Rich would call this a cop out.

Rich was one of my old MTGO buddies from Pauper. We would talk off client quite often, and whenever a new set came out, he would ask me if I were writing a review. I would usually answer yes. He would then berate me, telling me how it was an easy write and unoriginal, all in good fun. I would tell him to write his own articles, and then we would play some games and go our merry way.

Seeing as how I have Worldwake on the brain, and the metagame seems to be at the same point it was last week, I guess now is a good as time as any to disappoint my old friend, where ever he may be.

I do not expect Worldwake to shake up Pauper that much. Pauper is in a pretty good place right now with well entrenched top archetypes. Yes, these decks ebb and flow (and thus create the metagame), but rarely will we see a new player unless we acquire a critical mass of cards for a certain deck. For example, on the PDCMagic.com forums, some players have been discussing, on a lark, a deck that emulates the 43/38 Land deck of Legacy fame. Are there enough cards, with Worldwake in the mix, to support such a deck? Not likely, but that will not stop some people from trying to recreate Life from the Loam with Tilling Treefolk and Grim Harvest.

Anyway, on to the cards I think will prove interesting.

First up is one of the new lands. Unlike the lands from Zendikar, I feel that most of the common lands from this set will make some sort of impact (although I am far more skeptical about Khalni Garden). Bojuka Bog has been generating a ton of discussion, and rightfully so- Pauper has quite a few strategies that make use of the graveyard, and closing off that avenue of attack with a land seems powerful. However, upon further scrutiny, this does not hold up. Cards like Relic of Progenitus and Beckon Apparition see marginal play because they can do their business at instant speed. Bog cannot. Sure, it might nab A Teachings or A Harvest, but this card will be relatively easy to play around. Look at it from a Teachings point of view. Sure, you are going to get blown out, once, by this card, and then play around it, using a first Teachings to fetch a second one. What does the Bog player do then?

Bog also suffers from being a land. If you have this in your opening grip, you probably want to play it on turn one to mitigate any tempo loss from using a tapped land, and in this case, Barren Moor is probably just straight up better.

I will want to test Bog, however, in one deck. When Exhume comes online, I am tempted to build what will, without a doubt, be a terrible Reanimator deck. With access to accelerants like Lotus Petal and Dark Ritual and discard outlets such as Careful Study and Putrid Imp, I could see an Exhume based deck making a splash. In that case, Bog could be the perfect turn two land drop, ensuring that you will get a desire fatty, and they will be left out in the cold. Or, you could just have a turn one Mulldrifter, which seems pretty good anyway.

Calcite Snapper- the Convertible Turtle, is a card I want to see in Pauper. (Horned Turtles) are good in Pauper when aggressive decks are on the rise- I always try to run Citanul Woodreaders and won with a deck that ran Hematite Golem- it was hella tight- because they could block so well and then go on offense. Snapper is similar. It can sit around all day, unmolested by many cards in the aggro decks and just block until such a time when the coast is clear, and the four power starts to matter. Is there a deck for this guy? I am not sure. However, Pauper has access to incredible countermagic and strong card draw, which help form the backbone of good control decks.

Fish/Skies also seems like it may have a spot for Snapper. These decks often have issues against decks like White Weenie and Goblins, which can simply overrun them early (more so with the Red Menace). Snapper will do a good job on the defense here, and helps to fight one of Goblins' greatest tools in combat- Intimidator Initiate. At the very least, Goblins will have to invest a creature (or token) to take out the Snapper, and that is not a bad thing. Is this enough to push such a deck back from the edge of the fringe? I think the addition of Snapper will help, but Fish will still be a minor player, at best, for now.

Crusher Zendikon strikes me as a pretty good four drop for Red Deck Wins style build. The body it provides, when combined with trample, makes a fairly imposing red zone crasher- it would allow you to trade an aura for a Spire Golem, which is not a bad trade at all. Slower Red decks have been pushed aside since the rise of Goblins, but that does not mean they cannot be revisited. If beatdown rises up again, a deck that picks off early threats and then lays a Crusher on turn four might help keep them in check. The question will be, as it always is, will such a deck be better than options that already exist.

Personally, I am a fan of “big Red” style decks as metagame bullets. At the right time, such a deck can prey on both aggro strategies and those decks designed to beat aggro. Provided a Tendrils deck is not a huge player, the ability to back up utility beats with burn for game ending potential is a good thing, and Crusher is another tool in such a deck's utility belt.

