Lazav, Familiar Stranger

by Tyler Jacobson

A Stranger in the Saloon

You walk into a saloon, packed to the brim with the denizens of Thunder Junction. It's getting late at night, and naturally the crowd is getting rowdy. The piano is getting its keys tickled by a skilled viashino, and the dancing boots on the creaky wooden floor are making a ruckus. For the most part the saloon is jovial, the center filled with raucous partiers. But in every corner, characters from across the Multiverse regard each other with distrust, grouping together in tense gangs. One in particular catches your eye. He wears a dark hat and a thick coat. You can see an old face, barely exposed to the light. He seems so familiar, yet you could swear you've never seen him. Who is this man?

Outlaws of Thunder Junction is packed to the brim with unique wild-west-themed characters, with a ton of unique abilities and mechanics. There's massive demons

I Don't Know Him, and I Don't Know How to Build His Deck

Lazav, Familiar Stranger

Let's start with milling. My first idea was just a bunch of targeted mill spells, stuff like Compelling Argument

In order to fix this problem, we could supplement the deck with some cards like Cathartic Adept

By mashing these strategies together and adding in removal, we do get a decent deck that kinda manages to hold itself together. We can mill a decent bit, trigger Lazav frequently, and swing in for a bit. But it doesn't feel very good. There's cards in here like Thassa's Bounty

A Familiar Face

Luckily, just one card can save us. Persistent Petitioners

Tricks of the Trade

Don't worry, though; even though Persistent Petitioners

Speaking of evasion, how are we getting Lazav through? Cards like Aqueous Form

The last part of the deck is of course staples. Luckily, all of our removal and counterspells double as ways to commit crimes. Counterspells a little less, as we have to play them in response, on our opponents' turns, but there may still be value to copying certain creatures at those times. Removal, however, allows us to put creatures we want to copy into graveyards. Go for the Throat is a Pauper all star, along with Feed the Swarm, Murder, and Victim of Night. Nothing spectacular, but they get the job done. Another favorite sector of mine is the bounce spells Vapor Snag and Unsummon. In key spots, they're the perfect answer, and when used right, can easily win you the game. 

Desert Treasure

Lastly, there's a few cards that don't fit into any categories. Desert is a free addition to the deck that can put a +1/+1 counter on Lazav at the end of combat. He could copy something, but at that point, it wouldn't be that much use. Wight of Precinct Six is a card that can get huge out of nowhere, especially if we activate the Persistent Petitioners on a creature dense deck a few times. And Jace's Erasure guarantees that Lazav is triggered every single draw step.

That's pretty much what the deck does, and it works pretty effectively. As long as we can find a deck with decent targets, it's extremely easy to keep Lazav growing, and keep attacking with him. The longer the game lasts, and the more graveyards get filled, the stronger we get. 

This Stranger's on Your Side!

Suddenly, the stranger beckons to you. Come closer, his finger says. Reluctantly, you do. Is this man to be trusted? As you near, you attempt to identify him, but his form remains shadowed and impossible to recognize. Suddenly, you see he is not on his own. Four characters in ornate blue robes flank him, and these you do recognize. Ravnican politicians? From the Azorius guild? What's going on here?

I don't really know where I'm going with this fan fiction. But I do know that the deck performs pretty well, and has the potential to be one of my best pauper decks. Do you think that the Persistent Petitioners are better than just classic mill spells, or are they only good with Bruvac?