deathtouch + longbow is something people have used casually forever, but it really is weak because the creatures are always small, it relies on passing summoning sickness, and can at most kill one at a time on its own
I remember seeing a list with various Vulshok Sorcerer variants and Nightshade Peddler. Still kind of gimmicky and fragile, but it beats the haste issue, at least.
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Soliton is a dude and his higher cmc wouldn't be as much of an issue in a UB control list. And then you're also in blue for Trinket Mage to find the Longbow. Don't forget Typhoid Rats and Sedge Scorpion too, in a different direction.
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Contraption is a new artifact type. There are currently no artifacts with this type. And there's no current game meaning of "assemble."
So this is the best version of the Presence of Gond-Midnight Guard combo deck I've tested so far. That's not to say it is good, exactly, but this version has actually won against several good decks (previous versions rarely won against, well anyone). Anyone who has tried the deck knows that matches like mono-black control and fast aggro are usually almost hopeless, but this one actually has a non-embarrassing record thus far! (I may have got lucky)
The key to this is Cho-Manna's Blessing. It is by far the most important card in the deck, next the actual combo itself. That is why, in order to go off, you must have a minimum of 5 mana, 3 of which must be white, 1 for Midnight Guard and 2 for Cho-Manno's Blessing. It always helps to have an extra two mana for Negate back up if you can get it. With all the fixing, getting the white is usually not a problem. Getting to 5 mana (or better 7 mana) and finding the combo pieces before dying is the real problem. Outside of moment's peace, negate and and maybe swirling sandstorm, you are basically just ignoring your opponent.
Everything else in this deck is ramp or card search. I've discovered including the slower devoted druid combo or any real main deck answer cards just slows the deck down. It has one goal, to find the combo and protect it. If you can get a midnight guard in play with a cho-manno's blessing on it (always use the blessing to respond to targeted kill effects unless they are tapped out), with negate back up and a presence of gond in hand for when you untap, you have a better than 75% chance to win. (and that 25% is for one of two reasons, either you are already so low on life that you can't survive another two turns, one to untap and make a million 1/1 and one more to attack for the win, or because they have 3 instant creature kill spells or enchantment kill + electrickery, electrickery by itself only slows you down by a turn) That's a big if, of course, but the entire deck is geared towards it and it does happen.
I decided to try this deck again when commune with the gods came out, and it does really help. Not only does it find your combo (and cho-manno's blessing), but it also has very important synergy with moment's peace and accumulated knowledge. Because you discard cards to the graveyard, if you can discard a moment's peace, that allows you to survive an extra turn and of course an accumulated knowledge with any number in the yard is just awesome.
The growth spasms are in the side for any deck that might include edict effects, the moment's peace and swirling sandstorm for aggro decks, hydroblast obviously for goblins and dispels for blue decks.
I'd love for people to try it and hear their experiences.
2 Negate
2 Drift of Phantasms
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Cho-Manno's Blessing
4 Presence of Gond
2 Preordain
1 Impulse
1 Moment's Peace
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Midnight Guard
4 Abundant Growth
2 Rampant Growth
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Ponder
when it comes to building combo there are two things your deck has to do; find the combo and protect it long enough to use it
you've got like half of half of that... as you have things set up you kind of have the ability to find your pieces because of all the draw, but you're running a lot of draw spells in a deck with two islands, I get that you have some things to find them easier, but this deck is playing heavy blue on two islands... idk the whole thing seems clunky as heck with main deck negates and you're using a protection spell in blessing with double white in enchantment form, why use that over vines or blessing?
1) The mana may look clunky, but in reality I almost never have issues with it. Like I said, getting triple white and single blue between abundant growth, utopia sprawl, expanse and rampant growth is relatively easy (double blue and triple white can sometimes be a pain, but that is why i have only two drift of phantasms, it is probably the worst card in the deck, but unfortunately necessary I think). I'm almost always selecting white with utopia sprawl, but the green base is absolutely necessary to play 3 colors.
2) Cho-manno's blessing outperforms all the instants and sorceries that would protect a creature thus far. Decks like mono-black and blue/black are always going to have more removal than you have protection/counters, but are usually unable to play more than one on your turn, and even after sideobard the majority of that removal is still targeted removal. However, when they untap, they usually have second or even third removal. Cho-manno's protects against targeted removal the next turn, and every turn thereafter, for almost the same cost and negate is much more versatile than something like apostle's blessing or vines of vastwood (both of which have other benefits for the decks they are normally in, i.e. unblockability and size increase, you don't need either of these things). Edict effects are always going to be a pain, but again, if they have only one in hand, a negate is better than apostle's blessing and the growth spasm's help somewhat with that.
Cho-manno's blessing outperforms all the instants and sorceries that would protect a creature thus far.
sorry, but I find that highly unlikely that this is the case
if you were to play this competitive or in any 2 of 3 game as soon as they see you hit it once even if they are only able to play one the first turn they'll make sure next time they have a backup...
more importantly what I think people forget about this particular combo is not only do you have to find the pieces, but you have to play them at six mana, and then it has to survive until the next turn until you can even activate it... if you managed to play guard on three you'd have to wait until four to get out gond and won't have mana to protect with blessing... let's talk turn 6 when you have mana for both, you've now tapped out to play both in same turn and still have to wait for the next turn to activate and have nothing open to protect it
It's only really come into play in the last month or so. Definitely worth mention; I think only sage combo (cloud of faeries) and maybe kiln fiend are better right now.
Before talking about casual combos, I think many people here forgot that there is 1 top tier combo deck that has been around for like forever and isn't going anywhere anytime soon, yes guys: Affinity! Atog+Disciple of the Vault+Fling(or even just Atog+Disciple or Atog+Fling but those will require more artifacts on the board) is the combo in case you guys forgot. Well, technically I guess aggro/combo is the more accurate description for the deck seeing that more often than not you can win with Carapace Forgers and Myr Enforcers just beating down the opponent to 0 rather than get the combo online, but the combo is still there and also gets plenty of wins for Affinity. Also, as a deck Affinity has all the characteristics that other combo decks have: card draw to get the combo pieces online(though no tutoring) as well as means to protect the combo(other strong creatures to bait removal and for edicts as well as Atog's built in pumping ability and casting Fling in response to removal).
In the same manner, there is also the Goblin combo variant with Kruin Strikers along the usual Foundry Street Denizens and those red sorceries that produce 1/1 goblin tokens in droves to pump the Strikers/Denizens with Death Spark, Lightning Bolts and the other goblins clearing the rest of the board and using Sylvanok Lifestaves to stay alive long enough to win. Again, more of an aggro/combo deck than a classic combo variant, but still has the combo element on a top tier deck.
The reason I mentioned these decks, that I'm sure everyone here knows(especially Affinity) is because these decks are tried and proven and at least Affinity has been winning consistently for many years. The pure combo shell doesn't work in Pauper nearly as well as in other formats due to the shaky mana base Pauper has, the over reliance on creatures in the format and extremely limited tutoring abilities. Thus, being a format that is so reliant on creatures already, the aggro/combo shell fits perfectly. Control/combo also works obviously, as the various Temporal Fissure decks have shown, but without Temporal Fissures the other options aren't nearly as powerful nor consistent, but it can certainly still work. Pure combo on the other hand like some of the variants mentioned in this thread are either too slow, too inconsistent or simply unable to protect their combo from removal/counter magic to really shine like in other formats. Thus I think that in Pauper combo decks should be built on either an aggro or a control shell, resulting in aggro/combo and control/combo decks rather than pure combo, if you want to play combo competitively that is.
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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
The key to this is Cho-Manna's Blessing. It is by far the most important card in the deck, next the actual combo itself. That is why, in order to go off, you must have a minimum of 5 mana, 3 of which must be white, 1 for Midnight Guard and 2 for Cho-Manno's Blessing. It always helps to have an extra two mana for Negate back up if you can get it. With all the fixing, getting the white is usually not a problem. Getting to 5 mana (or better 7 mana) and finding the combo pieces before dying is the real problem. Outside of moment's peace, negate and and maybe swirling sandstorm, you are basically just ignoring your opponent.
Everything else in this deck is ramp or card search. I've discovered including the slower devoted druid combo or any real main deck answer cards just slows the deck down. It has one goal, to find the combo and protect it. If you can get a midnight guard in play with a cho-manno's blessing on it (always use the blessing to respond to targeted kill effects unless they are tapped out), with negate back up and a presence of gond in hand for when you untap, you have a better than 75% chance to win. (and that 25% is for one of two reasons, either you are already so low on life that you can't survive another two turns, one to untap and make a million 1/1 and one more to attack for the win, or because they have 3 instant creature kill spells or enchantment kill + electrickery, electrickery by itself only slows you down by a turn) That's a big if, of course, but the entire deck is geared towards it and it does happen.
I decided to try this deck again when commune with the gods came out, and it does really help. Not only does it find your combo (and cho-manno's blessing), but it also has very important synergy with moment's peace and accumulated knowledge. Because you discard cards to the graveyard, if you can discard a moment's peace, that allows you to survive an extra turn and of course an accumulated knowledge with any number in the yard is just awesome.
The growth spasms are in the side for any deck that might include edict effects, the moment's peace and swirling sandstorm for aggro decks, hydroblast obviously for goblins and dispels for blue decks.
I'd love for people to try it and hear their experiences.
2 Negate
2 Drift of Phantasms
4 Utopia Sprawl
3 Cho-Manno's Blessing
4 Presence of Gond
2 Preordain
1 Impulse
1 Moment's Peace
4 Commune with the Gods
4 Midnight Guard
4 Abundant Growth
2 Rampant Growth
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Ponder
4 Terramorphic Expanse
11 Forest
4 Plains
2 Islands
Sideboard
3 Swirling Sandstorm
2 Growth Spasm
3 Dispel
3 Moment's Peace
3 Hydroblast
1 Patrician's Scorn
you've got like half of half of that... as you have things set up you kind of have the ability to find your pieces because of all the draw, but you're running a lot of draw spells in a deck with two islands, I get that you have some things to find them easier, but this deck is playing heavy blue on two islands... idk the whole thing seems clunky as heck with main deck negates and you're using a protection spell in blessing with double white in enchantment form, why use that over vines or blessing?
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
1) The mana may look clunky, but in reality I almost never have issues with it. Like I said, getting triple white and single blue between abundant growth, utopia sprawl, expanse and rampant growth is relatively easy (double blue and triple white can sometimes be a pain, but that is why i have only two drift of phantasms, it is probably the worst card in the deck, but unfortunately necessary I think). I'm almost always selecting white with utopia sprawl, but the green base is absolutely necessary to play 3 colors.
2) Cho-manno's blessing outperforms all the instants and sorceries that would protect a creature thus far. Decks like mono-black and blue/black are always going to have more removal than you have protection/counters, but are usually unable to play more than one on your turn, and even after sideobard the majority of that removal is still targeted removal. However, when they untap, they usually have second or even third removal. Cho-manno's protects against targeted removal the next turn, and every turn thereafter, for almost the same cost and negate is much more versatile than something like apostle's blessing or vines of vastwood (both of which have other benefits for the decks they are normally in, i.e. unblockability and size increase, you don't need either of these things). Edict effects are always going to be a pain, but again, if they have only one in hand, a negate is better than apostle's blessing and the growth spasm's help somewhat with that.
sorry, but I find that highly unlikely that this is the case
if you were to play this competitive or in any 2 of 3 game as soon as they see you hit it once even if they are only able to play one the first turn they'll make sure next time they have a backup...
more importantly what I think people forget about this particular combo is not only do you have to find the pieces, but you have to play them at six mana, and then it has to survive until the next turn until you can even activate it... if you managed to play guard on three you'd have to wait until four to get out gond and won't have mana to protect with blessing... let's talk turn 6 when you have mana for both, you've now tapped out to play both in same turn and still have to wait for the next turn to activate and have nothing open to protect it
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
In the same manner, there is also the Goblin combo variant with Kruin Strikers along the usual Foundry Street Denizens and those red sorceries that produce 1/1 goblin tokens in droves to pump the Strikers/Denizens with Death Spark, Lightning Bolts and the other goblins clearing the rest of the board and using Sylvanok Lifestaves to stay alive long enough to win. Again, more of an aggro/combo deck than a classic combo variant, but still has the combo element on a top tier deck.
The reason I mentioned these decks, that I'm sure everyone here knows(especially Affinity) is because these decks are tried and proven and at least Affinity has been winning consistently for many years. The pure combo shell doesn't work in Pauper nearly as well as in other formats due to the shaky mana base Pauper has, the over reliance on creatures in the format and extremely limited tutoring abilities. Thus, being a format that is so reliant on creatures already, the aggro/combo shell fits perfectly. Control/combo also works obviously, as the various Temporal Fissure decks have shown, but without Temporal Fissures the other options aren't nearly as powerful nor consistent, but it can certainly still work. Pure combo on the other hand like some of the variants mentioned in this thread are either too slow, too inconsistent or simply unable to protect their combo from removal/counter magic to really shine like in other formats. Thus I think that in Pauper combo decks should be built on either an aggro or a control shell, resulting in aggro/combo and control/combo decks rather than pure combo, if you want to play combo competitively that is.