Thanks for posting this. I've had this, uh, 'discussion' with a number of shops that had proposed to launch Pauper nights and I try to ask them "MTGO rules or actual-paper printed rarity", they go "Whatever, if it was ever a common it's good unless it's on the banlist, if it was bad it'd be on the banned list", I explain "Hymn and Sinkhole aren't on the MTGO banned list because they're not MTGO commons..." "Whatever, man. We'll see how it plays out." Yeah, I already know how this plays out.
I don't want to bring a deck with Hymns and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (not on the MTGO pauper valids list). I don't want to bring a deck with Chainer's Edicts and get in arguments with the faction that thinks they're illegal in paper pauper (never printed as paper commons). I don't want to bring a deck that resists using either flavor of corner case and then face decks all evening that didn't hold themselves to the same deckbuilding restrictions. I want a show-runner who gives a damn enough to make it clear to all players what the cardpool is; ideally, I want the organization that handles all the other formats (including the online version of Pauper) to actually give a damn enough to codify a ruleset for paper pauper. But for some reason they never do.
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- thatmarkguy
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It's not Remove Soul because it's not Remove Soul. There are thousands of cards this isn't. Remove Soul is one of them.
My 'mirror' was not playing by any sort of 75% rule, I'll tell you that much. Dark Confidant, ABUR duals, Zendifetches... I got trounced. In the idle time after my being thumped he looked through my deck to offer suggestions for improvement, and his suggestion was that I pull out the outlast / +1-synergy set and replace em with cards more individually competitive. I think my suggestion for myself is just to stop showing up at organized TL events unless I'm willing to start buying the over-$50 cards (which is to say, never - my most valuable card in deck was an under-$20 whitebordered Sylvan Library).
I did wind up winning a later round largely on the back of my +1-synergy set. Oona's Blackguard attacking with other creatures that have +1/+1 counters was helpful.
As for your deck, my only strong suggestion is to nuke Rally the Ancestors. Bad card is bad. Did you mean Return to the Ranks? Similar effect only it actually helps your deck's plan of creating an attacking army, and not just a blocking trick.
I ran a few more sweepers than you did. Toxic Deluge, Pernicious Deed, Crypt Rats, and Gaze of Granite maindeck, with Infest, Ratchet Bomb, and Golgari Charm in sideboard. Golgari Charm does a lot of nice lifting here - can wipe out all pesky 1-tougness creatures when that's needed, or can regenerate your entire army when you either face a mass destroy or damage effect, or want to save your dudes from your own such effect.
Also, uh, what would they do in this deck? This deck doesn't win by damage, it wins by decking. It doesn't need attackers because it's not aiming to reduce the opponents to 0 life. It doesn't need blockers because every time any relevant attack is incoming it's fogged. And it sure doesn't need to turn the opponent's instant speed creature removal from dead cards into land destruction.
Rakshasa Deathdealer merits consideration here too. I presently have both RD and Lotleth in my Anafenza deck; Putrid Leech was in the prospective cardpool when it was at around 50 nonlands but didn't survive the rounds of pruning that folllowed.
I hate Mana Leak in this deck. If your deck works they'll have an abundance of mana, you want to hard counter the spell that might disrupt what you're doing, not tax it.
I've found when your deck is working, combat creatures aren't threats (they're getting fogged away anyway), so you really need to counter those noncreature threats (be they things that would kill you or disrupt your foglock) - so the aforementioned Negate is great. I've run Jace's Erasure in a build like this but really you just need one card to make sure your opponent draws out before you do, so whether that's Jace's Erasure or Elixir of Immortality/Psychic Spiral is a judgment and convenience call. Some utility creatures (creatures that are problems even without attacking) could be pains so turning them into vanillas is always nice - a sideboard with Rapid Hybridization / Pongify / Reality Shift turn those nonvanilla nasties into easily fogged vanillas. Beast Within does a whole lot more for you in terms of wiping any permanent, but at ~$2 per it may push your budget. I had fun with Aetherize in my build, but that was before Aetherspouts was an option.
Rites of Flourishing is an inexpensive card that helps your turbo draw plan. Temple Bell even cheaper.
There are at least two more dependent on deck flavor:
~Adds a card to your graveyard for 'free', providing fuel for a Delve spell like the Become Immense Obermeir is running, or the Hooting Mandrills I'm running.
~Can provide fixing in a Gx deck, because it can find any forest card, which means it can find your forest-and-something-else dual of choice.
Of course, monogreen builds with no delve cards don't benefit from either of these.
Can you? In my playdown I had you still falling short.
