Yesterday morning I was “deckbuilding” or more like gathering the cards I have for my Standard deck to use at this coming weekends store championship at my FLGS The Hobbit Hole.

At the moment I have Hired Poisoner in the deck, but it’s eating away at me that maybe I should be putting Skittering Heartstopper back in instead. Skittering Heartstopper had that slot in the deck in the old mono black aggro deck before rotation gutted it.

Why do I like Skittering Heartstopper? In this post Goblin Chainwhirler world it’s going to stay on the board. It will also block other 1/1 creatures and remain on the board (assuming they don’t have deathtouch). Plus I can give it deathtouch and have it take out a much bigger creature. Which is nice, and something an opponent has to think about before swinging in with that big hitter. However I do have to sit with 1 swamp untapped to be able to do that. And that’s a draw back.

Hired Poisoner I like because it’s a 1/1 with deathtouch. That makes it a great chump blocker taking out much bigger and costlier creatures. However in this post Goblin Chainwhirler world will it be able to stay on the board long enough to do that kind of job? I like that I don’t have to hold a swamp back to activate the deathtouch.

I have no idea what the meta is like at The Hobbit Hole. I’m expecting that I will have to go up against decks with Goblin Chainwhirler in them. I’d be surprised if I didn’t. I’m also expecting I may be up against “mirror” decks. I was at the last one, although we did differ by one or two cards.

As I finish writing this post I think I’ve talked myself into…