The Power of Pauper: Traversing the Edge
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 headed off to SPACE with the Edge of Eternities set review! In addition to that we've got some Challenges from last week to look at.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
I'm Out on the Edge... of Pauper
We're headed to Space with Edge of Eternities and with that we've got a bunch of new cards legal to Pauper to take a look at. I'm not going to get gritty with every Common in this set, because there's frankly 78 Commons overall, and many of them are indeed just for Limited, but we can see what we've got!
Auxiliary Boosters
Five mana seems like a bit too much for a 3/4 flier. Granted you can re-equip this to something else if you need, but it might be just a bit too slow.
Cryogen Relic
So this card does seem incredibly good. It's worth noting that it triggers whenever it enters or leaves and doesn't care how it leaves, so cards like Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk can benefit from this by bouncing it and netting a card out of the deal, and then another on the way back down. It works well with the various 1B draw two cards that still exists in Pauper.
I have to expect this one will see play. It's definitely powerful, and if you really need to, you can sac it to stun something.
Cryoshatter
For one mana this effect seems incredibly good. Not just putting something down -5/-0 but the fact that it will destroy the creature even if it taps. There's a whole range of stun tap effects or things that tap creatures that could abuse using this as a bit of a removal spell, but it also just makes it so creatures can't attack without something like Vigilance. Pretty cool.
Diplomatic Relations
This card is only majorly worth noting because the card text was an error and they had to issue a note on what the actual card text would be. As the card reads in the image, you could use it to target one of your opponents creatures and then target either itself or another opponent's creature, which is really powerful at instant speed. The actual card text in the first sentence has been updated to "Target creature you control gets +1/+0" instead, so be sure to read your Oracle text before trying to play around with this.
Drix Fatemaker
Warp is a new mechanic that lets you pay a reduced cost to put a thing into play for a single turn and then it gets exiled on end step, and then you can cast that thing for the full cost on a later turn. It's a neat mechanic and usually most cards with it have some sort of immediate benefit. It's worth noting that Warp does not give creatures haste inherently, so this can't be a 3/2 for 1G that can attack that same turn without an enabler, but it does give a buff to a creature and gives everything with counters on it trample.
Embrace Oblivion
One mana to destroy a creature even at Sorcery speed seems very interesting. Sacrificing an artifact or creature is no downside in Pauper, it happens ALL THE TIME.
Gene Pollinator
Not quite Saruli Caretaker but this can tap any permanent for a mana, which is cool.
Lost in Space
These effects have been generally playable in a number of shells. The fact that you get to Surveil off this one is cool.
Nutrient Block
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE. Is this card good? I don't really know. It only draws when going to the graveyard and we got Cryogen Relic this set already.
Chrome Companion
ITS A CYBER-CORGI. That is all.
Pauper Challenge 32 7/18/2025
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the Friday 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Izzet Faeries | 1st | Brivenix |
| Jund Wildfire | 2nd | _blaze66 |
| Spy Combo | 3rd | NMT_Sco94 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 4th | discoverN |
| Jund Wildfire | 5th | AlessandroPiraccini |
| Gruul Ramp | 6th | sandoiche |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | msskinbolic |
| Elves | 8th | ganjadejanga |
Pretty interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was Izzet Faeries that won.
This is a really solid looking list. Nice mix of countermagic and removal and just solid looking gameplay.
In Second Place we had Jund Wildfire.
We'll be seeing this deck a lot this weekend, because it is frankly absurdly good. This is your true "good stuff" deck of the format, and down the line I can continue to see this shell adopt even more good cards that come out of newer sets.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Elves.
Elves has continued to just be very good in Pauper, and it is one of the decks that I think really is very good. The boost this deck got from MH3 with Nyxborn Hydra is exceedingly real.
Pauper Challenge 32 7/19/2025
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the Saturday event. This event had 56 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Burn | 1st | CrilaPeoty |
| Jund Wildfire | 2nd | outZEROo |
| Mono Blue Terror | 3rd | Oceansoul92 |
| Burn | 4th | ViktorVektor |
| Burn | 5th | Ralkann |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | Elegant_95 |
| Gruul Ramp | 7th | mugent |
| Spy Combo | 8th | 3vildr4k3 |
Quite a bit of Burn, and in fact the event was won by Burn.
Suplex in the sideboard on the Train! Actually just really cool to see it, seems like a fun card for Pauper.
In Second Place we had Jund Wildfire.
I did say we'd see this deck a lot this weekend, and it did put up great results all weekend. Crypt Incursion is a super duper sweet card that beats stuff like Spy Combo and Dredge. Hitting them when they try to Lotleth Giant you is great.
Speaking of Spy Combo, that was at the bottom of the Top 8.
This is definitely a deck. It's not quite on the same level as something like Oops in Legacy, but it's certainly close and can have some pretty quick games when it needs to. God forbid Wizards prints any MDFC lands at common ever, because that would just boost this deck a ton I'm sure.
Pauper Challenge 32 7/20/2025
The final Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday event. This event had 75 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| High Tide Combo | 1st | PedraStone |
| Jund Wildfire | 2nd | NMT_Sco94 |
| Madness Burn | 3rd | sai199orz |
| Madness Burn | 4th | A_AdeptoTerra |
| Burn | 5th | SuperCow12653 |
| Spy Combo | 6th | Luddrox |
| High Tide Combo | 7th | MackSmith |
| Infect | 8th | ICT95 |
Definitely an interesting Top 8. At the end of the event it was High Tide that won.
I definitely still believe that this deck is 100% fine for Pauper, because the format itself is so wide and the deck just seems to be pretty nominal.
In Second Place we had Jund Wildfire.
This is the same list that's done well all weekend. Next!
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Infect.
This is a powerful list, and looks quite aggressive and fun.
Around the Web
- The Common Coldsnap Podcast has a new episode. Check it out here.
- Pauperganda has a new video. Check it out here.
- GiorgioCombo has a video on Gruul Ramp. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook has a video on Goblin Storm. 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!
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!
