This Week in Pauper April 1- April 5

Mono y Mono

    In last week's issue I mentioned that there is still a place for mono color decks in standard pauper and this week proved that point with both winners using mono color decks.  White saw diminishing value this week, mainly due to little representation from Boros, while black saw a surge in usage with several mono black decks and it's inclusion in every three color deck that placed in the top eight. Lets take a look at the tournaments from this week and the featured decks.  

MPDC 20.06

    Owain won gold with his deck Monoblue in this weeks mpdc hosted by Malum.  It's rare to see such aggressively costed, usable creatures in blue, but this deck takes advantage of that by putting out several low CMC flyers and maintaining board control with counterspells.  

    In an environment with such easy removal these creatures may not seem like a real threat, but in fact wasting removal on these little pests is exactly what this deck wants.  Once a creature is in the yard Stitched Drake is an absolute bomb at three mana

   Frostburn Weird is once again an all-star in this deck, if only because it can hold the ground while the fliers attack and is usually the last creature to be targeted with removal.  This deck's secret weapon however, is Stormbound Geist.  Forget about attacking in the air with this guy, that's merely an added bonus.  His true value is blocking in the air.  Nobody wants to spend removal on the same creature twice and no one wants to give up a flyer just to make the opponents flyer even bigger.  

    I've been tinkering with a deck very similar to this since the introduction of Cloudfin Aggro several weeks ago and my only complaint is that Delver never seems to get the kind of use he should.  There are only sixteen nonlands in this deck, not really enough to transform Delver on a consistent basis.  Sometimes I'd rather take an overcosted flyer in his place, but the temptation of transforming him on turn two is too great. 

    Moromete's runner up deck Grixis is a heavy control deck with lots of answers and a great plan.  At it's most basic level this is a Flicker deck with a little more removal.  It takes a little time to set up, which can be a big hindrance against hard aggro, but when it's able to fix it's mana with Prophetic Prism and Goblin Electromancer things get difficult for the opponent.  Hammering out undercosted Ghostly Flickers and Amass the Components to leave mana left open for Searing Spear or Negate can quickly put most decks in panic mode.  

    This deck just eats up decks filled with 2 or 3 toughness creatures but may have it's difficulties with bigger creatures, though Auger Spree goes a long way toward remedying that.  It's Achilles heel however, are counterspells.  Owain's Monoblue was able to control this match simply with well timed counterspells.  This deck simply does not perform when it can't get it's creatures on the field for use in the Flicker engine.  

    FmX9999 made top 4 with a healer deck called GW Modificado.  This style deck has been a mainstay for many weeks now because it's aggressive enough with Primal Huntbeast and Attended Knight and cards like Common Bond and Travel Preps often puts it out of reach of most removal.  Lifegain is a technique that is normally not viable, but using it as an addition to a solid plan puts this deck in the top tier.  

   The addition of Gnaw to the Bone is one that can put this deck out of range in many matchups, however its important to note that even with all the lifegain this deck is vulnerable because it carries almost no removal of its own.  Pacifism is a classic, but Prey Upon is too situational and this deck is often left watching it's opponent stack up tons of creatures while it has only a pumped up Huntbeast and a ton of life.  It's a solid deck well suited to the meta so it will always be able to place, but getting over that hump may be asking too much.  

    Jeggert22 placed in the top four with a refreshingly different version of WW he calls White.  It uses a tapdown strategy involving Azorius Arrester and Court Street Denizen to hobble its opponent.  Unfortunately the only problem with this version of WW is that it's not the standard version we've seen so much in T4.  The tapping strategy only works against heavy creature decks or creatures without hexproof.  Often this deck is stuck holding it's substandard creatures in hand simply because they can't provide their ETB effect.  

SPDC 19.21

    This weeks spdc, hosted by jamuraa, is the least attended spdc I've ever seen.  With only 11 participants it's hard to get a good read on the direction of the meta game or the validity of the winning decks.  

