When we last spoke, I was extolling the virtues of Fish, or more appropriately, Faeries. Here is the list I was running as of my last article:

Fish

 

Creatures 4 Spire Golem 4 Pestermite 4 Zephyr Sprite 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 4 Spellstutter Sprite 2 Faerie Squadron 2 Looter il-Kor 2 Mulldrifter 26 cards Other Spells 4 Counterspell 4 Daze 3 Rushing River 7 cards

Lands 22 Island 1 Lonely Sandbar 23 cards Sideboard 2 Echoing Truth 1 Rushing River 4 Hydroblast 4 Annul 4 Negate 15 cards

After a few more games, I was prompted by Greg to make some tweaks. I was never thrilled with Looter and underwhelmed by River. I did like Mulldrifter, but found his mana cost unwieldy. Greg suggested the addition of Latchkey Faerie to help ramp up Spellstutter while also drawing cards, and also recommended Repulse, because as he put it, Repulsing a Spellstutter seems like one of the most unfair things you want to do with this deck. With that in mind, here is the list I was working with for the past week:

Fish

 

Creatures 4 Spire Golem 4 Pestermite 4 Zephyr Sprite 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 4 Spellstutter Sprite 2 Faerie Squadron 3 Latchkey Faerie 25 cards Other Spells 4 Counterspell 4 Daze 4 Repulse 8 cards

Lands 22 Island 1 Lonely Sandbar 23 cards Sideboard 2 Echoing Truth 1 Rushing River 4 Hydroblast 4 Annul 4 Negate 15 cards

I was happy with this list until the Daily Event on August 22^nd. It served me well as I felt it had an edge on the popular Black-Blue lists and also Mono-Black Control. I also knew I could take Affinity and Slivers if I avoided the combo-tastic draw, and felt confident in the Storm and also the random matchups that could get thrown at me.

The deck wants to try to get ahead early, since in this version, it has very little chance to catch up late (also known as: Why cutting Mulldrifter is a bad idea)). If it can do so with Spellstutter and Daze, it can protect the fort late with counters and Spire Golem. For matchup specifics:

Mono-Black Control: This one is actually fairly easy. You want to establish a presence early and keep their game breakers from hurting you. Save Repulse to protect any creature from Rats or Tendrils and win before than can amass a critical mass of game enders. Pestermite is strong here as he can nullify attacks that put you in Corrupt range. MBC wants to win by taking out your creatures, and Fish has the tools to make sure the creatures survive.

Sideboarding: -4 Daze (going second), -4 Repulse (going first), +4 Negate

The change in sideboard plan is all about pressure. If you're going second, Daze is sub par as they will always be one mana up regardless. Going first, you can steal a turn here or there which can be enough to win the game. Negate is for Corrupt and Tendrils.

Mono-Black Control/Blue: Very similar to above. You want to avoid getting blown out by Probe or Soul Manipulation. Consume Spirit is not as dangerous as Corrupt, so you can afford to let it resolve. This time around, you have to worry more about their ability to draw into game breakers, but if you can protect Ninja, you should be able to keep a steady stream of cards to keep up.

Sideboarding: Same as above.

The changes are made for the same reasons. If, in either of these cases, you feel like the game is going to go long, you might want to side out some number of Latchkeys and keep the Repulses in, to help rebuy key cards in the mid to late game.

Slivers: The goal here is to get ahead and keep Crusade and Spinnerets off of the table. This can be easy if they have a slower draw, but nigh impossible if they have anything above average. Use your counters aggressively here and tap attackers to keep your life total high. You want to win on tempo, but it is very difficult to disrupt Slivers' tempo, as they are able to improve the quality of their previous turns with each subsequent investment.

Sideboarding: -3 Latchkey Faerie, +3 Echoing Truth

Again, you want to keep them off balance, but things can get difficult very quickly. While this is winnable, it is a true uphill climb.

Affinity: Much like Slivers, you will have a hard time winning on tempo. The key is keeping Enforcer off the board and (surprise surprise) prevent Rush from resolving. To this end, use Sprite to keep all low cost items, such as Drum and Disciple off of the board. Shaman is a threat, but not as large since you can avoid the sweeper due to flight. If they are running Glaze Fiend, do whatever you can to keep it from sticking, as it routinely swings for four points a turn.

Sideboard: -4 Daze, +4 Annul

Affinity is always going to have extra mana laying about, so Daze is fairly week. Annul, on the other hand, does a fantastic job of answering free threats for one Blue.

Goblins: This pairing can swing from a cannot win to a cannot lose based upon the inclusion of a few cards. If they are running just creatures with four to six burn spells, you should be able to pull it out, as you can just continuously block with Golem and trade Sprite for two threats. However, if they are running more than six burn spells, and are running the full compliment of Firebolts, you are in dire straights, as they can trade one card for two of yours with ease.

Sideboard: -4 Daze (going second), -4 Repulse (going first), +4 Hydroblast

Like other matches, Daze can lose potency if they are on the play, not because they have a mana advantage like in the MBC/u match up, but because they can easily play around Daze and not lose any advantage. Going first, however, Daze can still do enough damage to warrant inclusion.

Cloak/8-Bear Hate: If you save counters for their awesome auras, they become a collection of bears, which Pestermite and Golem do a wonderful job of holding off. Make sure they don't have a chance to wear their pants, and you should be in good shape.

Sideboard: -4 Repulse, -3 Latchkey Faerie, +3 Echoing Truth, +4 Annul

Truth has the ability to really set them back, whereas Annul helps take care of their main removal spells in Oblivion Ring and Temporal Isolation.

Nightsky Aggro: This is a fairly easy match up since you can just answer their haymakers with bounce, counters, and Golem. Again, you must protect your defenses and try to win through the air. The kicked mode of Faerie Squadron is helpful here, but not vital to victory.

Sideboard: Not necessary, but you can side in the Truths for Latchkeys.

There is very little they do that is worrisome. Protect your army, and you should be okay.

White Weenie: This is a race, flat out. If you can get the upper hand early and keep their early drops off the board, your creatures should be able to win. Do everything you can to prevent Shade of Trokair from resolving and attacking, as he can do very unfair things on the field of play.

Sideboard: Not necessary as constructed. If you are running Oona's Gatewarden, however, find a way to bring them in, probably for Zephyrs.

Storm: They either have it, or they do not. You want to create a choke point with your counters and try to prevent them from drawing cards. If you can leave them without mana, go that route, but you must be absolutely certain that they cannot drop a land into more mana. It is far safer to counter all their draw spells to prevent them for accessing more cards.

Sideboard: -4 Repulse, -1 Island, -3 Latchkey Faerie, -2 Zephyr Sprite +4 Negate, +4 Hydroblast, +2 Echoing Truth

You want the Truth as an out to Empty the Warrens.

All told, this is the kind of deck that can beat everything, but can also easily lose to everything. You notice the same cards leaving in all instances, and that is saying something about the deck as currently constructed. Simply put, it has a hard time competing without Mulldrifter. In every instance, I talked about having to get ahead and play from that position. Without Drifter, there is no way for this deck to play catchup except for egregious opponent error. This is not the way to win in Magic. If I were going to pick up this deck again, there is no way I would do so with fewer than four Drifters. Ninja is nice, but it does not have the game breaking impact that Drifter does. With Ninja, so many things have to go right- you need to get through unblocked; you need them to not have removal; you need them to not have a blocker next turn. With Drifter, all you care about is whether or not they have a counter, and you have them as well, so you can easily get into a war.

Daze is a card I have defended for a long while. It is a fantastic card. It does something that no other card in Pauper can do. In the second list, it is far worse than I would like it to be. Ideally, you would want to lay an impressive hard to deal with threat and protect it, early on for one turn, with Daze, and use other counters later on.

What creatures in this deck qualify?

None. I do not think there is a creature in Pauper I would want to drop on turn two with Daze back up that I would be confident to go all the way. This is not to say Daze can never be good- in fact it is probably much better at protecting Mulldrifter than at any job I had it do in my 75- but in my build, I would not run it again.

I still believe Fish is a viable deck. However, if I were to run it again, I would cut the Latchkeys and two Ninjas for four Mulldrifters. I cannot stress how much worse this deck is without Drifter. It will give you fuel in the late game and give you something you want to draw later on. I would also cut the Squadrons and fit in some Excludes, at least two main, and possibly two Remove Soul/Essence Scatter. The reason for the 2-2 split is because I do not want to have the three drop slow clogged, and two mana counters are quite good, especially against the decks this one has issues with. I would also dump Daze in favor of another two mana counter- it might be Rune Snag or Mana Leak or Prohibit, but now, it would not be Daze. If the meta shifts to one that features fewer decks that can churn out land after land, I would consider bringing Daze back, but not currently.

I came to these conclusions after going 0-2 drop in the August 22^nd Pauper Challenge. I lost round one to Slivers, which is nothing new, I always lose round one. Round two I was up against MBCu, and lost game one to flood, and game three to flood. It was then I realized that there was nothing in my deck to help me muscle through moments like the ones I experience. Ninja was not going to help, neither was Latchkey. Mulldrifter, however, would allow me to at least see cards and try to dig out of my jams and at least give me a chance of getting there. As I ran it in the PE, the deck would just have to hope to get there. You cannot win games of Magic on hope.

As for the PE, the top eight was dominated by Black based control decks, and if memory serves me correctly, Affinity lost out to Teachings in the finals. However, with the rise of these control decks, I have the urge to retry an aggressive strategy. For all this talk of wanting to have a card that can help draw me out of my woes, it would seem that an aggressive deck is not what I need. However, right now, I am just bad at drawing cards. I have hit a funk recently, so instead of trying to craft new ideas, I am going back to my comfort zones. One such zone is Red-White aggro.

I want to try aggro to apply pressure to these slower strategies, and Red helps to trump the other beat down decks by burning Slivers and packing solid Artifact hate for Affinity. Normally, I would want to pair Red with Green, but that deck has no way to fight Tendrils, so I have gone back to White, and have been happy with the results. Here is the list I have been using, although not in the queues- I am still fine tuning in test matches:

Boros

 

Creatures 4 Akrasan Squire 4 Stormfront Pegasus 2 Vithian Stinger 4 Skirk Marauder 4 Skyknight Legionnaire 4 Goblin Legionnaire 22 cards Other Spells 3 Hobble 3 Kaervek's Torch 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Flame Jab 4 Firebolt 15 cards

Lands 4 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Boros Garrison 1 Forgotten Cave 8 Snow-Covered Plains 8 Snow-Covered Mountain 23 cards

I will not have a sideboard until I am comfortable with the main sixty.

This is your basic aggressive deck with a Fireball end game- you want to attack early, using your burn to pick off blockers and occasionally get in there for more damage. You want to sculpt and endgame where you can Torch for lethal and leave the opponent with little they can do. Torch is a good choice for this deck since it can be an active threat to win the game as early as turn five with a perfect draw. More likely, it ends the game in the later turns, but still gets the job done.

About some of the choices:

Torch and Jab: These cards give me the illusion of drawing cards. Having a Torch endgame turns every extra land into more damage at the end. Torch can just end games, and it is off of the radar right now. Jab does the same thing, but also allows for incremental gains, including the picking off of creatures. Combined with Stinger, Jab turns land into a machine gun that can slowly pick off an army. I am a fan of recurring sources of damage, and Jab fits the bill nicely.

Stinger: I really like this guy. I try to find space for two in all my aggressive Red decks, as he just eats away and makes life difficult for the opponent. I could see replacing him with either Sparksmith or Fireslinger for a pinger that came down one turn quicker, but I am not sure yet.

Squire: He pumps out the damage early and helps make a guy large late. On the short list to be cut in favor of a card like Benevolent Bodyguard.

Pegasus: This card has been quite good. I know it is only a 2/1 flyer, but it fills the two drop role so well and when combined with the other evaders provides a potent air force. If people begin running creatures that can block him, he might become Soltari Trooper.

Hobble: I want a way to draw some cards. I also noticed during the PE quite a few Black creatures. Hobble does a fine job of shutting these down, especially in the Dimir decks where they have to attack, while also netting you a card. I have had good experiences with this card, but might be cutting it for Gelid Shackles soon and moving them to the board. However, that cantrip fact makes it a difficult cut.

Is Boros the answer? I am not sure, but I know I am comfortable running the deck and I know how to win with it, especially now that I am running Torch once more. I, of course, want to get some more games with the deck under my belt before I make any pronouncements, but I have a feeling that it is better than bad, but probably not the best.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex