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By: DailyMatters, Cláudio Anselmo Santos Ribeiro
Nov 18 2013 12:39pm
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 Welcome back everyone!

First and foremost I want to address the state of the Pauper Challenge. The last time we visited the challenge, Boros Landfall made a 12 - 8 record and was on his way to the 2-man queues. Unfortunately, because I just got a new job and I’m trying to excel in it, opportunities to play are getting way scarcer.

Last weekend I had the deck ready to go, when a friend of mine warned me: “Black decks are everywhere, Gray Merchant is everywhere”. So I decided to check the metagame, and surprise, surprise, I think the meta is extremely hostile to the landfall deck. So I decided to put this deck on halt for a little longer, because I’m really in the mood to lose a bunch of tickets. I’m sorry to those who are expecting this, but it will have to wait a little longer.

 

Steppe LynxAdventuring GearPlated Geopede

Wait just a little bit more my friends! Your time will come!

 

Bad news aside! Have you been following Dan and his Pauper Gauntlet?

 

We have a winner and the winner is Boros Kitty!

To quote his article, that can be found here, here are the final standings:

 

1st place: BorosKitty

2nd place: Illusory Tricks

3rd place: Love Train, Five Color Green

5th place: Stompy, MUC, Icy Hot Hottie

8th place: UB Trinket Control, Goblins

10th place: DelverFiend

11th place: Simic Stormpost

12th place: Allies, Hexproof, RG Tempo, White Weenie and Simic Storm

 

So, in honor of the pauper gauntlet, I decided to check the top 2 decks, and see what makes them tick (I’m also a big fan of Boros decks in Pauper, so I was actually quite curious about BorosKitty).

Mtgo on, and after some trades here’s what I got:

Illusory Tricks

BorosKitty
 

 

Two decks, no sideboard, the goal: understand what makes each of the decks tick, understand which one I like the most, and then, complete the deck with the sideboard and a sideboard plan and take it for the Pauper Challenge.

At this moment I was feeling quite anxious. Both decks look really exciting, with lots of cool interactions and complicated decision trees. So without even thinking, I took each one of them to a game in the the tournament practice room.

 

First I took Kitty, and paired against White Weenie. Well, this wasn’t the start I was looking for, because even though Kitty is normally good against aggro decks, this guy had T1 Bonesplitter, T2 Squadron Hawk, T3 Loyal Cathar, T4 double Hawk, while I’m stuck with no red mana. Still he needed double Prismatic Strands to win the game.

First Impressions: BorosKitty is a control deck, it draws so many cards it’s not even funny, it’s a really grindy deck in which every card it plays is card advantage. Probably the best Kor Skyfisher deck I ever played.

Key cards: it’s really hard to name some key cards for this deck, because this is clearly a sinergy deck, where the collective is stronger than the individual. To name a few:

Kor Skyfisher Glint Hawk

These guys are card advantage machines in this deck.

Then it was Illusory Tricks time.

To continue with the bad luck, played against a deck with Pyroblast main which later proved to be some sort of mono red Fiend deck.  

My opponent doesn’t notice that Stormbound Geist can only block creatures with flying and that gives me enough time to develop my board and grow a huge Cloudfin Raptor with the help of double Dream Stalker that also doubled as fiend repellent. He has a lot of burn, but I have way too much creatures.

First Impressions: A blue creature deck, light on permission, which can also play the tempo game. It’s an deceptively hard deck to play, with a lot of intricate interactions and decisions.

Key Cards: depending on what plan you are (either tempo, flood the board or pure aggro) the key cards can change in this deck, so I would say the most important cards to achieve either plan are:

Krovikan MistCloudfin RaptorDream Stalker

They all kind of serve (almost) the same purpose.

Most important thing I got from these two isolated games was: both decks feel really powerful, but also complicated to play optimally. So I took a mental note “This will not be easy”.

So, with the introduction made, I got a little bit more serious and started to play the decks so I could have a good amount of data and feel for them. Took each one of them to the Tournament practice room and played 5 single games with each.

Started out with Tricks:

Game 1:

Vs: White weenie

Opening Hand:

2xDelver Of SecretsFathom seerCloudfin Raptor 3xIsland

Tried to 1 for 1 his creatures because I feel I have a better late game. My plan was successful as he ran out of gas and my fliers took the game.

Game 2:

Vs: GR Tron

Opening Hand:

Spire GolemCounterspell 5xIsland - Mulligan

Dream StalkerStormbound GeistSpire Golem 3xIsland

 Kept a very slow hand and tried to control the game with little countermagic and discard from the Charms. He has Tron third turn and Crushed me with (Ulamog’s Crusher).

Game 3:

Vs: UR Tron

Opening Hand:

Delver Of SecretsPonderPiracy Charm 4xIsland

This time I think I have a faster and better hand to fight Tron, but once again the game fell into a place I had to try to control the board. Countered and Expedition Map (Is that a correct thing to do vs Tron?). Once he has full Tron the deck is very hard to stop and once again got crushed by Crusher.

Note to myself: Seems like Tron is a bad matchup!

Game 4:

Vs: Affinity

Opening Hand:

2xCloudfin RaptorPonder 4xIsland

Kept a questionable hand because it had Ponder. Got double Raptor with Dream Stalker “Combo”. I realized that Dream Stalker blanks all the creatures in Affinity, and that to win he would need Atog+Fling. He does not have it and my fliers got there.

Dream Stalker trumps Affinity!

Game 5:

Vs: UR Mill

Opening Hand:

CounterspellPonderFathom SeerVapor SnagSpire Golem2xIsland

Got a controlling hand and when I saw that I was playing against mill I wished I had something more aggressive. Still, he went out of gas and my creatures got there.

Pretty surprised with how fun and competitive this deck can be, definitely surprised!

After that it was time to Kitty to shine.

Game 1:

Vs: Jund

Opening Hand:

Faithless LootingOrigin SpellbombOblivion RingKor SkyfisherMountainAncient DenGreat Furnace

The deck took a while to gain some traction, it was enough for Jund to establish the board and have some Blastoderm to finish me. Have you guys noticed how hard is to deal with Blastoderm?

Game 2:

Vs: MUC

Opening Hand:

Prophetic PrismKor SkyfisherGreat Furnace

It’s already hard to beat MUC, on a mulligan to 3 it’s pretty much impossible!

Game 3:

Vs: IzzetBlitz

Opening Hand:

2xJourney to NowhereGlint HawkOblivion RingKor SkyfisherKabira CrossroadsAncient DenGreat Furnace

With triple Journey, Oblivion Ring and multiple burn spells it’s hard to lose to Izzet. He drew more creatures than usual on that deck, I think I had to deal with 6 or 7 creatures.

Game 4:

Vs: Aggro Domain

Opening Hand:

Journey to NowhereFaithless LootingKabira CrossroadsPlains

I’m on a mulligan to 4, he’s playing Rancor, Matca Rioters, Young Wolf and other hard to deal creatures. Pretty soon I’m overwhelmed.

Game 5:

Vs: RUG Tron

Opening Hand:

Ichor WellspringOrigin SpellbombKabira CrossroadsGlint Hawk2xKor SkyfisherMountain

I have a good hand, but this deck is somehow slow. Tron late game is really strong, so I lose again.

Tron can be just a little bit too strong in the lategame.

In the end Illusory tricks ended up behaving a bit better than BorosKitty, which is not that much surprising since the metagame has become very hostile to Kitty style decks, with numerous control decks (Tron,. Mono black) that have a much better lategame than Kitty. Tricks have the advantage with some disruption and countermagic and with quality creatures.

To be honest I’m quite surprised that I ended up enjoying Tricks more than BorosKitty!

An important note:

When I started writing this article, the recent news about the end of daily events was not a reality. At this moment I’m trying to figure out how I will continue with the pauper challenge, maybe the solution comes from entering an 8 man queue. I would like to know your opinion.

I hope you enjoyed this article, next I will be putting more effort into testing Illusory Tricks and also maybe some evolution in the deck. I’m also testing a sweet brew that I might present to you in the next article. Until then,

 

Enjoy life! 

