I am always looking at opportunities to build decks that will provide a fun play experience and challenge for my opponents. The decks I am designing today I hope will provide a great jumping off point and I would love to hear your ideas for improving the decks and your brews for Pauper.
Now these decks are not going to be Tier 1 yet and may well need the much anticipated for banning Chatterstorm and maybe something from Grixis Affinity. Currently these two decks are particularly affecting the meta as any deck needs to consider how it can beat both of these decks either in the main deck or from the sideboard which stifles diversity.
We were until the arrival of MH2 in a reasonable place for Pauper with many viable decks on a weekly basis.
My initial thoughts are to look at the following cards or archetypes for my builds including where possible as many new cards to try them out.
Boros Artifacts
We have the new modular artifact creatures and near I feel they could be built into a Boros shell. We have a couple of routes we can explore adding more past modular creatures and Metalcraft like Ardent Recruit.
Madness
We haven’t really seen a Madness deck make a significant difference recently but will the newer cards allow for Madness to become a solid thing in the format much like Dramnith Stinger being a build around for the returning Cycling mechanic in Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths.
Squirrels
I looked at the possibility of Squirrel tribal without Chatterstorm but there does not feel anywhere near enough density to build a squirrel brew.
Squirrel based cards
Squirrel creatures
Gruul Fling
Atog Fling in Affinity is a key part of the Pauper meta but could Glimmer Bairn with tokens provide an alternative use for Fling.
Orzhov Reanimation
Utilising the engine around Breathless Knight returning creatures to the battle field with value creatures.
Etherium
Etherium Spinner looks like a great build around and I want to explore the possibilities with this build around engine. We have a new Evoke creature in Soul of Migration which could also make an appearance.
And now onto the decks.
Boros Artefacts
We have two great new pieces in Arcbound Mouser and Arcbound Tracker but what do we add to the deck. Foundry Helix feels like it has a home alongside Galvanic Blast to have some excellent removal.
We have plenty of choices to add to the deck on the creature front and the option to utilise Metalcraft, Affinity and Modular creatures.
Ardent Recruit, Court Homunculus, Glint Hawk, Thraben Inspector
Auriol Sunchaser, Vault Skirge, Arcbound Stinger, Arcbound Prototype, Kor Skyfisher
Porcelain Legionnaire
Frogmite
Sojourner’s Companion, Myr Enforcer
We have potential to utilise several eggs for card drawing purposes though I like the opportunity to use Thrilling Discovery.
Land wise we can have 4 Rustvale Bridge, 4 Ancient Den and 4 Great Furnace to build around for the mana base which would help Metalcraft or maybe be able to sacrifice for Foundry Helix.
- 4 Ardent Recruit
- 4 Arcbound Mouser
- 4 Vault Skirge
- 4 Auriok Sunchaser
- 4 Sojourner’s Companion
- 4 Arcbound Tracker
- 4 Gingerbrute
Looking at the deck it does seem to be very similar to the Azorius Brute Squad archetype.
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 4 Foundry Helix
- 4 Thrill of Discovery
- 2 Journey to Nowhere
I am really excited to explore the potential of Foundry Helix.
- 1 Plains
- 1 Mountain
- 4 Darksteel Citadel
- 4 Great Furnace
- 4 Ancient Den
- 4 Rustvale Bridge
I have gone for a faster start but with the flexibility from Sojourner’s Companion.
Madness
For those of you who are also Iron Maiden Fans
“Can I play with madness?
The prophet stared at his crystal ball
Can I play with madness?
There’s no vision there at all
Can I play with madness?
The prophet looked at me and laughed at me (ha) He said:
Can I play with madness?
He said you’re blind, too blind to see”
And this is how I feel trying to build this deck, I am not the greatest player with Madness cards but let us see where we land.
We need some solid discard outlets to enable the madness costs, I am going to look around combining Cycling and Madness.
- 4 Street Wraith
- 4 Horror of the Broken Lands
- 4 Kitchen Imp
- 4 Skophos Reaver
- 4 Lurching Rotbeast
- 4 Gurmag Angler
Kitchen Imp is a fun card and a 2/2 flyer with haste.
Horror of the Broken Lands can be used as a finisher or enabler.