    That being said, Famouz had quite an impressive performance, losing only one game in his undefeated run to gold with his deck Mono Black. 

    This is a classic style black aggro deck that uses plenty and variable removal to clear the way for cheap value creatures like Vampire Interloper and Highborn Ghoul.  Hidden amongst a solid creature base with a perfect curve this deck utilizes a very undervalued creature, Duty-Bound Dead. It acts in much the same way that Stormbound Geist does.  Opponents don't like wasting removal on a zero power creature, instead focusing on the creatures it enables.  This can often be a mistake, especially if they get more than one onto the field.  

    I can't say enough good things about Undying Evil.  It doesn't belong in every deck with black or even every mono black deck, but this swipe and slaughter style deck is it's perfect home.  Being able to protect and pump creatures like Highborn Ghoul or Tormented Soul can be crushing to an opponent.  Even using it to protect a Duty-Bound Dead is often the best use for it.  

    Chrismh77 took his version of Junk to a runner up finish last week.  In my opinion this is a far superior build for the healer deck featuring Centaur Healer and Seraph of Dawn.  Sentinel Spider is a certified bomb and there's plenty of removal to back it up.  

   The sideboard of this deck is of special interest to me.  Not only does it include my favorite black card, Undying Evil, but it has an entire suite of cards specifically designed to take out the opponents air attack.  The combination of One-Eyed Scarecrow and Deadly Recluse is a crippling duet to any deck with air dependency.  

    Garlan's Boros deck was the only Boros to make top 8 in either tournament last week.  This seems to me a natural reaction to it's dominance early in the format.  Now deck's are geared toward being able to withstand a heavy air assault and gain control through card advantage while letting Boros run out of steam.  Is it possible for Boros to win another tournament?  Absolutely.  It's still one of the top deck archetypes in the format and a bad draw vs. a good draw can mean the difference between t8 and winning.  

Final Thoughts

    Not so long ago there used to be a time when you could peruse a new set of commons and automatically throw out anything CMC 4 or greater.  They just weren't worth the cost of putting into a standard pauper deck.  When making a deck in these days of yore, if it's average CMC was above 2.3 it's probable that you were making bad choices somewhere. 

    We seem to be in a new era.  An era when high cost cards have value and decks with minuscule CMC are the exception and not the rule.  This is most likely due to the prevalence of mana fixing.  We are in an unprecedented era of mana fixing.  Let me list all the cards I can find that fix or ramp mana in some way:

Borderland Ranger, Abundant Growth, Evolving Wilds, Forbidden Alchemy, Shimmering Grotto, Prophetic Prism, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Sign in Blood, Arbor Elf, Axebane Guardian, Caravan Vigil, Dawntreader Elk, Farseek, Gatecreeper Vine, Greenside Watcher, Lair Delve, Scorned Villager, Mulch, Ranger's Path, Urban Burgeoning, Verdant Haven, plus the Gates and I'm sure I'm missing a few.  

    Although most of these appear in green, there are a fair number, including some artifacts I'm sure I missed, that can be used in any color.  Whereas before you could only fix mana with green or artifacts, now there are several color choices.  A two color deck can now splash another color, sometimes even for a dual mana cost like BB, without any penalty.  

    This creates a control heavy environment where complex decks running 1 and 2 ofs appear often and are highly effective.  The inverse of this is that there is still room for ultra-aggro mono-color decks, something which may seem anomalous given such a multi-color culture.  

    In most standard pauper environments there is usually a winning archetype, either control or aggro, that will end up dominating the meta during the final 4-6 weeks of play before rotation. I feel this meta is different though.  I think both archetypes, as well as combo style decks like flicker control or possibly others we've yet to see can claim a place in the pantheon.  It's rare to see such variation in our niche format, but expect it to continue on through Dragon's Maze and the next core set at least.  With such variation I wouldn't be surprised to see a five color deck charge to the top before the next rotation.  Until next time, choose your colors wisely.