MtG paper pauper

I'm looking to get into payper, since I'm too much of a poorfag to play Legacy or Modern. My only question is, is there currently as much of a defined meta as other formats? I really like building stupid brews, and I'd like to be able to actually win with them once in a while.

Pauper* my phone is goddamn retarded.

The only known thing about pauper's metagame is that Delver and Gurmag Angler are very good. Beyond that it's open season.

Good shit, buddy. Now I just need to find a crowd to play it.

The meta is pretty defined, but the distance between T2 and T1 decks isn't as abysmal as in other formats.

Okay, I'm fine with that. And really I wouldn't even mind having to play a tier 1 deck, as long as they aren't super expensive.

Delver can run up to like $80 purely because it's full of cards that see play in Legacy. Everything else is cheap though. $20 tops for a deck.

Oh, hell, $80 is perfectly reasonable.

Where I'm from people only ever play Modern and sometimes Standard, so I'm used to those prices.

delver isn't even the most meta deck right now UR drake is and it's $40 for the deck

Okay, this might just be the format for me.

yeah I like pauper as well but I can't really find anyone to play with at my lgs

Yeah, I feel like that's gonna be a problem for me. Maybe I can convert some of my buddies who got out of Magic

you probably could since it is so cheap.

...

What kind of sleeves are you using?

Also, about how much does that deck cost? I think I've seem similar builds.

I'm going to try at least as 4 of. On paper it should seem ok to spend 2 mana on 2 turns to keep getting value from opponent plays. My issue is that if the amount of non-creature spells count is too high in pauper as well.

>What kind of sleeves are you using?

Ultrapro matte I think?

>Also, about how much does that deck cost?

50-60 quid i'd imagine? I've had parts of it for years.

Think somebody could fit in Coiling Oracles over the Elvish Visionaries, or would that strain the mana base too much?

Tried introducing it to my local. The owner plays here and there but the general population believe if the card costs less than $40.00, it's shit.

I had a couple regulars approach a friend and I while playing my PauBlade against his GB Dredge and the response we got was:
>"Lol. How can you play with such shit cards?"

So yeah. My playgroup loves it though.

>Lol. How can you play with such shit cards
Ask them how the vintage metagame is these days.

My group used to play it a lot building a deck for $4.00 was nice.

Although we've shifted to Noble. (Pauper + 4 uncommon and a Rare in the command zone.)

I'm playing Soldiers, but I'm still not sure about some cards. (W) Drop: Soltari Foot Soldier ( 1/1 Soldier with Shadow) or War Falcon (2/1 Bird with Flying can't attack unless I control a Soldier or Knight).
Removal: Unified Strike (W) ( Remove from the game target attacking or blocking creature if it's power is lower than the number of Soldiers I control) or Unmake (WWW) Exile target creature.
I'm running Celestial Flare to fuck Blitz and Infect.
Holy Light on the side against Elves and Circles for Burn and MBC.

Shit buddy that sounds cool. I might have to try that.

> if the card costs less than $40.00, it's shit.
The best card in Legacy is brainstorm and that card costs pennies.

It never gained ground in my area, the cards are so individually low-power that the games are pretty much all grindy and samey. Personally I think it's nice that you can play games where synergy is king with tribal and similar decks, but the general pauper meta is extremely stale.

>games are pretty much all grindy and samey
So it's Standard without the price tag?

I really like it. It's like pauper, but you get to try out a few more combinations you couldn't with only commons.

Having a rare in the command zone is a big game changer too. You can put mana fixers and land in there too for a radically different mana base.

The older players don't play vintage and the younger ones don't know it exists.

If it's not Standard or Draft, my flgs "community" has no idea what it is. Even Modern gets an eyebrow raise far too often...

Love it, or hate it, I'm stuck at the kitchen table.

Zur would be unbeatable in that format

So they don't use actually powerful cards like Ancestral Recall, and scoff at the power level of Delver, Bolt, and Ponder, while they play Standard? Like nigger no.

Naw. Costs 4 mana.
You don't get to make it to turn 4 against Gobbos.

Or if someone's really worried about it, hold on to a counter spell until they drop their noble.

yeah I play paper pauper.

As many other anons have said, building a single deck is not the way to go. Building a number and making them reasonably balanced against each other is better, gets more people into the format and isn't economically crippling.

This. They're cheap. You can usually afford to have a half dozen no problems.

It's different in that games generally take longer to actually end, but similar in that if you fall behind significantly enough early enough, there is almost no hope for you. It's just going to take longer to get there.

There are so few bomb-type cards in pauper that you can't really topdeck a particularly powerful card and suddenly be back in, where standard is typically designed to allow you to do exactly that. A ton of cards being effective reprints of each other, a lot of archetypes being pretty narrow, and a fair amount of cantrips in general all lead to very samey games.

>Noble
Sounds cool, after reading a more extensive rules explanation.
>rare doesn't have to be a creature
>your rare isn't actually your commander- once cast, it is a normal card and doesn't return to your command zone
>your rare doesn't dictate your deck's colors like it would in commander
>banlist has a lot of dumb crap on it

tappedout.net/mtg-decks/do-atogs-dream-of-electric-thopters/

r8 my affinity

How's Carapace Forger treating you?
I've considered it, but I feel it competes with the Atog slot. Personally I use 2x Somber Hoverguard and 1x the white metalcraft flyer to give the deck some legs, and go the full 4x Disciple.
Sometimes I throw a bonesplitter in there because Thopters hold them well and I hate being stuck with a board of thopters and not much to do with them.

My LGS just started running a pauper night, so the whole store bought in. I built Kuldotha Jeskai since I had all the cards, but one of the employees runs the same list. So now I'm building Izzet Blitz.

I want to build a brew that plays like the Kiora duel deck. Explores and Accumulated Knowledges to ramp and draw cards. Anyone tried anything like that?

The forger is fabulous. The reason I am running him over the white metalcrafter is because green mana can be used for Ancient Grudge whereas I can't think of many uses for white other than the metalcrafter. And even then, the deck usually has such a board state advantage over the opponent that evasion is kinda irrelevant.

Atog by himself is a weird creature - he's not there to turn sideways but to be a sac outlet for the disciple and be flung occasionally.

I was thinking about Bonesplitters as an alternative to thopters (I don't think there's anything else they can validly replace). But the splitters don't fulfill the same role as the thopters i.e. enabling turn one myr enforcers.

I run 3 Disciples instead of 4 because I don't want to always have him in my opening hand and because 2 is usually enough to win or at least discourage the opponent from swinging.

Oh, also, the forger survives lightning bolt, whereas the white flier does not.

Personally I think that if you are running 4x Atog you want to be running 4x disciples. Only problem that I have there with the Forger is that you're running an awful number of non-artifact creatures, which I'm not sure is where the deck wants to be.
I figure Enforcer and Atogs already dodge bolts.
I'm pretty sure I've got 3x Atog, 4x Disciple, and that works pretty good for me, but hey what works for you may be different.
I really don't think Splitters are an alternative to the thopters, because they play together so well. I run a couple of bonesplitters because otherwise Thopters are a bit useless, other than a chump block or sac-fodder.
Maybe Flayer Husk?

I dunno I'm just rambling. I like your sideboard.

I was thinking the same thing, to be honest. If any user have any deck lists, I'd love to see them.

You can ramp, but the bombs in Pauper aren't splashy or particularly resilient. I mean, there's the 8 mana eldrazi with annihilator 2. You're probably best off with shit like Mulldrifter that keeps you stocked up even if it gets removed.

Hell yeah. My favorite thing to do is just play simic and draw cards all day. I don't even care if I win, really. I just want everything in my hand

>Personally I think that if you are running 4x Atog you want to be running 4x disciples
It's a bit asymmetrical in the other direction I think. Atog, by himself, is a strong card in the deck. On the other hand, a Disciple, by himself, is not - it's an off-colour chump blocker with some occasional damage when your creature dies.

>you're running an awful number of non-artifact creatures, which I'm not sure is where the deck wants to be
They are the same as Reflector Mage in U/W spirits in standard. They are so strong it does not matter they are not artifacts. A forger is essentially always a 4/4 for 2 - there are very few other decks that can answer that turn 2.

> really don't think Splitters are an alternative to the thopters, because they play together so well.
Oh I totally agree on this one, they are super fun together. The problem is that there's just so many things you can run in a deck, you have to not run some of it.

