There is a lot of creature kill in this meta and fiend is the most fragile part of the deck. This doesn't mean it's bad, but having played the deck before Cyclops when it used to play less like infect and more just pushing chip damage. I think he's just exploring the posibilities of thermoalchemist.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
This deck needs 4x Gitaxian Probe and 3-4x Apostle's Blessing - you can't load up on life-payment cards and expect to still beat burn/goblins/stompy. Mutagenic Growth sees play, but not in great numbers. Gut Shot doesn't kill many creatures lately.
Immolating Souleater is far too easy to kill (remember that he'd be your first artifact in the deck) and costs far too much life to make an attempt at a win - it costs 18 life to pump him big enough for Temur Battle Rage to be a kill. For the existing wincons that pump just requires you to cast 2 spells. You don't want to pay 6 life to avoid casting Ponder, you like casting Ponder.
I can't find anybody winning tournaments with Brute Force in their deck. The whole point is to play creatures that pump themselves, so your spells don't need to be pumps.
The gold standard for the deck is 4 each Delver of Secrets, Kiln Fiend, and Nivix Cyclops, usually with some other creatures in the SB when you need the count to go up.
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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!
Obviously you would want to test it out, but I don't think anybody's played Assault Strobe since Temur Battle Rage was printed, since all the win-con creatures set off the trample part automatically. Here's a place you can check for winning decklists: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/pauper-izzet-blitz
The only reason the thread title includes the word Dragonaut is because I really love the name. Nobody plays him anymore, because his pump is too weak to kill with. See the OP for the math about that.
The extra creatures that live in the sideboard are usually there for fighting MBC, where you just need a way to stick it out while fighting Chainer's Edict. That's why you see Stormbound Geist, or occasionally Mogg War Marshal - it's just got to be something that can eat a lot of sacrifice effects. In a pinch, they can also attack for damage.
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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!
Yeah, that looks to be well within the window of a typical deck of this type. Go test it!
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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!
A tiny bit before I switched to Mono U (Learned my mistake am going back) Ash Barrens in my opinion is strictly better than wilds in most instances. There are corner cases and I only did maybe 5 goldfish hands but right now I perfer it to Wilds.
I've been loving both Daze and Mutagenic Growth as they offer both a great deal of added resiliency to the deck, and add to the critical mass of free spells. Countering your own stuff with Daze and then paying the 1 mana tax is a neat situational trick that has won me some games I had no business winning.
I miss a playset of good old Chain Lightning though, since it gives me a fallback plan of burn + Delver beats alongside Lightning Bolt if Plan A fails. What do you guys suggest?
I'm mainly logging in to say that if someone wants to make a new primer thread, they should, I'm done maintaining this one.
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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!
Yup, those matchups seem about right for the deck. I played quite a bit of pauper at Grand Prix Amsterdam the past two days. Sadly I got some bad luck in the matchup for the double-up pauper event on Friday (2-0 against a Boros deck, then 0-2 and 1-2 against two different UR control builds, one running fairies and the other running Archaeomancer and Ghostly Flicker to generate value). Still, 1-2-0 was enough for 80 prize tickets, which I managed to supplement through some Turbotown matches which thankfully had more varied matchups. Even managed to go 2-1 against mono-black control, although that was through a play error by my opponent in the final game, going for a Tendrils of Corruption on my sole Kiln Fiend, tapping out to do so, allowing me to Spell Pierce it and going in for the kill the next turn. If he had gone for the Geth's Verdict I had seen with Gitaxian Probe he would have been in a lot more trouble.
On a side note, I must have played against four different decks running a snow mana base and Skred. That card really seems to have taken off in the past few months. I'm not sure whether that's a path this deck wants to take, but I might playtest it in the future.
Finally got another chance to pick up this deck and play it. An eight player pauper event at the local gamestore, with a surprisingly powerful meta (two Elves decks, five colour Tron, mono-black land destruction, Dimir Delver, mono-blue Delver, Izzet Delver). Ended up going 2-1 and taking second with the following deck:
Game one I dodged a serious bullet on turn one. I was on the play, and turn one Gitaxian Probe showed me Doom Blade, Counterspell and, more importantly, Striped Riverwinder and Exhume. That led me to Ponder, finding my sole main deck Spell Pierce. Sure enough he cycles the Riverwinder on turn one and tries to Exhume it on turn two. After that I drew enough gas to outlast his countermagic and removal and finish him in relatively short order.
I was worried that he'd side in Edicts, but he later revealed he did not have any. This game was a bit of a train wreck for him. He got stuck on a single swamp, and every Ponder and Preordain I cast found more gas. Eventually he was desperate enough to Exhume for a Mulldrifter, which ate a Pyroblast on the following turn before I killed him with the Nivix Cyclops his Exhume got back for me.
Match 2: Elves
A Gitaxian Probe on the draw showed me a hand full of forests and elves, including a Wellwisher and an Essence Warden. They both came down on turn two off of a turn one Elvish Mystic but the Wellwisher ate a bolt end of turn. After that I went off unopposed on turn four.
I considered sideboarding against an assumed Moment's Peace, but decided against it. Thankfully he never saw them. He had a very explosive start and I didn't see any removal, which got me to the situation where I untapped with five land and a Kiln Fiend in play, and an empty hand. Thankfully the Gitaxian Probe topdeck found Assault Strobe, which with a flashbacked Artful Dodge gave me the damage I needed to power through his Wellwisher, as he was at 10 life with an untapped one in play. I dodged multiple bullets in that game.
Match 3: UR Delver
Going into the final round we were the only players at 2-0. He started on the play, and when his Terramorphic Expanse found a Snow-Covered Island at the end of my first turn I knew I was in trouble. I flailed around a bit in this game but never found enough gas to get past the four Skreds he drew.
The second game my deck fired on pretty much all cylinders, to the point where he had to bounce both his islands for a Gush to find answers. I had more threats than he had answers for, making this a rare game win against what's probably my worst matchup by far.
Game three was probably one of the most intense pauper games I ever played. We both had turn one Delvers, which flipped on turn two and traded beats. Beyond that, we both struggled to resolve anyone, as he had sideboarded in pretty much the same spells against me. Any attempted interaction from either side was fought over tooth and nail. Eventually he managed to stick a Spellstutter Sprite, which put him ahead enough. In a last ditch effort I tried to resolve an Assault Strobe on my Delver when he was at nine life and I was at six. I lost the counter war following that and he threw a Pyroblast on my Delver immediately afterwards to make the game unwinnable for me.
So, the downgrade of Foil means great news for this deck. Since we now have a lot of free spells, ranging from card draw sogood it's banned in Legacy to freepermission and protection, I fully expect the deck to get a shot in the arm in the coming weeks, leaving Tribe Combo, which was in a similar niche, behind.
There are a few reasons for this (like this deck having 8 combo threats instead of just 4), but the main one will be that they always want a full grip to go all in on Tribe, making it more awkward for them to make use of Foil, whereas we only care about casting spells for a bonus.
Having such a bevy of free spells makes the good old Delver of Secrets + Lightning Bolt complementary plan not only better that the Augur of Bolas that people have been playing lately, but it also becomes a rock solid plan B since we will be able to apply a lot of pressure backed up by Tempo plays and have burn as reach to top it off. Here's the list I will be running once UMA enters the format:
With the amount of free permission and protection we're running, all the cantrips ensuring our consistency and Burn + Delver pressuring life totals alongside the combo, our matchup against heavy interactive decks has vastly improved. From the board, a few Blasts to win counter wars and kill pesky permanents, Flaring Pain to counter Moment's Peace and Prismatic Strands, and Mogg War Marshal to eat edicts against Black decks, we shouldn't have that much trouble anymore. Having so many free spells and card draw also means we can shave a Temur Battle Rage since we usually only need one to close a game anyways.
Kinda tempted to run more shuffle effects and turn those two Preordains into Brainstorms for that broken Legacy feel, but I feel that 4 "tapped" (since Barrens requires you to pay 1 for the Landcycling) lands is the absolute maximum the deck can afford to run. I'd want to run a 3rd Daze too, since the card plays really well with Foil.
Hmm, I personally didn't really consider Foil a viable option for us due to the relatively high cost for its 'free' casting.Maybe I should test a Gush/Foil list. Also, how are you finding the lack of Apostle's Blessing?
Foil's casting is not as high as it seems, since unlike Tribe Combo we don't need to discard the cards to win and thus it doesn't conflict with our game plan (plus I'd rather crash for 14ish damage and finish with Bolts + another strike while protecting the threat than let it die)
Haven't taken the list to a LGS yet as this past weekend it was all about UMA drafting and Modern and I don't play MTGO, but in my testing sessions it only stings a bit. Daze, Foil and Mutagenic Growth have been more than capable of protecting the main threats (Skred only kills Kiln Fiend when they're on 4+ lands and not on the key turns 2-3, although Galvanic Blast kills it always). Getting through for the damage has been trickier since we don't have a way to make the creatures unblockable now, but the damage done from an early Delver alongside Bolts for removal and reach make pushing damage through with Trample feasible enough. However, I've found that rather than going all-in, staying resilient and keeping shields up while cantripping and searching for what we need while hitting for 7 damage leads me to more wins than just rushing through the damage in a single step.
The thing I disliked about Blessing was that awkward situation when you needed it to make your dude unblockable but at the same time a removal spell in response (or coming from a different color) killed your guy. I'll report as soon as I register for a tournament, but if blockers are still an issue, a third copy of Battle Rage isn't that crazy. I'm starting with 2 though, since a lot of card draw and cantripping are very good at finding you one and you usually only need that one.
There's definitely some choices in there that I wouldn't make, but you can't argue with results. Maindeck Dispels kind of make sense given the popularity of Izzet Delver lately, but going down to only two bolts, playing four Battle Rage and the singletons Brainstorm and Vapor Snag all seem to me like very unorthodox choices. I'm beginning to see that there's wiggle room for Foil though.
Finally cut down on Brainstorm due to it sucking every time I didn't have an Ash Barrens out. I'll see how it plays without Apostle's Blessing, which is my main gripe with this configuration, but I suppose it'll be alright. Cut down on one land for the third Daze. Also now that I'm not running Brainstorm anymore I'm thinking about cutting a Barrens and a Mountain for two Swiftwater Cliffs.
Immolating Souleater is far too easy to kill (remember that he'd be your first artifact in the deck) and costs far too much life to make an attempt at a win - it costs 18 life to pump him big enough for Temur Battle Rage to be a kill. For the existing wincons that pump just requires you to cast 2 spells. You don't want to pay 6 life to avoid casting Ponder, you like casting Ponder.
I can't find anybody winning tournaments with Brute Force in their deck. The whole point is to play creatures that pump themselves, so your spells don't need to be pumps.
The gold standard for the deck is 4 each Delver of Secrets, Kiln Fiend, and Nivix Cyclops, usually with some other creatures in the SB when you need the count to go up.
The only reason the thread title includes the word Dragonaut is because I really love the name. Nobody plays him anymore, because his pump is too weak to kill with. See the OP for the math about that.
The extra creatures that live in the sideboard are usually there for fighting MBC, where you just need a way to stick it out while fighting Chainer's Edict. That's why you see Stormbound Geist, or occasionally Mogg War Marshal - it's just got to be something that can eat a lot of sacrifice effects. In a pinch, they can also attack for damage.
4 Delver of Secretss
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivix Cyclops
Sorcery (14)
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
2 Slip through Space
Instant (17)
4 Lightning Bolt
3 Gush
3 Temur Battle Rage
3 Apostle's Blessing
2 Daze
2 Mutagenic Growth
2 Swiftwater Cliffs
2 Evolving Wilds
8 Island
5 Mountain
4 Pyroblast
3 Mogg War Marshal
2 Hydroblast
2 Spell Pierce
2 Flaring Pain
2 Electrickery
I've been loving both Daze and Mutagenic Growth as they offer both a great deal of added resiliency to the deck, and add to the critical mass of free spells. Countering your own stuff with Daze and then paying the 1 mana tax is a neat situational trick that has won me some games I had no business winning.
I miss a playset of good old Chain Lightning though, since it gives me a fallback plan of burn + Delver beats alongside Lightning Bolt if Plan A fails. What do you guys suggest?
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
On a side note, I must have played against four different decks running a snow mana base and Skred. That card really seems to have taken off in the past few months. I'm not sure whether that's a path this deck wants to take, but I might playtest it in the future.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivix Cyclops
Buffs
3 Artful Dodge
3 Assault Strobe
2 Shadow Slash
Protection
4 Apostle's Blessing
1 Spell Pierce
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
Land
3 Swiftwater Cliffs
9 Island
7 Mountain
3 Hydroblast
3 Pyroblast
3 Spell Pierce
2 Electrickery
2 Flaring Pain
2 Dispel
Match 1 (UB Reanimator):
Game one I dodged a serious bullet on turn one. I was on the play, and turn one Gitaxian Probe showed me Doom Blade, Counterspell and, more importantly, Striped Riverwinder and Exhume. That led me to Ponder, finding my sole main deck Spell Pierce. Sure enough he cycles the Riverwinder on turn one and tries to Exhume it on turn two. After that I drew enough gas to outlast his countermagic and removal and finish him in relatively short order.
Sideboard: 4x Lightning Bolt, 1x Ponder, 1x Preordain out, 2x Dispel, 3x Pyroblast in.
I was worried that he'd side in Edicts, but he later revealed he did not have any. This game was a bit of a train wreck for him. He got stuck on a single swamp, and every Ponder and Preordain I cast found more gas. Eventually he was desperate enough to Exhume for a Mulldrifter, which ate a Pyroblast on the following turn before I killed him with the Nivix Cyclops his Exhume got back for me.
Match 2: Elves
A Gitaxian Probe on the draw showed me a hand full of forests and elves, including a Wellwisher and an Essence Warden. They both came down on turn two off of a turn one Elvish Mystic but the Wellwisher ate a bolt end of turn. After that I went off unopposed on turn four.
Sideboard: 2x Delver of Secrets out, 2x Electrickery in.
I considered sideboarding against an assumed Moment's Peace, but decided against it. Thankfully he never saw them. He had a very explosive start and I didn't see any removal, which got me to the situation where I untapped with five land and a Kiln Fiend in play, and an empty hand. Thankfully the Gitaxian Probe topdeck found Assault Strobe, which with a flashbacked Artful Dodge gave me the damage I needed to power through his Wellwisher, as he was at 10 life with an untapped one in play. I dodged multiple bullets in that game.
Match 3: UR Delver
Going into the final round we were the only players at 2-0. He started on the play, and when his Terramorphic Expanse found a Snow-Covered Island at the end of my first turn I knew I was in trouble. I flailed around a bit in this game but never found enough gas to get past the four Skreds he drew.
Sideboard: Out 1x Spell Pierce, 1x Delver of Secrets, 1x Ponder, 1x Preordain, 1x Kiln Fiend, 1x Nivix Cyclops, 1x Ponder, 1x Preordain. In: 3x Hydroblast, 3x Pyroblast, 2x Dispel.
The second game my deck fired on pretty much all cylinders, to the point where he had to bounce both his islands for a Gush to find answers. I had more threats than he had answers for, making this a rare game win against what's probably my worst matchup by far.
Game three was probably one of the most intense pauper games I ever played. We both had turn one Delvers, which flipped on turn two and traded beats. Beyond that, we both struggled to resolve anyone, as he had sideboarded in pretty much the same spells against me. Any attempted interaction from either side was fought over tooth and nail. Eventually he managed to stick a Spellstutter Sprite, which put him ahead enough. In a last ditch effort I tried to resolve an Assault Strobe on my Delver when he was at nine life and I was at six. I lost the counter war following that and he threw a Pyroblast on my Delver immediately afterwards to make the game unwinnable for me.
There are a few reasons for this (like this deck having 8 combo threats instead of just 4), but the main one will be that they always want a full grip to go all in on Tribe, making it more awkward for them to make use of Foil, whereas we only care about casting spells for a bonus.
