The Power of Pauper: More Important Cards in Pauper!
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 looking at more cards that Pauper is known for that are important to the format! In addition, we've got some killer news from Daybreak Games on MTGO, and a bunch of Challenges to discuss.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
More Important Cards in Pauper
We did one of these articles earlier where we talked about "glue" cards in Pauper. We're doing yet another where we talk about cards that connect and synergize with other cards, one for each color.
We're starting with a card that is the namesake of an entire archetype: Sunscape Familiar.
The power of this card is the fact that it glues together an entire archetype all on its own, known as "Familiars." This card allows the deck to cost reduce all of its blue spells, which allows it to cheat on mana with cards that untap lands like Snap, being able to repeatedly loop creatures like Archaeomancer and Sea Gate Oracle.
The cost reduction here also allows this deck to continually loop Ghostly Flicker with a basic Island and Archaeomancer (with two copies of Sunscape Familiar in play) to where you can infinitely trigger cards like God-Pharaoh's Faithful and Murmuring Mystic.
The blue entry of this is a relatively newer card in Lorien Revealed.
The power level of this card in Pauper has catapulted it into the stratosphere of important cards in the format. It acts as a fetch land that allows for cards like Brainstorm to function well in Pauper, and it allows decks that are splashing colors to fetch the appropriate colors for their game plan. It also just draws three cards when you need it to do so, which makes it exceptionally flexible overall.
The black entry here is Deadly Dispute.
If casting a Lorien Revealed for less than five mana is good, casting Deadly Dispute is always good. This card's power level hinges on the cards you play it with, but it's often seen alongside cards like Ichor Wellspring and Chromatic Star to enhance the fact that this card refunds one of its mana and possibly draws an extra card on top.
With either of these cards, Deadly Dispute functionally becomes an Ancestral Recall effect, getting to draw three cards and get a Treasure token out of the deal. Of these cards, Ichor Wellspring also draws a card on the way in, which further makes it quite powerful. The fact that Dispute is an instant is extremely strong, and many decks can get by just by building around effects that work well with Dispute.
The red entry here is another card that managed to cement itself as the entire strategy of a deck in First Day of Class.
This card is utilized as a combo piece, as the +1/+1 counter put on the creature negates the -1/-1 counter placed on creatures with Persist. The most common of these is Putrid Goblin, when sacrificed to Skirk Prospector can be repeatedly sacrificed over and over to generate red mana.
Being able to loop over and over and generate a large amount of red mana allows this deck to eventually sacrifice the Goblin to other effects such as Dark-Dweller Oracle and Makeshift Munitions, allowing it to combo kill.
The final entry in green here is Utopia Sprawl.
Many of the bigger green and Gruul decks in the format are very ramp heavy decks, playing big creatures like Avenging Hunter to close games out with. Being able to generate a bunch of mana very quickly with cards like Utopia Sprawl helps these decks get to this mana much faster to cast these large threats.
Various decks that want to gain access to these threats often require Utopia Sprawl in them, even using it to boost your mana to cast land destruction spells like Thermokarst and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss quicker on rate.
These are just five cards that are important to Pauper as a format. We may yet do another one of these at some point. Are there cards you'd like to see a focus on? Let me know!
MTGO Updates - Creator Program, New Challenges, and Starter Decks
A lot is going on with Daybreak Games and Magic Online in the past week. They announced the opening of their MTGO Creator Program last week, which will be a real blast. I am honored to announce that I've been allowed to be a part of that program, so expect to see much more on that end coming soon!
In addition, Daybreak is adding a bunch more Challenge events to the client! Not only are we getting a new Challenge on Fridays for Pauper, but also Prelim throughout the week as well! You can find all of the updated information on this here.
Lastly, Daybreak is working on improving the new to Magic Online experience and this includes a bunch of new Starter decks. One of these decks is Mono Blue Pauper Delver, so be on the lookout for possibly bringing new interest to the format overall!
Pauper Challenge 32 4/5
The first Challenge event to cover was the new Friday Challenge that was added. This event had 64 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Boros Synthesizer had a huge metagame presence that I'm attributing mainly to the switch over in these decks to the Glitters variants. It's win rate was pretty middle of the road overall. Dimir Faeries also did very well here, as did Dimir Terror. Azorius Affinity did poorly as did Izzet Terror.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Burn | 1st | LucasG1ggs |
| Boros Synthesizer | 2nd | totemsilence |
| Dimir Faeries | 3rd | ZAAAMU |
| Dimir Faeries | 4th | handsomePPZ |
| Boros Synthesizer | 5th | Jose Guillermo |
| Dimir Faeries | 6th | Beicodegeia |
| Azorius Affinity | 7th | PauloCabral_Br |
| Dimir Terror | 8th | Mogged |
Quite a bit of Dimir and Boros in this event. At the end though it was Burn that won.
