Fish has catapulted back into popularity recently, with stronger versions patching up problems that previous Fish decks had. Jacob Orlove’s showing at the SCG Richmond P9 tournament (along with Jason Zheng’s and Ashok Chitturi’s results at the last Waterbury) show us that Fish, in many of its forms, is still alive and well. What made Fish good again? What version is best to play? Let’s explore what happened.
Why Did Fish Come Back?
Fish swung back into popularity because its problem matchups, mainly Workshop Aggro, have all but disappeared. Mana Drain decks are becoming very powerful, and Fish has the tools to hold them in check.
The tactical problems that beat Fish before have been addressed with the deck as well. Previously, there were two huge problems in playing Fish: The first, you lose to broken plays and second, you lose to Tinker and fat guys.
Most Fish builds run Chalice of the Void now, which does a lot more to stop early broken plays by coming down and cutting off mana completely, stopping Goblin Welders and Tinker because the Moxes that give powered decks such an advantage never hit the table. Fish varieties – and U/W Vial Fish in particular – has plenty of ways to address Tinker, which will be covered later (I’ll be referring to U/W Vial Fish as “Meandeck Fish” for the article, since we designed it, it’s a distinct way separate Null Rod Fish from Chalice/Vial Fish, and it requires less pressing of the shift key to type).
The problematic Oath of Druids matchup is much less of an issue now, and Fish actually has the advantage in it. Fish has also sped up quite a bit. The addition of Aether Vial and Umezawa’s Jitte, along with the ever-present Meddling Mages, makes the clock that Fish puts a player on much faster. Because Fish can kill on a better clock, all of its incremental tempo cards work much better and there’s no need to run Daze and Spiketail Hatchling anymore; the cards that it has can stall the game long enough to finish.
Perhaps the summation of these points is that Fish now deals easily with all the cards that used to beat it. Worse Than Fish (WTF) has larger creatures that Pyroclasm doesn’t touch, and Kira, Great Glass Spinner stops Old Man of the Sea. Lava Dart becomes a very inefficient way of killing off Meddling Mage. The silver bullets have much less effectiveness than they once did. One could never beat Fish post-board by using one-for-one answers like Swords to Plowshares or Red Elemental Blast, because their individual creatures were worthless by themselves. Thanks to Fish’s evolution, the broad, sweeping answers have much less strength now.
The Null Rod/Chalice of the Void Debate
The big difference between new and previous Fish decks is the use of three to four Chalice of the Voids instead of the three Null Rods that Fish has traditionally run. Null Rods are strong against Control Slaver…. Which is why Zheng did so well at Waterbury with U/W Fish sporting Rods. The Waterbury metagame is full of Slaver, and Null Rod nicely addressed a lot of their threats.
Null Rod is no longer enough, though. A Mox can still be Welded into a fat artifact creature, and Null Rod does nothing to stop Tinker.
The huge advantage of Chalice is that it does pretty much what Null Rod does (it’s weaker in that it doesn’t shut down Moxes that hit before Chalice does, nor does it stop things like Mindslaver), but it also lets you run beneficial artifacts of your own. Chalice hits at the bat just as strong as Null Rod does – but it’s more flexible on the whole, which makes up for it being less powerful at stopping Moxes. Because Fish has a mana curve that’s largely blank at the one-slot, you can also set a Chalice at one to deal with TPS, Control Slaver, Gifts decks and many other problem matches.
Multiple Chalices can either be set at higher numbers or simply pitched to utility cards. Meandeck Fish runs Waterfront Bouncers, who are all too happy to get rid of your trash, both on the table and in hand. WTF has Wild Mongrels to chomp down on chaff as well.
The most rewarding play with Chalice is when an opponent drops Library of Alexandria, holding onto their Moxes to keep enough cards to activate it. Playing a Chalice in that situation just about guarantees that you win the game.
The Artifact Explosion
Fish is running as many as eleven more artifacts than it used to. Chalices are now accompanied by Aether Vial and Umezawa’s Jitte, both of which are simply incredible. Vial allows a player to drop it on the first turn, use all of their mana on the second turn with Wastelands, casting other creatures or swinging with Mishra’s Factories… and after that, they can play all of their men as uncounterable, instant-speed threats. When their Vial hits two counters, you’re going to see some serious stuff.
The strategic role of Vial is to act as the other Moxes for the deck. They give enough mana so that there are far more options than there were previously. This makes Fish a faster deck.
Jitte fills in a lot of the holes that Fish had. Anyone who has played Standard or Block knows what a powerhouse (and general Swiss Army Knife) it is. Jitte gives a way to deal with Welder and even fat creatures – Jacob took down both a Platinum Angel and an Exalted Angel during his day at Richmond, for example. With Jitte on the table, the deck can kill a turn faster on average for every successful hit with Jitte. Because the counters stay on Jitte and not the creature, the removal that you face is by and large useless.
Jitte will eventually stockpile enough counters to deal with whatever is in the way, even if it means sticking the sword on a Mishra’s Factory to get some swings in. There were situations in testing against Oath where Fish would just play a Factory and Jitte with enough mana to equip and animate every turn. The counters on Jitte meant that Oath would never be able to make Spirit tokens stick against Fish, which meant it could never find its fat creatures in time.
Jitte also has a modest bonus in the lifegain ability, which buys time against Darksteel Colossus-packing decks – and every counter means another spell that Storm decks have to cast to kill Fish.
The Two Hundred Dollar Solution: Meandeck Fish
Creatures (13)
Lands (22)
Spells (23)
(Note: This deck’s short two cards, but the lack of a sideboard leads me to assume this is an archetypical example and not a tourney-tuned deck – The Ferrett)
The prime advantage of U/W Fish is its matchup versus Mana Drain decks. It has plenty of answers to Tinker and Oath in the form of Chalice, Meddling Mage, Waterfront Bouncer, and Rootwater Thief. When playing against these decks, it is advised to not screw around with Mages; just name “Tinker” or “Oath” with them, because they are the only cards that truly break Fish’s game plan. Because of Aether Vial, the permission aspect of Mana Drain decks is cut enormously; the Mana Drain targets narrow down to Jitte, Time Walk, and Ancestral, because they’re the only things that Fish will actually be casting.
Rootwater Thieves in particular do a number on any deck that’s not using Mishra’s Workshops. With the mana that Vial frees up, they steal the one or two win conditions in TPS or Gifts and strand the opponent at the hands of their fishy foes. In a more rounded environment, one might cut the fourth Rootwater for a third Ninja…. Though Ashok tells me that Ninjas sit in your hand all the time and any more than two really clutters up the deck at times.
The ideal first turn for this (or any Fish deck, really), would be Mishra’s Factory, Chalice, Aether Vial, go. Compare this to what U/R Fish used to do; its best hands had to involve Mox Sapphire to shine. The best that it could do without the broken mana on the first turn was a Stifle or Grim Lavamancer. Modern Fish doesn’t need to sacrifice its first turn, making it a whole turn faster.
When playing the deck, it’s important to recognize what the most pertinent threats are… But that said, Meddling Mages are never awful. They force an opponent to deal with them or lose because they cannot get their strategy online. It’ll take some experimentation to find what Mages name in particular matchups, but the first almost always calls Tinker against decks that run it. Mana Drain, Goblin Welder, Thirst for Knowledge, Gifts Ungiven, and even Brainstorm are all sound calls to make for your subsequent mages.
If Vial is on the table, it can pay off to wait on Mages until the end step to drop them and make a call. Just the other day, I was playing against a teammate with Fish while I was piloting Control Slaver. I had tapped out for Fact or Fiction and taken a pile with just Mystical Tutor so that I could find my Echoing Truth for Chalices and win. When I took the single Tutor, he immediately Vialed out a Mage, naming it.
Worst. FOF. Ever.
There will be situations where an opponent will Recoup their Yawgmoth’s Will and have a Mage come out in response, naming Will. Fish wins these games.
And a note of clarification to everyone who may look at Vial and Mage and think “Oh my Gawd! It’s a Mystic Snake!” You cannot counter spells already on the stack by responding with Mage. Attempting to will win you the no-prize.
