This Week in Pauper Feb 18-Feb 22

Intermission

    This week in standard pauper saw only one tournament, Thursday's SPDC 19.15. That leaves quite a hole to fill so with a nod toward tonight's Oscar awards I would like to examine what I believe were the top five common cards from Return to Ravnica.  Keep in mind these cards pertain only to the standard pauper format.  In many cases they would see little to no play in classic pauper or limited formats, but are what I consider all-star cards since their release.  For the sake of argument, no lands will be included in this list.  It could easily be argued that Selesnya Guildgate is the best overall card of the set, but I believe it's a more productive area of discussion to focus on the non-lands.  

    These cards made an immediate and lasting impact on the format and will continue to do so for the remainder of their legality in standard pauper.  These cards are not listed in any particular order and there is no definable winner.  With such a wide variety of decks being played throughout the set's release, and with such a wide set of utilities for each card it would be nearly impossible to rank them.  With that in mind, here are the nominees.  

    Centaur Healer

    From a flavor aspect I love Return to Ravnica not only because of the interplay between the guilds, but also for the return of powerful creature types, predominately centaurs.  Such a majestic, intelligent and intimidating beast has been left out of the main stable of creatures far too long and it's satisfying to see its return.  

    I give credit to the WoTC designers for not just throwing these creatures in without thought about how they should be judged in play terms. Centaur Healer was a card that became an immediate hit in W/G decks.  With it's 3/3 body it is ability to stay out of striking range of many of the format's most popular removal such as Pillar of Flame and Dead Weight, it passes the vanilla test easily in W/G decks.  

    One of the other gameplay mechanics that Return to Ravnica focused on was life gain. I think the designers have long been searching for a way to make life gain a serious consideration when deckbuilding, but until now have not been able to pull it off.  Centaur Healer's life gain is nothing to look past.  It is good enough that no opponent wants to bounce him back to your hand and unlike many life gain creatures of the past this isn't dependent upon any other condition.  It just happens when you cast it, plain and simple, no exceptions.  A 3/3 and 3 life for 3.  I'll take it.

Electrickery

   Although it appeared mainly as a sideboard card Electrickery gets into the top five because of two reasons:                 1. Red is such a staple color in the format because of Izzet decks and this card is as cheap as it gets with a huge overload bonus.  In fact, you would almost never see this played without it's overload cost.  

2. Electrickery single-handedly makes Populate a dead mechanic in standard pauper.  

    It's been a while since we've seen a common wrath-style spell(Rise of the Eldrazi if I'm not mistaken) and this card fits four of into any deck with red, even if it's just splashed.  There are always a plethora of 1 toughness creatures in standard pauper and even if it's only used without Overload I think this card will hang around in sideboards for a long time. 

Ethereal Armor

    It still remains to be seen if the Return to Ravnica block will make enchantments worthwhile, but at least for one shining moment Ethereal Armor has had it's moment in the sun. What makes this enchantment special is that even if it's the only enchantment you control it's doing at least some good.  When it's in a White Weenie deck though, you are sure to hit a Pacifism or two during the match to take this to another level.  First Strike is a potent ability and the boost in toughness is what brings this card from unplayable to possibly crushing in the right deck.  

    It was tough for me to put this in the top five because despite all its good it's still an enchantment that can be two-for-oned by the most popular and simple spells and it needs to be in just the right enchantment heavy deck to get the maximum good.  However, it has seen so much play in such successful decks that I thought it deserved a spot.  

Frostburn Weird

   For as long as Frostburn Weird has been the centerpiece of Izzet decks it would be foolish not to include in the top five.  I have to admit I didn't see it coming.  I took note of the card and it's capabilities when it was spoiled, but didn't think it would be the staple card in the staple deck.  

    In a vacuum it's not that impressive, but when put into a control deck like we've seen Izzet playing since RtR was legal, it is a behemoth.  It's major strength is its versatility.  It can sit there from round two as a 1/4, not bad.  Later, when the major threats have been removed it sizes up to make for some uncomfortable blocks and in the late game when all threats have been neutralized it is a stone-cold killer.  I've always felt that U/R is the most potent color combination and there will certainly be no shortage of cards in those colors to impress in the rest of the block.  

