The Power of Pauper: Dreams of Proliferation
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 a really sweet deck in Pauper. I know I've talked about it before, but this deck has gotten some new cards as of late. It's Poison Storm! In addition, we've got some Challenges to look at from this past week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Poisoning for Fun and Profit
Poison as a mechanic has long been relegated to creatures that have the keyword Infect, but a good majority of the best spells that make Infect work are generally banned (stuff like Invigorate primarily) and the archetype hasn't had much of a foothold in Pauper for a long time. Occasionally you see it, but whenever you see Poison these days, it's generally going to be in the form of Poison Storm.
Poison Storm is a deck born out of mainly one big set. Phyrexia: All Will Be One introduced a bunch of new Poison cards, primarily those with the Toxic mechanic, but also lots of Proliferate cards and cards that give an opponent a Poison Counter. The biggest of those was Infectious Inquiry, which gives each opponent a Poison counter while also drawing you two cards for two life. Out of this set, Poison Storm was born. The name is a bit of a misnomer. The deck doesn't actually include many spells with the Storm mechanic (outside of Weather the Storm) and it's not winning the game off a Storm spell. Instead, the deck is a much more methodical deck that seeks to give the opponent a Poison counter, and then use Proliferate spells to get the number of counters up to 10.
Of course it shouldn't surprise anyone that getting to 10 Poison counters is not very difficult. Lands like the depletion counter lands from Mercadian Masques make multiple mana for a counter which can be proliferated, and artifacts like Pentad Prism and Everflowing Chalice also have counters that can be increased as well. Cheap Proliferate spells like Experimental Augury and Contentious Plan not only add to these counters, but also draw cards.
One of the really neat things about this deck is that it's one of the very few decks in Pauper that operates as a combo deck but plays absolutely no creatures whatsoever. Most combo decks in Pauper play creatures as the sole ability to combo, whether that deck is Gleezard, Walls, or even Cycle Storm. Poison Storm plays no creatures at all, instead preferring to devote much of its space to spells that draw cards and spells that gain you life (like Weather the Storm). It's a really fun deck to navigate and has a lot of power behind it.
Duskmourn: House of Horrors also introduced another new card to this archetype in the form of Meat Locker // Drowned Diner.
The cool thing about this card is the fact that the 2U half of it gives out Stun counters. This can be very strong against decks that need to win with creature damage by keeping them tapped down. Stun counters can be proliferated, so it makes it very difficult for the player with that creature to get rid of them. Furthermore, the other half of this card can be unlocked on board and basically cannot be countered by a blue deck. This means you have an on board draw three discard one available during your turn if you really need it in order to keep pushing through your deck.
It's a fun new flexible option for a really fun deck. I have Poison Storm currently built in paper, and it's a really interesting and methodical deck to play around with. I will note, that this deck is a bit easier to play on Magic Online, largely because in paper the number of dice needed to keep track of everything can be pretty brutal.
It's worth noting though, that this deck was called out in the most recent Pauper Format Panel video as being a deck with a really strong win rate right now in Pauper. So if you're looking for something truly unique and interesting to play, this might be a deck to try out. However, I will mention as well that this deck absolutely requires taking some deep breaths and slowing down your pace of play so you can sequence properly. It's a great teacher for that sort of gameplay but it's absolutely not for everyone. I will still heavily recommend it though because it has been some of the most fun Magic in Pauper I've had ever.
Pauper Challenge 32 1/3/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 56 players in it according 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ephemerate Tron | 1st | RClint21 |
| Grixis Affinity | 2nd | PintuMtg |
| Dimir Terror | 3rd | carvs |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 4th | ChaoticMTG |
| Jund | 5th | TiagoFuguete |
| Golgari Broodscale | 6th | kuldothared |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 7th | Niura |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | Beicodegeia |
Pretty good Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Ephemerate Tron that won.
Haven't quite seen Tron in a bit on MTGO. This is a pretty solid list. I really like Runaway Boulder as a target for Ghostly Flicker. Really cool stuff.
In Second Place we had Grixis Affinity.
Very much a stock list here for the most part. Affinity is excellent, though, so there's no reason to be super experimental with it.
Further down the Top 8 we had Jund.
I really like this list. It looks like a ton of fun. Pulse of Murasa is a super sweet card here, and this list really showcases how good stuff like Nyxborn Hydra is.
Pauper Challenge 32 1/4/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 51 players in it according 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jund Broodscale | 1st | Terminus0 |
| Cycle Storm | 2nd | helldude |
| Jund Broodscale | 3rd | Hamuda |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | Purgatory_01 |
| Turbo Fog | 5th | Kirblinxy |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | discoverN |
| Grixis Affinity | 7th | PedraStone |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | Beicodegeia |
Reasonable amount of diversity here. At the end of the event, it was Jund Broodscale that won.
The addition of the Cleansing Wildfire package to this list is really good. Being able to ramp up and get to Writhing Chrysalis faster is very good for threatening the combo immediately to the board.
In Second Place we had Cycle Storm.
Oh, I like how clean this list is. Cycle Storm is on the short list of decks I'd like to have built in paper because it's a really sweet combo list. Needing more copies of Lotus Petal is rough, though!
Further down the Top 8 we had Turbo Fog.
The Golgari version of this deck keeps evolving. This version doesn't even have the Gates additions that were very popular at the outset of this variant. It's kind of interesting from a deck evolution standpoint to see this.
Pauper Challenge 32 1/5/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 68 players in it according 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jund Broodscale | 1st | PNascimento |
| Mono Blue Terror | 2nd | Beicodegeia |
| Burn | 3rd | DaMuGa-Murcia |
| Jund Broodscale | 4th | Terminus0 |
| Burn | 5th | ZeNonato |
| Dimir Terror | 6th | _against_ |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | Purgatory_01 |
| Jund Broodscale | 8th | Casanova_13 |
Quite a bit of Broodscale and Burn here, sprinkled with some Terror. At the end of the event it was Jund Broodscale that won.
Splitting a potential win condition between both Munitions and Nadier's Nightblade is really smart, honestly. It allows you to be diverse in your combo if you need to do so.
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Terror.
Deem Inferior is a really sweet addition to this deck. Being able to get rid of a nonland permanent for a whole next turn cycle is really strong, given that you're putting it generally second from the top. If your opponent is putting it on the bottom you're getting rid of it for forever. Really slick card.
Also in this Top 8 we had Burn.
Very straightforward and clean list. Inventor's Axe is a sweet inclusion. Getting a +2/+0 buff for R is really neat.
Around the Web
- Our good friend Alex Ullman has an article on the recent metagames. Check it out here.
- Grixis Familiars from kalikaiz! Check it out here.
- StompyMTG has a video on Mono Blue Faeries. Check it out here.
- Kirblinxy has a video on Temur Wildfire. Check it out here.
- Pauperganda is going infinite with GOND. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
This is a sweet Mono Green Aggro list.
Breathless Knight and Late to Dinner is super cool.
SLIME AGAINST HUMANITY.
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!
