Garl! Go chase it away. (PDH) (EDH / Commander)

Pauper EDH is an alternative format that uses any uncommon creature as the commander and the 99 are commons.

This deck is Heavily inspired by korakin's Triton Fortune Hunter — go check it out!

I've had my eyes on Triton for quite some time and when an arguable direct upgrade was spoiled I knew I had to put it together. So the deck is built around Stormchaser Drake, a 2/1 flying creature with pseudo heroic.

That makes it a fantastic voltron commander so here we are! Unfortunately mono-blue is very lacking in the buffing departement so the clock is a lot slower than some other voltron decks however it makes up for it with a lot of protection in the form of counterspells/shroud/hexproof.

Another weakness is the lack of lifelink and weak defences, if a deck goes wide and identified you as a threat you're in for a bad time. To aid against this I've chosen to include repeatable 'removal' spells like Sigil of Sleep, Hands of Binding and including modal spells that can remove things in a pinch; You Come to a River and to a much lesser extent You See a Guard Approach. There's also Desert and Quicksand which could dissuade attacks.

For protection there's the classic temporary Dive Down / Mizzium Skin / Mage's Guile but also Vanishing and Elgaud Shieldmate for a more permanent solution. Defensive counterspells like Intervene, Confound and Turn Aside helps too.

The deck packs a lot of offensive counterspells as well, both for protection and to deal with things that ideally shouldn't resolve like a Tatyova or Pestilence for example.

As the commander draws cards like crazy there's not much need for cards that provide card advantage but spells like Consider / Opt / Ponder / Preordain can sculpt our opening draws quite well. Merchant Scroll tutors for what you need and Treasure Cruise is difficult to pass up.

I wasn't quite sure how much acceleration to add, I'm a big fan of Prying Blade & Goldvein Pick as sources of +power and treasures, which lets us tap out buffing the commander while still being able to interact with our opponents. As for Arcane Signet, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone and Ornithopter of Paradise I'm skeptical but will be trying them out. The idea is playing the commander T2 without protection is hazardous as having it removed & cost 4 slows the deck down considerably, so ramping T2 seems pretty good.

So to wrap it up I'll mention the strengths and weaknesses again. The deck is consistent and difficult to shut down. It is however a bit slower than some and doesn't have a lot of permanent removal. It also isn't great at protecting the player so performs better in a less combat-focused meta, against combo players for example.

Thanks so much for reading! If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to comment.