Peregrine Drake has been downgraded, which means that the dreaded Esper Familiars combo is back. Only that Drake doesn't need the familiars or the bouncelands, and can even be monocolor if you wish, which is a huge boon for the deck. Not needing a slow manabase and the Familiar creatures to operate means we save a lot of spots for actual good cards like Counterspell or Lightning Bolt, which means we can pretty much operate as a classic draw-go Control deck with the combo as the finisher. Having a lot of good instant and sorcery cards as control tools means the value of Mnemonic Wall as an individual card improves a lot, as it can blank a 3/X or less ground attacker while rebuying us a spell, acting as a Snapcaster Mage of sorts. This improves a lot the matchups the previous iteration of the deck had. Here are some decklists:
The deck can also use a little Red or Black splash, since we sacrifice little for a lot of options: in Red we have Burn spells like Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast to act as removal while also being a plan B for a Burn win, and a good on it's own finisher in Rolling Thunder, which can act as a board wipe or as a way to finish the game itself. In Black, we have actual removal like Chainer's Edict or Disfigure, and two finishers in Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Consume Spirit. For the moment, I'm more inclined towards the Izzet build due to it's natural resilience and better removal, having an additional angle of attack simply combining Drake and Mulldrifter beats + Burn spells to finish off an opponent packing only Graveyard hate and unprepared for the Burn axis of the deck. Here's a sample decklist:
This version is super crammed. It copies the Teachings lifegain engine of gainlands + bouncelands + Talisman + Deprive. I would like to make some changes to this one, like including +1 Talisman, 1-2 Exclude, and 1-2 Serrated Arrows, which are great and synergistic. They can lower an Angler to 4/4 so we can Blast it, or shot a 4/4 down to 3/3 so it gets chumped forever by the Wall. They can also be blinked with Flicker to reset the counters for value when it gets to 0, and turn Blast and Epiphany on more often.
I really think this deck has potential to be the best of the format. After all, Familiars was the best deck before it, and had to devote a lot of spots that could be used to give the deck a more controlling angle into creatures that reduced the actual spells cost.
I know it would slow down the deck some but would you consider bouncelands in the Mono-U version? Maybe just a few to accelerate the Drake mana more quickly or is that even really necessary? I was thinking about a U/W build with Momentary Blink in it to have some pseudo counters for removal as well as accelerating mana/getting back spells/drawing four with mulldrifter/ etc.
It is more all-in on the combo than those in the OP, but it is still quite similar. I am generally quite happy with the list, though I am considering cutting a wall and a cantrip for 2 Mulldrifters.
Getting more mana (at least +2 per cycle) is crucial because this way you can untap and have at least nine mana to Archaeomancer immediately for Ghostly Flicker and win on the spot
Can't you do this already?
1) You have 5 mana, you play Peregrine Drake. You untap and have 5 mana again.
2) You play Ghostly Flicker targeting Drake and a basic land. (If the land flickers first, do you have time to tap it again before Drake flickers?). You now have 7-8 mana.
3) You play a recursion dude getting back flicker, you now have 3 mana left to recast Flicker.
I can't see why this deck wouldn't win on turn 5, as long as it gets its components in hand by then. No extra special mana base needed. Green enchant land acceleration can speed it up though. So can High Tide.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
I took your advice into account and swapped Mulldrifter for Sea Gate Oracle and Mnemonic Wall for Archaeomancer and things went definitely better for me. Oracle is a pretty good roadblock that I don't mind tapping out for in turn 3, and does more or less the same job than Preordain but coming with a body. Archaeomancer is pretty huge when I cast it for pure value, having 6 mana open and casting it bringing back a Counterspell, or with 5 and bringing Galvanic Blast or a Pyroblast in games 2 and 3 is insane and can pretty much mean the difference between winning or losing. I've been able to come back from a lost match by simply going T6 Archaeomancer retrieving a counter, using the counter to hold the fort until next turn, then dropping Drake and winning out of nowhere. It's more or less like a Pauper Snapcaster Mage. That said, I've been running this list with pretty good success:
Running Darksteel Citadel instead of Radiant Fountain hurts a bit, but Galvanic Blast is very well worth it since I already have Swiftwater Cliffs to go the infinite route. The card can flat out destroy every pauper creature except Gurmag Angler, Fangren Marauder, Guardian of the Guildpact and the Hexproof dudes, and represents 1/5 of damage to the face for 1 mere mana, which helps us combating super aggro decks and maintaining the tempo we lose from gainlands and bouncelands. Early game when Metalcraft is not operative it can still take down a lot of pests like Stompy creatures, Elves, Goblins, and even flipped Delvers. Combined with Lightning Bolt, we have 8 1CMC removal for the majority of the field that doubles as a Burn plan B combined with Drake beats and a huge Rolling Thunder. When we pair this with lifegain and counters, we can simply play a classic counterburn tempo-control game by countering the opponent's threats while burning his face and hitting with the Drake (I've won against burn twice this way), which greatly increases the resilience and versatility of the deck.