The sideboard for U/W Fish is also very strong. It gets targeted removal, which U/R Fish largely lacked. Because the deck has so many artifacts, it has a hard time running Serenity, which is the usual unholy sideboard card against Workshops. However, it still has plenty of options, and it’d probably look similar to this:
3 Seal of Cleansing
3 Kami of Ancient Law
3 Swords to Plowshares
3 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
The Seals are general utility and the Kamis are there for the Oath and CronStax match, in addition to being general beatdown creatures. In the mirror, you can side them in for extra punch while taking out less useful things like Waterfront Bouncers or Thieves (although a flying Thief with Jitte ends games quickly…). The Swords can deal with Workshop Aggro and WTF and Crypt is there on the principle that every deck needs some graveyard hate or it loses to graveyard-based decks.
Remember how Fish beats the hate that used to hurt it? Kira stops Old Man of the Sea dead in the water, and the targeted removal that used to hit Fish is worthless with Kira around. It also helps a lot in the mirror and near-mirror matches, which are all about who can get Jitte online first. Unfortunately, Kira has Channel/Stream of Life synergy with your own Jittes, countering the first equip activation, so keep that in mind. Assuming that when you want Jitte, you want it all the time, there’s the fourth on the board for the mirror and other matchups where you need to kill fat guys.
The sideboard can also be adapted to fit your metagame easily. Swords – which are sometimes very, very worthless – can be replaced by more focused cards. In a more artifact-heavy metagame, you can pack Annul and Magus of the Unseen (which I have wanted to use for ages). In a metagame full of Fish, you can run Crucible of Worlds or Serendib Efreet. Against lots of combo, there’s always Stifle, but combo is quite weak right now anyway. Food Chain Goblins can give the deck problems, so packing extra Swords or Blue Elemental Blasts might be the right call there. Ashok ran Dan-dan maindeck at Waterbury, which gave a really strong finisher against all the decks that were expected to show. It may still have a place on the sideboard as well.
As far as what cards to take out, consider what the deck wants to do in the matchup. Some matchups, like Dragon, can utilize the entire sideboard, but usually it’s folly to bring in lots of hate at the expense of the deck’s beaters.
Mages are a sacred cow and never get sided out – but beyond that, things are pretty loose. Against Dragon, I’d cut Chalices and Jittes for graveyard and creature hate. Against CS, Standstills and Rootwater Thieves might come out, although it’s important to remember that the maindeck is already incredibly strong against CS. Kira would be what I would make room for, since CS really wants to stop your creatures. Against the mirror, Chalices and Standstills come out for Kami of Ancient Law (a 2/2 creature is a mighty big threat) plus Kira and the last Jitte. Jittes are sometimes too slow or sometimes unnecessary, so you are allowed to board them out at times, even though they’re ridiculous.
Finally (and perhaps a little off-topic) you should not have Phyrexian Furnace in your sideboard. They are run in the maindeck of some decks because it provides graveyard removal that is never dead due to cycling… But they really only get good at screwing over a graveyard when you have two in play (which my teammates refer to as “having the windshield wipers out”). Thus, you need to run four in the sideboard to make them truly shine, which leaves you space that can be freed up by using two or three Tormod’s Crypts instead. They’re better at hating a graveyard but they’re more focused, and so sometimes they’re dead.
There might, however, be a reason to run Furnaces because Chalice doesn’t counter them the way that they do with Crypts.
The Green Scene: Worse Than Fish
Creatures (15)
Lands (21)
Spells (24)
WTF has a stronger match against Workshop decks and generally trounces all other forms of Fish. If you thought that Goblin Welder or Psychatog was the most irritating creature ever printed, you’re obviously overlooking Wild Mongrel; he never makes games fun. The Mongrel is the most efficient beater ever printed and this deck makes full use of it.
Jacob skipped on the Spiketail Hatchlings, instead opting for Gaea’s Skyfolk, because their evasion and higher power/toughness meant that they could seal the deal faster and compete with other Fish decks. This build also runs Brainstorm (or Standstill, if you feel like it) for a little extra punch in finding its threats. That’s why it can put up such a consistent clock – it can put back useless cards for more beaters. Because the Ninjas may be too slow, depending on your play style, you can also maindeck a Kira.
WTF sacrifices some of its game against control in favor of beating Fish and serving a beating to Stax. It cannot Meddling Mage-lock an Oath or use Rootwater Thieves to pluck out win conditions…. but it has the same disruption package while being a bit faster than Meandeck Fish is. Against Stax, it has the incredibly cheap Basking Rootwalla to serve as an extra permanent, along with a killer sideboard.
I’d recommend this in a metagame full of Fish; many players took it to SCG: Rochester and did quite well with it, even placing one in the T8. I’d be wary of running it with lots of Oath around, because it has to make contortions on the sideboard to effectively deal with Oath. However, Jacob tells me that he hasn’t run into many problems with Oath. It overcomes Tinker primarily by being faster than Tinker is; anything less than a Colossus won’t really stop the deck, and Colossus can be raced, especially with Jitte on the table. The real difficulties come from FCG and combo. The former can sometimes outrace you and he latter is because you lack the Mages and Thieves to slow them down enough to win
WTF makes a good use of Vial as well; the mana that Vial frees up can be used to pump Rootwalla. Taking the free mana into account means that the deck often deals an extra four damage a turn from pumped Rootwallas and Factories. This is not an insignificant amount of damage!
Because WTF runs a lot of artifacts, the major sideboard hoser of Seeds of Innocence becomes a lot less good. It also has to find a way to deal with Oath, and this is usually through Ray of Revelation. The idea is to run a Tundra on the sideboard or even maindecked, as Adam Chambers did at Rochester. If you cannot find the white mana, you can always pitch Ray to Wild Mongrel for the green flashback cost. I’d run a sideboard very similar to what Chambers had:
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Blue Elemental Blast
3 Hydroblast
2 Oxidize
3 Ray Of Revelation
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
3 Kira, Great Glass-spinner
Add in a Tundra here if it isn’t maindecked. The three Kiras make sure that you will see one against everything that you need it against – mainly the mirror and decks with Old Man. The four Blue Elemental Blasts/Hydroblasts are likely for the expected Food Chain Goblins, but could be replaced by Bouncers to combat Oath and Tinker.
The rest is pretty self-explanatory. Oxidize is a house and a half versus artifacts. If you don’t feel like dealing with Ray of Revelation (or just want a more generalized card for the sideboard), Naturalize will do fine. If you expect a lot of the mirror, consider boarding in Oxidize and Kira. Jacob says about the mirror that “you basically need to win the mana war – both by getting more mana than your opponent (through Wastelands and Vials)), and getting more out of your mana (look at Rootwalla, Mongrel, Skyfolk versus Cloud of Faeries, Kai, and Spiketail). I’m also a firm believer in removal for the mirror. Jitte and Oxidize are golden.”
If you expect a lot of enchantments, such as those from Oath or CronStax, a Tranquil Grove or two on the board would not be awful, either.
Sideboarding is similar to Meandeck Fish’s plans. Ninjas can sometimes be too slow, and it’s also easy to side out a single Vial and a Chalice. If you won the first game and are on the draw, siding out more Chalices might be a plan since the opponent gets a chance to drop their Moxes before you can cut them off.
The Other Fish Builds And Their Viability
To put it plainly, I don’t think Null Rod Fish decks have much use anymore. Because all the conspiracy theorists out there will throw this out if I don’t mention it, I don’t feel this way because the decks weren’t designed by my teammates; I simply think that Vial and Jitte are great reasons to eschew Null Rod and Chalice nicely fills in the gap that Rod left.
However, there’s an elephant in the room: two of the three U/W Fish decks at Rochester were packing Rods instead of Chalices. What made them succeed? StarCityGames.com doesn’t have the list of all 172 decks that showed up, so we can’t know yet the numbers of each deck that were brought.
