In magic a 1/1 creature for 1 mana is epistemically referred to as a fish. These small, agile creatures obviously are not generally a huge threat themselves, however, throughout the 25 years magic has been developed there's bound to have been a few fish in the sea worth catching, metaphorically speaking... Further to that end, what if we had a deck that ran off fish as the cornerstone of the strategy? How would that look and what kind of shell would it provoke given what we have available to us? Well, I believe I have a good answer for that after the release of the newest set, Ravnica Allegiance.
With the spoiling of
Pteramander
I immediately started digging for a build-around to pop it into. The adapt ability, which is cost-reduced by spells in the graveyard, is the obvious starting point. If we look from this angle we see a potential 5/5 flyer for two mana, which is an undeniably great asset to have throughout a game if played on tempo, and even invariably better late game when you're relying on draws to push your way into victory.
Given the spell-associated cost of
Pteramander
I think it's pretty easy to draw the conclusion that it makes a great teammate with
Delver of Secrets
, which has long been ousted from competitive modern simply on the basis that it cannot pull the whole deck along by itself. Thus, I have jammed the two together in a few different shells (starting with my Grixis deck Grixis Salamnder which hit #1 on Jan 28th), and eventually reshaping over and over, now becoming this mono-blue tempo/budget shell.
Anyway, neither here nor there. What you're looking at is exactly the deck described above - spell-heavy fish. This deck makes use of blue's draw, permission and bounce tactics to maintain tempo while we set the stage with our
Delver of Secrets
and
Pteramander
, then aims to close out with these evasive creatures. Plain and simple.
I've also put
Cryptic Serpent
in the deck (which in some ways further adds to the fish theme considering its crocodile/eel/Gyarados appearance) since it's got a cost-reduction element similar to that of
Pteramander
. Overall, the deck is hugely budget for modern. It's quick, cheap, effective and fun to play, which is all the makings of a good deck. Furthermore, I've fitted the sideboard with control elements to keep you protected after sideboarding so that you don't lose to the stupid dredge, phoenix, tron, blood moon, etc decks that currently make up modern. Just a simple, no bullshit deck at a great price to go spellsling with :)
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TEDeck talk - please like the deck so that it's more visible for other users in the tappedout community!