Very straightforward list here. The re-implementation of Seal of Fire is pretty nice, as it can pick off a creature in response to a All That Glitters being cast. It's neat.
In Second Place we had Boros Synthesizer.
This is where these decks are landing now, utilizing All That Glitters primarily as a finisher piece out of nowhere. It's a strong play to deploy a Glitters when an opponent is unable to interact with it.
As mentioned we had some Dimir Faeries in the event.
Solid list overall. I like Extract a Confession quite a bit in these decks.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/6
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the 32-player Saturday event. This event had 68 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Boros Synthesizer was the most popular deck and it's win rate was quite strong. Feeling the effects of this deck on the metagame overall. Golgari Gardens did quite well and despite a top finish, Burn did poorly overall.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Goblins Combo | 1st | Hamuda |
| Boros Synthesizer | 2nd | AliEnWaRe_ |
| Boros Synthesizer | 3rd | RGrzywocz |
| Golgari Gardens | 4th | Liv_BR |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 5th | DenisevichAlexey |
| Dimir Terror | 6th | O_danielakos |
| Burn | 7th | _against_ |
| Grixis Affinity | 8th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
Bit more diversity in this Top 8 here, with the winner being Goblins Combo.
This deck is quite interesting in this incarnation. The primary game plan here is the loop of Putrid Goblin making mana for Skirk Prospector after casting First Day of Class. It's a cool deck for sure.
In Second Place we had Boros Synthesizer.
Very close list to the one from Friday here. Gingerbrute is one of the better cards in the deck because it can make itself functionally unblockable and with Glitters this is great.
Also in this Top 8 we had Golgari Gardens.
Very solid and straightforward list here. The split of Draw 2's is really good for sure.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/7
The third Challenge of the weekend was the Sunday morning 32-player Challenge. This event had 55 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the datasheet here.
Burn was the most popular deck here, but it's win rate was pretty poor. Boros Synthesizer again did quite well here, as did Dimir Faeries.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Faeries | 1st | Beicodegeia |
| Dimir Faeries | 2nd | Purgatory_01 |
| Orzhov Midrange | 3rd | totemsilence |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 4th | Ixidor29 |
| Boros Synthesizer | 5th | Potovisck |
| Boros Synthesizer | 6th | ElkVinci |
| Madness | 7th | FerMTG |
| Walls Combo | 8th | _mOjo |
Reasonable diverse crowd here. At the end of the event it was a pair of Dimir Faeries in the finals.
Some very minor changes between both of these lists. Mostly in the creature construction overall, with the winner having a threat like Gurmag Angler over the Second Place not having it.
At the bottom of this Top 8 we had Madness.
Demand Answers seems like a solid card in this deck. Being able to instant speed Madness off a Draw two is really cool.
Pauper Challenge 64 4/7
The final Challenge event of the weekend was the 64 player Sunday event. This event had exactly 64 players in it thanks to the data provided by Daybreak Games.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here and the data sheet here.
Burn and Boros were the most popular decks, but both had weak win rates overall. Azorius Affinity did well, as did Dimir Terror and Golgari Gardens.
Let's take a look at the Top 8.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Affinity | 1st | Mogged |
| Jeskai Ephemerate | 2nd | immvp |
| Grixis Affinity | 3rd | Angus91 |
| Dimir Faeries | 4th | Misplacedginger |
| Gruul Ponza | 5th | hockeybro26 |
| Goblins Combo | 6th | firstshot |
| Golgari Gardens | 7th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono White Aggro | 8th | jwaves |
Pretty neat Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Grixis Affinity that won.
This is a solid looking list overall. I like the split of Tithing Blade in the deck here.
In Second Place we had Jeskai Ephemerate.
I like this list quite a bit. Circle of Protection: Blue in the sideboard here is super sweet.
Further down this Top 8 we had Gruul Ponza.
Haven't quite seen this deck in a hot minute. Super clean looking list too!
Around the Web
- Heartyshow has a video on Soldiers vs Mono Black Burn. Check it out here.
- StompyMTG has a video on Tier Lists in Pauper. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is going faster with Pauper Spy. Check it out here.
- Our good friend Alex Ullman has a recap of last weekend's events. 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!
This aggressive Sticker Goblin deck is cool.
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!
