After looking at Ben's decks in his article on Fluctuator in Extended, I had a lot of fun playing this deck when I tested it for the PTQs. I disagree with some things in his deck - like the missing Crystal Vein, which has the potential to go turn 2 Slide, turn 3 Fluctuator.... Which is the overall better play. Most drop the Fluctuator first, but it's not needed until turn 3...

Here's my decklist - and bear with it, as there aren't that many four-ofs, and for good reason: Most of them cycle, and once Fluctuator is out I can riffle through the deck pretty quickly. I will give explanations for each card after the decklist...

Slide Creatures (11)
1 Flametongue Kavu
1 Ancestor's Chosen
1 Confessor
1 Disciple of Law
1 Disciple of Grace
1 Auramancer
1 Ghitu Slinger
1 Cloudchaser Eagle
1 Teroh's Faithful
2 Anarchist (woot, he said two!)

The Core (10)
4 Astral Slide
4 Fluctuator
2 Lightning Rift

The Spells (12)
1 Rune of Protection: Black
1 Rune of Protection: Red
1 Ghitu Fire
1 Threaten
1 Slice and Dice
1 Flame Jet
1 Arc Lightning
1 Topple
1 Lay Waste
1 Aura Extraction
1 Radiant's Judgment
1 Burning Wish

Lands (28 - yes, 28)
4 Mountain
4 Plains
4 Secluded Steppe
4 Forgotten Cave
4 Drifting Meadow
4 Smoldering Crater
4 Crystal Vein

Sideboard (15)
1 Anarchist
1 Honorable Scout
1 Disciple of Law
1 Disciple of Grace
1 Monk Realist
1 Auramancer
1 Crystal Chimes
1 Rune of Protection: Red
1 Obliterate
1 Hobble
1 Ghitu Fire
1 Pillage
1 Cleansing Meditation
1 Slice and Dice
1 Orim's Thunder

Don't diss it till you try it; the deck is fun to play, can be very quick and it is very annoying to play against...

That said, let's ask the critical question: How did it fare against the field?

The Rock, Cogni-Oath/Scrounger-Oath, and Psychatog are this decks worst matchups. Wow, that's about 75% of the field, isn't it?

The Psychatog deck is probably being the worst, as you never get to do anything remotely close to laying down the combo. The Rock and Oath both have Pernicious Deed, which straight-up wrecks this deck; a Deed for 3 will leave you hurting massively. If you're playing The Rock, try to keep some of the combo pieces (other than Fluctuator) in your hand, so hopefully you can recover the inevitable Deed. Oath is the same - but if they deed for three, it kills most of your creatures (if any are even out - I wouldn't play them unless a Fluctuator and a Slide were out so you can slide them out during the end of your turn in order to dodge their Oath).

WUB muffin can be controlled, especially with a Rift and Slide; Slide the Negator and kill the Ramosian Sergeants/Whipcorders and eventually they won't have many answers left. If WUB Muffin gets going it will be harder to stop - but it's not nearly as hard as Rock or Oath.

Sligh can outright burn you to death - that's one of the main reasons Teroh's Faithful and Ancestor's Chosen are in the deck. And since both the Faithful and the Chosen have a toughness of four, they will need more than one burn spell to kill it - assuming you don't just slide it out. Since Sligh only plays one morph creature (Blistering Firecat); when they summon it, Slide it out at the end of their main phase, then watch it die at the end of your turn. You could always just kill it, of course - but that's a waste of a burn card when you can cycle, replace the card, and then kill their critter.

U/G Madness - Pray for slides. They can't get rid of them first game (well, most of them, anyway). This deck also doesn't sport massive removal; their bounce saves your creature cards, and their 6/6 Roar of the Wurm tokens actually fears this deck. Wild Mongrel can swing in for a lot on turn 3, and that's probably where the damage stops. Once you get to turn 4, you should have no problems beating it.

Suicide Black - Another hard matchup, but with playtesting not to tough. It is more 50/50. If they get their hand-ripping cards, scoop. If they don't and your combo gets out, then it's quite the opposite. With the deck sporting many ways to get an Astral Slide out on turn 2 followed by a turn 3 Fluctuator thanks to Crystal Vein, the Slide works wonders against shadow things and other guys. I just wish that Suicide Black used Foul Imp....

I have looked at the results from Houston - and Pernicious Deed was just about everywhere. This deck probably would have fared terribly against the field - but only the rich (or the lucky) actually have the cards to make the top decks in Rock and Oath. Sligh and Suicide are both cheap to build, and WUB muffin utilizes cards that are fairly cheap.

But there are ways to get around certain decks. We do have a toolbox-type sideboard even though the deck has one Burning Wish. The deck is one-ofs anyway, so why shouldn't the sideboard take advantage of that? You could retool it as an exercise, but the upshot is that Ben's right; Fluctuator simply isn't competitive.