Modified Fishing: Standard Fisher Peni

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

Peni Parker, a Japanese-American middle schooler, is the Spider-Man of Marvel Universe 14512. She pilots the spider mech SP//dr and put on a brilliant performance in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. In the set made in partnership with Wizards, Marvel’s Spider-Man, she also appears in anime-style art within this American superhero series, giving her a distinctive look. As a rare anime-style girl among the Spider-People, it feels wrong not to build a Standard deck for her (Editor: Isn’t she a Commander card?). Anyway, let’s go research it.

Single Card Analysis

SP//dr, Piloted by Peni / Kumonosu the Watchful
Legendary Artifact Creature – Spider Hero
Vigilance
When this creature enters, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
Whenever a modified creature you control deals combat damage to a player, draw a card. (Equipment, counters, and Auras you control are all modifications.)

*Kumonosu the Watchful is the tentative MTGA name.

Looking at the ability alone, the card draw on SP//dr, Piloted by Peni triggers separately for each modified creature, so it could bring a huge card advantage in a single turn. A few years ago it would have been rare-level, but these days Enduring Curiosity exists as a strictly better version of the same effect, and Peni costs a bit more, so she seems destined to be unplayable. Is there any deck-building approach that lets her shine? While flipping through the card list, I noticed another uncommon.

Sidequest: Catch a Fish
Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, look at the top card of your library. If it’s an artifact or creature card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. If you do, create a Food token and transform this enchantment.
//
Cooking Campsite
Land
{T}: Add {W}.
{3}, {T}, Sacrifice an artifact: Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Activate only as a sorcery.

Based on the delightful minigame from FFXV, when Sidequest: Catch a Fish succeeds, it not only gives you a card in hand and a Food, but also transforms on the spot into the land Cooking Campsite, jumping your mana straight from three to five and hitting Peni’s mana requirement. It can also cook a meal (sacrificing an artifact) to give your whole team +1/+1 counters, satisfying the modified condition. The specific build is as follows:

Decklist

This deck uses White-Blue artifact synergy as its base, packed with cheap artifact creatures: Magitek Infantry, Market Gnome, and Nesting Bot. Each one comes with a bit of resource generation. Together with the removal spell Dusk Rose Reliquary, which needs a creature or artifact to sacrifice, they form a solid one-drop curve aimed at quickly casting the mid-to-large flyers with Affinity for Artifacts, Memory Guardian and Valkyrie Aerial Unit. In this structure, Catch a Fish refills a little of the hand spent going wide, and pumps up the wide army of small guys so they can hit hard.

＊If you find the defense-oriented Market Gnome too weak, you can swap it for Spyglass Siren or Novice Inspector, which come with their own artifact tokens.

The deck’s other axis is the legendary spaceship The Seriema. When it enters, it can fetch the deck’s star Peni from your library to your hand, and Station puts charge counters, which means it comes with a modification built in. We also include the Guidelight Voyagers’ representative in the Ghirapur Grand Prix, Mendicant Core, Guidelight, to find The Seriema. Mendicant Core’s power depends on the number of artifacts you control, and in this deck it’s not rare for its power to reach 7 or more, so it can very likely enter and immediately Station The Seriema. Once you reach Max Speed, it can also copy the artifact spells you cast. As long as the opponent can’t stop it, your board will soon swell and drown them.

The rest is universal removal Perilous Snare, which after reaching Max Speed can put a +1/+1 counter on a creature every turn to modify it; Mazemind Tome, which proactively adjusts the top of your library or refills your hand; and the artifact land Scene of the Crime, which raises Affinity efficiency while also increasing the chances of triggering Catch a Fish. This pushes creatures and artifacts to 60% of the deck so that Catch a Fish transforms on time.

Gameplay Demo

As you can see, the deck’s game plan is simple and intuitive: flood the board, call in the planes, and pump the whole team. The curve is low, with a certain amount of resource generation, and it’s quite fun to play, suitable for players who like a traditional midrange game.

＊The Syr Ginger, the Meal-Ender that appears in the deck at 1:03 was later replaced by Mazemind Tome.

Conclusion

A traditional midrange deck like this isn’t quite competitive enough in the current Standard, but we’re about to welcome new Standard bans on November 10, and the environment will surely be shaken up then. Midrange decks of this type may well rise again. I hope we get a healthier Standard environment starting next month.