Ah yes! I had forgotten about the Inspector! Thank you!
I'm not a huge fan of the spellfist, personally. It just doesn't compare to the other spell-boosted creatures in the deck, and it doesn't seem as good as the traditional Delver of Secrets. I could be wrong on this one.
I've brought a lot of decks back up to speed with the current sets.
There are minor tweaks throughout the battle bag, but notable changes are Kuldotha Boros, which no longer has Kuldotha Rebirth, instead focusing on grinding even more with Palace Sentinels. This card has also made an appearance in White Weenie and Pestilence.
White Weenie has had major changes as well. Less creatures, more removal, Palace Sentinels and a spicy singleton of Gift of Orzhova that I'm loving.
Pestilence... has had a face-lift for the 100th time. I have a good feeling about this version!
MBC is now lower on the curve and more streamlined.
Trinket Hawk... I've been playing it online and it is doing incredibly poorly. The deck is not doing what it's supposed to be doing and I think it's because it should be more aggressive than the current build. I'll be doing a lot of testing in the near future in hopes of bringing something more efficient to the Battle Bag.
Wow! Nice updates! Palace Sentinels definitely seems like a great addition for any decks that run mostly white since it solves the issue of no card advantage.
I play with a battle box with similar restrictions. It's been a lot of fun as a way to hold casual games on a more level playing field, and to let my non-MtG playing friends jump in when we have a game night.
I try to give them a sort of soft segregation from easy to hard to play, just to give people an idea of how complicated of a game they're getting into.
My decks are:
Intro: B Devotion Control R Goblin Aggro U Faeries Delver GW Slivers
Easy: G Elves UB Teachings UWR Kitty Midrange G Infect
Intermediate: UR Nivix Blitz UG Turbofog UGR Tron UW Cawblade
Difficult: BR Reanimator BRGU Affinity GB Tortured Existence URB Storm
I've had similar experiences with regards to Tinkerhawk/Cawblade - It and Slivers are by far my worst decks. I've kept Hawk around because I really enjoy playing it, and it and Reanimator are the two decks I try to play every time. Slivers is still in because two of my friends like Slivers, but I know I should probably be shelling out for Bogles one of these days.
I've had trouble coming up with a mono-White deck that can win games (and white decks in general, for that matter). It's looking like the best answer is going to be leaning deep into a slower midrange deck build around Thraben Inspector + Kor Skyfisher + Palace Sentinels + Removal, probably in place of the UW Cawblade deck. I just personally don't enjoy that style of play.
Infect is my winningest deck, and it's kind of a problem how many games it steals. Sideboards are somewhat biased against it already, but game 1s are often freebies, which puts in on a pretty heavy advantage. I'm thinking about setting it aside in favor of some sort of aggressive GR, but the details on how or what are still out.
That's great! I don't think Faeries Delver is an easy deck to play, but it certainly is fun!
I've actually been playing an updated version of my Trinket Hawk list that I've been doing really well with. I'll update my original post with the list. I'll eventually buy the cards I'm missing and update my actual Battle Bag.
I'm also going to add my friends' Gruul Slivers deck to the bag for a total of 18 decks. This will give more colour freedom to the Tron deck, which I might update to the more popular Dinrova Tron that is really popular and successful online right now. The Slivers deck itself is quite competitive, and will be even more so with the downgrading of Lead the Stampede in a few months.
White certainly is the eternal problem in Pauper. Hopefully, Survival Cache's downgrade will lead to some powerful brews. Palace Sentinels has really improved the quality of White decks, too.
At one point I was very close to bulding a White Infect deck built by Deluxicoff that I saw him pilot on his Youtube Show Pauperganda. Here's the link if you're interested: WHITE INFECT tourney - PAUPERGANDA!. The deck looks good, but a bit hard to play properly. Of course, when you already have an infect deck in your set...
Lots of changes happening! Pauper is such an exciting format!
I added the Gruul Sliver deck and updated the Azorius Trinkets deck. The Azorius deck seems weirdly expensive, but when you notice that the 4 Ash Barrens make up about a quarter of the cost of the whole deck, you can start to see why. They need to reprint this land. Badly. Add in a playset of White and Blue artifact lands and you have a very expensive mana base.
