The great thing about Pauper is the ability to brew new decks and inspiration is regularly providing results. Whilst the Challenge meta takes a lot to change or break through the same cannot be said for MTGO Leagues and local pay where innovation thrives.

I am highly invested in cycles of magic cards; cycles of magic cards are when you get cards following a pattern in either a colour or combination of colours. The most common cycles are of course lands e.g., Dismal Backwater and Wind Scarred Crag are amongst a cycle of life lands originating in Tarkir block. Sometimes though you don’t get a complete cycle immediately and have to wait for a cycle to be completed e.g., Lorehold campus etc is complete within the enemy themed Strixhaven set but at some point, we may see another set with the allied campus’s present.

Cycles though should not be confused with the mechanic cycling which allows card draw or card searching. An interesting aside is we have a cycle of lands with cycling in Barren Moor, Forgotten Cave, Lonely Sandbar, Secluded Steppe and Tranquil Thicket.

One of the interesting cycles was the Eventide Mimic cycle with a creature in each colour pair that got better when matching dual colour spells were cast.

You can see my article here with the five pairings here.

Azorius

So, what can we do new with Azorius? I really enjoyed writing about the Eventide Mimics and how their hybrid enchantments interacted. Whilst we have similar enchantments in Shadowmoor the creatures worked a little bit differently. However, that makes a reasonable starting point.

4 Deputy of Acquittals
4 Bant Sureblade
4 Esper Stormblade
4 Silver Drake
4 Azure Fleet Admiral

I had worries on my original pass for creatures, then I clicked on the Esper Stormblade and Bant Sureblade and thought we have some potential here. I then added the Silver Drake to the mix and we have three respectable creatures.

This has now given us three cycles to consider during the brewing process. We have the Planeshift bounce creatures, Alara Reborn ‘Blades’ and Shadowmoor hybrid enchantments to build around. We can also consider all the escapades on Ravnica to add to the card pool.

Allowing for the current meta game we do need some Monarch allowance and with our aggressive slant Azure Fleet Commodore will fit the bill.

4 Of One Mind
4 Steel of the Godhead
2 Wings of Hope
4 Counterspell
2 Journey to Nowhere

Steel of the Godhead is a personal favourite of mine dating back to when Tiny Leaders was my favourite format and we jammed it weekly at my LGS. The interaction with the Blades is looking interesting.

Wings of Hope is worth exploring as adding flying and multi colour buff to the blades feels good.

4 Ash Barrens
4 Tranquil Cove
8 Plains
8 Island

Dimir

When you look at the Dimir colour pair you already have a great depth of quality depths with Dimir Delver, Dimir Faeries and even Mystical Teachings seeing some degree of play. This means any cards have a really high barrier to rise above to see play.

Now I have recently revamped my Dimir Ninja deck and had a good look over the cards available then. I am still working on foiling out my Dimir Delver deck but this also created a second more generic deck where I would test out cards in a Dimir shell to see have a better idea of what was good and what wasn’t before pulling the trigger on a foil purchase.

Following on from the three cycles we are looking at today.

Helm of the Ghastlord is an awesome card, it is pretty much the best Ninja’s allowing card draw and discard in one, four mana though is way too much to be effective.

Grixis Grimblade and Esper Stormblade are both reasonable cards but do they have the support around them.

Finally in the cycle we have Cavern Harpy, it has seen fringe play in Legacy I am told, and looks like it could be a card full of potential.

There are many cards that are personal favourites like Whisper Agent and maybe even Consult the Necrosages which would help fill up the list.

However, taking everything into account any list I could put out would be seriously underpowered even for friendly LGS play. Therefore, I am going to admit defeat with this particular cycle.

So, I know I just said I had given up on this idea but before I was going to upload the article, I had a thought, over the past couple of years I have enjoyed playing Dimir and Simic Flash in Standard, now we don’t have Brine born Cutthroat but what we do have is Quandrix Pledgemage as a counter generator. We also have Jhessian Thief with Prowess and Elusive Spellfist with a similar effect.

4 Quandrix Pledgemage
4 Jhessian Thief
4 Elusive Spellfist
4 Whisper Agent

Whisper Agent is just a fun card, adding an extra flash-based creature opens up several additional options.

4 Unexpected Fangs
4 Professor’s Warning
4 Mutagenic Growth
2 Bioshift

I’ve decided to put Professor’s Warning in for defence and if needed some aggression with extra counters. Bioshift is a combat trick to move around counters if necessary.

2 Snuff Out
2 Chainer’s Edict
2 Cast Down
2 Soul Manipulation

I’ve put in a modicum of control as well, the deck is Dimir based.

4 Ice Tunnel
4 Dismal Backwater
4 Ash Barrens
5 Swamp
5 Island

Well, I am not sure how this will play out but it at least feels like something that can give enjoyment, the starting point is really a variant on Izzet Blitz but slightly more controlling as it is in Dimir colours.

Gruul

Interestingly when I look at these cycles and Gruul we have already used several of the cards at the core of my wife’s Zoo aggro deck. Well, I am not going to reinvent the wheel. Click Here to see previous article.

However, that is not to say we cannot review our options as since this deck was designed Commander Legends, Kaldheim and Strixhaven: School of Mages have been released.

