BUG Fish - Innovating Null Rod strategies in Vintage

[brianpk80]

Obviously I have no major answers to oath. I guess I have e truth and extirpates? Maybe this deck should be ran like SS 2.0 and play spell snare.

The best answer to Oath is to buy time.  Stifle is surprisingly good here.  Modern Oath is in many ways a suicide deck, and it dies to its Orchard tokens far more often that most Oath players would care to admit. 

[Twaun007]

No answers to Oath? R U J K? You have Trygon Predator in the main and up to quad laser Krosan Grips in the board. Toss Duress and Stifle into the mix and you have a decent Oath match up.

[maatn]

@Malkizid: Congrats with finish!

Seems like BUG has picked up a lot of supporters!

I agree with swawagon (previous page) on the Cursecatchers. You'll need them to effectively implement the mana denial gameplan. But, please do test BUG without CCatchers, and post your results! I've played with CCatchers and think I owe a lot of successes to these little fellows.

A lot has already been said on maindecking Trygon Predators. It really is a meta choice, don't play them if you expect lots of combo and little Oath or Workshop lists. In a combo heavy environment, perhaps maindeck Arcane Laboratory is wiser..

I'm not a fan of Maze of Ith. What match ups will be improved by this land? Oath? Against oath, I'd rather have 4 Krosan Grips + the two maindecked Trygon Predators than Maze of Ith. Also, I found that early on in the game you need every landdrop to produce mana for you disruption / pressure.

@Mith: A pity you didn't make it T8. Also, mana screw is the most horrible way of losing...Shuffling and taking mulligans sometimes just doesn't help. I do agree that the manabase is solid as it is and shouldn't be changed. It's tight, but sufficient.
You said you played Cutthroats. Do you mean that legendary merfolk from Shadowmore? If so, interesting choice!

@Dr.KnowMaD: The major disadvantage on playing Mishra's Factory, is the same as playing Maze of Ith. From playing this list, I found that every land drop needs to produce mana. I would not play Extirpate maindeck, I agree with FadeToBlack.

[Dr.KnowMaD]

I wasn't sure about the Extripate main but when I use them I like them and tend to do well.  An example would be Grip plus extirpate against the Oath match is A good start if no a good game.  Or counter something and say good by with no response for only one more mana.  Its like i said some where about Vexing Shusher, One more mana making your spells stick is worth it to me.  Think naturalize is to Krosan Grip.

Ya I know about the land base and the Factories, it just hard and still a bummer.  I can still want a way.  Doesn't mean I'll get it.

                                                                                                                                                                    Dr.KnowMaD

[Mith]

@Mith: A pity you didn't make it T8. Also, mana screw is the most horrible way of losing...Shuffling and taking mulligans sometimes just doesn't help. I do agree that the manabase is solid as it is and shouldn't be changed. It's tight, but sufficient.
You said you played Cutthroats. Do you mean that legendary merfolk from Shadowmore? If so, interesting choice!

Whoops, I meant to say "Cutpurse"

Next time, I'm playing 2x Trygon maindeck

[overseer1234]

Next time, I'm playing 2x Trygon maindeck

I 2nd that.

I just got back from a tournament and went for 4th place with BUG-fish, only main deck changes were :
-1 mox ruby (We don't play red)
-1 vampyric tutor
and
+1 trygon predator
+1 island (realyhappy anout it)

And sideboard was:
3x Yixlid Jailer
4x Leyline of the Void
2x Pernicious Deed
2x Extirpate
2x Slaughter Pact
2x Krosan Grip

I lost to red shop aggro(in the semi finals becaus I forgot to pay for slaughter pact when we were 1-1) and controll slaver (round 3) and won against tezzeret controll, stax(2 times don't know what type), controll slaver,some strange hybrid deck that played dragon+dace and sided in oath, and ID'd against something that later seemed to be drain tendrills.

I have to say that however this deck doesn't realy suit my playstyle, this deck is REALY FREAKING GOOD. (given that I only played 4 games with it before the start of the tournament and it's my second vintage tournament ever).
Maybe I'll post a better report later (I'm tired).

