Deck Description: Pauper CawBlade attacks the metagame from the same angle that CawBlade did in standard, by providing just enough disruption to keep the opponent off of his game, while providing a card advantage engine that cannot be matched.

CawBlade Package:

4x Brainstorm
4x Squadron Hawk
3x Trinket Mage
1x Sylvok Lifestaff
1x Viridian Longbow
1x Bonesplitter

This is the main engine of the deck. It provides not only the bulk of your offensive firepower, but also provides a card advantage engine that cannot be matched. The primary tactic to be aware of is to hold onto your Brainstorms until you can use them in conjunction with Squadron Hawk.

Step 1: have 3 Squadron Hawks in your hand after being fetched by the first Hawk and at least 3 mana. Step 1: Cast Brainstorm, drawing 3 cards.
Step 2: Put 2 of the Hawks back on the top of your library for Brainstorm.
Step 3: Play a Hawk and return the other 2 Hawks to hand.
Net-You have netted 3 cards and turned Brainstorm into Ancestral Recall!
It is extremely important to be patient casting Brainstorm to wait for this interaction, do not cast them turn 1 unless you absolutely must make land drops!

Additionally, tutoring for equipment with Trinket Mage turns your dorky 1/1 Hawks into legitimate threats. Use your discretion as to what equipment to find. Lifestaff is great against Delver and Burn, while Longbow can be great against Infect, Delver, and WW. Bonesplitter is best when you are going on the offensive.

Note: Do NOT use spellbombs! This Trinket Mage package is extremely tight. While spellbombs seem nice, most of them are weak, and not useful. You cannot afford to topdeck a spellbomb when you need real action. Also, do not be afraid to use Trinket Mage to find a land, it’s not a bad Civic Wayfinder, and generally hitting a 4th land is more important than finding equipment.

Support:
The rest of the deck is considered support and somewhat replaceable. However, I strongly advise you to not attempt to turn the deck into an aggressive deck! Squadron Hawk is a powerful midgame engine, but is too slow to be aggressive. If you try to go aggressive you will be left with the impression that Delver.deck is just better. That’s because Hawks don’t fit well into an aggressive shell. However, Hawks can provide a midgame engine that is unbeatable. For that reason, I have gone into a Blink mid-range control deck, and I will explain my card choices.

4xCounterspell/4xJourney to Nowhere.
Having 4x of each may seem light, but I have found that because Pauper is limited to commons only, the decks are built more on synergy, which means you want to have just enough answers, but not too many. E.g. against Delver, the only card you are afraid of is Ninja of the Deep Hours, against MBC it is Gray Merchant, etc. Therefore, you really only want a limited amount of removal and counters, and I’ve been pleased with a simple 4x Counterspell/4x Journey.

2x Momentary Blink/2x Ninja.
Blink is an extremely powerful card and I’ve tried to run more copies in the past. You never want 4x, I can see going to 3x, but there wasn’t room. You always want one because it blanks opposing removal, allows you to reuse the ETB effects of creatures, and allows you to effectively bluff Counterspell. Ninja of the Deep Hours is an extremely powerful card, particularly against Delver. That matchup often comes down to who can resolve Ninja of the Deep Hours for the longest period of time. You have an advantage here because while they have 4x compared to your 2x, you draw more cards than they do, and have removal while they don’t. Some matches I want Blink, some matches I want Ninja, so I went with 2x each.

4x Lone Missionary/4x Spellstutter Sprite/4x Mulldrifter.
These are the creatures I abuse with Blink and Ninja. Note that they are all the most efficient at doing what they do. Lone Missionary is great against burn, but is the first card I cut in some matches, namely infect. Mulldrifter is the best card draw spell in the format. Remember the Blink interaction where you can evoke Mulldrifter, play Blink while it’s ability is on the stack, and it returns to play. Net result-draw 4 cards and put a Mulldrifter into play. While other decks run Mulldrifter, you are the only one truly abusing it with Blink, giving you a huge advantage. Spellstutter Sprite was the last addition to the deck. Often this deck draws too many cards and wants more interaction with the opponent. So I put in the sprites to mixed results. They are a concession to Delver and Infect, allowing you to counter key 1cc spells. In these matches, they are insane, providing you with additional counter magic while putting a body into play. They also give the deck a totally new dimension with Blink. However, because we don’t also run Cloud of Faeries, they are often dead cards, and are subbed out in some matchups.

Lands:
I run more lands than other decks because I always want to hit my land drops and with all this card draw I generally do. Part of the reason why this deck beats delver is because you always hit your land drops, while they don’t, allowing you to play threats while keeping up counter magic. Radiant Fountain is a new addition and I’ve been pleased with its interaction Azorius Chancery. I tried Kabira Crossroads, but this is much better as it doesn’t come into play tapped.