Explore is a card I want to like. It does two things I love- it puts you up a card and up a land drop. For 1G, you get access to two parts of a turn, provided you have an extra land in your hand. No, this is not a Time Walk, but in a meta such as this one, being able to go up an additional land can be huge. What if that land is a Karoo? Then, not only have you “accelerated,” but you have “drawn” two cards. What if you play another Cloudpost on your turn? This is a card I want to build decks around, once I get a set, to test its capabilities. I would not be surprised if this card rides the sidelines, looking pretty (that is seriously gorgeous art) or if it becomes a major player in some sort of big mana Green deck.

The next card is one I have had experience with at my Prerelease. Halimar Depths is the real deal. At different points during the day, I kept a Depths as my only land and as one of six lands in my opener, and was not disappointed either time. The ability to Sage Owl for free in Pauper is going to be very potent. Teachings will want this card as a way to plan out the upcoming turns and shuffle away bad cards. Any deck that can afford to spend turn one on this card, without giving up too much, will want to include the Depths as a way to smooth out draws and sculpt the first few turns. Izzetpost decks, which have been getting some press on the forums, could make use of such a card. The big knock against those decks is that they are all counters and burn, but, with matchup knowledge, being able to scry the important cards to the top of the deck could make all the difference, and nudge such a deck closer to a serious contender. I do not want to overstate how powerful of an effect I think this is, but imagine a turn where you can play Depths, see nothing good, shuffle your library and the play Mulldrifter. Late in the game, such a play will be probably for Teachings decks and will only add to their end game potency.

All that being said, I want to test Depths in Storm. Before the advent of Sign in Blood, some decks were running Islands as additional land. While Depths will be unable to provide mana on the Storm turn, it would help set up such a turn earlier, allowing the combo player to play with effectively, a ten card hand (whatever is in the grip and the three deep), although it will probably be closer to one to two extra cards when it matters. While it does not replace Ponder, as it is not a spell, it is a card I want to try out to see if it can make the Storm deck a hair more consistent, which could go a long way in helping the deck's longevity in Pauper. Halimar Depths is an incredibly exciting card, and I look forward to running this guy in the years to come. Thanks Eternal formats!

Quicksand is a lot like Vince Carter. Back in the day, it was the man, all flashy and new. As time went on, however, things changed and now, it is still fun to look at and has a role, but is a shadow of what it used to be. “Free” removal is always exciting, especially when it can take out creatures with annoying abilities like Protection from whatever. I can see this going into MUC as a substitute for Piracy Charm, as that card is fine against X/1s, but not stellar against much of anything else. Yes, the deck will lose some versatility, but I believe that deck has to fundamentally change anyway to be a contender in the modern meta. A removal spell attached to a land is not bad, especially in a mana hungry deck that can run an (Oona's Grave) draw engine. I can also see the Draw-Go version of Teachings wanting such a card, but I am not sure it is better than the cards they already run.

I would not run this card in Mono-Black, however. MBC runs on a very strong mana-engine, and trading an early land drop for a creature is not good for tempo in a deck that has access to cards like Disfigure and Innocent Blood. Running this land seems different, and potentially great against cards such as Order of Leitbur, but I would rather run an Innocent Blood or Diabolic Edict in those cases. Could Quicksand make a splash as a sideboard card in MBC? Possibly, but White Weenie would need to make up a much larger portion of the metagame than it currently does to warrant such an inclusion.

Could Quicksand find a home in other decks? It is quite possible, as removal that doubles as mana is something a few decks could use, but as it stands today, I do not see a deck, aside from Mono-Blue, making use of the Visions all-star.

The last card I want to discuss is Treasure Hunt. I understand the hype around this card in Standard, but in Pauper, I am not so sure. Perhaps the new MUC deck, more reliant on a the Grace engine can make excellent use of this card. Izzetpost may want this card as an additional card draw to help put a 'Post engine on line. Hunting into a Karoo seems exciting, but I am unsure about the quality of such a play. The deck I hypothesized before, running Explore, might be a deck that would want to go a'hunting, but unless such a deck materializes, I am hesitant to give the Pauper stamp of approval to Treasure Hunt.

Hunt is somewhere in-between Think Twice and Compulsive Research. Think Twice is good because it allows you to split up two cards over two turns, albeit at instant speed, and puts you up one card. Compulsive allows you to dig three deep and keep two new cards, which will likely be gas, and again, leaves you up one card (but your card quality may have improved dramatically). Treasure Hunt will put you up, as the Magic-maticians have said, about 1.75 cards on average (right between these two). In a deck that wants land, this card might find a home. I have a hard time seeing it, however, considering Pauper also has access to the sorcery speed card draw that is Mulldrifter.

This is not an exhaustive list of all Worldwake cards I expect to see, but rather just those that pique my interest. I would love to hear what you all think about the set in the forums. Think I missed one or am overrating a card? Please let me know.

Until then, keep slingin' commons-

-Alex