Pre Paupergeddon Pisa 2023

Pre Paupergeddon Pisa: Path, Opportunities, Dangers

Cosa fa sto mazzo?

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Hamburger Storm
3. UG Arcane
4. Balena Combo
5. RG Familiar
6. Goblin Storm
7. Bonus: Altar Tron
8. Last Words
9. Acknowledgments
10. Review history

Introduction

In a week, there will be Paupergeddon Pisa 2023, which will be one of the biggest Pauper event of all time: it will lasts two days, and will feature the best italian pauper player and also international ones. I didn’t play much pauper recenlty, but on and off I tried multiple new brews, without focusing too much on Tiers. In this brief post, I would like to show some decks I played, with pros and cons of every list. PS: Today, The Lord of the Rings edition will be fully spoiled, so I won’t add decklists that features new cards, despite the fact that they will be playable at Pisa.

Hamburger Storm

Thanks to this post, I acknowledged the fact that you can go infinite with Ashnod’s Altar, Cauldron Familiar, Tortured Existence, Energy Refractor and two Bartered Cow, so I came up with this list:

The idea is to have a Tortex plan with cheap, intelligent creature that can advance the game in midrange mode; the idea is to dig the deck using draw engine such as Village Rite and Corrupted Conviction, playing the value game until assembling the one and only combo of Ashnod’s Altar, Energy Refractor, Tortured Existence, Cauldron Familiar and double Bartered Cow.

I made few leagues with this list tweaking the list (i started with a BG build), achieving not so terrible results ( double 2-3 and one 3-2), battling across a wide range of archetypes. PROS

1. If Tortured Existence resolves, most of the matches are over: Torturex Existence and Grave Scrabbler pair is insane for generating value, and against counterspell based deck these two cards and a bunch of other creatures in the bin are good enough to win the value games and close the match.
2. Every pieces synergies one another: every card has some sinergy with the other, creating a fun deck with multiple options. For example, Altar + Energy Refractor + Tortex lets you sac, add mana, and fetch creatures from your graveyard, Altar + Ghast make some sort of mana acceleration, Tortex + Scrabbler is a star value engine, Scrapwork + Cow grants you a card for free and a Cat resurrect from the bin, etc.

CONS

1. The combo probably needs too much cards in order to be playable: sometimes you just draw half your deck without be even close to all the pieces you need; in one game I draw like 40 cards in the quest to draw the last piece of the puzzle, without find it.
2. The creatures aren’t impressive in the long run: Shambling Ghast is very good in the first turns, but it devalues abrudtly in later turns.
3. Sideboard is a mess: I didn’t came up with a strong sideboard plan, since I’m not a very good monoblack mage nor a skilled tortex player, so I really had hard time figuring out what to bring in and out during the matches.

Addendum:

• This deck will probably be better thanks to the multiple food cards spoiled in the lotr edition; unforunately, I didn’t have much time for brewing!

UG Arcane

This version aim to be faster than the current SOTA version of UG Arcane, playing only cheap enchantment and no bounceland. This enables faster mana, but needs more cards in order to comboing off, so more slot in the deckslists are dedicated to enables and there’s less space for card advantage. The main combo is having a lands that produces 3 mana, and then proceed cast free arcane spells thanks to Psychic Puppetry: then use cards for generating mana (such as Dream’s Grip or Reach Through Mists) for playing other enchantment drawn and then finally playing Petals of Insight for infinite mana and as tutor for Stream of Thought, which will close the game.

A nice feature of this list is the fact that, with a land that produces 6 mana, Petals of Insight, Psychich Puppetry and a library that counts a number not divisible by three, you’re going to win the game, since you can rearrange the cards in your library as you want, so you can top a mana enchantment, an untap spell and another Petals of Insight, which will be enough to make infinite mana.

I played the deck a lot in the practice room on MTGO, and i also have a paper pauper tournament with it, finished with an unexciting 2-2.

PROS:

1. It’s fast: multiple times I win on turn4, and most of the time you can secure the game on turn5. Theoretical openings can also lead to a t3 kill: they are rare but possible.
2. It’s a strategy that is not very well known in the meta: this might yield to incorrect plays from the opponent or suboptimal sideboard strategies (multiple opponent will board in Relic of Progenitus, believe me).
3. It has the real KAMIGAWA BLOCK flavor: if you are an old-time player as me, childhood will hit you hard, and if you are not, you can enjoy one of the best artworks in the game.

CONS:

1. Sometimes, it fizzles: after multiple tweaks to the list, I reach the conclusion that sometimes, when you star comboing off, you are not sure to close the game, since this list relies heavely on casting multiple copies of Ideas Unbound: if you fail to draw it, you’re probably fall halfway through the combo without relevant pieces.
2. It fails against counter: while the list can resist to a single counterspells, multiple can be leave little to no chance of winning, since a lot of pieces have to connect in order to finally mill your opponent out. G2 G3 things are better with Gigadrowse, but starting with an almost secure loss in a game is not what I want in the long run of a big tournament.
3. Land destruction is a thing, and playing against it is a miserable experience.

Addendum:

• I playtested a version that uses Dawn’s Reflection instead of Fertile Ground and a full set of Preordain instead of other cards; it improves, but not in a very relevant way.

Balena Combo

I realized after burning multiple playpoints, that the combo Whale + Helix + Thoot is not that great, since it requires a setup turn (Balena doesn’t have haste) and it is too fragile, so I opted for a completely new approach, with Rites as wincon.

PROS:

1. Sometimes, you just win by overflowing the board;
2. It draws a lot.

CONS:

1. The combo Helix/Balena combo is just bad;
2. Keep7 dependent;
3. Lose to mass removal;
4. Single card power level is pretty meh.

RG Familiar

The idea of the deck is, on turn 3, play Familiar/Goblin paired with a ritual, and from there go big in value, both drawing cards or ramping; the finisher is First day of class casted multiple times with Ardent Elementalist and attack with multiple hasty creatures.

PROS:

1. Deck is faaaast
2. Deck win in an original way, playing cards that are optimized both for pre combo and post combo actions.

CONS:

1. The deck is removal prone: if a Familiar don’t survive, the deck is just a pile of cards.
2. Doesn’t play interactive spells..

Pinger Storm

This is my wet dream, but it’s probably it will remain so…. the combo is just too fragile, and no available card or combination of cards in the pool will replace Galvanic Relay.

PROS:

1. When it does work or your opponent has a counterspell/a removal/anything, the impression is to play such an unfair deck that you feel invincible, invulnerable, indestructible unconquerable, unbeatable, indomitable, unassailable, unyielding, unflinching, unbending, unshakeable, indefatigable, ineluctable.

CONS:

1. When it does not work, you are questioning yourself why you are wasting your time like that.

Bonus: Altar Tron

Not really changed from the last list: the main switches are related to MTGO limitations, such as no infinite life, no concession and things like that.

PROS:

1. Better vs. new list of Monored:

2. No innovation: no changes means that everything that I wrote about the archetype in my previous post still stands.

   CONS:

3. The Familiar match up is not that great:
4. MonoU match up is not well defined:
5. Carpal tunnel after few leagues on MTGO: I feel physical pain and moral pain since players make you fully comboing off before concede (hate the game not the player).
6. No innovation: I feel that the deck is slowing become boring: the playpatter are kind of the same, and the fact that the deck plays few interaction spells leads to fewer choices, so every games against a specific archetype tend to be the same.

Last Words

For Paupergeddon Pisa I’m testing off-meta decks, both for having an edge vs players that doesn’t know what are facing, and for having a customized deck that I like to play. I am not sure what to bring to the tournament, so feedback or suggestion are welcomed! :)

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Storm Discord for the multiple deck ideas; despite not engaging much in the conversations, I’m lurking a lot :)

Review History

2023-06-12 12:00:00 : Fixes 2023-06-09 14:00:00 : First draft

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My articles will always be open source, free and reproducible. My writings will always be discussion material, and my opinions can be debated and refuted.