Next time I think I'll kick the merchant scroll in favour of vampiric tutor, or another trygon predator.

Anyway, nice deck and Ill propably play again next time.

Greetzzzz,
Robin.

[Shpongle]

Hey all!

I'm interested in this deck, but got no power, so i wonder what the best replacement for the power is?

This is the changes I've done:
+1 Underground Sea
+1 Tropical Island
+2 Island
+1 Swamp
+3 Trygon Predator

-4 Moxen
-1 Black Lotus
-1 Merchant scroll
-1 Ancestrall Recall
-1 Time Walk


Here's the list:

1 Strip mine
4 Wasteland
4 Underground Sea
4 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 island
1 swamp

4 Force of Will
4 Null Rod
2 Stifle
3 Negate
3 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
1 Echoing Truth

4 Dark Confidant
4 Cursecatcher
4 Tarmogoyf
3 trygon predator

1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor


I would like to get in more Stifle and maybe daze.
Have anyone tried daze in this deck, and if so:
What do you think about it?
Is negate a bad card to run, without 4xmoxen?

Also have anyone tried Sinkhole in the deck?
Maybe a crazy idea, but with all the LD and Null rod package this could be a killer.

[bluemage55]

I'm interested in this deck, but got no power, so i wonder what the best replacement for the power is?

If you run no power, this deck probably isn't going to work out anywhere near as well as it should.  I also find it interesting that this is even a problem, given the prevalence of proxies in tournaments.

That said, I'd keep Merchant Scroll as it still has reasonable utility, and for the remaining 7 I'd run 2 lands + 1 Ponder + 4 Daze.

Also have anyone tried Sinkhole in the deck?
Maybe a crazy idea, but with all the LD and Null rod package this could be a killer.

Sinkhole puts too much strain on the mana base.  It's not going to work out well.

[Shojeel]

This might not be impressive to all.........

I have not played vintage MTG in about 5 years. I decided to get back in and BUG Fish was my deck choice. I went to a local tournament and managed to pull out a top 8 out of 18 players. My inexperience in Vintage was noticeable in top 8 when I did not counter a scroll rack against Oath. This horrible decision lost me game three and kept me from top 4.

My other losses of the day came to Elf combo and another Fish deck (BUGw i think). I can not say enough about how much fun this deck is to play and how much power it has. I think the only change I would make would be to cut the Mox Ruby for something else, not sure what. I encourage anyone that has not tried this deck to sleeve it up and play some games.

If anyone has any questions about my games or my deck list feel free to ask.

Here is the link to the tournament report:

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=36984.0

[the_lord_shaper]

A great side board option for this deck could be Spell Snare. It's good vs. oath, aggro, and drain decks. Also Propaganda is pretty good vs. aggro and amazing vs. dredge, but not as overall as good as spell snare

[Nehptis]

I decided to jump into this thread and give BUG Fish a whirl.  I'm completely bored with Oath and TPS and don't feel like playing Drains at the moment.  I originally was planning on running Elves.  But, it's just not competitive enough yet.  So, I was intrigued by Null Rod strategies.

I think it's safe to say that in a meta of increasing numbers of Slaver and Tezz Null Rod is positioned very well to succeed.  I tried to be as comprehensive as possible in reading the entire thread.  So, I apologize if my questions have already been addressed.

1) Why no Ponder?  Seems like it would help the deck smooth out its draws.  I'd cut something like VT for it.

2) Echoing Truth vs. Wipe Away.  Is this simply preference?  Any data to back 1 over the other in BUG Fish?  Usually, my Vintage decks run Truth.  But, in Fish it seems critical to ensure that your bounce spell resolves against a DSC, or the like.  In other decks like TPS your clock is so much faster than Fish.  So, you could still win even if your bounce spell does not resolve.

3) Cursecatcher, Trygon, Augury Adept.  Again is it a matter of preference here, too?  I understand the role of Catcher.  But, I am very much intrigued by the power of Trygon in a meta with Shops and Oath (mine has more Shop than Oath).  I am also very intrigued by Adept.  But, I am concerned that it looks good on paper and is not effective in reality.

