So it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. Not for a lack of gaming - still playing D&D once every three weeks or so, playing board games every two weeks, painting a couple minis, and the occasional video game. But what has changed is work - I picked up a second client and that's cut into my writing time.
But I got something for you today: Magic the Gathering. Every now and then I get the itch. Well, now is one of those times. I started playing casually with a couple friends and that got me excited enough to fire up the Magic Online account.
Lo and behold, Wizards has now formally embraced the Pauper format. This is awesome. Pauper format consists of only commons. No rares, no uncommons. It's a format that really rewards deck synergy and not bomb rares and $20 multilands. It's really fun, and very, very cheap. The "official" site for Pauper Magic is http://www.pdcmagic.com/.
So today's post kicks off a fun little project for me. I like to take a tournament winning decklist and make the closest approximation out of my generally much cheaper and inferior cards. But now that Pauper is legal, I'm going to take one of the tourney winners and see what I can do with it. I don't know if it'll work with Pauper, but we'll see. Without further ado - here's "It's Just A Flesh Wound", winner of a tourney on 12/18/08:
MAINDECK
Creatures
4 Gravedigger
4 Mulldrifter
4 Oona's Gatewarden
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Warren Pilferers
Spells
4 Agony Warp
4 Terror
2 Unmake
Lands
13 Swamp
5 Island
4 Esper Panorama
4 Terramorphic Expanse
SIDEBOARD
4 Peppersmoke
4 Recumbent Bliss
3 Mournwhelk
2 Oona's Grace
2 Plains
This thing went 6-0. It's a seemingly simple control deck using card advantage, creature kill, and graveyard recursion with comes-into-play effects to slowly beat down an opponent.
Unfortunately, I am missing most of these cards. Now, the nice thing about Pauper is I could run out and get all of them for probably a buck. But that's not what I'm aiming for. Ignoring the sideboard for now, here's what I got:
CREATURES
1 Cabal Surgeon
1 Faceless Butcher
4 Gravedigger
4 Highway Robber
1 Merchant of Secrets
1 Mesmeric Fiend
2 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Ninja of Deep Hours
4 Ravenous Rats
4 Sage Owl
1 Whirlpool Rider
SPELLS
2 Agony Warp
4 Last Gasp
4 Rend Flesh
LANDS
1 Ancient Spring
4 Dimir Aqueduct
5 Island
1 Sulfer Vent
13 Swamp
2 Terramorphic Expanse
It's a much weaker deck, especially on the card drawing and recursion fronts. I try to make up for this with the Ninjitsu cards to get some creatures with comes-into-play effects back into my hand to reuse. Let's see how it does in the Casual room:
Game 1: 0 - 1
Close game though. Something of a mirror-match, the other player had a White-Blue deck with lots of comes-into-play effects and removal. However, he had the awesome card Momentary Blink to get multiple effects. I checked, I don't own it... :( I was simply outpaced in this game.
Game 2: 0 - 2
Red-black aggro. Lots of burn, fast creatures, and some discard. I got stuck with a bunch of 2 black casting cost cards and only one source of black mana. The few creatures I got out where instantly shocked away. Annihilated in 7 turns.
Game 3: 0 - 3
Green-white aggro. Cheap good creatures like Wild Nacatl, Akrasan Squire, and Knight of the Skyward Eye. I had land issues this game as well (again was wanted a second swamp), but put up a good fight with the Sage Owl/Mistblade Shinobi groove going. I had draws of Faceless Butcher, Gravedigger, 2x Sage Owls, 2x Mistblade Shinobi, Last Gasp, and Merchant of Secrets. But only got 2x Islands and 1 Swamp.
Game 4: 0 - 3 - 1
Mono blue. Nothing but draw, counterspells, and bounce. I'm sure there was a combo in there but I couldn't wait - I had brought the guy down to 12 life, but the game was soooo slow and annoying I quit. I'll call it a draw.
Game 5: 0 - 4 - 1
5-color madness deck. The game started in my favor as I beat him down to 7 while he tutored for tons of land and forced me to discard my hand. But eventually he got enough guys on the ground and enough discarded Fiery Tempers to overpower my weenies. Great card advantage clearly overpowered me, and the fact that low toughness guys can't win a long game.
Conclusions
Pauper seems to be a very competitive format. Unlike Casual Standard or Casual Extended, where there are lots of people playing decks with various degrees of efficiency and fun-ness, all the Pauper decks I encountered were well-honed machines. There's no room for tier 2 cards. This is both the appeal of Pauper and what makes it daunting.
Specifically, I think I encountered mana issues which would have been solved with Esper Panoramas and more Terramorphic Expanses. The Dimir Aqueducts were poor substitutes - often a hindrance, particularly when I played second.
I also had a tough time with all the 4-mana cards - I often felt like I had a cluttered grip. 10 4-drops is a lot. The last thing that killed me was card advantage - not having Mulldrifter or Phyrexian Rager hurt.
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