The Power of Pauper: Omenspiders 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 taking a look at how Through the Omenpaths/Spider-Man have impacted Pauper in its early weeks. In addition, we've got some Challenges from last week to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
SpiderPaths? OmenSpiders? Can't Decide!
We've had Through the Omenpaths/Spider-Man for a week or so now, and already we're seeing some impact of some of these cards on MTGO. One of the cards that is definitely intriguing is Skittering Kitten / Masked Meower.
This card is definitely solid in the Madness Burn. Having a Haste threat that can swing in for damage and then convert into a Madness spell when you need it is really cool, and it doesn't even need to tap to do it. Seems very good for an archetype that I have seen a lot of in the League results since the release.
Another cool set of cards are things like your Mono White Aggro threats.
Both of these cards are showing up in some numbers in Mono White Heroic/Aggro variants. Wonderweave Aerialist/Skyward Spider works great in Heroic because you can always enable it having flying, which having an evasive threat that you can load up with Auras like Ethereal Armor that also has Ward 2 is pretty good.
Darval, Whose Web Protects / Spider-Man, Web-Slinger is very good in shells that want it as another variation of Kor Skyfisher where you can attack with something and then bounce it with web-slinging. You can even bounce it with Kor Skyfisher to get another bounce out of it.
Another very interesting card showing up is Leyline Weaver/Spider Manifestation.
What's cool about this card is the fact that it's a mana dork that untaps as you cast bigger spells, of which there are often a lot in these decks. It works really well with Writhing Chrysalis in general, since it allows you to ramp Chrysalis on Turn 3 by itself. Having the ability to untap it and be able to use that mana to cast something else is really good.
Another set of cards that looked sweet was Mob Lookout and Wekhdu, Midnight Hunter/Swarm, Being of Bees
Faeries is a sick place to put cards like this. More than likely you're going to be able to bounce your Mob Lookout with a Ninja of the Deep Hours so you can get an extra connive out of it, which may allow you to pitch cards like Sneaky Snacker or Wekhdu to cast it. It's a really solid and interesting card that is pretty strong.
It's still early and we're still seeing people experiment with it, but I've definitely seen some really cool cards sofar in this. Looking forward to seeing what happens next with this set for sure.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/26/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 51 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Madness Burn | 1st | boom_bust |
| Jund Wildfire | 2nd | Triso |
| Burn | 3rd | JuaKi |
| Gruul Ramp | 4th | Mokemi |
| Jund Wildfire | 5th | _blaze66 |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono Black Sacrifice | 7th | Hamuda |
| Mono Black Sacrifice | 8th | _against |
This is a pretty solid Top 8. At the end of the event it was Madness Burn that won.
The mono red version here is pretty sweet. Seeing Guttersnipe get played is pretty cool.
In Second Place we had Jund Wildfire.
This deck is really just incredibly strong right now. It has all the hallmarks of Jund in many formats, which is great.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mono Black Sacrifice.
Perigee Beckoner is a really sweet new inclusion to this deck. Warp in general is strong, but this one is just superb.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/27/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 49 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Elves | 1st | newbarola |
| Jund Wildfire | 2nd | seasonofmists |
| Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | Luminati |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | barzcek |
| High Tide Combo | 5th | wolf777 |
| High Tide Combo | 6th | PNascimento |
| Jund Wildfire | 7th | Jinjaa |
| Gruul Ponza | 8th | Ixidor29 |
Very interesting Top 8. Three decks make up 6/8 of the slots here. At the end of the event though it was Elves that won.
Very straightforward and clean deck. Pick Your Poison is a super sweet sideboard inclusion.
In Second Place we had Jund Wildfire again.
There isn't a lot of difference in these lists, but Gixian Infiltrator is an incredibly sweet card as a threat that grows large alongside Writhing Chrysalis.
Further down the Top 8 we had High Tide.
The addition of Augur of Bolas and Snap in the sideboard is certainly intriguing. Having a way to find your combo pieces helps quite a bit.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/28/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 63 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Azorius Familiars | 1st | ChaoticMTG |
| Burn | 2nd | vini_torres |
| Jund Wildfire | 3rd | seasonofmists |
| Gruul Ponza | 4th | Ixidor29 |
| Grixis Affinity | 5th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Madness Burn | 6th | turn1_stormcrow |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | barzcek |
| Mono Black Sacrifice | 8th | Hamuda |
Kind of a cool Top 8. At the end of the event it was Azorius Familiars that won.
I love any version of this that plays Meeting of Minds. That card is super sweet and you draw a lot of cards with it. Ride's End is kind of sweet too.
In Second Place we had Burn.
Very straightforward and to the point. Burn gonna Burn.
Also in this Top 8 we had Gruul Ponza.
Whoah. Structural Distortion is a card. Why haven't we been playing this more?
Around the Web
- Our good friend Alex Ullman has a recap on last weekend. Check it out here.
- The Common Cold Snap has a new episode. Check it out here.
- Pauperganda has a video on Izzet Control. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is poisoning people. 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!
Mysidian Elder in Tron is great.
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!
