The Power of Pauper: The Anti-Red Brigade
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 cards and options for decks that can fight against red decks, specifically the more Mono Red leaning decks like Burn. In addition to that we've got Challenges to talk about from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Defeating Red
It's no surprise to a lot of Pauper players that red decks are in a really good spot in the format at the moment. Mono Red Burn has been doing very well at the moment which has led to a lot of pondering on what cards and options are available to beat up on the red decks. Let's take a look.
#1 - Breath Weapon
It's sort of funny to consider that a card to beat red is also a red card, but the power level of Breath Weapon against the Burn decks cannot be understated. Almost all of the creatures in the deck can be destroyed with a single Breath Weapon since nothing is generally above a X/2. It's a powerful effect, and it is an Instant makes it very good against these kinds of aggressive decks. The downside of this card is that it is three mana and your opponent can easily play around this by only deploying a few threats and baiting it out of your hand, but catching for example a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker can very easily turn the corner against a slew of Goblin tokens.
This of course, also requires you to have 2R open, and your opponent can keep you on your toes by playing around the window if you have to continually hold up this mana. Clockwork Percussionist, as with all of the sweepers you might see, also refunds the opponent a card, which can be ultra relevant.
#2 - Drown in Sorrow
Speaking of mass removal, Drown in Sorrow is another way to clear the board of creatures that isn't in the same color. Often times decks that are playing this card are usually in either mono black or Dimir colors, so many of the creatures they play are much larger than Burn's creatures (such as Tolarian Terror and Gurmag Angler) so they will survive this effect. Again, this is an effect your opponent can play around, but the upside of doing that on your end is that you will likely be able to block creatures with your larger threats.
#3 - Krark-Clan Shaman / Crypt Rats
Another way to deal with Burn's creatures is to utilize creatures that deal damage on a scalable function. Krark-Clan Shaman and Crypt Rats are both very good at scaling in this fashion, especially when you can use effects like Toxin Analysis to give your threat lifelink. The major downside of these cards is either running them out when you can't activate them. The same thing is also true of the opponent being able to play around these effects by forcing you to have to activate them. Crypt Rats has another major downside here because it deals damage to both creatures and players, and without lifelink you could get caught by some burn spells ending your game. In addition, Toxin Analysis's downside is that your creature is targeted with removal in response to the spell, which negates the lifelink in general.
#4 - Life Gain and Damage Prevention - Weather the Storm, Moment's Peace, Prismatic Strands
Another strong way to beat red decks is to simply put yourself in a position where they can't kill you, either by gaining a bunch of life via effects like Weather the Storm or by preventing damage via effects like Moment's Peace or Prismatic Strands. Weather the Storm is a very powerful effect overall, and making your life total hard to beat can give you a chance to find another effect like one of the effects above (Breath Weapon / Drown in Sorrow, etc) to clear the board and proceed with your game plan.
The downside of these effects is twofold. Weather the Storm requires you to hold up 1G and mostly requires your opponent to cast spells during their turn to maximize this effect. Casting a Weather to only gain 3 life is pretty rough.
In addition, effects like Moment's Peace and Prismatic Strands have some additional downsides, the biggest of which is simply running out of these effects to cast, which can put you in a position where you may still be losing depending on your draws. In addition, as more and more of these effects see play, the red decks will turn to cards like Flaring Pain to catch these cards unawares and stop damage prevention. As with Weather the Storm, you can also be caught having to spend one of these effects on chip damage as well if your opponent is smart enough to just attack with a subset of creatures to see if that damage gets through. This also can run you out of these effects quickly, but that chip damage also adds up over time.
#5 - Blast Effects
Blue blasts, like Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast, can be very effective in stopping key spells out of the red decks. Stopping a Kuldotha Rebirth or a Goblin Bushwhacker for example, is pretty strong. That being said, the downside to these cards is that they are 1-for-1 trades, and often times trying to trade 1-for-1 with these decks is very rough. They play a lot of threats and can easily punch through these kinds of spells.
#6 - A Combination of Multiple Effects
The best way to truly be on the defensive and attack these decks is to have some combination of these effects in your deck. Dimir Terror may run Drown in Sorrow but it's probably also playing blast effects in the sideboard. Decks with access to red and green may be playing both Weather the Storm and Breath Weapon. These effects are good in multiple matchups so they are solid cross-over sideboard cards and can provide leverage in different games besides just exclusively against Mono Red, but having multiple angles of attack is a strong way of trying to keep Red on its toes.
As such, have fun playing Pauper and enjoy some tips on beating up on Red decks! Happy Hunting!
Pauper Challenge 32 10/18
The first event of the weekend was the Friday event. This event had 41 players in it according to the MTGO website. 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 |
---|---|---|
Grixis Affinity | 1st | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
Izzet Terror | 2nd | Foresterf |
Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | carvs |
Burn | 4th | TiagoFuguete |
Burn | 5th | galeogiao |
Gruul Ramp | 6th | Kampo |
Burn | 7th | Xuxa |
Dimir Faeries | 8th | Brivenix |
Lot of Burn and a fair amount of other decks here. At the end of the event it was Grixis Affinity that won.
As we talked about earlier, Krark-Clan Shaman is an insane way to beat red decks, but it's also very good at a bunch of other decks when you Toxin Analysis it, especially since Refurbished Familiar flies and can swing over the leftovers.
In Second Place we had Izzet Terror.
I really like how this list is built. Cards like Spell Pierce and Skred seem quite good right now and I really like how the Izzet variations of this deck play out. Getting to play Lightning Bolt is so good.
Pauper Challenge 32 10/19
The second event of the weekend was the Saturday event. This event had 46 players in it according to the MTGO website. 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 | wcl |
Madness Burn | 2nd | fj_rodman |
Grixis Affinity | 3rd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
Izzet Terror | 4th | carrot_eater |
Jund Broodscale Combo | 5th | PNascimento |
Burn | 6th | hetare_ane |
Turbo Fog | 7th | AliEnWaRe_ |
Jund Gardens | 8th | __Noob__ |
Very interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event it was Burn that won.
Very fast deck. Definitely one of the strongest decks in current Pauper right now. Clockwork Percussionist giving the deck another haste threat that also sacrifices to Kuldotha Rebirth and gives you a card back is pretty wild.
In Second Place we had Madness Burn.
Wildly never thought I'd see one of the "unlucky" lands from Duskmourn seeing play, but at least one of those are here in the form of Razortrap Gorge. Grab the Prize also has certainly been very good in this deck. Having your enabler also burn your opponent is incredibly powerful.
Pauper Challenge 32 10/20
The final event of the weekend was the Sunday event. This event had 65 players in it according to the MTGO website. 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 |
---|---|---|
Dredge | 1st | marzaboi |
Grixis Affinity | 2nd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
Madness Burn | 3rd | billsive |
Dimir Terror | 4th | Purgatory_01 |
Izzet Terror | 5th | Gn42 |
Turbo Fog | 6th | RGrzywocz |
Jund Broodscale Combo | 7th | PNascimento |
Turbo Fog | 8th | __Noob__ |
Honestly this is also a very reasonable Top 8. To me I do think Pauper is in a really solid place at the moment. At the end of the event it was Dredge that won.
This deck is honestly so cool. It has some really strong lines to it. Getting to Dread Return a Lotleth Giant for lethal is so very fun. I'm an old school Dredge player so I absolutely love these kinds of decks.
In Second Place we had Grixis Affinity.
This is the same player who won the Friday event. Not much has changed in their list here. I think Nihil Spellbomb is a very strong main deck option at the moment, because of decks like Dredge, but also because of a lot of other graveyard-centric shenanigans that can exist.
Around the Web
- TeasdaleMTG has a video on Gruul Backup. Check it out here.
- Kalikaiz has a video on 4C Boros Bully. Check it out here.
- Raven has a primer on Mono Blue Faeries. Check it out here.
- Stompy MTG is playing some Gruul Monsters. Check it out here.
- Heartyshow is doing Esper Allies?! Check it out here.
- Kirblinxy has a video on Dimir Spirits. Check it out here.
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!