#mtgpauper

[johnjohnsonjohnson]

Well, i guess i will use this blog to talk about mtg from time to time,but i must say i dont have enough grey matter to put out anything noteworthy, so... enjoy what i think shouldbe downshifted to common for pauper's sake! :D

1.cruel tutor/diabolic tutor

Tutors are important part of magic since, well, always, and for a good reason, they can help you either survive when your opponent is doing better then you, or, they can accelerate you forward to get the upper hand in the game, but sadly in pauper, we dont have anyway for gaing such advantage apart from Mystical tutor for UB control. Those howere, could change a bit, all tho only.one of them should be allowed into format, and i may be stupid for including them, but for my defence i will say, the cmc of those cards atleast make it harder to cast earlier then 3rd(for cruel) or 4th turn.

2. Slitherhead

A 1 mana 1/1 with scavange 0, a card which i belive would be a nice addition to pauper familly, since it isnt anything big, nor small, just a nice thing to add, since scavange wont be a way to instantly add more power, instead it must be done on sorcerry speed, which leaves it open for a response from an opponent.

3.Nekrataal

Black in pauper has many ways to get rid of the creatures that can pose a threat to them, and compare to those, this card is stuck in a back, below doomblade, when we talk about being an usefull removal, but it makes up for it with the fact that it's also a creature that can easli block any 1 and 2 toughness bastards and live through it. I saw people suggested Ravenous Chupacabra, but, in my opinion, even with cast down being avalibe for us, it's too good and would just land everywhere, so i think this assassin would be a better option.

4.Court Hussar

This card was an easy pick for me, apart from a great Etb ability, this has a great addition that makes it super pauper candidate, by which i mean, he cant be safely flickered, since it will just end up commiting seppuku, if you he wont come to play from your hand with white mana behind him, but even with that, he works great as and is still bounceable back to your hand via ninjitsu or snap or any other effect.

5.Silent Gravestone/Ground Seal

Let's be honest, we all hate they old ghostly flicker+wall or turbofog combo, myself included, so, i'm proposing one of those badboys. While both similar, gravestone grants you possibility to draw card and get rid of the graveyards, at a rather hefty cost of 4 mana, ground seal however grants you a card on etb, but since we donthaveany efficient way to bounce or flicker enchantments, i wouldn't worry of abusing it. To be honest, i dont belive anyone would play those cards in thier mainboard, maybe a copy or 2 in sideboard if they felt like they needed because hey, we litterly have gravehates on a land, and 2 better working artifacts, but i belive adding even one of those cards would make for a new version of gravesupression.

Well, that was a small bit of what I thought could enrich pauper, but i have couple more cards if you guys would want to hear about it ,also i should point something out, all those cards i have shown were all disscused with other magic players, almost entierly with other pauper players, mostly between games of pauper in my local lgs(before the covid), but i'm more then eager to hear your idea's and thoughts!

Sorry for bad english, and stay safe folks!

[paupermtg]

Atualizando o MBC! 💀 [EN] Updating MBC! #mtg #magicthegathering #mtgcommunity #mtgpauper #paupermtg https://www.instagram.com/p/CEQJKJVHCY1/?igshid=1bhv5yfwyc21s

[mtggoldfish]

How far can Arcum's Astrolabe take a manabase in Pauper? Is it enough to play four colors of spells with only black lands? Let's see! Playing Pauper: Four-Color Mono-Black Pestilence (Pauper, Magic Online). https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/playing-pauper-four-color-mono-black-pestilence-pauper-magic-online

[it-that-paups]

[pauper-planes]

Post Bans: Astrolabe is gone, what next?

This past Monday the 21st October 2019 Wizards announced that Arcum’s Astrolabe is banned in Pauper.

If like me, you had built a copy of the Jeskai Snow deck you’re probably now looking at the deck and wondering what the heck you do with the other 71 cards. While there are many articles out there discussing what post-ban pauper might look like now, I’ve yet to see any look at the options for the remaining shell moving forward, so that’s what we’re going to take a look at today.

