Dime a Dozen #11: The War Isn’t Over

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Jason Moore

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it). I’d like to express my gratitude for all of you who read my articles and leave comments. Thank you very much, and please continue to do so!

Today’s deck is something I like to call Bird Keepers. Bird Keepers is a White Weenie deck based around War Falcon (which you may remember from a few of my previous articles). It’s also a focused yet dynamic blitzkrieg strategy that has a lot to offer. Every creature in the deck is either an aggressively-costed flier, resilient to removal, or a source of card advantage. Let’s analyze a couple variants of the deck before taking it into a Daily Event.

White Weenie has always been synonymous with threat density, and you’ll have a hard time finding a Pauper build with fewer than 28 creatures. Over time the threats themselves have changed, as white creatures have gotten better and better. The printing of War Falcon inspired a number of players to build white decks, but it took Chris Davis (AKA Shyft4, arguably one of Pauper’s most well-known players), to create the most appropriate War Falcon shell. Here is his 4-0 list from back in August:

Chris abandoned tried and true midrange creatures like Razor Golem, Kor Sanctifiers and Guardian of the Guildpact for a more dedicated swarm philosophy and a sleeker curve. No one played 12 1-drops in White Weenie before Chris, nor did they play anywhere near his jaw-dropping 20 fliers.

Pauper veteran AndreyS would later grow interested in the low-curve War Falcon deck, with a list that went 4-0 on November 24th:

Though opting for a nearly identical main deck, AndreyS geared his sideboard heavily for the Storm matchup. With Storm being extremely prevalent, this makes some sense (though is still probably a bit excessive).

In my eyes, these lists are not without their flaws. Secluded Steppe can lead to very clunky openers, and prompts mulligans in a deck where 18 lands will already do that for you. Additionally, Knight of Sursi just doesn’t belong. It’s the slowest creature by a mile, and has very little to offer. With that said, I’ve developed a list that I think has even more potential. Below is a deck tech video, along with gameplay from a recent Daily Event:





My concluding thoughts on the list are, well, inconclusive. I am obviously very comfortable with this kind of strategy, so I would easily play Bird Keepers again. As a shock to no one, I could see adding a couple lands to the deck to avoid mulliganning otherwise great hands. I’m continually appalled by my ability to draw multiple hate cards versus Storm and lock them out of games, but what can I say, I’m a good player (kidding)! Let me know what you think of the list, and if I should play it again. Thanks for reading!

You can find Jason
co-hosting the Pauper’s Cage podcast
on MTGO as BambooRush
on Twitter @dimecollectorsc
and on Youtube at youtube.com/dimecollectorsc

 

  3. I was in love with the swarm list as soon as I saw it. Theoretically, this build should help your match up against Post by a mile and the insane card advantage that this deck gets through Doomed Traveler, Loyal Cathar and Squadron hawk is unmatched and very relevant in both control and aggro match ups. It’s like Mono Green Stompy with less reach but with more evasion which, in a way, converts into reach. ;D

    I was baffled that they were using Secluded Steppe. I think those lands are great, even in aggro decks. However, they are only valuable later in the game but they hurt your early game so bad that the cycling simply isn’t worth it. Thus, I think your list with plains only is much better. I also think that you do not require more than 18 lands. You had bad luck with some opening hands, yes but 18 is the perfect number when your curve tops off at 2 (not counting Prismatic Strands).

    The only choice I am wasn’t so sure of was Veteran Armorer. However, when I thought about it, a bear for 2 is pretty good by itself. But the ability to make your early pushes much more resilient to Electrickery (addition of which hurt WW a lot) is invaluable.

    Dunno, I am VERY optimistic about this build. :)

  4. On the 1st match:

    M1G3: He tapped the Saprazzan Skerry and Sandstone Needle to get threshold for Cabal Ritual.

    The keeping back Unicorn for Prismatic Strands flashback is a fine safe play, although I find it very unlikely he’s playing Duress against you, and that he does it twice!

    Also, I don’t think many Storm players are on Echoing Decay over Echoing Truth. Sure, there may be budgetary reasons, but it’s already a relatively expensive deck to begin with. Generally I think Storm players will board out Empty and board in Flaring Pain and Echoing Truth (+ Shred Memory if they don’t have it main) since WW rarely kills before turn 4 and have a couple of really good answers to Empty in Prismatic Strands, Suture Priest and Holy Light.

    On the deck:

    I’ve played a similar version of WW earlier and have had a lot of good experiences with Guardian’s Pledge as a singleton. It makes otherwise unwinnable games into sudden wins and works very very well with the swarm strategy.

    The sideboard choice of Divine Offering over Disenchant I don’t agree with. Sure the life can be nice but there really are situations where you want real versatility. Let me give a few examples.

    - Armadillo Cloak. You can’t race this card ever and you can’t do anything but chump their creatures because they’re hexproof.
    - Tortured Existence. The Green-Black version can do nasty things like recurring a Spore Frog to make sure you never do any more combat damage
    - Journey To Nowhere. In the mirror, getting back a guy at instant speed can be a huge boon

    Of course you can’t sideboard for every possible scenario and you have to accept that sometimes you just lose, but I think you should always err on the side of more versatility in an enviroment as diverse as Pauper.

  5. M4G2 Well, the reason why you shouldn’t go to 1 is named Geth’s Verdict. Nice vid as always. Thanks!

  6. Good Games as always!

    Reconsidering your very last game, I think it would have been correct for your opponent to attack that one time with the lacerator. He had the Removal in hand which means, that you are only attacking him down to 1 afterwards, as he should use his Removal during combat. Also he dropped a witch anyways.
    That might or might have not turned the game in his favor.

  7. ownage77 – I appreciate the support.

    Govnovalj90 – Glad you like the list. We have a slighlty better chance against Post, but it still tends to be rough.

    hiveking – I’ve thought about 1x Guardians’ Pledge (since I am the father of that concept to begin with—episodes 1, 3 and 4), and it’s something that might make it into the list. Disenchant at some point could replace Divine Offering, though I haven’t seen Tortured Existence around lately. The other applications are useful.

    Lantis – I don’t think I remembered the Geth’s Verdict from previous games, will have to re-watch.

    schmuelle – Interesting, I will have to re-watch the game to see what you’re saying.

  9. deluxeicoff – Is it really that big of a reason? I only know of one deck that plays that card.

  10. Scattershot Archer is a SB option for stompy that gets removed with Journey. There is no “BIG” reason to not play this deck.

  12. He sure does…and then another one…and another one…and the ranger reactivates…Optimisim is great, just don’t let it blind your objectivity.

  13. Additionally, your answer is to draw TWO cards to stompy’s ONE. I’ll take those odds anyday. I’ve played armorer in many builds of tokens/ww tokens etc.., great card, but not a catch all. Post just nails him, THEN electrickeries :)

  15. @1smashmouthFAN:
    He is playing a pauper deck, which means only commons, which conflicts with Thragtusk’s rarity.
    Also, this might get in the way of the whole “Monowhite” thing. Not that I think Thragtusk is bad though.

  16. @deluxeicoff

    No offense, but you need Ranger + Archer to nullify efect of one armorer. Sure, you having these 2 specific cards on the board, and me not having journey or second armorer is very good for you adn pretty much over for my falcons/hawks, but considering a) there are other creatures in my deck resilient to archer-ranger combo (and even more those creatures with armorer on the table) and b) Scattershot Archer comes usually up to second/third game from the sideboard, i’ll take those odds every day.

  17. M1G3 You were probably better off leaving the doomed traveler back for flashback purposes since you’d still have an untapped thingy even if he killed the traveler.

    I think I also would have sideboarded in some standard bearers against storm to help protect your unicorns.

  18. On the turn in M3G1 when you said “can I cast 3 spells this turn? no”, you had 4 mana and both bonesplitter and skyfisher in hand so the answer was “yes” :).

    Also, was I missing somethign with why your opponent didn’t witches in response to your flaring pain late in M3G2 when you double blocked the dead reveller? That would have put him to one, but his reveller would have survived and your board would have looked much worse.

  19. Tom the Scud – I think you’re saying that on my final turn I should’ve attacked with Unicorn rather than Traveler (so that I would have “two” creatures available for Strands flashback)? If so, then I can definitely see the merit in that play.

    Anonymous – Sounds like you’re talking about M4, not M3.

    You’re correct if you meant that I could play Bonesplitter, bounce it with Skyfisher and play it again. I don’t think I would’ve made that play even if I had caught it though.

    As for your second comment, I’m not sure I understand. Are you talking about 31:55 into the video? Can I not flashback Prismatic Strands by tapping Armorer in response to the Witch activation? Let me know.

    Thanks guys!