Pauper forum?

[Gui]

So, I wanted more information on Pauper, the original idea, the rulings, the decks, w/e... stuff to read about it. And the best TS has to offer are some Cavius' Budget decks tagged [Pauper]...
Does it deserve an "Alternate format development" forum? Where can I get these info (besides filtering google searches, obviously)

Besides that, is the amount of people playing Pauper (IRL or MTGO) growing? Are people starting to see it as an alternative to the ever-growing price tag of legacy?

Thanks in advance.

[Sims]

Pauper has a thriving community on MTGO and you can find their forums online just by googling "TPDC" or "The Pauper Deck Challenge."

They have Priemer events run and Player Run Events weekly on MTGO. PE's I believe are "classic" format, and the PRE's have classic, extended, standard, tribal wars, etc.. all types of variant formats with the Pauper/Common Only restriction. The online metagame is much different than it would be in paper due to the changes in rarity of certain cards online, and the fact that masques block has not yet been printed online. Pauper online's only official banned card is Cranial Plating.

For example, in Paper Pauper I can build a High Tide deck with Merchant Scroll as those cards are commons in their original printings, but as Tide was only printed in Masters Edition online as an Uncommon and Scroll in 8th (9th?) as an Uncommon, that deck isn't playable.... HOWEVER, playing online means using the Classic b/r list... so Frantic Search is legal which it wouldn't be if you were playing Pauper Legacy in paper. Even without High Tide, Frantic Storm is quite likely one of the best decks in the online format and has actually lowered attendence to some of the classic PRE's becuase peopel feel the deck is too good (I seriously cite the deck as a reason why frantic shouldn't be unbanned in Legacy).

I have a lot of fun with the format and actually play my pauper decks occasionally in small tournaments for fun. I would encourage a variant format sub-forum here for Pauper, but i would say it'd likely be Legacy Pauper, which is going to be much different than Online Classic due to the banning of Frantic in Legacy.

[kicks_422]

pdcmagic.com would be a good start. I'd like to know more dedicated websites as well, though.

[NecroYawgmoth]

Pauper is common only with the Banning of Cranial Plating, or?

[kramer733]

Thanks for the websites. I really wanted to do pauper as well

[Sims]

Pauper is common only with the Banning of Cranial Plating, or?

Online Classic is Commons only with the only banned card, that I am aware, is Cranial Plating.

[Octopusman]

Thank you for posting this. I have been thinking about this myself lately.

+rep sims

[Gui]

How is it played IRL? Legacy banneds + cranial banned?

[lorddotm]

How is it played IRL? Legacy banneds + cranial banned?

For some reason, it hasn't gotten popular as a paper format.

[Koby]

For some reason, it hasn't gotten popular as a paper format.

Probably because $25 commons are self defeating (Sinkhole).

[Gui]

Probably because $25 commons are self defeating (Sinkhole).

Is this all, really? There are so many cheap playable commons... I'd like to see pauper as a paper format being encouraged by TS, my opinion is that it'd be simpler and cheaper than CYOS, which has its own subforum. Besides, it takes no effort to build some playable pauper deck IRL and start playing it... huge appeal for new players! ^^

[Pastorofmuppets]

We should have an mtgthesource pauper tourney.

[Sims]

We should have an mtgthesource pauper tourney.

Using the Classic or Legacy banned list? I'd be behind it either way, but I'd have to know if I was playing Frantic Storm, MonoG Infect, or something else entirely like Tide.

[Gui]

Using the Classic or Legacy banned list? I'd be behind it either way, but I'd have to know if I was playing Frantic Storm, MonoG Infect, or something else entirely like Tide.

I think it should be Pauper Legacy, with Legacy banned list, since there are cards available in legacy that are not available in mtgo, no?

Sims, could you list, more or less, some of the top strategies there are available? ^^

[Shawn]

We should have an mtgthesource pauper tourney.

Yes. I'd be down with something on MTGO or MWS.

[Gocho]

Wizards announced that the new MTGO will bring back Leagues, so you can start a Legacy Pauper one.
The only cards that are available in Legacy and aren't in MTGO is the Masquerade Cycle.
Mercadian Masques would be online at Q4 this year, Nemesis and Prophecy at 2012.