Astrolabe has been a ubiquitous card in pauper decks since the release of Modern Horizons. Driving decks to run snow lands to allow for what essentially amounted to free fixing. We saw in our last article how it was powering up Bogles by making the splash for red easier. We’ve also seen Mono Green stompy decks running it to allow them to splash for Lightning Bolt, or multiple decks without a single green source running Weather the Storm in their sideboards. Most importantly it allowed the Jeskai decks to function, allowing for a proper 3 colour deck despite a very lean mana base.

Let’s start by taking a look at a fairly typical Jeskai list from the October 13th Pauper challenge.

The deck is geared around generating value. In the early game, Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher let you replay Astrolabe to draw you cards, setting you up for the late game where Ephemerate and Archeomancer allow you to continually blink Mulldrifter to draw or your powerful removal in Skred and Lightning Bolt before beating down the opponent with an army of flyers.

The mana is heavily skewed towards snow lands or ways to tutor up a specific colour if they don’t have an Astrolabe in play. Running just an Azorius Chancery and an Izzet Boilerworks as additional fixing beyond the single copy each of the Snow-Covered Mountain and Snow-Covered Plains. Fortunately for the deck, the bulk of the spells are blue so it can operate reasonably well and dig until it hits the required fixing to activate the Ephemerate value loop.

At first glance, the deck might seem to be dead without Astrolabe, but that’s not strictly true. While the mana does become much more difficult, an immediate replacement could be something like Prophetic Prism. Prism costs 2 generic mana but otherwise behaves the same as Astrolabe. It draws a card when it enters the battlefield and filters your mana. However, it slows the deck down as you can’t cast it on turn 1, but it has a similar effect and as a quick budget option to keep the deck playable it’s a possibility. Another option that has been suggested is Navigator’s Compass, which gains you three life instead of drawing a card.

To make the mana easier you could also cut back on the red splash, cutting Skred or Lightning Bolt to make you less reliant on hitting the fixing. You could even cut the deck back to just Blue-White and add some additional Journey to Nowheres or counterspells to shore up the holes left in your removal. Something like Sunlance might also be very useful creature removal.

If you cut Skred you also find yourself in the position of not needing Snow mana. While you might still choose to run snow lands for style points, it does free up some slots to experiment with a copy or two of Mystic Sanctuary which could help make up for some shortcomings of losing access to red.

However, you might also be looking at the upcoming Banned and Restricted announcement on November 18th and be wondering if Ephemerate decks continue to dominate if that might be the next card in R&D’s crosshairs. Certainly, Ephemerate has powered up Tron decks with Stonehorn Dignitary, and while the banning of Astrolabe has also slowed them down slightly, it’s a barely noticeable bump in the road for them.

In which case it might be worth looking at back some lists that haven’t really seen much play since Modern Horizons launched, for instance, Izzet Delver. This list contains a lot of the spells already in the Jeskai lists and has a very similar mana base. The namesake card is Delver of Secrets. On its front side a 1/1 for a single blue doesn’t seem like much, but in a spell-heavy deck getting it to transform to a 3/2 flyer is pretty easy. While it doesn’t fight well against Kor Skyfisher and friends, if those decks start to see less play then it becomes a powerful option again. You also get excellent card draw options in Faerie Miscreant and Ninja of the Deep Hours.  So the deck does have legs even if it doesn’t quite generate the same value as the Ephemerate Archeomancer loop. However, the deck does pick up some new toys from Throne of Eldraine such as Mantle of TIdes and Mystic Sanctuary.

At the time of publication, the weekly Pauper Challenge is in progress so Monday will give us a good idea of promising decklists and new spicy additions that might keep the deck in the top leagues. Even if it turns out that nobody has quite found a Jeskai deck that can immediately replace this one the core blue card draw spells like Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm and Mulldrifter will continue to have a strong presence in the format. You invested in a deck that has a powerful core of cards, so there’s no need to throw them away and start again.

One thing is for certain, the format has been shaken up quite considerably. It’s likely that with Astrolabe out of the format there is room for exploration. There are still cards from the pauper ban list unification such as Mystic Remora that have yet to be fully explored, and likely still some toys from Modern Horizons and Throne of Eldraine that haven’t had a chance to shine yet. Mystic Sanctuary probably being the biggest of those in my opinion. The requirement for a very snow-heavy mana base hasn’t given players a chance to really utilise its full potential. Maybe invest in a playset of Deprive if you want to be truly monstrous.

I hope this article has been useful for you, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with feedback or questions, either here on Tumblr or on Twitter at http://twitter.com/PauperPlanes

[phulkor-resource]

~ @bcs8995 top 16th with this pauper turbo fog deck that looks quite nice

[halfbloodlycan]

[nicrostheking]

A friend of mine and I talk about the Pauper format! This is gonna be a weekly thing hopefully and I hope y’all enjoy it!

[clubtempestad]

Paupérrimo reanimar ósea exhumar xD #mtgpauper (en Club Tempestad) https://www.instagram.com/p/COGgvBYhHIo/?igshid=11mf2rbp40240

[sylvanmtg-blog]

Spoilers: Pauper Slivers needs some tweaking

[archivalderic]

Last weeks Gold Rush Trials... Who will be tomorrow’s Pauper Champions...? #magicthegathering #mtgpauper #playgroundhobbycafe (at PlayGround Hobby Cafe) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2opt3hn_Dm/?igshid=1t8ku3bmf7c6k

[paupermtg]

Modern Horizons nos trouxe várias alterações no metagame! O que será que essa segunda edição vai nos presentear? As melhores respostas nos stories! [EN] Modern Horizons brought us several changes to the metagame! What will this second edition give to us? Best answers on stories! #mtg #magicthegathering #mtgcommunity #mtgcard #mtgpauper #paupermtg #pauper #wizards #wizardsmtg #wotc #magic #wotc #magiccard #magiccards #cardgame #magicspoiler #mtgspoiler #spoiler https://www.instagram.com/p/COlDdrVnt0x/?igshid=c56rjvrhl9g6

[mtggoldfish]

How often can we lock our opponent out of drawing cards with Chittering Rats, Archaeomancer, and Ghostly Flicker in Pauper? Let's find out! Playing Pauper: Dimir Rat Lock (Pauper, Magic Online). https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/playing-pauper-dimir-rat-lock-pauper-magic-online

[it-that-paups]

Looking forward to tomorrow’s Pauper top 8 stream!

[phulkor-resource]

My Demospel Paper Pauper Tournament of June Ponza deck

[neingel]

Far Wanderings: Pauper

Hello again fellow readers! I have decided to make a new series of articles for the blog starting from today, as you can see from the title - Far Wanderings would be a new series of articles where I go talking about a certain format/deck/topic about the game. No competition/banning reports in this series, it’ll just be a very specific somewhat narrow view of the selected topic I have chosen to write about.

So as for the very first article of this series, the topic I would like to rumble on today, well the name was already given away in the title, it’s Pauper! Pauper is quite a well-known format in today’s day and age, it’s the format where only commons are allowed as well as some cards that have had their rarity downgraded to common. Pauper is usually more popular on Magic Online, where there are daily regular events/leagues, with a good amount of participants as well.

“Pauper isn’t exciting right? It’s just commons....”

On that note you’re definitely wrong. Pauper isn’t just a format where people play under-powered commons, Pauper has been referred to many older players to be a “lite”  version of Legacy. The fact that it has a large pool of cards to play with, a fair banlist and it’s an eternal format does give it a lot to talk about. 

