The Power of Pauper: I'm Feeling Reckless
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of The Power of Pauper! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be taking a look at a new card from Outlaws of Thunder Junction that is making an impact on Pauper. It's time to get RECKLESS! In addition we have a bunch of Challenges to discuss, as well as one of those being a Showcase Challenge.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Let's Get Reckless!
Outlaws of Thunder Junction is now legal and available for Pauper on Magic Online, and we are already starting to see the bigger effects that this set is going to have on Pauper overall, especially in the form of the format's various Mono Red "Burn" style decks. One card is definitely making a splash here, Reckless Lackey.
On the surface here, this card is pretty simplistic. It's a 1/2 first strike with haste for one red, and that in of itself is quite good. It is very good at putting in damage in general and comes down early and starts swinging right away. However, the second aspect of this card is really what makes it interesting. The ability to cash in your Reckless Lackey later on for 2R that nets you both a card and a Treasure token is quite strong in general. The token helps turn on Metalcraft for Galvanic Blast, it enables something for Kuldotha Rebirth to sacrifice, or just lets you cast a Lightning Bolt.
This is definitely a strong card to be added to Burn in general, and I expect we'll continue to see this card. Being able to cash in your creature for more velocity is always very strong, and I think that Reckless Lackey is for sure here to stay, so be sure to keep this card on your radar when playing against Mono Red Burn decks!
Pauper Challenge 32 4/19
The first Challenge to speak of was the early morning Friday event. This event had 62 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Boros Synthesizer was one of the most popular decks here but it's win rate wasn't that great, as it seems everyone is gunning for this deck. Burn did slightly better than 50%. Goblins Combo performed very well as did Jeskai Ephemerate.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Goblins Combo | 1st | BokyFloky |
| Cycle Storm | 2nd | Tyerube1618 |
| Azorius Gates | 3rd | carrot_eater |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 4th | Graciasportanto |
| Izzet Faeries | 5th | ZAAAAMU |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 6th | ForestErf |
| Madness | 7th | AdryannTheHero04 |
| Azorius Familiars | 8th | saidin.raken |
Pretty cool Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Goblins Combo that won.
Impulsive Pilferer is a pretty neat card for this deck. Getting a free creature that can block and make a Treasure token is reasonable, or you can just sacrifice it to Dispute or Fanatical Offering.
In Second Place we had Cycle Storm.
This is always a deck I find super fun that it exists. Who would have thought that a deck based on cycling would be an awesome thing? Thanks to Ikoria for giving us those payoffs for it.
Further down the Top 8 we had Izzet Faeries.
I like this list quite a bit. Anything playing Breath Weapon seems quite good right now at mopping up creatures on board.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/20
The second Challenge was the 32-player Saturday event. This event had 49 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Boros Synthesizer was the most popular deck here, and it had just a slightly less than 50% win rate overall, but had two top finishes. Turbo Fog did very well here too.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Goblins Combo | 1st | Hamuda |
| Goblins Combo | 2nd | Beicodegeia |
| Turbo Fog | 3rd | seasonofmists |
| Boros Synthesizer | 4th | Purgatory_01 |
| Golgari Gardens | 5th | PedraStone |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 6th | DenisevichAlexey |
| Azorius Gates | 7th | _DissonancE_ |
| Boros Synthesizer | 8th | AliEnWaRe_ |
Pretty interesting Top 8 here. As noted Boros did put two into the Top 8 here, but at the end of the event it was a Goblins v Goblins battle.
Very minor differences between these two lists. The Second Place list is on more Gorilla Shaman while the winner is more on Abrade.
Also in this Top 8 we had Golgari Gardens.
Campfire as a card that can reshuffle your graveyard into library here is pretty hilarious.
Pauper Showcase Challenge 4/20
This Saturday also was a Pauper Showcase Challenge, which is a Premier Play event that feeds into a Showcase Qualifier event at the end of the season. This event had 132 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games. This is a solid turnout for sure!
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Burn was the most popular deck here, with a slightly above 50% win rate. Boros Synthesizer also looked quite good here. Most of the decks above the cutoff here had reasonable win rates across the board.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Turbo Fog | 1st | RitualSinkhole |
| Boros Synthesizer | 2nd | Shade_Scorpion |
| Boros Synthesizer | 3rd | CounterTopGarchomp |
| Azorius Gates | 4th | ARCll |
| Azorius Gates | 5th | boytriton |
| Goblins Combo | 6th | Hamuda |
| Dimir Terror | 7th | ItsSwiftyTime |
| Boros Synthesizer | 8th | NMT_Sco94 |
Quite a bit of Gates and Synthesizer here. At the end of the event though it was TURBO FOG that won.
This list is so sick. I'm digging everything about it. Turbo Fog seems like a strong place to actually be if you know the deck well. You can very easily ward off the Boros and Burn decks well it seems. It is a hard deck to play well though I've found, so definitely not recommended if managing the clock in MTGO is difficult for you.
In Second Place we had Boros Synthesizer.
Very powerful and straightforward Boros list here. It's understated how incredibly good Glitters is in these decks, but it also creates heuristics of just needing to understand how to play against it. It definitely feels pretty strong given that the deck can simply sit on the card and play a normal game, while always representing a turn where it can swing the corner off a Glitters.
Also in this Top 8 we had Azorius Gates.
What I really dig here is the sideboard options of having multiple copies of Destroy Evil. This card seems quite good right now because of the Glitters decks. It can destroy the creature that has Glitters attached since it will more than likely be greater than four toughness while also dealing with the Glitters at the same time (since the aura falls off to the graveyard) but also having extreme flexibility in other matchups.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/21
One of the final Challenges on the weekend was the early Sunday 32 player event. This event had 52 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Burn was exceedingly popular here and it's win rate was pretty good. Boros was also popular but middle of the road. Golgari Gardens did quite well here, while Dimir Terror did poorly.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Burn | 1st | ecobaronen |
| Burn | 2nd | sebastianpozzo |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 3rd | roter_Erzengel |
| Burn | 4th | boom_bust |
| Golgari Gardens | 5th | __Noob__ |
| Azorius Familiars | 6th | JakeHelms |
| Golgari Gardens | 7th | NickNorman |
| Izzet Terror | 8th | lokes123 |
Interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event I understand was a split between two Burn decks.
We discussed Reckless Lackey above and it shows up prominently in both of these lists. Definitely seems like a strong card for these kinds of strategies overall.
At the bottom of this Top 8 we had Izzet Terror.
I like this list quite a bit. There's a lot of powerful interaction here with the various removal spells, and again I like anything playing Breath Weapon right now.
Pauper Challenge 64 4/21
The final Challenge of the weekend was the 64 player Sunday Challenge. This event had 74 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Burn was very popular here and it had an excellent win rate. Boros was also represented well, but it's win rate was sub 50%. Bogles did very well as did Grixis Affinity.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Azorius Familiars | 1st | Gn42 |
| Burn | 2nd | Selkcahs |
| Bogles | 3rd | AoFTW |
| Turbo Fog | 4th | RitualSinkhole |
| Dimir Terror | 5th | O_danielakos |
| Jeskai Affinity | 6th | rob85tx |
| Grixis Affinity | 7th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Goblins Combo | 8th | Beicodegeia |
Pretty neat and diverse Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Azorius Familiars that won.
I like this list quite a bit. Familiars is one of my favorite archetypes in the format so it's easy for me to enjoy any list.
In Second Place we had Burn.
Very clean looking list here, what we've really come to expect from Burn in general.
Also in this Top 8 we had Bogles.
This is a nice Bogles list. I absolutely love Ram Through as a way to push through damage, especially if your Bogle has a Armadillo Cloak attached to it.
Around the Web
- Stompy MTG has a video on Rakdos Burn. Check it out here.
- Alex Ullman has a new article on power rankings in Pauper. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
As League results are now spread out across the week, let's dig in and find something spicy!
This is a neat take on Gardens.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Pauper!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGPauper Discord Server.
Until next time!
