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With the block season winding down, it's time to look ahead to the next relevant format.  For me, that format is Extended.  I'll be shuffling up in Berlin, no matter how many professors I have to bribe to get my Exams rescheduled.  Of course, there is a major rotation that will happen first.  In case you haven't heard, Invasion and Odyssey blocks plus Seventh Edition will rotate out of Extended, leaving:
Onslaught block
Mirrodin block
Kamigawa block
Ravnica block
Time Spiral block (and Coldsnap)
Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block
Shards of Alara
8th Edition
9th Edition
10th Edition

I'll focus on the major losses, and the major cards and decks that are left more or less intact bt the rotation.  I'll try to hit the high points, but this list is by no means exhaustive.  In no particular order:

Out:
1. Invasion Saclands.  You know, Geothermal Crevice et al.  This is pretty bad for a lot of combo decks.  Enduring Ideal and TEPS used these lands to generate a lot of mana quickly without resolving spells.  This is just one reason why the format will slow down.
2. Cabal Therapy and Duress.  The best discard spell in the format and arguably the second best are gone, leaving just Thoughtseize to hold down the fort on one-mana pinpoint discard spells.  This makes it more difficult to justify playing the Rock or other disruptive black decks.  I know that every time I considered playing a combo deck in old Extended, I was always so afraid of getting my hand ripped to shreds by a couple of Therapies.  The combo decks may get slower, but the tools for stopping them get worse too.
3. Pernicious Deed.  This one hurts.  Dare I say, "the Rock is dead?"  I really shouldn't, since people just love the deck so much, and more importantly since Death Cloud and Planeswalkers are still legal.  "The Bomb" leaves some big shoes to fill though.
4. Goblin Ringleader and Goblin Matron.  On the bright side, Goblin decks still have access to Goblin Warchief and Goblin Piledriver, so how bad can it be?  I expect that people will still play Goblins, but it just won't have near the power it did before.  Multiple Sparksmiths and/or Clickslithers may be necessary to be more aggressive and try to fill the giant void of card advantage these Goblins will leave behind.  On the other hand...
5. Engineered Plague and Sphere of Law.  My gut tells me it's too little too late; the sun has probably set on Goblins' hey day.  But if there is any reason to be more enticed to play the little green men, it's that the two best hosers for the deck are gone.
6. Wild Mongrel, Arrogant Wurm, Circular Logic.  Yup, UG Madness is gone.  While it hasn't been a force in Extended in a couple of years, this is one old Type 2 deck players can't turn to.
7. Fact or Fiction and Counterspell.  I wouldn't lump these cards together since they haven't seen play in the same deck for a couple of years, but I just love them so much and it pains me to see them both rotate.  Tron decks will now have to rely on Gifts Ungiven to supplement Thirst for Knowledge in their card-drawing suite, and CounterTop decks will have to rely on...Mana Leak? Remand? Cryptic Command?  There really isn't a perfect replacement for good ol' Counterspell, but blue mages will make do.  We always have and always will.
8. Breakthrough, Cephalid Coliseum, Careful Study, and Putrid Imp.  All the dredge cards are still around, but the enablers are gone.  Look to such hits as Oona's Prowler, Ideas Unbound, Goblin Lore, and Drowned Rusalka to pick up the slack.
9. Judgement Wishes.  Now combo decks will have less redundancy and Rock decks will have less versatility.  This poses some interesting design questions.

Back for more:
1. Onslaught fetches and Ravnica duals.  Your investment is still safe.  Expect manabases to continue resembling discoballs for another year.
2. Affinity.  The whole friggin' deck.  Well, except for the best three cards in the deck (Vial, Disciple, Skullclamp).  On the upside...
3. Kataki, War's Wage, Ancient Grudge, Hurkyl's Recall, Shatterstorm.  Ready to keep the Affinity menace in check.
4. Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top.  The most "unfun" combo in the format is back for another run.  Like I said, there's no Counterspell to supplement it anymore, but your 1's, 2's and 3's still aren't resolving anytime soon.
5. The Urzatron: still more delicious with blue.  Sorry Tooth and Nail fans.
6. Tarmogoyf.  Like, durrrr. (Seriously, what do you want me to say?)
7. Life From the Loam and Cycling lands.  Although Terravore and Devastating Dreams will be gone, Loam is still a solid card advantage engine.  A little innovation may be required, but in a format with less graveyard hate, Loam has a real opportunity to shine.