Goblin Electromancer

    Having played against this card many times, I no longer make the mistake of saving removal for more potent creatures.  Goblin Electromancer acts mainly as an enchantment in the early rounds, but is such a powerful enabler that when the board has been cleared by what becomes ultra cheap removal it becomes an attacking force.  

    The main ability of electromancer is to bring otherwise mana intensive cards back into the realm of castability in decks with a limited land source.  Spells like Cancel, Divination and Think Twice are now being cast a turn or two earlier than normal.  I've also seen some rarely used land destruction decks taking advantage of this guy to bring a new order of frustration to any game.  There is a reason WoTC stopped making cheap counterspells and draw cards.  Now they aren't that cheap.  If you're able to get two onto the battlefield it may as well be GG.  The only flaw I've found with this card is the fact that anything with the word Goblin cannot possibly have serious flavor text.  This is the least funny Goblin I've ever seen, I won't be smiling any time I see him across the table.  

SPDC 19.15

    For a format supposedly strong in multi-colored cards we saw three out of the top four decks this week featuring only one color.  WW is back in first place this week with petermere's WW for Fly deck.  

    This deck features all the usual suspects with the possible exception of Cloudshift to offer some protection and bring back an Attended Knight or flipped Loyal Cathar for another two uses, or possibly just get a creature out of the clutches of an opponent's Pacifism.  White has had the best assortment of pauper creatures for a long time now and unless Dragon's Maze and the next block turn that precedent on its head we will be seeing this style deck in the top 4 for a long time.  

  Obernoob took his mono-black MBA all the way to the finals on Thursday with harmonious mix of creatures and spells. One of this decks many strengths is only requiring the use of 18 lands, allowing for a few more critical removal spells that would normally be used for lands.  

    Duress and Sign in Blood are two crippling spells in this lineup, but as far as creatures are concerned Basilica Screecher does great work.  When the set was first spoiled Extort looked to a be a deck on it's own, but the truth is that it's probably best to put only one good extort creature in a deck.  The greatest advantage of Extort is that players are able to use any extra mana they may have to Extort.  With more than one Extort creature in play you will often find yourself tempted into Extorting when you should really be leaving mana up for removal or casting another creature.  It's a great mana sink, but not a great use for mana in general.  

    That being said, when you can add the benefits of Extort to a flyer with 2 toughness for 1B, that's what I call value.  

  Flucus took an unorthodox approach this week with a mono green aggro deck he calls Titanic Wolves.  The deck takes the same basic approach as the old mono green Infect decks, with plenty of evasive, value creatures stacked with instants like Giant Growth to plow through for an unexpectedly quick finish.  

    Young Wolf is value incarnate and Trusted Forcemage is a powerhouse when paired with Orchard Spirit, but I'd like to see Spire Tracer replace the Avacyn's Pilgrim for a more powerful aggro approach.  Overall, this is a potent deck that might benefit from NOT using Centaur Healer.  

    Panamimed piloted the only control deck in the top 4, an unusual change from recent events.  The Dimir Control deck featured only nine creatures, four of them being Archaeomancer.  This deck is just the right mix of draw/counter/removal to make aggro decks fizzle out by the middle rounds where Archaeomancer takes over and Bloodhunter Bat is able to get in for some damage.  

   I've been waiting to see how Psychic Strike pans out because these types of spells are a double-edged sword.  The counter aspect is always great of course, but you are either milling two cards you really needed to mill for great effect, or you are letting them dig past dead cards to the stuff they really need.  When it works it's glorious, when it doesn't you wish you had a Cancel.  The bottom line is that mill is not a competitive strategy right now and until it is this kind of card has it's drawbacks.  

    I can appreciate a great control deck like this, but I have reservations about it's potency in the current meta and how it would fare against WW or even mono green aggro.  This is a potentially powerful build however, and should see a lot of meta-dependent tuning in the coming weeks.  

    Next week should have a full slate of standard pauper action that I look forward to following and hope you do as well.  Until then, may the shuffler be with you.