I am fascinated by the unique possibilities available.
My friends and I ventured into it by accident, and after our initial burst of UR Delver (mine) / Affinity (scary, seriously) / Infect (deadly) a whole slew of plans come to mind.
Ping.dec, Black.dec, Sliver.dec, Lifegain.dec, to name a few. It's crazy!
It seems the designers of this game were very, very strict about what could exist at common level. No sweepers. Rare 2-for-1 permanent card advantage (I've not found any yet). Several 'insane' cards, Delver+Mana Leak+Lightning Bolt+Cranial Plating.
BTW, Affinity (Pauper) is extremely dangerous.
Can... anyone.... make a control deck that works? I'd like to see one survive our gauntlet
yeah I believe UR 8post is pretty big. it uses blue and red control until it can drop a ulamog's crusher for the win. Also are you playing with the ban list from wizards? (cranial plating is banned) I've yet to see a pauper affinity deck perhaps I'll have to take a look.
Ah ok, yeah ban list seem to depend on the group. While I haven't finished converting it from Peasant to pauper I could also recommend my Moosebite list for a control deck that can hold up pretty well.
Affinity is pretty nasty, but it generally gets rocked by Delver, Post, and Weenie though.
In local testing this deck (in a first to 5) went,
2W/5L against my white weenie, 4W/5L against my infect, and 0W/5L against my delver. Nobody plays storm around my area so I don't know how it would fair against it.
Ah yeah I forgot Atog was first a common, then yeah I can see how affinity would get there. I was thinking the only really wins affinity would have in pauper would be cranial (banned) and disciple (useless without a sac outlet).
I would like to note though, that RATS in pauper is considered borderline playable at this current juncture. It is a tier 3 deck and its standing on a balancing rope unless someone can figure out some new tech to make it into tier 2+.
Granted though, for pauper casual it is a very fun deck to use.
RATS
4th Place at Magic Online Premier Event on 7/22/2012
[deck]
2W/5L against my white weenie, 4W/5L against my infect, and 0W/5L against my delver. Nobody plays storm around my area so I don't know how it would fair against it.
Affinity should do better than 0W/5L against delver imo. I beat it consistently on MTGO. I would say take out and/or take a lighter and burn in effigy the quicksilver behemoth. A 4/5 that attacks every 3 turns? How is that useful? Take out something else like an Atog (sounds crazy, I know - but with card advantage you'll draw them eventually). Put in a couple cards like rush of knowledge. You really need to be drawing more cards at some point in order to take advantage of affinity. Also, I think your deck might have too many mana producing artifacts. A plethora of mana artifacts doesn't really help you do anything special in this deck until you decide to use atog. You could use carapace forger in there, too. Affinity is aggro.
I am fascinated by the unique possibilities available.
That's both the beautiful thing and difficult thing about the pauper format. There are literally TONS of decks just waiting to be discovered. There are so many card choices! You just have to really, really be careful about the choices that you make.
Indeed, and we play with Cranial Plating. My friend just started with Memory Lapse as well. It's good.
Funny we'd start on mono black, that was my next effort. Blind Zealot has been useful, along with that Gravedigger and a whole bunch of removal, including those death touch rats. I even tried Rotting Fensnake, and it was shockingly not horrible. Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach are commons...
...what would be our Storm win cons, just Empty the Warrens?
Grapeshot, too. With lotus petals, draw cards, various red and black rituals, and the sac lands from Invasion, these decks can go off for two grapeshots to the face on turn 3 or 4 pretty consistently and sometimes faster.
(Some decks use shred memory in the main deck to tutor for grapeshots (and sometimes draw spells).)
In my experience Ulamog's Crusher tends to be too flimsy against basically any deck with black in it, or against red decks that saved up on removal.
I prefer to use Rolling Thunder to just deal 20+ damage to the face.
very true, but luckily my friends haven't really started playing black, they seem much happier in green which is why crusher just has a field day for me. And yes Mono black control is pretty nasty looking, if I had the spare parts I'd build it in a heart beat.
Standard Bearers are Flagbearer. It's their creature type.
True, but nobody plays Coalition Honor Guard in white weenie because of the huge CMC. So I was just clarifying which creature to limit confusion. After all, if someone plays a pump it hits both creatures, if someone plays a destruction it hits both creatures, so honestly because of the CMC there is no reason to play anything other than Standard bearer.
I could see running coalition honor guard if you were going for something slower and more defensive since it could eat burn up all day, but yeah unless you're looking for that small window Standard Bearer is the better choice.
My friends and I ventured into it by accident, and after our initial burst of UR Delver (mine) / Affinity (scary, seriously) / Infect (deadly) a whole slew of plans come to mind.
Ping.dec, Black.dec, Sliver.dec, Lifegain.dec, to name a few. It's crazy!
It seems the designers of this game were very, very strict about what could exist at common level. No sweepers. Rare 2-for-1 permanent card advantage (I've not found any yet). Several 'insane' cards, Delver+Mana Leak+Lightning Bolt+Cranial Plating.
BTW, Affinity (Pauper) is extremely dangerous.