So what do I expect the metagame to look like in the new Extended?  Probably some CounterTop decks, some UW Tron, some Zoo or aggressive Red of some sort, maybe Doran or aggro rock if they can find the right disruption, and definitely a couple of crazy combo decks.  Heartbeat Desire is still mostly legal except for Fact or Fiction, and I already talked about the possibility of Dredge adapting with new enablers.  On top of that, I can promise you that someone will make a good new Storm deck.  It may kill with Brain Freeze, Tendrils of Agony, or Pyromancer's Swath plus Grapeshot, but it will be there.  Here's to hoping I'm the one to find it first.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Tags: Magic Extended

Usually, once a player breaks into the ranks of the Pro Tour, they stop playing local tournaments.  Although I won a PTQ about a month ago, I just love battling too much to not play Friday Night Magic.  I play on Magic Workstation as well, but FNM is just a great way to get cards in your hands and get comfortable with lots of different cards.  As such, I tend to bounce between different decks a lot but mostly play control decks, or decks featuring new cards.  Here's what I've been playing lately:
4 Kitchen Finks
4 Sower of Temptation
4 Reveillark
4 Mulldrifter
2 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Mind Stone
2 Coldsteel Heart
3 Pact of Negation
2 Momentary Blink
2 Careful Consideration
4 Ponder
2 Runed Halo
7 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Plains
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Mystic Gate
4 Mutavault

Sideboard:

1 Runed Halo
4 Remove Soul
3 Condemn
3 Wrath of God
4 Wispmare

It's basically the same as the "Life" deck made by Yuuya Watanabe, which won a Standard tournament in Japan.  I cut the 3rd Venser and Blink from the maindeck, and one Loxodon Warhammer from the Sideboard, for Runed Halos.  Those, plus Condemn and Kitchen Finks, give you a lot of game against the format-defining Monored decks.  Beyond that though, this deck is a ton of fun to play.  You don't miss the combo at all; your plan is to Ponder into the perfect manacurve and simply out-tempo your opponent.  Here are some ideas for playing certain matchups:

Monored
Use Kitchen Finks to gain life and drop a Runed Halo naming Demigod of Revenge.  Don't expect Sower of Temptation to live long the first time around, but you can use Momentary Blink and Reveillark to keep him useful. 
Sideboarding: -3 Pact of Negation, -1 Ponder, +1 Runed Halo, +3 Condemn
Pact is rarely useful; they have no permission or big spells you really need to counter.  In exchange, you get some tools to help handle Figure of Destiny and Demigod.

Elves/Doran
Use Kitchen Finks to buy turns against their fatties.  Sower is even better in this matchup since they have less removal than monored.  Runed Halo isn't quite as much of a beating, but it's still very good.
Sideboarding: -3 Pact of Negation, -1 Ponder, +1 Runed Halo, +3 Wrath of God
Condemn isn't as important because they have more manlands and 3/3's which you can easily trade your Kitchen Finks for, but there is a threat of them swarming you with Imperious Perfect and manlands, so Wrath of God helps.  Condemn would still be able to trade with a manland or Colossus, but there simply isn't room to bring them in as far as I can see, and Runed Halo answers all copies of a card anyway.  Be aware that your opponent is likely to bring in Faerie Macabre or Extirpate here, so play around those games 2 and 3 if you can. 

Faeries
This deck has not been as popular lately due to its miserable matchup against Skred Deck Wins, but some people still play it.  It's not the greatest matchup, but use Kitchen Finks to put them on a clock and Pact of Negation to defend your Reveillarks and it shouldn't be too bad.  The key here is to stay aggressive; in Block you could reasonably expect to outgun them in a long game, but since they have Ancestral Visions in Standard you need to keep them on the back foot.  Quite often you should refrain from casting spells and just hit them with a couple of Mutavaults, but be aware that a midcombat Mistbind Clique can blow you out.  Most players will always upkeep their Mistbind Cliques though, so you normally don't have to fear that.
Sideboarding: -2 Momentary Blink, -2 Runed Halo, +4 Wispmare
Runed Halo should name Mistbind Clique or Mutavault game 1, but it's exactly the type of reactive card that Faeries is designed to beat, so take them out.  4 Wispmares should go a long way toward controlling their Bitterblossoms.

