The Power of Pauper: Hydratastic
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 impact that another MH3 card is having on Pauper, in addition to a secondary look at a Duskmourn card that is having an impact on a specific archetype. In addition we've got Challenge results from this past week.
Without further do, let's dive right in!
Hydra! Hydra! Hydra!
While Modern Horizons 3 did quite a bit for Pauper in general, reinforcing archetypes like Gruul, Broodscale, and a bunch of other things, there was one card that has had an impact on a previously somewhat niche kindred archetype, and that's Nyxborn Hydra.
Hydra feels a bit like an unassuming card at first. It's a Bestow creature and if the creature dies with this on the stack, then you get the Hydra directly into play, which based on how much mana you pumped into it, may not be super big. But what is really part of the card's strength overall is the ability to survive removal spells. One of the big ways decks that have ways to clear the board often can't do is be able to do it again very quickly, so leaving behind some sort of a threat in this card can prove to be very strong.
The big deck this is seeing play in however, is of course... Elves.
Elves seems tailor made for a card like this, given that the deck can easily generate a ton of mana very quickly with Priest of Titania. Making a very large Nyxborn Hydra seems like a very easy proposition overall. Combine this with the fact that Hydra gives the creature (and natively has itself) reach AND trample, and you have a threat that also defends against one of Elves bigger weak points, which is evasive threats. Combine this with other newer cards like Generous Ent and Avenging Hunter and you have a very dangerous and scary threat dense deck that can get out of hand very quickly.
Elves seems like a really great deck at the moment and well worth looking into if you're looking for something aggressive and powerful.
Poison Storm and Duskmourn
On the flip side of things, another newer card, this one from Duskmourn is finding its way into the format, and that card is not Clockwork Percussionist for a change. In fact, it is a card that I missed initially in my set reviews due to a review of the Rooms in the format and completely missing this one. The card is Meat Locker // Drowned Diner (what a name) and it's finding its way into Poison Storm!
This upgrade to this deck (which is incredibly cool and I am actively working on building this in paper) is something that was published first by the MTGO Creator kalikaiz, well recognized for having put a lot of the work into this archetype. I've embedded one of his most recent videos showcasing this card below here along with the list:
Meat Locker // Drowned Diner is a very interesting card overall. It does a few different things, one of which is the main mode of coming down at 2U and tapping a creature and placing stun counters on it. The stun counters are important, because those counters can be proliferated. This means that more often than not, the creature that gets tapped down is unlikely to be untapped again.
Late game, the Room that is in play already can become a Draw three, discard one for 3UU. Drawing cards is often super critical for Poison Storm, and having a way to do this but also a way to do it uncounterably is interesting and powerful. Even then, that side can be cast on its own as well, and the 2U later for tapping down a threat. The versatility of this card is what really makes it interesting overall.
I'm looking forward to playing around with this build of the deck myself. I love decks that are unique and Poison Storm certainly hits that beat for me as a player.
Pauper Challenge 32 10/4
The first Challenge of the week was the Friday event. According to the MTGO website, this event had 48 players. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Jund Broodscale | 1st | seasonofmists |
| Burn | 2nd | izzy-wilde |
| Grixis Affinity | 3rd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Madness Burn | 4th | medvedev |
| Jund Broodscale | 5th | MTGMoneyMaker |
| Azorius Familiars | 6th | Gregoriusil |
| Golgari Fog | 7th | Kirblinxy |
| Burn | 8th | wcl |
Honestly a pretty reasonable Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Jund Broodscale that won.
It's interesting to see how Pauper is responding to having a deck that is sort of functionally Splinter Twin in the format, and how that deck also keeps evolving to keep the rest of the format on its toes. I think for now Broodscale is fine, but it's certainly possible that it could be very problematic for the format at some point in the future. For now, I think it's fine.
In Second Place we had Burn.
This list has continually gotten so much cleaner since the introduction of Clockwork Percussionist. There are some really scary turns out of this deck for sure.
Also in the Top 8 we had Madness Burn.
Grab the Prize has certainly cemented itself heavily in this deck, and honestly it makes sense. It is going to be a burn spell 95% of the time, given how much you want to pitch your Madness cards and not lands to it, and that extra damage all lines up.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Golgari Fog.
Nadier's Nightblade is a sweet little addition to a deck playing cards like Heap Gate and Deadly Dispute that makes Treasure tokens, but its stealth mode in this case is the fact that it enables the sideboard juke plan of boarding into Broodscale combo, which is super sick.
Pauper Challenge 32 10/5
The second Challenge of the week was the Saturday event. According to the MTGO website, this event had 48 players. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Burn | 1st | msskinbolic |
| Dimir Terror | 2nd | Purgatory_01 |
| Gruul Ramp | 3rd | pheldagriph |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | Beicodegeia |
| Mono White Aggro | 5th | DskBayWolf |
| Izzet Terror | 6th | SpockVidaLoka |
| Grixis Affinity | 7th | kaikas |
| Burn | 8th | Lollopollo2001 |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here as well. At the end of the event it was Burn that won.
Raze is kind of a sick sideboard card. Majority of the time you're able to play out a bunch of threats all at once where sacrificing lands to put your opponent off their own lands is very good, especially when most of your own cards cost one mana.
In Second Place we had Dimir Terror.
Straightforward and powerful list. I like Unexpected Fangs as a way to get a big lifelinking threat out of the deal for 1B.
Also in this Top 8 we had Gruul Ramp.
Main deck Weather the Storm and Breath Weapon honestly says a lot about the current state of Pauper as a format in regards to just how much Burn is floating about with Percussionist. Being able to instant speed potentially wipe the board vs Burn seems quite good in delaying them Game 1, and then Games 2-3 can be bolstered with further sideboard cards.
Further down this Top 8 we had Mono White Aggro.
Thraben Charm is honestly a really powerful card. It does a lot of different things for just two mana, and it almost never has a bad mode to it, especially with Broodscale's popularity in the format.
Pauper Challenge 32 10/6
The final Challenge of the week was the Sunday event. According to the MTGO website, this event had 62 players. There was no data for this event.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Burn | 1st | Youngfire17 |
| Burn | 2nd | Walker735 |
| BUG Fog | 3rd | NickNorman |
| Gruul Ramp | 4th | aarong |
| Grixis Affinity | 5th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Elves | 6th | newbarola |
| Gruul Ramp | 7th | NMT_Sco94 |
| Dimir Terror | 8th | XooleX |
Bit of Burn and Gruul, with the finals being a Burn v Burn... Burn-off?
Fairly similar lists, but the interesting bit about the Second Place list is the looks at playing cards we haven't seen Burn play in a while which is Reckless Impulse and Wrenn's Resolve. Very intriguing stuff. I also think Flaring Pain is pretty underplayed in red lists for sure. Card seems quite good a lot of the time.
Also in this Top 8 we had BUG Fog.
This is pretty close to the other Fog list that did well this weekend, but it's interesting getting the slight blue splash addition of Stream of Thought, which was played quite a bit in the Simic variants of Turbo Fog. Having another way of cycling your graveyard back in while also milling your opponent seems sweet.
Further down this Top 8 we had Grixis Affinity.
Solid and straightforward looking list. Very much what we've come to expect out of Affinity at the moment. Refurbished Familiar continually looks so good.
Around the Web
- TeasdaleMTG has a video on Breathless Knight in Pauper. Check it out here.
- Our good friend Alex Ullman has an article on Duskmourn's impact on Pauper. 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!
Broodscale with Bequeathal?
This is a neat take on Madness.
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!
