MTGGoldfish is supported by its audience. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn a commission.
Browse > Home / Strategy / Articles / The Fish Tank: Sweet Viewer-Submitted Decks (March 29 to April 4, 2020)

The Fish Tank: Sweet Viewer-Submitted Decks (March 29 to April 4, 2020)


Welcome back to The Fish Tank, the series where we peek at sweet viewer-submitted decks and maybe, with our powers combined, turn them into real, fun, playable lists! This week, we will jump around a lot from format to format, with some interesting decks in Historic, Pioneer, Modern, and even Pauper. (No Standard this week, but I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of Standard brews in the near future as Ikoria spoilers roll out over the next week!) Oh yeah, and to have your own deck considered for next week's edition (and for our Fishbowl Thursday Instant Deck Tech), make sure to leave a link in the comments or email them to me at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.

Historic

Loading Indicator

Looking to meme your way through Historic? BigJeffery comes through with Bird Tribal! A lot of tribes seem playable in Historic, but Birds wasn't really on my shortlist. That said, thanks to the pseudo-lord Empyrean Eagle and the power of Murmuring Mystic to make an entire flock of birds as we cast removal and card-draw spells, the deck might actually be able to pick up some wins. While I wouldn't expect anyone to grind their way to mythic with Birds, it is a fun, semi-competitive idea for casual play if you are looking for something different to do in the format.

Pioneer

Loading Indicator

Normally, when I think about a deck built around taking a bunch of extra turns in a row, it's a blue deck, but Chris Hoeglind gets the job done in Pioneer with a planeswalker-heavy Boros shell! The deck's main idea is to stick Gideon of the Trials and emblem it to keep us from dying as long as we control a Gideon (of which we have several) and then use Chance for Glory to start taking extra turns, with Chandra, Acolyte of Flame essentially being a planeswalker Snapcaster Mage to recast Chance for Glory from our graveyard for even more turns! As we take a bunch of turns, we should be able to beat our opponent down with our various planeswalkers to pick up the win. As an added bonus, we have Gideon of the Trials in our main deck, which is one of the best cards in the format against Dimir Inverter. While getting run over by aggro is probably a concern, sweepers in the sideboard (and Anger of the Gods in the main deck) should help, assuming we manage to draw a copy. On the other hand, I'm not sold on the creatures in the deck. Kytheon, Hero of Akros and Kari Zev, Skyship Raider help turn on Mox Amber early in the game, but is it worth playing some relatively underpowered cards just to (maybe?) make Mox Amber good? I'm not sure. Those slots might be better spent on more sweepers, removal, or even planeswalkers. Regardless, the deck looks fun to play and like it could actually be pretty powerful in the right matchups!

Modern

Loading Indicator

As you probably know, I'm not a big fan of Tron, but there are exceptions to my Tron hate. One example is if your plan is to use Tron to play Morophon, the Boundless naming Eldrazi, use Golos, Tireless Pilgrim to tutor up a single Cascading Cataracts to make all five colors of mana, and then play Fist of Suns to make all of our Eldrazi cost WUBRG rather than their actual mana cost, turning all of our Ulamogs, Kozileks, and Emrakuls into free creatures! While the primary plan might not come together super often (although having Karn, the Great Creator to grab Fist of Suns from the sideboard helps), in the worst case, we can just be dirty Tron players and cast our Eldrazi with Tron mana! Is Five-Finger Eldrazi Win better than traditional Tron? Almost certainly not, but when the plan comes together, it should lead to some of the most spectacular turns possible, potentially casting six different 10+ mana creatures all in one turn for free!

Loading Indicator

When you think of Zombies, you might think of the lord-heavy tribal deck that dominated Standard a couple of years ago. Well, Kempius has a very different (and very budget-friendly) take on the tribe for Modern. Rather than playing a bunch of lords, the deck is looking to grind out value from the graveyard with the help of sacrifice effects like Carrion Feeder and Spark Harvest and recursion like Unearth and Claim // Fame (with Dreadhorde Arcanist to reanimate our reanimation!). The main idea is to keep sacrificing Zombies for value, triggering Undead Augur to draw even more Zombies, while also building a huge Zombie Army thanks to Grim Initiate and Lazotep Reaver. Eventually, we grind our opponent out of the game, with Dreadhorde Butcher and Liliana, Untouched by Death offering some direct damage to finish the opponent off! While not the highest power-level deck, Arcanist Zombie Army is stocked full of synergy and looks really fun to play, especially considering its near ultra-budget price tag.

Pauper

Loading Indicator

Hulk Voltron is one of the most unique Pauper decks I've seen in a while. The goal is to stick a Glassdust Hulk, which gets +1/+1 whenever an artifact comes into play; play Etherium Sculptor to reduce the cost of our artifacts; and then play cheap, cantripping artifacts like Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star, Aether Spellbomb, and Implement of Improvement (for free, assuming we have an Etherium Sculptor) until we grow Glassdust Hulk into an unblockable one-shot-kill threat! If we can't quite get Glassdust Hulk to 20 power, we can get in for a big attack and use Fling to finish the job, while Reckless Fireweaver gives us another payoff for casting a bunch of cheap artifacts, pinging our opponent for a bunch of damage. While there is some risk with our plan (everything falls apart if our opponent can kill or counter Glassdust Hulk), the deck does seem like it should do a good job of putting the opponent to the test: either find a way to deal with Glassdust Hulk immediately or be dealt with yourself! 

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for this week! If you have any ideas on how to improve these decks, make sure to let us know in the comments, and if you have a deck you want considered for a future Fish Tank, leave that there as well! Thanks to everyone who sent in decks this week! 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.



More on MTGGoldfish ...

Image for Outlaws of Thunder Junction Spoilers — March 28 | Geralf, Pushed 2-drops and Terror of the Peaks Returns! daily spoilers
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Spoilers — March 28 | Geralf, Pushed 2-drops and Terror of the Peaks Returns!

Third day of spoiler is here with a new Geralf, some pushed 2-drops and Terror of the Peaks!

Mar 28 | by mtggoldfish
Image for Vintage 101: Vintage March 2024 Metagame! vintage 101
Vintage 101: Vintage March 2024 Metagame!

Joe Dyer dives into the current Vintage metagame in March 2024!

Mar 28 | by Joe Dyer
Image for Against the Odds: I Explode Yargle's Corpse on an Ill-Tempered Loner against the odds
Against the Odds: I Explode Yargle's Corpse on an Ill-Tempered Loner

What are the odds of winning by exploding Yargle and Multani's corpse on an Ill-Tempered Loner? Let's find out!

Mar 28 | by SaffronOlive
Image for Outlaws of Thunder Junction Spoilers — March 27 | Marchesa and Riku Meet at High Noon daily spoilers
Outlaws of Thunder Junction Spoilers — March 27 | Marchesa and Riku Meet at High Noon

A few more legendary characters returning, and a reprint for a mythic Angel

Mar 27 | by mtggoldfish

Layout Footer

Never miss important MTG news again!

All emails include an unsubscribe link. You may opt-out at any time. See our privacy policy.

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Twitch
  • Instagram
  • Tumblr
  • RSS
  • Email
  • Discord
  • YouTube

Price Preference

Default Price Switcher