Or if you want greater EDH expertise, why not take one of the best MTG commanders for a spin? Finally, if you want to know which cards are banned in Pauper, here’s our guide to every MTG banlist. Another way to support me is via Ko-FI, where you can also find FREE sideboard guides for my pauper brews and exclusive content for members.
However, while there were a few copies of Caw-Gates, the winner of the Challenge was Burn. Last week, I missed this report because I was still recovering from a bug, and also I didn’t see any major changes based on meta performance. There was a debate on which matches you would add Relic of Progenitus these days, as you mostly rely on Duress and Tithing Blade against the Terror matchup, but other than that, this seems like a solid 75 for the deck. As I mentioned earlier, Azorius Affinity has been rising in popularity thanks to the introduction of Novice Inspector.
Deadly Dispute and Reckoner’s Bargain make the deck rotate and fetch whatever you need, making it a great choice for the competitive scene. This example list was used by Alexandre Weber, who always succeeds with this deck, running only 8 creatures. With this list, I played Pauper Royale and went 4-0, all being 2-0, the deck was very consistent and with great answers for the current meta. I’m Tiago Fuguete, and today we’re going to talk a little about Pauper’s moment and make a Top 10 of the best decks right now. I will also talk about each of them, giving the strengths and weaknesses of each one, in addition to commenting on their overall strategy. This list is very similar to my original Turbo Initiative list, with the difference that it runs Goliath Paladin to access the full Initiative suit currently available on Pauper.
New sets typically feel like Christmas to me as I evaluate if previously barely playable cards can now be incorporated with the new ones. Despite all of the bannings of amazing Affinity cards like Sojourner’s Companion and Atog, this deck is still absurdly strong. Thanks to Commander Masters adding All That Glitters and Reverse Engineer to Pauper, however, the archetype looks a little different than it used to. Instead of playing a Grixis-focused build with Galvanic Blast and Deadly Dispute, most players are playing an Azorius-centric version with Thraben Inspector alongside the new additions to the format. Prismatic Strands helps protect your Creatures from removal and slow down your opponent’s aggressive draws in decks like burn. Prismatic Strands is also quite good against damage-based board wipes like Fiery Cannonade, especially given how small this deck’s Creatures are.
However, the problem with Caw-Gates is that it does not have any way to interact with your opponents at instant speed with already resolved threats. In principle, we have Prismatic Strands, but little it does against a Gingerbrute that shines. That said, getting access to white gives any deck a good chance to win the Glitters matchup, as you get access to Dust to Dust and many other spells that exile artifacts.
Azorius Affinity
Lightning Bolt and Skred can handle low to middle-sized creatures, while Fiery Cannonade or Breath Weapon can act as board wipes. This is a good place to be against almost every creature deck, and on top of that, you also run the Counterspell package to prevent annoying threats from beating you. Both Tolarian Terror and Murmuring Mystic are decent finishers, and both the red and the blue monarch are excellent for outgrinding decks like Golgari Gardens. I expect this deck to see more play once players have realized that it has the most tools to beat Glitters Affinity consistently.
This deck does take a while to close the game, but it’s a strong choice nonetheless. Mono-Blue Terror in Pauper is a control-based deck designed to dominate through powerful creatures and spell interactions while maintaining a strong grip on the game through card advantage and the constant disruption of opponents. Mono-Blue, as a whole, is an excellent meta choice, particularly in leagues where mono-red strategies are prevalent. The ability to run up to eight copies of [card]Hydroblast[/card] significantly boosts your chances of winning those matchups. Beyond that, the deck performs solidly against the rest of the meta, thanks to its suite of countermagic and powerful game-ending creatures like [card]Tolarian Terror[/card].
Today, I will highlight five unique decks that have achieved undefeated records in MTGO Leagues. With [card]Bonder’s Ornament[/card] banned, midrange decks have struggled to find a solid replacement. While [card]Veloheart Bike[/card] isn’t colorless, it provides ramp and an additional attacker, making it valuable for decks like Jund Midrange. A versatile Vehicle that pairs well with aggressive creatures, allowing you to push early damage before becoming a creature itself.
Top Decks of the Week
It’s not unreasonable for All that Glitters to buff a Creature’s power by ten or more later in the game, giving the deck much better closing speed than before. Hate cards like Gorilla Shaman are still effective, but Affinity fights through hate better than you might expect. The biggest benefit to this strategy over Dimir Control is the lack of tapped Lands in the deck.
To help make All that Glitters as strong as possible, this deck uses Gingerbrute and Ornithopter as efficient Creatures to suit up with the powerful Aura. This, of course, is in addition to the usual Affinity suspects, Frogmite and Myr Enforcer. While All that Glitters is a decent addition to decks like Bogles, this shell takes the card to a whole new level thanks to all of the Artifact Lands in the manabase.
Players must carefully play around removal spells and time their win conditions effectively (similar to Moggwarts). Despite this, Broodscale Combo is the second most-used deck when combining results, just behind Grixis Affinity. This mostly Gruul version of Eldrazi Tribal is a deck that focuses on creating 0/1 Eldrazi tokens to generate mana. [card]Writhing Chrysalis[/card], arguably one of the best cards in Pauper right now, is clearly the centerpiece. It grows and adds mana, even when it’s countered, making it a key component of the deck’s strategy. If your deck is strong against Mono-Red and you face that archetype three or four times, which is entirely possible in Pauper due to the format’s nature, your results may not fully represent your deck’s overall performance.
Mono-Blue Delver
However, it’s somewhat fragile in meta mtg a format dominated by small creature swarms. While this seems restrictive, you can reuse it by returning the card to your hand and replaying it or bouncing it. However, since its effectiveness depends on its payoffs, this mechanic is unlikely to shake up Pauper either. And make no mistake, the fact that the deck is not always present among the tops of Metagame sites is mainly because it is extremely tricky to play, especially online, and there are few players who know how to pilot it. And if we’re going to mention Mono Red, there’s no way not to mention its new staple, an extra copy of Reckless Impulse, and now we have an aggro deck with 8 draw effects.
Pauper has changed a lot over the years, especially given the high volume of reprints each having their rarity downshifted to common for the first time. Commander Masters recently brought a ton of strong new additions to the format that have shaken up the meta quite a bit. To help you learn a bit more about the Pauper metagame, here are the top 11 MTG best Pauper decks. Beyond that, the game is primarily about navigating their disruption—such as [card]Duress[/card]—with your [card]Spell Pierce[/card] and applying early pressure with [card]Delver of Secrets[/card].