Quick n Toast
This matchup is similar to Faeries in that you need to use Pact of Negation to defend your Reveillarks.  However, you can't be as aggressive since they have much greater control measures, such as Wall of Roots to block Kitchen Finks.  It's still quite possible for you to draw more cards than they can by Blinking Mulldrifters and such.  Watch out for Cloudthresher; he can put you on the back foot in a hurry, but as long as you have a Kitchen Finks, Sower, or Reveillark postcombat you can easily recover. 
Sideboarding: -2 Runed Halo, -2 Sower of Temptation, +4 Remove Soul
There's not a whole lot you can do with your sideboard; the matchup is somewhat miserable.  If they don't have a Wall you should be able to get pretty far with Finks and Mutavault beatdown, but you should generally be trying to draw a lot of cards and overpopulate the board without getting blown out too bad by Firespout or other sweepers.

Red Storm/Swans Combo
I lump these decks together because they have similar gameplans and are so annoying to play against since they can just kill you out of nowhere.  Obviously you just have to stay aggressive since you only have 3 Maindeck Pacts and 2 Vensers for permission, but Runed Halo is huge here.  It should name Grapeshot against Red Storm and Seismic Assault against Swans.  I have actually never lost to these decks, despite having completely dead Sowers in my deck game 1.
Sideboarding:
(Swans) -4 Sower, -1 Ponder, +1 Runed Halo, +4 Remove Soul
(Red Storm) -4 Sower, +1 Runed Halo, +3 Wrath of God (for Empty the Warrens)
Red Storm may bring in some combination of Magus of the Moon and/or Empty the Warrens.  If you know what they have of course you should tailor your sideboarding as such.  Swans probably has some Pacts of Negation, Krosan Grips, and Imp's Mischiefs.  Your countermagic becomes much worse, but if you can get two Runed Halos down on Seismic Assault you should feel a lot safer.  Generally, I think the Red Storm matchup is much better than the Swans matchup.

The Mirror/Combo Lark
This matchup is mostly all about whose Reveillarks resolve and whose don't.  There are a lot of flavors of Reveillark, so some will stunt your aggression with Walls and Firespouts while others will just have signets and Wraths.  Runed Halo is pretty terrible here and I wouldn't really even know what to name with it.  You could say Murderous Redcap but if they combo out they'll just take all your creatures with Sower and sacrifice them then make a bunch of Reveillarks or just bounce all your permanents with Venser.  Basically, you can't stop the combo with Halo no matter what you name.  It could be useful if you somehow get into a race, but that practically never happens. 
Sideboarding: -2 Runed Halo, -2 Sower of Temptation, +4 Remove Soul
Remove Soul is just what you need to keep their Reveillarks and Body Doubles off the table.  If they happen to run a Reveillark out there without a Gargadon suspended Sower could potentially be amazing for you, but it's most often going to take a Mulldrifter or do nothing.  It's worse than Momentary Blink, which can be a huge tempo tool with Venser in play, or at least draw two cards with Mulldrifter.

Feel free to experiment with the deck, but I have one word of caution: don't play Teferi's Moat.  It's alright against Green decks since they normally just have a couple of Primal Commands to deal with it, but even they have Profane Commands, Mutavaults, and maybe Squall Lines to kill you with.  And you'll feel really dumb if you cast Moat against a red deck only to have them kill you with Demigods and burn spells.

In conclusion, Non-Combo Reveillark is a great choice for FNM: consistent, fun, and great against the ever-present aggro decks.  Feel free to experiment with this list and let me know if you decide to pick it up.  I'll check for feedback and try to respond to all comments.

Thanks for reading,
Ben

Tags: Magic Standard Type 2

I went through the Magic-League trial that was held on 4/30 and did a breakdown of all the decks. Archetypes in order of top finish:

UW Reveillark: 6-0, 2-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1
GW ManaRamp: 5-1, 1-1, 0-1
GRW ManaRamp/Combo: 4-1
UB Mannequin: 4-1
Doran: 3-1, 1-1, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1
GW Aggro: 3-1, 2-1, 2-1, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1
UW Merfolk: 3-0
Gb Tokens: 3-1, 3-1, 1-1
Monowhite Control: 2-1, 0-1
UB Faeries: 2-1, 2-0, 1-0
Rg Aggro: 2-1, 1-1, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1
Seismic Swans: 2-0
Dragonstorm: 2-1
MonoR Storm: 2-1
BG Goodstuff/Elves: 2-0, 1-1, 0-1
BR LD: 1-1
BG Grave Pact Tokens: 1-1
Monogreen Fatties: 1-1
GRW Kavu Justice: 1-1, 0-1, 0-1
Doran+Combo: 1-1
Monoblack Control: 1-1, 0-1
GBu Big Mannequin: 1-0
Monored Aggro/Burn: 1-1, 1-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1
RG ManaRamp: 1-1, 0-1, 0-1
MonoW Kithkin: 1-1
MonoR Snow Control: 1-1
MonoU Merfolk: 1-1, 0-1, 0-1, 0-1
Dralnu: 0-1
RG(w) Warriors: 0-1, 0-1, 0-1
BR…Draft deck?: 0-1
MonoU Pickles: 0-1, 0-1
Enchanted Evening: 0-1
RWU Angelfire: 0-1
UGr Control: 0-1