4) Not being an avid Fish player I'm sensitive about the "Fish clock".  It seems that other than the occasional Bob beats and possibility of Trygon support, it's all about Tarm.  Although the synergy with Bob is very dangerous has Tinker / DSC been considered as an additional and faster win condition?  Or is the risk just too high with Bobs, FOWs and DSC?

5) Just throwing this out there.  Has anyone tried swapping out Tarm for Dryads?  I'm not talking about transforming this into a Grow or GAT like build with more draw spells.  But, instead just flatly replacing all Tarms for Dryads.  I'm surmising that there is a significant upside to an early resolved Dryad vs. a Tarm in this deck.  The Dryad could potentially grow faster and larger than the Tarm.  The downside is that when resolved mid or late game the Dryad takes time to grow while the Tarm starts beating for at least 3 or 4 right away.

[swawagon]

I think most of your questions Nehptis will answer themselves when you sleeve this up.

1) Ponder is OK and possibly most important for finding early lands. But it is not an instant and dropping Cursecather, or with a Mox - Bob or Tarmo, or sitting on Mana Leak mana is just better than casting Ponder.

2) Echoing Truth is just more flexible. It is a much better Ichorid answer than Wipe Away. BUG fish has quite a few counters and discard, so any bounce is usually enough back up for hitting a DSC. Also 2 is lot less than 3 mana in a deck that uses it's Wastes on opponents and runs 4 Null Rods.

3) Augury Adept, and Trygon Predator (or Cold Eyed Selkie) again is a 3 mana issue also. And both can be tricky to cast colored mana-wise as well. I like a 13th creature and either is fine, but there really isn't room for multiples. This is also why Vampiric should stay making a specialty beater easier to find.

4) Bob isn't exactly a clock but the draw extends the game in your favor. Tarm is the real finisher, But either unchecked are savage.

5) Tarmos are great, I don't think they are a slot that needs any adjustment. There are metas where Cursecather is not the right guy and his slot is probably much more in question than 4 Tarmo.

[Mr. Type 4]

Ponder actually seems like it wwould be very good in here, it's just about what would you cut to put it in.  Ponder synergises well with Bobs, smooths out the land draws, goes well withyour 6 fetch lands and is a Sorcery to pump Tarmogoyf (a card type you have very few of in here)

These all seem like very compelling reasons to run Ponder.  I'm not sure how it fits with the deck's overall goal of applying pressure quickly to slow the game down long enough to not get combo killed on turn 2-3, though.  It'd be very good on turn 1.

[Campee]

Does anyone else have a problem with this deck not drawing enough creatures? I'm also starting to think that the time of Cursecatcher has come and gone...

[SimonCopp]

That's always been a problem with the deck. That's why the - Vamp + Trygon predator in the main was fine. Regarding Cursecatcher, i feel it's still strong with the deck's great mana denial strategy and you should have a creature or two in your starting hand and most hands with say one Cursecatcher in will usually have some method of tutoring or drawing into another creature.

[Brot_Ohne_Kruste]

Hey guys,

I'm new to Vintage and attempted my first tourney about two weeks ago. I came from Legacy and I almost didn't know anything about Vintage except a few things friends told me, who play this format. About a five days before the tourney started I had to choose between playing Legacy or Vintage and I decided to play Vintage because I always wanted to. Also I was able to get lent a few power pieces.
So, within those few days I threw together a decklist, not knowing that BUG Fish as a competive deck already existed. About a week before building my deck, a card from Legends caught my attention: Chains of Mephistopheles. Even with my limited knowledge on this format, I knew (or hoped to know ) that nearly every deck is based on carddraw, so I found it a good idea to play this card in a control-shell. I also heard that Null Rod was quite good in Vintage, so I included it too.
After I got a rough, but good looking list, I discussed it with my teammates. The list got a little bit refinement, but it hasn't changed much from the original one. This is the list I played at the tourney (it wasn't a proxy-event, so I just got Black Lotus and Mox Jet):