Anyway, some emblematic cards, like Invigorate, Gush, Vine Trelis, Daze, Snuff Out or Blastoderm, are included in the Dual Decks, so you can use them right now. So the good common cards from the set that I can remember are and not available in MTGO yet are:
Lands
Rebels
All the alternative cost set(Land Grant, Reverent Silence...)
Rift Bolt
Rhystic Study
Seals
Spore Frog
Waterfront Bouncer

[Zombie]

We're playing Pauper in Finland with Cranial Plating banned, and nothing else. Some combination of Disciple of the Vault, Atog and Frantic Search were banned previously. Works out well enough, although it hasn't really caught on in my playgroup the way Highlander has.

[LostButSeeking]

I'll tell you guys from experience that the high tide deck is RIDICULOUS. I played the deck for ten minutes and decided high tide needed to be banned in paper pauper. Otherwise a fun format.

[Sims]

I'll tell you guys from experience that the high tide deck is RIDICULOUS. I played the deck for ten minutes and decided high tide needed to be banned in paper pauper. Otherwise a fun format.

Was this using the Legacy banned list or using the classic/online banned list? I haven't seen the High Tide deck in paper in Legacy where Frantic is banned, but I know from experience the Frantic Tide (paper) and Frantic Familiar (online) storm decks are pretty ridiculous.

[Zombie]

One of my two Pauper decks is a High Tide deck with Frantic Search. And yeah, it's ridiculous. The deck is a bit more consistent than the traditional TPPS deck, and kills the turn it goes off. TPPS can explode on turns 1 and 2, but doesn't always win that turn due to winning with EtW instead of double Grapeshot.

Pauper High Tide in a nutshell:

Pros:
- Fast, consistent (reliable turn 3, lock on T4, can't go off before that)
- Lands come into play untapped, can use the mana to disrupt&develop.
- Two possible win conditions, an infinite mill combo or Grapeshot@face. Both are about 3 cards, so can switch win con via SB.
- Mill combo not reliant on Storm count, can be setup partially on earlier turns
- Both win cons kill the turn the deck goes off, unlike EtW.

Cons:
- Monocoloured, may not have all the best SB options available.
- Mnemonic Wall + Snap => Capsize@Wall + Compulsive Research wincon just dies to Faerie Macabre, period. Unless you're running five targeted draw spells, at which point you have worse problems than Macabre.
- High mana cost of spells on average. Rituals cost 2 to play in constrast with TPPS's 1.
- High Tide powers up opposing Islands if Gigadrowse isn't in the deck.
- Space constraints. High Tide and possible Gigadrowses/counterspells leave little room for raw draw and untappers.
- DIES to Hymn and to a lesser extent Duress. Dies to them so bad it's not funny. Holds true for any Pauper combo decks, pretty much.


My other deck is, as can perhaps be gleaned from above, Monoblack Control featuring Crypt Rats (http://magiccards.info/vi/en/5.html) and Hymn to Tourach. I need to scrape together a UR Cloudpost Control deck as it seems hilarious (and good. Hello Rolling Thunder!), but I'm currently more occupied by getting people to play Yomi (http://www.sirlingames.com/pages/games/yomi) than building Pauper decks.

[Nidd]

Probably because $25 commons are self defeating (Sinkhole).
That's easily solvable by using the Classic format as the format-base of choice and then basically calling it Pauper Classic.
Also, I really like Pauper Classic and I don't think anything besides maybe Frantic Search has to go... I know the format by the name Pauper Classis for ~2 years and it's called Classic online - where, in contrast to paper - it is a thriving format.

Pauper is a really awesome format with one of the weirdest powerlevels I've seen, if the DCI would support it a bit more, I'd be very happy.

[Gui]

Whichever is chosen to be the banned list, there should be only one, and be defined. Part of what is confusing about CYOS, to me, is that it's hard to discover what is banned there.

I'd say the easiest way is to make the format Legacy Pauper (so that the player can also enter legacy more easily, knowing what is legal, and besides, legacy is what is played in paper) and add the "stupid strong" cards to Legacy banlist, to create the Pauper banlist.

Basically, Legacy banned list + Cranial Plating. xD

Besides, the $25 common could be banned as well, why not... it's a strong card per se, and violates the idea of the format: playing with cards that are easy to find =P

[Sims]

I think it should be Pauper Legacy, with Legacy banned list, since there are cards available in legacy that are not available in mtgo, no?

Sims, could you list, more or less, some of the top strategies there are available? ^^

In online, last I knew, a rough draft woul be like:

Various Post decks (Green Ramp LD, Red Ramp LD and X Burn, UR with X Burn/Counters)
Black based creature control decks (Pestilence, MBC, MBC splash blue)
Mono Blue Control (spire golems, counter magic, and faeries or errant ephemerons, etc.)
Storm decks (Frantic Storm with karoos and familiars to reduce cost, tpps winning with rits/cantrips and ETW or double grapeshot)
Mono-R Goblins (straight fast aggro with burn)
Affinity even without plating
Mono G stompy/pump and Infect Pump

And there are tons of fringe viable decks that are good based on matchups.


Note- Online Tide is not legal because it wasn't printed at common, nor was merchant scroll i believe. Paper pauper using the classic banned list (meaning legal Frantic Search, Tide, merchant scroll) you can basically play spring tide with no draw backs.


If we were to organize a tournament I'd say to use the Legacy banned list + Plating as suggested above. One of the reasons I don't play as much pauper online is because I get sick of playing against frantic storm all the time. Even when I've got the deck built online AND in paper. The deck is just OP.

[Zombie]

The Legacy Banned list is an exercise in unnecessary complication. Pauper and Legacy are too wildly different as formats to even think about that. You either do Pauper banlist or Legacy banlist, not both.

The only commons banned in Legacy are Gush (TOTALLY irrelevant ban in Pauper) and Frantic Search. You'd probably just have to ban Plating anyway because it's bonkers, so the banlist is custom or the format is broken.

One note on the High Tide deck is that it can't use similar ridiculousness with Capsize and Temporal Fissure as Frantic Storm can: It's restricted to a single turn of madness, and doesn't play enough creatures to beat down. One of the winconditions is hardcountered by Faerie Macabre, forcing the deck to play Chromatic Star + Grapeshot as a kill. It is good, but I don't think it's immediately banworthy. Vintage Pauper (as the paper formats are called in pdcmagic.com) also has Hymn and Sinkhole to fight the Storm trio, and I can say from experience that Hymn Black vs. Storm (TPPS/Tide) isn't really a game, even before Duress from SB. The discard is just insanely oppressive.

[Gui]

But if Legacy banlist only got these two commons, it's rather easy... just make the Paper Pauper banlist be Frantic + Cranial + Gush and that's it.

Maybe add the expensive cards as well, since I think it's relevant for a format willing to be cheap...

So that would be Frantic + Cranial + Gush + Sinkhole ?

Is that all? Would that be a healthy format, with no degenerated combos being played all the time, and no out-of-the-curve deck pricings, so that anyone with relevant amount of commons can play?

This looks promising. =)

[Sims]

Then I would basically ban Plating and Frantic if it were up to me, I really think Frantic is just too good to be legal with Tide and Scroll also available.

Note: I have only ever played Legacy pauper and Online Classic pauper. So Hymn and Sink weren't available online when i was playing/playing against Frantic so my view might be skewed.

Edit: He meant Gush being irrelevant in the sense that it doesn't get played in pauper even though it's legal. There, currently, are no decks that want to set you back that far to draw two cards. Gush is perfectly safe in pauper.

[Gui]

Ok, Frantic and Cranial, then.

Besides, no opinion on the banning of expensive cards? Which might they be? Is Sinkhole strong in pauper? (cos in Legacy, it isn't much anymore)

[troopatroop]

Ok, Frantic and Cranial, then.

Besides, no opinion on the banning of expensive cards? Which might they be? Is Sinkhole strong in pauper? (cos in Legacy, it isn't much anymore)


Such a fallacy! Sinkhole is as strong as it ever was, fuck herd mentality!

[Sims]

Ok, Frantic and Cranial, then.

Besides, no opinion on the banning of expensive cards? Which might they be? Is Sinkhole strong in pauper? (cos in Legacy, it isn't much anymore)

Haven't really formed an opinion on it yet. LD is an interesting stratgey in Pauper because some decks it's an utter house against (Post ramp decks, combo decks) but on the flip side, most decks play like 20-24 lands and it does nothing against some of the 1-2 color decks. So it might be safe.

[Gui]

Such a fallacy! Sinkhole is as strong as it ever was, fuck herd mentality!