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Kird Ape
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Horned Kavu
4 Burning Tree Emissary
3 Naya Hushblade
2 Frenzied Arynx

The creature package we have is highly synergistic, whilst Bayou Griff is a great card and could work really well with Burning-tree Emissary our one drops aren’t really expendable and better. Burning -Tree Emissary is the prime reason Scab-Clan Mauler missed out as it was sometimes difficult to get the Bloodthirst online.

Crimson Fleet Commodore as an aggressive Monarch card is an option and could replace the Frenzied Arynx even though the trampler with riot is our secret weapon.

2 Vines of Vastwood
3 Rancor
3 Skred
3 Colossal Might
4 Lightning Bolt

Snakeskin Veil could be used to replace Vines of Vastwood as protection and at least deserves testing.

4 Ash Barrens
7 Snow Covered Forest
8 Snow Covered Mountain
1 Snow Covered Plains

We are looking to keep powering up the Wild Nacatl’s and we get a new option in Alpine Meadow or Artic Treeline could replace the Plains. However, the ways to search either out are limited and the deck prefers untapped lands when they come into play. Highland Forest is being considered for longer term fixing purposes.

Rakdos

When my wife Rachel had so much success with Horned Kavu it got me thinking whether the other cards in the cycle could perform in a similar way. Then Covid-19 restrictions hit and as we couldn’t play at my LGS building another pauper deck dropped down the list of my priorities.

Now I decided to dust off the list and bring it up to date. I also wanted to play to one of Rakdos’s strengths and enable haste.

4 Footlight Fiend
4 Torch Courier
4 Spike Jester
4 Jund Hackblade
4 Lava Zombie
2 Crimson Fleet Commodore
2 Gurmag Angler

Jund Hackblade works brilliantly with other multi-coloured permanents but unlike in Gruul Burning-Tree Emissary can miss on being able to cast a second spell more often than we would like. To enable Jund Hackblade Footlight Fiend gets the nod for being multi coloured and having a goes to graveyard ability. Paired with the Hackblade is Spike Jester which can kill most blockers put in its way.

Lava Zombie returns a creature when entering the battlefield so having haste creatures minimises that loss though it can always be played post combat returning a tapped creature.

Crimson Fleet Commodore is my nod to gaining the Monarchy and potential card draw. Gurmag Angler may look strange but the graveyard does fill up rather fast. This is when Torch Courier comes in as a dual threat being able to give on the bigger bad boy’s haste.

Whilst I was brewing, I did consider Ghitu Lavarunner but maybe it is a bit slow as looking to play creatures not cast spells and a late game 2/2 isn’t game breaking. I discounted Sewn-Eye Drake early on even though it has haste and flies but has currently got a sideboard slot to try out.

4 Night’s Whsiper
3 Unearth
2 Blightning
3 Terminate
4 Lightning Bolt

The spell mix may need tweaking but feels strong. As the majority of the creatures are three mana value or less this feels like a core choice to bring back haste creatures.

Nights Whisper can restock our hand and Blightning can hopefully strip our opponents’ responses with an extra bit of damage.

Terminate kills anything and Lightning Bolt of course has the opportunity to hit your opponent.

8 Snow-Covered Mountain
8 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Ash Barrens

Selesnya

I was excited about putting together a Selesnya deck as Shadowmoor was one of my favourite sets but I was about to get a big surprise. The cards I remember aren’t actually common!

Fleetfoot Panther certainly looks awesome,

Shield of the Oversoul is one of the better Shadowmoor enchantments. Safehold Elite is a nice card to drop it on but the panther would probably be best.

Bant Sureblade and Naya Hushblade look great, though Naya Hushblade may get Shroud a bit too quickly to put an enchantment on it to give itself Shroud.

Qasili Pridemage feels like it should be played more and the life gain bump by playing Centaur Healer also looks great.

Then I look at the cards we could add like Armadillo Cloak and I am excited.

This was when I saw the problem with the deck, Where are the Slippery Bogles and Gladecover Scouts? The enchantments are also slow too! This is where the biggest problem lies within brewing decks, we have an on colour archetype that is already head and shoulders above the alternative. I could look at going wide but then we just become a poor Stompy type deck.

I do feel that there is possibly the shell of a deck forming, however, I am not convinced we have enough strong playable cards with synergy at the heart of the deck.

I am going to leave my list here of where I currently am, maybe you the reader have some ideas that I have overlooked.

4 Doomed Traveller
4 Garrison Cat
4 Young Wolf
4 Bayou Groff
2 Qasali Pridemage
4 Fleetfoot Panther
4 Centaur Healer

4 Shield of the Oversoul
4 Armadillo Cloak
2 Rancor
2 Journey to Nowhere

4 Artic Treeline
4 Ash Barrens
7 Forest
7 Plains

So, Doomed Traveller, Garrison Cat and Young Wolf to enable Bayou Groff feels like a serious upgrade.

Conclusion

I have really enjoyed putting these decks together even though they may require some work to get them to the next level.

Brewing is great fun, recognising good and bad cards is an essential skill so you can learn lots from a day that fails as that experience will put you in a good position in the future. We also sometimes can discover good stuff for the future.

Having decks in real life that are not necessarily Tier 1 can be a good thing, a nice easy deck to play can be great to lend to a novice magic player to help them get the bug for the game or format of choice pushing those switches in the brain. You can also have something more friendly to play against new players who have also been brewing as no faster way to lose players than to be repeatedly crushed by Tier one net decks.

Never stop brewing.