burn = nourish out of the board. not even joking.

As for the mediocrity of this deck currently, I actually also agree. Unfortunately this deck was designed and the article almost posted months ago before the site went on hiatus. Back when goblins was a much bigger threat, affinity wasn’t playing board wipers in the main, and decks like white weenie were more common the deck was much better. Once combo cools off for a bit though this deck will have much more of a shot again.

Consider this (for frantic storm): After a bounce, Stompy will have several things going for it. It might have Silhana (untargetable) which, when powered up, is a threat they have to block. You have threats that are probably going to come in at end of turn (i.e. basking rootwalla). You have pump and creature spells for very cheap. Plus, if you had untapped mana, your largest creature might still be alive (if you played vines of vastwood on it). Adding in thermokarsts and hornet stings meant you had a chance if you played smart.

The only thing you could do for goblin storm was sandstorm, but double grapeshot is basically ‘gg’.

Anyways, nice article, but the deck really doesn’t address the metagame issues at this time. DE’s are basically all about affinity (with Krark-Clan Shaman basically wiping your board), storm (which you admitted isn’t a good matchup), and burn (which this deck ‘sorta’ has, until they target your wellwisher). Goblins may be a decent matchup, but it usually doesn’t play that big a role in the current meta.

tl;dr version: ‘Turn 3 is key in pauper’. Anything slower that can’t disrupt their opponent doesn’t have good chances.

Good to see more articles here, but I hope to see MTGO Academy’s high editorial standards maintained, and the content more than the endless run of pauper, casual, tribal, pauper, tribal, casual rundown that PureMTGO sometimes looks like.

@Xecho – Good call on Fyndhorn over Arbor Elf, I honestly didn’t even think about him being available online. Priest was considered in a few early builds and with Invoker but I just couldn’t find room for her.

@Mile – The deck really wants to draw cards since it really needs a Timberwatch Elf, Huntmaster, or Distant Melody to actual do more than be a mediocre beatdown deck. Oracle rarely is uncastable, and the benefit of digging to a big threat is well worth the space. The land coming into play vs. revealing the card never really has much impact, the deck really just wants lots of cantrip guys. Multani’s Acolyte though is out because of the prohibitive echo cost, since you want to keep all of your guys in play for melody/timberwatch.

@Cserph – I agree with parts of your analysis, and disagree with others. Without going into too much detail I think the gap between fair and unfair is fairly large in pauper, enough to justify playing unfair. Also, one of the reasons I advocate for a deck like elves! as my unfair-ish deck of choice is that is has a decent, if slightly underpowered backup plan of simple beats. It can’t really be ‘stranded’ with 1/3 of a combo available any moreso than other beatdown decks are susceptible to removal.