I also recalculated the TCG price of each deck and the whole collection. Good news! Even with the adding of the Slivers deck, the total price of the Battle Bag has gone down significantly to $715.74, which is about $50 cheaper than it was last time I checked. We can maybe attribute this to the Msters sets reprinting a lot of Pauper staples, especially in Burn and Eye-Candy. Most decks across the board lost value (usually between $1-4), with only the White Weenies and the Trinkets deck jumping up in price (mostly due to the popularity of Thraben Inspector).
Took out Jeskai Kuldotha since I hear that's too slow these days. Added Boros Kuldotha since that seems to be all the rage - and it's got some new cards in there since I last updated. I hate Teachings.1-game.time.dec so I changed that over to Dimrova Tron. We'll see how it goes, but it feels like a similar deck to the annoyingly slow Teachings, but it can actually get there.
Burn added those 2 creatures that make it a lot better and for the most part all 22 of the decks are with 5 cards of the last time I played them.
I am also strongly considering switching out my Teachings deck for something a little more interesting. People hate playing it and playing against it. It is the most unpopular deck by far. I was thinking of adding the Ratlock deck instead (Chittering Rats/ Ghostly Flicker endgame). Maybe a single Dinrova Horror in there for ultimate GGs.
I will be updating my Burn deck with the now staple 4x Firebrand Archer. Every successful Burn deck is running a playset now.
I kind of like the idea of switching Tron into the Dimir deck, as that's what's popular now. I'll have to think it over.
The metagame is very stable right now, which is a nice thing to see. I think Pauper is very healthy, and it's good to see an aggro deck like Stompy be on top. The new masters set may very well bring on some drastic changes, however. Who knows what people will be coming up with next?
What do you think of my Slivers list? It was originally modeled after yours, but I've made significant changes to it over time, with the help of a friend of mine.
What do you think of my Slivers list? It was originally modeled after yours, but I've made significant changes to it over time, with the help of a friend of mine.
Burn got a huge kick in the pants with Firebrand Archers and Thermo-Alchemist. Both give the deck even more inevitability and having bodies on the table is always nice.
The Slivers I have right now are Green/White since that seems to be the normal way to do it, but Red/Green was my favorite. I may have to pick up another set of Bolts and try it out again.
WOW! This is a very cool thing you've created here Upkeep. Well done man.
Thank you! This is the cumulation of a lot of work. It's been an excellent way to get to know the format in general and improve my brewing. People seem to appreciate too, which is nice!
Burn got a huge kick in the pants with Firebrand Archers and Thermo-Alchemist. Both give the deck even more inevitability and having bodies on the table is always nice.
The Slivers I have right now are Green/White since that seems to be the normal way to do it, but Red/Green was my favorite. I may have to pick up another set of Bolts and try it out again.
Yeah Burn is really scary now. The amount of burst it gets is insane. With Thermos and archers bolts hit for 4-5 damage a piece, a fireblast hits a lot harder when it's 5 damage...
After playing the deck intensely, I really feel like Gruul Slivers has a lot going for it that Selesnya doesn't. The deck tech doesn't quite cover the changes I've made to the deck over time, but essentially, Hunter Sliver is the best. It also combos with Two-Headed Sliver to make your creatures unblockable. Striking Sliver is also a good reason to play Red. Now with the newest addition of Lead the Stampede in a few weeks, the deck just got the draw spell it needed to go over the top. I'll be playing the deck some more online in the future, for sure! I'd definitely recommend picking up the deck again!
Hunter Sliver is really great removal too! Provoke is a severely underrated ability in the game. It definitely messes with combat and with a tribal deck that can load up Hunter Sliver with more power and first strike it can take out your biggest threats! Once Lead the Stampede is legal I might try the deck out for myself!
"Underrated" assumes people even know it exists. At this point I know very few people that don't have to read the card to know what the ability even does.
I went with white since that's the norm, but giving your team haste is huge. In a format of 4/4s it's nice to have all your team hitting with first strike too.
Hunter Sliver is really great removal too! Provoke is a severely underrated ability in the game. It definitely messes with combat and with a tribal deck that can load up Hunter Sliver with more power and first strike it can take out your biggest threats! Once Lead the Stampede is legal I might try the deck out for myself!
Removal is its primary use, yes! Hunter Sliver is what gives the deck such a good match against Stompy. If you manage to run that out with a few other slivers, they can't really win anymore. I had a guy scoop on turn 4 to it.
Provoke also adds an amazing lair of complexity when you give it to your whole team. It essentially gives you complete control over combat, which feels really overpowered.
"Underrated" assumes people even know it exists. At this point I know very few people that don't have to read the card to know what the ability even does.
So true. Tons of players need to re-read the card a few times to really understand what it is. Online, opponents often run into the "illegal blocking" message for a while until they see they have no choice.
It was high time for an update. Almost three years have passed without very little tweaks, yet so much has changed.
First off, with all the changes to decks and bannings and everything, I have found that the price for the 17 decks actually hasn't changed dramatically. It went from $715.74 to $768.34. This doesn't seem unreasonable when considering the steady rise in costs of our favourite hobby.
Other contributing factors to the modest rise in the cost of the Battle Bag are the reprinting of Ash Barrens which reduced the price of many decks by $10+, which is great.
Mono-Black Control has had a decent facelift and now even sports Oubliette. The cost of the deck has nearly doubled, however. Gone are the days where you can have a competitive Pauper deck for under $20.
The Mono-White deck went from Weenies to Heroic. It competes somewhat with the Hexproof deck in Selesnya, but still certainly has its own flare.
The Rakdos deck is now a Goblins list! I am very happy with this switch. The deck is one of the funnest I have ever played and is quite strong.
The Tron list has changed quite a bit. I decided to stay away from the popular Flicker version that is in the meta right now and stayed with a more traditional RG list with a splash in WUB. Crop Rotation takes the place of the now banned Expedition Map; time will tell if can live up to the card. I also included a nice tutor package to go along with it, so the deck is pretty spicy.
The Orzhov Pestilence deck is now almost creaturless and plays a lot more like a control deck than a lock. There is also a nice discard package.
Winding Way has made its way into many decks, which allows for lower land counts and lower curves.
I finally got rid of Auriok Sunchaser in the Affinity deck to make space for more powerful cards and filtering.
Some deck will still be in a state of flux as I playtest them and potentially change them altogether. My friends frequently complain about the Dimir Control deck and how unfun it is to play with and against. I am seriously thinking about switching it out for a Rat Lock deck, which is at least a bit more interesting. The Eye Candy deck has been hit by so many bannings through the years that the deck seems almost unrecognizable. I am still unsure about how to proceed with making up for losing Dazes and Gush and all that. I expect this deck to look very different after I work it out.
I'm not a huge fan of the spellfist, personally. It just doesn't compare to the other spell-boosted creatures in the deck, and it doesn't seem as good as the traditional Delver of Secrets. I could be wrong on this one.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
8 island
2 izzet guildgate
4 mountain
4 faerie miscreant
4 zephyr sprite
4 spellstutter sprite
4 thermo-alchemist
4 tandem lookout
4 preordain
2 harvest pyre
2 echoing truth
4 counterspell
4 lightning bolt
2 magma jet
3 curfew
4 dispel
4 electrickery
4 smash to smithereens
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
I've brought a lot of decks back up to speed with the current sets.
There are minor tweaks throughout the battle bag, but notable changes are Kuldotha Boros, which no longer has Kuldotha Rebirth, instead focusing on grinding even more with Palace Sentinels. This card has also made an appearance in White Weenie and Pestilence.
White Weenie has had major changes as well. Less creatures, more removal, Palace Sentinels and a spicy singleton of Gift of Orzhova that I'm loving.
Pestilence... has had a face-lift for the 100th time. I have a good feeling about this version!
Stompy is up to date and rocking.
Tron sports 2 Pulse of Murasa, and I'm considering adding a couple Condescends to the list as well.
MBC is now lower on the curve and more streamlined.
Trinket Hawk... I've been playing it online and it is doing incredibly poorly. The deck is not doing what it's supposed to be doing and I think it's because it should be more aggressive than the current build. I'll be doing a lot of testing in the near future in hopes of bringing something more efficient to the Battle Bag.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I try to give them a sort of soft segregation from easy to hard to play, just to give people an idea of how complicated of a game they're getting into.