Artificer's Epiphany are there as an instant card draw spell for when I don't have anything to counter or burn, and I'd like to go up to three. Seven hard counterspells and turning Deprive's downside into an upside by bouncing gainlands plus Exclude usually put us very far ahead against grindy decks like MBC. Epiphanies cold also be Thoughtcast but for the time being, I've preferred Epiphany's overall consistency with the CMC (which is conveniently the same as Ghostly Flicker) and instant speed.
Alongside the 3rd Epiphany, I'm looking to make room for 2-3 copies of Prophetic Prism, which I can flicker alongside Archaeomancer for value, and which can help with Galvanic Blast so I could trim 1-2 Citadels for Radiant Fountain.
Overall, the deck is a beating: it's a stone-rock solid control deck that plays the classic counterburn game, trading 1 for 1 as aggressively as possible and getting ahead on cards while you assemble the combo, then win out of nowhere with a combo finish or beating down with a free 2/3 flyer + burn.
I really like this deck, but what about this Galvanic Blast business? In the entire history of various incarnations of Izzet control on-line, I have never seen someone relying on an artifact mana base to support Galvanic Blast over, say, Flame Slash. Is it really worth this risk and opportunity cost of not running more resilient/useful lands? If so, why isn't it standard in Izzet control?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe! "At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted." [Click here for the articles!]
After doing some more testing with drake, I'm now on a less all-in version, with more control elements. I agree with YavimayaWurm that it feels a bit like Splinter Twin
At the moment I don't really like the Snaps, and I am looking to replace them with counters of some kind, though I'm having trouble deciding which. Alternative I might go up to 3 Flame Slash MD, along with a counter. In the sideboard I'm probable going to switch the 2nd Dispel for a Negate or Mana Leak. I'm running 2 Kaervek's Torch since it is one of the few ways we have to permanently deal with creatures that have 5 or more toughness. I'm going with Torch over Rolling Thunder since it only requires R compared to RR of Thunder, along with being harder to counter outweighs the ability to split the damage from Thunder.
While I haven't played against it yet, I suspect that Boggles will be a very bad matchup, and I'm looking tips and tech against it
@YavimayaWurm: Thanks for the advice, I'll try out curfew. Looks like I was pretty tired when typed in the decklist, not only did I forget the flickers, but I also forgot electrickery in the board :S
I had forgotten that Burst Lightning exists. If the Artifact plan doesn't work (I've tested vs Gorilla Shaman and it's very manageable), maybe swapping the blasts and something else for 3 Burst, 2 Slash is the way to go.
I've cut the epiphanies since Flickering any combination of Oracle, Prism and Archaeomancer sort of counts as an instant Draw 2. The deck sits at 62 cards so 2 have to go. I was thinking in 1 Prism and something else.
The deck is starting to perform much, much better. You want lots of 1 CMC removal and a moderate number of 2 CMC counterspells. Cards that accumulate value over time like Archaeomancer, Exclude, Sea Gate Oracle and Think Twice are the second part of the plan. You counter and burn their things, slowly accrue card advantage playing these cards over time, and then combo off. The deck also commands absolute respect on turn 5 onwards by forcing the opponent to keep counter or instant speed removal mana open at all times, because if they so much as tap out, I can drop Drake, untap, play Flicker and bounce Drake and a land to make +3 mana, drop Archaeomancer recovering flicker, and win on the spot. I've lost very few of the games I've played with this list, and those that I did were only to other Drake lists. To my surprise, the Mystical Teachings version of the deck (a normal Teachings list which incorporates the combo finisher) is way slower than us, which we can turn to our advantage by trying to combo out as fast as possible or simply by trying to burn them out.
This is probably the Control deck I'm going to play competitively this season. I don't see any reasons about why should I play other Control decks like MBC or Kuldotha when I can simply play Izzet Drake or Teachings Drake and have an insane win percentage. The lifegain and the plethora of 1 CMC removal and Counters make aggro matchups a cake walk, and the combo finish pressure traditional control decks like MBC or Kuldotha to win fast or die trying. Tron is the only matchup that can give trouble because we don't have any answers to Fangren Marauder or Ulamog's Crusher, but then again we have Capsize, Rolling Thunder and Counterspells as answers against them, and we could always overload on Harvest Pyres if we expect a lot of Tron.
There has been a few UR Peregrine Control lists on the last days, a few Mono Blue pure combo (Tron or Tronless), and Dimir but without Teachings which makes me believe Teachings isn't the optimal control shell for Drake (unless I've somehow missed it). Teachings is still playing it's own game, and Murasa Tron has adopted the Drake woute as well. As I predicted, the Familiars were dumped, and quite fast at that, with only the first day deck being a straight up Familiars build.
First week's numbers leaves us with either Izzet Control (Pauper Twin) at third position with 8'33 % and Murasa Tron at first position at 11'67 % as the more consistent Peregrine deck choices, with Mono Blue falling far behind at 3'33 %.
Since this is the Peregrine Control thread, I would suggest focusing on Izzet Drake as the deck of choice, as it's the proven best Control shell that fits Drake, while Murasa Tron can get it's own thread (or be discussed in the Tron Primer). As soon as the weeks pass, EMN arrives and lists get polished and their core defined, I'll update this thread into a full official Primer for the deck.
Let's discuss the core for now. Every deck seems to be playing this skeleton:
I think we can now build up from this core. The landbase can include utility lands like the Cycle lands Forgotten Cave and Lonely Sandbar which would replace Mountains and Islands respectively, never going below 8 mono Blue sources and 5 mono Red sources it seems. A list cut two Blue sources down to 6 to include a pair of Radiant Fountain, probably to fight Aggro decks. It's interesting to note that no deck surpasses 21 lands, with one of them even going down to 20 (the Radiant Fountain one).
About the Wall / Mancer spot, I prefer Mancer due to it costing 1 less, which allows me to cast him for value at 5-6 mana in order to recover a kill spell or a counterspell, as oppossed to Wall where I would need to wait at 6-7, which might prove a daunting task in a 20-21 land deck. I would also include a third Mancer just in case, as it's nice to have redundancy in case one gets killed and them being cast for value is a pretty nice option.
In the Counterspell vs Memory Lapse department I think we all can agree about Counterspell being miles better, specially in a Control deck. Perhaps Lapse was included because people got a hold of them in EMA or because their possibility to be cast out of a single Izzet Boilerworks. Anyways, I think going up to 4 will pretty much be the standard route in the days to come, maybe with Dispel and/or Memory Lapse going side to side with it. I would also run 1-2 Exclude as it's Pauper's Cryptic Command, and nullifies a threat that has a strong ETB (Drake, Drifter or Gray Merchant of Asphodel) or one that our deck is poorly equipped to deal with (Gurmag Angler, Fangren Marauder or Ulamog's Crusher) while drawing a card and advancing our gameplan.
Lightning Bolt and Flame Slash seem the standard removal suite, although there are decks that run fewer than 4 Bolts, which is something I wouldn't do. Bolt is a 1 CMC piece of interaction against Peregrine Drake, doubles as burn reach, and you either run 4 or none, as it gets better in multiples. After these, decks opt for Firebolt because of it's ability to 2-for-1 critters, although I think I'm leaning more on Burst Lighting since it does the same at face value (and at instant speed) and it deals the full 4 dmg for 1 CMC cheaper than Firebolt at the cost of not doing a 2-for-1. These one are more of flex slots, and we'll need to test if it's better to take out X/4's and have a better game against Delver thanks to Instant speed answers, or simply 2-for-1'ing people.
