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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Correcting myself, 3-3. Thalia does make Soul Foundry uncastable, which matters only in the event Thalia gets cast before Soul Foundry. Which is only when I am on the play. Otherwise wolves eat my flesh.
V1 6-0 Thalia makes Foundry uncastable.
V2 0-6 3 lands lets Boom overcome the Thalia tax; Eng'd explosives is useless; Megaliths hits hellbent and Thalia is toasted.
V3 6-0 Engineered Explosives for X=0 are fodder for the first Crack the Earth and Thalia lands before any chance of a second one. Thalia outraces/outclasses Memnite (or simply stands defense as Inkmoth wins)
V4 6-0 Thalia shuts down Beast Within; Inkmoth wins by poison making Elixir lifegain irrelevant.
V5 0-6 Same deck as mine except Path instread of Eng'd Explosives. Path makes all the difference.
V6 0-6 Eng'd Explosives can Wrath the Thopter swarm once but once isn't enough.
V7 3-3 When I'm on the play Thalia lands on my T2 and then Inkmoth attacks every turn as Thalia stays home to block. On the draw Thalia is vetoed first instead.
V8 6-0 Engineered Explosives for X=0 pops Howlpack Alpha and all its wolves. Thalia holds off Mutavault after wolves go extinct, Inkmoth wins
V9 6-0 Thalia makes Anger of the Gods uncastable; with it uncastable Megaliths never hits Hellbent. Thalia stays home to block Mage while Inkmoth attacks - when Mage sacs to nuke a land, Thalia takes over attacking duties and wins.
V11 3-3 When I'm on the play Thalia lands on my T2 and then Inkmoth attacks every turn as Thalia stays home to block. On the draw Thalia is vetoed or plucked first instead.
606600366x3
No, my X=0 Engineered Explosives get cracked instead. And by the time you recurse it I have Thalia in play and you can't even cast Crack anymore. 0-6.
I'm starting to take this personally, Whamme. That's five of the past six rounds that we've both participated in, your initial score against me had to be re-adjusted downwards.
In earlier days, failure to reveal your morph would cause you to lose your NEXT game. So you could lose Game 1, fail to reveal your morph while mopping up your game 1, and thus be awarded a loss of game 2 (and thus the match) before even beginning game 2.
They fixed that by (until this most recent change rendered it all moot) making the game-loss-for-failure-to-reveal only apply to the game just ended. So if you had won it but failed to reveal that win was turned to a loss. If you had lost that game, you weren't further punished - your loss wasn't doubled.
My playdown as I see it:
v1: 6-0 My t4 Ajani Vengeant locks down the Inkmoth the next time it attacks (it can't attack before T3 so it isn't especially close to lethal poison when Ajani lands), accrues loyalty forever, blows away all lands, and then kills.
v2: 6-0 If Hypergensis doesn't happen my win is trivial. But because I know it has to happen, I let Hypergenesis happen and play out my hand (Ajani on my own turn with mana from my Genesis'ed out Lotus Bloom). Deck2 really has to kill Ajani to have a hope, which means swinging both creatures at Ajani and losing one to the Gargodon as the other kills Ajani. Gargodon wins the ensuing damage race though (killing in two swings after shortlived Ajani's 3-bolt).
v3: 6-0 Gargodon and Bloom suspends on T1, Ajani lands on T4. D3 can cast either Shrine or Bridge on T3 and the other on T4. When I'm on the play Ajani locks down land from T4 until safe armageddon then wins. When I'm on the draw, Ajani can't lock down a land unless D3 casts both Shrine AND Bridge. So D3 just casts Shrine then we build up counters for a while ... until eventually I armageddon, Shrine responds killing Ajani, and then Gargodon mops up. D3 never has the window to safely cast Bridge (or else dies to Ajani outright).
v4: 2-2 Plays like the v2 above except Quicksand gives d4 the means to kill while blocking my Gargodon with a single Chancellor, preventing my Gargodon from attacking and ensuring a draw.
