A (Brief) Introduction to Standard Pauper

 

We have a Standard Pauper tournament coming up on this Sunday. So here’s a crash course on Standard Pauper.

 

First off, the only cards legal in this format are commons from Return to Ravnica, Gatecrash, Dragon’s Maze, Magic 2014 and Theros. If a card appeared as an uncommon in one of these sets, but was a common in a previous set, such as Syncopate, then it is not allowed. It has to be a common in one of the sets that is in Standard. Pretty simple, right?

 

Where do you start with all these commons though? Well besides Googling “Standard Pauper MTG” and looking at different websites (which is what I did), you can merely play your favorite commons. Since the Guildgates exist, manafixing is very easy which allows you to play any cards you want pretty much.

Colorless Manafixing Options: Guildgates, Prophetic Prism, Unknown Shores, Guild Cluestones, Traveler’s Amulet, Opaline Unicorn.

 

That’s a lot of options for no clear color. You can easily make a consistent two-color deck thanks to all the fixing. Three-colors is also viable and you can even do four or five with some more manafixing from Green. Nylea’s Presence, Lay of the Land, Gatecreeper Vine and Verdant Haven are all good options if you are base Green and want to play more colors.

 

Because there are no huge spells very often in Pauper, aggressive decks are usually good. Creatures are generally worse overall due to rarity, but so are all the cards so that shouldn’t stop you from building a deck with a lot of great creatures.

In general, your creatures should be able to do multiple things or you shouldn’t play them unless you are an all out aggro deck. If they don’t provide value of some sort, such as Mnemonic Wall, Archaeomancer or Auramancer, they will be less good. Rakdos Shred-Freak is pretty vanilla and so is Foundry Street Denizen or Minotaur Skullcleaver, but together they form a pretty strong skeleton of creatures for an aggressive Red deck. Nimbus Naiad, Leafcrown Dryad, Hopeful Eidonlon and the rest of the Bestow creatures are all awesome inclusions in decks because they provide so much value as a creature or as an Enchantment. Being able to get them back via Auramancer is the icing on the cake too. The most powerful creature in Standard Pauper however is no secret: Gray Merchant of Asphodel is one hell of a card. Disciple of Phenax is also a very strong card to go in combination with Gray Merchant. Nylea’s Disciple is another great Devotion card that easily fits into many Green decks. Overall, creatures tend to be filled with value in Pauper and we have loads of choices right now.

For a more controlling option, we have very few good removal spells. Mono-Black decks can utilize Quag Sickness as a strong option. Stab Wound is also not too bad. Pacifism is the best White removal, followed by Smite. For Red, you have Shock, Lightning Strike and Annihilating Fire as some solid, cheap burn options which is great for control or aggro. Blue has Claustraphobia as the best “hard” removal spell, but it also has Voyage’s End, Griptide, Time Ebb and Unsummon which are all great for creating tempo. Green gets the worst removal like always with Time to Feed, Plummet and Aerial Predation being the best removal spells. However, Green does have Naturalize and with all of the Bestow creatures and a good deal of removal spells being Enchantments, it’s not a bad option.

 

Here’s an example of a very simple Mono-Black list that I created:

4 Returned Phalanx

4 Basilica Screecher

4 Ogre Jailbreaker

4 Disciple of Phenax

4 Gray Merchant of Asphodel

4 Devour Flesh

4 Stab Wound

4 Read the Bones

4 Quag Sickness

4 Dimir Guildgate

2 Azorius Guildgate

18 Swamp

It’s a fairly nice deck. I like Ogre Jailbreaker and Returned Phalanx as they are huge dudes that can defend you or play aggressively if you have a Gate in play. There are only 6 Gates because of Quag Sickness. Azorius Guildgate was chosen over a Black Guildgate because it allows you to activate Returned Phalanx or you can use the White for Extort. You have twelve strong removal spells and Read the Bones to dig into more options. Overall, I think Mono-Black is the deck to watch out for.

 

White Weenie Enchantment Aggro is another deck that isn’t too bad. Here’s another sample list:

4 Hopeful Eidolon

4 Suntail Hawk

4 Keening Apparition

4 Azorius Arrester

4 Syndic of Tithes

4 Auramancer

4 Observant Alseid

4 Ethereal Armor

4 Pacifism

4 God’s Willing

20 Plains

This is a very simplistic deck. Play White creatures, turn them sideways. Auramancer provides a good deal of value with the Bestow creatures and Ethereal Armor is quite an insane card. Don’t forget that your Pacifism’s count also! Syndic of Tithes allows you to grind out some games too. Extort is a very powerful mechanic for Pauper.

Here’s two more lists for you guys. One aggressive, one controlling.

4 Foundry Street Denizen

4 Akroan Crusader

4 Rakdos Shred-Freak

4 Gore-House Chainwalker

4 Minotaur Skullcleaver

4 Dragon Mantle

4 Titan’s Strength

4 Shock

4 Lightning Strike

4 Madcap Skills

2 Spark Jolt

18 Mountains

This is a hyper-aggressive Red deck that’s goal is to get your opponent from 20 to 0 as fast as possible. Thanks to Scry on six cards and the four Dragon Mantles, this deck can afford to play only 18 lands, which gives you a high chance of drawing a non-land card which is exactly what you want in a deck that needs to maximize every single one of it’s cards.

4 Archaeomancer

2 Mnemonic Wall

4 Devour Flesh

4 Essence Scatter

4 Grisly Spectacle

4 Pharika’s Cure

4 Pilfered Plans

4 Psychic Strike

3 Thassa’s Bounty

2 Crypt Incursion

12 Swamp

9 Island

4 Dimir Guildgate

This is the basic Dimir Control list. You draw cards, kill creatures and counter spells all while milling your opponent ever so slowly. It’s a very grindy deck. Other versions play Red for Lightning Strike or other cards to burn out the opponent. Razortip Whip is a popular card that gives you a lot of damage provided that you have time. Benthic Giant is my personal favorite card to win with in this deck. It’s just a giant durdle killing your opponent. How nice.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for Standard Pauper. I love this format, and hopefully you will all as well.

But what will I be playing?…..

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Nugames.