Goblin Sharpshooter ft. Wyatt

This is based on a deck idea by Killerade (Deadly Drive-by). Getting a Quicktrigger Outlaw to have deadly means that any weapon played on it kills a unit. Combine this with Statuary Maiden and it's a machine gun, reminding me of a deathtouched Goblin Sharpshooter - one of my favourite things in Magic.

First of all a disclaimer - this deck is NOT a good one! It's a lot of fun to be sure, but it basically doesn't do anything except try and get the combo online, and even then it's super fragile. So spend the stones at your own risk!

The first iteration of this deck was a lot close to the original Killerade list, using the two weapons that Shadow has to grant Deadly to the Quicktrigger Outlaw. The upside of this version is that the first deadly weapon that gets played on the Outlaw triggers a kill-shot, but the two downside are a) the deck is packed with weapons that are VERY bad in any situation that doesn't involve Quicktrigger Outlaw, and b) the deck often kicked up terrible hands with lots of weapons and no units. That lead to this version of the same idea, which tries to leverage Kyrex Coach Driver to get the Outlaw to have deadly.

Kyrex Coach Driver gives units that are drawn deadly - which is exactly what the deck wants to do. The problem is, though, that on the face of it this means that the only route to a deadly Outlaw is to draw one after the coach driver is in play. In order to maximise this the deck is playing Ixtun Merchant to draw a copy of Quicktrigger Outlaw out of the market, and then four copies of Dark Return, which pulls double duty by a) drawing an Outlaw from the void (hopefully with Coach Driver in play) and b) enabling the re-playing of Coach Driver, making it a bit more "sticky".

At this point the core of the combo and it's enablers is established - Kyrex Coach Driver, Quicktrigger Outlaw, Statuary Maiden and Dark Return. This pushes the deck in a specific direction (to my eyes at least!) - both the Outlaw and the Coach Driver are gunslingers, and also another battle skill that combos well with deadly is quickdraw. Since the Coach Drivers will be giving deadly to any unit that is drawn, I included Rakano Outlaw - it has quickdraw and is a gunslinger (which will be relevant in a minute) and is also a great play at two power. Also, around the time I was thinking about this deck, DWD gave us a "wonderful" gift in the form of Wyatt, Junk Collector. There are four reasons I have popped this guy in the deck. First and second, he has quickdraw and is a gunslinger. Third (and this one is quite minor), he opens up the option of discarding a Quicktrigger Outlaw so that it can be Dark Returned with a Coach Driver in play. Fourth, and MOST important, he seems to me to be the avatar of janky brews ("It's not garbage, it's GLORIOUS"), and I want to play with the new promo! There is also a chance that the Smuggler's Stash does a nice bit of work in this deck, but I am under no illusions that I will EVER be drawing a stash off this guy (even if making him deadly does help him get through)!

Since there are a bunch of gunslingers the deck can play Hideout Pistol (shouldn't that be called Holdout Pistol?) - although it isn't great I really love this card. It can make for some really nice tempo plays early in the game, is worn nicely by Rakano Outlaw and Wyatt, and also helps to kill the first unit to get the Cudgels flowing once a deadly Quicktrigger Outlaw is in play. Given gunslingers, Hideout Pistol and having dreams of killing lots of things, Argenport Instigator seems like a nice unit to round out the gunslinger package, giving a total of 20 gunslingers, which seems plenty to justify Hideout Pistol.

Next, since this is a deck that really wants to find and draw the right pieces of the combo, comes card draw. Four copies of Cull the Deck, three copies of Quarry and three copies of Auric Interrogator (who loves to take a warcry or hold a Cudgel) take up the slack here. I went for more Cull the Deck than Quarry since the deck is all pretty cheap, and digging deeper for the right pieces is more important.

Lastly the deck needs to kill units before the deadly outlaw is online, so there are four copies of Torch and three of Annihilate to help out in the meantime.

Lastly, the final four slots are the previously mentioned Ixtun Merchant, giving access to the market. The market features Quicktrigger Outlaw and Statuary Maiden since these are the two parts of the combo that this merchant can access. Then there is a Flamestoker, since it helps to win games that otherwise can't be won, and a copy of the perennially useful Bore. Finally a single Combust enbles the Merchant to be a four-power unconditional kill spell in a pinch.

The power cards are pretty standard! Crests to help dig, banners and seats for influence, and then Cabal Standard since I have found Cabal Tactics to be pretty good with deadly units. That said, given that the plan is to eventually push through a big unit it might be more correct to play the Shugo Banner for the overwhelm that the tactic gives - that's something I will test.

That rounds out the write up of this particularly ridiculous "best case scenario" deck! There are a few things to consider when building around this ludicrous interaction. The first decision is weapons or coach driver. Whilst weapons gives access to more deadly, I feel that the coach driver plan frees up more slots for cards that actually do something on their own whilst waiting to draw the Outlaw and apply deadly - this might be wrong though! Secondly is the old Ixtun vs Kerendon debate. Both can get Maiden, but the Kerendon Merchant allows access to a deadly weapon. I have gone for Ixtun, though, since going down the coach driver route permanently grants deadly to the Outlaw, which means it is still deadly after being dark returned, for example. It might also be right to put in more mid-rangey Stonescar "good stuff" and to be less all-in on the interaction, and instead just take a few slots away from a more classic midrange Stonescar deck, but that doesn't sound like it's in the spirit of Wyatt ("It's not garbage... It's GLORIOUS")!

A quick note in terms of playing - this isn't really an aggro deck, despite the low-ish curve. The goal is to survive until the combo comes online, and then cross your fingers and hope that it lasts for a while! When the combo is online it's straight-forward - kill their units, and in doing so make a huge unit to kill them with!

The final consideration is perhaps the biggest one. Is this interaction even WORTH building around? Well, dear reader, I can answer that. If you are into winning games and climbing the ladder the answer is no, not at all! But if you are into having a lot of fun when the combo DOES come together, but don't really mind getting deranked over and over (which WILL happen!) then the answer is, perhaps, yes! Comments and suggestions are more than welcome!