The Power of Pauper: Synthesizing
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 various ways decks interact with the card Experimental Synthesizer in Pauper! In addition to that we've got two Challenges and a 4K paper event to talk about!
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Synthesizing A Win
Pauper has a lot of cards that tend to look a little weird outside of the context of the format. So much of the Pauper format is based in synergistic value and things that work well with each other. Case in point is the card Experimental Synthesizer.
In a vacuum, this card lets you impulse draw and then later sacrifices for a Samurai token to get another impulse draw. But in Pauper, this card is farther from that fair application. This is due in part to the overall existence of cards that let you positively interact with Synthesizer in a number of ways. One of these is to simply bounce it and repeatedly play it with cards like Kor Skyfisher. Another way to interact with this is to sacrifice it to effects like Kuldotha Rebirth, Deadly Dispute, or Reckoner's Bargain.
This allows one to abuse the effect of impulse drawing multiple times, letting these decks push through their library in powerful ways while either advancing the board state (by making creatures that attack at the same time) or by simply trying to outvalue the opponent in drawing cards.
This alone has made Synthesizer a cornerstone of various decks in the format, namely in Boros colors as the deck "Boros Synthesizer" suggests.
Between the aforementioned Kor Skyfisher, this deck also has another effect in Glint Hawk that can bounce the Synthesizer and allow the card draw train to continue. In addition because it's an artifact it counts towards Metalcraft for cards like Galvanic Blast.
In addition to Boros, the card has also become very important to Burn.
Burn boasts a lot of impulse draw these days, between the full eight effects of both Reckless Impulse and Wrenn's Resolve that is has access to, that having Synthesizer is just another way the deck does its thing of seeing as many cards to keep up the train as possible. The fact that it can then sacrifice to Rebirth or Improvised Club is very powerful.
Synthesizer is a cool card for sure, and it's interesting to see its evolution of how it has developed in the format overall and what decks it has enhanced. In the future we'll look at other interesting cards in the format that see play and why they exist in the format. What's a card you'd like to see or understand better? Is there one that stumps you? Let me know!
Mont 4K Pauper 10/21
This past weekend was a 4K paper event in Brazil at the Mont CardShop. This event ended up having 88 players in it, which is pretty sweet! You can locate the Mont CardShop's website over here.
You can find all of the decklists here and a data sheet here. I created this data sheet based on the sheets developed by the Castle of Commons Discord!
Burn was the most popular deck of the event and it did have a really reasonable win rate overall. Golgari Gardens had a very middle of the road win rate, while Jeskai Gates decks did exceedingly well. At the low end here, both Bogles and Orzhov Ephemerate were well represented, but didn't do that great.
Let's check out the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | Player Name |
|---|---|---|
| Azorius Affinity | 1st | Henrique Duarte Thimm Palma |
| Jeskai Gates | 2nd | Arthur Yuji Sibuta |
| Familiars | 3rd-4th | Daniel Caixeta |
| Golgari Gardens | 3rd-4th | Ricardo Dorini |
| Jeskai Gates | 5th-8th | Jonathan Jansen |
| Izzet Terror | 5th-8th | Gustavo Sobrinho |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th-8th | Denis Cabral Barbosa Dias Dias |
| Jeskai Gates | 5th-8th | David Oliveira |
Very reasonable Top 8 here for sure. Good number of Gates decks, but a good number of other things too. At the end of the event it was Azorius Affinity that won.
We talked about this version a lot last week. It's a very strong and proactive deck while also drawing so many cards thanks to both Thoughtcast and Of One Mind.
The Second Place finalist was on Jeskai Gates.
The addition of black into the mix for sweepers is pretty cool. This deck really leverages cards like Prismatic Strands very well.
Also in this Top 8 we had Familiars.
Prosperous Pirates seems like a super sweet card to hit with Ghostly Flicker. If you can cost reduce it to U, one flicker of both Pirates and Archaeomancer basically goes infinite (netting one mana each time). Seems incredibly powerful for sure. At that point you can repeatedly bounce your opponent's permanents by bouncing Archaeomancer repeatedly with Aether Tradewinds.
Pauper Challenge 10/21
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the Saturday Challenge!
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. There was no data for this event this weekend. Since we don't have that, let's look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Faeries | 1st | Beicodegeia |
| Jeskai Gates | 2nd | Backoff |
| Jeskai Gates | 3rd | CyroMono |
| Grixis Affinity | 4th | Hamuda |
| Jeskai Gates | 5th | twister66 |
| Izzet Terror | 6th | DenisevichAlexey |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 7th | Drugo |
| Jeskai Gates | 8th | Scherben |
Quite a lot of Jeskai Gates in this Top 8, at least half of the Top 8 is just that. At the end of the event though, continuing a tear through the format like wildfire is Beicodegeia on Dimir Faeries.
This deck seems quite strong and super proactive. It's got a lot of straightforward deckbuilding but it has a good game plan and does some really powerful things. Cards like Gurmag Angler as finishers can side-step cards like Pyroblast which are more prevalent for the format right now.
In Second Place we had Jeskai Gates.
The red splash of these decks is really very minor now. There definitely used to be a bigger presence of red cards outside of blasts, so the evolution here is interesting.
Also in this Top 8 we had Grixis Affinity.
Straightforward and solid list here. No Frogmite which is interesting, but Krark-Clan Shaman seems very good right now.
Pauper Challenge 10/22
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday Challenge!
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. There was no data for this event this weekend. Since we don't have that, let's look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Faeries | 1st | Beicodegeia |
| Mono Blue Terror | 2nd | AbramG_MTG_12-3 |
| Golgari Gardens | 3rd | True-Name-Nemesis |
| Burn | 4th | Lennny |
| Boros Synthesizer | 5th | ElkVinci |
| Mono White Aggro | 6th | jwaves |
| Izzet Terror | 7th | outZEROo |
| Burn | 8th | kaikas |
Much more diverse Top 8 this go around, but again winning the event is the end boss that is Beicodegeia! This player's continual success with multiple archetypes is stunning for sure.
Very much the same list from the previous day's win here. Still, this person has won so many Pauper Challenge events lately. It's pretty crazy!
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Terror.
I am digging the four copies of Boomerang in a decklist in 2023. That is all.
Further down the Top 8 we had Golgari Gardens.
Candy Trail is a neat card here for sure. Between it and Lembas this deck is always going to have something to sacrifice to another of its draw effects.
Around the Web
- Alessandro Moretti has a video on Golgari Food. Check it out here.
- The Card Market deck of the week is Mono White Heroic. Check it out here.
- StompyMTG has a video on the Mont Pauper 4K. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
FOOD.
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!