Skophos Reaver is a flexible card with potential that can be brought out early with Madness so going to give it a whirl.
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 Bone Shards
- 4 Faithless Salvaging
- 4 Echoing Return
Faithless Salvaging is a nice card and interesting twist on Faithless Looting which is one of my personal favourites ever since I got hooked on playing Boros Bully rather than Boros Monarch.
Echoing Return is a great card in this build as it can return the cycling cards for value or return Kitchen Imps repeatedly.
- 4 Barren Moor
- 4 Forgotten Caves
- 7 Swamp
- 5 Mountain
Gruul Fling
This deck is really quite simple in design but with a few additional angles. The core strategy is similar to Atog Fling by generating tokens for sacrifice but also including First Day of Class aggro strategy.
- 4 Glimmer Bairn
- 4 Bayou Groff
- 4 Nest Invader
You will see Bayou Groff here, with all the tokens being generated this feels like a great way to utilise the plant dog. Nest Invader gets a slot as a 2/2 is worth a slot as a blocker to enable the deck to do its thing whilst adding a token. I would usually like to have Burning Tree Emissary too but running out of available card slots.
- 4 Forbidden Friendship
- 4 Sprout Swarm
- 4 Saproling Migration
- 4 Chatter of the Squirrel
- 2 Fling
- 2 Skred
- 4 Lightning Bolt
- 4 First Day of Class
Lightning Bolt is probably the best red card in Pauper and definitely deserves its place. Skred gets a couple of slots to deal with problematic threats mid to late game.
- 2 Khalni Garden
- 4 Highland Forest
- 5 Snow Covered Mountain
- 5 Snow Covered Forest
- 4 Ash Barrens
Orzhov Reanimation
This is a really challenging build and one that could be approached from multiple angles to power up the Breathless Knight.
I do like Tetmos High Priest and think this could work well with Undying Evil and Kaya’s Ghostform to return Thraben Inspector or Seeker of the Way, we have plenty of spells to power up Seeker of the Way but maybe we need a few more, at which point ironically, I feel the Tetmos High Priest which I started building around could be the ideal choice to remove.
- 4 Thraben Inspector
- 4 Tetmos High Priest
- 4 Seeker of the Way
- 4 Tizerus Charger
- 2 First-Sphere Gargantua
- 4 Breathless Knight
Tizerus Charger and First-Sphere Gargantua with their own abilities to return to the battlefield are great additions to complement the deck.
- 4 Undying Evil
- 2 Cast Down
- 4 Kaya’s Ghostform
- 2 Snuff Out
- 4 Unearth
- 2 Breath of Life
A mix of removal and returning spells which feel synergistic for the deck.
- 8 Snow Covered Swamp
- 8 Snow Covered Plains
- 4 Snowfield Sinkhole
Etherium Affinity
Etherium Spinner is a great card but one that needs to be built around. The main issue is that we need to survive long enough to get the value from the Spinner.
So, I have decided to use Etherium Spinner and Chrome Courier as core elements to the deck. With affinity we can cheat about bigger creatures which in turn will help us generate Thopter’s from Etherium Spinner.
My only worry is that maybe I have overdone it on the creatures and maybe should swap out 4-8 to bring in some eggs for card draw.
- 4 Etherium Spinner
- 4 Chrome Courier
- 4 Frogmite
- 4 Gearseeker Serpent
- 4 Sojourner’s Companion
- 4 Myr Enforcer
- 4 Thoughtcast
- 4 Galvanic Blast
- 4 Battle Screech
- 4 Rally the Peasants
Battle Screech is also mana value four adding additional flyers and we have Rally the Peasants to buff the flying team.
- 4 Great Furnace
- 4 Ancient Den
- 2 Darksteel Citadel
- 4 Seat of the Synod
- 2 Rustvale Bridge
- 2 Razortide Bridge
- 2 Silverbluff Bridge
Using a full artefact land package but may need to tweak the balance between dual and mono lands.
Conclusion
I have really enjoyed building around newer cards and potentially put a new spin on older archetypes. Many times, we want to return to an older deck and see it finally break into a better tier. When with friends at your local game store consider having brew weeks when you forego the tier decks and explore playing a home brew with off the grid cards.
On_Common_Ground 