MTG Salvation

So I have a problem... a serious serious problem..... I like magic. This is probably not surprising for all of us but it makes it hard on my play group because I build a lot of decks and buy a lot of singles whereas my friends do not

So in order to keep it competitive and so we don't push everyone out of playing I came up with the idea of going with pauper. Everyone agreed so here we are. This is my first pauper deck so I was just wondering if anyone would give me some feedback on the deck as a whole.



Any feedback is appreciated!

That deck is probably too slow to win games in pauper. We have a primer for mono black aggro you should go through, but highlights are: 4 carnophage, 4 vampire lacerator, 4 dauthi slayer, 4 dauthi horror, 4 dark ritual, 1 bonesplitter, 18 swamps as core. Dark ritual lets you dump your hand turn 1, and pauper lacks 2 damage sweepers so there is no downside. Some players add 4 lotus petals to speed the deck up, others add vehicles for better late game.

Here is my current list I play on MTGO. For paper if you allow Hymn to Tourach I would put those in over the sign in bloods, or in the side over duress.

How fast is pauper as a general format? I mean its all commons so I wouldn't think it would be too fast

Quote from kamakazi339 »

How fast is pauper as a general format? I mean its all commons so I wouldn't think it would be too fast

Pauper has always been extremely fast, but has been slowing down a little lately. Especially in paper pauper, you have Invigorate Infect, Storm, Mono Green Stompy, Suicide Black, Affinity, RDW, Bogles, Gruul and Burn speeding up the format. My deck is a Suicide Black deck, for instance, which is slower and weaker than many of the others but is fully legal online. In paper I play it with Hymn to Tourach.

So traditional aggro is a little pushed in the format, with lots of weenies running around getting hit with pump spells or getting their price reduced to nothing by artifact lands. Pauper aggro is about as fast as Modern's and much faster than Standards, and is very similar to decks from 1999 or so (weenie decks) instead of midrange decks. Most decks goldfish turn 4 consistently, and some of them turn 3 (Infect!).

To make up for the speed of pauper aggro, control is extremely powerful. These decks tend to empty the opponents hand or play draw go starting turn 3 or so, and play low numbers of efficient creatures. This has gone through a lot of modernization with the contribution of delve creatures recently and the downgrading of the Madness creatures like arrogant wurm. These still struggle to be meaningful in pauper, because until New World Order last year Wizards printed all of the best removal at common. Running any creature more than 2 mana is likely going to get it blown out by a doom blade/flame slash/snuff out/etc.

For control there are viable B, U, UR, and UB decks which deviate heavily based on whether you play online or in paper due to the recent banning of Peregrine Drake. Peregrine Drake makes the game very short indeed, as it has an infinite combo on turn 5. So even control was a turn 5 deck at the time.

There are also tempo decks that prey on aggro but lose to control, aka an entire field of delver decks. These utilize efficient creatures and removal in the 1-2 drop range and seek to kill the opponent before they can land meaningful threats, thus running themselves out of cards.

Pauper in general is very fast and interactive, with little room for decks which skip a turn waiting for lands or a removal spell. It plays much like late 1990s magic did, with aggro and control taking the top spots and midrange barely existing.

Card rarity does not have an effect on game speed. If anything the big factor in game speed is based on Meta. Certain formats might be slower because control is the top deck or faster if combo/aggro are top decks. Since you're playing with friends that have never played Pauper then you might get lucky and have a slow meta to play in then you'll have a decent deck.

Pauper is varied greatly, but if you aren't making major plays early on then every other deck will stabilize and beat you. You want your curve low for Mono-Black Aggro, so you don't want 4 cmc cards like Bloodhunter Bat and you want to limit your 3 cmc cards to maybe 4-6 cards in the deck. This will allow you to run 18 swamps comfortably and free up deck space for more important cards.

There's plenty of quality creatures for this deck. Check out the Primer like Tvtyrant said and you can find some great options. If you want a bigger threat for mid to late game then run a couple of Gurmag Angler since they can be cast for cheap.

Your spot removal is also very inefficient. 3 mana is bad for removal in any format. Regen isn't a deal in Pauper and I can't even think of a deck where I needed to hose it. Dark Banishing can be Doom Blade or Grasp of Darkness. Grasp is a good choice if you're still worried about regen since it ignores regen effects. Disfigure is way better than Cruel Finality, since the scry isn't that big a deal. Disembowel would be better off as Victim of Night or Geth's Verdict. Tyrant's Choice is also good since it's flexible with options, but I prefer my removal to be instant speed.

One more important card for this archetype is Sign in Blood. You usually dump your hand early but Sign in Blood is easily the best card advantage for black and it's one of the best in the format! It keeps you from running out of gas!

If you've been playing Magic for a while and buy a lot of singles then you should have most of these cards. If not then they're dirt cheap and readily available at card shops and online.

I forgot to mention that tron, 8 post and mystical teachings are all common so if a format skews towards control it leads to control topping, as teachings crushes control and 8 post crushes even teachings.

I would look at Upkeep's thread here for a good example of what pauper decks look like.

I expect my local format with my friends to be slower than turn 4 wins for sure. We are all just using what we have in collections so I implemented what I had in the 23k+ cards of my collection. I thought of doom blade but I also expect so see a lot of green from most of my group and green = regen. I will probably switch to doom blade though..... I went with disembowel because of green fatties......

I will have to drop the cmc curve it seems though. Sorry it took me so long to reply but i appreciate all of the help!!!!

If you are worried about regen then switching to Grasp of Darkness and Tragic Slip can go a long way and help improve your curve.