Hello everyone and welcome to my Pauper Set Review for Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths. I am TheCheshireHat. I have been involved in Magic since Unlimited, and I have been playing Paper Pauper for several years now. I have really enjoyed playing Paper Pauper, and I have found success in both modd’ing top of the line net decks and outright brewing new decks. I am extremely grateful to Pauper for giving me a reason to care about spoiler season beyond the 15 Standard / 2 Modern / Pioneer possibly playable cards.
One peculiarity of evaluating a new Standard Legal set in the context of an eternal format is that most cards aren’t going be outright playables. How could they be when competing with 25+ years of cards with varying degrees of card development oversight and raw power? No matter what new keyword you tag on, how can the staple five mana kill spell sorceries compete with Chainer's Edict or Snuff Out? It’s just not happening for most of the cards in the set. As such, I have endeavored in my evaluation to discuss the reasons the spell won’t see play rather than just saying HARD PASS!!!!
Additionally, a side effect of the development New World Order is Common Power Seep. While rares, mythic rares, and select uncommons have seen their power creep up over the last decade, the focus on simplification and balanced Limited formats has caused the power level of commons to slowly seep away. For the sake of balance, token generating creatures have gotten more expensive, kill spells have become more conditional, and mechanics have become less Eternally relevant. This Common Power Seep often results in commons devolving into lesser versions of their progenitor cards rather than evolving to possibly succeed them or seeing their past functionality being bumped up to uncommon.
As such, here is the rating tier that I used to evaluate the commons from Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths:
RATING TEIR
TIER 1 – INCLUDE IMMEDIATELY (5)
TIER 2 – TRY OUT (11)
TIER 3 – KEEP AN EYE ON (18)
TIER 4 – PROBABLY NOT PLAYABLE (45) – White (13), Blue (7), Black (7), Red (6), Green (8), Colorless (4)
REPEATS (32)
Also, fair warning I will be using the acronyms CMC for Converted mana cost, ETB for Enter the battlefield, and EOT for EOT if you need a refresher (I assume most do not).
INCLUDE IMMEDIATELY (5)
– Cloudpiercer – In a world where you want your creatures to survive Lightning Bolts / blocking flipped Delvers and equal / trade with Gurmag Anglers, a 5/4 Reacher is the correct size for a big creature. More powerful than any common Bestow card, Cloudpiercer looks well suited to pump 1/1 flying faeries in UR Flyers into turn four attacking 5/4 flyers. While the possibility of getting instantaneously 2-for-1’d with Mutate sounds unpleasant, the threat should be less in Pauper due to lesser instant speed removal options for 4 toughness creatures. The Mutate rummage is nice, but the big body on this creature is the main selling point.
– Dreamtail Heron [U4 3/4 Elemental Bird Creature with Mutate U3 and Whenever this creature mutates, draw a card.] – This is big flying body with a cantrip ETB through its Mutate cost. Turning one of your small faeries or your grounded Augur of Bolas into one of the biggest things in the sky is extremely powerful. With the Mutate cantrip, Dreamtail Heron either replaces itself in your hand or the opponent kills the mutate target which still leaves you with the 3/4 flyer. I think Mono Blue and Dimir decks will be willing to play a singleton copy of this cantrip flyer to add an additional angle of attack.
– Of One Mind [U2 Sorcery with Draw two cards & This costs 2 less to cast if you control a Human creature and a non-Human creature.] While unfortunate as a Sorcery, many decks have enough Humans in their diverse creature pools to support this spell. Blue has Delvers, Oracles, and Archaeomancers. Black has Cuombajj Witches and Thorn(s) of the Black Rose. Red has Ghitu Lavarunners and Thermo-Alchemists. White has Thraben Inspectors and Palace Sentinels. Green has Burning-Tree Emissaries and Skarrgan Pit-Skulks. Anyone with a large enough creature base and access to Blue could find a use for this easy card advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see singleton copies of this draw spell in the coming months.
– Spelleater Wolverine [R2 3/2 Wolverine creature with Spelleater Wolverine has double strike as long as there are three or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard.] Double strike is a rare occurrence in Pauper. Of the seven creatures with reliable double strike, only five drop Garrison Sergeant has 3 power. Any red deck or deck splashing red should have enough spells to activate this 3 CMC 3 power double striker. The is a powerful creature that could see some supporting play in tempo decks.
– Suffocating Fumes [B2 Instant with Cycling 2 & Creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until EOT.] One side Instant speed Shrivel with Cycling for an additional mana is absolutely Sideboard playable and possibly mainboard playable. This spell may have to share space with Echoing Decay, but it should still see play even in lower numbers.
I'm most interested in Ram Through personally. Not sure if it functions like trample or not is the big question (ie if opposing target is flickered does excess damage still go through?)
I'm most interested in Ram Through personally. Not sure if it functions like trample or not is the big question (ie if opposing target is flickered does excess damage still go through?)
A lot of people seem to be paying attention to Ram Through. I couldn't really figure out which Trample creature they were trying to pair it with until someone mentioned that the best pairing in Pauper was with Rancor. Bogles has Rancor and Armadillo Cloak to create a massive target for Ram Through. Sounds exciting !
Hello everyone and welcome to my Pauper Set Review for Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths. I am TheCheshireHat. I have been involved in Magic since Unlimited, and I have been playing Paper Pauper for several years now. I have really enjoyed playing Paper Pauper, and I have found success in both modd’ing top of the line net decks and outright brewing new decks. I am extremely grateful to Pauper for giving me a reason to care about spoiler season beyond the 15 Standard / 2 Modern / Pioneer possibly playable cards.
One peculiarity of evaluating a new Standard Legal set in the context of an eternal format is that most cards aren’t going be outright playables. How could they be when competing with 25+ years of cards with varying degrees of card development oversight and raw power? No matter what new keyword you tag on, how can the staple five mana kill spell sorceries compete with Chainer's Edict or Snuff Out? It’s just not happening for most of the cards in the set. As such, I have endeavored in my evaluation to discuss the reasons the spell won’t see play rather than just saying HARD PASS!!!!
Additionally, a side effect of the development New World Order is Common Power Seep. While rares, mythic rares, and select uncommons have seen their power creep up over the last decade, the focus on simplification and balanced Limited formats has caused the power level of commons to slowly seep away. For the sake of balance, token generating creatures have gotten more expensive, kill spells have become more conditional, and mechanics have become less Eternally relevant. This Common Power Seep often results in commons devolving into lesser versions of their progenitor cards rather than evolving to possibly succeed them or seeing their past functionality being bumped up to uncommon.
As such, here is the rating tier that I used to evaluate the commons from Ikoria, Lair of Behemoths:
RATING TEIR
TIER 1 – INCLUDE IMMEDIATELY (5)
TIER 2 – TRY OUT (11)
TIER 3 – KEEP AN EYE ON (18)
TIER 4 – PROBABLY NOT PLAYABLE (45) – White (13), Blue (7), Black (7), Red (6), Green (8), Colorless (4)
REPEATS (32)
Also, fair warning I will be using the acronyms CMC for Converted mana cost, ETB for Enter the battlefield, and EOT for EOT if you need a refresher (I assume most do not).
INCLUDE IMMEDIATELY (5)
– Cloudpiercer – In a world where you want your creatures to survive Lightning Bolts / blocking flipped Delvers and equal / trade with Gurmag Anglers, a 5/4 Reacher is the correct size for a big creature. More powerful than any common Bestow card, Cloudpiercer looks well suited to pump 1/1 flying faeries in UR Flyers into turn four attacking 5/4 flyers. While the possibility of getting instantaneously 2-for-1’d with Mutate sounds unpleasant, the threat should be less in Pauper due to lesser instant speed removal options for 4 toughness creatures. The Mutate rummage is nice, but the big body on this creature is the main selling point.
– Dreamtail Heron [U4 3/4 Elemental Bird Creature with Mutate U3 and Whenever this creature mutates, draw a card.] – This is big flying body with a cantrip ETB through its Mutate cost. Turning one of your small faeries or your grounded Augur of Bolas into one of the biggest things in the sky is extremely powerful. With the Mutate cantrip, Dreamtail Heron either replaces itself in your hand or the opponent kills the mutate target which still leaves you with the 3/4 flyer. I think Mono Blue and Dimir decks will be willing to play a singleton copy of this cantrip flyer to add an additional angle of attack.
– Of One Mind [U2 Sorcery with Draw two cards & This costs 2 less to cast if you control a Human creature and a non-Human creature.] While unfortunate as a Sorcery, many decks have enough Humans in their diverse creature pools to support this spell. Blue has Delvers, Oracles, and Archaeomancers. Black has Cuombajj Witches and Thorn(s) of the Black Rose. Red has Ghitu Lavarunners and Thermo-Alchemists. White has Thraben Inspectors and Palace Sentinels. Green has Burning-Tree Emissaries and Skarrgan Pit-Skulks. Anyone with a large enough creature base and access to Blue could find a use for this easy card advantage. I wouldn’t be surprised to see singleton copies of this draw spell in the coming months.
– Spelleater Wolverine [R2 3/2 Wolverine creature with Spelleater Wolverine has double strike as long as there are three or more instant and/or sorcery cards in your graveyard.] Double strike is a rare occurrence in Pauper. Of the seven creatures with reliable double strike, only five drop Garrison Sergeant has 3 power. Any red deck or deck splashing red should have enough spells to activate this 3 CMC 3 power double striker. The is a powerful creature that could see some supporting play in tempo decks.
– Suffocating Fumes [B2 Instant with Cycling 2 & Creatures your opponents control get -1/-1 until EOT.] One side Instant speed Shrivel with Cycling for an additional mana is absolutely Sideboard playable and possibly mainboard playable. This spell may have to share space with Echoing Decay, but it should still see play even in lower numbers.
Please feel free to review the rest of the Ikoria Pauper Set Review at http://www.sidewalkmages.com/2020/04/12/ikoria-pauper-review/
A lot of people seem to be paying attention to Ram Through. I couldn't really figure out which Trample creature they were trying to pair it with until someone mentioned that the best pairing in Pauper was with Rancor. Bogles has Rancor and Armadillo Cloak to create a massive target for Ram Through. Sounds exciting !