Competitve Pauper vs. Casual

[(nameless one)]

Alright,

Wherever I go, I'd always meet casual Magic players. I don't mind playing with them but sometimes, I feel bad playing a Legacy deck against a casual dragon or angel deck.

So I decided with a $10 budget, I want to build a Classic Pauper deck that can still beat these deck. I still want to win but I don't want these new casual players to feel bad. I prefer playing control as the games last longer.

Anyways, to all MTGO players out there, whats the best control classic pauper deck to play against something casual (that packs bombs of sorts when left unchecked). I noticed that most pauper decks are suited for the metagame.

I was thinking of the old Parlor Tricks but I haven't touched pauper in a long while. Any suggestions?

[Lemnear]

TRS - Pauper - TrinketPost

4x Trinket Mage
4x Expedition Map
4x Power Sink
4x Condecent
4x Mulldrifter
3x Ulamog's Crusher
3x Mystical Teachings
1x Capsize
1x Echoing Decay
4x Mind Stone
4x Prophetic Prism
1x Seat of the Synod
1x Vault of Whisper
4x Cloudpost
4x Glimmerpost
1x Swamp
9x Island
4x Terramorphic Expanse

This is my teams favorite pauper maindeck list. Guess it fits your description.

[Sims]

I'd say it really depends on the decks that you're expecting to play against. I usually have an Orzhov Pestilence deck and a B/u Control deck sleeved up at any given time along side a mono-green infect/pump deck or an r/b husk deck.

If you're expecting that you're going to want to counter bombs, something like Izzet or MUCFae may be the way to go... if you know you won't be pissing people off with LD then you could go IzzetPost or MonoG Post. Or perhaps some kind of Jund Good Stuff deck... Citanul woodreaders, Tusker, Blastoderm, terminate, blightning, etc.

[GGoober]

Pauper is my favorite format after Legacy (I enjoy it more than Vintage). There's a lot of deckbuilding, which is why I like Pauper (and legacy of course).

There are obviously powerful cards e.g. Hymn, Dark Ritual, Brainstorm (not so much due to lack of fetchlands), Counterspell etc, but my favorite list to play (not the strongest list, but definitely up there and being the coolest deck is Pauper Spring Tide)

LANDS: 16
16 Islands

DIGGERS: 14
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Impule
2 Peer Through Depths

TUTORS/FUEL: 11
4 Merchant Scroll
4 Ideas Unbound
3 Deep Analysis

UNTAPPERS: 12
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 Snap
4 Frantic Search

COMBO: 7
4 High Tide
2 Mneumonic Wall
1 Capsize

The printing of Mneumonic Wall made the deck off the bat consistent. The goal of the deck is to deck an opponent with Deep Analysis. Instead of reaching a certain number of storm count (no storm spells MD, although I play Chromatic Star and Empty the Warrens in my sideboard if opposing deck play too much narrow hate e.g. faerie Macabre targeting cards in GY in response to Wall returning them back to hand, and go off on a couple of tokens on turn 2/3.)

The deck consistently ~85-95% goldfishes turn 3. The goal is to Tide on turn 3, start digging, and setup another 2 more Tides (with/without Scrolls). The Mneumonic Wall drawn also help return used Tides/Scrolls/Frantic Search to keep going. Once you have 3 Tides resolved. It becomes super easy:

Tap 2 lands (+8), cast Mnemonic Wall (+3), return Snap or play Snap from hand (+1), untap 2 lands, Tap 2 lands again (+9). From here you net 1 mana for each cycle, returning Snaps, and eventually you draw your whole deck once you have infinite mana by tutoring Capsize and bouncing Menomoic Wall to play your whole deck, then recylcing Deep Analysis to kill your opponent.

The walls make it such that the deck is essentially playing 6 Tides. You need 3 Tides to win, so that's a constraint, but it's a guaranteed win once you hit 3 Tides (not hard at all with the Walls and scrolls).


If you want my favorite Pauper deck, this is the homebrew that I feel has good matchups against anything (storm/aggro/control)

NQT (Not-Quite-Tendrils)

lands: 24
2 Plains
4 Terramorphic Expanse
2 Evolving Wilds
16 Swamp

card-advantage/etc: 12
4 Dark Ritual
4 Hymn
4 Sign in Blood

Sweepers: 7
4 Crypt Rats
3 Pestilence

Beaters/defense: 8
4 Aven Riftwatcher
4 Guardian of the Guildpact

Removal: 9
4 Grasp of Darkness
3 Tendrils of Corruption
2 Corrupt

SB:
4 Augur of Skulls (GG combo/control)
4 Duress (GG combo/control)
3 Prismatic Strand (against burn/EtW combo)
2 Circle of Protection: Red (against burn/EtW combo)
2 Relic of Progenitus (against Cogs)

Pestilence and Crypt Rats is completely busted in the format, and beats any aggro deck out there pretty damn well. Pestilence + Guardian of the Guildpact = gg. against combo/control, you board in 8 more discard spells (augur, duress). The deck is called NQT based off the other decks in Legacy e.g. Not-quite-Threshold, Not-quite-Survival etc. You are kinda playing Tendrils with all the life gain/life loss :P