About the card draw, all list included 4 copies of Compulsive Research except one that eschewed a copy in favor of a singleton Rolling Thunder, which I think is better. Thunder can be a kill spell like Research's 4th copy, but it can also be a wrath in an emergency, and seeing all those Elves, Stompy and Goblins decks these days has made me wary about it. Also, while Research can kill opponents, it's worth noting that it's sorcery speed card draw, and if we want to take a more reactive approach to the meta, we should run just 1 as a kill spell that draws cards if drawn early (then it can be picked up by one of our critters before the kill) and run Think Twices instead of the rest. Kaervek's Torch isn't needed IMO since we already run counterspells and we can always pick up the Thunder if it gets countered by simply starting the loop anew and picking it up when we have infinite mana.
Here's a list I would run with the following changes I've said:
So, this being a paper forum, can I make a slight derail (rerail?) for environments not constrained by the online ban list? I imagine that Drake removes all need for Cloud of Faeries. Would you run a non-zero number of Cloud of Faeries in such builds if you could? Can 8post still work, or does the power of Drake remove the need, along with colorless land imposing too many restrictions on our spells (e.g. largely preventing the use of vanilla Counterspell)?
I think 8-post doesn't need drake at all since it does pretty much the same by itself. I would run 2-3 Drakes if I have the space, but definitely not the full package.
In conventional lists I would run just 1-2 Clouds as it doesn't combo by itself.
Peregrine Drake has been downgraded, which means that the dreaded Esper Familiars combo is back. Only that Drake doesn't need the familiars or the bouncelands, and can even be monocolor if you wish, which is a huge boon for the deck. Not needing a slow manabase and the Familiar creatures to operate means we save a lot of spots for actual good cards like Counterspell or Lightning Bolt, which means we can pretty much operate as a classic draw-go Control deck with the combo as the finisher. Having a lot of good instant and sorcery cards as control tools means the value of Mnemonic Wall as an individual card improves a lot, as it can blank a 3/X or less ground attacker while rebuying us a spell, acting as a Snapcaster Mage of sorts. This improves a lot the matchups the previous iteration of the deck had. Here are some decklists:
4 Peregrine Drake
4 Mulldrifter
3 Mnemonic Wall
2 Sage's Row Denizen
2 Serrated Arrows
Sorcery (4)
4 Ponder
Instant (20)
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Counterspell
4 Snap
3 Deprive
3 Ghostly Flicker
2 Exclude
3 Quicksand
18 Island
The deck can also use a little Red or Black splash, since we sacrifice little for a lot of options: in Red we have Burn spells like Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast to act as removal while also being a plan B for a Burn win, and a good on it's own finisher in Rolling Thunder, which can act as a board wipe or as a way to finish the game itself. In Black, we have actual removal like Chainer's Edict or Disfigure, and two finishers in Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Consume Spirit. For the moment, I'm more inclined towards the Izzet build due to it's natural resilience and better removal, having an additional angle of attack simply combining Drake and Mulldrifter beats + Burn spells to finish off an opponent packing only Graveyard hate and unprepared for the Burn axis of the deck. Here's a sample decklist:
4 Mnemonic Wall
4 Mulldrifter
4 Peregrine Drake
Artifact (2)
2 Pristine Talisman
Instant (20)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Counterspell
3 Ghostly Flicker
3 Artificer's Epiphany
2 Deprive
4 Ponder
1 Rolling Thunder
Land (21)
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
3 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Radiant Fountain
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
3 Island
1 Mountain
This version is super crammed. It copies the Teachings lifegain engine of gainlands + bouncelands + Talisman + Deprive. I would like to make some changes to this one, like including +1 Talisman, 1-2 Exclude, and 1-2 Serrated Arrows, which are great and synergistic. They can lower an Angler to 4/4 so we can Blast it, or shot a 4/4 down to 3/3 so it gets chumped forever by the Wall. They can also be blinked with Flicker to reset the counters for value when it gets to 0, and turn Blast and Epiphany on more often.
I really think this deck has potential to be the best of the format. After all, Familiars was the best deck before it, and had to devote a lot of spots that could be used to give the deck a more controlling angle into creatures that reduced the actual spells cost.
All help is appreciated.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
4x Sea Gate Oracle
4x Mnemonic Wall
3x Peregrine Drake
Instants(11):
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Counterspell
3x Ghostly Flicker
Sorceries(18):
2x Flame Slash
4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Compulsive Research
4x Kaervek's Torch
6x Island
2x Mountain
4x Evolving Wilds
4x Izzet Boilerworks
4x Swiftwater Cliffs
3x Gorilla Shaman
2x Dispel
2x Hydroblast
2x Mana Leak
3x Pyroblast
1x Flame Slash
2x Scouring Sands
It is more all-in on the combo than those in the OP, but it is still quite similar. I am generally quite happy with the list, though I am considering cutting a wall and a cantrip for 2 Mulldrifters.
Can't you do this already?
1) You have 5 mana, you play Peregrine Drake. You untap and have 5 mana again.
2) You play Ghostly Flicker targeting Drake and a basic land. (If the land flickers first, do you have time to tap it again before Drake flickers?). You now have 7-8 mana.
3) You play a recursion dude getting back flicker, you now have 3 mana left to recast Flicker.
I can't see why this deck wouldn't win on turn 5, as long as it gets its components in hand by then. No extra special mana base needed. Green enchant land acceleration can speed it up though. So can High Tide.
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
I took your advice into account and swapped Mulldrifter for Sea Gate Oracle and Mnemonic Wall for Archaeomancer and things went definitely better for me. Oracle is a pretty good roadblock that I don't mind tapping out for in turn 3, and does more or less the same job than Preordain but coming with a body. Archaeomancer is pretty huge when I cast it for pure value, having 6 mana open and casting it bringing back a Counterspell, or with 5 and bringing Galvanic Blast or a Pyroblast in games 2 and 3 is insane and can pretty much mean the difference between winning or losing. I've been able to come back from a lost match by simply going T6 Archaeomancer retrieving a counter, using the counter to hold the fort until next turn, then dropping Drake and winning out of nowhere. It's more or less like a Pauper Snapcaster Mage. That said, I've been running this list with pretty good success:
4 Peregrine Drake
4 Sea Gate Oracle
3 Archaeomancer
Sorcery (5)
4 Ponder
1 Rolling Thunder
Instant (22)
4 Counterspell
3 Deprive
2 Exclude
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Ghostly Flicker
2 Artificer's Epiphany
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
3 Darksteel Citadel
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
3 Izzet Boilerworks
3 Island
1 Mountain
4 Pyroblast
4 Spreading Seas
3 Gorilla Shaman
2 Electrickery
2 Dispel
Running Darksteel Citadel instead of Radiant Fountain hurts a bit, but Galvanic Blast is very well worth it since I already have Swiftwater Cliffs to go the infinite route. The card can flat out destroy every pauper creature except Gurmag Angler, Fangren Marauder, Guardian of the Guildpact and the Hexproof dudes, and represents 1/5 of damage to the face for 1 mere mana, which helps us combating super aggro decks and maintaining the tempo we lose from gainlands and bouncelands. Early game when Metalcraft is not operative it can still take down a lot of pests like Stompy creatures, Elves, Goblins, and even flipped Delvers. Combined with Lightning Bolt, we have 8 1CMC removal for the majority of the field that doubles as a Burn plan B combined with Drake beats and a huge Rolling Thunder. When we pair this with lifegain and counters, we can simply play a classic counterburn tempo-control game by countering the opponent's threats while burning his face and hitting with the Drake (I've won against burn twice this way), which greatly increases the resilience and versatility of the deck.
Artificer's Epiphany are there as an instant card draw spell for when I don't have anything to counter or burn, and I'd like to go up to three. Seven hard counterspells and turning Deprive's downside into an upside by bouncing gainlands plus Exclude usually put us very far ahead against grindy decks like MBC. Epiphanies cold also be Thoughtcast but for the time being, I've preferred Epiphany's overall consistency with the CMC (which is conveniently the same as Ghostly Flicker) and instant speed.
Alongside the 3rd Epiphany, I'm looking to make room for 2-3 copies of Prophetic Prism, which I can flicker alongside Archaeomancer for value, and which can help with Galvanic Blast so I could trim 1-2 Citadels for Radiant Fountain.
Overall, the deck is a beating: it's a stone-rock solid control deck that plays the classic counterburn game, trading 1 for 1 as aggressively as possible and getting ahead on cards while you assemble the combo, then win out of nowhere with a combo finish or beating down with a free 2/3 flyer + burn.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
A series of seven articles using Magic to explore the very stuff of the Universe!
"At least for those who can play cards, their present incarnation is not quite wasted."
[Click here for the articles!]
4x Sea Gate Oracle
3x Mnemonic Wall
4x Mulldrifter
4x Peregrine Drake
Instants(19):
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Accumulated Knowledge
4x Counterspell
2x Snap
2x Twin Bolt
3x Ghostly Flicker
2x Flame Slash
2x Kaervek's Torch
Lands(22):
9x Island
5x Mountain
4x Izzet Boilerworks
4x Swiftwater Cliffs
2x Gorilla Shaman
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Dispel
2x Hydroblast
3x Pyroblast
1x Exclude
1x Flame Slash
At the moment I don't really like the Snaps, and I am looking to replace them with counters of some kind, though I'm having trouble deciding which. Alternative I might go up to 3 Flame Slash MD, along with a counter. In the sideboard I'm probable going to switch the 2nd Dispel for a Negate or Mana Leak. I'm running 2 Kaervek's Torch since it is one of the few ways we have to permanently deal with creatures that have 5 or more toughness. I'm going with Torch over Rolling Thunder since it only requires R compared to RR of Thunder, along with being harder to counter outweighs the ability to split the damage from Thunder.
While I haven't played against it yet, I suspect that Boggles will be a very bad matchup, and I'm looking tips and tech against it
Here's the list I'm on right now:
3 Peregrine Drake
4 Archaeomancer
4 Sea Gate Oracle
Artifact (4)
4 Prophetic Prism
Instant (19)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Counterspell
3 Deprive
2 Exclude
2 Ghostly Flicker
4 Preordain
1 Rolling Thunder
Land (22)
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
3 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Radiant Fountain
1 Darksteel Citadel
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Great Furnace
4 Island
I've cut the epiphanies since Flickering any combination of Oracle, Prism and Archaeomancer sort of counts as an instant Draw 2. The deck sits at 62 cards so 2 have to go. I was thinking in 1 Prism and something else.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
For references, here's the list I'm running:
4 Archaeomancer
4 Sea Gate Oracle
3 Peregrine Drake
Instant (20)
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Burst Lightning
4 Counterspell
2 Deprive
1 Exclude
3 Think Twice
2 Ghostly Flicker
1 Capsize
4 Preordain
2 Flame Slash
1 Rolling Thunder
Land (22)
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
3 Izzet Boilerworks
2 Radiant Fountain
8 Island
5 Mountain
4 Spreading Seas
4 Pyroblast
3 Dispel
2 Electrickery
2 Gorilla Shaman
This is probably the Control deck I'm going to play competitively this season. I don't see any reasons about why should I play other Control decks like MBC or Kuldotha when I can simply play Izzet Drake or Teachings Drake and have an insane win percentage. The lifegain and the plethora of 1 CMC removal and Counters make aggro matchups a cake walk, and the combo finish pressure traditional control decks like MBC or Kuldotha to win fast or die trying. Tron is the only matchup that can give trouble because we don't have any answers to Fangren Marauder or Ulamog's Crusher, but then again we have Capsize, Rolling Thunder and Counterspells as answers against them, and we could always overload on Harvest Pyres if we expect a lot of Tron.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
First week's numbers leaves us with either Izzet Control (Pauper Twin) at third position with 8'33 % and Murasa Tron at first position at 11'67 % as the more consistent Peregrine deck choices, with Mono Blue falling far behind at 3'33 %.
Since this is the Peregrine Control thread, I would suggest focusing on Izzet Drake as the deck of choice, as it's the proven best Control shell that fits Drake, while Murasa Tron can get it's own thread (or be discussed in the Tron Primer). As soon as the weeks pass, EMN arrives and lists get polished and their core defined, I'll update this thread into a full official Primer for the deck.
