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