The Power of Pauper: Common Fantasy, Part 1
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 taking a look at some of the cards from Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy and what so far from that set could be Pauper playable. In addition we've got some events from last week including a Pauper Qualifier.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Final Fantasy's Common Wares
We have a Standard legal set coming soon, and this is our first foray into a Standard Universes Beyond set! Universes Beyond: Final Fantasy drops soon, and we're going to be starting to take a look to see if there's any cards that would be cool to play around with in Pauper! This list is in no particular order, and the set is still in spoiler season so we'll finish up our set review next week.
Black Mage's Rod
There's a ton of support for this kind of deck and card in this set. Lots of Wizards have this ability of dealing 1 damage on noncreature spells. This one is neat because it comes with a creature and can be re-equipped if need be. I would love to see if there's a space for this style of card and strategy. It seems fun.
Malboro
Kind of a funny name (I don't really know Final Fantasy at all outside of a few games), but the effect is really strong. Much like how Troll of Khazad-dum can be put into the graveyard for Exhume, so can this. You can also Dark Ritual this out. Seems kind of fun.
Instant Ramen
I don't know if this is better than Lembas. Part of the big part of Lembas is getting the scry and also it going back into the deck. This having Flash though is a big deal. Curious to see where this one actually lands, but it looks good.
Suplex
Unfortunately this being Sorcery means its probably not better than Cast into the Fire, but it's a dude going to suplex a train. How cool is that?
Ice Magic
This is a sweet little card. Being able to scale up the effect is pretty cool from just an Unsummon or stuffing it on top or bottom of the library. I doubt the Blizzaga mode ever gets cast though because 6UU is a huge amount of mana.
Town Greeter
This is kind of cool. Getting an additional Satyr Wayfinder effect is pretty groovy. Whether Town lands are good or not is a topic of some consideration. There's some Town tap duals as well as stuff like Adventurer's Inn, but I don't know if that's good enough to play them with this card.
Dreams of Laguna
It's kinda like a Think Twice with surveil which is neat. And it's Instant speed too. Card seems neat. Not sure where it goes but I like the design.
Commune with Beavers
GUY SPEAK BEAVER. GUY ALSO SAY CARD KIND OF GOOD.
Pauper Qualifier 5/16/2025
There was a Pauper Qualifier event this past weekend. Qualifiers are basically large scale RCQ style events where the top two finalists receive an invite to an upcoming Regional Championships. This event had 178 players in it which is stellar.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| High Tide Combo | 1st | MackSmith |
| Walls Combo | 2nd | Brukidm |
| Elves | 3rd | Eresopacaso |
| Azorius Gates | 4th | Maccaciock |
| Jund Wildfire | 5th | seasonofmists |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | outZEROo |
| Dimir Control | 7th | DomoArigatoR |
| Dredge | 8th | galeogiao |
This is honestly a solid looking Top 8. At the end of the event the winner was High Tide.
I really like this deck and I don't think it's extremely overpowered, but it is good if you know what you're doing. It takes a lot of knowledge to play well and can sometimes fizzle out, but it's super intricate and interesting.
In Second Place we had Walls Combo.
This is certainly a deck I absolutely love. It's so much fun to play and plays a lot like Legacy Elves.
Further down the Top 8 we had Azorius Gates.
I have legitimately not seen Gates in a hot minute in the format, so it is really cool to see it show up in a Premier event here. It's a fun control shell where ultimately you want to use Basilisk Gate to pump your evasive threats to win the game.
Pauper Challenge 32 5/16/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 40 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Blue Faeries | 1st | barff |
| Elves | 2nd | Beicodegeia |
| Elves | 3rd | xRagedFurballx |
| Jund Wildfire | 4th | LikeAFerro |
| Spy Reanimator | 5th | choutin |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 6th | Denisevich |
| Infect | 7th | ICT95 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | discoverN |
Fair bit of Faeries and Elves here. At the end of the event it was Faeries (not Elves) that won.
Harrier Strix is a neat card when you bounce it with Ninjutsu. Being able to tap down a blocker and get more Ninjutsu value is sweet.
In Second Place we had Elves (not Faeries).
This deck is reasonably popular right now and it's not hard to see why. It's very aggressive and got some really strong upgrades from various sets throughout this past year.
Further down the Top 8 we had Infect.
It's actually sort of cool that people are really picking up on aggressive decks that aren't just your typical mono red Burn style deck. I love seeing Infect as a valid strategy. Kind of makes me want to build this in paper.
Pauper Challenge 32 5/17/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 47 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Affinity | 1st | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Burn | 2nd | Luiz0211 |
| Elves | 3rd | edgo |
| Inside Out Combo | 4th | Kirblinxy |
| High Tide Combo | 5th | xxSystemxx |
| Gruul Ramp | 6th | NMT_Sco94 |
| Walls Combo | 7th | Liv_BR |
| Burn | 8th | TodouAlice |
Fair bit of Combo here, but otherwise it's a solid Top 8. At the end of the event it was Grixis Affinity that won.
I think this is pretty standard for Affinity nowadays without Deadly Dispute. Not a lot really huge difference regardless here, since Affinity has only generally cared for the game object over the mana aspect of Dispute.
In Second Place we had Burn.
Yep. It's Burn. Lava Dart is sweet though.
Also in this Top 8 we had Inside Out Combo.
This deck continuing to have some results is neat. Is it good? I think it has some potential there for sure. I think that's what I love about Pauper. There's always something there that's probably good but not super played. Love to see it.
Pauper Challenge 32 5/18/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 72 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Elves | 1st | QueMario |
| Mono Blue Terror | 2nd | Kikis |
| Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | 4UBro |
| Dimir Terror | 4th | O_danielakos |
| Black Sacrifice | 5th | MarshFlats |
| Elves | 6th | SuperCow12653 |
| Burn | 7th | Fisicman |
| High Tide Combo | 8th | Cachorrowo |
Fair bit of Elves and Terror. At the end of the event it was Elves that won.
I enjoy any decklist that has the card You Meet in a Tavern in it. That is all.
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Terror.
Extremely straightforward and clean deckbuilding here. Gut Shot is a sick inclusion in the sideboard. It definitely deals with a lot of little things.
Further down the Top 8 we had Black Sacrifice.
As I said earlier, I love it when people try out aggressive decks that aren't mono red. This is a great example of that. It's aggressive but also has some card draw to push through the deck to play more aggressive threats. It's super fun that this exists.
Around the Web
- Bryant Cook has a video on High Tide. Check it out here.
- Kalikaiz has a video on Cycle Storm! 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!
Pili-Pala Combo!
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!
