One of the great things about Eternal formats is that the more cards that enter the format, the more redundancies come into existence. This can lead to some interesting situations where colors can play in territory now occupied by other slices of the color pie. This is why you sometimes leads to decks that look out of character, such as the fabled Mono-Green Control out of PDC.

I said they existed...I never said they were good decks.

Regardless, Pauper has a rather large pool to draw from. Many of the cards replicate functions, as this is a holdover from being an all commons format. Limited formats need a certain number of slots filled with each set, which in turn leads to a large pool of similar cards and often, cards across blocks that have some synergy with one another along tribal lines, again, thanks to the size of the creatures and their role in limited. For a color like Blue, this means a number of cheap beaters that allow the Island mages to take on the role of beat down from time to time.

Aggressive Blue strategies usually fall into two general categories: Skies and Fish. Both decks have historically sought to use efficiently costed creatures with a draw back, or slightly expensive creatures with disruptive effects, backed up with counter magic, to establish a board presence and then negate opposing threats. Skies derived its name from the fact that many of its creatures had flying; Fish from the fact that many of the original creatures were Merfolk. Over time, Fish became the default name for any aggressive Blue deck with disruptive elements, even when it branched out into other colors. In Vintage, Grim Lavamancer and Meddling Mage have both made appearances in Fish style decks, yet both are Wizards (another common tribe). Again, these cards provide disruptive elements while decent on the aggressive end as well. Pauper lacks cards of this power level, but still has some incredibly disruptive creatures, including the stellar Spellstutter Sprite.

Fish style decks usually conform to the aggro-control general archetype. The are at their best when they can trump the combo and control strategies of the metagame, while not falling totally flat against the beatdown and red decks. Of course, being Blue, they often do fall to the Red decks. However, all things considered, a Fish style deck is relatively well positioned for Pauper at this moment. Here are some reasons why.

Crypt Rats style control is at the top of the heap right now. This deck is based mostly around resolving game winning spells, and Fish decks feature the counters necessary to stop them from enacting their plan. Historically, these decks have faltered in the face of counters for just that reason. Fish decks also have ways to protect their dudes from the ever present Tendrils of Corruption in addition to counters, such as Unsummon. With M10, Illusionary Servant posses an interesting option as it is has a good power to cost ratio and doges Tendrils. Spellstutter Sprite can often be a blowout here, as it can effectively be a Time Walk, taking away a key spell early, leaving them tapped out and you with a now evasive beater that will eventually be reused thanks to Ninja of the Deep Hours. Against these decks, you can basically out control them, stealing turns with Sprite and Pestermite, while negating their best spells.

Against the two top aggressive decks, you have a far more mixed result. Slivers is not as bleak as it looks thanks to your access to bounce. Here, multiple return effects, such as Undo, are ideal, as each Sliver gone weakens the entire army. At the same time, you can mimic Slivers' strength of reinvesting in previous drops each turn by ramping up your Sprites. Additionally, if you can stall Slivers early game with Sprites and Daze, you can often dominate the late game with counters.

Affinity is another monster altogether. While you can stop their combo pieces with Sprite, they are simply too redundant. While most of your creatures can dodge Krark-Clan Shaman, they do a horrid job of trading with Enforcer. While you can stop Rush of Knowledge, you can still lose to a highly aggressive draw. Even with the help of Annul, this is an uphill climb. Sure, you can win, but it will never be easy- anything resembling a plus draw from the machine is bad mojo.

Fish is, however, fantastic against random aggressive decks. Here, Sprite is again a trump, as it can nullify a full turn against most aggressive strategies. Assuming the control role late, you can fog with a Pestermite or just set up a wall with a top end creature like Spire Golem or Illusionary Servant.

Storm is all about creating choke points. Ideally, you want to be holding a full grip of impact spells the turn they go off, and just counter the draw spells and mana engines to force them to try and go off with fewer resources. This becomes easier after sideboarding, as you usually have ten specialty counters in the sideboard.

Now I want to try something a little different. This deck tends to generate a bit of discussion, and I want to explore the different packages in the deck, and explain them in context. First up, the Faerie package.

