The Power of Pauper: A Goblin By Any Other Name
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 talking all about the MTGO implementation of "Name Sticker Goblin" and how it has impacted Pauper. We've also got two Challenges to talk about.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Sticky Goblins!
It has been a few weeks since the release of Wilds of Eldraine, and while much of that set has been interesting, it has been cards that have come onto the client outside of that set that have proven to be more interesting overall. For Pauper this amounts to a new Goblin card. Not just any Goblin card. The first ever custom implementation of a card on Magic Online.
The original printing of this card in paper is _____ Goblin and this particular card existing makes for a very wildly interesting divergence for online play on MTGO versus paper play. Let's talk a bit about how we got to this.
Unfinity released in October of 2022 and a big part of that set involved cards that were made Eternal legal. One of the mechanics of the set, Stickers, was also made Eternal legal through several cards. One of those cards was of course this guy:
The "Sticker" Goblin quickly was identified as a pretty powerful way to ramp in games as the most optimal set of sticker sheets was found and despite the fact that the sticker sheets were randomized every game on average this card would make between 4-6 mana a lot of the time. Players of formats like Legacy and Pauper tested this card for sure in paper events, but a lot of questioning was centered around whether or not the cards from Unfinity would come to Magic Online.
Much of the speculation at this time here was due in part that Wizards had just transitioned control of Magic Online to Daybreak Games and Daybreak at the time was playing a lot of catchup for sets like Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate as well as beginning to implement plans to develop 2FA for the client. Unfinity had mechanics like Stickers and Attractions that seemed like they would be rather difficult for Daybreak to add to the client, presenting a bit of a divergence between paper Magic and MTGO.
Earlier this year, Daybreak confirmed that while some cards from Unfinity would be coming to MTGO, the mechanics of Stickers and Attractions were not in the current pipeline to add to the client. However, they did recognize that a card like the "Sticker" Goblin would be an interesting thing for players to have (especially Pauper players) that they sought to create a workaround for the card to function on MTGO, noting that this was MTGO's first ever custom implementation of a card.
The initial proposed workaround had some issues with it, not accounting for things like flickering the card or the fact that it operated so far away from the paper card that it wasn't even remotely the same. Daybreak quickly jumped on feedback from players and re-implemented changes to the card, bringing it up to speed with the text it has today.
The "Sticker" Goblin card as of today still works rather differently than the paper card. In paper, because of the way Stickers work, you generally know at the beginning of the game when you randomize and pick the three sticker sheets for that game how much mana the Goblin is going to produce. After all, you get to pick the Sticker that will produce the most mana based on its vowels. On MTGO, because the system is based on a dice-roll, you won't know how much mana you get until the ability resolves.
Still, this card has proven to be a huge bump for the Mono Red/Burn decks of the current format. Multiple copies in hand usually means that at bare minimum all of them will be cast in a single turn as at its baseline the card will make four red mana, which gives the player the ability to deploy multiple 2/2s into play and possibly any other copies of burn spells or threats from hand. It's a strong chain of effects in a format such as Pauper as it can really represent a lot of damage in one turn.
This effect also works much better with cards like Reckless Impulse and Wrenn's Resolve, giving these decks a lot of mana to churn through their deck with to allow them to cast a lot of spells in one turn, boosting threats like Monastery Swiftspear and having just lots of raw card quantity.
It's certainly interesting to see how this card has impacted Pauper and it has boosted one of the two decks of the format that have proven to be one of the most popular and powerful decks, so it will be curious to see what will happen going forward. I don't believe at this time that Daybreak will tweak the card any further in regards to how it works. They definitely seemed very interested in getting it to work as close as possible to the paper implementation and then leaving it alone, unlike comparisons to Alchemy on Arena where cards are tweaked all the time.
This is something to keep an eye on though for sure.
Pauper Challenge 9/30
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the Saturday event. This event had 43 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Castle of Commons Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Mono Blue Terror and Burn were the two most popular decks with both having great win rates. Jeskai Gates also did well, but really it was the story of the two decks of the metagame that are all over it in this event.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Burn | 1st | Beicodegeia |
| Jeskai Gates | 2nd | carrot_eater |
| Elves | 3rd | LordEgg |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | jundilion |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th | discoverN |
| Mono White Heroic | 6th | MagicTonga |
| Walls Cascade | 7th | Kirblinxy |
| Gruul Ponza | 8th | LucasG1ggs |
Good number of Mono Blue but also just a nice variety in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was Burn however that won. This particular pilot has been on a real tear lately in Pauper for sure, having won several challenges on multiple decks.
End the Festivities is a neat card in the sideboard here, and honestly if you're expecting a lot of opposing decks that play small creatures it does a really good job of mopping up the board especially if you can cast multiples in one turn.
In Second Place we had Jeskai Gates.
This deck reminds me a lot of old school Miracles where it had this mainly Azorius based game plan that transitioned into red sideboard cards postboard. It's kind of cool. The Modern Age as well is a super interesting card in Pauper that has been quite powerful.
Also in this Top 8 we had Elves.
Don't actually see too many Elves decks as of late, so it's cool to see it here. Priest of Titania still a very powerful card for sure.
At the bottom of the Top 8 here we had Walls Cascade.
This is sort of a mixture of the Walls combo deck and the Cascade decks of the format, using the mana ramp provided by the Walls as a value payoff to cascade off of instead of for an infinite mana combo. Getting cards like Avenging Hunter is definitely nice.
Pauper Challenge 10/1
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday event. This event had 62 players in it thanks to the data collected by the Castle of Commons Discord.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Burn and Terror were again incredibly popular here, but both had a small suffer of win rate. Jeskai Gates did incredibly well and converted insanely to the Top 8. Gruul Ponza didn't do so hot here.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono White Aggro | 1st | BurnMann |
| Jeskai Gates | 2nd | Gn42 |
| Jeskai Gates | 3rd | Scherben |
| Jeskai Affinity | 4th | rob85tx |
| Mono White Aggro | 5th | jwaves |
| Goblins Combo | 6th | Hamuda |
| Jeskai Gates | 7th | twister66 |
| Jeskai Gates | 8th | Backoff |
So much Jeskai Gates in this Top 8 for sure. At the end of the event though it was Mono White Aggro that won.
This deck's curve is so incredibly cheap. Maxing out at four tops for Battle Screech (which is sort of like cheating a bit because you can also pitch it to Raffine's Informant and flash it back later) is pretty solid. This deck has a lot of aggressive threats in it for sure. Kor Skyfisher really is a solidly powerful card.
In Second Place we again had Jeskai Gates.
This list opted to max out hard on all of the post board blast effects, playing pretty much all of them in its sideboard. Wild honestly to consider that is where Pauper is at right now.
Also in the Top 8 we had Jeskai Affinity.
This deck is neat, looking to leverage the aggressive plan that Azorius Affinity has alongside some of the powerful red cards like Galvanic Blast and Experimental Synthesizer. It helps too that you get Cast into the Fire in the sideboard.
Down near the bottom of the Top 8 we had Goblins Combo.
Rowan's Grim Search seems super cool in this deck. Getting to look at your top four and functionally surveil two cards to your graveyard seems really good especially when you're playing cards like Unearth. Bargaining this seems incredibly trivial in this type of deck for sure.
Around the Web
- StompyMTG posted a video on Mono Blue Faeries. Check it out here.
- The Card Market deck of the week is Mono Blue Terror. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
You can find this past week's 5-0 deck lists over here.
MONO BLACK BURN.
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!