Can... anyone.... make a control deck that works? I'd like to see one survive our gauntlet
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
The Affinity deck has been doing well with Frogmite, Hoverguard, and Myr Enforcer.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
I didn't realize Putrid Leech was a common. He definitely deserves a deck.
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
4 Frogmite
4 Myr Enforcer
4 Atog
4 Auriok Sunchaser
1 Quicksilver Behemoth
3 Somber Hoverguard
Lands (18)
4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Ancient Den
4 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
2 Vault of Whispers
4 Chromatic Star
4 Prophetic Prism
2 Springleaf Drum
2 Terrarion
2 Fling
4 Galvanic Blast
4 Thoughtcast
1 Nihil Spellbomb
3 Krark-Clan Shaman
2 Standard Bearer
1 Disenchant
3 Hydroblast
4 Pyroblast
1 Rain of Embers
Affinity is pretty nasty, but it generally gets rocked by Delver, Post, and Weenie though.
In local testing this deck (in a first to 5) went,
2W/5L against my white weenie, 4W/5L against my infect, and 0W/5L against my delver. Nobody plays storm around my area so I don't know how it would fair against it.
W White Weenie
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
monoblack control exists, using crypt rats, coumbajj witches, and geth's verdict as well as a LOT of discard
I would like to note though, that RATS in pauper is considered borderline playable at this current juncture. It is a tier 3 deck and its standing on a balancing rope unless someone can figure out some new tech to make it into tier 2+.
Granted though, for pauper casual it is a very fun deck to use.
RATS
4th Place at Magic Online Premier Event on 7/22/2012
2 Augur of Skulls
4 Chittering Rats
3 Crypt Rats
4 Fume Spitter
4 Phyrexian Rager
Lands (22)
14 Snow-Covered Swamp
4 Barren Moor
4 Polluted Mire
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
3 Dead Weight
4 Geth's Verdict
1 Grim Harvest
1 Snuff Out
3 Spinning Darkness
4 Sign in Blood
4 Unearth
2 Nihil Spellbomb
4 Liliana's Specter
1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi
1 Reaping the Graves
3 Distress
4 Duress
W White Weenie
Affinity should do better than 0W/5L against delver imo. I beat it consistently on MTGO. I would say take out and/or take a lighter and burn in effigy the quicksilver behemoth. A 4/5 that attacks every 3 turns? How is that useful? Take out something else like an Atog (sounds crazy, I know - but with card advantage you'll draw them eventually). Put in a couple cards like rush of knowledge. You really need to be drawing more cards at some point in order to take advantage of affinity. Also, I think your deck might have too many mana producing artifacts. A plethora of mana artifacts doesn't really help you do anything special in this deck until you decide to use atog. You could use carapace forger in there, too. Affinity is aggro.
That's both the beautiful thing and difficult thing about the pauper format. There are literally TONS of decks just waiting to be discovered. There are so many card choices! You just have to really, really be careful about the choices that you make.
It really is. With the right affinity deck, it should be a formidable opponent to many decks in the format.
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Funny we'd start on mono black, that was my next effort. Blind Zealot has been useful, along with that Gravedigger and a whole bunch of removal, including those death touch rats. I even tried Rotting Fensnake, and it was shockingly not horrible. Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach are commons...
...what would be our Storm win cons, just Empty the Warrens?
Overall record: 139-98-15
Total number of matches: 252
Win percentage ignoring draws: 58.649789
Win percentage including draws: 55.158730
(Some decks use shred memory in the main deck to tutor for grapeshots (and sometimes draw spells).)
Just Grapeshot is the best for TPPS. UR Storm uses Warrens, but it's a worse deck IMO.
This is my list I run as my main Pauper deck right now:
4 Geothermal Crevice
4 Sulfur Vent
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lotus Petal
4 Manamorphose
4 Ideas Unbound
4 Sign in Blood
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Compulsive Research
2 Faithless Looting
2 Shred Memory
4 Chromatic Star
2 Chromatic Sphere
4 Duress
1 Echoing Decay
2 Flaring Pain
3 Echoing Truth
3 Pyroblast
2 Deep Analysis
Sadly, you can't play Hymn to Tourach in MTGO pauper because it has only been printed as an Uncommon in the Masters Edition.
Would be really sweet in a lot of black decks, too.
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very true, but luckily my friends haven't really started playing black, they seem much happier in green which is why crusher just has a field day for me. And yes Mono black control is pretty nasty looking, if I had the spare parts I'd build it in a heart beat.
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
You mean Standard Bearer?
Such a staple in white weenie ;p
W White Weenie
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur:
True, but nobody plays Coalition Honor Guard in white weenie because of the huge CMC. So I was just clarifying which creature to limit confusion. After all, if someone plays a pump it hits both creatures, if someone plays a destruction it hits both creatures, so honestly because of the CMC there is no reason to play anything other than Standard bearer.
W White Weenie
Legacy:
RGWBUDredgeUBWGR
:symrg:Belcher:symrg:
WD&TW
Affinity
WGriffinsW (pauper)
U/thopter comboU/ (peasant)
:symbg:Moosebite:symbg: (peasant)
RGobo tokensR (peasant)
R slide R (peasant)
:symur:pingers:symur: