Pauper is back, baby! The format that combines high fun factor with low price is catching up and more players are enjoying it now more than ever. But every time we talk about a constructed format, we can’t help but ask ourselves - what decks are the best?
The recent Friday Night Magic At Home event in Magic: The Gathering Arena drew a lot of new eyes to Pauper, being both an excellent proving ground for beginners and fun playground for veterans. With a format that provides so much deck-building possibility, completely disregards the Standard metagame, and literally costs pennies to play, there’s no reason not to be excited about it. So let’s discuss it!
But first… what is Pauper?
The answer is simple - this is an eternal constructed format where all standard deck-building rules apply (60 cards minimum, no more than four copies of anything except basic lands) with one major exception - only Common cards are allowed.
This is really great for a multitude of reasons. First, there are more Common cards than any other rarity (duh), providing a solid pool to pick from. Second, most Standard staples and important combo pieces, your Planeswalkers and Companions and whatnot, all come at Uncommon, Rare or Mythic rare. That means that a competitive Pauper deck looks nothing like a competitive Standard deck, no matter how budget-minded it is. Third, the Commons are cheap! Chances are you already own the vast majority if not all the cards you need to build multiple Pauper decks from your collection. Let’s find out! Listed below are a bunch of good MTGA Pauper decks that made appearances in the latest FNM event and performed well. Hopefully at least a few of them will catch your eye!
Izzet Cycling
Let’s kick things off in proper Ikoria fashion with a blue-red deck that has now Drakes in it! Crazy, right?
4x Drannith Stinger 4x Goblin Electromancer 4x Prickly Marmoset 4x Spelleater Wolverine 3x Spellgorger Weird 4x Go for Blood 4x Skewer the Critics 4x Frostveil Ambush 3x Keep Safe 1x Shock4x Startling Development 2x Fire Prophecy
9x Island8x Mountain2x Swiftwater Cliffs
Mono Red Aggro
But why cook a blue-red fancy-schmancy brew, when you can ditch the blue entirely and build a classic Red Deck Wins and… you know, win? Piloting this deck is easy - tap your creatures and watch your opponent lose.
4x Burning Prophet 4x Grim Initiate4x Rimrock Knight 4x Scorch Spitter4x Spellgorger Weird 2x Underworld Rage-Hound 4x Skewer the Critics 2x Heartfire 4x Infuriate4x Jaya's Greeting 4x Shock
20x Mountain
Azorius Fliers
If you’ve read previous deck techs here on EarlyGame, you know we can’t skip an Azorius deck. If it works for current reigning World Champion Paulo Vitor Damo “PVDDR” da Rosa, it works for us!
4x Aven Eternal 4x Chillbringer 4x Cloudkin Seer 4x Faerie Miscreant4x Healer's Hawk2x Metropolis Sprite 4x Gust of Wind 2x Silverflame Ritual 4x Winged Words 4x Pacifism
13x Island8x Plains3x Tranquil Cove
Gruul Aggro - Pauper
And while we’re on Ravnica, let’s pop to the wilds outside and gather the clans. Gruul smash! Savage Smash!
4x Fierce Witchstalker 4x Frenzied Arynx 4x Ilysian Caryatid 4x Kronch Wrangler 3x Lava Serpent 4x Loathsome Chimera 4x Silverback Shaman 2x Stampede Rider 3x Savage Smash 1x Raking Claws 4x Ram Through
11x Forest8x Mountain4x Rugged Highlands
Dimir Control
Done with the Burning Tree? How about a more… an elegant approach to victory? Clawing the face off of your foes is certainly one way to achieve victory if you’re an uncultured savage. But the Dimir has other ways, and the sweetest thing is - they are just as deadly!
3x Bake into a Pie 1x Murder 4x Ob Nixilis's Cruelty 2x Pharika's Libation 4x Thirst for Meaning 3x Suffocating Fumes 3x Essence Scatter 2x Devious Cover-Up 2x Dead Weight4x Ill-Gotten Inheritance 3x Mire's Grasp 4x Omen of the Sea 4x Dimir Guildgate4x Dismal Backwater
8x Island9x Swamp
White Auras
And let’s end up on a positive note. As positive as it gets - the classic goody-two-shoes Magic archetype of Whie Auras! As the old saying goes, “Attack with a creature and it will live for a turn. Enchant it, and it will still live for a turn, but also give you a Constellation trigger.” Or something like that.
4x Daybreak Chimera 4x Healer's Hawk2x Hero of the Pride 4x Law-Rune Enforcer4x Pious Wayfarer4x Transcendent Envoy 2x Heliod's Pilgrim 4x Karametra's Blessing4x Knight's Pledge 4x Pacifism 4x Sentinel's Eyes
20x Plains
Just look at these decks! They are an absolute joy to build and play and they cost next to nothing. Take a moment to marvel at those land bases. 20 Plains? These are literally free. No other format is so affordable, while at the same time so cheap. It is great that it’s surpassed its humble Magic: The Gathering Online origins and entered the worlds of paper and now MTGA in full swing.
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