#perils of. that specific confluence apparently

[waters-and-the-wilde]

anyway new scenario i am cherishing as a treat for me is that the same night juno was using his coping skills to not drink away his feelings, nureyev got scooped at the spaceport and then subsequently dropped off at the lighthouse by ruby, and in the process of name reveal/family reunion/etc he lets buddy and vespa get him drunk (in what is probably the first time he's been actually intoxicated in lo these twenty odd years)

crucial elements: vespa is now capable of getting drunk, and buddy remains not capable of getting drunk, i don't think nureyev has worked his way up to the mortifying ordeal of both of them being sober while he is drunk and it's already mortifying enough that buddy's gonna interrogate him about his feelings which he is now working on acknowledging that he has. vespa is a.) in a secure and relaxed enough frame of mind to tolerate being drunk around nureyev, largely bc b.) buddy is sober and has the upper hand if they're actually wrong about him even now, c.) 'i don't wanna deal with your shit sober anyway'. and furthermore both of them are only going to be able to tolerate being impaired at all knowing that at least one person in the room has Got This because they are both thinking about ambushes at all times

(it takes him the entire rest of the next day to get to hyperion city and feeling presentable enough to go see juno bc his ass is NOT used to having a hangover)

[arcanite2805]

Pauper - A View from the Outside

Before my first stream tomorrow, I thought I’d give a brief overview of Pauper as a format. Unfortunately, the brief slightly went out the window. Pauper as you’re probably aware, is a format played primarily on Magic Online, where only cards that have been printed at a common rarity are legal. The exception of course are the small number of cards on the banned list, which at the time of writing includes Cloud of Faeries, Cloudpost, Cranial Plating, Empty the Warrens, Frantic Search, Grapeshot, Invigorate, Peregrine Drake, Temporal Fissure and Treasure Cruise. Almost all of these were banned because they enabled extremely fast kills, or combos that were overly oppressive to the metagame.

Many extremely powerful commons have been printed across the history of magic, even today, with powerful cards from Amonkhet and Kaladesh making an impact on the format. The biggest impacts have been felt due to the rarity shifting of certain cards in the Masters sets, such as Peregrine Drake and Burning Tree Emissary most recently. The format does have a few facets missing that are normally found in others, such as the lack of planeswalkers and unconditional board sweepers for example. However, the format is cheap and healthy, and a great way to start playing on Magic online.

The Mana:

Like all decks across MTG, Pauper decks are constrained by their mana. Unlike Modern, Legacy and Vintage, the luxury of fetchland and shock/dual lands are not available. Neither are the powerful 5 colour lands like Spire of Industry, Mana Confluence and Glimmervoid; Utility lands such as Ghost Quarter and Desolate Lighthouse; or creature lands such as Celestial Colonnade or Treetop Village.

However, it is still possible to run functional multicolour manabases in Pauper. The primary multi-coloured lands used in Pauper are the neo-refuge cycle from Tarkir Block (ETB Tapped and Gain a life, T: add X or Y) and the Bounce lands for Original Ravinca Block (ETB Tapped, and return a land to your hand, T: add XY). These also have the benefit of the incidental lifegain to offset the slower mana development, or the virtual card advantage provided by giving yourself additional land drops.

Further colour fixing can be provided by Evolving Wilds/Teramorphic Expanse or by recent Commander Deck printing, Ash Barrens. These also have the additional benefit of thinning your deck of additional lands, which can be particularly valuable in decks that want to draw action spells regularly.

Additionally, multicolour decks and artifact synergy based decks utilise mana artifacts like Chromatic Sphere, and Prophetic Prism, as the 5-colour fixing, or the artifact synergy is valuable to the deck’s strategy. Some ramp decks also utilise the Signets from the original Ravinca block. Green decks can use auras like Abundant Growth and Utopia sprawl as additional fixing.

Specific decks also use more niche lands, such as Affinity’s Artifact lands, and Tron decks utilising Haunted Fengraf as an additional mana sink. Even Snow covered lands are used to power up specific cards, like Skred as additional removal spells.

Metagame:

The Current Pauper Metagame (June 2017) appears to be reasonably diverse, with aggro, tempo, control, combo and ramp decks all viable, and with significant metagame share. Tradditional Midrange (think modern Jund, or standard creature based decks) is somewhat reduced in prevalence, although some decks in the metagame can take this position in a given matchup.

My theory for this apparent lack of metagame share is because the lack of efficient 2-for-1 answers and generic solutions to the wide range of pauper threats mean that it is extremely difficult to line up threats and answers in the right manner. This can be alleviated with sufficient card advantage, which is hard to come by in non-blue decks, which then tend towards a more consistently controlling approach.

The recent release of the Conspiracy 2 cards for Magic Online has given some hope to these archetypes with the ‘Monarchy’ cards (Palace Sentinels and Thorn of the Black Rose). These both allow you to add a reasonable body to the board, whilst providing an easy, recurring source of card advantage. They also add a fun level of strategic complexity to the game, as if you take a hit, your opponent steals the monarchy and your card advantage!

The main source of data that we can use to appreciate the state of the pauper metagame is the successful lists from Magic Online tournaments. These have recently been mostly 5-0 deck lists from leagues, along with the top decks from the recently added “Pauper Challenges”. Although these clearly don’t give a complete picture of the metagame, it is the primary force that drives churn in the metagame. MTG Goldfish takes these decks and groups them (roughly) by archetype, from which a picture of the metagame can be formed.

Delver (UR/Mono-U):

As you might expect, Delver is one of the most popular decks in Pauper. The allure of playing cheap efficient threats, disruption and removal and the ability to have a fighting chance in any matchup is often too much to pass up. Along with Delver itself, Faerie Miscreant and Spellstutter Sprite add a disruptive and card advantage angle to the deck. More card advantage comes from the Ninja of Deep Hours, who are easily set up by the evasive nature of the other threats. Augur of Bolas (UR) and Spire Golem (Mono-U) round out the threat suite.

The threats are supported by efficient countermagic like… uhhh… actual Counterspell, Daze and Logic Knot. Opposing threats are dealt with by efficient removal like Lightning Bolt and Skred, and bounce spells like Snap and Vapor Snag that can also be used to protect your creatures in a pinch.

All this value is tied together by Ponder and Preordain: two of the greatest cantrips ever printed deemed two powerful for modern. A little extra draw power is provided by Gush – which is now only legal at a full 4 copies in Pauper.

Mono Green Stompy:

Since the release of Modern Masters 2017, Burning Tree Emissary has unleashed its true power on Pauper. Stompy looks to flood the board with extremely cheap threats, and force damage through with Hunger of the Howlpack, Rancor and Vines of Vastwood (which also protects your creatures from pesky removal.

The threats are somewhat homogenous, all costing one or two mana. Young Wolf adds a little resiliency, whilst Nettle Sentinel and Skargan Pit Skulk offer immediate two power for one mana (and a little evasion in the case of the Skulk). Quirion Ranger, whilst not offering a particularly high power, allows you to reuse your lands on turns where you don’t hit your land drop, allowing you to continue deploying threats.

Moving up the curve, Burning Tree Emissary allows you to deploy multiple threats as quickly as possible, and enables your best draws. Nest Invader adds an additional body to the board, whilst River Boa and Silhana Ledgewalker and Vault Skirge add some more evasion.

Affinity:

Again, featuring cards deemed too powerful for Modern, Pauper Affinity is powered by the full power of the Artifact Lands. Along with a collection of cheap artifacts, the true Affinity threats of Myr Enforcer and Frogmite can see the light of day again. These are supplemented by the pretender Gearseeker Serpent and the efficient metalcraft threat Carapace Forger. Finally, Atog makes an appearance, as a powerful quick combo kill by eating your redundant artifacts to get in a huge hit (sometimes powered by Temur Battle Rage), or to literally ‘Fling’ it at your opponent.

Digging for these threats is made easy using Thoughtcast and Perilous Research, whilst a variety of cheap artifacts (Chromatic Star, Springleaf Drum, Ichor Wellspring and Prophetic Prism) power affinity, draw cards and fix your coloured mana. Galvanic Blast rounds out the deck with a little more reach and interaction with whatever creatures your opponent tries to contest the board with.

The huge amount of manafixing also enables a very customisable sideboard, able to be customised to whatever the metagame throws at it. Conversely, Affinity is vulnerable to specific artifact hate, and as one of the key players in the format, most sideboards will attempt to prepare for affinity with powerful cards like Gorilla Shaman, Natural State and Gleeful Sabotage.

Kuldotha Boros:

Affinity isn’t the only deck that utilises the cantripping artifacts as a value engine. Kuldotha Boros uses Prophetic Prism and Alchemist’s Vial to draw cards, pick them up and replay them again with Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher, which are simply efficient threats when you turn their downside into an upside. Thraben Inspector also pulls double duty, generating a clue, and becoming a decent self-bounce target too. Additional value can be generated with cycling lands, which can be picked up later in the game by your threats or bouncelands once you have sufficient mana.

Two different approaches can then be employed. Traditionally, a token based approach using Kuldotha Rebirth and Battle Screech, with a final push from Rally the Peasants is used to kill the opponent once the board is under your control. The release of Palace Sentinels has allowed builds to take a more traditional midrange and card advantage approach instead.