My decks are:
Intro:
B Devotion Control
R Goblin Aggro
U Faeries Delver
GW Slivers
Easy:
G Elves
UB Teachings
UWR Kitty Midrange
G Infect
Intermediate:
UR Nivix Blitz
UG Turbofog
UGR Tron
UW Cawblade
Difficult:
BR Reanimator
BRGU Affinity
GB Tortured Existence
URB Storm
I've had similar experiences with regards to Tinkerhawk/Cawblade - It and Slivers are by far my worst decks. I've kept Hawk around because I really enjoy playing it, and it and Reanimator are the two decks I try to play every time. Slivers is still in because two of my friends like Slivers, but I know I should probably be shelling out for Bogles one of these days.
I've had trouble coming up with a mono-White deck that can win games (and white decks in general, for that matter). It's looking like the best answer is going to be leaning deep into a slower midrange deck build around Thraben Inspector + Kor Skyfisher + Palace Sentinels + Removal, probably in place of the UW Cawblade deck. I just personally don't enjoy that style of play.
Infect is my winningest deck, and it's kind of a problem how many games it steals. Sideboards are somewhat biased against it already, but game 1s are often freebies, which puts in on a pretty heavy advantage. I'm thinking about setting it aside in favor of some sort of aggressive GR, but the details on how or what are still out.
I've actually been playing an updated version of my Trinket Hawk list that I've been doing really well with. I'll update my original post with the list. I'll eventually buy the cards I'm missing and update my actual Battle Bag.
I'm also going to add my friends' Gruul Slivers deck to the bag for a total of 18 decks. This will give more colour freedom to the Tron deck, which I might update to the more popular Dinrova Tron that is really popular and successful online right now. The Slivers deck itself is quite competitive, and will be even more so with the downgrading of Lead the Stampede in a few months.
White certainly is the eternal problem in Pauper. Hopefully, Survival Cache's downgrade will lead to some powerful brews. Palace Sentinels has really improved the quality of White decks, too.
At one point I was very close to bulding a White Infect deck built by Deluxicoff that I saw him pilot on his Youtube Show Pauperganda. Here's the link if you're interested: WHITE INFECT tourney - PAUPERGANDA!. The deck looks good, but a bit hard to play properly. Of course, when you already have an infect deck in your set...
Lots of changes happening! Pauper is such an exciting format!
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Active Player: 1994-1999, 2016-
Sign & Share Petition To Fix MTG: Arena's Economy: https://goo.gl/z8fop8
I added the Gruul Sliver deck and updated the Azorius Trinkets deck. The Azorius deck seems weirdly expensive, but when you notice that the 4 Ash Barrens make up about a quarter of the cost of the whole deck, you can start to see why. They need to reprint this land. Badly. Add in a playset of White and Blue artifact lands and you have a very expensive mana base.
I also recalculated the TCG price of each deck and the whole collection. Good news! Even with the adding of the Slivers deck, the total price of the Battle Bag has gone down significantly to $715.74, which is about $50 cheaper than it was last time I checked. We can maybe attribute this to the Msters sets reprinting a lot of Pauper staples, especially in Burn and Eye-Candy. Most decks across the board lost value (usually between $1-4), with only the White Weenies and the Trinkets deck jumping up in price (mostly due to the popularity of Thraben Inspector).
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Burn added those 2 creatures that make it a lot better and for the most part all 22 of the decks are with 5 cards of the last time I played them.
Metagame moves slow.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
I will be updating my Burn deck with the now staple 4x Firebrand Archer. Every successful Burn deck is running a playset now.
I kind of like the idea of switching Tron into the Dimir deck, as that's what's popular now. I'll have to think it over.
The metagame is very stable right now, which is a nice thing to see. I think Pauper is very healthy, and it's good to see an aggro deck like Stompy be on top. The new masters set may very well bring on some drastic changes, however. Who knows what people will be coming up with next?
What do you think of my Slivers list? It was originally modeled after yours, but I've made significant changes to it over time, with the help of a friend of mine.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Pauper EDH: ~ Rhox War Monk ~ Scornful Aether-Lich ~ Ashenmoor Gouger ~ Ascended Lawmage ~ Nightscape Battlemage ~ Warden of the Eye ~ Hedge Troll ~ Dinrova Horror ~ Renata
Pauper 60: ~ Caw Blade ~ MonoU Delver ~ MonoW Monk Fish ~
Standard: ~ Boros Knights ~ RDW ~
Pioneer: ~ U BControl ~
Modern: ~ UB Control ~
Legacy/Vintage: ~ MonoU Delver ~
93/94: ~ Erhnamgeddon ~
Burn got a huge kick in the pants with Firebrand Archers and Thermo-Alchemist. Both give the deck even more inevitability and having bodies on the table is always nice.
The Slivers I have right now are Green/White since that seems to be the normal way to do it, but Red/Green was my favorite. I may have to pick up another set of Bolts and try it out again.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Thank you! This is the cumulation of a lot of work. It's been an excellent way to get to know the format in general and improve my brewing. People seem to appreciate too, which is nice!
Yeah Burn is really scary now. The amount of burst it gets is insane. With Thermos and archers bolts hit for 4-5 damage a piece, a fireblast hits a lot harder when it's 5 damage...
After playing the deck intensely, I really feel like Gruul Slivers has a lot going for it that Selesnya doesn't. The deck tech doesn't quite cover the changes I've made to the deck over time, but essentially, Hunter Sliver is the best. It also combos with Two-Headed Sliver to make your creatures unblockable. Striking Sliver is also a good reason to play Red. Now with the newest addition of Lead the Stampede in a few weeks, the deck just got the draw spell it needed to go over the top. I'll be playing the deck some more online in the future, for sure! I'd definitely recommend picking up the deck again!
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I went with white since that's the norm, but giving your team haste is huge. In a format of 4/4s it's nice to have all your team hitting with first strike too.
WUBRGPauper Battle BoxWUBRG ... and why I am not a fan of Wayne Reynolds' Illustrations.
Removal is its primary use, yes! Hunter Sliver is what gives the deck such a good match against Stompy. If you manage to run that out with a few other slivers, they can't really win anymore. I had a guy scoop on turn 4 to it.
Provoke also adds an amazing lair of complexity when you give it to your whole team. It essentially gives you complete control over combat, which feels really overpowered.
So true. Tons of players need to re-read the card a few times to really understand what it is. Online, opponents often run into the "illegal blocking" message for a while until they see they have no choice.
Provoke needs a comeback! @WotC
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
First off, with all the changes to decks and bannings and everything, I have found that the price for the 17 decks actually hasn't changed dramatically. It went from $715.74 to $768.34. This doesn't seem unreasonable when considering the steady rise in costs of our favourite hobby.
Other contributing factors to the modest rise in the cost of the Battle Bag are the reprinting of Ash Barrens which reduced the price of many decks by $10+, which is great.
Mono-Black Control has had a decent facelift and now even sports Oubliette. The cost of the deck has nearly doubled, however. Gone are the days where you can have a competitive Pauper deck for under $20.
The Mono-White deck went from Weenies to Heroic. It competes somewhat with the Hexproof deck in Selesnya, but still certainly has its own flare.
The Rakdos deck is now a Goblins list! I am very happy with this switch. The deck is one of the funnest I have ever played and is quite strong.
The Tron list has changed quite a bit. I decided to stay away from the popular Flicker version that is in the meta right now and stayed with a more traditional RG list with a splash in WUB. Crop Rotation takes the place of the now banned Expedition Map; time will tell if can live up to the card. I also included a nice tutor package to go along with it, so the deck is pretty spicy.
The Orzhov Pestilence deck is now almost creaturless and plays a lot more like a control deck than a lock. There is also a nice discard package.
Winding Way has made its way into many decks, which allows for lower land counts and lower curves.
I finally got rid of Auriok Sunchaser in the Affinity deck to make space for more powerful cards and filtering.
Some deck will still be in a state of flux as I playtest them and potentially change them altogether. My friends frequently complain about the Dimir Control deck and how unfun it is to play with and against. I am seriously thinking about switching it out for a Rat Lock deck, which is at least a bit more interesting. The Eye Candy deck has been hit by so many bannings through the years that the deck seems almost unrecognizable. I am still unsure about how to proceed with making up for losing Dazes and Gush and all that. I expect this deck to look very different after I work it out.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio