The Power of Pauper: "Ruby" Storm
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 an interesting deck that's been popping up here and there in Pauper in the form of "Ruby" Storm! In addition to that, we've got some Challenges to discuss from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Ruby Storm without the Rubies
It's always cool to me when people come up with new ways to play Pauper. When new decks appear in the metagame, it's always super cool. This deck is no exception, and while it's sort of riding the coattails of the Spice Corner for a bit now, it's starting to see a bit more play. The deck is amusingly enough named "Ruby Storm", even though it isn't playing any copies of the not legal Ruby Medallion like the name would imply. Instead, it plays a bunch of cards that make red mana. Let's take a look.
The big driving core pieces that this deck is built around are primarily Goblin Anarchomancer and Thornscape Familiar. Both of these cards reduce red spells by one generic mana, meaning with multiples in play you can cast things like Seething Song for one red mana, making it extremely mana positive to play all these rituals.
Beyond those two key pieces, the deck in most of its variants is going to look very similar: lots of impulse or straight card draw, and a payoff that wins the game somehow. This payoff can either be creature focused like Guttersnipe dealing two damage every time you cast an instant or sorcery or by adopting a similar stance to the High Tide decks by looping Stream of Thought with replicates until the opponent is out of cards in their library. Another reasonable threat to end the game can be casting and flashing back the most recently downshifted Seize the Storm (from Innistrad Remastered) to make a huge Elemental creature with trample. Some lists are even playing Stormshriek Feral (like above) as a 1R draw two, but also becomes a 3/3 flier with haste after you redraw it.
This deck is incredibly sweet. It gets to be very aggressive in its card draw, but it also gets to play some creatures that can squeak in damage while biding its time to start combo'ing off. Like most Combo decks in Pauper, it does rely on creatures to win because it needs some of the cost reduction effects in play to be able to start chaining spells together and combo off.
If you'd like to see the deck in action, kalikaiz has been heavily involved with the deck's refinement and has plenty of videos on it. This is a really sweet deck and if you're looking for something unique and fun this just might be a deck for you.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/18/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 65 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Ephemerate Tron | 1st | ziofrancone |
| Gruul Ramp | 2nd | Tiomax |
| Ephemerate Tron | 3rd | frigley |
| Dimir Control | 4th | barff |
| Dredge | 5th | Uzbek |
| Boros Synthesizer | 6th | viashinoperuano |
| Dredge | 7th | marzaboi |
| Madness Burn | 8th | Schibba |
Fair amount of Tron and Dredge. At the end of the event it was Ephemerate Tron that won.
Tron has definitely broken back into Pauper in a big way. One important thing to mention about these newer lists is the ability for the deck to leverage Lorien Revealed in very similar ways to other formats, where it gets to play colorless lands but turn those lands into a dual land if need be, and also just cast the card if it has the ability to do so later on down the line. It's very strong and definitely allows for some more creative deckbuilding.
In Second Place we had Gruul Ramp.
The Ponza elements returning here is kind of interesting. I suspect a good portion of that is the fact that there's definitely less Bridge lands (which are indestructible) than there had been before the bannings. The rest of the deck is pretty standardized to what we've come to expect out of these midrange shells.
Further down the Top 8 we had Boros Synthesizer.
It is sort of nice to see this deck as the Experimental Synthesizer deck. I do think Burn really crowded it out, both in speed and creature suite, and it has certainly been a while since Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk were super important Pauper cards.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/19/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 45 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 Blue Faeries | 1st | Mirozel1 |
| High Tide Combo | 2nd | PNascimento |
| Elves | 3rd | gaahei1 |
| Jund Wildfire | 4th | seasonofmists |
| Mono White Aggro | 5th | KidRenan |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 6th | Denisevich |
| Grixis Affinity | 7th | Chemist1234 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | discoverN |
Fairly diverse Top 8 here in all actuality. At the end of the event it was Mono Blue Faeries that won.
New card Humbling Elder is kind of cool. Being able to give something -2/-0 is neat at flash speed, but then maybe getting to bounce it with Ninjutsu to replay later can be pretty cool.
In Second Place we had High Tide Combo.
I think we are seeing a lot of changes occurring to this shell. This version is splashing into green for example, for Weather the Storm. I very much believe that High Tide is proving sofar to be a good unban for a first of two trial unbans. It's not overpowering the format, and it seems like it's just fine.
Also in this Top 8 we had Jund Wildfire.
It's actually kind of sweet to see that this is still a deck even without Deadly Dispute because it did look like a very cool and fun deck to play. Fanatical Offering does a pretty reasonable job here in its place.
Pauper Challenge 32 4/20/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 68 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Faeries | 1st | Brivenix |
| Gruul Ramp | 2nd | Raydan |
| Boros Synthesizer | 3rd | Sisifo94 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | Muka33 |
| Grixis Affinity | 5th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Azorius Familiars | 6th | 420dragon |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | pickled6 |
| Bogles | 8th | QueMario |
This is a pretty reasonable Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Izzet Faeries that won.
I love me some Fire // Ice in a deck, let me tell you what. This is a super sweet list. Lots of great interaction.
In Second Place we had Gruul Ramp.
This is basically the same list that got Second in the first Challenge of the weekend. No frills, but there doesn't really need to be.
Further down the Top 8 we had Familiars.
Using High Tide as just a ramp spell for Familiars is actually just sort of wild, honestly. I'm digging it. Very cool approach to this deck. Snap and Ghostly Flicker works quite well here.
Around the Web
- Byrant Cook is HIGH TIDING. Check it out here.
- Castiing Commons and Lets Play Pauper Join Forces! Check it out here.
- Kalikaiz has a video on Familiars. 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!
ROGUES.
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!
