Hello to everyone. I relative very new to Magic and pauper especially. But I am very intrigued with the Gray Merchant. Has anyone tried to build him into and Orzhov based deck? Would he even fit and could he be viable? If anyone has could you share your experience?
The problem that people run into with gray merchant is ‘wrong deck syndrome’. It takes a lot of work to be able to survive till your 5th land drop in pauper, and black’s traditional tools to get there (removal, discard, card draw) are almost all spell based.
Creature analogs for discard and removal are relatively well known, where most people stumble with merchant is getting enough card advantage/card velocity to be able to survive into the late game vs agro while still not folding to a chain of counters out of the blue decks or discard out of other black decks.
The answer?
The breakthrough in abusing gray merchant is using black cycling creatures, they add enough velocity that the deck can run a low amount lands, but still expect to hit 5 mana every game. And while black doesn’t get permanent based card draw at common, what it does get is a lot of gravedigger-esque card recursion which is often much better than just drawing cards. With 10 main deck ways of getting cards back from the graveyard, the stream of card advantage never stops.
This deck has plenty of blockers and removal to combat agro on one side, and the endless recursion makes it very easy to overload counterspell or discard based decks.
This deck just breaks the curve, as I regularly out card advantage tortured existence deck
I don't think you've played mbc at all if you think that's the case, a lot of the spells are actually creature based especially the discard spells, mbc is easily one of the best decks at surviving to the 5th land drop, and the spoiler deck made me chuckle thank you. Your deck is removal light, and nonexistant on disruption. It's like when i play vs the kitty decks, you might actually draw 5-10+ more cards than me, but when your cards are do nothings i dont care. And MBC can outdraw delver just saying.
Justsin I stopped looking at decklists for pauper they made me want to throttle people. Can't stop all the stupid....
This is purely speculation with no testing to back it up whatsoever, but I don't think you really need to work too hard adding colored mana symbols to a Merchant deck. MBC already has plenty of BB in its casting costs. Just play the MBC shell with a few more creatures and you should be fine.
Thank you for the recommendation. Have checked MTG Goldfish, nothing there yet. Will keep on looking. I regards to Fungl's suggestion of using the existing MBC shell and adding some white cards. What would be the proper shell and what white cards would any add?
Anyway I'm still searching for that deck the pictures help a little but boy is it had to reverse engineer this deck. If any one has the list or has found it, could you please some how post? It would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Too bad Arnuad's BW Gray Merchant classic pauper deck never showed up in any of the listings!! I thought he finished 3-1. Anyway if anybody has that decklist and can post it. it would greatly be appreciated.
not sure if you're the one I was talking to yesterday, but was talking to someone about a white splash in a gray merch deck and my answer is still the same
what does white grant you here that black doesn't? adding white only muddies your mana base
not sure if you're the one I was talking to yesterday, but was talking to someone about a white splash in a gray merch deck and my answer is still the same
what does white grant you here that black doesn't? adding white only muddies your mana base
Life gain and blinking cards. But not worth it IMO if you're trying to land a 6-8 devoted merchant.
Yeah, after trying this i have the same impression. For every white spell in the main deck you have a good black alternative.
So I think the only reason to play white would be sideboard options. Two relevant things black can't do right now is countering stuff and removing artifacts/enchantments. White would give you access to the latter. In the current meta this is not interesting.
White does have a powerful sideboard, especially if burn becomes a larger part of the meta.
Yes JustSin it was me who you were speaking too. All i can say is that i'v been playing it on line and have won 70% of the matches that i've been in. It's probably not a daily's entry deck, with the right pilot who know.
Yes JustSin it was me who you were speaking too. All i can say is that i'v been playing it on line and have won 70% of the matches that i've been in. It's probably not a daily's entry deck, with the right pilot who know.
no offense, but there is a difference between playing a deck in JFF/TP than DEs
I did try that list you sent it was more solid and was fun, but I still felt that if I wanted to go all in on GM I'd stick black
Life gain and blinking cards. But not worth it IMO if you're trying to land a 6-8 devoted merchant.
Blinking creatures is insane. I'm splashing white for Cloudshift and Momentary Blink and getting to trigger the Merchant, Rats, or Liliana's Specter twice is a lot of value for a possibly slower start with the muddled mana base.
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I don't think you've played mbc at all if you think that's the case, a lot of the spells are actually creature based especially the discard spells, mbc is easily one of the best decks at surviving to the 5th land drop, and the spoiler deck made me chuckle thank you. Your deck is removal light, and nonexistant on disruption. It's like when i play vs the kitty decks, you might actually draw 5-10+ more cards than me, but when your cards are do nothings i dont care. And MBC can outdraw delver just saying.
Justsin I stopped looking at decklists for pauper they made me want to throttle people. Can't stop all the stupid....
Storm Crow is strictly worse than Seacoast Drake.
what does white grant you here that black doesn't? adding white only muddies your mana base
Deck List:
BMBCB
UBUB Control/TeachingsBU
Ha! My Pauper UG Post Deck Showed!
Classic
BPoxB
Legacy
GB Eva Depths (Primer By Me) BG
Monthly Academy Showcase!
An Introduction to Competitive Pauper! *Updated*
Pauper Meta Analysis & What Wizards Left Out!
Found at MTGO Academy!! Same Great Series, Same Great Content, Great New Home!! (yes that is me shamelessly trolling for more readers :))
Check me out on Twitter & Get a little MTGO Therapy
Life gain and blinking cards. But not worth it IMO if you're trying to land a 6-8 devoted merchant.
White does have a powerful sideboard, especially if burn becomes a larger part of the meta.
no offense, but there is a difference between playing a deck in JFF/TP than DEs
I did try that list you sent it was more solid and was fun, but I still felt that if I wanted to go all in on GM I'd stick black
Deck List:
BMBCB
UBUB Control/TeachingsBU
Ha! My Pauper UG Post Deck Showed!
Classic
BPoxB
Legacy
GB Eva Depths (Primer By Me) BG
Monthly Academy Showcase!
An Introduction to Competitive Pauper! *Updated*
Pauper Meta Analysis & What Wizards Left Out!
Found at MTGO Academy!! Same Great Series, Same Great Content, Great New Home!! (yes that is me shamelessly trolling for more readers :))
Check me out on Twitter & Get a little MTGO Therapy
Blinking creatures is insane. I'm splashing white for Cloudshift and Momentary Blink and getting to trigger the Merchant, Rats, or Liliana's Specter twice is a lot of value for a possibly slower start with the muddled mana base.