1. Forest, Scout
1. ITB
2. Forest, Sylvan
2. Attack with ITB, you sacrifice... both forests, I presume. Saccing either nonland is clearly a dead end.
3. Draw 3 mountains, play 2 of them.
3. Attack with ITB. You once again seemingly have to sacrifice your two lands.
I don't see how you ever get the 3 lands in play to even cast Seismic Assault, without losing either your multi-land-draw means or your multi-land-play means, either of which cause you to get run out of permanents long before you could throw six lands in a single turn.
(edit) Aha, I figured it out. You are gaining one land in hand per turn through all those waves of me attacking and you drawing three - playing two - saccing two lands, until eventually when you have 6 lands and SA in hand, you can sac Sylvan and Scout to Annihilator (keeping two mountains in play), draw and play your third Mountain, seismic assault, and throw six lands at ITB. Of course by this point you are way below zero life and I've got all your sacced land, Sylvan, Scout, and a life total greater than zero.
So, 4-1 is right, I'll amend my line.
When you play... I originally thought you win, you thought we tie, but now I start to think I win.
1. You play Island Crypt Ertai
1. I play land LED then flashback Unburial Rites and get It That Betrays into play before you have Ertai up for countering.
2. Mana Crypt pings you. Play land. You hardcast Capsize without buyback to put ITB back in my hand. And attack.
2. I play land.
3. Mana Crypt pings you. Play land. Attack with Ertai.
3. I play land.
...
12. Mana Crypt pings you. Play land. Opt not to attack with Ertai so you can counter ITB if I try to cast it.
12. I play land. I don't cast ITB so that you once again have to keep Ertai at home.
13. Mana Crypt pings you. Play land. Opt not to attack with Ertai so you can counter ITB if I try to cast it.
13. I play land. I don't cast ITB so that you once again have to keep Ertai at home.
...
Eventually we both have the mana to bring down the Siege (you before me, but that's no matter as your Ertai stopped being able to hurt me after 10 swings). Your Mana Crypt has long since reduced your life below 0 while mine is still above 0.
I don't think there's a better line of play. You can't hold out long enough to buyback Capsize (ITB attacks for Annihilator 2 and 11 damage on my T2, you can't get to 6 mana). You need to Capsize my ITB fast or it'll 'kill' you (deprive you of permanents, wiping out your newest land and one other permanent each swing) fast. Then your Ertai stops being a wincon as soon as it needs to be ready to counter the capsized It That Betrays, which is before it's dealt lethal to me.
I don't get killed by an It That Betrays'ed Mana Crypt either. "1.6. A cost or effect that would produce a random result produces the result that least benefits the player who paid the cost or the owner of the source of the effect instead."
Even after I get control of it, you're still the owner of the source, so the coin flips land in my favour.
9 | 3 3 6 6 3 3 3 6 6 3 6 4 6 6 6 3 6 X
X | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | Disputes
1 | X 2 0 6 6 2 2 2 6 6 6 2 2 6 2 2 6 6 2 | 4, 6, 9, 10, 14, 18
2 | 2 X 2 2 6 6 2 6 2 6 6 2 6 2 2 2 6 6 2 | 13, 18
3 | 6 2 X 0 6 6 6 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 6 2 2 | 8, 13,
4 | 2 2 6 X 6 6 2 0 0 2 6 2 0 6 2 6 6 2 2 | 1, 7, 10, 14
5 | - - - - X - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
6 | 0 0 0 0 0 X 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 | 1, 18, 19
7 | 2 2 2 6 2 6 X 2 2 2 6 2 2 2 2 2 6 2 2 | 4
8 | 2 0 2 6 6 6 2 X 6 2 6 6 2 6 0 0 6 2 0 | 3
9 | 2 2 6 6 6 6 2 0 X 6 6 6 4 2 6 6 6 6 2 | 1, 13
0 | 2 0 6 0 2 6 2 2 0 X 6 2 2 2 2 6 6 6 2 | 1, 4, 13, 14
1 | 0 0 6 0 0 6 0 0 0 ? X 2 0 0 0 0 ? 6 ? |
2 | - - - - - - - - - - - X - - - - - - - |
3 | 2 2 1 6 2 6 2 2 3 6 6 4 X 2 0 0 6 6 2 | 2, 3, 9, 10, 15, 19
4 | 2 2 6 2 6 6 2 0 2 6 6 2 2 X 2 6 6 6 2 | 1, 4, 10, 18
5 | 2 2 6 2 6 6 2 6 0 2 6 2 3 2 X 2 6 6 2 | 13
6 | 2 2 6 0 6 6 2 6 0 0 6 2 6 0 2 X 6 6 2 |
7 | - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - X - - |
8 | 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 0 0 0 2 0 2 0 0 6 X 0 | 1, 2, 6, 14
9 | 2 2 2 2 6 2 2 6 2 2 6 2 4 2 2 2 2 6 X | 6, 13