The Power of Pauper: The Top 10 Pauper Cards of 2024
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 counting down 2024 by taking a look at the Top 10 Pauper cards of 2024! In addition to that we've got some Challenges from this past week to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
The Top 10 Pauper Cards of 2024
2024 is quickly winding down, and we're nearly halfway through the month of December, so it's time to take a look at the Top 10 Pauper cards of 2024! This list is specifically only those cards released in 2024 sets. This includes the following sets:
- Murders at Karlov Manor
- Outlaws of Thunder Junction
- Modern Horizon 3
- Bloomburrow
- Duskmourn: House of Horror
- Fallout
- Assassin's Creed
There was quite a lot of stuff released in 2024, and I know that MH3 is a huge shift in Pauper overall, so I don't think it will surprise many to see a lot of MH3 cards on this list.
Let's take a look, shall we?
10 - Thraben Charm
I'm a big fan of modal spells in general, and Thraben Charm's sheer flexibility in what it can do is really great for the various white decks in the format, most especially those ones that are aggro creature-centric. Having a way to handle big threats while also being able to board control against enchantments AND interact with the graveyard at instant speed for 1W is really great.
9 - Novice Inspector
Having more of something good isn't always bad. Having another four additional copies of Thraben Inspector has generally proven to be a pretty good thing for Pauper, and not really all that busted. It's enabled some of the Synthesizer decks and it was one of the cornerstone pieces of Azorius Affinity for a bit. Overall this has been a great card for Pauper.
8 - Malevolent Rumble
I really like this card. It offers a really solid amount of both card selection and filtering to a lot of different decks, and allows decks that utilize the graveyard a way of putting things in the graveyard. For many decks it offers a way for them to find a piece that they need to progress the game while clearing dead cards off the top of the library. It's an elegant card, and the fact that it refunds one mana is also really swell. In fact, it could probably not even have that line of text and still be pretty good in a lot of different decks.
7 - Nyxborn Hydra
Whew this is a big guy. I like the flexible aspect of this card. You can either cast it as a big beater straight out if you need it onto an empty board, or it can bestow onto something and survive through a single piece of creature removal to come back and still be able to do damage. Having both reach and trample is great, and the fact that it's counters is good. This card gave Elves some real power to push through a game, which is stupendous.
6 - Eviscerator's Insight
I love my 1B Draw two effects, and I think this one is really great because of the flashback aspect on it. It's a really fun card to play and a solid mana sink, and I think it has been rather nice to have around as more options for decks that want these effects.
5 - Grab the Prize
A take on the discard one, draw two in red that is actually really good for a Burn style deck is really solid. Despite being a Sorcery I think this is a really solid card and helped solidify an already solid deck in Madness Burn.
4 - Clockwork Percussionist
This card definitely turned some heads during Duskmourn spoiler season because it is most assuredly a great card for Burn. Giving the deck a 1/1 haste threat that also can be sacrifice to Kuldotha Rebirth while also refunding you a card is really really really strong in Burn. It immediately saw play and hasn't stopped since.
3 - Refurbished Familiar
It's not going to be a huge shocker that the top three cards are from Modern Horizons 3, given just how much that set shifted the format. Familiar is incredibly powerful and what I found to be nice about it is that people found homes for this card that just wasn't in straight Affinity lists. I've seen it in everything from Orzhov Ephemerate style lists to Rakdos variants, to even RUGb Affinity decks. It's a strong card and doesn't seem to have really made things worse in the format, which is always a worry for cards like this.
2 - Basking Broodscale
It's always kind of nutty when a new card makes an old card popular and strong, and that's exactly what happened with Basking Broodscale and Sadistic Glee. This little Splinter Twin that could certainly has pushed pretty hard on Pauper, and it's pretty divisive I feel if you like or hate this one. Regardless, it's a really strong deck in the current format.
1 - Writhing Chrysalis
I don't think this is much of a surprise. Writhing Chrysalis is quite frankly the best common in probably the last five years of Magic in general, which is saying a lot given how many sets that is. The fact that this thing has so much text on it, and it also HAS REACH is just something incredible. Not being able to be hit by Hydroblast, making its own inherent ways to pump itself on cast, and the fact that it's initially a 2/3 and grows out of most removal spells is just absolutely insane. This card is the cornerstone of MULTIPLE decks in Pauper now, enabling midrange piles and combo decks all on its own, and it can close games out super quickly if it has to, and is simply just the best common of 2024 bar none.
Banned and Restricted Announcement - Does Pauper Need Changes at All?
There is a regularly scheduled Banned and Restricted announcement next week, and it's important to call out that Pauper does not follow this same sort of regular cadence that Wizards uses for other formats, due in part to the existence of the Pauper Format Panel. The PFP have a bit more flexibility in bannings than the scheduled ones.
It is confirmed however, that there will be a video from Gavin Verhey (head of the PFP) on the state of the format next week, so that is good to expect here. The real question is what their opinion of the format will be and whether or not it needs any changes.
Personally from both an outside and inside view, Pauper is certainly in a fairly healthy space. There's lots of different decks that all have an ability to do well in events, and we've seen some interesting innovations in the format, but what I have heard in chatter is that people aren't overtly happy with some of the play patterns of the current format. Much of this seems pretty specifically centered about the Basking Broodscale decks, a deck that I think is cool but at the same time I can get why people would not be happy with the Splinter Twin-esque nature of it existing.
I think we will have to wait and see what the PFP gauges the format out to be next week and go from there. I've personally had a lot of fun with the format, and it's worth noting while this column has had some breaks over the last month, most of those breaks were not related to the format being bad, just that other things were more pressing in real life.
Pauper Challenge 32 12/6
The first Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 54 players in it according to the MTGO website.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono White Aggro | 1st | dragtar |
| Ephemerate Tron | 2nd | RClint21 |
| Izzet Terror | 3rd | SpockVidaLoka |
| Grixis Affinity | 4th | outZEROo |
| Grixis Affinity | 5th | Rooney56 |
| Dimir Terror | 6th | Bugsy69 |
| Izzet Terror | 7th | Foresterf |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 8th | edgo |
Some Terror, some Affinity, and some other smatterings of decks. At the end of the event it was Mono White Aggro that won.
I keep meaning to try this deck out because it does look quite good. It might be a good deck for me to have available in my paper Pauper battle box of sorts. Not only is it a cheap deck to build in paper, but it's a really powerfully aggressive deck that can do well in events. I think the biggest upgrade for this deck that we talked about earlier was definitely Thraben Charm. That card's sheer flexibility is very nice to have.
In Second Place we had Ephemerate Tron.
Runaway Boulder as a Ghostly Flicker target alongside Mnemonic Wall seems like such a ridiculous thing to be doing to ensure your opponent just never has creatures ever again. Very silly.
Also in this Top 8 we had Izzet Terror.
Solid looking and very clean list. This is another deck I'd like to have in my paper Battle Box because Terror in general is a really fun deck to play and the idea of a format where Skred is actually a pretty cool card is neat to see.
Pauper Challenge 32 12/7
The second Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 37 players in it according to the MTGO website.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Turbo Fog | 1st | __Noob__ |
| Burn | 2nd | NattaZan79 |
| Dredge | 3rd | marzaboi |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 4th | Beicodegeia |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th | discoverN |
| Grixis Affinity | 6th | Hamuda |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 7th | edgo |
| RUG Affinity | 8th | sai199orz |
This is a really good looking Top 8. At the end of the event, it was Turbo Fog that won.
This version of the deck has changed a bunch since it first came about earlier this year. Now we've got a few splashes that make sense like splashing for Stream of Thought and also Liquify out of the sideboard. The best part of this deck is jamming a Crypt Rats into a full board and getting to Toxin Analysis it and activate it. Gain all the life.
In Second Place we had Burn.
Exceptionally clean deckbuilding here. Just plain old good aggressive fun in Mono Red.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had RUG... Affinity?
This is sort of like... four decks in one? It's really kind of cool honestly. You've got some Affinity angles with the Refurbished Familiar, some midrange gas with Writhing Chrysalis, and Cleansing Wildfire with your Bridges. It's pretty sweet and really cool to see some innovation here.
Pauper Challenge 32 12/7
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 57 players in it according to the MTGO website.
You can find all of the decklists for this event here. The Top 8 is below.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Turbo Fog | 1st | HoldTheElle |
| Jund | 2nd | Aster17 |
| Burn | 3rd | TiagoFuguete |
| Dimir Terror | 4th | i_b_TRUE |
| Mono White Aggro | 5th | Wolek |
| Golgari Broodscale | 6th | Mimmogle |
| Selesnya Gates | 7th | THERABBINS |
| Gruul Ramp | 8th | lsznpa |
Another honestly really solid looking Top 8, that was won yet again by Turbo Fog.
Trespasser's Curse is a pretty sweet card in this deck, as your opponent will inevitably be playing more to the board to try to wear you out of Fogs, so you can keep draining them and force their hand at only deploying minimal amounts of threats. Heaped Harvest is another card that's proven to be very interesting, since it can nab you a basic both on etb and when you sacrifice it (regardless of what you did to sacrifice it so Deadly Dispute works) which is great to keep up your mana production.
In Second Place we had good old Jund.
Having a legitimate Jund type midrange pile in the format is really kind of neat, honestly. It's got a lot of board control options and card draw, and some great finishers.
Also in this Top 8 we had Selesnya Gates.
Taking the Mono White Aggro plan and extending it out a bit with Gates and also some green spells that bolster that plan is pretty cool. Malevolent Rumble is a really solid card for these kinds of decks, since it can find just about anything.
Around the Web
- TeasdaleMTG is talking about Pauper Bans. Check it out here.
- Another video on Pauper format health. Check it out here.
- Pauperganda is remembering the banned cards of yesteryear. 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!
