The Power of Pauper: Digging for Moxite
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 digging, but not for gold. We're digging up some Moxite! That's right we're looking at Boros Moxite decks in Pauper! In addition to that we've got some Challenges from last week to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Melding the Moxite
I always love when new decks appear in Pauper. It's so cool to see people use new cards to come up with new ways to approach old formulas and mix certain archetypes together. Such is the case with this deck using Melded Moxite from Edge of Eternities.
The power of this card comes from the ability to bounce and replay it, using a lot of Pauper's core familiar faces: Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher just to name a few. This presents a repeatable method of grindy card advantage, but it also allows this deck to utilize a specific card from Modern Horizons 3, which mainly has showed up in Madness decks. I'm talking of course about Sneaky Snacker!
Pitching a Snacker to the first Moxite trigger of a turn will immediately return the Snacker to play, since you drew for turn and then drew two cards off the Moxite's trigger. It is worth noting this will trigger any other Snackers in the yard, however if you bounce and replay a Moxite in that same turn, that one will not trigger Snackers, since that will be the fourth/fifth cards you drew that turn, not the third.
This all comes together in the form of a deck we're calling Boros Moxite!
Getting to play many of Pauper's best core cards is really what helps this deck function. Things like Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher are the engine upon which this deck really runs, but also having serious threats like Seeker of the Way and Sneaky Snacker as an evasive threat can help close games out in this very grindy midrange-like pile. The manabase also grants you access to powerful removal like Galvanic Blast. In addition, lots of artifacts to bounce and replay or cash in on value like Relic of Progenitus or Lembas in addition to Melded Moxite.
The one super cool thing about Moxite is that if you really need to and don't need to draw more cards, you can also cash it in for a 2/2 Robot. It's this kind of raw flexibility that makes a deck like this really work.
I feel like this is really a fun-looking list, and I hope to see more of it in the future here, because it has a lot of strong core conceptual deckbuilding to it, combined with new flavor that makes it very interesting. If you're looking for something raw and new that plays a lot of Pauper's big pillars but also has some cool new tech to it, this is a deck I'd look at.
Pauper Challenge 32 2/26/2026
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday 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 Red Rally | 1st | _against_ |
| Mono Red Madness | 2nd | MisterTwin |
| Golgari Gardens | 3rd | __Noob__ |
| Dredge | 4th | seasonofmists |
| Persistent Petitioners Combo | 5th | DiabeticMerman |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | Luminati |
| Mono Red Synthesizer | 8th | jicklemania |
Not a terrible looking Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Mono Red Rally that won.
Fairly straightforward overall here. A lot of quick and fast aggressive gameplay.
In Second Place, we had Mono Red Madness.
Fireblast is always pretty sick in this deck, because it doesn't frill itself on needing to play lands that aren't the type Mountain and instead just goes for full basic Mountains to really make it work.
Also in this Top 8, we had some Persistent Petitioners action.
Petitioners and Changelings are such a sick synergy. Being able to just continually mill your opponent is wildly sweet.
Pauper Challenge 32 2/27/2026
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 57 players in it, thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Golgari Gardens | 1st | NickNorman |
| Mono Red Rally | 2nd | boom_bust |
| Boros Moxite | 3rd | viashinoperuano |
| Mono Red Madness | 4th | Mate_wosk |
| Spy Combo | 5th | thediabetical |
| Mono Red Madness | 6th | MisterTwin |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | Luminati |
| Azorius Gates | 8th | CrazyMorango |
Fair bit of Mono Red here, but the event was won by Golgari Gardens.
I think what really helps in the Mono Red matchup here is not just Weather the Storm, but you also get stuff like Drown in Sorrow to mop up board states, shoring up cards like Suffocating Fumes. A lot of the creatures in the Mono Red lists aren't much more than an X/2, so it makes it quite good against them.
In Second Place, we had Mono Red Rally.
I think more or less you just have to try to be faster than your opponent can get off the ground, but a deck like this can struggle if your opponent has interaction early on in the game and can stretch the game out where you run out of gas.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Azorius Gates.
I really like this version splashing green. Getting access to Rancor to make your really big Basilisk Gate-ified creature have Trample is so good. Also out of the sideboard, Saruli Gatekeepers gaining 7 life is a huge swing in a game.
Pauper Challenge 32 2/28/2026
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 54 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 White Aggro | 1st | Deodato |
| Grixis Affinity | 2nd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | Purgatory_01 |
| Azorius Gates | 4th | manohito |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th | Hamuda |
| Mono Red Rally | 6th | Denisevich |
| Mono Red Rally | 7th | ATmagic |
| Golgari Gardens | 8th | NickNorman |
Fair spread of Mono Blue, Mono Red, and everything in between. At the end of the event, it was Mono White Aggro that won.
Martyr of Sands is a super sweet little sideboard card. It gains a ton of life in the matchups that matter, which is basically every Mono Red matchup.
In Second Place, we had Grixis Affinity.
It will be very interesting to see how deck evolves when TMNT releases, but as I understand it the Utrom Monitor card is in Treasure Chests so it might take a hot minute for supply to catch up.
At the bottom of the Top 32, we had Tron.
It's kind of sick seeing a Spacecraft see play in a Pauper deck, but the fact that it's a one-shot 10 damage effect to a creature, it's REALLY good.
Pauper Challenge 32 3/1/2026
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 58 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 | AoFTW |
| Golgari Gardens | 2nd | __Noob__ |
| Mono Red Rally | 3rd | Muril0Ambra |
| Turbo Fog | 4th | silenttrigger |
| Mono Red Madness | 5th | hyuma |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | Hamuda |
| Mono White Aggro | 7th | IvernOP |
| Azorius Familiars | 8th | TSPJendrek |
This is a pretty reasonable Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Bogles that won.
Okay, I have to admit I love the ability for this to just sideboard into literal Naya Midrange pile. That's so goofy and fun.
In Second Place, we had Golgari Gardens.
Very lean version of this deck. Only Crypt Rats in the main as the primary threat. Also interesting to see stuff like Heaped Harvest without a Cauldron Familiar.
Also in this Top 8, we had Turbo Fog.
I love me a good old straight-up Simic Turbo Fog list. I really want to build this one in paper at some point.
Around the Web
- The Common Cold Snap has a new episode! Check it out here.
- Pauperganda has some Slivers action. Check it out here.
- Our good friend Alex Ullman has a recap on the Lorwyn Eclipsed season. 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!
OROKU SAKI.
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!
