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Pauper is a MTG Online format that only allows cards printed as Commons in deck building. Though the format was meant to be a cheap and accessible way to play Magic, some of the staple Commons are now worth multiple dollars.
Many popular archetypes have been converted into Pauper decks. Some of the most common and popular decks are boring, slow, grindy "good stuff" control decks. There are alternatives if you, ya know, want to have fun playing Magic. Here are a few that might be less-than-awful.
PauperTron
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You probably didn't know Fangren Marauder existed unless you play Pauper. The deck uses 12 artifacts that sacrifice themselves. That plus the frustrating Rest for the Weary gives the deck enough time to find all the Tron pieces and one of its win conditions. Oh, and Fangren Marauder is also 5/5 which is sometimes just good enough all by itself.
Mono-Black Control
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Ok, so everyone actually just hates MBC but come on. The deck plays Cuombajj Witches and Oubliette! This is only exciting if you started playing in 1993. Another one for the old-school players: Choking Sands. This Mirage...um...staple is awesome because punishes all of those fancy Ravnica block Karoo players for trying to win by card advantage.
Boggled Enchantments
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This deck has no non-creature, non-enchantment spells. Awesome. Linear decks are the best. Decks like this make you ask, "who the hell decided to print Armadillo Cloak and Rancor as commons?" Until you realize that no one has ever designed a Magic card to be fair in Pauper, ever. Big props for using Ancestral Mask, which is worth almost $3 on MTGO as a result. Ironic isn't it?
Goblins!
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Oh yes. It's true that there aren't a lot of great Tribal cards in Pauper, at least there is Goblin Matron. Very few Goblins are capable of providing card advantage. Sparksmith and Goblin Sledder/Mogg Raider are the only other Tribal cards but they make Mogg War Marshal better. And the deck makes awesome use of the "cowards" like Goblin Cohort and Mogg Conscripts. Who doesn't have a soft spot for Goblins, anyway?
More Goblins!
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No one doesn't love goblins. So here's another, different list. Mudbrawler Cohort is a nice addition here, as is Foundry Street Denizen. Between those two cards and Goblin War Strike this deck looks like it's much more explosive and capable of some big turns.
Elves!
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This list looks like a ton of fun. 13 lands is crazy low but the deck plays SO MANY 1-drops that can operate on only one Forest. The single Island and Birchlore Rangers lets it cast Distant Melody which is just about insane in this deck. Nettle Sentinel, Quirion Ranger and Viridian Longbow is a brutal combo that can take over a game all by itself.
Domain "Zoo"
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More like a petting zoo, but it's Pauper so it will get the job done. Nylea's Presence is a spicy piece of tech, maxing out your Domain instantly and not even costing you a card. You might remember Matca Rioters from Conflux draft, where it was randomly a game-winning beater. This deck can play spells like Brainstorm and Unearth despite not being in normal Zoo (Naya) colors. Those two cards make the deck very consistent and resilient.
Isn’t fangren hunter a 4/4?
Ack, meant Fangren Marauder. You know, the card that’s ACTUALLY in the deck I was writing about :'(
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Not grindy and boring?!
Pauper Tron is the definition of grindy and boring you piece of shit.
I’ve been playing UW Cawblade featuring Momentary Blink to protect my guys and to get extra value from them, i.e. Lone Missionary, Mulldrifter (evoke+Blink is absurd), and of course the Squawks and Trinket Mages. It combos with every creature in the deck except Guardian of The Guildpact, but he doesn’t need any help being a badass.
How does it works the combo between Nettle Sentinel, Quirion Ranger and Viridian Longbow ?
There one archetype that wasn’t mentioned that I thought deserved some love: Turbo Fog. There are so many fog effects available to Pauper players that can be built into resilient combo decks, I was surprised it wasn’t featured.
For example, a brew I’m still trying to perfect can often enough win a game by T5.
4. Midnight Guard
4. Presence of Gond
4. Fog
4. Defend The Hearth
4. Druid’s Deliverance
4. Terrifying Presence
4. Holy Day
4. Ethereal Haze
4. Dawn Charm
4. Selesnya Guildgate
10. Forest
10. Plains
So, Turbo Fog may be a little conceited and not fun across the board, but the players who use it do so because they enjoy the redunancy it brings to the table. It has no particularly bad match-ups except against mill, due to the lack of recursion or soft recursion available to Pauper players.
Just to update this article a bit:
With the Edict-heavy format, it’s worth mentioning that the Fangren deck now runs Bark Maulers to compensate (in place of 2x Oracles).
Also, MBC runs 4x Oubliette now to feed the Gray Merchants, and runs 4x Chainer’s Edict instead of the Geth’s Verdicts.
Lastly, _every_ deck now has some combination of 4x Relic of Progenitus or 4x Nihil Spellbomb between the maindeck and sideboard in order to compete with the increasingly out-of-control Drake combo decks.