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By: Plainswalker83, Plainswalker83
Nov 14 2018 1:00pm
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It will take me some time to get together the cards for Legacy and Vintage. Until I do I wanted to really give Pauper a try. I can still use a lot of the cards that I know and love even if they aren’t rare or even uncommon.

For some reason Pauper has been the hardest format for me to really get into. I have always had trouble finding a deck I enjoyed and then sticking with it. I have had little success in the format and because of the sometimes very grindy nature of it, I ended up quitting multiple times.

I want to try and change that this time. I want to find a deck I like, a deck that fits my playstyle, and one that I can be successful with. That is where my journey began. First, I want to thank MTGOTRADERS because without them this journey would be a nightmare. I can easily load up a deck and buy it all at once and repeat the process as needed. Finding the artwork and old borders that I want all for a great price.

This time around I started with Mono White Heroic. I played the deck before and played a ton of blue white heroic when in was in Standard. I liked how it could just draw a good hand and assemble a quick win. There were times though where it just felt stale. It had the classic Bogle issue. Draw too much pump and not enough creatures, or draw too many creatures and not enough pump.

I did like that for the most part it was resilient to edict effects. It was also very good against spot removal. However, it was very poor against counter magic. I also did not like it against go wide type aggro decks. Unfortunately, that is all I seemed to play against.

I kept checking the metagame and saw the rising of a red white aggro deck. My first thought was to play it. As most of you know, I have a tend to play low to the ground, white based aggro. The deck would have been perfect for me. So, I gave it a go.


This deck reminded me of the old Mono White Tokens deck that was popular awhile ago. It removes the life gain aspect that it used to have and now has a strong graveyard theme. The red gives it access not only to Rally the Peasants but also some burn and one of the best cantrips available Faithless Looting.

This deck looks like it has a very good delver match up and red gives you access to Pyroblast which makes it look even better. You also gain Electrickery to help against the mirror and Elves.

I added Patrician's Scorn as my enchantment kill of choice because I liked how it removed everything at once.  I never played against bogles or heroic with the deck but it did serve me well against Stompy. Removing Rancor and Elephant Guide made blocking a lot better for my army of 1/1s.

What I don’t like about the deck is the helpless feeling you have when you play against another aggro deck. If they get a faster start they can quickly overwhelm you. When playing an aggressive deck if you are forced to go on the defensive it disrupts your plan to close out a game quickly.

Now this deck is different than other aggro because it does have some late game action. Palace Sentinels does give you a chance to get back into a game and even a few creatures can close out a game when you top deck a Rally.

Another concern I had was how it matched up against decks with sweepers and a lot of removal. If you can’t put enough pressure on a Tron or Control deck they can go over the top and really make things miserable. I know the deck is seeing success and I may go back to it but I wanted to have more options and more answers.

I looked through the results some more and saw something that piqued my interest.

Blue Black Control seemed to be around for a long time. A few things drew me to this deck.

First, I have a lot of fond memories casting Counterspell and even Recoil. I played that mono blue Morphling deck a long time in Extended and when Shadowmage Infiltrator was released, I quickly added black to the deck.

This deck is almost a trip down memory lane for me. Nostalgia is not the only reason I wanted to play it though.  This deck has the options and answers I was looking for.

First, it has plenty of removal. This deck excels against decks like Elves and Stompy. I have also found favorable matchups against Kuldotha Boros and Delver variants. The card selection combined with counter magic and removal give it a great game one against most decks.

I also have found it generally has a good match up against Red White aggro. Though when I played my other leagues I had Shrivel in the sideboard.  I like the addition of Hydroblast it helps sure up the Burn match up as well helping against any deck bringing in Pyroblast against you.

Another positive to this build of the deck is having Gurmag Angler to close out games quickly. A lot of times control has a problem winning fast enough. That is not the case with this version. If you can stay alive long enough and slow down your opponent you can eventually take control of the game.

There is another version of UB that I tried that uses Ghostly Flicker and other creatures like Archaeomancer and (Seagate Oracle) along with Mulldrifter to gain an advantage and eventually bury your opponent with the cards and spell selection that you have access too.  I liked playing that version and had minor success with it but it can also be a bit grindy.

This version with Angler can close out games faster, which is especially important if you want to grind through leagues and play a lot of matches. You don’t want to take every game to time and become so fatigued that you don’t make the correct decisions.

I will continue to learn this deck and in doing so, try and learn the format better. Eventually I will find the right deck for me but I believe it will take some time and plenty of practice. I want to use Pauper to help me get into other Eternal Formats. Who knows, maybe I will really grow to love the Pauper format. Only time will tell. Until next time!