MBC/Burn:
Extremely Favorable. I’m putting these two together because they play the same way. They have a lot of removal and try to win through pointing damage at your face, either in one big swing through Gray Merchant with MBC or through 7 3 damage burn spells. You have so much life gain that it is almost impossible for them to win that way. Removal does next to nothing against you because all of your creatures have ETB effects. Post-boards the match gets even better as they can’t beat a COP of the respective color. Sprites aren’t so good here.

Out-4x Sprite. In-2x Muddle the Mixture, COP, and 1x dispel. You can only really lose to mana screw or pilot error.

White Weenie:
Extremely Favorable. This is an easy matchup because they’re trying to do the same basic thing that you are, but you’re doing it better. Your creatures keep up with theirs as you have a similar curve, you gain life to stall, and eventually bury them with an avalanche of card advantage. Nothing in/nothing out. The match is already favorable enough.

Delver:
Somewhat Favorable. It’s difficult to have a great match against Delver, but a pilot who knows how to beat Delver will beat them with this list. The key to beating this list is knowing that they don’t run many counters and by resolving key threats when they tap out. Additionally, Delver decks frequently miss their land drops, meaning they often only have sufficient mana to play one counter per turn, so you can resolve key threats by using your own counters. As such, they have a tendency to tap out on turn 1 to play Delver, if you are on the play you can respond immediately with Journey to Nowhere. However, after turn 1 ignore their delvers. With your life gain as well as equipment attached to Squadron Hawks, you can easily race their Delvers. The entire matchup comes down to whether they can keep Ninja of the Deep Hours on the battlefield for more than one turn. So focus all of your removal on them. If they cannot get their Ninja engine going, they eventually run out of cards, and you have a significant advantage in the long game. Starting on turn 4, try to resolve your Squadron Hawks with counter magic backup. Once you reach 7 mana, if you have survived that long, you will likely win as you can start resolving Mulldrifter with counter magic up. Meanwhile, they have nothing to bring in against you, sometimes they will bring in Coral Net, but that’s a horrible choice as most of your creatures have ETB abilities so they are spending a full card to answer a fraction of a card. I have won more than 75% of my matches against Delver, which is a huge reason to play the deck, although it is a small sample size. The package of Squadron Hawk, Brainstorm, Trinket Mage and equipment is too much for Delver to handle generally

In: 4x Sunlance, 2x Dispel; Out: 4x Lone Missionary, 2x Momentary Blink.

Infect:
Extremely Unfavorable Maindeck, Somewhat Favorable Post Boards. Previously, this deck couldn’t beat IzzetPost or Storm, which made it a poor choice. Now the only unfavorable matchup is Infect because they don’t care about your life gain and you don’t have enough removal main. However, while it is the toughest match main, it is the easiest match for which to sideboard. Infect only runs 12-16 creatures so if you have 8+ removal spells, plus card draw, you can answer all of their creatures, and the deck fizzles. I bring in 13 total cards.

IN: 4x Sunlance, 3x Standard Bearer, 2x Dispel, 2x Muddle the Mixture, 1x Wispmare, 1x: COP: Green. OUT: 4x Lone Missionary, 2x Momentary Blink, 2x Ninja of the Deep Hours, 1x Sylvok Lifestaff, 1x Bonesplitter, 2x Trinket Mage, 1x Mulldrifter.
Basically, you want to sub-out anything that doesn’t interact with them or that is too slow. The 8 removal spells post-boards allows you to keep their creatures off the board, counter magic helps as well. Wispmare is for Rancor. Then once you reach 5 mana you transmute Muddle the Mixture for either Standard Bearer, or COP Green, whichever you don’t have in hand. They can’t beat either. While they have Hornet’s Sting and Nature’s Claim to interact with you, the beauty of bringing in both COP and Standard Bearer, means they don’t know which one to plan for. The only way to truly interact with you is to bring in BOTH from their side, but then they are cutting 8 action cards, which is win for you. Also, you have so much counter-magic post-boards that you can protect your shields. It’s like “The Deck” which just played a Moat and protected it with countermagic. While preboards you can’t beat Infect, postboards it is favorable. Thus, the match often comes down to Mulligans, as you need to win both games 2 and 3 to win the match.

Mystical Teachings:
Extremely Unfavorable. You really can’t beat them because they run so many counters and Teachings is backbreaking card advantage. You can bring in 2x Dispel/2x Muddle the Mixture and sub out 4x Lone Missionary. However, there’s nothing you can do to prepare for it, so it’s mostly a scoop. Fortunately, Teachings is less than 10% of the metagame, and you can run an entire tournament without running into it. If Teachings ever becomes more popular, this deck becomes a poor choice.

Suicide Black
-1 Viridian Longbow, -2 Momentary Blink | +1 COP:Black, +2 Muddle the Mixture