The main point of Faeries is to run Spellstutter Sprite for maximum value. Ideally you want to be able to Sprite for three consistently. I find that to achieve this, you need to run at least twelve Faeries, and probably more. I like to run the full suite of Pestermites and Spellstutters and then at least six more. The old standard was Cloud Sprite, but she has become obsolete thanks to Zephyr Sprite, which should start your curve. The last few depend on your taste. Some run Mothdust Changeling to have a Sliver in your pocket, while others have taken to running Cloud Sprite to round out the evasion. I prefer Faerie Squadron, as it can always come down as a 3/3 with flying later in the game and is usually relevant.

I know some people are fond of running Ponder, Brainstorm, or Bonesplitter in this slot. I disagree with these choices. First, the one mana draw spells help smooth your draws, but is that necessary? They do not put you up any cards, nor do you have the multiple shuffle effects to whisk away the useless cards. Sure, these cards are great when they help you set up your draw, but when they reveal nothing, not so hot. That being said, I have tested Ponder as a 23^rd land. I am not saying that it is correct, but it is a possibility. The deck usually wants 22.5 land, and between Ponder and Lonely Sandbar, sometimes the spell wins out.

With regards to Bonesplitter, I can understand the appeal of quickening your clock, but that is not the point with this deck. You are, in the truest sense of the word, an aggro-control deck. Given a long enough game, you should win with your one power beaters, given enough disruption back up. There have been games I won on the back of Zephyr Sprite, just by keeping everything else off the board. I might have won faster with a piece of equipment, but I won without said axe. If I were to run any equipment in this deck, it would be two Vulshok Morningstar as it is a nice late game card that emulates reach while also bolstering the defenses of your otherwise fragile offense.

Next up is the counter package. Counterspell and Spellstutter are musts, but after that opinions vary. Some decks go for Rune Snag, which is fine, especially in metas where you want to win those late wars. In creature heavy metas, Exclude is a fine spell, and I have even seen black splashes for Soul Manipulation and Agony Warp to help win those monster battles. Cards like Negate should be relegated to the sideboard for specialty matchups. Me? I'm running Daze. I think you should run this one if you have it because again, it is a pseudo-TIme Walk, You tap out early, and they think it is clear sailing, except not really. Even the threat of Daze can buy you important turns to sculpt your hand. The mere presence of Daze changes the game. Of course, it is often right to side it out game two, especially if they are the sort of deck to hit every land drop.

With regards to drawing cards, Ninja of the Deep Hours is a must, to me. Sure, it is vulnerable and unreliable, but it allows you to rebuy two of your most important temporal tools in Spellstutter and Pestermite. Combine this with the ability to tap blockers or remove them, and you have a fairly reliant stream of card advantage. I like to supplement these cards with some number of Looter il-Kor and Mulldrifter. Looter is just madness, allowing you to filter through your deck, but I found four to be too many. I tested three, and again, I was hesitant to attack with multiples in damage races, because far too often I wanted to keep my current grip. I have been happy with two. 'Drifter is a card I am currently testing because I wanted a true card draw spell, but he ranks among the best available. The fact that he so happens to be Blue and flies is just stellar, as it fits into your entire game plan of attacking with Blue creatures that fly. However, his cost has relegated him to a two of currently. I am not sure if this is correct, but would not be surprised to see him move to three.

The draw spells you want have to fit into one of two categories. They either need to supply a steady stream of cards or put you up more than one. PonderStorm is neutral, whereas Drifts can put you up one or two cards. I could see a card like Ophidian making a bid for slot, or perhaps Compulsive Research.

Next up is bounce. Before the rules change, I would run Unsummon, as it is almost a Skred in the deck and also allows you to reuse the creatures you want to and also save them from removal, while clearing a path at bargain basement prices. Currently, your bounce needs to clear more than one creature from the field of battle. I find two or three spells to be optimal, otherwise I would run Aether Burst. Rather, I run Rushing River. While more expensive, it can turn early investments into a yield later on while also handling nasty permanents like Armadillo Cloak. Other options include Echoing Truth or Whirlpool Whelm for even more potential Time Walk.

Finally, there is your top end. This is the slot for Wormfang Drake, Illusionary Servant, or Spire Golem. While everyone of those has their merits, I am advocate the Golem, as it is the best of the three while also having the upside of being free. However, I could see instances, rare as they may be, where I would want the Drake or Skulker fighting along side Golem; running more Drifters or running into too many Tendrils, for example.

With all this in mind, here is my current build:

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 3 cards

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

Fish is an incredibly versatile deck, much like MBC. It can morph itself to most fields and always have game. It runs some of the best creatures and best trumps, and can always tap two Islands to say no, which is always a Good Thing.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex