MTG Salvation

Quote from WarMachinePrime »

Here's a weird one. Is Arboreal Grazer too good and should be monitored?

Unline the mana dorks you are almost guaranteed to drop that land (not even a basic). You can't use removal to slow the ramp. Then it has reach and is an 0/3 to stop aggro as well.

This funny little common seems to do its job almost too well. Thoughts? (Other than don't ban Thoughtseize)

This card requires your deck being built w/a higher than normal land count to be optimal.

It's fair imo.

Transmogrifying Wand converts their best creature into a 2/4 ground guy. That could buy me time vs their Tempest Djinns (for example.)

MonoUleyline 2.0

How can I not have enough creatures for Smuggler's Copter but have enough for Curious Obsession? I don't want to CO my creature base that much...

MonoU in general hardly runs removal main. My SB Transmogrifying Wand isn't perfect but it's the bet I can come up w/.

MonoUdevotion variant:



This deck is untested. I won't get a chance to tune it either as my LGS won't run anymore pioneer in the forseeable future.

My LGS cancelled pauper until Feb (at the earliest.) This is what i'd run today:



I've concluded Ramosian Sergeant = tempo loss. It's attractive as a 1 drop but it takes 3 mana to activate and only fetches 2 drop searchers. I'd rather just max out on 2 drop searchers so I can drop a searcher on turn 2 and drop blockers/removal on 3 lands. If counter heavy decks return, i'd consider bringing Sergeants back.

Gliders are actually necessary b/c you can literally thin all the finishers out of your deck. I tried -3 Gliders/+3 Guardian of the Guildpact main but rarely drew them! 4 mana is busy anyways and Bonesplitter reliably speeds up your clock.

To whomever reads this, I hope pauper isn't dead in your hometown too ;(

10/28/19 Modern
19 players, 4 rounds, 2-2 matches.



test vs AmuletTitan, 0-1.
no SB.
i inquisitioned an amulet early but he eventually topdecked PrimeTime and that was that.

round 1 vs URdelver, 2-0.
SB: +4 auriok champion, -4 collective brutality.
game 1, i kept a 5 land, inquisition, bitterblossom hand. turn 1 inquisition. turn 2 bitterblossom. the game dragged on as i drew even more lands but i already won on turn 2.
game 2, auriok champion held off his monastery swiftspear, young pyromancer and YP tokens. i gained a bunch of life, snuck in some tokens past his counters and he scooped.

round 2 vs UBzombies, 0-2.
SB: +3 leyline of the void, +3 auriok champion (carrion feeder, ghostcrawler, 3/3 UB zombie), +1 damnation, +1 wrath of god. -4 inquisition, -4 collective brutality.
game 1, i mulled to 5 and kept a 2x fetid heath, 2 intangible virtue, bitterblossom hand. i topdecked a vault of the archangel before colored mana! he milled himself and beat me down fast.
game 2, i revealed 2 leyline of the void from the start. he started milling me instead of himself. i was thinking, "oh he's just desperate now!" i fatal pushed a 3/3 UB zombie but kept another fatal push and path to exile in hand to remove blockers. turned out my clock was slow enough that he actually assembled enough mill to kill me for exacties during my draw step! i had him dead on board next turn!
in retrospect, i should've killed hedron crab ASAP. if i had today's experience beforehand, i would've won game 2 and likely game 3 as well (mull into leylines.)

round 3 vs URbreach, 2-0.
SB: +3 stony silence (fear of engineered explosives.) -3 fatal push (saw no creatures besides Emrakul.)
game 1, i resolved an early Liliana and kept discarding his hand. by the time he topdecked Jace - TMS, my Lily was on 7 counters. i discarded once more the following turn until he had no hand. then i -6'd Lily, separating the piles into A) Jace - TMS and a snow-covered island and B) 2 UR duals and a mystic sanctuary. he got greedy and kept the Jace/Island pile. my tokens eventually killed Jace and he scooped.
game 2, he resolved a turn 3 blood moon! luckily for me, i already had 1 plains and 1 swamp while he kept drawing duals w/a single basic island in play. blood moon + red mana flood really hurt him here.

round 4 vs GBelves, 0-2.
SB: +1 damnation, +1 wrath of god. -2 inquisition of kozilek.
game 1, i stumbled on mana while he beat me w/a pair of 5/4's that my creatures 2 power or less can't block. i scooped.
game 2, he built up an impressive board. i was bringing out blockers to hope he'd overextend for my Damnation. unfortunately for me, he emptied his hand... casting 2 GBelves that dealt direct damage to me for overkill.

summary: i replaced smallpox w/collective brutality, since brutalities are easier to control. i also made my 'board more consistent. my loss to UBzombies was a fluke imo but i absolutely had no game vs GBelves. that elf player shows up every week so i'm retiring this deck. can't risk losing to the same guy every week!

Thanks for the explanation, TC! I support increasing the land count to both hardcast Mulldrifter and turn on Mystic Sanctuary.

I feel you on the Arcum's Astrolabe ban. I mass ordered singles for this deck (inspired by you ) and bought Arcum's Astrolabe just b/c they're common and i'm already paying for shipping. Oh well.

My biggest concern w/this deck is stabilizing vs aggro b/c the blockers are so puny. How has your testing gone thus far?

I can't wait to see your UB list! I built UG (https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/pauper/paper-pauper-and-peasant/811852-ugly), UW (your thread), and UR (this thread). I'm testing those 3 U/x pauper decks at my LGS and everyone has a blast!

TC, I have a question: since you gradually removed all copies of Archaeomancer, have you found them to be bad? As in too easy to kill?

Quote from TEMUJIN »

A thing of beauty truth_bomb! A lot of redundancy and streamlining in your build.

***Yeah, The 2/2 split of Deprive/Foil is the way to go. I think we’re onto something really good here.

If redundant copies of Archaeomancer and Ghostly Flicker are too many, pitch the extra copies to Foil!

How about 1-2 Foil? It would synergize w/Izzet Boilerworks and Deprive.

10/11/19 Modern.
14 players, 3 rounds, 2-1 record, 7th place.

test vs UWartifacts, 2-0.
no SB
idk if UWartifacts is a thing but he def had budget choices.

round 1 vs Ad Nauseam, 1-2.
SB: +2 Damping Sphere , +2 Stony Silence. -4 Fatal Push.
game 1, i had an aggro draw:
-turn 1 Inquisition.
-turn 2 Bitterblossom.
-turn 3 Lingering Souls.
-turn 4 2x Intangible Virtue.
it got there.
games 2&3, i kept hands w/multiple Liliana's, hoping to discard his combo pieces. both games, he held onto Ad Nauseam as his last card and went off on 5 mana.

round 2 vs GbElves, 2-0.
SB: +1 Damnation, +1 Wrath of God. -2 Inquisition of Kozilek.
game 1:
his turn 1 - he dropped a land and Llanowar Elf.
my turn 1 - i Inquisitioned him. saw 4 drop Nissa, 4 drop CoCo, 3 mana Archdruid and an Inquisition. i took the Archdruid.
his turn 2 - he dropped a land, Inquisitioned me back and greedily took my Liliana over my Fatal Push.
my turn 2 - i Fatal Pushed his Llanowar Elf. this kept him off 4 mana, long enough for my topdecked Liliana to eventually discard his entire hand. when he finally reached his 3rd land, i cast Smallpox + Flagstones of Trokair AKA "Magical Christmas Land."
game 2, he emptied his hand fast but had still no Archdruids, CoCo's or anything to make his army impressive. i had a 2x Lingering Souls and 2x Intangible Virtue to both fly over and block his 2/2's and 1/1's for profit.

round 3 vs BorosBurn, 2-1.
SB: +4 Auroik Champion, -4 Smallpox.
game 1, he played 0 creatures and ran out of gas.
game 2, i started out too slow.
game 3, i played 2x Auroik Champion, Bitterblossom and Sorin. much life was gained from all my tokens and his late played/early drop creatures.

i guess i had bad tiebreaks since my 2-1 record/14 players finished me in 7th place. i discovered MonoRburn won (he defeated Ad Nauseam) and i'm confident i had the tools to beat MonoRburn. them's the breaks *shrugs*



new SB plan vs Ad Nauseam is:
+2 Collective Brutality, +2 Stony Silence. -4 Fatal Push.
wish i could cleanly swap out Path to Exile too but it's virtually painless to Path a token for mana screw.

new SB plan vs Elves is:
+2 Collective Brutality, +1 Damnation, +1 Wrath of God. -4 Inquisition of Kozilek.

new SB plan vs Burn is:
+4 Auriok Champion, +2 Collective Brutality. -4 Smallpox, -2 Inquistion of Kozilek.

Final thought - there's a reason why Lingering Souls and Intangible Virtue are banned in Innistrad-Avacyn Restored block

TC, your latest edit of UR ProwBlade is a less efficient UR Kiln Fiend now. You even fired Stoneforge Mystic (Trinket Mage!)

I would also -2 Evolving Wilds/+2 Terramorphic Expanse (may mislead opponent.) And -2 Distortion Strike (you have bounce/evasion/protection)/+2 Preordain (chain cantrips for prowess.) I support Bonesplitter over Distortion Strike b/c you will have rare games w/excess Plains, scarce Islands and no way to utilize that white mana.