The Power of Pauper: Back to Innistrad We Will Go!
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 the cards from Innistrad Remastered that are new to Pauper via downshifts! There's not a bunch of these, and I think we can put an eye on most of them even if there are only a few interesting cards to consider.
There was also some issues with lag this past weekend on Magic Online so we only have two Challenges to look at instead of the normal three.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Innistrad Remastered and Pauper
Innistrad Remastered is finally on its way and we have the entire spoiler. This set does introduce some new downshifts to Pauper, but many of them aren't as we've had in the past with Remastered sets. Even further, most of the cards downshifted aren't very good, with only a few notables. Since there isn't a bunch however, we can cover all the cards and showcase which ones could be playable.
Abundant Maw
I have to imagine the Emerge cost is just too much for Pauper to want to have here (granted Tron exists), and if you reanimate this thing it's just a 6/4 vanilla. You have to cast it to get its effect, so blinking it does nothing. The only cool idea would be some form of Mono Black Tron.
Bound by Moonsilver
Pauper already has a ton of Arrest / Pacifism effects that this one is not really super special. The fact that you can sacrifice a permanent to move it is cool.
Drogskol Shieldmate
Could be cool in Mono White Aggro decks to protect against board wipes, but that relegates it mainly to sideboard material.
Battleground Geist
Spirits isn't quite a kindred deck in Pauper all that much, and 4U is pretty expensive for a minor anthem effect.
Essence Flux
This card is actually cool. While I did say Spirits is not quite a kindred creature type in the format, having some cheap blink effects around is really interesting and U for blink a creature is incredibly cheap. Worth seeing where this one goes.
Imprisoned in the Moon
This card went from Rare to Uncommon to Common in the span of the year here, but honestly it's not a horrific effect to have at Pauper's level. It is quite good, but it's an answer level of good, not a threat level of good. Unlike other things, this can be played on lands too (which is wild if you consider that you could shut off Gates with this or turn off Artifact lands like Bridges) and while they get to retain a colorless mana out of it, sometimes that's not always the best thing.
Fun fact if you play this on a Forest enchanted with Utopia Sprawl, Sprawl goes away because the land is no longer a Forest.
Tower Geist
3U is probably too restrictive for this kind of effect, given that Dredge already has a bunch of effects like this for very cheap.
Gisa's Bidding
I doubt Madness Burn ever plays something like this. You are more likely hitting stuff like Alms of the Vein and getting damage in than generating creatures that can be blocked.
Conduit of Storms
I don't really foresee this getting played. The stat lines are pretty meh, and the effects aren't great on both sides compared to other things going on in Pauper.
Hanweir Watchkeep
Someone pointed out this is a Defender that has an aggressive statline that keeps it out of Galvanic Blast range, but honestly that doesn't impress me all that much given that this card is more than likely not where Blast is being pointed in that kind of deck.
Seize the Storm
Oh this card actually does seem sort of interesting. I'm curious where this could go but it is quite expensive mana-cost-wise so I don't know if it will see any play. That said, it's a really cool effect.
Village Messenger
A 1/1 with haste for Red is probably not cutting it anytime soon, even if it does flip into a 2/2 with Menace. The issue here is that in order for it to flip first you have to cast no spells and in a red deck, you just don't want to do that. The bar for this kind of card is quite high, and that bar is set hard by Clockwork Percussionist.
Bramble Wurm
This is sort of cool. Makes for a sweet Reanimation target. A 7/6 Reach, Trample is cool and you can convert it to 5 life from the graveyard if you need to.
Epitaph Golem
This is probably a hard pass on this one. The statlines and the ability aren't thrilling at all.
Harvest Hand
I'm not sure if this is good or not, but it's a cool effect to see.
Wild-Field Scarecrow
Other effects like this exist in Pauper and don't see any play. This is a pass for sure.
Pauper Challenge 32 1/10/2025
The first of the two Challenges this past weekend was the Friday event. This event had 43 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Blue Terror | 1st | Luminati |
| Burn | 2nd | boom_bust |
| Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | Jose Guillermo |
| Golgari Broodscale | 4th | NickNorman |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 5th | barff |
| Dredge | 6th | marzaboi |
| Dimir Terror | 7th | outZEROo |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 8th | BuddyTheFrog |
Quite a bit of Terror, both Mono Blue and Dimir. At the end of the event it was Mono Blue Terror that won.
Accumulated Knowledge is some sick tech, honestly. I'm digging it. Also a singleton copy of Dragon Wings, if you mill it with Mental Note or something you can set it up to attach to your Terror which is groovy, but you can also cycle it for 1U!
In Second Place we had Burn.
Very straightforward list here, super clean. I like double End the Festivities especially for the mirror.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mono Blue Faeries.
Oh this is a pretty neat list, and primarily I'm looking at the sideboard slots here. New stuff like Cogwork Wrestler is kind of sweet in addition to Bind the Monster.
Pauper Challenge 32 1/12/2025
The second of the two Challenges this past weekend was the Sunday event. This event had 52 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | Lollopollo2001 |
| Golgari Gardens | 2nd | Ipnotico86 |
| Jund Broodscale | 3rd | NMT_Sco94 |
| Dimir Terror | 4th | O_danielakos |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 5th | Purgatory_01 |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Golgari Broodscale | 7th | trubalo |
| Cycle Storm | 8th | Tyerube1618 |
Fairly diverse Top 8 here actually. At the end of the event it was Dredge that won.
Cache Grab is a neat new card. It's instant speed mill, which is really cool. You're not hitting any of the Squirrel related parts of the card so getting a Food token is out of the question, but the big thing is getting to mill four cards at instant speed and then get back one of those permanent cards.
In Second Place we had Golgari Gardens.
This is pretty cool. I like Shambling Ghast here. It makes treasures, it kills creatures, and slice and dices! It's a fun card alongside stuff like Deadly Dispute and Fanatical Offering.
Further down the Top 8 we had Cycle Storm.
I always enjoy seeing this deck. It's definitely a deck I love that it exists in Pauper because it is so unique in what it does. Vision Charm is a really sweet card in the sideboard. It does a very cool amount of things for one blue.
Around the Web
- TeadaleMTG has a video on GR Tron in Pauper. Check it out here.
- Kalikaiz has a video on Rainbow Familiars. Check it out here.
- Paupeganda has a video on Simic Infect. 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 Broodscale but they're doing a bit more than just that here. Really neat take on it.
TEMUR PONZA.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for supporting the column and joining 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!