It could be that Rods were played in much greater numbers than Chalices. If we take a look at the Top 8 decklists, we’ll find other reasons why they succeeded; Nick Rosu had maindeck Crucibles and Swords, which probably both helped a bit in the mirror – and especially against WTF. Similarly, Bryan Finch had Swords and Old Man maindeck, which helped to beat the mirror matches that everyone expected to face all day long. Joe Weber had maindecked Grim Lavamancers – which has long been the king of the mirror, and they were easily castable thanks to his Vials. (He also had Gorilla Shamans, which could eat an opposing Vial.)
Weber didn’t run Chalice or Rod, and I’d be interested to hear whether that made a difference during his day. Without Rod in his deck, I’d have run Jitte over the three Swords because they’re just that good.
The lesson to learn from this Top 8 is that all the cards in the deck that made them win can also be run in Chalice/Vial fish builds. Crucibles were an excellent choice for the metagame and room can be made for them. The biggest advantage that Null Rod has in the near-mirror is that it shuts down Jitte and Vial. Is that a strong enough reason to keep it in though? Null Rod Fish may end up as a ringer to beat other Fish decks… but if I was worried about that, I’d just run WTF with Serendib Efreets on the sideboard instead.
Conclusions: Why You Should Play Fish
I can say that without a doubt, that Fish is the strongest deck in the environment. The cards and strategies that killed it last summer are gone now, and it’s back with a fresh makeover. It can effectively deal with all the other top decks in the format with proper metagaming and preparation.
I personally would play Meandeck Fish until it got too rampant in the metagame, and then I’d switch to WTF. It has enough answers to deal with the Gifts decks that become scarier by the day and it can more easily handle the Oath matchup that will rise to combat Fish. Waterfront Bouncer in particular is going to be an incredible card in the coming months.
There are only a few cards now that are a big threat to Fish. Gorilla Shaman, with his artifact-eating abilities, can clear the board of low-mana Chalices for a control player – and can eat mid-mana Chalices and even Crucibles and Jittes, given enough time. Monkey hungry!
(That line just totally cracked me up for no reason whatsoever – The Ferrett)
Tsabo’s Web, when combined with other sideboard cards, can shut down Factories – which are honestly the biggest threat that Fish has to offer. Factories cannot be countered and they add up to an amazingly fast clock.
Pyroclasm will two-for-one against Meandeck Fish all day long but might have a harder time versus WTF. I recommend it in conjunction with Tsabo’s Web, because Factories dodge Pyroclasm.
The other card that is a prominent threat is Engineered Explosives. Again, it doesn’t deal with Factories, but it takes care of the rest. Played off colorless mana, it can kill a host of Chalices, and it knocks out Vials and opposing creatures effortlessly.
But in the end, there are few silver bullets left against Fish, which is precisely why it’s so strong now. I’d put my money on Explosives as a way of combating them currently. Also, remember that Tinker is still a significant threat to Fish. A Tinkered Colossus is sometimes not as strong as a Triskelion or Pentavus, since both have other things that they can do in response to being bounced or Sworded.
A Note on Pithing Needle
Needle is a card that’s custom-made for Fish decks. It fits like Meddling Mage in that it is a tempo card that buys time. Every deck has an answer for Needle, because every deck has to have an answer for things like Platinum Angel. This means that Needle will not stick permanently.
For everyone doubting Needle, though, it’s important to remember that when a deck is digging for an answer to Needle, it’s not trying to win; it’s trying to survive. Limiting a deck to “tutor for bounce” means that there is little they can do to stop your creature wave. Against decks like CS, Top Combo and Hulk, Needle serves a strategic role. Against decks like WTF with many cards that can be Needled, it takes a tactical role in shutting down whatever the biggest threat is, be it Mongrel or Jitte or Factory.
Needle steals time – and for a single colorless mana, Needle steals it better than perhaps any other card. However, I have no idea how to cram it into Fish. I’d run it as a three-of maindeck and cut some things that Needle overlaps with.
Needle is not a sideboard card, however. Its application is narrow enough and underpowered such that you always have better things to board in for it. In this way, it’s very similar to Phyrexian Furnace. Run it maindeck or don’t run it at all.
See you at the Fish Market,
Doug “The Thin Blue Line” Linn
Hi-Val on the Intarweb