Welcome to my brewing with Kaldheim article, where I am going to try and either build from scratch or try to improve on current archetypes with new cards or to explore a new path. I am basing my brewing more on having a theme than trying to break the format.
Golgari Elves
I really enjoy Rock style Golgari decks and I was looking forward to see what I could do with Elves as many new elves entered the format. Jaspara Sentinel and Masked Vandals are awesome additions to the format but they are both green. They just feel like they should slot into a more traditional Elves build.
I do think you have the makings of a Rock deck utilising Eyeblight Massacre and Entourage of Trest with generic black spells. However, I’ll leave that deck for later when we potentially have a few more synergistic resources.
Mardu Vehicles
When we had Kaladesh Standard I was an avid Mardu vehicles player so this archetype is one that I really enjoyed, unfortunately we have no Unlicenced Disintegration or Heart of Kiran but we do have some solid cards.
I am a bit wary on the mana base as we do require some dual lands as we are three colours but the artefact lands are required to serve the metalcraft element for Ardent Recruit and Galvanic Blast.
For the vehicles I am using a mix of Kaldheim and Kaladesh vehicles, I’m including Sky Skiff as I do feel a potential answer for flyers is beneficial. We could also add maybe Prophetic Prism and Kor Skyfisher but I’ve tried for more value towards crewing requirements.
Clearly with Affinity being a major player and Boros Monarch with its eggs we have a lot of dedicated sideboard cards within Pauper to deal with artefacts, even Kaldheim has reprinted Annul.
- 4 Ardent Recruit
- 4 Giant Ox
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Nightmarket Lookout
- 4 Reckless Fireweaver
- 4 Funeral Longboat
- 2 Raiders Karve
- 3 Sky Skiff
- 2 Renegade Freighter
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 2 Terminate
- 2 Snowfield Sinkhole
- 2 Alpine Meadow
- 2 Sulfurous Mire
- 1 Ash Barrens
- 2 Ancient Den
- 2 Great Furnace
- 2 Vault of Whispers
- 3 Snow-Covered Swamp
- 3 Snow-Covered Mountain
- 3 Snow-Covered Plains
Assembly Workers
So, this is definitely a brew and I remember that Self-Assembler was banned from Arena Pauper so have wanted to brew around the card for a while, which, may now be possible with both Foundry Inspector and Stanheim Courser to reduce casting costs.
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 2 Spare Supplies
- 4 Prophetic Prism
- 4 Myr Enforcer
- 4 Glint Hawk
- 4 Myr Retriever
- 4 Foundry Inspector
- 4 Self Assembler
- 4 Stanrheim Courser
- 4 Alpine Meadow
- 4 Ancient Den
- 4 Great Furnace
- 5 Snow-Covered Plains
- 5 Snow-Covered Mountain
Infect
Infect is a powerful archetype but has vanished from the meta since Invigorate was banned as an additional free pump spell with Mutagenic Growth stopped the reliably early kills on turns two and three. This was the first deck I ever played in Pauper and it is sleeved up ready to go, each set I look to see if there are any new cards to support one of my favourite pet decks.
Click here to see a recent list.
The creatures are pretty much a stock build though having Rot Wolf is always an option.
I am trying the new pump spells as Mammoth Growth having foretell could be a difference maker.
Snakeskin Veil is better than Rangers Guile which has previously seen play.
- 4 Glistener Elf
- 4 Blight Mamba
- 4 Ichorclaw Myr
- 4 Llanowar Augur
- 4 Mammoth Growth
- 4 Giant Growth
- 4 Snakeskin Veil
- 4 Groundswell
- 4 Rancor
- 2 Ram Through
- 2 Vines of Vastwood
- 20 Forest
White Weenie
White Weenie decks are popular in many formats, though the deck is slightly weaker than in other formats mainly due to the better creatures in other colours.
I have gone for a reasonable devotion count to allow for Daybreak Chimera to come out early.
I have included Benevolent Bodyguard to potentially accelerate out Stalwart Valkyrie.
I feel a bit lost without Seeker of the Way and it will be at least in the sideboard.
You will see Basri’s Solidarity as I want to build up some creatures to hopefully dodge a Fiery Cannonade though this could be harder said than done. Maybe Benevolent Blessing as a combat trick is a better choice.
- 4 Battlefield Raptor
- 4 Benevolent Bodyguard
- 4 Leonin Skyhunter
- 4 Daybreak Chimera
- 4 Stalwart Valkyrie
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 2 Journey to Nowhere
- 2 Iron Verdict
- 4 Charge
- 4 Ramosian Rally
- 4 Basri’s Solidarity
- 20 Plains
Temur Snow Ramp
Our final deck is a brew by a player at my local LGS, Joe Robson. Rather than us both work on the same idea I was merely a sounding board.
The basic game plan is along the lines of keep yourself alive with Moment’s Peace and Skred, ramping hard to ensure you are exploiting extra land drops and finally make big threats with either the Aurochs or late game cycling creatures.
The Mulldrifter’s and cycling creatures are useful at all stages for drawing more cards or finally being resolved as a threat.
The deck has had limited testing and does well against midrange and aggro, but not so great against control.
- 3 Sea Gate Oracle
- 4 Aurochs Herd
- 4 Elvish Rejuvenator
- 2 Greater Sandwurm
- 4 Mulldrifter
- 2 Striped Riverwinder
- 3 Three Visits
- 1 Condescend
- 2 Counterspell
- 2 Fire // Ice
- 4 Into the North
- 2 Moment’s Peace
- 4 Skred
- 4 Highland Forest
- 4 Rimewood Falls
- 6 Snow-Covered Forest
- 5 Snow-Covered Island
- 2 Snow-Covered Mountain
- 2 Volatile Fjord
Summary
I’d like to think the Deck Lists will be fun to play and should be considered as a starting point, I’m pretty sure they could be improved upon so any feedback would be welcomed. I don’t feel any are actually Tier One but Infect and White Weenie should be close.
On_Common_Ground 