The decks can be found here: http://www.magic-league.com/tournament/info.php?id=42261&view=decks&page=1

A few notes:
-The Tier 1 decks look like MonoRed, GW Aggro, and Reveillark. RG Aggro, Doran, and Merfolk appear to be the Tier 2 for now.
-UW Reveillark has been pretty successful lately due to an increased aggro, especially green, presence.
-Green seems to be the best color right now
-Everyone seems ready for Red; MonoRed hasn't posted any strong finishes yet. Rg Aggro has had some success, but it was pretty flat today too. The best finish for either archetype was 2-1. Their combined winning percentage was .300.
-Faeries and RG Manaramp have died a bit, though 3 players played each one. None were especially successful.
-WTF, UB Mannequin?
-There's a cute little combo with Juniper Order Ranger and Persist guys. Two players built decks with this. One added Red for Gargadon, Siege-Gang, and Brion Stoutarm, and went 4-1. The other added black for Nantuko Husk and other stuff, and went 1-1.
-Keep in mind this was a single elimination tournament, so results may be skewed. This is of course also a fairly small sample, and the metagame is still forming, so feel free to take this with a fairly large grain of salt.

This was my favorite deck, though it's not really new:
//NAME: GBu Big Manneqin - PV - 1-0, drop
1 Sunken Ruins
4 Vivid Grove
4 River of Tears
1 Frost Marsh
4 Llanowar Wastes
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Island
4 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Reflecting Pool
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Mouth of Ronom
4 Wall of Roots
3 Shriekmaw
4 Mulldrifter
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Cloudthresher
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Murderous Redcap
2 Primal Command
4 Makeshift Mannequin
3 Into the North
3 Thoughtseize
// Sideboard:
SB: 1 Primal Command
SB: 1 Cloudthresher
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 3 Extirpate
SB: 2 Guttural Response
SB: 2 Negate
SB: 3 Terror
SB: 2 Deathmark (I'd like more since Doran is pretty popular)

Control-style:
4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Smokebraider
4 Incandescent Soulstoke
3 Supreme Exemplar
4 Mulldrifter
3 Reveillark
4 Shriekmaw
1 Cloudthresher
1 Wispmare
1 Spitebellows

4 Nameless Inversion
4 Makeshift Mannequin

4 Primal Beyond
4 Reflecting Pool
2 Graven Cairns
3 Vivid Crag
1 Vivid Moor
1 Vivid Creek
6 Mountain
2 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Wispmare
1 Ingot Chewer (?)
3 Spitebellows
3 Final Revels
1 Reveillark
1 Eyes of the Wisent
2 Cloudthresher
3 Thoughtseize/whatever



...and a more aggressive one:
4 Flamekin Harbinger
4 Flamekin Bladewhirl
4 Sickle Ripper
4 Smokebraider
4 Incandescent Soulstoke
4 Ashenmoor Gouger
2 Spitebellows (kills Doran, CC)

4 Lash Out
4 Flame Javelin (hard to play for RRR but probably fine for 2RR)
3 Shard Volley

4 Graven Cairns
4 Mutavault
4 Primal Beyond
7 Mountain
4 Swamp

SB:
4 Fulminator Mage
3 Thoughtseize
2 Wispmare
4 Reveillark
2 Spitebellows

These are completely untested but they seem pretty powerful.  Not sure if the aggro version would benefit from Mulldrifter, or if the control build is just better.  Some bastardization of the two may be best.  There really isn't a metagame to shoot for yet, but I thought these looked powerful and I haven't seen much like them yet.  Gouger in particular is pretty hard to deal with so he may find his way into the control build.

Here's what I've been working on for the new Type 2.

// Lands
1 [CS] Snow-Covered Plains
4 [10E] Shivan Reef
4 [10E] Terramorphic Expanse
3 [CS] Boreal Shelf
6 [CS] Snow-Covered Island
7 [CS] Snow-Covered Mountain

// Creatures
4 [SHM] Swans of Bryn Argoll
4 [TSP] Riftwing Cloudskate
3 [10E] Siege-Gang Commander
2 [FUT] Venser, Shaper Savant
4 [CS] Phyrexian Ironfoot

// Spells
2 [10E] Tidings
4 [CS] Coldsteel Heart
4 [CS] Rune Snag
4 [CS] Skred
4 [10E] Incinerate

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [TSP] Draining Whelk
SB: 3 [TSB] Teferi's Moat
SB: 4 [9E] Bottle Gnomes
SB: 3 [SHM] Puncture Bolt
SB: 3 [TSP] Cancel

It's a deck loosely based around Swans of Bryn Argoll and Skred. It's fairly similar to Mannequin, Blink, or similar midrange blue decks. It doesn't play tempo quite as well as Blink but it has a lot of blowout turns where you Skred your Swan and draw 7, basically letting you scuplt your hand however you want.

I chose to splash White instead of Green because I'd rather have Teferi's Moat than Firespout. Yes, Firespout has great synergy with Swans, and I may end up playing it in the end, but right now I like Teferi's Moat more in the format. But like I said, it's up for debate.

I think this is superior to the Seismic Assault combo decks because Swans can win the game on their own, and playing the combo forces you to play cards that are not so hot on their own. Also, I think crap like Idyllic Tutor is terrible. If I'm going to spend mana, I'd rather interact with my opponent than just tutor. Furthermore, I think the combo is fairly tough to protect from disruption.

I played two matches last night, against Rg Tarmoburn and RG Big Mana and won them both. Against Big Mana you just let them Skred your Swans and draw as many cards as they want, as long as you counter their Cloudthreshers they have no way to stop him from killing them in 5 turns. It becomes a race which IMO is completely winnable.  Against Rg Tarmoburn I just bounced his guys and played the tempo game until I could find a Swans.  His build was pretty creature-heavy, which I think is pretty typical lately.  So when I dropped Swans he mostly just drew some three-drops, and I was able to outtempo those fairly easily.  Both matches were 2-1, which is pretty sweet considering those are probably two of the most-hyped/best decks in the new format. 

I might cut a Boreal Shelf, the mana should be fine and sometimes it slows you down. Feel free to experiment. There's plenty of tuning to be done but I was pretty happy with the way this first build performed.

Since I'm currently dreading working on a school project, I figured, what better way to waste time than to condense all my thoughts about my beloved Fish deck into a blarg?

I'm Ben Jackson, and I'm from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I play as many PTQs as I possibly can, and I've top 8ed them twice. I went to JSS Nats '04 and MSS Nats '07, where I got 9th with R/g GargaGoyf. I also own a cube, which has been an awesome investment, and I highly suggest it. But the reason you should stop drooling and keep reading is that I recently won Oklahoma City Champs with U/w Fish. I got the list and tons of help about sideboarding and playing the deck from Gerry Thompson, who made the list in conjunction with Neil Reeves. So I want to thank Gerry for his help and being fairly directly responsible for me qualifying for Nationals. Without further ado, here’s what I played:

4 Adarkar Wastes
11 Island

4 Wanderwine Hub

4 Mutavault

4 Lord of Atlantis

4 Silvergill Adept
4 Stonybrook Banneret
4 Merrow Reejerey

4 Sower of Temptation

4 Ponder
4 Ancestral Vision

2 Remove Soul

3 Sage's Dousing
4 Cryptic Command

Sideboard:

4 Reveillark

3 Flashfreeze

1 Remove Soul

4 Dragon’s Claw

3 Teferi’s Moat

Why should you play this deck? Because it’s great in the current environment. It has great matchups against Faeries and Reveillark, and a great sideboard for Monored decks. BG Elves is close but very winnable due to Sowers, Reveillarks, and Moats. RG Big Mana is the toughest, most skill-intensive matchup, and the least favorable. But it’s still probably even or maybe slightly unfavorable if you play very well. Here’s how I boarded (aka how GerryT told me to board):

Faeries
+1 Remove Soul

-1 Sage's Dousing

Elves/Doran
+4 Reveillark, +3 Teferi's Moat

-2 Remove Soul, -3 Sage's Dousing, -2 Ponder

Mono Red
+4 Dragon's Claw, +4 Reveillark, +3 Teferi's Moat, +3 Flashfreeze

-2 Remove Soul, -4 Lord of Atlantis, -4 Sower of Tempation, -3 Sage's Dousing, -1 Stonybrook Banneret

RG Ramp
+4 Reveillark, +1 Remove Soul, +3 Flashfreeze
-4 Sower of Temptation, -3 Sage's Dousing, -1 Stonybrook Banneret

Reveillark
+1 Remove Soul
-1 Ponder

Merfolk
+3 Teferi's Moat, +1 Remove Soul
-4 Lord of Atlantis

I won’t get too into detail over most matchups. Generally, your most explosive start is turn two Stonybrook Banneret, turn three Merrow Reejerey, vomit the rest of your guys onto the table while keeping counter mana open. You should be able to generate enough card advantage through Ancestral Visions, Silvergill Adepts, Cryptic Commands, Sage’s Dousings, and sideboarded Reveillarks to overpower any deck that would try to kill every creature you play, or, more hopelessly, try to play one big spell per turn, such as Reveillark.

R/G Big Mana, however, is a different story, and a matchup that deserves lots of special attention. The problem is that they can snipe off your creatures with Skreds and Incinerates while sitting behind a Wall of Roots and just playing out Treetop Villages which are bigger than every creature in your deck unenhanced. On top of that, they can often cast Tarmogoyf while leaving enough mana open to resolve a Garruk or Siege-Gang if you decided to counter the Goyf. Also, they can cast Cloudthresher at the end of your turn to cause similar problems. Your Sage’s Dousings can also get dead pretty quickly. If they happen to be boarding Akroma, Angel of Fury, good luck. That’s one card that you don’t have an answer for really. If they are at high life and you don’t have many creatures out when they play him, you’re pretty much boned. Despite all those problems, you do have lots of Remove Souls, Cryptic Commands, and Flashfreezes which solve a lot of problems, and you get to board in Reveillarks to help out against all their removal, and also be big enough to trade with Treetop. Sometimes Big Mana will just get draws that don’t have much gas, and those games should be pretty easy for you since you do a pretty good job of doing the same thing every game.

I should mention that their key card is Siege-Gang Commander. If it resolves game one, you pretty much can’t win. It’s possible to beat it after sideboarding with Reveillarks and lots of Fishies, but it’s still tough. Your best bet of course is to constantly be aware of when they have an opportunity to resolve it and do your best to never tap out when they do. That often means Pondering into lands so you can play more men while keeping mana up. They also often board in extra board sweepers, so be mindful of that.

The other matchup that can be tough is Doran. They have big fat men, removal for your creatures, and Thoughtseize. Your main goal is to stick a Sower usually and kill them with their own men. Teferi’s Moat is really good here though, so again, it gets a fair bit better after boarding. Just build your board up and find an opening to leverage your Sowers and use Cryptic Commands to alpha strike and/or tempo them out. I consider this matchup about 50/50.

I’m fairly sure every card in the deck is correct for now at least. The only thing I would consider changing is adding Aven Riftwatchers for Dragon’s Claws in the board. I don’t like Psionic Blast or Wings of Velis Vel because I would always rather have a counterspell. The creatures in the deck are all meant to be either explosive or generate card advantage, with the exception of Sower, which is just amazing. Sygg, River Guide seems nice in theory, but consider how often you’re going to have 1WWU available. Then consider how often he’s actually going to save your creatures. Then consider how often you’d rather be doing something else with that mana. Most of the board is meant to improve the R/G Manaramp or Monored Burn matchups. They do that well, and they are very needed. At the very least, I don’t suggest changing any cards until you try to play the deck as it is. If experience with the deck tells you to make changes then be my guest.

So yeah, in summary, Fish are great, and have gotten me qualified for nationals and given me a 20-1 record in sanctioned matches played. The deck does have certain rough matchups, so it remains to be seen if it will be good after Morningtide. My gut tells me that the metagame will be more diverse and generally unfavorable. Firespout is a card that scares me, and could see heavy, heavy play in the future. So I suggest you keep your eyes open to how the environment may become unfavorable. But until that happens, happy fishing.

-BLJ

PS: If anyone is lives in or around Tulsa, or wants to talk about Magic and more with people who do, feel free to stop by our local forums:

http://tulsamagic.forumandco.com/ 

Trolls beware, I will smite thee! :P