The Power of Pauper: The Common Horrors
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 Duskmourn: House of Horror and what this set will mean for Pauper! In addition to that we've got some Challenges for last week to talk about.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Common is Horror
The cute and fuzzy world of Bloomburrow is in our rear view mirror, and on to the scary, spooky world of Duskmourn: House of Horror. There's a lot going on in this set from a mechanics standpoint. There's a new Manifest style mechanic, Rooms (which are new Enchantments that are likely not so good in Pauper), and everything from Survival (caring about creatures tapped in second main phase) to Delirium.
Let's see what this set has to offer us sofar, shall we? This will be probably a two-parter again since we're not 100% through spoiler season yet.
Clockwork Percussionist
We're starting off with a card that's probably actually very, very good for Pauper. I have to imagine this slots right into the Burn decks of the format. Having yet another one mana Haste threat that also generates a little card advantage if it dies is really really good. Definitely be on the lookout for this little guy. It's a small boon, but it's definitely a boon.
Emerge from the Cocoon
Given that we already have Late to Dinner and it kind of does almost the exact same thing as this for one less mana (granted, it's weirdly one more mana overall because of having to pay for the Food token, but it's broken up over multiple turns when you actually need it) on the front half. I don't know. This feels like too much of a grindy card that Pauper isn't interested right now, but might be good down the line.
Common Fear Cards
I have a feeling mostly all of these cards aren't going to be very good, but it is worth noting that there is Constellation as a mechanic on commons already in Pauper, and this set also introduces Eerie, another Constellation-like mechanic. Having more Enchantment creatures to possibly boost that could be interesting to play around in that space.
Frantic Strength
Surprise Bogles card is definitely a surprise. An aura that gives Trample with flash has to be very interesting in that kind of deck for sure. Provoke your opponent to chump block and then hit them with the Trample.
Grab the Prize
This card is very interesting. It's competing a lot with cards like Demand Answers and Highway Robbery in Madness Burn, but at the same time, it's doing what the deck wants to do exactly and that's maybe discard Fiery Temper or Sneaky Snacker while dealing two to the opponent's face. This alone very much warrants testing in my book. Demand Answers is an instant, but who knows this will probably be good there too.
Jump Scare
For one mana, this rate is kind of nuts. This could probably see play somewhere.
Trapped in the Screen
Wow okay. A Banishing Light with Ward 2? That's pretty reasonable.
Unable to Scream
I think this is a cool card. Being able to shut off a creature in general is kind of cool for U.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/6
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 56 players in it based on the data provided by the MTGO site. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Terror | 1st | O_danielakos |
| Dimir Terror | 2nd | carvs |
| Mono White Aggro | 3rd | Broa |
| Mono Blue Terrror | 4th | Jose Guillermo |
| Burn | 5th | MisterTwin |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | MTGMoneyMaker |
| Burn | 7th | selekt |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | Beicodegeia |
Reasonable amount of Tolarian Terror in this event. In fact the event was won by Dimir Terror.
This is your more classic variation of Dimir Terror, even going back on things like Gurmag Angler. Zombie Fish is sweet!
In Second Place we had a different take on Dimir Terror.
"Dimir" is a weird way to describe this, for sure, because the only black card in the deck is Sneaky Snacker. So... Mono Blue splashing Sneaky Snacker. Looks interesting though.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mono White Aggro.
Very clean and straightforward. Seems quite good. Eagles of the North seeing play as both land cycler and late game threat is great.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/7
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 49 players in it based on the data provided by the MTGO site. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Cycle Storm | 1st | Tyerube1618 |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 2nd | Banduz |
| Burn | 3rd | elvis10 |
| Dimir Terror | 4th | Ixidor29 |
| Jund Gardens | 5th | Pavelval |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | discoverN |
| Grixis Affinity | 7th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Jund Broodscale | 8th | Muka33 |
This looks like a fairly diverse Top 8 overall really. At the end of the event it was Cycle Storm that won.
This deck always looks so cool and fairly daunting to pick up. It's got a lot of little moving parts to it, and it's very sweet.
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Faeries.
Snaremaster Sprite is a pretty cool card. Being able to deploy on Turn 1 then Ninjutsu it back to hand to recast to pay for the trigger to stun a creature is super sweet.
Further down the Top 8 we had Jund Gardens.
This list is pretty sweet. More and more decks are starting to splash and figure out how powerful Writhing Chrysalis really is. It's probably one of the best commons of this entire year for sure, if not the best.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/8
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 68 players in it based on the data provided by the MTGO site. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Golgari Broodscale | 1st | TiagoFuguete |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 2nd | pokerswizard |
| Jund Broodscale | 3rd | 8salazzar8 |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 4th | bernardocssa |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 5th | Kampo |
| Burn | 6th | _Mago_ |
| Izzet Terror | 7th | carrot_eater |
| Burn | 8th | TryHardMol |
Quite a bit of Faeries and Burn here. At the end of the event it was Golgari Broodscale that won.
Very solid looking list here. The core of these Golgari decks is just absurdly powerful, to be honest.
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Faeries.
Very similar list to the one from the Challenge before. One card that sticks out here as well is Weakstone's Subjugation in the sideboard. That's pretty neat.
Further down the Top 8 we had Izzet Terror.
Solid looking list. Main deck Breath Weapon still seems like a really strong place to be right now.
Around the Web
- kalikaiz has a video on Golgari Turbo Fog! Check it out here.
- Pauperganda has a video on Mill. Check it out here.
- TeasdaleMTG has a video on Mono Black Devotion. Check it out here.
- David Royale has a video on Pauper Boros Madness. Check it out here.
- Alex Ullman has an article on the new common land cycle in Duskmourn. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
I think this qualifies as spicy.
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!