Having such a bevy of free spells makes the good old Delver of Secrets + Lightning Bolt complementary plan not only better that the Augur of Bolas that people have been playing lately, but it also becomes a rock solid plan B since we will be able to apply a lot of pressure backed up by Tempo plays and have burn as reach to top it off. Here's the list I will be running once UMA enters the format:
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivix Cyclops
Land (18)
4 Ash Barrens
9 Island
5 Mountain
Sorcery (10)
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Preordain
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Temur Battle Rage
3 Mutagenic Growth
2 Daze
4 Gush
3 Foil
2 Brainstorm
4 Pyroblast
3 Hydroblast
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Flaring Pain
2 Electrickery
2 Mogg War Marshal
With the amount of free permission and protection we're running, all the cantrips ensuring our consistency and Burn + Delver pressuring life totals alongside the combo, our matchup against heavy interactive decks has vastly improved. From the board, a few Blasts to win counter wars and kill pesky permanents, Flaring Pain to counter Moment's Peace and Prismatic Strands, and Mogg War Marshal to eat edicts against Black decks, we shouldn't have that much trouble anymore. Having so many free spells and card draw also means we can shave a Temur Battle Rage since we usually only need one to close a game anyways.
Kinda tempted to run more shuffle effects and turn those two Preordains into Brainstorms for that broken Legacy feel, but I feel that 4 "tapped" (since Barrens requires you to pay 1 for the Landcycling) lands is the absolute maximum the deck can afford to run. I'd want to run a 3rd Daze too, since the card plays really well with Foil.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Haven't taken the list to a LGS yet as this past weekend it was all about UMA drafting and Modern and I don't play MTGO, but in my testing sessions it only stings a bit. Daze, Foil and Mutagenic Growth have been more than capable of protecting the main threats (Skred only kills Kiln Fiend when they're on 4+ lands and not on the key turns 2-3, although Galvanic Blast kills it always). Getting through for the damage has been trickier since we don't have a way to make the creatures unblockable now, but the damage done from an early Delver alongside Bolts for removal and reach make pushing damage through with Trample feasible enough. However, I've found that rather than going all-in, staying resilient and keeping shields up while cantripping and searching for what we need while hitting for 7 damage leads me to more wins than just rushing through the damage in a single step.
The thing I disliked about Blessing was that awkward situation when you needed it to make your dude unblockable but at the same time a removal spell in response (or coming from a different color) killed your guy. I'll report as soon as I register for a tournament, but if blockers are still an issue, a third copy of Battle Rage isn't that crazy. I'm starting with 2 though, since a lot of card draw and cantripping are very good at finding you one and you usually only need that one.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivix Cyclops
Spells (31)
1 Brainstorm
2 Dispel
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Mutagenic Growth
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Vapor Snag
2 Apostle's Blessing
2 Daze
4 Temur Battle Rage
2 Gush
3 Evolving Wilds
9 Island
5 Mountain
2 Dispel
2 Electrickery
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Hydroblast
1 Outwit
2 Pyroblast
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Vapor Snag
1 Flaring Pain
There's definitely some choices in there that I wouldn't make, but you can't argue with results. Maindeck Dispels kind of make sense given the popularity of Izzet Delver lately, but going down to only two bolts, playing four Battle Rage and the singletons Brainstorm and Vapor Snag all seem to me like very unorthodox choices. I'm beginning to see that there's wiggle room for Foil though.
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Nivix Cyclops
Land (17)
4 Ash Barrens
8 Island
5 Mountain
Sorcery (12)
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Gush
3 Mutagenic Growth
3 Foil
3 Daze
2 Temur Battle Rage
4 Pyroblast
3 Hydroblast
2 Gorilla Shaman
2 Flaring Pain
2 Electrickery
2 Mogg War Marshal
Finally cut down on Brainstorm due to it sucking every time I didn't have an Ash Barrens out. I'll see how it plays without Apostle's Blessing, which is my main gripe with this configuration, but I suppose it'll be alright. Cut down on one land for the third Daze. Also now that I'm not running Brainstorm anymore I'm thinking about cutting a Barrens and a Mountain for two Swiftwater Cliffs.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!