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Introduction to Pauper

So there’s this rules thing, right, and Wizards is all like, “Hey, dudes, there can be two legends on the battlefield at the same time as long as they aren’t controlled by the same side. Finally two Jaces can battle for ultimate supremacy! Maybe this will take a bit more away from the variance of the game and bring back a more skill oriented game?” I actually don’t care about that, though, because I only play a Magic the Gathering format that has a total of ten playable legends. Now, when I say playable, I actually mean you can play them if you want, but I promise you, your deck will be bad. This format basically exists only online and allows you to play some cards that you can’t even play in Legacy. This format is Classic Pauper on MTGO.

Why Pauper?

Why pauper is quite easy honestly. At the time I started up MTGO, I really wanted to play a constructed format. Draft is fun but it can get expensive, and at the time I was lacking in the ol’ pocket book. So I looked into Standard. This was a failed endeavor; the prices for competitive decks these days are outrageous. I mean, just look at the price of cards like [card]Voice of Resurgence[/card] and [card]Sphinx’s Revelation[/card]. If I wanted a playset of either of these cards online, I’d have to pay $120 or more. I can pay that much and get two, maybe three, competitive Pauper decks. The PRICE is the key here. The price is why pauper.

Ok, What Makes It So Special?

Well that’s another easy one. This format is like Legacy; you get to play fun cards like Daze, [card]Chain Lightning[/card], [card]Blastoderm[/card], [card]Dark Ritual[/card], and [card]Holy Light[/card]. You can even play cards that you can’t play in Legacy, like Gush. This format is as open as… as… as the laws in Amsterdam. Every archetype exists, and most are pretty good. Elves, [card]Goblin[/card]s, Teachings, Storm: these decks play about the same as their counterparts in other formats.

The difference is that all the cards in Pauper have at one time or another been printed as commons. You can use whatever version of a card you want, so you still see plenty of promos and foils, but somewhere there’s a common. Other than that, normal deckbuilding rules apply: at least 60 cards maindeck and a sideboard of zero or 15 cards (at least until that rules thing I mentioned earlier kicks in).

Ok, Are There Any Banned or Restricted Cards?

Of course, in any format, cards can get overpowered, so here is the current Pauper banned and restricted list:

  • [card]Cranial Plating[/card]
  • [card]Empty the Warrens[/card]
  • [card]Frantic Search[/card]
  • [card]Grapeshot[/card]
  • [card]Invigorate[/card]

Each card is banned for its own reasons, and I’ll give you a few. Grape Shot and [card]Empty the Warrens[/card] are just absurd as storm is a popular archetype and these are efficient and difficult to deal with. [card]Invigorate[/card] seems harmless, but in the extremely powerful Mono-Green Poison deck, it can turn a turn-one creature into a turn-two poison win. [card]Frantic Search[/card] is banned because, in a control or storm deck, being able to draw two cards at instant speed for basically free is extremely powerful. The last card, [card]Cranial Plating[/card], is so good in the Affinity deck it could be reasonably banned in Modern.

Wait a Minute, Guy, Didn’t You Just Say Storm Exists in Pauper? How Am I Supposed to Play That Without Grapeshot or Empty the Warrens?

I’ll explain that a bit later.

Well, I Want to Play a Tribal Deck

[deck]
[Lands]
16 Mountain
1 Teetering Peaks
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Goblin Bushwhacker
4 Goblin Cohort
4 Goblin Sledder
4 Jackal Familiar
4 Mogg Conscripts
3 Mogg Flunkies
4 Mogg Raider
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Sparksmith
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Chain Lightning
2 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
1 Death Spark
3 Electrickery
1 Flame Slash
2 Flaring Pain
3 Pyroblast
4 Smash to Smithereens
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Here is a basic aggressive strategy in Pauper. It’s a tribal [card]Goblin[/card]s deck that has the most powerful goblins printed at common. When I say powerful, I mean power-and-toughness powerful, not [card]Goblin Matron[/card] into Ringleader powerful. Dropping a turn-one 2/2 into a turn-two 3/3 or two more 2/2s makes your opponent wish they had put [card]Pyroclasm[/card] at common. The endless swarm of synergistic goblins puts immediate pressure on your opponent and ends games quickly. Also, this deck highlights a few of the fun Legacy cards that can be played in Pauper: [card]Fireblast[/card] and [card]Chain Lightning[/card].

I Want My Tribal Deck to Have a Lord in It

Well, lucky for you, this tribe exists, and after M14, I think this Pauper tribe will get even better. That tribe is slivers. As of right now, GW Slivers is an underplayed deck in the format, and I really don’t get why. With [card]Muscle Sliver[/card] and [card]Sinew Sliver[/card] already around, the third lord, Predatory Sliver, may make these gross little meat hooks very powerful.

Can You Explain How the Heck I’m Going to Play Storm?

[deck]
[Lands]
4 Cloudpost
4 Forest
4 Glimmerpost
4 Island
2 Remote Isle
2 Shimmering Grotto
2 Slippery Karst
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
2 Cloud of Faeries
1 Mnemonic Wall
4 Mulldrifter
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Chromatic Sphere
4 Chromatic Star
4 Compulsive Research
4 Crop Rotation
4 Expedition Map
2 Ghostly Flicker
2 Kaervek’s Torch
2 Moment’s Peace
4 Prophetic Prism
3 Temporal Fissure
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
2 Fade Away
2 Fangren Marauder
2 Hindering Touch
2 Hydroblast
2 Moment’s Peace
3 Reap and Sow
2 Tilling Treefolk
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

The storm decks of the past are unfortunately dead, but there is still one useful storm card left: [card]Temporal Fissure[/card]. This card, unlike [card]Empty the Warrens[/card] and [card]Grapeshot[/card], doesn’t need to be built around. Storming for three or four can be quite powerful, considering you’re Boomeranging permanents with each storm trigger on the stack. The decklist provided is more of a control deck that can abuse the power of [card]Temporal Fissure[/card] while still making it fair. Other versions of the deck involve cards like [card]Twitch[/card] and [card]Twiddle[/card] to untap lands covered in auras, ramp up mana, and cast a devastating [card]Temporal Fissure[/card] for all your opponent’s permanents.

Well, I Want to Play Control

[deck]
[Lands]
4 Cloudpost
4 Glimmerpost
7 Island
2 Izzet Guildgate
6 Mountain
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
1 Mnemonic Wall
4 Mulldrifter
3 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Ulamog’s Crusher
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
1 Capsize
3 Compulsive Research
2 Condescend
1 Electrickery
1 Expedition Map
3 Flame Slash
1 Ghostly Flicker
3 Lightning Bolt
2 Mystical Teachings
4 Preordain
2 Prohibit
4 Prophetic Prism
1 Serrated Arrows
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Counterspell
1 Curfew
2 Dispel
2 Earth Rift
3 Electrickery
1 Expedition Map
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Stone Rain
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Here is your generic control deck. Most control decks are blue with a another color or two and feature [card]Ulamog’s Crusher[/card] as a finisher with [card]Cloudpost[/card]s to pump him out. Other unfair things include hitting twelve-mana and [card]Capsize[/card], when you effectively shut your opponent out of the game by bouncing two permanents a turn. This deck is slow and grindy but plays some of the best spells from around Magic. It also wins the most consistently on MTGO Pauper dailies.

Is There a Deck Like My Bant Hexproof Deck?

[deck]
[Lands]
13 Forest
1 Secluded Steppe
4 Selesnya Guildgate
[/Lands]
[Creatures]
4 Aura Gnarlid
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Slippery Bogle
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
4 Abundant Growth
2 Ancestral Mask
4 Armadillo Cloak
4 Ethereal Armor
2 Lifelink
1 Monstrify
4 Rancor
4 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
[/Spells]
[Sideboard]
4 Faerie Macabre
4 Moment’s Peace
4 Scattershot Archer
3 Thermokarst
[/Sideboard]
[/deck]

Yes, there is. As you can see, the deck plays as many hexproof commons in green as it can, and then it jams the best auras magic has at common: [card]Armadillo Cloak[/card], [card]Rancor[/card], even a personal favorite of mine, [card]Ancestral Mask[/card]. This deck hits hard and fast, and there are few ways to deal with giant hexproof creatures, especially when they can’t be blocked because of an [card]Ethereal Armor[/card].

At this point, I don’t know how much more you need. All these decks are reasonably priced and shouldn’t cost you more than $30. The lists I presented all went 3-1 or better in a Pauper daily. The format is open, and we could always use more people in the community to really get the creative juices flowing. For now I bid you farewell and I hope to write again very soon.

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