Not even needed in most decks running black, I wouldn't care for it to be legal in pauper if it had the same power level of sinkhole in legacy. Now if it would make any black deck better, then I'd say it should/could be banned to avoid stupid prices.

Edit: @Sims yes, I was thinking about it... there are no much ways to ruin manabases, I take it...

[Admiral_Arzar]

I think the argument for banning Sinkhole is based more on "It costs $25+ and thus defeats the very purpose of the format by existing," than on power level - although it is powerful.

Also, with black discard, things like Frantic Search are probably ok. Storm has to jump through awkward hoops with win conditions and color fixing in this format, which slows it down considerably.

[Sims]

I think the argument for banning Sinkhole is based more on "It costs $25+ and thus defeats the very purpose of the format by existing," than on power level - although it is powerful.

Also, with black discard, things like Frantic Search are probably ok. Storm has to jump through awkward hoops with win conditions and color fixing in this format, which slows it down considerably.

It'd be worth testing. As I've said, online there is no Hymn at common, so the most you've got from black discard is Duress, Distress, and if they don't start storming off maybe mind rot and it's ilk. Hymn might be enough to sway Frantic away from being dominant, but then you fall into a paradigm that if you aren't playing black with hymn, you might as well be playing frantic, because the storm deck will likely beat most other things.

[Intet's Attendant]

Pauper is a freakin awesome format. I have played it even in paper at my local gaming store.

We use a combination of pauper and legacy banned list, but I think the best list would be this:

Frantic Search - I think if we ban this, we don't need to hit high tide
Cranial Plating
Sinkhole - Price issue

Watch List:

Invigorate
Hymn to Tourach
Grapeshot?

[NecroYawgmoth]

I've read in a german forum, and as it seems there, Plating and High Tide are the 2 cards which are banned...

[Sims]

Do the german forums have any indications on how their metagame has broken down?

I'd be interested in knowing how well various decks do, if frantic has been as much of a problem for them as it's been online, etc..

Unfortunately for me most of my time online lately is between duties at work, and they have a fairly strict filter so I'm not able to get to a lot of the sites about MTG online.

[trivial_matters]

Mostly out of curiosity, could someone post (or pm me, so as not to derail the thread) the most broken Frantic Storm list they can come up with, where High Tide is legal as well?

[Sims]

I will either post or PM my list that I've had together for paper when I get home, i don't know exact numbers off hand.

[Zombie]

Mostly out of curiosity, could someone post (or pm me, so as not to derail the thread) the most broken Frantic Storm list they can come up with, where High Tide is legal as well?

http://forums.pdcmagic.com/viewtopic.php?t=2715

Whole topic discussing High Tide, with and without Frantic.

I still recommend starting with just Cranial Plating banned. High Tide has no beatdown plan, dies to black control and either introduces maindeck inefficiencies (Gigadrowse) or risks powering up opposing counterspells as well.

It is good, yes, but not immediately banworthy.

[Gui]

I still think it deserves a subforum in here, and a "official" banlist (for what it's worth, at least a consensus among most player).

Then, after these are set, it can get more support from players more easily. Even dream about becoming an official format

BTW, they call paper pauper "Vintage Pauper" in PDC magic forums, and afaik, there's no consensus banlist besides Cranial Plating. So I suggest we start with it as the "official" banlist (Cranial Plating only);
With that, it's easier to see if a card is bronken, since people will be playing with them.

Or we could do a mtgts banlist, and make a pool thread so that people voted in what should be banned... would be kinda cool too.

[Sims]

Well reading it around it seems the most commonly banned card is Plating, that's pretty much universally banned, and then various metagames either have or don't have cards like tide banned.

So following the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) logic, lets just start with banning plating as we know that will cause problems, and go from there.

We can organize either some MWS or MTGO tournaments here on the Source and the more we run, the more developed our metagame becomes.. and we can see what may or may not need to be banned from there or if our meta is balanced out.

[Zombie]

I recommend Gatherer rarities (easy to check, gets rid of Strip Mine. And unfortunately also Mishra's Factory) and a one-entry ban list of Cranial Plating. See what happens, act accordingly.

Will be posting my lists for Mono-U High Tide, Monoblack Control and UBg Teachings Control sometime in the future in case someone wants to use them. The Tide list is solid, as is the Teachings one, at least if there isn't a ton of LD in the meta. Monoblack will be a bit wonky, but still strong.

