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By: Arctic_Ghost, Arctic_Ghost
May 28 2018 12:00pm
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In Pauper, some of the best decks that the format has to offer are green aggro decks. Pump spells, Ramp spells or just playing a ton of creatures and turning them sideways, there is something for every type of player out there and they can be a lot of fun to play.

Today we are going to look 3 green aggro decks you could be playing right now. Those decks will be Elves, Mono Green Stompy and GW Slivers. First up, we will look at everyone's favorite mono green deck and I believe to be the most popular of them all, we are going to look at good old Stompy.

Stompy is a straightforward aggro deck that is trying to kill your opponent as quickly as possible. You are not trying to build an army or go wide, again you are just trying to win as quickly as possible.

 

While you don't have any burn spells to send at your opponent, you have pump spells such as Rancor and Hunger of the Howlpack to grow your creatures and attack your opponent for chunks of damage. Also do keep in mind that a lot of removal played in Pauper today is damaged based (such as Lightning Bolt for example) and not only do you save your creatures with pump spells, you also get in for more damage as well.

 

You also get creatures such as River Boa who is great in combat due to it being able to Regenerate and it is also very good against any deck with Islands because of the Islandwalk ability. Quirion Ranger allows you to keep 1 land hands and still be able to play a good game, which makes it easy for you to not have to mulligan almost at all and you even have Skarrgan Pit-Skulk which is a good aggressive 1 mana cost creature, where the bigger you make it, the more unblockable it becomes. These are just some of the great creatures you will be working with in this archetype.

 

Since you are playing green, you also get access to great sideboard cards, such as Gleeful Sabotage to wreck any deck relying on a lot of Enchantments and/or Artifacts. You get Fog like cards such as Tangle or Moment's Peace and you do have removal options such as Epic Confrontation, so you have access to a little bit of everything you may need to fight other archetypes.

 

The best part about Stompy is the little amount of land you need to play and that should make it so you don't flood often. You also don't need many lands to play, which is great because this means you don't have to mulligan hands away often either.

 

Stompy is just a solid aggro deck that has always been my suggestion for new Pauper players as it can be easy to pick up, but can also be very rewarding to those who take the time to test and practice the archetype as well.

 

Next up we will talk about Elves.

 

Elves is a tribal aggro deck with a few combos built into it as well. The plan here is not exactly to win the game as quickly as possible, but instead you assemble a massive army very quickly and go as wide as possible around your opponents creatures and/or removal available to them.

 

You generate a ton of mana from your Elves such as Llanowar Elves and Priest of Titania and then your big pay off cards are Lead the Stampede and to a bigger extent you have Distant Melody to draw a bunch more creatures, cast them and then go ham by turning them sideways. You can also use all the mana you generate to use play Lys Alana Huntmaster and make a huge army, then use Virdian Longbow the next turn to win the game. It takes a lot of clicks however, so do keep that in mind.

 

Quirion Ranger is at its best here in this archetype because it combos so well with Priest of Titania to generate tons of mana, Timberwatch Elf to pump multiple creatures and help you win the game faster or to help your creatures survive damage based removal (such as Lightning Bolt for example) and it combos with Wellwisher to gain you tons of life and prolong the game so you can buy enough time to set up and win.

 

However with this archetype you are very weak to board wipe cards such as Electrickery and Nausea, so you do have to be able to play around them at all times. You also are a bit weaker to removal due to your lack of pump spells and your creatures are already so small. With that all being said you do get some great sideboard cards in the form of Spidesilk Armor and Wrap in Vigor to name a few. I personally find Elves to be the funnest deck of the 3 I am talking about today.

 

Finally we will look at a good old favorite, we are going to look at Slivers.

 

Slivers is also a tribal aggro deck, but you don't have a lot of mana dorks and combos like Elves and you don't have a ton of pump spells and aggressive creatures as Stompy does. What Slivers try to do, is feed off each other, build a massive board and swing sideways for the win.

 

In this archetype, every creature you have makes all of your other creatures better. You have 2 Lord type creatures (Muscle Sliver is a lord for example because it gives all of your other creatures +1 power and toughness), you have 4 Sidewinder Sliver to help your creatures with combat and make your opponents have terrible blocks and then you have an extra Lord of sorts in Plated Sliver.

 

You do have some pump spells in the form of Mutagenic Growth which is great because you can tap out for a couple of creatures and still cast it by paying just 2 life points. You also have Vines of Vastwood to be a counterspell for removal and/or a big +4 power to attack or block with. You even have some ways of getting more cards in the form of Commune with Nature and Adventurous Impulse and these are mostly to search for more lords. You can never have enough Lords in play and that is how you will win, by making your creatures so big and massive that you will be swinging for lethal every turn until your opponent throws in the towel.

 

Another great part of playing Slivers is that you have access to white sideboard cards such as Standard Bearer and Sunlance and plenty of others that you don't see in the list above at this time.

 

Slivers does have a few problems however as individually, your creatures are not impressive and are quite small. In a format where Disfigure, Lightning Bolt and Flame Slash are just some of the cheap removal you will run into, it makes it hard for Slivers to keep a board state and not have to play a game of catch up. Slivers shine in beating other aggro matchups because you can build a massive army your opponent can't swing past, but control type matchups will give you problems. They aren't unwinnable, just difficult to navigate.

 

Verdict and Conclusion

I find any one of these 3 archetypes are great for beginners just starting out in Pauper and I don't think you can go wrong with whichever one you choose. But I guess the question is, which one of these archetypes would I play in the leagues right now? In my opinion, I think your best bet will be with Stompy. I personally believe that Stompy is the most consistent and the most powerful.

 

I think Elves is also a great deck, but many players will know what are the problem creatures to deal with and when you are left with just a board of useless 1 power mana dorks, you won't have an easy time getting far. The other problem is how easily you can lose to cards like Electrickery and yes, you do have sideboard cards to help deal with that, but they can only get you so far in the long run.

 

Slivers is an archetype I always go back and fourth on. The archetype can either be really good or really bad, it all depends on how well you draw and how much removal your opponent draws. If you can play a Lord every turn, you can easily run away with the game, however early on when they only have 2 or 3 toughness, it isn't hard to kill them off 1 by 1 with Lightning Bolts and Disfigures. In my opinion, I think Elves is better because it is more powerful and with pay off cards such as Distant Melody.

 

Stompy is a bit different because of all the pump spells it plays. You can easily chip away at your opponents life total for a few turns and then all of the sudden play 2-3 pump spells and win the game in 1 big turn. Since Stompy is uses 1 color, comparing it to Slivers, you can cast your spells faster and not possibly be slowed down by your manabase coming together too slowly. You do get hit by Electrickery a tiny bit, but nowhere near as bad as Elves can.

 

Let me know in the comments what you think is the best deck of these 3, I would love to hear what all of you consider to be the best one.

 

Would you like to compete in a free Pauper tournament with some great prizes? Head on over to Gatherling.com on Tuesday nights at 8pm EDT and play in our weekly Pauper Classic Tuesday's event! Join the chat #PCT to chat with us and feel free to find most of the competitors on Discord!

 

Thanks for reading, see you next time!