Budget Magic: $85 Fynn Is So Toxic (Standard)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Budget Magic! Fynn, the Fangbearer is a super-unique card, basically letting you convert the damage your deathtouch creatures deal into poison counters. The last time Fynn was in Standard, it was quite literally the only card in the entire format that could poison your opponent, which made it impossible to build around. Sure, you could overload your deck with cheap deathtouch creatures, but your deck wouldn't do anything if you didn't draw Fynn (or Fynn died). This time, though, things are different. We've already got toxic in the format and also proliferate, which might mean that it's finally time for Fynn, the Fangbearer to shine in Standard, all on just a $85 / 17-rare budget! How good is Fynn in Foundations Standard? Let's get to the video and find out!
Budget Magic: Fynn Is Toxic
The Deck
Our deck today is a unique take on a poison deck, headlined by Fynn, the Fangbearer. Fynn is an interesting card. The 1/3 deathtoucher makes it so that whenever one of our creatures with deathtouch deals combat damage to an opponent, our opponent gets two poison counters.
Our primary game plan is to back up Fynn with toxic creatures (although we do have one non-toxic deathtouch creature in Tinybones, the Pickpocket to power up Fynn). The best toxic creature in our deck by far is Bilious Skulldweller, thanks to its synergy with Fynn. Not only does the one-drop have toxic 1, but it also has deathtouch, which means we can play Bilious Skulldweller on Turn 1 and Fynn on Turn 2, and we'll give our opponent three poison counters if we get in an attack with Bilious Skulldweller, which is insane for just a single mana!
Rounding out our creatures are two more toxic creatures. Venerated Rotpriest synergizes with our protection spells to give our opponent extra poison counters, while Bloated Contaminator not only has toxic and trample but also proliferates when it gets in combat damage.
One of the problems with building a Fynn deck is that Fynn is a lightning rod for removal. As such, having a bunch of ways to protect our creatures is super important. For this, we turn to Royal Treatment and Tyvar's Stand to fizzle targeted removal for just a single mana. The build we played in the video had four copies of Tyvar's Stand and two Royal Treatments, although after playing the deck, I'd switch the two cards and play four Royal Treatment. Since we're trying to win with poison anyway, Tyvar's Stand's pumping doesn't offer that much value in our deck, while the ward from the Royal Role from Royal Treatment is a nice upside. We've also got Necrogen Communion, and I'm not sure if the enchantment is the best or worst card in our deck. The biggest downside is that it's a protection spell we have to play at sorcery speed, which makes it easy for our opponent to kill it in response. But it's super powerful if we can get it on a creature, not only returning it to play if it dies but also giving us an extra toxic 2 to help close out the game.
For removal, we have Anoint with Affliction, which is better in our deck than most since we can corrupt our opponent quickly to allow it to kill any creature rather than just cheap creatures. We also have Infectious Bite, which is absurd in our deck thanks to all of our cheap deathtouch creatures, allowing it to take down our opponent's biggest threat while also giving our opponent another poison counter!
Wrap-Up
Record-wise, we went 4-3 with our Fynn deck for a 57% match-win percentage, which is pretty solid. The matchups for the deck were interesting. While the deck is really good at picking up fast wins, we tend to have a hard time if our opponent stabilizes since we don't really generate much card advantage. Basically, Fynn seems like a good budget option if you like aggro poison decks, but this isn't the deck for you if you want to grind out victories in the late game.
As far as changes to make to the budget build of the deck, the only one is switching around the Royal Treatments and Tyvar's Stands. Otherwise, I'd run the deck back as is.
The best news is that Fynn, the Fangbearer itself actually felt solid! Yes, it's still a removal target, and it dies a lot. But, unlike the last time Fynn was in Standard, this didn't really matter. While it's awesome when Fynn sticks around and takes over the game, thanks to our toxic creatures and proliferate, we really only need a turn or two with Fynn to get enough poison counters on our opponent that we should be able to pick up the win with our other cards. If you're a fan of the Fynn, it's the perfect time to try the two-drop in Foundations Standard!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
