Pauper Commander - Fynn The Fangbearer
With this series, I've mostly explored the lesser played commanders of Pauper EDH, but I figure it's time to give y'all a rundown of the best decks in the format, so let's start with Fynn, the Fangbearer, the most played Pauper commander according to PDHREC.
"Highly played" may be a misleading metric, however, as Fynn only has 500 Pauper decks registered to him. That's more than any other uncommon commander, but it's not a lot. Play more Pauper y'all! Get these numbers up! It's really a fun format, with a varied meta and surprising depth, and the best part is, a PEDH deck will almost never cost you more than $20.
The decks can be pretty easy to build, too, as evidenced by the standard Fynn, the Fangbearer deck. The equation is simple. It's just Fynn + Sedge Scorpion x20. That's all you need to make to make one of the top Pauper decks.
Okay, well, there is a bit more to it than that. After all, 20 creatures only make up a third of a deck (excluding lands), so what else are we going to use to maximize this deck's win rate?
Obviously, we need some evasion. Deathtouch is evasion in itself, but when your attacks start looking lethal, you'll need something that doesn't give you opponents a choice.
Green isn't know for its subtlety, and we don't have much access to mechanics like skulk that allow our creatures to get through unnoticed. Instead, we have one very iconic mechanic representing that the idea that the best way around is through: trample. There're trample-enablers aplenty in Pauper, from the very simple Nylea's Forerunner to Stampeding Elk Herd, which requires a bit more setup. However, as long as our whole team is getting trample, we're happy. Waxing Moon is our best-costed enabler, at least in comparison to Humbler of Mortals, but hey, Humbler of Mortals can be retriggered by playing Utopia Sprawl. You know what's even better? Drover Grizzly, which can be activated every turn and only costs three mana. But that's still not our best evasion piece.
You'll notice there's a bit of a problem with using trample. Trample is made for much bigger creatures than the ones we're running. You're supposed to use trample-enablers on Gigantosaurus, not 1/1 creatures, because a 1/1 will never deal excess damage. However, deathtouch changes the math a little bit: because a single point of damage from a deathtouch creature is lethal, if you have a 2/2 with deathtouch, trample will allow it to get through when only a single creature is blocking.
So we can use trample effectively, but we need our creatures to have at least two power. To remedy that, we'll be including plenty of ways to buff our entire team by one. Spectral Hunt-Caller is our best way of doing that because it grants the entire team trample and a boost. Yes, six mana is a lot for that ability, but given the low cost of the rest of our deck, it's a price we're more than happy to pay.
Unfortunately, there aren't many more ways to make our whole board bigger. Magnify is quite the hidden gem that's perfect here, but unfortunately it's one of a kind. Tajuru Beastmaster is the next best thing. Yikes.
Instead, we'll have to use Equipment. We're looking for low equip costs that we can reuse many times. Buffing creatures with tools is a bit inefficient, but there are some clear silver linings. Goldvein Pick and Prying Blade are simply good cards, and the buff is usually just a bonus. Galadhrim Bow has some extra utility we can use to set up an ambush. Aeronaut's Wings gives flying, an even better form of evasion, and Quick-Draw Dagger gives first strike, meaning our creatures will survive combat.
While we're on the topic of Equipment, I might as well mention Viridian Longbow, a must-have in any deck with deathtouch. Tapping a Moss Viper to K.O. a creature from a mile away? It's easy, efficient removal for us, and much of our other removal follows the same pattern. Ram Through, Bite Down, and Cosmic Hunger allow our creatures to deal damage to creatures across the board while remaining aloof from danger. These are about as effective as using Infernal Grasp, the golden standard for removal. Our opponents will never feel secure as long as we have a single deathtouch creature on board.
Finally, we have one last hole in our plan that needs addressing. You'll notice that our gameplan involves sending extremely fragile creatures headfirst into combat. A lot of our little Scorpions and Snakes are going to bite the dust, and there's nothing we can really do about that. Our deck has plenty of them, of course, so they're somewhat expendable, but they're not infinite. To remedy that, we're going run a bit of graveyard recursion. Nothing complicated, just stuff like Evolution Charm, Grapple with the Past, and Evolution Witness. Most of these have utility in other places, but they'll come in handy when we need creatures back, and we need them now. I'd recommend waiting till the last minute to use these, when they'll result in a game-ending attack.
And that's the whole deck! Despite its appearance of simplicity, there's quite a bit in here. First, we need a ton of deathtouch creatures; then, we have to give them evasion, and because we only have trample to work with, we need to provide a boost in power. Once all of that is accomplished, we've got quite a powerful deck that can take players out in the blink of an eye. I can't guarantee that you won't tick people off by playing this poison-centric deck, but I can guarantee that you'll be winning some games. Even in regular EDH, people aren't able to handle the sly machinations of this deck.
And that's true for a lot of other pEDH decks. This format packs a surprising amount of power.
What other commanders should I cover?
