Hello everyone!
We’re going to be taking a break after my first and second installments on Pauper Deckbuilding so that we can focus on some more timely subject matter. I do want to thank memnoch for making a great article suggestion (he requested that I put together something that will help players better evaluate Pauper cards), and hopefully I’ll be able to grant that request sometime in the near future!
At any rate, today we’re going to look at some interesting decks from the recent MTGO Pauper Queues. For those of you who’ve been absent, the Daily Events are gone (for now), and the competitive Pauper scene is experiencing a bit of a lull. Nevertheless, our endearing eternal format has been soldiering on! I’ve gotta say, it’s really nice to see fun, interesting decks placing in the Pauper events presently available to us.
I’ll be splitting the lists up into three archetypes: aggro, midrange, and control, and offering up my thoughts on their respective strengths and weaknesses. Let’s go ahead and get started!
Aggro:
Our deck representative for the aggro archetype placed in a Pauper Queue on November 29th. It’s part White Weenie, part Scars of Mirrodin Block Constructed (in other words, it’s something I can really get behind). Perhaps I should just show you what it looks like.
Mono-White Metal by Gui_BR
|
| ||||||||
Here is a link to the event Gui_BR placed in!
Perhaps we could call this Pauper Tempered Steel? At any rate, this deck is reminiscent of several rogue metalcraft predecessors, though in my opinion the idea never really gets old. The above list is actually not all that far off from a deck I tinkered with about a year ago:
Boros Metalcraft (circa 2012) by Jason Moore
|
| ||||||||
While Gui_BR has opted for mono-color consistency and I’ve dipped into red for cost-effective reach, there have also been Azorius variants of this deck utilizing Trinket Mage and sometimes even Mulldrifter.
These strategies have the potential to hit very hard and very fast. Most of the creatures are noticeably above the curve (Ardent Recruit is for all intents and purposes Wild Nacatl and Court Homunculus is akin to Isamaru, Hound of Konda), at least when the deck is functioning. This necessitates a very high artifact count, meaning basically as high as we can get it without sacrificing too much on the card quality end of things.
Can these decks work well? You bet. They operate like most other weenie decks, but have some particularly quick and impressive goldfish kills. However, metalcraft isn’t all wine and roses. In those desperate times when it isn’t turned on, for instance, Ardent Recruit and Auriok Sunchaser just suck.
And the biggest problem with these decks? The harsh reality that they could very well be worse versions of Affinity. With its bigger creatures (Atog, Carapace Forger and Myr Enforcer), insane reach (Disciple of the Vault, Fling) and sheer card advantage (Perilous Research, Thoughtcast), Affinity has a bit of a stranglehold on the artifact beatdown market. As far as I’m concerned, the metalcraft decks are painfully cool, but may not be objectively powerful enough to see large-scale popularity.
Now that we’ve glimpsed at a recent aggro offering, let’s venture into the sometimes underrepresented archetype of midrange.
Midrange:
And here we are, with a deck that has placed on more than one occasion thanks to its pilot monk1410. Let’s have a gander at one of the format’s biggest life-gainers, Selesnya Tokens.
Selesnya Tokens by monk1410
|
| ||||||||
Click here to see the event this deck placed in!
We’ve certainly seen variants of this strategy before, as it tends to show up and disappear every once in a while. The idea is to go “over the top” of the short term aggressive players with life gain and a demoralizing board presence, while potentially killing slower decks straight off with an infinite combo!
To better understand this deck’s inner workings, let’s group together its primary components.
The Life Gain Component
The cards that contribute to our life gain component are Essence Warden, Soul’s Attendant and Soul Warden. These cards synergize with all of the token generators, and give the deck a resemblance to the Modern (and before that Standard) format deck entitled Soul Sisters.
Creatures are a very big part of the format overall, which means that the opponent’s game plan will often fuel our own life gain efforts. The redundancy of the above-mentioned 1-drops also contributes a lot to our deck’s consistency. Having multiple Soul Warden effects on the table can sometimes be all that it takes to bury decks hoping to win in the early game.
The Token Generation
Creating tokens is what I would consider to be the central theme of this deck. It is the most versatile and dynamic facet overall, since the tokens can be pressed into service either offensively or defensively.
Pallid Mycoderm is slow and expensive, but pulls double duty as a token generator and a repeatable anthem effect. Sprout Swarm is a late game closer, able to become exponentially more unwieldy the longer the game goes (thanks to the tag team abilities of buyback and convoke). Even Khalni Garden gets a lot of value since it gets to do a convincing Kabira Crossroads impression much of the time.
The Infinite Combo
And then we have our haymaker. Midnight Guard and Presence of Gond have both been legal for some time now, but have only truly found a home in tokens shells like this one. A two-card combo that says “I win” is nothing to scoff at in any format, even if in this instance it’s somewhat fragile. I do like the fact that there are other “must kill” creatures in this deck to draw fire early, since they’ll often pave the way for Midnight Guard to wrap things up when the time is right.
The Sideboard
I don’t have much issue with the sideboard, but I do wonder if Circle of Protection: Red is really necessary. Burn decks are gonna need to go the extra mile as it is (removing various Wardens and dealing a good deal more than 20 damage), but maybe their burn suite is that robust that Circle of Protection is necessary anyway.
I don’t imagine the Circles are intended to combat big finishers like Kaervek’s Torch and Rolling Thunder either, so that leaves something like Atog and Fling to consider. Even those dangers are a small part of the field, and probably not worth three of our precious sideboard slots.
With aggro and midrange out of the way, we’ve got one more archetype to cover. This time we have two representatives to discuss, so let’s get right into it.
Control:
I play way too much control. I say this because my control mage win ratio is way less than impressive, which makes me a pretty poor authority on the archetype as a whole. Nevertheless, I really enjoy looking and talking about control decks!
Please bear with me as we go over two interesting control lists from this November 29th Pauper Queue. The first list I’m just going to call (for lack of a better title) Izzet Control!
Izzet Control by Saptox
|
| ||||||||
This is the kind of deck I really like on paper, but not so much in practice. There are very few win conditions (which is problematic more often than one might think), and few ways of removing creatures with toughness greater than 4. I definitely feel like this idea has legs, but at the same time I’m thinking it could use a bit of work.
I adore Compulsive Research as much as the next wizard, but I think that sleeving up a full playset is overkill. This is doubly true when we‘ve got only 23 lands in the deck, and would like to get up to 5 mana for Fiebolt and Mulldrifter.
The sideboard is also a bit strange to me. Tron is seeing a bit of play, but probably not enough to warrant seven land destruction spells in the board. I could be wrong about that, however.
If Izzet isn’t quite your thing, how about this Dimir Control deck (also featured in Dime a Dozen #35)?
Dimir Control by Barclay212
|
| ||||||||
It’s nice to see this deck making another appearance. The Chittering Rats endgame lock with Ghostly Flicker and Mnemonic Wall is particularly nasty (I have to admit, it does feel really good when you pull it off though!).
Personally I think that some sort of Doom Blade, Rend Flesh or Victim of Night variant should make it into the deck both as a catch-most, and as a killer of big dudes. There is a high degree of dork removal redundancy between Agony Warp, Dead Weight, Disfigure, and Echoing Decay, so having a bit more range is probably not a bad idea.
You may already know how I feel about the deck’s sideboard, since I talked about it last time. Now I’d like to hear your thoughts on the deck. In fact, I’d like to hear what you have to say about all of these decks! Are they unique enough? Too unique? Not competitive enough? Is it hard to say, given the limitations of the current tournament scene? Whatever your feelings are, feel free to let me know!
End Step
I hope you all are faring well during this Pauper Daily drought, but please remember that there is still exploration and experimentation happening, even if the lights are out for the time being.
Now would be a pretty good time to explore more unique and abstract topics, at least until we have the Daily Events up and running again. If you’d like to suggest any future article topics, please do so in the comments section.
As always, thanks for reading, and please comment!
You can find me
on MTGO as BambooRush,
on Twitter @dimecollectorsc,
and on Youtube at youtube.com/dimecollectorsc
Having Trinket Mage in the Metal deck providing a Borderland Ranger/Stoneforge Mystic/Ranger of Eosesque split card sounds awesome and leads to additional sideboard flexibility if you ask me.
I also really like the UR control list, and I think it is strong against the expected field. I am on a slightly different list with less card draw and more action. I have Frostburn Weird instead of Delver; they’re better blockers until it’s time to turn sideways. You lose the aggro angle then, ofcourse. Instead of Preordain and Compulsive Research (which I don’t like too much because you want to draw lands too) I run more removal (curse of chains, staggershock, rolling thunder) and Pristine Talisman: both the lifegain and the mana are useful. I like the sideboard actually: you have bad MU against GW Hexproof, Tron and hyperaggro decks. GW hexproof is a lost cause, but the other two can be turned around. I myself run hyroblasts instead of pyroblasts for that reason.
Thanks for looking at my list Jason. The burn matchup is actually quite difficult when they add electrickery and curse can just wear you down as you don’t apply much early pressure. But that is not the only reason it is there. Wee fiend is a terrible matchup and COP: red is one of the best cards vs them.
The rest of the sb is solid though and those 3 slots could easily become prismatic strands.
Jashin – Nice input! I agree with you that Trinket Mage is an effective and flexible toolbox card. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him pop up more in this kind of a shell.
Reinaldo – Awesome! Please keep me posted on your experimentation and findings.
Monk1410: No problem
— I’m glad you could share your insight on COP: Red. Congrats on your results with the deck!