MTG Pauper

My roommate and I picked up a handful of pauper decks to try to learn the format (Affinity, Blitz, Tortured Existence, and Kuldotha Boros).

Why do seemingly all of the stock Boros lists run 4 copies of Prophetic Prism and then either Ichor Wellspring or Alchemist's Vial? In our testing so far, the mana fixing ability of Prism has hardly ever been relevant. It seems like Wellspring and Vial should both be maxed out instead.

I actually do, but believe what you will. Doesn't stop me from seeing a 2 mana hard deny as problematic in such a format.

I started thinking pauper would be fun, then I learned that pauper decks were more expensive than standard decks then immediately fucked off.

I'll come back to Magic once the coloring for fake cards is fixed and I can buy a $20000 deck for $10.

Playing some Grixis reanimator deck. It's really bad since Relic is a common for some stupid reason so everyone has graveyard hate for their sideboards, but it's really fun on G1. Wish more reanimation would be printed at common though.

Also wish people would run paper pauper rules more, because I love my grenades and sinkholes

I play Bogles too, you are going to win a lot of match1, then they put from the sideboard
Stendard bearer a green circle or an edith and you suck...

If WotC would keep the format cheap, I'd be 100% behind it. Once it gets popular, WotC will fall behind with reprints and it'll just become MTGFinance: Penny Stocks Edition.

Picked up Snow Delver for GP Santa Clara recently, really fell in love with the deck.

Wanna buy into One Land Spy as my next project for my Pauper collection, I have most of the expensive pieces from my Rakdos Reanimator, I'm really not feeling it from that deck right now.

I'm in that Legacy player's shoes right now where I want the format to grow so I can justify my paper buy-in and I really don't care if the price climbs. I know it's hypocritical but realistically how much CAN this format climb? One reprint and we're back down again.

Apparently we're getting some real role players in RIX, but I don't like NWO so I'm just gonna wait for the results to release before getting the cards. The REAL card I'm excited for is the Chupacabra, and that's for Cube reasons.

It's honestly not problematic at all, as long as you aren't a bitch who cries whenever the control deck controls. I've put plenty of time in this format as and against delver, teachings, and mono u, they aren't oppressive.

I play blue and I've always seen the original counterspell as a problem. Obviously so did WotC, because it's Cancel now. Which is a bit awkward because a proper counterspell costs 2 1/2 mana, which you can't do outside Un-sets. I mean Pauper is still one of the best formats because commons-only makes building easy, cheap, and fun, but it really did boil down to a slim meta rather fast. It's a meta that's more easily shaken up however, since so many commons see print every set, so there's that.

I disagree that counterspell is a problem, and I think citing WotC's opinion is kind of a moot point, no one likes their idea of balance. I also disagree that the meta is slim, blue is certainly over represented in the top meta decks because of how many low opportunity cost, high payoff cards it gets in brainstorm and other cantrips, but I wouldn't call like 10 top tier decks a slim meta.

>if you go by MTGO rules theres a bunch of cards I used to use all the time that aren't legal since they haven't had recent reprints.
Uh? Aren't ALL commons from Alpha to Rivals legal?
Except the banned ones of course.

>pauper decks were more expensive than standard decks
I'm not sure where you heard that, but that's just completely false.

If you can't spend 50 bucks on a deck you should really think of stop relying on your mum's allowance, user.

Sinkhole, hymn, high tide, goblin grenade, and some other cards aren't legal on MTGO, which until now has been the only real place for pauper. Vintage masters, which is an MTGO only set printed a couple of important cards at common.

Boros here.

Where my Kuldotha and Monarch bros at.

>I disagree that counterspell is a problem, and I think citing WotC's opinion is kind of a moot point, no one likes their idea of balance.
Your opinion is as valid as mine in that regard. Honestly I want them to make a hard counterspell that costs 2U, but they never will.
>I also disagree that the meta is slim
>I wouldn't call like 10 top tier decks a slim meta
I would, since there are thousands upon thousands of commons. There should be many times more decks that can compete.
>blue is certainly over represented in the top meta decks because of how many low opportunity cost, high payoff cards it gets in brainstorm and other cantrips
We can agree on this.

I don't really understand what's your point. What if those aren't legal?

>want to play cards that have a reason to be legal in a format but aren't
>can't play them but wish I could
>why does that annoy me?

They're banned. Do you also want to play your Black Lotus?

Lotus was never common

>waaahh why can't I play my pauper power cards
It's 5 cards, get over it.

Not that dude, just reminind that never legal and banned is 2 widely different things

What data are you citing? Average Pauper deck is 30-60 bucks with 100 being outliers. Quick survey shows average Standard decks are 150-250 range with the occasional 300 outlier. Your friends mus be playing with pure jank. Also you don't need to keep buying new Pauper decks because they don't rotate so you're already incurring savings.

My origonal point was, they SHOULD BE, if you go by the generic idea of pauper, but most places are using the MTGO rules since it includes a defined banlist and no weird outliers when setting up tournaments and the like, and there are tonnes of cards that are commons (the aformentioned ones, and stuff I used to love like Soul Barrier, Stone-throwing Devils, Word of Binding, Sunken City) aren't considered legal because they haven't been printed in an MTGO set.

Have you ever thought that maybe there's a reason if they haven't been "printed" in mtgo?

MtG is first and foremost a paper game, online should never affect paper magic.

Then make your own format or tell wotc. Good luck.

You mean that they're old as shit, basically worthless in vintage/legacy so there's no push for them to be included in future sets? Yes.

Or did you mean "Obviously the only possible reason that these cards haven't been reissued in any set is because WotC is completely on top of hugely popular and industry defining Online Pauper Leagues and is carefully controling it's power level by keeping these cards out."

Yeah, I think my first idea is more likely.

Except that Pauper, in an official capacity, is first and foremost an online game. Some of the events are starting to create more official events, but they are using the online MTGO rules in order control what's going to see play.

Seeing Pauper opened up into an official sanctioned format like commander was would see alot of changes and expansion, but until that happens your choiced are dumb, anything goes kitchen table shit with friends or sanctioned events using MTGO's rules.

It's not the mans fixing, it's the cantrip you're after. You want to get to the good cards. :)

But wouldn't Vial and Wellspring provide the same cantrip while providing additional utility? Assuming you're running Kuldotha Rebirth to take advantage of Wellspring's graveyard ability

While you're actually just want the cantrip, Prism has of these three cantrips the best ability to help your game plan. Occasionally rescuing yourself from color screw is arguably more worth than stopping a creature from blocking, since you're the aggressor most of the time and don't has the time to search for the right land. I saw once a statistic that more than 50% of all games are decided by mana screw or flood.

Assuming you're playing Kuldatha Rebirth Wellspring makes sense, but than it would probably just run both. Dead hand cards are the worst kind of cards.