Classic Pauper Faeries

After using my original faeries deck a couple of times in MTGO, I noticed that I tend to lose to decks that were using older cards, meaning those that have Classic Pauper builds, instead of just Standard Pauper. Since MTGO at the moment doesn't distinguish between pauper types, I decided to upgrade my deck in order to be competitive to these "Type 1" decks. Here's my latest build:



// Lands
22 [ALA] Island

// Creatures
4 [10E] Cloud Sprite
4 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite
4 [LRW] Pestermite
3 [MOR] Latchkey Faerie
4 [BOK] Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter
4 [DS] Spire Golem

// Spells
4 [IA] Counterspell
4 [9E] Mana Leak
3 [10E] Unsummon

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [IA] Hydroblast
SB: 3 [SC] Hindering Touch
SB: 4 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus
SB: 4 [MOR] Negate

Being unfamiliar with older cards, I based some of the card selections on decklists I found on PDCMagic.com. I still made some personal modifications though, partly due to my preferred play style -- most, if not all, of the decks I found are pure Mono Blue Control -- and I didn't want to play such a "serious" deck in pauper (I think it defeats the purpose). Also, some of the card selections of pauper net decks are actually quite expensive. For example, Exclude (the Remove Soul with a cantrip) is currently at 3.5 tix each. Prohibit (the conditional counterspell) is at 1 ticket each.

The sideboard, while improving, still needs some work though. I still don't know what to put in the place of the Relics and the Negates. I'll only learn this from experience though, so I guess it's time to go back online, and play some more pauper. :)

Conflux Prerelease - Jan 31, 2009

Best. Prerelease. Ever. :)

Jovs and I both went 4-0, him with an Esper deck, and me with an aggresive Bant deck containing many evasive flyers.



// Lands
1 [CNF] Exotic Orchard
1 [CNF] Rupture Spire
1 [ALA] Bant Panorama
1 [ALA] Jungle Shrine
5 [ALA] Island
5 [ALA] Plains
3 [ALA] Forest

// Creatures
2cc:
1 [ALA] Sigiled Paladin
1 [ALA] Deft Duelist
1 [ALA] Steward of Valeron
3cc:
1 [ALA] Bant Battlemage
1 [CNF] Gluttonous Slime
1 [CNF] Matca Rioters
2 [CNF] Aven Trailblazer
1 [ALA] Gustrider Exuberant
1 [ALA] Kathari Screecher
2 [CNF] Parasitic Strix
1 [CNF] Giltspire Avenger
4cc or more:
2 [CNF] Esper Cormorants
1 [ALA] Sharding Sphinx
1 [ALA] Spearbreaker Behemoth

// Spells
1 [CNF] Path to Exile
1 [ALA] Oblivion Ring
1 [CNF] Constricting Tendrils
1 [CNF] Might of Alara
1 [ALA] Spell Snip
1 [CNF] Traumatic Visions


I can't remember my opponent's exact decks, but here are some memorable and fun moments:

1. Going down to 1 life but still winning the game, thanks to the token producing ability of Sharding Sphinx.

2. My opponent beating me in game 1 via a finishing blow Might of Alara. Then on the second game, I did the same to him, pumping my unblocked creature ftw. :)

3. My opponent playing a post-blockers "Agony Warp", only to see that it was actually a Countersquall. LOL.

4. My MVP for the whole tournament, believe it or not, is Esper Cormorants. It's amazing how one 3/3 flyer for 4 mana can win you so many games. Especially if you already have a 2/2 flyer on turn 2. Or even better, if you can follow it up with another 3/3 flyer on turn 5. :)

5. Winning my last game via a topdecked Spearbreaker Behemoth. :)

Here are some notable cards that we got from our sealed deck pools and prize packs:

1.3 Exotic Orchards
2. Ancient Ziggurat
3. 2 Giltspire Avengers
4. 2 Path to Exiles (need just 2 more...)
5. Ethersworn Adjudicator
6. Nyxathid
7. Volcanic Fallout
8. Thornling

And of course, there's the t-shirt. :)


(picture courtesy of Ongkeco's Hobby Shop)

Like I said, best prerelease ever. :)

Pauper Magic @ MTGO

In a nutshell, Pauper Magic is "commons-only" Magic. That means no mythic rares, no regular rares, not even uncommons. Just your plain old commons -- the ones you never use and just rot inside your card boxes, or wherever it is that you store your Magic cards.

I've been wanting to give it a try for the longest time -- to give myself a break from the Bitterblossoms and Cryptic Commands of "normal" competitive Magic -- and with its increase in popularity and support lately (having been supported officially as an actual format in Magic Online), I finally decided to give it a try.

Obviously, it is a very cheap format... but until I built my first Pauper deck, I never really imagined that it was THIS cheap. I mean, for less than three tickets (2.9 to be exact), I managed to purchase my whole deck (via Cardhoarder.com)! That's less than 150 pesos!

Here's the deck that I built:



// Lands
22 [ALA] Island

// Creatures
4 [10E] Cloud Sprite
4 [LRW] Spellstutter Sprite
4 [SHM] Briarberry Cohort
4 [LRW] Pestermite
4 [MOR] Dewdrop Spy
3 [MOR] Latchkey Faerie
4 [LRW] Mulldrifter

// Spells
4 [10E] Remove Soul
4 [LRW] Broken Ambitions
3 [10E] Unsummon

// Sideboard
SB: 4 [MOR] Negate
SB: 4 [LRW] Faerie Trickery
SB: 4 [10E] Cancel
SB: 3 [ALA] Relic of Progenitus


It's mono-blue faeries. I've always wanted to play a blue aggro deck -- and with the control elements of faeries, this is actually a perfect deck for my playstyle. The sideboard though is so-so. I don't really have any idea about the Pauper metagame, so I just squeezed in a couple of blue cards that I know"might" be useful.

To my surprise, the deck actually performed pretty well. Or should I say, VERY well. After a couple of games in the Casual Room, I managed to beat a few decks, only losing to a mono red burn deck (which is the weakness of the faerie deck). In fact, I even tried to play in a 2-Player Pauper tournament (which is basically just a single match, and whomever wins it gets a pack), and I won! The pack turned up to be crappy -- Brilliant Ultimatum was my rare -- but I was just happy to have won something... from 150 pesos worth of cards. :)

My previous attempt at MTGO was a bit of a disappointment -- I never really pursued it due to budget constraints -- but with Pauper Magic, I'm actually sure that I will be back to play. It's fun, it's cheap, and it's new. :) In fact, let me just publish this blog post, and I'll be back right now. ;-)