[Deck] ICBE UGW Trinket Fish

[Citrus-God]

// Mushaboom
// Lands 17
4 Flooded Strand
3 Windswept Heath
4 Tropical Island
4 Tundra
1 Savannah
1 Island


// Creatures 11
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Trinket Mage
3 Jotun Grunt


// Spells 33
4 Brainstorm
4 Portent
2 Serum Visions
4 Predict
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Bone Splitter
3 Daze
3 Counterbalance
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares


// Sideboard 15
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Counterbalance
1-2 Pithing Needle
4 Chill

The rest is dependent, based on the metagame.

This basically a Goyf deck designed to fight other Goyfs. Counterbalance, Trinket Mages, and such are there to ensure you win the Goyf wars and still have a strong game against other decks.

Based on AYB's Baseruption, it is also designed to outplay other decks with Counterbalance as well, but instead of Finkels and Shackles, I have opted to run EE and Trinket Mages instead. Yes, Trinket Mages. The greatest Goyf tutor ever printed next to Worldy Tutor and Eladamri's Call. You set EE at 2 usually, with the cc of 4 (for those who didnt know this, you can set it using UUUW for example, which will come out as the cc of 4, but since you used 2 colors to pay it's cost, the Sunburst only gives it 2 counters).

Goblins is also a match-up that was fixed. I have discussed with Josh Wesley about Counterbalance versus Goblins with Trinket Mages, and he said that during testing with Goblins, as long as you have Trinket Mages and a 2c card for the Top, you can safely let Ringleader resolve and counter everything after that. Clever? Running Trinket Mages also let you grab Needle, which I think is cool.

Bone Splitter is probably a cute card I am very happy with. I burrowed this tech from Di when he posted his Ur Faerie Stompy deck. After seeing his toolbox, I thought it'd be cool to port it into this deck so that I can win the Goyf war.

Jotun Grunts are very cool as well. They synergize with Trinket Mage by sending countered Tops, use EEs, and removed Needles back into the for later drawn Trinket Mages to tutor for. I also like how Grunts can also protect your mana base so that you wont get color screwed.

Anyways, I love this rough draft. Tell me what you guys think.


Here is my latest list as of November...

// Lands 17
4 Flooded Strand
3 Polluted Delta
4 Tundra
4 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Island


// Creatures 11
4 Trinket Mage
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Jotun Grunt


// Spells 33
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Daze
4 Force of Will
3 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Counterbalance
4 Thoughtseize
4 Swords to Plowshares
1 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Shuko


// Sideboard 15
4 Engineered Plague
4 Yilix Jailer
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Seal of Primordium
2 Krosan Grip

[thefreakaccident]

with goyf being the only green card in the entire deck, don't you think you would want a basic plains instead of a basic forest?

On that note, is he really worth harming the manabase over? Seeing as you don't run stifle for manabase protection, you will probably have a tough time recovering from land destruction affects (wasteland and port)... no offense, the deck looks strong besides those minor details.

[Citrus-God]

with goyf being the only green card in the entire deck, don't you think you would want a basic plains instead of a basic forest?

Yea, I should cut the Forest for a Plains.

On that note, is he really worth harming the manabase over? Seeing as you don't run stifle for manabase protection, you will probably have a tough time recovering from land destruction affects (wasteland and port)... no offense, the deck looks strong besides those minor details.

Actually, with so many cantrips, I actually would doubt that LD could harm my mana base. I hardly call Wastelands with my Needles when playing Threshold back then. I dont think I would now.

[Lemuria]

I liked this deck.

But what about run some stifles. I think it's one of the best cards in legacy and pretty much versatile, since you can stop combo and screw someone's fetch or an attempt to wasteland you.

[Citrus-God]

I liked this deck.

Thank you.

But what about run some stifles. I think it's one of the best cards in legacy and pretty much versatile, since you can stop combo and screw someone's fetch or an attempt to wasteland you.

I actually wasnt running Stifle simply because this deck didnt really need it. It's good against all the decks Stifle is good against. If I had room, I would consider it actually. Sadly, I dont have much room in the maindeck.

[Maveric78f]

- 14 cantrips is too much.
- instead of a cantrip base, I would run some (2 or 3) Thirst for Knowledge and cut all your sorcery cantrips.
- you should be playing stifle MD
- which leads to the fact that you should be playing 1*dreadnought
- you should be playing 1*academy ruins
- instead of (or in addition to) bone splitter, run O-naginata

[Citrus-God]

- 14 cantrips is too much.

I would disagree. The 14 cantrips keeps the deck very consistent. Right now, I think that the 14 cantrips are the reasons why this deck is doing well for me in testing.

- instead of a cantrip base, I would run some (2 or 3) Thirst for Knowledge and cut all your sorcery cantrips.

Actually, it seems like a better idea to cut Predicts fot TfK. Problem is that for each TfK, I have to run 4 artifacts. That may be a problem.

- you should be playing stifle MD
- which leads to the fact that you should be playing 1*dreadnought

I could try that. My problem with Stifle is that it cant do very much for me in the mirror match. I still ahve to consider this though.

- you should be playing 1*academy ruins

I was thinking of cutting the lone Basic land for it.

- instead of (or in addition to) bone splitter, run O-naginata

I should try that. My only problem is that I cant attach O-Naginata to my Trinket Mages (which can trade with Mongeese).

O-Naginata seems like a great card for this deck still, and should warrant some heavy testing. They trample, allow your Goyfs to win, and makes Jotun Grunt aggressions more deadlier.

[Mister Agent]

Looks like this deck is streamlined to beat threshold which makes this deck strong because threshold is everywhere especially at the last legacy championships. I was wondering if serra avengers would fit in here? Seeing that it could be like an undercosted morphling with the counterbalance +top out to counter all of those 1 or 2 cc creature removal spells just an idea though. The deck looks good though otherwise.

[lukatron2]

sweet deck...I like the single bonesplitter...I also agree that stifle would be good in here, but I don't think it is NEEDED persay...test it out though...and if you do end up liking it, then you have to add at least one Dreadnought...

[gustoh]

The deck really looks like a contender Melvin... I was actually messing around with a WUR Counter-Top deck because I can't stand that damn Goyf. The lone Bonesplitter seems bad IMO... but whatever floats your boat.

LT...

[Citrus-God]

The deck really looks like a contender Melvin... I was actually messing around with a WUR Counter-Top deck because I can't stand that damn Goyf.

Pride > Best deck.

I dont have any pride left because I was ranting about their awesomeness before it became awesome.

The lone Bonesplitter seems bad IMO... but whatever floats your boat.

It did well in testing ironically. I might cut it though for O-Nagita.

sweet deck...I like the single bonesplitter...I also agree that stifle would be good in here, but I don't think it is NEEDED persay...test it out though...and if you do end up liking it, then you have to add at least one Dreadnought...

ehhh... I'm probably never going to run Stifles simply because it is lacking room. I dont think I would like Dreadnaught because Sensei's Top and Counterbalance is already hell to set up.

[Kyachi]

I suppose that I could post some in a public forum as well, so here goes.

I think that EE should be more than the one of, for reasons that you and I have discussed, but I will paraphrase for people who are just tuning into this harrowing debate: EE tends to be an "Oh shit" sort of card, and for that to work out you don't want to be dependent on drawing a one of, or one of the cards that costs 3 to search for it. You want to be able to cast it for 0, blow it for 2 mana and kill off all the EtW as your heart desires. More than that, I know that you can recycle them with Jotun Grunt, but that just kind of seems like a lot of work. Essentially you would be looking at drawing something of the following to get two uses out of one.

Either draw:
1 of EE and...
3 of Jotun Grunt and...
Shuffle Effect and...
1 of EE

OR draw
1 of EE and...
3 of Jotun Grunt...
4 of Trinket Mage.

That's fine for a grueling game of BBS back and forth, but blue based control is not slow these days. One of the largest weaknesses of the current incarnation is that there are 5 ways to deal with mystic enforcers/fledgling dragons, and those ways also have to deal with mongeese and other goyfs as well. If you can bring up the EE count, you can both draw them and grab them with mages to deal with enemy creatures and save your swords to kill the bigger CC guys.

As far as the cantrip base goes, I'm more or less with Melvin on this, the more the better. I find that the UWB fish cantrips are a little lacking, but 14 and two tops is a ton as well. With top, your predicts are so much less dependent on the other cantrips that you don't lose a lot of card quality by cutting some to make room for better stuff, like other artifacts to grab for example. Also, because you AREN'T Threshold, you don't need to worry about having a graveyard. I think that about ten to twelve is plenty, and that would be including the tops. Don't cut all the sorcery speed ones though, they seem to be sort of useful with Tarmogoyfs against Goblins... That just seems kind of obvious to me.

As a parting idea, this came to me while typing all that, what do people think about Accumulated knowledge? I haven't heard any opinions about abusing them with Jotun Grunts since Grunt became more popular. Since we know they aren't that hot in Threshold could they be so here? If one could recycle two off of Grunt, one could draw one metric fuckton full of cards... Just a thought, any one have an opinion on this?

[Citrus-God]

Even if this deck isnt Threshold, the cantrip base is still Threshold, ironically. I wish I could cut Predict, but the truth is that, they're simply why I win outside of Counterbalance. You chain cantrips, gain more momentum, and win attrition wars. As I have always said, a Predict is bound to give you better card quality than FoF. I wish I could run AK, but playing them in the past scares me quite a bit, as, they were never consistent nor were they game breaking. The quality of this deck isnt suppose to be very good anyways unless you can still keep applying pressure against Control decks. Other decks, it's better to just chain cantrips into a better threat with some protection.

You can try this. I tried this awhile back with UW Fish, and I ended up cutting AKs.

But cutting Predict isnt a bad idea, however, you have to focus it much more on Counterbalance than usual.

-4 Predict

+1 Daze
+1 Counterbalance
+1 Sensei's Divining Top
+1 Disrupting Shoal?

[Sigar]

I really like the idea of this deck, but what about cutting the Jotun Grunt for Mongoose, the bonesplitter for an additional EE, and the Savannah for Academy Ruins?

Also do you (guys) think that this deck is viable? Is Trinket Mage fast enough, given that you don't have access to Ancient Tomb etc.?

[Citrus-God]

I really like the idea of this deck, but what about cutting the Jotun Grunt for Mongoose, the bonesplitter for an additional EE, and the Savannah for Academy Ruins?

The deck went from Trinket Fish to Bomberman.... The reason why I cut Geese was for a better Threshold match-up, the same applies to Bone Splitter.

Also do you (guys) think that this deck is viable? Is Trinket Mage fast enough, given that you don't have access to Ancient Tomb etc.?

This deck is generally suppose to be slow. I dont see why we need Tomb really.

[SouthAlly]

I like this idea. A few people play this in my local environment. The Trinket Mages are Nimble Mongoose though, and they call it Threshold.

Seriously though. Is being slow a badge of honor? Why can't it be fast? With Grunts in the deck, especially alongside the Tarmos, doesn't the clock tick for how long your guys can even be effective?

[Waikiki]

So how does the most recent list looks like cause im very interested in this deck idea.

[Citrus-God]

So how does the most recent list looks like cause im very interested in this deck idea.

umm...

Hasnt changed very much actually. Of course, in the SB, we probably have Chills in the SB.

[Elfrago]

Bonesplitter should be Shuko. It's cheaper to equip and it does the same job: trade trinket for moongose and win 'goyf wars.

[Citrus-God]

Bonesplitter should be Shuko. It's cheaper to equip and it does the same job: trade trinket for moongose and win 'goyf wars.

Actually, that seems like a better idea. Thanks. Although Bone Splitter makes damage more lethel, I dont think +2 is actually important considering that Goyfs already hit for a lot. Thanks.