Adventures In Pauper

So I found myself on MTGO, which I've just recently got into, with 20 bucks to spare and a promise that I'd draft Nix Tix M10 tonight (I won 2 packs and got a Master of the Wild Hunt, so happy me). So I had about 8 bucks. What can you do on MODO for 8 bucks?

The answer is Pauper. Pauper is a format that only permits commons (or to be specific, cards that were printed as common at one point). There's a wide variety of Tier 1 and 2 strategies, as can be seen at this webpage.

I decided to go for Classic Pauper, and I decided to go for G/W Slivers. Unfortunately the Muscle Slivers would have taken up my 8 bucks right there, so my second choice was the old-school Orzhov Blink, which has fallen out of favor since M10.

The deck cost a grand total of 6 tix of clever bot-buying, and here's what I ran:

4 Blind Hunter
4 Chittering Rats
3 Phyrexian Rager
4 Ravenous Rats
3 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Mulldrifter
3 Shrieking Grotesque

Spells
4 Duress
4 Echoing Decay
4 Momentary Blink

Lands
9 Swamp
4 Orzhov Basilica
4 Plains
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Island

SIDEBOARD
4 Circle of Protection: Black
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Mulldrifter 

The only change I made from the list I started with was -1 Phyrexian Rager and +1 Shrieking Grotesque, and I'm fairly happy with the choice. Pauper can descend into creature stalls, and when 2/X's are the norm, races take a while. So a critical mass of fliers was pretty good.

I haven't got any matchups at the moment, but I have been enjoying it. One addition I'd like to make to the deck is Soul Stair Expedition, since it seems very powerful in this deck. They finally kill your blinkers, and you simply bring them back again. The ultimate recursion package.

Last Gasp and Okiba-Gang Shinobi were two cards I also purchased, since I figured they might be useful. I'm considering Duress in the side over Relic, and putting Last Gasp in main, since Kor Skyfisher shuts down a lot of my offence.

What I like about Pauper is that it's both very cheap, and it's competitive. It also seems to speak to the 'core' of Magic, since the commons are very in tune with the color pie.

Orzhov Blink is a deck of advantages. Gaining life, draining life, and gaining card advantage with Ravenous Rats and Mulldrifter, it's a strange kind of control deck, but a fun one to play. I think my next move will be to take out the Chittering Rats (which put a strain on the manabase) and the Duresses in order to add Last Gasp and Soul Stair Expedition, and see how it goes.

I think you'll be seeing a few more posts about Pauper in the upcoming weeks, since it's certainly piqued my interest. I'd also like to play a U/B Control list I saw floating around the tournament practice room, and if I want to, I can purchase it for the price of a lunch (as long as I don't add Daze to the deck).

So if you're on MTGO, give Pauper a try. It's great fun, and very cheap to get started. And you never know what fun you could have!

How To Build an M10 Sealed Deck

Hi, readers! Today I'll be going through building a Sealed deck with M10. I randomly generated the deck with Magic Workstation (which finally sorted out it's Mythic Rare issue) and got started.

I opened 6 M10 boosters. Here's what I got:

White (16)

2 Angel's Mercy

1 Celestial Purge

1 Divine Verdict

1 Glorious Charge

2 Griffin Sentinel

1 Holy Strength

1 Lightwielder Paladin

1 Pacifism

1 Serra Angel

1 Siege Mastodon

1 Solemn Offering

1 Soul Warden

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

Blue (12)

1 Divination

1 Fabricate

1 Horned Turtle

1 Ice Cage

3 Illusionary Servant

2 Jump

3 Tome Scour

Black (16)

1 Assassinate

1 Black Knight

1 Bog Wraith

1 Deathmark

1 Disentomb

1 Doom Blade

3 Kelinore Bat

1 Looming Shade

1 Mind Rot

1 Rise from the Grave

2 Sign in Blood

1 Tendrils of Corruption

1 Unholy Strength

Red (18)

1 Act of Treason

2 Fiery Hellhound

1 Goblin Piker

2 Jackal Familiar

1 Lava Axe

1 Lightning Elemental

1 Manabarbs

1 Panic Attack

1 Seismic Strike

1 Stone Giant

2 Trumpet Blast

1 Viashino Spearhunter

3 Yawning Fissure

Green (17)

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Bramble Creeper

1 Cudgel Troll

2 Fog

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

2 Mist Leopard

1 Nature's Spiral

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Protean Hydra

2 Rampant Growth

1 Regenerate

1 Stampeding Rhino

Artifacts (5)

1 Gorgon Flail

1 Mirror of Fate

2 Rod of Ruin

1 Whispersilk Cloak

Lands (0)

Without even sorting into playables, the first color to cut is Blue. It's not even splashworthy. The Servants are okay, but UU defeats a splash idea. Red is the next one to go, being slightly weaker than the other colors.

Now we sort our remaining colors into playables:

White (11)

1 Celestial Purge (SB)

1 Divine Verdict

2 Griffin Sentinel

1 Lightwielder Paladin

1 Pacifism

1 Serra Angel

1 Siege Mastodon

1 Soul Warden

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

Black (11)

1 Assassinate

1 Black Knight

1 Bog Wraith

1 Deathmark (SB)

1 Disentomb

3 Kelinore Bat

1 Rise from the Grave

2 Sign in Blood

Green (13)

1 Birds of Paradise

1 Cudgel Troll

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

2 Mist Leopard

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Protean Hydra

2 Rampant Growth

1 Stampeding Rhino

Artifacts (2)

1 Gorgon Flail

1 Whispersilk Cloak

It's fairly obvious we want Green as a main color, with most of the bombs and the mana fixing. We don't really want to play the Kelinore Bats if we can avoid it (and we can with Green's creatures) so Black is out, and we don't want to splash for more than 1-2 cards that aren't worth it, so that leaves us with a G/W deck with 25 cards.

M10 is an 18-land format, so we have to cut 3 cards.

After cutting a Birds of Paradise, and 2 Mist Leopard (unfortunately, but we have too many good cards) we have the following decklist:

Salivanth's M10 Sealed:

Lands (18)

9 Forest

9 Plains

Creatures (16)

1 Cudgel Troll

2 Griffin Sentinel

1 Lightwielder Paladin

2 Llanowar Elves

1 Master of the Wild Hunt

1 Prized Unicorn

1 Protean Hydra

1 Serra Angel

1 Siege Mastodon

1 Soul Warden

1 Stampeding Rhino

1 Stormfront Pegasus

1 Veteran Armorsmith

Spells (6)

1 Divine Verdict

1 Gorgon Flail

1 Pacifism

2 Rampant Growth

1 Whispersilk Cloak

And there we have it. One sealed deck, ready to play. The basic steps to take are: eliminate two colors, then strip down to playables before eliminating a third color as a main. If it can be a splash, determine the splash, then cut down the other two colors so you have an appropriately sized deck of 22 non-land playables. Then play!

Until next time, may you branch out and experiment with other styles.