[Gui]

Well reading it around it seems the most commonly banned card is Plating, that's pretty much universally banned, and then various metagames either have or don't have cards like tide banned.

So following the KISS (keep it simple, stupid) logic, lets just start with banning plating as we know that will cause problems, and go from there.

We can organize either some MWS or MTGO tournaments here on the Source and the more we run, the more developed our metagame becomes.. and we can see what may or may not need to be banned from there or if our meta is balanced out.

Agreed with the Occam's Razor logic.

Also, fwiw, High Tide combos seems breakable by gravehate, so stockpile some. xD

[Zombie]

That depends on the version. The deck can either employ a Mnemonic Wall kill that gets completely shut down by Faerie Macabre (the deck literally draws the Macabres for the opponent by recurring Compulsive Research at him) or it can do a more traditional Storm kill in which case the deck contains a Grapeshot and a couple Chromatic Stars to wash the mana. In that case, it's a pretty traditional Storm deck and normal Grapeshot hate works. The troubling thing is the deck's ability to switch between the two win cons in boarding. It's a mindgame :P

[Zombie]

Decklists as promised.

Monoblue High Tide, no sideboard:

//Mana:
4x High Tide
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Snap
4x Frantic Search

//Draw:
4x Merchant Scroll
4x Impulse
4x Preordain
3x Ponder

4x Ideas Unbound
4x Words of Wisdom
1x Compulsive Research

2x Counterspell

//Kill:
2x Mnemonic Wall
1x Capsize

//Land:
15x Island

The Counterspells are a test slot. They slow the deck down but provide decent protection. Should really be Gigadrowse, though. Sideboard is to obviously include 2x Chromatic Star and 1x Grapeshot to dodge Faeries.

UBg Teachings Control

//Creatures:

4 Mulldrifter
2 Sentinels of Glen Elendra

/Spells:
4 Disfigure
3 Agony Warp
2 Doom Blade
1 Echoing Decay
1 Diabolic Edict

4 Prohibit
4 Counterspell
1 Rewind

4 Brainstorm
4 Mystical Teachings
2 Think Twice

1 Sprout Swarm
1 Wail of the Nim

//Lands:
3 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Evolving Wilds
10 Island
5 Swamp
1 Forest

Good old grinding control. Sprout Swarm is insane. I built this deck before Frantic Storm really took off and everyone and their mother packed 10 LD spells main. You're probably better off sticking to UB nowadays, though the single forest isn't much of a sacrifice.

[I am the brainwasher]

I am truly sorry to disappoint you but High Tide is NOT a common. Unfortunetly its uncommon. The format would have benn broken long ago and the card would have been banned directly with Plating for a good reason if it were a common.
Every deck would look like:
4 Snap
4 Cloud of Faeries
4 High Tide
4 Frantic Search
1 Capsize
X-Draw and Cantrips (which are enough there: Ponder, Preordain, Brainstorm, Accumulated Knowledge, Ideas Unbound, Impulse etc. ...)
1-2 Chromatic Star/Sphere and Grapeshot

This is way too broken because you can win easily on turn 3 and the sideboard could fix control MU's easily via Early Frost/Gigadrowse/Dispel/Spell Pierce.

High Tide isnt and wont ever be legal in Pauper even if its reprinted as common for somewhat reason in a new set; and thats just the best thing that keeps the formats health IMO.


In general:
I wish there would be a competent Pauper forum here on the source but I can understand that this isnt Legacy in general and just another Eternal format (Vintage isnt discussed here for the same reason, and thats fine IMO). Enlargen the already wide boundaries on this website seem not that smart, and I say this with myself wanting a competent forum for this badly... .
Greetings

[NecroYawgmoth]

sry, but Hightide is a common, see here:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=1872

and here:

http://magiccards.info/fe/en/35.html

It's only an uncommon in MTGO and this thread is about Paper-Pauper, not about MTGO-Pauper.

[Sims]

Indeed. The discrepency between rarities online and in paper screws me up sometimes. Can you imagine how horrible I felt when I realized after playing a bunch of MTGO Pauper, and I built my mono-G post deck in paper to play pauper with friends, that Thermokarts was Uncommon in paper?

I think i knew it all along, but got so used to seeing it online in pauper that I didn't think twice to check the rarity until someone pointed it out to me.