More articles by me that you should check out =)

Pauper Challenge #1 - Affinity

Pauper Challenge #1 - Boros Landfall

Evolving Zombies

 

14 Comments

tricks brewer by ahniwa at Mon, 11/18/2013 - 19:45
ahniwa's picture
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Hey, this is Bava. Illusory Tricks is my one and only brew that has ever been mildly successful. Glad you liked it! I think it's still well positioned in the current meta. Cweaver and I have been playing it with good success. There are updates, which I am happy to share, but I'd also be curious how you'd adapt the deck to better battle the current meta.

Thanks for the article!

Re by DailyMatters at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 04:59
DailyMatters's picture

Hey Bava, glad you enjoyed the article. I'm definetely picking up the deck seriously now, I was really impressed with it.
I'm thinking something in the lines of Daze will improve the deck, but that remains to be seen.

Thanks for the comment, and maybe in the future we can share some ideas!

Great article! by MagicGatheringStrat at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 01:28
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I enjoyed seeing these two decks in action again! Keep up the good work. /D

Re by DailyMatters at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 05:00
DailyMatters's picture

Thanks a lot Dan, it's pretty clear that for this article I was inspired in the Pauper Gauntlet results, so thanks for the inspiration!

You are welcome by MagicGatheringStrat at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 06:58
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Glad to have inspired you. Do you have any thoughts on what I can improve in the Pauper Gauntlet for next year? If you do, please comment on my article from yesterday. What did you like best about the Gauntlet?

RE by DailyMatters at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 12:53
DailyMatters's picture

I'll check out your article as soon as I arrive home ;)

Illusory Tricks update by Cweaver at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 11:47
Cweaver's picture

Bava and I have actually cut Delver of Secrets entirely from the Tricks deck. We've added some Phantasmal Bears to pump up the Krovikan Mists and put 2x Dazes in the deck. We've also added some Deprives to the main. Both of us have made various cuts to accomodate this and we're running slightly different numbers.

RE by DailyMatters at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 12:09
DailyMatters's picture

Hey Cweaver, thanks for stopping by! It makes sense, actually Delver kind of feels out of place in this deck. Even though I was able to have games where Delver flipped in the second turn with counterspell and vapor snag backup... but that's a different deck right there!

I will definitely try Phantasmal Bear, seems like the right choice for this.

Thanks once again!

question by DailyMatters at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 14:27
DailyMatters's picture

You're playing Deprive in addition to Counterspell and Daze?

First of all I like the by RWHope at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 12:10
RWHope's picture

First of all I like the article, taking screenshots of hands and games is a great way to show the reader how the deck performs in a game. That being said, single games with no sideboards doesn't really do a lot to show the power of a deck. If it can't win post board that's an important thing to know! Legacy Dredge has a great game 1 performance but is generally in an abysmal position games 2/3 after sideboard. I'd recommend going over sideboards and playing full matches in the future. Also wanted to ask, what are some advantages to playing the illusion deck over the already proven Mono U Delver?

Tricks is a bigger deck than by Cweaver at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 12:24
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Tricks is a bigger deck than Delver. Both decks are Aggro-Control decks, with Delver/Faeries leaning much heavier on the "control" side of things. Tricks leans heavier on the aggro side of things - your guys aren't blanked by a Spire Golem and they can get ridiculously big. You lose Spellstutter and Ninja and gain the potential for a Shivan Dragon sized army.

RE by DailyMatters at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 12:37
DailyMatters's picture

Hey RWHope, thanks for the words.

The whole point of this article was to choose between tricks and kitty, testing the waters to see which one I like the most, to do that i thought single matches with no sideboard would be enough to get a general feel for them. Next step will be putting together the sideboard (for Tricks) and test full matches or who knows some 8-man queues with it.

If you check the other Pauper challenge articles I made, you can see I actually go through full matches with sideboard and some details.

Ah k! Well then carry on by RWHope at Tue, 11/19/2013 - 20:45
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Ah k! Well then carry on haha.

video / recent decklist by ahniwa at Wed, 11/20/2013 - 12:28
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Here is my most recent play session and decklist. Much easier to see the decklist at the end of the video for some reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rE0O78mSRZU

Feel free to use it, adapt it, or ignore it entirely. As I said earlier, it would also be interesting to see an unspoiled take on how the deck can be adapted to better fit the meta.