Feeling Mono-Blue about Fish

Okay, everyone should know by now that I’m done playing Fish for a while. Everyone at the Northeast Ohio boards is going serious mode, and I figure I’d better do so too or risk getting blown out in every single tournament ever.

I’m not sure how this is too much different from the way things are now, but it is. I’m only playing real or semi-real decks from now on.

At the same time, why can’t I stop thinking about Fish?

Lorwyn block is a creature-centric format based on race and class names—creature types for all those idiots who were too stupid to realize it’s the same thing in Magic terms. Sorry. Anyway, putting the focus on creatures means that a lot of the good, or at least interesting, cards in the set either are creatures or promote them somehow.

Look at Lorwyn’s Thorn of Amethyst, for example. That card does nothing but promote the use of creatures in all formats, even the instant obsessed Vintage.

Morningtide is chock full of “interesting” Fish creatures, which I define as creatures from one to three mana who have a useful function other than attacking for one to three damage. It’s preferable that these creatures cost between one and two mana, because paying three mana for something in Vintage is often just asking for trouble, but exceptions can be made.

Look at these two, for example:

Sage of Fables
2U
Creature - Merfolk Wizard
Each other Wizard creature you control comes into play with an additional +1/+1 counter on it.
2, Remove a +1/+1 counter from a creature you control: Draw a card.
2/2

Most of the cards played in blue-based Fish type decks right now are Wizards: Dark Confidant, Trinket Mage, Spellstutter Sprite, Meddling Mage, etc. Sage of Fables makes all of those creatures into bigger threats, and when necessary allows you to trade them for a card. It’s unfortunate that this ability costs mana, because it means you’ll sometimes have to spend mana when your creatures die, rather than waiting until end of turn like a blue deck should.

Sigil Tracer
1UU
Creature - Merfolk Wizard
1U, Tap two untapped Wizards you control: Copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
2/2

This is another fun card that unfortunately gets limited by how much tapping has to go on to make it work. Sigil Tracer and two other guys make Fork on a stick. Imagine copying your opponent’s Ancestral Recall or Time Walk, or taking a critical Force of Will and making it your own. In a format filled with such powerful spells, copying two or three of them a game can be backbreaking.

At the same time, why all the tapping? What’s the point of having a guy that you can’t attack with because you’re waiting for your opponent to run a game-breaking spell into it? I guess that’s what tokens are for.

Maybe we do something a little cheaper, that does something useful whenever it taps, that has a cheap ability, and that has the same, solid 2/2 body…

Grimoire Thief
UU
Creature - Merfolk Rogue
Whenever Grimoire Thief becomes tapped, remove the top three cards of target opponent's library from the game face down.
You may look at cards removed from the game with Grimoire Thief.
U, Sacrifice Grimoire Thief: Turn all cards removed from the game with Grimoire Thief face up. Counter all spells with those names.
2/2

Neat! It’s like an updated Voidmage Prodigy that does something disruptive every turn while countering spells, rather than just attacking for two or dying.

It’s always fun to come upon a Vintage game and see someone’s Yawgmoth’s Will in the graveyard. There are lots of places that Yawgmoth’s Will wants to be, but the graveyard is just not one of them. Nine times out of ten it means that something has gone or is going terribly wrong. Grimoire Thief has the potential to make that happen, and your opponent won’t even know about it until it’s too late.

Imagine attacking with this after a first mainphase Duress is foiled by a Brainstorm.

The mechanic might be a little clunky (since it has to attack before it can counter anything), but it gets more powerful over time as Grimoire Thief racks up the damage and the stolen loot.

Here’s a mono-blue Fish list that I think could be pretty neat.

4x Grimoire Thief
4x Spellstutter Sprite
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Erayo, Soratami Ascendant
3x Ninja of the Deep Hours
4x Ponder
4x Force of Will
3x Standstill
3x Aether Vial
2x Umezawa’s Jitte
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Ancestral Recall
1x Time Walk
1x Echoing Truth
1x Repeal

5x Mox
1x Lotus Petal
1x Black Lotus
3x Faerie Conclave
4x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
5x Island

The main goal with this list is obviously the primary Fish strategy of controlling the opponent until you win with tiny creatures. Secondary goals include locking someone under a Standstill they don’t want to break and getting Erayo into play and flipped.

If you were to get some Riptide Pilferers into the deck, you could lock opponents with that under Erayo’s Essence, just as SS locked things up with Dimir Cutpurse.

I really feel like there are enough good mono-blue cards that Fish can start going in that direction. Sure other colors have useful splashes for different problems, but I think blue at this point can handle just about anything from artifacts (Hurkyl’s Recall, Energy Flux) to creatures (bounce, artifact equipment) to combo (Arcane Lab, Stifle). Still, the deck will have a maindeck problem with Workshop Aggro unless it finds and plays Umezawa’s Jitte early.

Unfortunately, this deck only lives in my head and on the testing table. Even though it pains me a little to say so, I won’t play Fish anymore without a good reason. People are right that it’s underpowered. Why try to play fair in the format that invites you to play as unfair as possible.

It’s very sad to me, though. I feel like Fish was a big part of my identity. I might never again cripple someone’s mana development with a well-timed Stifle or start drawing ridiculous amounts of cards with Ninja to keep my opponent down. I don’t’ even feel like I totally explored the possibilities of Spellstutter Sprite or Martyr of Frost.

Oh well.

(Martyr of Frost would probably be pretty good in the above deck, by the way. He likes mono-blue).