[I am the brainwasher]

That is correct, I apoligize if you folks got that wrong.
The reason why I mentioned it (and was aware that its a common in Fallen Empires) was that Pauper is (sadly) just a MTGO-Format, and is right now kinda unreasonable outside of it. If the format gets real life support I still see card getting banned, even if Merchant Scroll IS a Uncommon. The deck is from the power level just unreal in front of most of the decks Ive seen, tersted and heard so far, but that needs further tests to prove it completely.

Besides: I think a real life Pauper-Tournament would actually draw a lot of attention onto it. I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of players would compete, especially if there would be juicy prices. TO's allover the world, pls pay Pauper more attention (no sarcasm, really) numbers of players COULD be outrageous by such an cheap and skill-intensive format IMO.

@Necro: I wasnt aware that you are interested in the Format, maybe we could meet via MWS or in DülDo to playtest a bit, would be nice!

[Sims]

Merchant Scroll was Common in homelands, so it is common. Again, not on MODO.

I think the format could pick up some serious loving, it's much easier to manage than CYOS, and I've always got pauper decks on me if people want to play it as side games at tournaments. I'd kill for a pauper side event or for a TO to say "just for something different, lets play pauper for store credit tonight, 5 dollar buy in"... I'd be ecstatic.

A forum here the same way EDH and CYOS have forums would be legit, though it's going to take a bit of effort on our part to show the mods it's worthwhile.

[I am the brainwasher]

As far as I found infromation Merchant Scroll is an uncommon in both 8th and Homelands:
http://magiccards.info/query?q=merchANT+scr&v=card&s=cname

Might be wrong, but I was flamed in another forum for reyling on Merchant Scroll beeing a common and i had quite some discussion. In the end I got a very solid explanation for why Merchant Scroll is not a common and thats what i ended up with. Proof me wrong if that isnt correct, no ones perfect!

I think TO's could be interested, but doesnt know that there is actually an audience (and growing number of players who play that format) for Pauper. I am really looking forward to compete in a Pauper tourney and winning a full playset of each competetive Common evar printed :P. No just kidding but it would be fun to take that HUGE pile home instead of 2 Duals or something^^.
Greetings!

[Sims]

I agree, I would love to put up even like a buck or two for a tournament and walk out with piles of competitive commons for pauper or something, or foil commons for pauper would be cool as well. Who knows, maybe it'll catch on. As far as Merchant Scroll goes:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=2951

I'm hoping that link works. If you gatherer search merchant scroll then click the Homelands icon to show the Homelands version of the card, it shows it was printed as common there, and uncommon in 8th.

Gatherer is, for paper, going to be the defacto source for rarity for a format like Pauper or Peasant.

[dan who?]

Zombie,

How has that UBg Teachings Control deck been treating you? I've been looking to get back into MTGO pauper and that deck looks right up my alley. I was thinking of building a post deck but I actually have most of the cards for UBg in MTGO already and I'm always down to save a little money.

[Zombie]

Don't have MTGO, so can't comment how it'd do in the MTGO meta. It's been good for me thus far and definitely has power. It'd probably be a good notch weaker in the current meta because of the abundance of LD on sideboards. That'd royally screw your Forest. Plus the deck only runs 22 lands anyway.

The endgame can sometimes be annoying when you have a metric ton of cards stuck in your hand, and they're all answers. And Sprout, as we all know, isn't the fastest win con in the world, as insane as it is.

I'd seriously try a post deck of some description, though. They're good and have built-in lifegain against aggro. That or MBC. Need that discard to wreck Storm. Plus you can play Befoul so you have combined LD and creature kill.

[dan who?]

yeah I like the match-up post decks have I'm just not sure how I want to build the deck. I'm not sure if anyone saw this but LSV did a pauper daily vid of a post deck and went 3-1 with it.

http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/pauper-daily-event-ur-cloudpost-version-1/

Not sure I like all his choices but it seems like a good list to start from.

[Sims]

I'll have to look at the video when I get home, but I am a fan of the post decks. The LD gives you a strong matchup against the combo decks, and if built properly you have life gain and good walls or removal to slow down the aggro rush. You're still going to have trouble with fast aggro, but if they let you get to the long game you have innevitability on your side.

I am unsure how the matchup fares against control, though... I've not played any of the post variants I have against MUC or MUCFae yet.

