The Power of Pauper: Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man (Set Review)
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 talking about Spider-People and their possible impact on Pauper. We've also got some Challenges to discuss from this past week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Into the Spiderverse (or is it Omenpaths?)
Spider-Man is swinging into Pauper real soon as our next Standard set, but there's a bit of a twist to this. The set itself in paper will be indeed Spider-Man, but because of how the licensing works I guess the sets on both MTGO and Arena are instead Through the Omenpaths with different art and mostly different card names. It's certainly wild, and it will make things very confusing to people unfortunately. Since a lot of Pauper is played online but there are big paper events, just be aware of this whole thing and don't get caught offguard by it.
With that said, let's check out some of the cards we saw for Pauper. This is in no real particular order.
Daily Bugle Reporters / Principled Referee
This is really flexible. Cards like this only ever make things like Ephemerate even better and better. Being able to blink this and get more counters or a regrowth effect is quite good.
City Pigeon
Innocuous, but bouncing it with something like Kor Skyfisher is kind of cool. Game objects are good for Affinity decks, and while it's not a Clue token like Inspectors, it is not irrelevant either.
Spider-Man, Web-Slinger / Darval, Whose Web Protects
The first of a lot of common Legendary creatures, which makes them impervious to Cast Down, is pretty interesting. You can get a 3/3 by paying W and bouncing a creature, which makes this a Kor Skyfisher at times. It's worth noting that the creature does have to be tapped, so attacking or also using the flashback cost of Battle Screech is also a way to get a creature tapped that you might want to recast. Still, this is not bad on rate.
Dock Ock, Sinister Scientist / Ozor, Chronicler of Collapse
He's big and scary, and more than likely, there's going to be eight cards or more in your graveyard. Unfortunately, five mana is a lot to consider, and most other threats like this cost reduce. Also, you're rather unlikely to ever play another Villain to get him to be hexproof, unless you're doing some sweet Changeling stuff.
Spider-Man No More / Hide in Mundanity
Making a threat a 1/1 Defender is kind of sweet. There's a lot of effects like this though, that are just better in a lot of ways.
Common Crook
Mono Black Sacrifice is certainly a deck, and this guy does something when he dies. You do the math.
Swarm, Being of Bees / Wekhdu, Midnight Hunter
Mayhem is sort of like a fixed Madness effect, where you still have to deal with timing rules. However, this has Flash so you can indeed cast it on your opponent's turn when you discard it, and that's kind of neat. Kind of like Kitchen Imp in some ways.
Merciless Enforcers
I usually look at cards like this through the lens of decks like Walls or Combo Goblins. Infinite mana outlets are sweet, and this one has lifelink.
Masked Meower / Skittering Kitten
It's kind of like Insolent Neonate in a lot of ways, but it has hast,e so you can get in an attack right off the bat and then do the thing. Is having eight Neonates a thing? Might be. A lot of decks having eight of something is usually a thing.
Spider-Gwen, Free Spirit / Wardens of Silverweb Summit
Not bad stats on rate for a 2/3 with reach for 2R. The nice thing is the trigger, since you can enable Madness stuff and all sorts of things.
Stegron the Dinosaur Man / Kephon, Rage Incubator
Another big dude who can also make something a Dinosaur that's also slightly bigger for a turn (at instant speed, which is groovy). If you cast this guy though, a 5/4 with Menace that can't be eaten by Cast Down is neat.
Scout the City
Any time I see a common card that says "Mill three cards" on it, there is usually something pretty good about it. This makes like twelve things between Satyr Wayfinder / Town Greeter and now this, while not a creature itself that can mill and get back something all in these colors. It's pretty strong, and this being able to get back any permanent is powerful. In a pinch if you need it to, it can also kill a flipped Delver.
Spider-Rex, Daring Dino / Chizak, Apex Arachnosaur
Woof. This card has some text. Reach, Trample, Ward 2, and also can't be hit by Cast Down? I do like. Might be very interesting to see how this one goes in the midrange decks.
Mob Lookout
Conniving is pretty sweet in some decks. This one is interesting because being a 0/3, it more than likely can swing in unblocked and be bounced with ninjutsu.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/5/2025
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the Friday event. This event had 44 players in it, thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Black Sacrifice | 1st | Hamuda |
| Burn | 2nd | ElkVinci |
| Spy Combo | 3rd | Pafru |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 4th | barff |
| Jeskai Gates | 5th | mnaga |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | discoverN |
| High Tide Combo | 7th | xxSystemxx |
| Golgari Gardens | 8th | NickNorman |
Kind of a cool Top 8 here. At the end of the event, it was Mono Black Sacrifice that won.
This deck definitely has made the rounds and it's pretty sweet. On the surface it really looks like one of those decks you just slap together on a whim, but everything is really individually powerful and it just works. Perigee Beckoner is kind of sick, because for 1B it gives you the Supernatural Stamina effect that you can then get a 4/5 later on and that effect again.
In Second Place we had Burn.
Very straightforward and very aggressive. This is what we've come to expect out of Burn lately.
Also in this Top 8 we had Spy Combo.
It is wild how good this really is. Figuring out the combination of things to make the Spy / Dread Return into Lotleth Giant plan work has gone through a lot of iterations but this might just be the best version of that for now. Gotta respect the work put in on this.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/6/2025
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the Saturday event. This event had 47 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Elves | 1st | Shiib |
| Mono Blue Terror | 2nd | discoverN |
| Mono Blue Faeries | 3rd | barff |
| High Tide Combo | 4th | CrazyMorango |
| Golgari Gardens | 5th | __Noob__ |
| High Tide Combo | 6th | Beicodegeia |
| Jeskai Epehemerate | 7th | Al_bertoR |
| Gruul Ramp | 8th | Mokemi |
Another really solid Top 8. At the end of the event it was Elves that won.
It's great to see Elves just kicking butt in this format at the moment. It really does seem like an incredibly solid deck. You can get off the ground so quickly with it.
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Terror.
Very clean and straightforward. Sleep of the Dead is a really slick card here.
Further down the Top 8 we had Jeskai Ephemerate.
There's a lot of really sweet cards here. I love the singleton Late to Dinner as a way to recur a creature like a Mulldrifter.
Pauper Challenge 32 9/7/2025
The final Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday 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 | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono Blue Terror | 2nd | Purtagory_01 |
| Jund Wildfire | 3rd | AnotherStep |
| Burn | 4th | NMT_Sco94 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th | Luminati |
| Jund Wildfire | 6th | digdude13 |
| Jund Wildfire | 7th | HelioLima |
| Madness Burn | 8th | Shoryu_ |
Lot of Jund Wildfire here, but at the end of the event it was Grixis Affinity that won.
Really interesting list here. I like the addition of Cryogen Relic as Ichor Wellspring #5. Hunter's Blowgun also still seems incredibly cool.
In Second Place we had Mono Blue Terror.
This list is basically the same as the one that did well in the previous Challenge. Piracy Charm though, what a sweet sideboard card.
Also in this Top 8 we had Jund Wildfire.
The "good stuff" deck of the format. This deck has it all. Removal, discard, midrange threats. It's truly Jund.
Around the Web
- Pauperganda has some Mono Black Sacrifice action. Check it out here.
- Bryant Cook is Cycling some Storms. 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!
Orzhov Midrange Good Stuff!
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!
