The Power of Pauper: The Deadliest Dispute
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 talking all about the card Deadly Dispute, as it's certainly been on people's minds. In addition we've got some Challenges to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Deadly Dispute - The Undisputed Champ of Pauper
There's been a lot of chatter lately on the state of Pauper, especially with the upcoming Banned & Restricted Announcement on March 31st, 2025. We all know however, that the Pauper Format Panel doesn't operate on the same schedule as the regularly scheduled B&Rs, but the PFP does often make statements around these times because a lot of people expect to hear what the Panel thinks about the format.
In the last update video from Gavin Verhey two months ago, Gavin brought up an interesting point in regards to a card that has become seemingly ubiquitous in Pauper, and that is Deadly Dispute.
The power level of Dispute was something that was almost universally landed on after its original printing in Adventures in the Forgotten Realms. Since then it has functionally become one of the primary faces of the Pauper format. When paired with artifacts like Ichor Wellspring, Dispute in a sense becomes Ancestral Recall by refunding one of the mana you spent on it, and drawing you three cards with the extra draw off the Wellspring. It's simply put, a very powerful effect in a format like Pauper.
Over time, Dispute's presence in the format has been generally mitigated. Eras such as Swiftspear pushed Dispute down a little because Burn was clearly one of the best things to do, and All That Glitters made Jeskai Affinity/Azorius Affinity very strong in addition to Boros, which meant very little for Dispute as a card. The bannings of those cards certainly boosted Dispute, but it was definitely Modern Horizons 3 that has really pushed Dispute to the forefront of what it means to play Pauper right now. Between Gleezard and Affinity and just a whole bunch of other decks playing Dispute (everything from Turbo Fog, Jund Wildfire, Tron, Cycle Storm, you name it), Dispute seems to just be everywhere, and it's clearly one of the best things to be doing in the format right now.
So the question becomes... is Dispute actually the card that should get banned? Is Pauper better off without it? My initial thoughts here actually trend towards maybe. Dispute has been around for a while now, and while Pauper has weathered quite a bit, the PFP has proven time and time again that they are willing to make bans where they feel they need to, and aren't afraid to take action against cards that might have been "fine" for a while, even if those cards have been in the format for a long time. So my thoughts also go to the fact that the PFP would be willing to issue a ban on this card if they felt it was the right move.
Dispute is definitely very strong, and I believe it is a card that could end up being banned. The major issue is that it would be a very large sweeping ban, but honestly... maybe that's what Pauper does need. The format itself has felt relatively fine as of late, and there is a firm circle at the top between the Top 3 decks, but I have seen a lot of folks state they believe the format to feel a little stale despite this. The format is stable, but also stale in some ways. Dispute being banned would certainly be a very large way of shaking it up, but I don't think that would be the reason for actually banning it. That reasoning would have to occur as a result of the card being too powerful in the format overall, not to shake things up.
I will be curious to see what happens if anything. An honorable mention of a card is Writhing Chrysalis just simply due to how good that card is on rate as a threat, but I will be very interested to see if the PFP does take a lot of action, or if they hang back and let Pauper continue to figure things out. I'm fine with either decision at this point, mostly because I know that any decision is going to come along with a video by Gavin explaining the thought processes and understanding of why they did what they did. It's legitimately one of the best things about Pauper as a format is getting that kind of thought provoking discussion and interesting insight into those decisions.
What do you think will happen with a B&R in a few weeks? Let us know in the comments below.
Pauper Challenge 32 3/7/2025
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 54 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Control | 1st | barff |
| Bogles | 2nd | galeogiao |
| Bogles | 3rd | Sailor_Moon |
| Madness Burn | 4th | vikizin |
| Black Sacrifice | 5th | medvedev |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 6th | VingadorMTG |
| Dimir Faeries | 7th | outZEROo |
| Dimir Faeries | 8th | Purgatory_01 |
Fairly reasonable split of Control and Aggro variants. Lot of Dimir. In fact, Dimir Control won the event.
Very solid controlling list here. Okiba-Gang Shinobi in the main is pretty cool, given that the evasive nature of the deck usually allows it to connect. The pair of Mukotai Ambusher in the sideboard is great, because realistically sneaking in a 3/2 lifelinker sometimes is just that good to keeping yourself alive long enough to win the game.
In Second Place we had Bogles.
Somewhat surprised still to not see the new Sentinel's Eyes aura show up from Aetherdrift. It feels like it should be seeing some amount of play, but MTGO meta definitely is defined by its own rules.
Also in this Top 8 we had the Black Sacrifice deck (I can't genuinely think of another good name for this deck, if you think you got a good name let me know in the comments).
There's some really cool things here. Nezumi Linkbreaker rewards you well with its death trigger as does Nested Shambler. Almost everything here does something when it dies, which is pretty sweet given how many sacrifice draw spells it plays. Maybe Black Sacrifice is the real name we found all along (also a sick Metal band name, of course).
Pauper Challenge 32 3/8/2025
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 58 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Grixis Affinity | 1st | outZEROo |
| Elves | 2nd | Shiib |
| Elves | 3rd | arturcosta |
| Bogles | 4th | Ixidor29 |
| Grixis Affinity | 5th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Jund Broodscale | 6th | flower270 |
| Jund Wildfire | 7th | kokoko098 |
| Gruul Ramp | 8th | Mokemi |
Certainly an interesting Top 8. Good spread of different things. At the end of the event, it was Affinity that won.
Very much what we've come to expect out of the Affinity shell. It's still pretty neat to see Hunter's Blowgun. Affinity hasn't had much of its core change because the deck is just that good. It will be interesting to see if that changes soon.
In Second Place we had Elves.
There's some pretty unique sideboard cards here. Bakersbane Duo being a 2/2 for two mana that also makes a Food is quite nice on rate, and Vitu-Ghazi Inspector is really solid on rate for a 1/3 with reach that can sometimes get bigger if you need to.
Further down the Top 8 we had Jund Wildfire.
This deck continues to gain a lot of popularity. I think just in general playing some of the really powerful MH3 threats like Chrysalis, Refurbished Familiar, and Nyxborn Hydra in a shell that ramps you is quite solid.
Pauper Challenge 32 3/9/2025
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 57 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Turbo Fog | 1st | __Noob__ |
| Dimir Faeries | 2nd | roter_Erzengel |
| Burn | 3rd | papaRMSKY |
| Jund Wildfire | 4th | Walker735 |
| Golgari Broodscale | 5th | 8salazzar8 |
| Jund Broodscale | 6th | Terminus0 |
| Mono White Aggro | 7th | Asbrinkvun |
| Bogles | 8th | MatheusPonciano |
Quite a spread of decks in this Top 8. At the end of the event it was Turbo Fog that won.
I just love these decks. They're goofy and interesting to me. The fact that we've migrated to even more interesting versions of this deck is pretty cool. This is certainly one I'd love to build in paper.
In Second Place we had Dimir Faeries.
Very straightforward and solid list. My favorite card here has to be Extract a Confession. It's such a sweet card. Edicts are usually pretty good a lot of the times, but an Edict that can specifically hit something big if you can collect the evidence is even more interesting.
Also in this Top 8 we had Mono White Aggro.
This is a lot of fun to see a deck like this doing well. It's very powerful and interesting. Legitimately any deck playing Battle Screech has got my attention for sure, but there's just a lot of really powerful cards here that all add up to aggro the opponent out.
My Video for the Week
I released another edition of "What Does This Deck Do?" recently, talking all about the Pauper deck Walls Combo! Check it out below!
Around the Web
- Pauperwave has an article on the state of Pauper in 2025. Check it out here.
- Our good friend Alex Ullman has an article on Aetherdrift and Pauper. Check it out here.
- Walker735 made a comprehensive guide to Jund Wildfire. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook has a video about his 10th place positioning at the NY Pauper Open. Check it out here.
- TeasdaleMTG has a video on Altar Tron. Check it out here.
- Kalikaiz has a video on Magmakin Combo. 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!
Straight up Big Creature Tron is not something I've seen in a bit.
BOROS HEROIC.
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!
