When I reviewed 2020, I got some very positive feedback so I decided to go back and look at 2019. Going forward I may well do other years as well as older set reviews.
This was a critical year for Pauper with so much changing, I will cover the sets of 2019, the banning’s and finally round up with a conclusion.
Ravnica Allegiance
Ravnica sets are always full of flavour but did this set hit the mark with Pauper?
Faerie Vandal saw a nominal amount of play and then vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Ill-gotten Inheritance was a staple in Arena Pauper as a finisher but looked like it wasn’t going to transition well. However, it has started to be included a singleton copy in many Mono Black Control and Orzhov Pestilence decks.
Persistent Petioners, no doubt someone will still be working on a credible mill deck and one day we may have a truly obnoxious deck in the format.
Grotesque Demise was an impactful sideboard card and may yet find a home again when the meta changes.
Goblin Gathering was hyped but never lived up to the expectations.
Skewer the Critics has become a staple in burn decks and has become a spectacle.
Frenzied Arynx really has not seen much play but it is one of my wife Rachel’s favourite cards and is criminally underrated.
War of the Spark
You would think with all the Planeswalkers in this set would be Totally Lost to Pauper but surprisingly we had some great cards.
Ob Nixilis Cruelty is a very respectable removal card, the ability to exile in Pauper is extremely relevant and it takes out the majority of creatures in the format.
Kaya’s Ghostform has seen a limited degree of play but it is very much a card that needs to be built around to maximise the synergy.
We can see a deck list here.
https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/3678589#arena
Vivien’s Grizzly is widely used in Mono Green sideboard’s as an alternative way to draw extra creature cards.
All are signature spells and this is a great trend going forward being able to identify with much beloved Planeswalkers.
Modern Horizons
Modern Horizons did a lot of good things for Pauper and a few bad ones too, however, I am very excited for a Modern Horizons 2 and hopefully Wizards learn from its mistakes.
Rather than cover ground I’ve covered before I will send you to my previous article which covers Modern Horizons in depth.
You can see the article here.
Something to consider though is the Kaldheim Snow Duals will make for some interesting choices going forward, e.g., Defile may find homes as Ice Tunnel and Snowfield Sinkhole make an impact. With many more snow permanents could we be getting closer to having a Snow deck.
Core Set 2020
Faerie Miscreant and Disfigure were reprinted in the set but there were little new of note. At the time we were enjoying the joys of Arcum’s Astrolabe so this set mostly passed us by without notice.
Scorch Spitter did look like it could see play but there hasn’t really been a suitable archetype to support it.
Audacious Thief has seen some play on Mono Black decks as an alternative to Phyrexian Rager.
Throne of Eldraine
The last set of the year and all the hullabaloo in other formats because of Oko, Thief of Crowns. The worried frowns from Pauper players were still concentrating on Arcum’s Astrolabe.
Mystic Sanctuary was always seen as a powerful card upon it being printed and only when it combined with Ghostly Flicker to recur flicker loops did, we realise this is looking like a very problematical card. Mystic Sanctuary was eventually banned in late 2020.
Witches Cottage was a substantial upgrade on Mortuary Mire but as it is a swamp it is searchable with Twisted Abomination. I remember asking about foil copies at Grand Prix Bangkok, only to be told they had opened one but it is in the bulk foil box! I must have spent an hour at that box until I found it and some other foils from Throne of Eldraine.
Crashing Drawbridge was an automatic include in the Walls deck with its ability to grant haste.
Malevolent Noble has been seen in Pauper Leagues as part of sacrifice decks giving additional choices.
Merchant of the Vale has had a bit part role as the adventure part to rummage and then the rummaging on the card has proven to be playable as a one of in several decks. It is quite a shame that the adventure aspect of many spells has not made them more playable.
Lost Legion raised an eyebrow or two for Mono Black players as it still had double devotion to black, it mainly saw play in Pestilence decks because of its higher toughness than over three drops. More recently it has seen a renaissance being able to survive Fiery Cannonade.
Mantle of Tides has been used in Mono Blue Aggro decks to some aplomb.
Golden Egg actually lived up to its name as an egg in Boros Monarch strategies.
Gingerbrute has seen play as an additional threat in several decks and being a food, sometimes the life gain is needed.
Banning’s
We had “The Blue Monday Bans” on Monday 20th May when Gitaxian Probe, Gush and Daze all got the ban hammer. When things go wrong with Blue they do so in a big way.
Then just when we thought it was safe to go back into the water, we had an emergency ban on 21st October as Arcum’s Astrolabe finally bit the bullet for homogenising the format. I still miss that card and the options to use my foil copies are now restricted to Commander.
Conclusion
Wow, you can see when the card philosophy changed for Standard sets and we had more powerful cards at all levels with Throne of Eldraine.
Throne of the Eldraine created more playable cards than the rest of the year put together.
Although we had some great cards in 2019, I do feel the year was overshadowed by the banning of multiple cards, this in turn turned off many to the format and they left never to return.
However, Wizards did make a stunning announcement in 2019 which shook the format up as it merged the casual paper format and the online formats, the full announcement can be seen here.
https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/pauper-comes-paper-2019-06-27
So, despite all the problems, Pauper had enough good things going on to be considered a success during 2019.
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