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voltron00x
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« on: March 11, 2012, 10:35:31 pm » |
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In between the TDG Winter Open and Saturday’s NEV at Top Deck Games, Mark Hornung and I tested a bunch of different brews. One of mine was a BUW brew that had a set of Ethersworn Canonist in the sideboard, and while the deck itself was mediocre, those guys were fantastic coming in out of the board against not just Storm Combo but also Gush, Snapcasters, and opposing blue decks in general. That made me wonder if Canonist had a home in Noble Fish, so I started messing around with Fish.
The source list I started with is Mike Noble’s current version (although his sideboards tend to be 15 one-ofs, this is the list he loaned out that made top 8 at the TDG Winter Open):
Maindeck:
4 Trygon Predator
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Meddling Mage
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Path to Exile
4 Mental Misstep
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
3 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
Sideboard:
4 Grafdigger’s Cage
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Nature’s Claim
3 Threads of Disloyalty
2 Mindbreak Trap
There’s a lot that I like about this deck, but I’m not a huge fan of the Gitaxian Probe / Meddling Mage package, and this build lacks the type of strategic trumps that I like to see in Noble Fish decks. That being said, I still appreciate what this deck does, and it is very consistent. I started out by taking out the Meddling Mages, Path to Exiles, and Gitaxian Probes, and rebuilding from there. After a few weeks of testing, I ended up here:
Noble Fish
4 Noble Hierarch
3 Qasali Pridemage
3 Tarmogoyf
4 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Trygon Predator
2 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Steel Sabotage
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Stony Silence
1 Brainstorm
1 Time Walk
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Black Lotus
3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
3 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
SB: 2 Path to Exile
SB: 1 Dismember
SB: 1 Tarmogoyf
SB: 1 Qasali Pridemage
SB: 1 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Seasinger
SB: 1 Wasteland
SB: 1 Steel Sabotage
SB: 3 Ravenous Trap
SB: 1 Tropical Island
So the basic idea with this is similar to the way I prefer my Fish decks to play, namely that you’re playing some strategic trumps combined with a reasonable clock to give you a shot of beating the broken decks.
Stony Silence is a huge upgrade over Null Rod as it is way harder to remove, and in fact is impossible to remove for most decks in the format pre-board. Grafdigger’s Cage gives the deck another way of shutting down Will, Tinker, Oath, and Dredge. Ethersworn Canonist is massively annoying for Gush decks, shuts down Ritual decks, and is really good at finishing off games against big blue when you’re ahead.
It is also worth noting that in Noble Fish decks, Trygon Predator is way better than it is in decks like BUG Fish and Gro, in that your Exalted triggers let your Trygon swing into an opponent that’s made a copy using Phyrexian Metamorph. Edric, Spymaster of Trest is another way the deck can put games out of reach, as you suddenly start drawing extra cards while still being able to attack with all your creatures.
Noble Fish is also obviously quite good against Remora decks, and Mental Misstep as a tempo card in the early game is terrific in a Fish deck. And, I found Steel Sabotage to be much better than I first expected as a main-deck inclusion.
Here’s a brief report.
Rd 1 – Gro (Feature Match)
I’m matched up against Tom Dixon, fresh off winning the NEV event in NY. He’s playing Gro again. Tom knocked me out of contention in the Grudge Match in February, so this is something of a revenge match for me.
In the first game, Tom mulls to 5 and I mull to 6. His hand has Ancestral and Mental Misstep but no mana sources. My hand isn’t all that great, but Tom’s deck refuses to give him a mana source, and when it does, it’s a Mox Emerald, and I counter it with Steel Sabotage.
In game two, I mull to 5 and Tom mulls to 6. If I recall correctly, he plays Mox, land, pass. On my end-step, he plays Mystical for Ancestral Recall, which I counter with Force of Will. I then play Stony Silence, leaving Tom with just his one land. He proceeds to top-deck two more Moxen, and without mana, we again don’t have much of a game.
(1-0, 2-0)
Rd 2 – Kuldotha MUD
In game 1, my mulligans continue as I go to 5. On the draw against Shops, my match-up preboard is decent but not great. Going to 5, I don’t have much of a shot and get crushed.
The sideboard plan against Shops is to take out 4 Misstep, 3 Cage, 3 Canonist and bring in everthing except 3 Rav Trap, 1 Seasinger, 1 Cage.
In game two, I’m way ahead the entire time, leading on Hierarch, countering the first resistor, and building an unbeatable board position (or something like that).
In game three, mulligan bug strikes in my favor as I’m up 7 cards to 5. Four of those cards hit play on turn one: Ancient Tomb, Sol Ring, Mana Vault, Kuldotha Forgemaster. Thankfully my hand is all business. I play fetch for Trop, Black Lotus, crack WWW, Stony Silence, Pridemage. Next turn I play Wasteland, Time Walk, then Wasteland the Ancient Tomb and Dismember the Forgemaster. GG.
