shit about Darkblast doesn't really concern me much. The best answer to Darkblast is Wasteland. I played URBana fish to +5 power splits/wins and that deck lost much harder to Darkblast (and Pyroclasm) than this. Can't live in fear. Got to learn to fight through it.

No one plays Jitte in maindecks (or even on sideboards). Even if they do, Null Rod shuts it off.

5 Artifact mana and 4 Null Rod is perfect. Lotus is unaffected by Rod since you use it to cast Rod, so it's only really 4. Accelerating out your threats is much more important than not losing a single off-color mox.

Again a nice deck created! Thanks for sharing!

How much do you like Merchant Scroll? Wouldn't that slot be better as a 2nd Echoing Truth (so you can tutor for one when they've duressed the one in your opening hand) or 4th Negate?

Scroll is great because it's the Echoing Truth, Negate, or the Ancestral Recall whichever you want it to be.

[FadeToBlack]

Hey,

Played a bunch of games with this list recently and feels really strong. How's this for a sample sideboard:

 4  Leyline of the Void
 2  Pithing Needle
 2  Threads of Disloyalty
 3  Yixlid Jailer
 1  Darkblast
 2  Trygon Predator
 1  Krosan Grip

Pretty similar to what you summed up at the top of this article, just with some tailored off numbers. 9 anti-dredge cards because I don't want to lose that matchup, Darkblast because it has incredible value for being a tutorable singleton, and the rest is just cards that sure up weaker matchups.

Why something like Negate over even something like Counterspell when all your lands tap for blue? I take it is because you like to be more flexible when possibly casting off a mox, and catching a creature is typically irrelevant.

Thoughts on playing Spell Snare in a Drain Heavy environment?

[Duncan]

Why something like Negate over even something like Counterspell when all your lands tap for blue? I take it is because you like to be more flexible when possibly casting off a mox, and catching a creature is typically irrelevant.

1 Jet
1 Emerald
1 Ruby
1 Strip
4 Wasteland
1 Bayou

5 of your lands won't tap for blue. On top of that, Negate comes online when one of these 3 moxes is in your opening hand. Having a hard counter in the first 2 turns is really important against decks like TPS and Grim Long.

[OwenTheEnchanter]

When I played a deck similar to this one there was a lot of small things about it that I liked that made a pretty big difference. Confidant life loss IS an issue, and with the loss of Brainstorm and to a lesser extent your choice not to include Trinket Mage (which would get Top) makes me worry. To fix this you have Merchant Scroll which seems a little loose in this deck but maybe a necessary evil, Id add a Ponder for sure. Along with the life loss I fear from Confidant the mix of Seize/Duress is pretty important, Thoughtseize is byfar the better card but I think 2 Duress 2 Sezie should work. Also I played in a tournament a week before SCG Chicago and I had the mix you use of 4 Wasteland 1 Strip Mine and too much colorless mana cost me at least one match, granted you dont have Mox Pearl but still Id cut a Wasteland.

[Soon-Man]

how hard is casting FoW with only 13 other blue cards?

[ErkBek]

When I played a deck similar to this one there was a lot of small things about it that I liked that made a pretty big difference. Confidant life loss IS an issue, and with the loss of Brainstorm and to a lesser extent your choice not to include Trinket Mage (which would get Top) makes me worry. To fix this you have Merchant Scroll which seems a little loose in this deck but maybe a necessary evil, Id add a Ponder for sure. Along with the life loss I fear from Confidant the mix of Seize/Duress is pretty important, Thoughtseize is byfar the better card but I think 2 Duress 2 Sezie should work. Also I played in a tournament a week before SCG Chicago and I had the mix you use of 4 Wasteland 1 Strip Mine and too much colorless mana cost me at least one match, granted you dont have Mox Pearl but still Id cut a Wasteland.

Can't really play Trinket Mage in a Null Rod deck.

I rarely ever have a life loss problem, the deck's mana curve is very low. Other than FoW's everything else is 0, 1, or 2 mana.

how hard is casting FoW with only 13 other blue cards?

It's actually 14 others, but its occasionally a problem. If you play smart and don't cast an unneeded Brainstorm or Cursecatcher when you're holding FoW, you can minimize this.

[Campee]

I think you need more creatures in this deck. Also, I think white is a better color than green. Javelineers, Grunts, and Swords are very useful in the current metagame. Everyone has graveyard tricks and 1 toughness creatures which make Grunts and Javelineers awesome. Grunts make your opponent's Yawgmoth's Will less potent while smashing face. Tarmogoyf is a beater, but he doesn't do anything else other than beat. I've always wanted to find a way to include Tarmogoyf in my fish decks but there were always better cards in other colors that I wanted to play instead. I've thought about running 4 color fish but that stretches the mana too thin. Maybe someday they'll make a good, cheap, disruptive green creature and I'll be able to play 'Goyf in my fish decks. But for now, I'm sticking with white.

Ok, onto your card selection.

Why do you play 4 null rods? I've found that 3 is fine. You really don't want to draw 2 of them. I know the argument will be that you really want to find a null rod, but you also really don't want to find a second one and that tends to happen often when you play 4.

Why do you play thoughtseize? Why not just play 4 duress and be done with it? I guess it's because you can't really deal with creatures, so you're hoping to get their creatures out of their hand before they can cast them. Still, that's a lot of damage with bobs, fetches, vampiric tutor, and force of will. Seems risky. Your opponent could just randomly dark ritual + tendrils you after you've lost a ton of life to your spells/bobs. It happens.

Why do you play all those tutors? What are you tutoring for? Ancestral seems like the obvious answer, and I guess your one way of dealing with *any* creature (echoing truth). Why don't you just play more cards that actually do stuff instead of all of those tutors? It's not like you're going to have a lot of mana to be able to tutor and cast the spell you tutor for on the same turn. Meanwhile, Darksteel Colossus is attacking next turn. I guess you could have used one of your card-disadvantage tutors to find the answer during your opponent's turn instead and then untapped and cast your spell, only to be down a card. Meh.

Negate? Sure, it's a hard counter and it's cheap. Not bad. But do you know how good Daze is in this style of deck? You've got a huge mana denial strategy with Cursecatcher, null rods, and strip mine/wastelands. Most of the time that you cast Daze it's like a one card force of will in this deck. It counters Dark Confidant, Goblin Welder, Painter's Servant, Tarmogoyf, etc. Your deck already can't remove creatures that are in play very easily, with Negate you can't counter them reliably either.

Please read thread before posting.

-Eric

[AmbivalentDuck]

'Campee' does raise one interesting point: only one Echoing Truth.  Back in the time of 4 Brainstorms while playing Sullivan Solution, I found that I needed multiple bounce spells despite my excellent card drawing and tutoring.  In an environment where your answer is harder to dig for, is one generic maindeck answer enough?

[theLastGnu]

Does this deck run enough draw? I'll admit I haven't played around with it yet, but 4 bobs and 2 spells seems a little light.

[Moxlotus]

I liked playing 2 Echoing Truths.  Of course, I cut Scroll and DT because I hated spending 4 mana to do something.  At the very least, I'd fire Merchant Scroll for another Truth.  Sure, the Truth can't get Ancestral, but you should be tapping mainphase mana to play creatures, Duress or Null Rod.  

Does this deck run enough draw? I'll admit I haven't played around with it yet, but 4 bobs and 2 spells seems a little light.

Draw was not really a problem for me because I was stifling my opponent's ability to get his gameplan off the ground.  So we both end up drawing about the same amount, except my spells are cheaper and take away his mana production (Rod, waste, curse, stifle/trickbinds).

[Tin_Mox5831]

Once again, I'm very impressed with a Becker deck. Well done. When it comes to the entire "Fish" archetype, there's this primal urge to load up on cute tricks, but this deck just grabs it's hardhat and goes to work doing what every good "Fish" deck should do without wasting time on the frills.