On a side note, my deck is not the most consistent affinity list out there. The most competitive ones don't run thopters and disciples and instead run both forgers and white fliers - this way it's more consistent. However, this list is still very good (and more importantly - fun) against other competitive decks and it decimates a mirror affinity matchup.

>tell my buddies about pauper
>they think it sounds super stupid
>tell them some of the most powerful cards in MTG have been printed in common
>they just say bleh, and that they will try it

>come to my place soon after, both with garbage common from leftover packs and shit
>run them over with UR delver
>"this format is boring im done"

fuck my friends.

>run them over with UR delver
Have you considered that it's not your friends who should get fucked?

>Try and get people into Modern
>Play their first game against them
>WITH FOILED OUT INFECT
This is literally you. Admittedly they could've tried a lot harder, but you played the best deck in the format.

>U/R Delver
>Best deck in the format
That's not how you spell Drake or streamlined Affinity. However it's still strong and the guy is a retard.

>I want to convert fag friends to play pauper
>run them over with one of gayest decks in the meta

Listen to Veeky Forums, make friendly and fun duel decks to convert people.

It's really fun and I wish more people played it. I think people don't like it at the shop I go to because god-forbid there might be a more even playing field with players who want to brew.

Modern there is typically the same handful and Standard has been dying since they changed the prize structure (so now only 4-ish netdeckers show up disappointed HAHA!) I'm leaning away from Standard because games never start and everyone brings the top tourni decks.

Pauper can be fun but its pretty much the same 4-5 decks and if you are not playing disruption (re: blue) every game is durdle till someone combos

In fact we have a house rule at the lgs where pauper is tribal wars rules, at least it breaks up the monotony and adds abit more brewing to the format

That's...pretty much the case with every constructed format though. Standard? Bant coco, gw tokens. Modern? Infect, Jund, Affinity. Sure, you can play something else but it just won't be as consistently good.

True, we should stop having fun and all play the same deck, you are right, i just wish our lgs didnt have such awesome prizes for pauper tournaments then it wouldnt be so competitive

Dont get me wrong - it's not that I like this state of affairs either - I just love brewing too much for that. But the problem you've highlighted is not a unique pauper problem - it's a shared trait in all competitive formats.

>pauper
>post an uncommon
Pauper is all commons right ?
or was a common at some time at printing ?
i would love to use all those "shit" cards i saved.
maybe revisit kithkin tribail

>fuck spelling

UW tron reporting in. Drake combo is in the sideboard after they side out all their removal.

Lightning Axe is not uncommon.

magiccards.info/ts/en/168.html

As long as it's common in one or more edition, it's pauper-legal. (Although pauper does have its own banlist of select common cards)

Okay, do you think B/R vampires aggro can work in pauper?

Thanks for the analysis dude. I might try Carapace Forger out again, they seemed underwhelming when I gave them a jam, but I may have just been a worse player than I am now or the rest of the deck wasn't as tuned.
I also looked more closely at my deck and I'm running 4x Chromatic Sphere and 4x Chromatic Star as opposed to your 2x and 4x, so it kinda makes more sense for me to run more Disciples because I've got more eggs. I'm also running a single swamp and a single mountain which brings the lands to 19 and seems to smooth out bad mana for me.

Its not blue so no

I find 17 lands to be perfect because of all the filtering and acceleration - more than that and it risks getting flooded. It also has not trouble mulliganing - I feel comfortable going to 6 all the time and to 5 in many cases.

I'd run 2 chrom spheres if I could but if I want to maintain my useless fun creature spells I have to sacrifice them (hue). In the end it's a 2 drop so it can't help me dump my hand turn 1 and is problematic turn 2 cause you generally want to be casting something else.

actually you're only running 4x eggs, where I'm running 8. I guess that makes 4x Disciple a bit more rational comparatively.
I'd love to have a game against you, your affinity vs mine, but as it is I'm thankful for the advice and analysis you've given, especially as your reasoning has a pretty good background to it.

I'm running six - 4 stars and 2 spheres.

>tappedout.net/mtg-decks/do-atogs-dream-of-electric-thopters/

4x Chromatic Star
2x Prophetic Prism
4x Springleaf Drum

Is the tappedout link outdated?

What is the definitive best goblins deck for pauper?

I can't decide