I'm not that excited about Brawl as standard, but I am very excited about Historic Brawl fights. Block vs. Block has always been my favorite format, although it is not very popular. Frontier Brawl also seems pretty cool.
I am glad there is a big movement away from tutors and cantrips though. One of the goals of singleton is less consistency, sticking 20 tutors in a deck defeats that purpose.
if we could get swarmyard downshifted this would suddenly be a great deck. Free regeneration would make a big difference in fixing the removal issue.
Slivers isn't very good and their creatures are cheaper, more cumulative and have actual effects so it will take some new synergies for this to be decent.
Relentless Rats is unfortunate in that it requires the other card to be named Relentless Rats to count, and not just be a rat.
Their efficiency is pretty bad in pauper. In pauper 4/4s cost about 2 to be competive(wight of precinct 6, Myr Enforcer, Carapace Forger, werebear, etc). 1-2 mana beaters are dominant, anything over that also provides card advantage.
Getting 1 into play it is 2 power below par, two is 1 power, three is coming close to even, and only getting four on the field can you actually pull ahead.
So for Relentless Rats to work you need to be able to get one more out every turn and be resistant to disruption while you do it, or get a ton out the first turn and kill before the opponent can do anything. I think the dominaria rat is going to be better at 2 mana and able to work with rat tribal, relentless rats seems just too slow and fragile.
Including Scavenger has made the deck much better against control decks, and Wight is still amazing against aggro. The deck has a very good chance of going shriekhorn/memory sluice t1 into t2 scavenger/angler/tarmowight.
This would radically change the format as well as make understanding what is and isn't legal extremely complicated. adding unnecessary complexity sounds like a bad idea.
While, I agree it would radically change the format, dismissing the idea because you think it's complicated signals to me you are against change over anything else. Furthermore, to suggest that the idea is complex is an exaggeration. Complexity, suggests that my idea is intricate and consists of many moving parts. My proposed metric for card legality basically says "when was the card last printed? what was its rarity for that printing?" To me, that seems like a very straightforward process.
Magic on the other hand, is actually a very complex game (as I am sure you are aware). Yet many people understand the game and play it without issue.
Now if I said that, every common, that also has a printing at uncommon is restricted, and if it's 3rd printing is also uncommon it's banned. While if it's printing after being printed an uncommon, is common, it is unrestricted. And finally if it was every printed at rare, it's banned outright. That to me seems "complex".
Everyone should be against complexity for its own sake. If you want to increase the complexity you need to provide a legitimate reason why, not just making it harder for its own sake.
In this case the cons are huge. It kills most of the format staples, as they were printed at a time when commons were not deliberately trash (see New World Order), and have been reprinted at uncommon when reprinted at all.
Second it would kill pauper as an eternal format, it would become a fast rotating format like Yugioh or Standard. If people wanted that they could do so by playing those formats.
Third it would perversely reverse the desire for reprints, as any card that gets reprinted would have a chance of being removed from the format. Pauper is supposed to be budget friendly, this would eradicate that trait as the best decks would rely on a narrower band of good cards that could be removed from the format at any time (oubliette).
If you wanted a narrower version of pauper make modern pauper. Grab everything from NWOs conception forward and play using those, that would give you a radically different (and cheaper) metagame.
The deck is a fairly typical goblin deck, but with the unbelievable combo of Drill Sergeant and Ashnod's Altar. This turns off removal and chains together goblins in a way that no other pauper deck can do.
One of the oldest forms of Ponza was called Machine Head (from 1994) and was JUND colors. Traditionally pauper Ponza is Gruul because blacks land destruction is less approachable, but if you have sinkhole you can run black and get the same effect. So Golgari colors might be better.
Basically lets you turn 1 kill a land (dark ritual into land destruction), goal is to stick an angler and a pestilence and keep them off lands while you beat down. Amounts of individual cards can vary, but the basic premise seems sound and would be faster.
I am glad there is a big movement away from tutors and cantrips though. One of the goals of singleton is less consistency, sticking 20 tutors in a deck defeats that purpose.
Slivers isn't very good and their creatures are cheaper, more cumulative and have actual effects so it will take some new synergies for this to be decent.
Powerstone Shard also looks good for a colorless or colorless green tron deck.
Their efficiency is pretty bad in pauper. In pauper 4/4s cost about 2 to be competive(wight of precinct 6, Myr Enforcer, Carapace Forger, werebear, etc). 1-2 mana beaters are dominant, anything over that also provides card advantage.
Getting 1 into play it is 2 power below par, two is 1 power, three is coming close to even, and only getting four on the field can you actually pull ahead.
So for Relentless Rats to work you need to be able to get one more out every turn and be resistant to disruption while you do it, or get a ton out the first turn and kill before the opponent can do anything. I think the dominaria rat is going to be better at 2 mana and able to work with rat tribal, relentless rats seems just too slow and fragile.
2 Barren Moor
2 Ghoulcaller's Chant
4 Memory Sluice
4 Geth's Verdict
4 Duress
4 Shriekhorn
4 Wight of Precinct Six
4 Chittering Rats
4 Gurmag Angler
4 Sultai Scavenger
4 Crippling Fatigue
2 Crypt Rats
2 Chainer's Edict
Including Scavenger has made the deck much better against control decks, and Wight is still amazing against aggro. The deck has a very good chance of going shriekhorn/memory sluice t1 into t2 scavenger/angler/tarmowight.
I hate the modern art style though...
Everyone should be against complexity for its own sake. If you want to increase the complexity you need to provide a legitimate reason why, not just making it harder for its own sake.
In this case the cons are huge. It kills most of the format staples, as they were printed at a time when commons were not deliberately trash (see New World Order), and have been reprinted at uncommon when reprinted at all.
Second it would kill pauper as an eternal format, it would become a fast rotating format like Yugioh or Standard. If people wanted that they could do so by playing those formats.
Third it would perversely reverse the desire for reprints, as any card that gets reprinted would have a chance of being removed from the format. Pauper is supposed to be budget friendly, this would eradicate that trait as the best decks would rely on a narrower band of good cards that could be removed from the format at any time (oubliette).
If you wanted a narrower version of pauper make modern pauper. Grab everything from NWOs conception forward and play using those, that would give you a radically different (and cheaper) metagame.
Aztek Goblins
"Your Sacrifice Will Not be in Vain"
4 brightstone ritual
4 beetleback chief
4 skirk drill sergeant
4 skirk prospector
4 goblin matron
4 fanatical firebrand
4 foundry street denizen
4 goblin bushwacker
4 mogg was marshal
20 mountain
The deck is a fairly typical goblin deck, but with the unbelievable combo of Drill Sergeant and Ashnod's Altar. This turns off removal and chains together goblins in a way that no other pauper deck can do.
It currently folds to counterspells. I probably need to reduce the amount of discard in favor of more threats.
2 Barren Moor
2 Ghoulcaller's Chant
4 Memory Sluice
4 Geth's Verdict
2 Chainer's Edict
4 Duress
4 Shriekhorn
4 Wight of Precinct Six
4 Chittering Rats
4 Gurmag Angler
2 Crypt Rats
4 sinkhole
4 choking sands
2 Icequake
2 Rancid Earth
4 Hymn to tourach
3 pestilence
4 gurmag angler
4 utopia sprawl
4 wild growth
4 wild of roots
Basically lets you turn 1 kill a land (dark ritual into land destruction), goal is to stick an angler and a pestilence and keep them off lands while you beat down. Amounts of individual cards can vary, but the basic premise seems sound and would be faster.