The only question I have is regarding Mox Ruby. I was just thinking that you may be better served by playing Lotus Petal in that slot. Red mana is of no consequence to you, and the fact that the deck features Null Rod so prominently renders the argument of a  "permanent" mana source relatively unimportant. Lotus Petal would lead to more powerful opening turns when drawn, allowing for something like Duress to come down while holding up Stifle or windmilling Ancestral if the coast is clear.

Other than that, the deck's very well-constructed and has been testing quite well for me.

Thanks,
Dave

[beder]

I also think that the build presented by Eric is very nice.
I tested for while a similar one : excatly the same creature package, same tutor package, perhaps one more stifle, some daze.... The main difference was that i almost added a full set of 0CC mana accelerators and choosed the mana leaked road instead of the null rod road.
I felt like I really needed to be able to put a dark conf online turn one. So full accelerators and no null rod...

When it comes to playing a fish/mana denial strategy, I truly think that the Curscatcher/DarkConf/Tarmo is right now the best package.
Especially Curscatcher that is clearly underestimated, IMO. When it comes to that card, in order to really evaluate its impact on game, you really have to ask the opponent at the end of the game "what was the impact of curscatcher on your play?". Generally, on your side of the board, you cannot really know what it prevented the opponent from playing. Maybe a turn one ancestral, that has been played turn 2 instead of turn 1, cause of curscatcher. And this of course may have a huge impact on the overall game. Even if you never sacrificed your curscatcher, it does not mean that it has been really strong. To sum up, I really like this creature package and I don't think you need more creature.

Just one remark : I agree with Eric when he says "I don't care about the opponent playing darkblast". But I think that darkblast could be interesting in this build. I used to have one in mine and was rarely disappointed.
Of course it deals with opponent's welder, dark conf,... But it is also usefull if you face tarmo. This is a cheap solution in order to be sure that your tarmos are going to kill their tarmos, without dying.
Given that tps decks tends to have tarmo in side, it is surely an interesting side card. But given that it also helps you against slaver g1, give that it is pretty usefull against many randoms deck or decks relying on dark conf, I feel like it is a contender for a main deck slot. It saved me lot of games, I like that card Cheap, reusable, simple, ...

[GrandpaBelcher]

I was testing a build similar to this and threw in a Life from the Loam and a Raven's Crime just to see how they flew.  They seemed pretty good, even separately, when they weren't comboing to empty my opponent's hand.  Life from the Loam let me reuse Wastes and Fetches, and Raven's Crime was sometimes surprising.  Any thoughts on those?

[FadeToBlack]

I was testing a build similar to this and threw in a Life from the Loam and a Raven's Crime just to see how they flew.  They seemed pretty good, even separately, when they weren't comboing to empty my opponent's hand.  Life from the Loam let me reuse Wastes and Fetches, and Raven's Crime was sometimes surprising.  Any thoughts on those?

Sounds like your inching your way toward DotD

[GrandpaBelcher]

I was testing a build similar to this and threw in a Life from the Loam and a Raven's Crime just to see how they flew.  They seemed pretty good, even separately, when they weren't comboing to empty my opponent's hand.  Life from the Loam let me reuse Wastes and Fetches, and Raven's Crime was sometimes surprising.  Any thoughts on those?

Sounds like your inching your way toward DotD

Meh, not really.  I had green, I had black, I had mana denial, I had discard--it all seemed to fit together.  The downgrading of Duress to Raven's Crime and finding room for Life from the Loam didn't seem to be a big drawback for the potential gain.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

I agree with lotus petal.
Other than that, I like the straight forwardness of the deck. No tricks, no cuteness. 4 null rod.

On the one-bounce thing:

To me, a card that says:

Sorcery - choose one:
pay 1UU to draw three cards or pay 2UU to bounce target darksteel colossus.

sounds better than another e - truth. (And it's not even strictly limited to that, although most of the time, it'll be that one.)