I like to think that I am quick to admit mistakes. Well, maybe not the quickest, but still, when I am wrong, I usually hone up to it and try to learn from my missteps. My last article contains a few such mistakes that I want to explore here.

First off, however, I should say that my rules of Pauper are true, but only so much as you want to play aggressive decks that want to curve out and beat down and lack any true late game. While many of the things I spoke about are true- the fundamental turn is four and Pauper is about creatures- the ideas of “stunted development” only apply if you are trying to run a two color aggressive deck that wants to invest in a creature every turn. I have a predisposition to these decks, and am working on remedying this gaff- not every format can be solved with beating down. These decks, while not flawed, are lacking in the format as the other aggressive decks, namely Slivers and Affinity, ignore the standard curve. Affinity utilizes a linear mechanic to cheat large creatures into play early whereas Slivers constantly reinvests in previous drops each turn the game progresses- your second Wild Mongrel does not make the first any better unlike Muscle Slivers can do. Before this turns into a Fearless Pauper Inventory, let us turn our attention to the deck in question:

Steel Reserve

 

Creatures 4 Ethercaste Knight 2 Talon Trooper 4 Bant Sureblade 4 Benevolent Bodyguard 4 Akrasan Squire 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 22 cards Other Spells 4 Serum Visions 2 Echoing Truth 4 Fieldmist Borderpost 2 Steel of the Godhead 4 Mana Leak 4 Unsummon 20 cards

Lands 9 Island 9 Plains 18 cards

Flat out, this deck sucks. Sure, it may give the illusion of being good by running cards that might be good in other decks or in Limited formats, but in actuality, it is just a collection of cards that share colors. While it can achieve seducing draws that could lead one (read: me) to believe the deck has some competitive value, the fact of the mater is that this deck just lacks on every metric for competitive Pauper. And it all started with the concept.

This pile was conceived of during a time when I was obsessed with the Shadowmoor Block God Auras. These cards are enticing in that if you can get them to stick on the properly colored creatures, you have gone a long way towards winning the game. Armadillo Cloak decks were gaining popularity and I felt like I could simply build a better Cloak deck by using an arguably color (Blue over Green) and finding a way to make Steel of the Godhead work. It did not matter to me that the cards may not be there, specifically the mana; I was determined.

What do I mean, however, by the mana not being there? Simply put, the mana in Pauper exists such that if you want to run a two color aggressive deck that features creatures that have two color commitments in the casting cost means sacrificing turn one for the opportunity to play your card on turn two- it is not a guarantee. Through the use of Borderposts and Expanse you can increase the chance of getting your potentially potent two-drop, but the trade off is not always worth it considering the speed of the other decks in the format.

Are you really going to give up turn one against a deck like Storm or Affinity?

Look at the mana split- it is almost an even fifty-fifty division. This is not because it is the “right call” but because it helps to mitigate the problem of running a two color deck such as this one. Since I always wanted to be able to do something on the first few turns, I picked cards that I could easily cast, not ones that helped me win. Serum Visions is one such card. I selected it because it gave me action off of a turn one Island when in actuality it does absolutely nothing to help me win, rather it helps to balance out the White one-drops to give me the illusion of action. In order to help cover up for the mistakes in deck concept, I tried to give the deck something to do on every turn and instead, came up with choices that just did not work. I was convinced I could build a better Cloak deck, using different cards and and a divergent strategy, off a shaky mana base. This, in total, was mistake number one.

Mistake one, in turn, led to every other mistake I made with this deck. I was trying to fit the square peg in the round hole and in the end just came out worse for wear. Many times during testing, I remarked how Ninja of the Deep Hours was far and away the best card in my deck, so I upped the count to four. Does anyone see the mistake in this?

In this deck, Ninja effectively costs UW since all my one drops are of the Plains variety. This means that hitting a Ninja on turn two requires a specific set of events, namely having a Plains, Island, one drop, and Ninja in the opening seven and having your opponent blank on his or her first turn. Even if this was the case, getting a Ninja on turn two would not do enough to win, even with the other cards in the deck. Sure, Exalted would give Deep Hours the chance of acting like a pseudo-Abyss, and Steel would make one unblockable, but that still is a very narrow and easily disrupted plan of attack. Ninja also is a serious non-combo with Steel, as the Aura helps to make things unblockable to east Ninja into play, but then you lose Steel, which sucks.

Instead, this seems to be a deck that could benefit from true draw spells or a card like Mulldrifter, helping to refill a hand late without necessarily needing to connect. If one wanted to pursue the Ninja route, cards like Mosquito Guard and Deft Duelist should be included as supplements, as they can help enable the First Strike Ninja Trick (deal First Strike Damage, then Ninja if unblocked).

The disruption in the deck is laughable. I lauded Mana Leak last week as it protected my deck during the time of the game that mattered: the early game. This is a fallacy, as it is only able to protect the deck during that time if I do not cast anything on my turn. In other words, Mana Leak is only good if I am not doing my job as a deck or if I am behind. This is not laud worthy. This deck should be far more concerned with protecting its investments turn three and on, so cards like Prohibit or Negate might be favorable. If I still wanted to protect the early turns, the only real option is Daze, but then again, you get into the problem of having the right colors, again.

The bounce has no reason to be in the deck. Either the deck is about a large Exalted enhanced attacker or a Ninja- removing one blocker does not do much good in the current format. There are just better options, like Exclude or Sunlance or Temporal Isolation for accomplishing the same task, only with a more permanent bend.

Talon Trooper has no place in the deck. This is simply a card I put in because it fits a slot in a mythical metagame dominated by aggressive decks featuring Glory Seekers. In such a fictitious metagame, such a card would be quite good, but since the real Pauper metagame features real powerful cards, a 2/3 bird for three just does not cut it at all.

The last mistake is Steel of the Godhead itself. It is a great card, but this deck has problems winning without it, and yet only runs two. And even when the deck draws one, there are not enough cards to support the game changing Aura in the deck, and I am not sure there are enough in the format at the right points in the mana curve to optimize such a deck.

Yet all these mistakes stem from one fundamental error, the fact that I tried to force a deck into existence that the format just did not support. Rather, I have two entirely separate decks here that were jammed onto each other to appease my sensibilities. I have a Blue deck, trying to win through mild disruption and card advantage through Ninja, and a White based beatdown deck based upon weenies and Exalted.

The Ninja deck would probably have somewhere between six and ten one drops to enable Ninja, and would be able to run stronger counters, such as Counterspell and possibly Spellstutter Sprite thanks to the best Blue one drops being of the Fae tribe. Repulse and other better bounce spells that can clear out multiple blockers to get in damage. Combine this with better top end creatures, such as Wormfang Drake and Spire Golem, and you have a deck very similar to the mono-Blue Fish decks that have made a few top eights. These decks benefit from Daze as you can effectively time walk them early at a low cost to your own tempo, which can put you ahead enough to win some tight games.

The other deck is your basic straight up White Weenie deck that wants to play out good creatures early and end on hard to block threats like Shade of Trokair and Order of Leitbur. The disruption in this deck could be the aforementioned Sunlance or Temporal Isolation, provided there were no Soltari Troopers present. These decks performed better during the early stages of sanctioned Pauper, but suffer now at the hands of Affinity.

So what does this all mean? I need to take a step back from trying to solve problems that do not exist, and rather, should focus on learning the format inside and out. Again, the problem stemmed not only from trying to force a deck, but also from trying to impose my will on a format and run bad cards like Talon Trooper. This is a big step. Maybe this was just number one in the Fearless Pauper Inventory.

Keep slingin' commons-

-Alex