[dan who?]

If my memory serves me correctly LSV didn't run into any MUC decks either so I'm not sure how that mach-up goes since I haven't played a post deck yet. Would you care to post any of your builds Sims?

[dontbiteitholmes]

There's a monthly pauper event in Chicago I might start going to, I've been playing a little online. Still not sure if High Tide, Sinkhole, Hymn, ect. are banned at their store but I shot them a message so I should find out soon. It's funny how those 3 cards can completely change the format. Online 95% of the winning decks are either Goblins, EtW Storm, Bounce Storm, MetalCraft/Affinity or UR 8 Post. I hate playing netdecks so I set out to make a rogue deck that could compete. Who knows how it would fare if those 3 cards are not banned. Been working on this list a while and it's slowly getting better, here's the list if anyone is interested.

Uwb Blink Control


// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
4 [LRW] Swamp (3)
3 [6E] Plains (2)
4 [TSP] Terramorphic Expanse
4 [ALA] Esper Panorama
3 [ROE] Evolving Wilds
7 [MR] Island (2)

// Creatures
4 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
3 [LRW] Dreamspoiler Witches
2 [ROE] Lone Missionary
1 [ROE] Sea Gate Oracle

// Spells
4 [9E] Mana Leak
3 [CHK] Rend Flesh
3 [MR] Wail of the Nim
3 [R] Counterspell
3 [MM] Brainstorm
3 [TSP] Momentary Blink
2 [TSP] Think Twice

// Sideboard
SB: 2 [ROE] Lone Missionary
SB: 1 [CHK] Rend Flesh
SB: 1 [MR] Wail of the Nim
SB: 4 [M11] Duress
SB: 2 [IA] Disenchant
SB: 3 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
SB: 2 [LG] Divine Offering

~Notes on unclear choices~
[B]Wail of the Nim - owns goblins and stormed tokens, lots of 1 toughness guys or in the format, kills Nightscape, and worst case scenario blanks burn vs. UR.
Rend Flesh - Should probably just be Doom Blade, I'm just paranoid about mono-B and even more so Wild Mongrel
Dreamspoiler Witches - Best control creature in the format hands down, total ownage if this guys sticks around a couple turns. Unintended synergy, he's also a Faerie which boosts SpellStutter late game.
Momentary Blink - Killer with every creature in the deck. In trouble on life? Missionary, chump block, blink = 8 point life swing + chumped attacker. Obvious synergy with Spellstutter Sprite. Mulldrifter Evoke, draw trigger on top, Blink, draw 4 keep Drifter. Even when used to dodge removal the card is hot sauce, often an easy 2, 3, or 4 for 1.
Think Twice - Drawing cards instant speed is so fun we do it twice, Think Twice over Brainstorm #4 for Dreamspoiler Synergy and TT is 2 for 1.
Okiba-Gang Shinobi - The key to winning vs. Combo and Control. Often one successful swing from this guy means gg, especially vs. Combo. So hot with SpellStutter. Oh what, counter your one drop, swing ninja then make you drop 2 next turn counter something else gg?

[Gui]

I found out there are a few stores actually running Pauper tourneys here in my country (it's a big country, don't blame me for not knowing this before).

Their ban list is Cranial Plating only. They use everything else, and aparently, hymns and such are able to hold combo decks. Besides, boarding against EtW and recuring graveyard seems enough against combos. They claim the format is really well balanced ^^

IMO this is set, then. The Paper Pauper banlist should be Cranial Plating and Cranial Plating too.

Now, what should be the next step?

[dontbiteitholmes]

I found out there are a few stores actually running Pauper tourneys here in my country (it's a big country, don't blame me for not knowing this before).

Their ban list is Cranial Plating only. They use everything else, and aparently, hymns and such are able to hold combo decks. Besides, boarding against EtW and recuring graveyard seems enough against combos. They claim the format is really well balanced ^^

IMO this is set, then. The Paper Pauper banlist should be Cranial Plating and Cranial Plating too.

Now, what should be the next step?

I looked around at events and saw several different banned cards. I found 2 events that had banned High Tide and one that banned Sinkhole and Hymn, a couple with just Plating, and about 3 others which didn't specify. Then there was one store that banned something weird, I forget exactly what it was but I remember seeing the card and being like WTF why is that banned.