A small example of signature cards in Magic’s history that are common and see tons of play in Pauper

Due to Pauper having a huge card pool, a lot of iconic/familiar cards see actual play in Pauper. Such examples include:

Ponder

Preordain

Daze

Gush

Hydro/Pyro-blast

All 3 Tron lands

All original Mirrodin artifact lands

Atog

Mulldrifter

Capsize

Chromatic Star/Sphere

Ancient Stirrings

Expedition Map

Mystical Teachings

Rancor

Nettle Sentinel

Quirion Ranger

Vines of Vastwood

Slippery Boggle

Armadillo Cloak

Chainer’s Edict

Gitaxian Probe

Ancestral Mask

Doom Blade

Kiln Fiend

Chain Lightning

Rift Bolt

Lava Spike

Searing Blaze

Fireblast

Priest of Titania 

I mean..that’s a lot of good cards that have seen play in larger eternal formats, I don’t see why Pauper is being labelled as an “underpowered” format by a few. 

“Blue seems powerful in this format -  is the meta solved?”

A very frequently asked but simple question: to start it off, I’ll show a sample Delver list - which is probably Pauper’s oldest and best blue deck.

As you can see, the deck itself is strong, having a slight resemblance to a mono-blue Legacy Delver build. However, despite this being the most popular deck(probably in Pauper’s history), there are many decks which produce solid results, which I’ll show a few below.

Mono-Green Stompy

Murasa/Temur Tron

Affinity

Kiln Fiend Combo

As you can see through the decklists, all of the decks are very well designed. But what if I told you that many decks of different archetypes achieve a 5-0 on Magic Online everyday/week? Now that will probably take a lot of people aback.

As you can see, within 24 hours, 7 different decks end up with a 5-0 on a Magic Online league, with many and much more ending up being not so lucky with a 4-1. However, this clearly proves my point that Pauper is not like Legacy, in which it is not a blue-dominated format and it has a good, balanced spread of archetypes in the metagame.

So what’s Pauper’s biggest selling point?

One problem that runs in many formats of today is money. I mean some formats require a lot of money and commitment, something which I and majority of many other players have very little of. Pauper, running completely on commons is the perfect format to get into around with a small budget, yet being able to play powerful commons and build a top tier deck in a format all without the hassle of money

As you can see from this metagame screenshot, the cost of Pauper’s high tier decks are dirt cheap when compared to Standard’s,Modern’s and Legacy’s.

 When I mean Pauper is cheap, I mean you can build a top tier Affinity deck in Pauper including Atog and original artifact lands - being 15 times cheaper than it’s Modern counterpart. 15 times!! This also encourages many players who have played Modern or Legacy to dive into Pauper, as building a “common” version of their deck in Modern/Legacy is seen as a challenge in Pauper. Pauper is also an excellent format for any new players trying to dive into an eternal format without spending too much money in it, it teaches them the power level of cheap commons and brings them to a metagame where the power levels of most decks are very very close when compared to each other.

“Is Pauper being played actively in Paper?”

If you asked me that a few years ago, I would say no. But the community of the format has grown together with it’s popularity, now there are quite a lot of LGSs hosting Pauper events(not sanctioned of course due to Wizards seeing it as an “online” only format). With the biggest Pauper event being Card Kingdom’s Rags to Riches, combined with it’s large playerbase on Reddit, Pauper is continually being talked about almost everyday! It is definitely a unique take on eternal formats in today’s age, it might look small to a few for now, but it could prove it’s weight in the future with the current potential it shows today.

Conclusion

Pauper is still a growing format, but it is already attracting the attention of many players with it’s unique playstyle, strong metagame and cheap price. I do enjoy playing Pauper, however there aren’t too many stores in Singapore that would agree to host them. The future is looking very bright for Pauper though! All in all, I hope this was a good read and I’ll be looking forward to writing more Far Wanderings preferably one article every 1-2 weeks. Closing it off, follow the blog, check out more if you’ve missed them and flip those Delvers with Brainstorm! See ya!