Let's discuss the core for now. Every deck seems to be playing this skeleton:
2 Archaeomancer // Mnemonic Wall
4 Mulldrifter
4 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Peregrine Drake
4 Preordain
4 Flame Slash
4 Compulsive Research
Instant (9)
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Ghostly Flicker
2 Counterspell // Memory Lapse
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
4 Izzet Boilerworks
8 Island
5 Mountain
I think we can now build up from this core. The landbase can include utility lands like the Cycle lands Forgotten Cave and Lonely Sandbar which would replace Mountains and Islands respectively, never going below 8 mono Blue sources and 5 mono Red sources it seems. A list cut two Blue sources down to 6 to include a pair of Radiant Fountain, probably to fight Aggro decks. It's interesting to note that no deck surpasses 21 lands, with one of them even going down to 20 (the Radiant Fountain one).
About the Wall / Mancer spot, I prefer Mancer due to it costing 1 less, which allows me to cast him for value at 5-6 mana in order to recover a kill spell or a counterspell, as oppossed to Wall where I would need to wait at 6-7, which might prove a daunting task in a 20-21 land deck. I would also include a third Mancer just in case, as it's nice to have redundancy in case one gets killed and them being cast for value is a pretty nice option.
In the Counterspell vs Memory Lapse department I think we all can agree about Counterspell being miles better, specially in a Control deck. Perhaps Lapse was included because people got a hold of them in EMA or because their possibility to be cast out of a single Izzet Boilerworks. Anyways, I think going up to 4 will pretty much be the standard route in the days to come, maybe with Dispel and/or Memory Lapse going side to side with it. I would also run 1-2 Exclude as it's Pauper's Cryptic Command, and nullifies a threat that has a strong ETB (Drake, Drifter or Gray Merchant of Asphodel) or one that our deck is poorly equipped to deal with (Gurmag Angler, Fangren Marauder or Ulamog's Crusher) while drawing a card and advancing our gameplan.
Lightning Bolt and Flame Slash seem the standard removal suite, although there are decks that run fewer than 4 Bolts, which is something I wouldn't do. Bolt is a 1 CMC piece of interaction against Peregrine Drake, doubles as burn reach, and you either run 4 or none, as it gets better in multiples. After these, decks opt for Firebolt because of it's ability to 2-for-1 critters, although I think I'm leaning more on Burst Lighting since it does the same at face value (and at instant speed) and it deals the full 4 dmg for 1 CMC cheaper than Firebolt at the cost of not doing a 2-for-1. These one are more of flex slots, and we'll need to test if it's better to take out X/4's and have a better game against Delver thanks to Instant speed answers, or simply 2-for-1'ing people.
About the card draw, all list included 4 copies of Compulsive Research except one that eschewed a copy in favor of a singleton Rolling Thunder, which I think is better. Thunder can be a kill spell like Research's 4th copy, but it can also be a wrath in an emergency, and seeing all those Elves, Stompy and Goblins decks these days has made me wary about it. Also, while Research can kill opponents, it's worth noting that it's sorcery speed card draw, and if we want to take a more reactive approach to the meta, we should run just 1 as a kill spell that draws cards if drawn early (then it can be picked up by one of our critters before the kill) and run Think Twices instead of the rest. Kaervek's Torch isn't needed IMO since we already run counterspells and we can always pick up the Thunder if it gets countered by simply starting the loop anew and picking it up when we have infinite mana.
Here's a list I would run with the following changes I've said:
4 Sea Gate Oracle
4 Mulldrifter
3 Peregrine Drake
3 Archaeomancer
Instant (15)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Counterspell
3 Ghostly Flicker
2 Exclude
2 Think Twice
4 Flame Slash
4 Preordain
1 Compulsive Research
1 Rolling Thunder
Land (21)
4 Izzet Boilerworks
4 Swiftwater Cliffs
7 Island
5 Mountain
1 Radiant Fountain
I'm trying to find some room to fit a 3rd Think Twice and two Burst Lightning, but I think I've got this overall.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
2) Use the right number of each card.
3) Know your probabilities.
4) Print your deck lists; make yourself and your judges happier.
In conventional lists I would run just 1-2 Clouds as it doesn't combo by itself.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!