The Power of Pauper: Common Fantasy, Part 2
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 finishing up our set review of Final Fantasy. I am going to be out of town on break for the first two weeks of June, so there will be no articles during that time.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Fantasy Paupering
We're putting the finishing touches on the set review for Final Fantasy this week. I'm sure there will be more Commons revealed while I'm on vacation, and if anything is interesting, I'll revisit it when I return. For now, let's look at what we have left in this set.
Combat Tutorial
A Divination stapled to a +1/+1 counter is probably not all that great, but it is something at least a little more reasonable than just Divination.
Haste Magic
A creature pump plus an impulse draw is kind of interesting, honestly. I'm sure this is meant to be cast on your opponent's turn where you can combat trick something plus get a bonus card out of it. Seems cool though.
Magitek Infantry
Honestly, I don't think this is all that good, as cards like Whisper Squad exist, but I do think that because it's Mono White it could be interesting.
Qiqirn Merchant
If there's any reasonable chance to play any of the tap dual or other common Towns, this could be an interesting card, but as it stands, that really depends on the Towns being playable.
Namazu Trader
Might be a bit too expensive, but the effect is pretty cool. Getting to ETB a Treasure token is neat, and the attack trigger is sweet with Sacrifice type decks.
Shinra Reinforcements
Three mana 2/3, mill 3, gain 3 life isn't horrible. Pretty much what you want in some of the self-mill decks. Seems neat.
Undercity Dire Rat
Another creature that does a thing when it dies is solid enough for a 2/2 for 1B.
Vayne's Treachery
I know there's a few other variations of this kind of effect, but this version lets you sacrifice an artifact, and well, Pauper is all about sacrificing artifacts.
You're Not Alone
No jokes this time, just good feelings. Hope everyone has a wonderful next two weeks while I'm out, and remember: YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
Pauper Challenge 32 5/23/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 44 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Ephemerate Tron | 1st | ziofrancone |
| High Tide Combo | 2nd | sebastianpozzo |
| Jund Wildfire | 3rd | Berga_ |
| Elves | 4th | QueMario |
| Burn | 5th | Bicknell9422 |
| Madness Burn | 6th | TiagoFuguete |
| Mono White Aggro | 7th | clamego |
| Dimir Faeries | 8th | cicciogire |
Pretty interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Ephemerate Tron that won.
This is honestly a deck I might consider building in paper if nothing goes away at the end of the trial unban. I don't think it will though. This deck feels just fine in the current format.
In Second Place, we had High Tide Combo.
Frankly another deck where the trial unban feels like it did what it was intended to do. I don't really foresee High Tide going back to the ban list in June, and I'm happy about that. The deck is really cool and interesting, and people seem to enjoy having it around.
Further down the Top 8 we had Mono White Aggro.
I love that this is a deck. It's such a cool strategy and it's really powerful, while being so exceptionally cost effective in paper.
Pauper Challenge 32 5/24/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 46 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 Terror | 1st | discoverN |
| Burn | 2nd | Bong0411 |
| Walls Combo | 3rd | Terminus0 |
| Burn | 4th | GuerraDeLaChespa |
| Elves | 5th | Beicodegeia |
| Walls Combo | 6th | Stamford |
| Ephemerate Tron | 7th | BERNASTORRES |
| Spy Combo | 8th | Sodeq |
Reasonable amount of aggro and combo here. At the end of the event though, it was Mono Blue Terror that won.
Deem Inferior really is a pretty sweet removal spell for clearing out blockers for this deck, or even just getting rid of a combo piece or something that you know you can counter down the line. A single Brainstorm makes it cost one blue to cast, which is really slick. The fact that the permanent either goes away for good (bottom of deck) or it's delayed for two turns so you can answer it more effectively.
In Second Place, we had Burn.
Pretty straightforward and to the point. I've seen a lot of recent hubbub over the fact that Burn is still heavily represented, and frankly yes, that's going to be the case, especially on MTGO leagues, because the deck is fast, but realistically, the deck's overall power level has seemed rather just fine since the bannings. I have no real issues with this deck existing, honestly.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Spy Combo.
This version is Six Land Spy! It's pretty interesting how this deck works, and it is rather cool to watch it do its thing.
Pauper Challenge 32 5/25/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 71 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Bogles | 1st | hockeybro26 |
| Madness Burn | 2nd | Pafru |
| Mardu Synthesizer | 3rd | ThiagoGuerra |
| Jund Wildfire | 4th | Walker735 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th | karatedom |
| Izzet Faeries | 6th | Brivenix |
| Bogles | 7th | Ixidor29 |
| Madness Burn | 8th | kaikas |
This is a really solid Top 8. At the end of the event it was Bogles that won.
Realistically, I think when Bogles is winning events, I think Pauper is in a good space. We've seen a bunch of different decks do well and well represented. I'm pretty happy.
In Second Place we had Madness Burn.
I do think Stormshriek Feral is a super sweet card for this deck. Sure, it isn't instant speed on the Omen side, but it's also one you can re-draw and cast again and again. Or its a dragon. I dig that versatility.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mardu Synthesizer.
Oh this is neat. I love seeing some of Affinity stuff cross over into other archetypes, and Refurbished Familiar frankly is good enough to show up in plenty of other decks.
Around the Web
- The Common Cold Snap has a new episode. Check it out here.
- Kalikaiz has a video on Poison Storm. Check it out here.
- Saitama has a video on Pauper Soul Sisters. 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!
Bullies.
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!