„TMT – Wir angeln Fish mit Ketten und Stäben“
// Lands
1  Strip Mine
2  Tropical Island
1  Swamp
4  Polluted Delta
4  Wasteland
2  Flooded Strand
2  Island
3  Underground Sea

// Creatures
1  Tombstalker
4  Dark Confidant
4  Cursecatcher
4  Tarmogoyf

// Spells
3  Disrupt
1  Mox Jet
4  Force of Will
4  Daze
3  Chains of Mephistopheles
4  Null Rod
4  Stifle
1  Black Lotus
1  Lotus Petal
3  Duress

// Sideboard
SB: 2  Oxidize
SB: 2  Trygon Predator
SB: 2  Umezawa's Jitte
SB: 2  Bitterblossom
SB: 4  Yixlid Jailer
SB: 1  Annul
SB: 2  Seal of Primordium


As you can see, the SB is really random because I haven't got any time to get my hands on the cards I needed.


So, with the decklist above I went to my first Vintage tourney without any hopes of winning something. We were just 17 people and played 5 rounds. Here is a short overview about the decks I was playing against:

1.Grim Long (2-1)
2.U/W Bomberman (2-1)
3.Stax (0-2)
4.U/B Control (2-0) [I don't even know, what kind of deck it was :/]
5.U/R Painter (2-1)

I ended up in the 2nd place with a 4-1-0 record which, in my eyes, is really impressive. The Stax guy I played in round 3 took the 1st place.
Although the deck looks really similar to BUG Fish, I assume that it plays very different (I haven't even tested BUG Fish). It's more controllish by playing additional hate in form of Chains which were totally awesome all day long. Here is an example:
In the first game against the U/B Control in the 4th round he was at 1 life and I got 2 Tarmogoyfs on my side; next turn I would have killed him. His graveyard was filled with carddraw or stuff like FoF and Gifts and he has got 4 Moxen, 1 Mana Crypt and 1 Academy online + 6 other lands I think. He casted Yawghmoth's Will and normally with such an high amount of mana and draw you would win the game. He casted all high cardadvantage spells, but he could find an answer because he had to discard all his good cards (I think he started drawing with 2 cards in his hand and TfK isn't that good under Chains ). He also couldn't cast Time Twister (well, he could, but it was just a „mill the top 7 cards“-spell) and he lost the next turn.

Against any other deck except Stax (which is a bad matchup I assume), the Chains were so good, especially with a Null Rod. If you could get the Chains online, you almost have enough time to find creatures to beat your opponent to death. Also, sideboarding wasn't really necessary at the tourney.


After the event I talked to a few people and even he was okay, I cutted the Tombstalker. This is the actual decklist I'm running:


„The Fishing Rod“
// Lands
    1  Strip Mine
    2  Tropical Island
    4  Polluted Delta
    4  Wasteland
    2  Flooded Strand
    1  Island
    3  Underground Sea
    1  Bayou

// Creatures
    4  Dark Confidant
    4  Cursecatcher
    4  Tarmogoyf

// Spells
    3  Disrupt
    1  Mox Jet
    4  Force of Will
    4  Daze
    3  Chains of Mephistopheles
    4  Null Rod
    4  Stifle
    1  Black Lotus
    2  Duress
    1  Time Walk
    1  Ancestral Recall
    1  Mox Sapphire
    1  Mox Emerald


I also added one Bayou because sometimes I had color-problems and I couldn't cast a Tarmogoyf for many turn so my opponent was winning.


Some might ask themselves why I'm running the cards I'm running. Here is a little explication of the cards that might be shaky in your eyes:

- Disrupt: This card is really awesome especially in combination with Daze, Cursecatcher, LD and  Null Rod. It also provided cardadvantage and playing more counters is just too good.
- Daze: Even if this is a more controllish build, I feel like Daze is right in this deck.
- Chains of Mephistopheles: This card is just good against 80% of the metagame. Drop it, especially in combination with Null Rod, and win.

Because of the pretty bad matchup I've got against Stax, I came up with the following SB:

// Sideboard
SB: 3  Annul
SB: 4  Forbidden Orchard
SB: 4  Oath of Druids
(SB: 1  Demonic Tutor)
(SB: 1  Vampiric Tutor)
SB: 1  Akroma, Angel of Wrath
SB: 1  Hellkite Overlord

The Tutor-slots are shaky, but overall transforming into some sort of Oath is quite good I think. The Annuls are also against Stax, but against Oath too, which isn't such a good Matchup I think.


Overall the deck has got a good Matchup against almost every blue-based (except Oath, pure Aggro and maybe Fish, which is 50-50 I guess) and combo deck which, in my eyes, isn't bad . I'll  definitely play this deck again on a tourney.


Thanks for reading. I hope you like my decklist .


Edit: If this deck doesn't belong here then I'm sorry. I don't wanted to open another thread for it, if there is a similar deck out there.

[Phele]

Hallo Brot, netter Name

I can't say too much on your sideboard, Oath Sideboards are testet by many people, who probably can help you out. Your list looks quite good, even though I at least would add some sort of solution for resolved threats like Darksteel Colossus, Oath or Tezzeret: Echoing Truth with some sort of tutor(s) for example. Nice that you had that great results with Chains of Mephistopheles, I have always loved that card too. But I think I don't agree that Chains is good right now. It has been great, and that was the time, that I played Chains in tournaments as well: In the Gush period, where everybody and this mother was drawing cards like hell . Now with Gush and Brainstorm restricted, Chains lost a lot of his power. Combo decks already don't rely on draw sevens strongly anymore and against most blue decks you at max hit Thirst for Knowledge and Ancestral with Chains. Good, but not good enough to play even three of them. And many of the main threats you face with this deck like Yawgmoths Will, Tinker and the mentioned Fact or Fiction and Gifts Ungiven (these are no draws, you know that, right?) are not hit by Chains at all. Just my experience. Good luck with your deck.

[Brot_Ohne_Kruste]

Hallo Brot, netter Name

Thanks .

I can't say too much on your sideboard, Oath Sideboards are testet by many people, who probably can help you out. Your list looks quite good, even though I at least would add some sort of solution for resolved threats like Darksteel Colossus, Oath or Tezzeret: Echoing Truth with some sort of tutor(s) for example.

I've tried out a version with Demonic and Vampiric, but I don't think they where too good in my decklist. If I would run Tutors, I have to cut Counter and without that amount of Counter I don't think this deck would work that good. But I'll test it again, maybe I just got a wrong impression.

Nice that you had that great results with Chains of Mephistopheles, I have always loved that card too. But I think I don't agree that Chains is good right now. It has been great, and that was the time, that I played Chains in tournaments as well: In the Gush period, where everybody and this mother was drawing cards like hell . Now with Gush and Brainstorm restricted, Chains lost a lot of his power. Combo decks already don't rely on draw sevens strongly anymore and against most blue decks you at max hit Thirst for Knowledge and Ancestral with Chains. Good, but not good enough to play even three of them. And many of the main threats you face with this deck like Yawgmoths Will, Tinker and the mentioned Fact or Fiction and Gifts Ungiven (these are no draws, you know that, right?) are not hit by Chains at all. Just my experience. Good luck with your deck.

I see your point, but this deck doesn't only rely on Chains, it relies on synergies and Chains is a part from it. Let me explain: Your opponent needs mana, which are wasted, striped, stifled or roded. Because he hasn't got enough mana, I could almost counter all of his relevant spells und beat him to death with little creatures. To get more mana he needs to cast drawspells, in which he has to discard other good cards against me just to find a land, just because of the Chains. As a phychological result of all these annoying things (I heard Disrupt is really annoying), the opponent sometimes does mistakes which seals the game just faster .
It's the whole package of hate that makes the deck quite good and of course fun to play .

I don't know how good my matchup against Ad Nauseam Tendrils or other combodecks which aren't relying on draw is, but I'll test it.

Indeed, escpecially Tinker -> Colossus and a huge Will are a problem. Maybe I have to find new solutions in the SB (eventually Tutors in the Main and two one-offs [Crypt and Echoing Truth] in the Side).

Yeah, I know that FoF and Gifts aren't drawspells and not effected by Chains, but you can't handle everythings with Chains . In that case you have to counter; if you haven't got any Counter on your hand... mh, then you need luck .


Thanks for you impressions, Phele.


Edit: Also, if you don't know it yet: Chains are commulativ. If an opponent would draw a card with two Chains on my side, he has to discard a card first. Then the drawing of the first Chains is replaced by the second one and he has to discard another. After that he could draw a card.
This wasn't the main reason I am playing the Chains, but it isn't bad for me so it's quite good .

Edit2: After goldfishing a few hands with a version that included Tutors and Echoing Truth I think it was the right choice to play without them because a problem occured: Inconsistency. I don't want to have too many one-offs even if I have Tutors. I want a card right now and not to tutor for it first.
First of all I think the problem is that you haven't played against or with the deck. It plays differently, more like a control-deck than a fish-deck. Even my teammates weren't convinced when they first saw my decklist without Tutors, but after they have seen how the deck performs and reacts in certain situations they are assured now that it is better without the Tutors.
In my eyes the deck doesn't need an answer against Tinker->Colossus. Sure, if it resolves, you'll lose the game, but you'll win more games against decks that are running it then you'll lose . Adding a solution would hurt the deck's overall performance pretty bad.

I hope you can see my point .

[Phele]

After goldfishing a few hands with a version that included Tutors and Echoing Truth I think it was the right choice to play without them because a problem occured: Inconsistency. I don't want to have too many one-offs even if I have Tutors. I want a card right now and not to tutor for it first.
First of all I think the problem is that you haven't played against or with the deck. It plays differently, more like a control-deck than a fish-deck. Even my teammates weren't convinced when they first saw my decklist without Tutors, but after they have seen how the deck performs and reacts in certain situations they are assured now that it is better without the Tutors.
In my eyes the deck doesn't need an answer against Tinker->Colossus. Sure, if it resolves, you'll lose the game, but you'll win more games against decks that are running it then you'll lose . Adding a solution would hurt the deck's overall performance pretty bad.

I hope you can see my point .

Sorry to say so, but I don't agree.

First of all: It is for sure a pure Fish deck, nothing else. You just added Chains of Mephistopheles to a typical UBG Fish frame which is still very similar to UW, UWB, UR variants: Small beats (in this case a little bigger ones in form of Tarmo) paired with maximum of disruption and mana denial and some sort of creature based draw. More general its aggro control, very tempo orientated, but definately not pure control.

Which leads me to the question, if I already played against this deck or not: I played zillions of times against Fish epigones, which won't be any different against this one: A good deck with certain strengthes and weaknesses. And by not playing a solution like Echoing Truth you added another weakness: You directly lose games against certain threats like resolved Tinker, Oath, Dreadnoughts, Empty the Warrens .... I would hate to have these percentage of certain losses.

And I think it is a little bit too much said, that with lets say one Vamp and one Echoing Truth you add too much inconsistency to the deck. Anyway, good luck with your deck and keep on testing, you might come to similar conclusions. 

[Nehptis]

I'm planning on playing BUG Fish next month.  Conflux will be legal at this event.  Any Conflux cards to consider for the Deck or SB?  I personally haven't seen any "must use" cards.  I'm planning on running something similar to E.B.'s original list.

[nineisnoone]

The only thing I would consider (and probably not run) would be Countersquall over Negate.  The random 2 points of damage might be useful.

[chief]

It seems to me that the two points of damage are less useful than being able to cast negate off a colorless source like a wasteland.

[nineisnoone]

I'd agree to that.  It's just the only thing out of Conflux that looks removely useful.

[Nehptis]

Just a quick note.  I played BUG Fish today at Blue Bell to a 10th place finish out of 40 players.  This was my first time ever playing Fish.  So, I'm sure I made a few mistakes.  But, just an FYI, Oath's new tool, Progenitus  is for real.  I dismissed it when it was spoiled.  But, when it hits play you literally have 2 turns and then it's over.

I was running an Edict in the board for non-targeted removal.  But, after the tourney a friend reminded me of what I think is a better card than Edict.....Curfew.  It costs a Single U, is non-targeting, and can be Merchant Scrolled.  Best of all when used against an Oath player the Progenitus ends up in their hand, not shuffled back in their library.  Also, it can serve a similar purpose against Tinker--> DSC based decks in addition to your ETs or Wipe Aways.  It's draw back of bouncing 1 of our guys is very minimal for Fish.  I think it's a winner for BUG's SB as a 1 or 2 of: http://ww2.wizards.com/Gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?id=7817

[Twaun007]

If you are having trouble with the Oath matchup could you post your list and side boarding strategy? I have piloted BUG fish before and haven't lost to Oath yet. The Stifles, Duress Effects, and Trigun Preadator's pre board are really strong against Oath. It gets even better when you can toss in Krosan Grips from the board. 

[Nehptis]

Oath is not a terrible matchup.  But, I think with its new Protog, we could benefit from a bit more help.  And I agree that pro-active cards to prevent Oath from hitting or activating are best.  But, sometimes Oath does get through and does activate.  So, I do like having a contingency for that scenario.  But, Oath is not popular enough to warrant its own SB slot(s).  This what I like about Curfew.  It can also be used against Tinker-->DSC in addition to our other bounce.  The deck performed very well.  I went 4-2.

RD1: Loss to Proto Oath
RD2: Win vs Proto Oath  ***
RD3: Win vs TPS
RD4: Win vs Ich
RD5: Loss to Tezz Vault  (Sucks, Fish should win this.  But, Tinker/DSC with protection and a huge GY with Yawgwill ='s Losses.)
RD6: Win vs 3C Shop

4 Polluted Delta               
2 Flooded Strand               
4 Underground Sea             
3 Tropical Island             
1 Bayou       
3 Wasteland           
1 Strip Mine           

1 Black Lotus         
1 Mox Jet             
1 Mox Sapphire         
1 Mox Emerald         

4 Dark Confidant               
4 Cursecatcher
4 Tarmogoyf
2 Trygon Predator

4 Null Rod
4 Duress
4 Force of Will       
3 Negate               
2 Stifle               
1 Wipe Away     

1 Demonic Tutor       
1 Time Walk           
1 Ancestral Recall             
1 Brainstorm           
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll             

SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Yixlid Jailer   
SB: 2 Slaughter Pact
SB: 1 Krosan Grip
SB: 2 Curfew--->Today 1 spot was Edict.  I also cut a Darkblast for Curfew #2.
SB: 3 Energy Flux
SB: 2 Threads of Disloyalty

[Tha Gunslinga]

Oath is easy to beat if you side 4 Grips.  I never had any trouble with it when I was running this list:

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Force of Will
3 Null Rod
3 Stifle
3 Negate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Echoing Truth
4 Dark Confidant
3 Cursecatcher
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Trygon Predator
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vamp Tutor
1 Time Walk

SB:
2 Volcanic Island
4 Red Elemental Blast
3 Sower of Temptation
2 Engineered Plague
4 Krosan Grip

[Nehptis]

Your approach to Oath makes sense, I'll try it.

On another point, did you ever miss having the 4th Null Rod to ensure that you drew 1 early?  I debate myself whether 3 or 4 Rods is the correct #.

[Tha Gunslinga]

I went down to 3 because I was tired of drawing infinite Null Rods.  4 is fine.

[swawagon]

With Null Rod, Wastes, Stifles (hitting Fetchies), and Trygon Predators (hitting artifact mana) - isn't Mana Leak more often better than Negate? Sometimes countering a Tarmogoyf or Goblin Welder is significant.

And until TPS comes strongly back, I agree with running less than 4 Cursecatchers.