This is made possible with a varied removal suite including damage based removal like Lightning bolt, Flame Slash and Galvanic Blast (additionally powered by artifact lands), along with more general removal such as Journey to Nowhere to deal with larger threats.

Tron:

Tron decks use the Urzatron lands (Urza’s Mine, Power Plant and Tower) to generate a huge mana advantage, and use powerful expensive spells to take over the game. Thanks to the colourfixing from lands like Painted Bluffs (and its functionally identical variants) and Prophetic Prism, a range of game plans can be used. Big Win conditions include the largest creature in pauper, Ulamog’s Crusher, the biggest burn spell, Rolling Thunder, or more intricate value based plans involving Dinrova Horror.

Dinrova Horror and Ghostly Flicker combine well with the Mnemonic Walls (a staple across all versions) to decimate the opponents board, as the mana advantage provided by Tron allows multiple iterations of the combo each turn. It also works well with the other value creatures included in the deck: Mulldrifter and Sea Gate Oracle.

A variety of interaction can be included in the Tron decks, thanks to their flexibility. Counterspells such as Condescend can be used to good effect Along with card advantage tools such as Mystical Teachings and Forbidden Alchemy. Some decks choose to interact with red removal, whereas others choose to ignore their opponents while setting up, and rely on Moment’s Peace to keep them alive while setting up their endgame. Most of the interaction used

Tron is assembled by utilising the card draw throughout the deck, along with searching tools like Crop Rotation and Expedition Map.

UB Control:

Like Tron, UB control exists in a variety of forms. The fundamental gameplan of control the game until you have enough resources to put away the game. The most common build utilises a ghostly flicker combo like Tron, but uses Chittering Rats and Archeomancer to completely lock the game as the components are cheaper, and UB doesn’t have the overwhelming mana advantage that Tron does. Other versions use Gurmag Angler as a finisher, or in the most extreme case, a single copy of Curse of the Bloody Tome.

The win conditions are supplemented by a range of card advantage. Augur of Bolas, Sea Gate Oracle and Mulldrifter are all seen, particularly in Ghostly flicker builds. Creature less builds and Angler builds rely strongly on Mystical Teachings and Forbidden Alchemy respectively. As well as the standard Ponder and Preordain, some builds also utilise thought scour to power up graveyard synergies.

The interaction comes primarily in the form of counterspells (Counterspell, Remove Soul, Prohibit, Exclude etc.) and removal (Chainer’s Edict, Disfigure, Doom Blade, Echoing Decay etc.), with a huge variety of options available. Some builds can also utilise Evincar’s Justice as both a Win condition and sweeper with incidental lifegain such as Pristine Talisman.

Bogles:

Just like the Modern Version, Bogles seeks to load up hexproof creatures with as many auras as possible, so they hit as hard as possible, and neutralize opposing forms of interaction. Slippery Bogle, Gladecover Scout and Silhana Ledgewalker are the key threats, with some builds utilising the power of Aura Gnarlid as an additional threat.

Ancestral Mask and Ethereal Armor both scale with the numbers of auras in play, resulting in huge creatures. Rancor and Armadillo Cloak both provide Trample to prevent token blockers from being effective. Abundant Growth and Utopia Sprawl fix your mana for the white splash, whilst increasing the aura count. Amonkhet has reinvigorated the archetype, with Cartouche of Strength adding some interaction, and Cartouche of Solidarity protecting your creatures from pesky edict effects.

Izzet Blitz:

A similarly all in deck, Izzet Blitz aims to use Kiln Fiend or Nivix Cyclops, along with a handful of cheap spells to kill the opponent in one shot. The damage is ensured to hit your opponent thanks to Slip Through Space and Temur Battle Rage, or Apostle’s Blessing, which also protects your creatures.

The combo is put together with the standard cantrip suite of Ponder and Preordain, along with Faithless Looting and Gitaxian Probe. Augur of Bolas and Gush also help dig towards your combo pieces. Dispel also acts to protect your creatures, and Lightning Bolt adds a little interaction to slow opponents down.

Others:

Other decks with fewer consistent finishes include Elves, Various Blue Control Decks, Slivers, Mono White Tokens, and Burn just to name a few. There are even infinite combo decks such as Midnight Guard + Presence of Gond in the format.

One of the best features about the Pauper format is that because the format is so cheap, brewing new decks is incredibly feasible. With a small number of exceptions, cards are extremely cheap, and decks usually cost less than forty tickets ($40) on magic online. Once I am more familiar with the format, expect to see me brewing and playing more unique decks.

Stream:

This Week’s Stream on Friday will (likely) feature a friend and I running UR Delver through a league, and who knows where we will end up after that! I’m aiming to start sometime before 7:30 and 8:00 (BST), on https://www.twitch.tv/arcanite2805. Hope to see you there!!!