(2-0, 4-1)
Rd 3 – Elves!
Extremely excited to be playing against Elves in the 2-0 bracket! I figure my deck should have a good match-up with the Canonists in the main. I lose my 3rd die roll of the day and then promptly mulligan to 5, so then I’m feeling much less secure. I do get a Canonist out and play Stony Silence to shut off any potential Skullclamps, but I’m soon facing down a ton of Elves. Summoner’s Pact finds Ezuri and I’m within two mana of being killed, but because of Canonist, I’m able to make that sequence of plays take an extra turn and that allows me to win by chumping to 1 life and swinging lethal with a Trygon.
In game 2, I mull to 6, attack for damage early, then fall way behind with no chance of attacking in thanks to Wirewood Symbiote, and scoop.
In game 3, I get to keep my hand, which ends up being extremely strong. I get out a couple of quick Tarmogoyfs, counter and Path to Exile the right cards, and win quickly. Outside of my top 4 match, this was my closest match of the day.
(3-0, 6-2)
Rd 4 – Dredge (Feature Match)
For round 4, I get another feature match, which is a reversal of my first feature match at the TDG Winter Open. There, I was on Dredge against Scalzo on a blue deck. Today, he was playing Dredge, so it was time to see if those maindeck Cages would do their job.
I draw my opening seven, and it is something like Wasteland, Strip Mine, Cage, Cage, Tropical, fetch, Tarmogoyf, and then I drew Mental Misstep. I also won the die roll. So, this game was kind of a blowout in my favor.
In game two, my opener had only a Ravenous Trap for hate, and no Wasteland. I took a mull, and the next card was obviously Wasteland (though taking the mull is definitely the right call). Next hand had no hate, then the five was good. I know in one game I baited Misstep with Recall to resolve a Cage, and Scalzo discarded a second Bazaar and got blown out by Wasteland – I think this was game two here. Regardless, both games were quick and my hands were very good.
(4-0, 8-2)
Rd 5 – ID
Rd 6 – ID
(4-0-2, 4th place)
Top 8 – Slash Panther MUD
We both keep and I’m on the play. My opening hand was mediocre as it had a bunch of lands, two Steel Sabotage, a Force of Will, but no pressure at all. I took a chance to see if I could draw a threat before I ran out of counters, but instead I drew Cage, Cage, Stony Silence, and lose badly.
The next game, I lead on Hierach, resolve Pridemage through Thorn, then Trygon on top, and that quick we’re on to game three.
This game is closer, but I get double Pridemage going to swing in for four a turn, then resolve a Goyf, send the Goyf into combat against an opposing Karn and blow that up after Exalted triggers, forcing Daryl to animate his Sphere and chump block, and from there it’s just over.
(5-0-2, 10-3)
Top 4 – Espresso Stax
I’m excited for this round as my postboard games against Shops have been 4-0 so far, but Espresso is a tough match-up as they have Crucible and Smokestack.
I get smashed badly in game one, and probably didn’t need to. I played out an Edric with a Noble Hierach and two lands in play (with Force, Canonist in hand) hoping Micky would have either a Lodestone (which I’d trade with or get in a draw extra) or no blocker. Instead he has Metamorph and a Wasteland followed by Smokestack, then last card is a Crucible. Had I just played the Canonist, I’d have Force for the Smokestack, and could attack through the Metamorph (if he even wasted it on Canonist) since I’d have Exalted. I still might’ve lost, as he had Crucible/Waste set up, but I’d have been ahead on board at least.
Game 2 I botched horribly as it should’ve been an auto-win thanks to a very strong hand. I led on Island instead of Trop, played Ancestral into plenty of good cards, but couldn’t play Pridemage turn 2 because I led with Island. That basically lost me the game. I was still in it had I floated mana in response to a Wasteland, but didn’t thinking it was pre-combat (it wasn’t), and that AGAIN cost me a chance to play a Pridemage and get back into the game.
So, that was that, unfortunately for me.
Great event, sucks that I missed my chance to battle Chris Pikula in the finals, but still a fun day. And, Nick's store is pretty awesome, since now not only can you use your credit for Nick's obviously sick collection of Magic cards, but he also has a ton of board/card games, so I got to pick up Power Grid in addition to some singles I needed.
As far as the deck, I’d probably suggest moving some Canonists to the sideboard since Gush, Rituals, and Snapcasters were few and far between yesterday, but overall the list felt good, considering I haven’t played Fish in over two years. I didn't have a ton of stuff for opposing Fish decks, however, so be aware that this build is really meant to beat blue decks better than Mike's version in exchange for a worse mirror match.
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