v5: 2-2 Meddling Mage names Lotus Bloom and attacks on turns 2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9. My Gargodon is suspended on T1 and lands with haste on my T10 (I sac the mountain to speed things up). It would take 3 attacks for Gargodon to kill, and I can't afford to let Meddling Mage counterattack because that would kill me. Draw. (Stun Sniper as an alternate play is a nonstarter as Ajani would eat that alive).
v6: 0-6 Thrun and Ajani both land on T4. Thrun kills Ajani with his first attack, and me shortly thereafter. Even if there were to be a any question as to whether I could survive long enough for Gargodon to land, Path to Exile makes that moot.
v7: 0-6 Researchers are fully conscripted before Ajani can do anything about it.
v8: 0-6 Path awaits Gargodon, Meddling Mage bans Ajani or Lotus Bloom, Mage wins.
66622000x strictly average to marginally below, despite having swept the #1 and #2 decks.
IMHO I do sweep Hypergenesis deck 2 because it doesn't have a way to bridge the gap between my 9/7 and its 6/7, but you and your Quicksand does.
I think you underscored yourself vs Thrun in deck 6 as well. Deck 6 can only path one of your chancellors - the other one surely outraces a Thrun that can only regenerate once.
1. Have a modern PC with VMWare or other such virtualization software, running a virtual machine of an older OS, older hardware, and with the desired older software installed therein.
2. Use a remote-desktop software like Splashtop on your modern tablet to control the desktop of your modern PC and, with it, the VM of the older machine. It will display to your tablet whatever is showing on the PC screen and will relay tablet touches to the PC (and thus the VM) as mouse clicks at that position.
explanations for:
10. thatmarkguy
Swamp / Muvatault / Evil Presence / Ratchet Bomb
Blackcleave Cliffs / The Rack / Stromkirk Noble / Cry of Contrition
0-6; Stromkirk alone wrecks me because Mutavault can't block - if I pop Stromkirk with Bomb, then the Rack lands and outraces my Mutavault.
2. WhammeWhamme
Mental Misstep / Lotus Bloom / Lotus Bloom / Frost Titan
6-0; Ratchet Bomb pops Blooms in upkeep they land, they never produce mainphase mana.
3. NemataGG
Chancellor of the Tangle / Chancellor of the Tangle / Chancellor of the Tangle / Hypergenesis
0-6. Bomb doesn't get to 7 counters before death.
4. Heinsun
Mutavault / Cavern of Souls / Mayor of Avabruck / Phyrexian Revoker
0-6. Too many threats, and Revoker keeps my Bomb from popping all the 2s.
5. kliate
Island / Mental Misstep / Spell Snare / Memnite
6-0. Mutavault outraces Memnite, I don't even need to try to cast spells.
6. Pharmalade
Plains / Angel's Grace / Pact of the Titan / Pact of the Titan
6-0. Plains becomes Swamp my turn after it enters play, so won't be providing that upkeep white mana it needs for Grace.
7. drwho42
Plains / Island / Path to Exile / Deft Duelist
6-0. Attack with Mutavault until Plains lands. Make Plains a Swamp to ensure Path never hits an animated Mutavault. Ratchet bomb for 2 to clear the Duelist.
8. keyboardmash
Mutavault / Plains / Mental Misstep / Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1-4. When I'm on the play, I can land Ratchet Bomb before Thalia makes it unafforable, then can use it to nuke Thalia if needed. Mutavaults hold each other off forever (and Misstep stops me from neutering opposing Mutavault). When I'm on the draw, T2 Thalia strands Ratchet Momb in hand and wins.
9. Sand_Crab
Darksteel Citadel / Dimir Aqueduct / Thopter Foundry / Sword of the Meek
6-0. Evil Presence lands on tapped Dimir Aqueduct and deck never has the blue mana to cast Thopter Foundry.
11. tomsloger
Cavern of Souls / Inkmoth Nexus / Simian Spirit Guide / Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
0-6. T1 Thalia strands Ratchet Bomb in hand.
12. mqj
Treetop Village / Golgari Rot Farm / Pithing Needle / Maelstrom Pulse
2-2, description in preceding post
updated to spreadsheet
mqj's play is 1. Treetop Village (tapped), 2. (could play Pithing Needle then) Golgari Rot Farm, 3. Treetoop Village again, and from T4 unopposed could cast Maelstrom Pulse or start attacking with the Village.
My play, I can Evil Presence either land while it's tapped (it's unwise for me to presence the Village before Rot Farm enters play, obv), and an un-needled Ratchet Bomb can blow away the Needle (if the needle was pinning down my Mutavault), but if I do this after playing Evil Presence it'll also remove the Evil Presence. Which would free up the otherwise neutered Treetop Village.
So mqj's real decision points are (A) Play the needle T2 naming Mutavault, (B) Play the needle T2 naming Ratchet Bomb, or (C) don't play the needle at all on T2 and save it in hand for later.
If A, my Bomb will destroy Needle before Maelstrom can get it, then Evil Presence lands on Rot Farm for the win.
If B, my Evil Presence lands on Rot Farm for the win.
If C, I play my Ratchet Bomb and get a counter on it asap, and mqj starts attacking with the treetop village. mqj gets ahead on any damage race so I'm eventually obligated to play Evil Presence on the Rot Farm. Then mqj plays Pithing Needle naming Mutavault and we stalemate, as popping the Bomb would resume the losing damage race.
That's where I got my 2-2, but I feel I may have missed something...
I think Whamme misscored against me again though (a now-weekly occurrence!). Listed in Whamme's row as 6-0, but my Ratchet Bomb can blow up the 0-CMC Blooms the upkeep they enter play and make sure they never make it to a main phase to be able to be used to cast the Titan.
I also believe Rush underscored vs me, as I think it's 6-0 Rush, not 4-1 - if you thought my Mutavault could hold off your Stromkirk Noble, it can't - it's a filthy human.
That's how I thought it too but some kind soul pointed out in a spreadsheet note how it works for me - as long as I do Rats first on my T1 (and you discard Barren Glory), then on my T2 I cast Horrifying Revelation. That mill clause of HR makes it so that even if you put the Barren Glory atop your library in response, HR will just mill it back into your grave when it resolves. Making me quite glad I went with Horrifying Revelation over other 1-cost discards like Cry of Contrition, Raven's Crime, or Mire's Toll.
I've got it as 3-3. When I'm on the play, I'll cast Ravenous Rats on T1. You have to pitch something. Assuming you want to fire elixir at some point you probably want to hold your lands and the elixir so you pitch beast within. On your turn you play... Darksteel Citadel and Elixir, likely. Then on my T2 I play my other discard spell and away goes your Simic Growth Chamber.
Elixir costs 2 to activate. There's no way your Simic Growth Chamber lands (permanently) when I'm on the play and I can make you discard twice before your second turn. Unless all you play is lands and you pitch your Elixir, which is also a win for me.
When you're on the play you've got me. The best I can do is getting rid of your elixir after one Beast Within firing (1. Citadel Elixir - Rats cause you to discard Beast; 2. SGT bounce Citadel - I do nothing; 3. You fire elixir and shuffle, I choose the 'random' result of Beast on top, you draw and cast Beast - I HorrifyRev the Elixir off your deck into grave), as your 3/3 beast overwhelms my 1/1 rat.
My thinking is that versions of this deck that run a lot of 'free' cards like Land Grant, Invigorate, Mutagenic Growth, and Bounty of the Hunt can very quickly have quite a number of cards in the grave as Delve fuel (and the deck could be made to run forestfetches if further delve fuel was desired). Rogue Elephant builds also make delve fuel. (of course this flavor of deck would have to reject Dryad Militant).
Of course, too many Delve cards just get in each others' way - which is another reason why Bounty of the Hunt works well here, you could pitch excess green delve cards as Bounty cost.
I'm trying out two Mandrills in an LLS build I'm tweaking today, we'll see if they land in good time or not.