Basic Information:

To find out when the next Pauper Premier Event is held, check out the calender.

PDCMagic is one of the best sites out there for your Pauper needs. The community has active forums where you can find all the information you want about decks in all the formats. It’s also where you can find out all information about upcoming free admission player-run events (PREs).

TPDC is a Classic Pauper PRE held every Tuesday with registration at 7:30pm EST and the tournament begins at 8:00pm EST. Event coordination is done in /join tpdc and you may register by typing “reg” in /join tpdccom. Admission is free and the event is sponsored by MTGO Traders.

EPDC is a Classic Pauper PRE held every Thursday with registration at 2:30pm EST and the tournament begins at 3:00pm EST. Event coordination is done in /join epdc and you may register by typing “reg” in /join epdccom. Admission is free and the event is sponsored by MTGO Academy.

Go to PDCMagic for even more PREs and if you want more excellent information on the PEs and PREs, check out kalandine's articles covering these event.

Looking for a Pauper guild? Message me on MTGO to get an invite to A Common Cause.

Archetypes:

MUC is still has crazy high representation, nearly double the amount of any other deck. Affinity takes a dip in representation, while Stompy continues to steadily climb in numbers. Black is back, with Pestilence, MBCu and Teachings all going up.

Top 8:

*Finals were a draw, no matches were played.

Top 8 deck lists can be viewed here.

It's been a long time coming, but finally the top 8 gets a major shakeup! Two Goblins, two Affinity, two Stompy, and even UB Teachings made it in there with them!  Even though there were 15 MUC Fae lists, none of them made it to the top 8. Clearly this event was a victory for aggro aficionados. Are these results just luck of the draw or are deck builds actually adapting to MUC? Will this result cause a decline in the FOTM countermagic king?

Matchups:

Finally, the chart has graced this page! This table, made and maintained by middleman, continues to gather more data as more PEs are covered. Some information makes me scratch my head -- why does WW have only 40% win rate against Goblins? -- but I'm sure that with more data, factors that are warping the results like differing builds, player skill, and luck factor will have less weight on the overall picture.

This early chart marks the start of an amazing resource and I can't wait to see how it looks in a couple months from now.

Deck Spotlight: Goblins

Goblins

Piloted by eddie112, 2nd place, PE 06/05/2010

Creatures 4 Goblin Bushwhacker 4 Goblin Cohort 4 Goblin Sledder 2 Jackal Familiar 4 Mogg Conscripts 4 Mogg Flunkies 4 Mogg Raider 4 Mogg War Marshal 4 Sparksmith 34 cards Other Spells 4 Chain Lightning 1 Death Spark 4 Lightning Bolt 9 cards

Lands 17 Mountain 17 cards Sideboard 3 Death Spark 4 Martyr of Ashes 4 Pyroblast 4 Smash to Smithereens 15 cards

Overview:
Goblins is a straightforward tribal aggro deck that races down the opposition before they can stabilize, doing so with mana efficient creatures, removal to clear the path, and various combat tricks. With the majority of the cards being 1cc and a high threat density, Goblins unloads its hand in a hurry and keeps churning out threats until the opponent folds.

The Key Cards:

Mogg Conscripts and Goblin Cohort are mana efficient beaters that have no problem attacking due to the standard 30+ creatures the deck runs. These creatures often dish out the bulk of the damage.

Mogg Raider and Goblin Sledder provide a great deal of combat tricks for the deck, letting the pilot kill hindering blockers by pumping the blocked attacker, or sacrificing the blocked attacker to push through more damage during the alpha strike. They also make the deck resilient to removal, either saving the target of the removal by sac'ing weaker goblins or sac'ing the target of the removal to pump another goblin. These cards are the key reason why Goblins shot into the meta in the first place, being the first aggro deck to successfully combat the longstanding control king MBC's Tendrils of Corruption and Crypt Rats. 

Mogg War Marshal, possibly the best token generator in the format, is a natural inclusion here since not only is it a powerful card on its own, it synergizes perfectly with the rest of the deck too, triggering Goblin Cohort and truly shines with Goblin Sledder.

Another way to push damage through is to get rid of possible blockers. Sparksmith does this job admirably, as its downside isn't often a factor since the opposition is almost certainly playing defensively and isn't in a position to race. Of course, Lightning Bolt is another auto-include as it provides reach and kills nearly any creature in the format at instant speed for just 1cc. If a card is ridiculous in other formats, you can bet that it's ridiculous in Pauper too.

The most recent addition to the deck, Goblin Bushwhacker, has instantly proven itself to be an invaluable asset. With so many creatures being played so quickly, the +1/+0 and haste often generates incredible amounts of damage for a mere RR. Bushwhacker turned the goldfishing ability of Goblins from great to downright nuts and has even caused debate in the community whether or not the card should be banned.

Options:



I want to highlight Goblin Arsonist here because I feel it's a critically underrated card at the moment. When Mogg Fanatic was nerfed by the rule change the card was taken out from most builds, but shortly after when Arsonist showed up, hardly anyone paid attention. The truth is that Goblin Arsonist acts almost exactly like old Fanatic used to in this deck. It can kill X/2's in combat and you can use its ping ability at will as long as you have one of your eight Goblin Sledders out. So if you wanted to run "old Fanatic" in your Goblin list, give this card a shot!

Death Spark is another card that deserves some limelight and I'm glad that Goblin players are finally recognizing its power. In a deck with so many creatures, it's quite easy to keep bouncing Death Spark back to your hand for re-usability. This gives the deck a little more mid-lategame steam and can steal games even after the opponent thinks that he's stabilized.

Mogg Flunkies is a strong choice because its 3/3 body lets it live against the most common size for pauper creatures, 2/2. Flunkies can also attack into white's highly played 2/3's, Aven Riftwatcher and Kor Skyfisher. The main downside of this card is that it sometimes trips over itself if the opponent is running heavy removal  and removes all other goblins from the board, turning off Flunkies until more creatures can be cast.

Similar to Mogg Flunkies, Jackal Familiar is great as another 2/2 for 1cc but shares the same weakness. Players don't often run a full playset because it's a poor turn 1 drop (it can't attack until turn 3), but at it's best it works as extra copies of Mogg Conscripts, one of the best cards in the deck. A rare downside of this card is that it's not a goblin, meaning Tendrils of Corruption can target it without worrying about a Goblin Sledder sac'ing it to prevent the lifegain.

Mudbrawler Cohort is a less played option to Mogg Flunkies. While it has a smaller body, it's slightly better against heavy removal decks, where haste may help it push out more damage than a Flunky could before it's killed.

Want more Lightning Bolts in your Goblin list? Then play Chain Lightning. It's not as good, but it does the job just fine.

Before Goblins were given Bushwhacker, many pilots were gleefully alpha striking with Song of Blood. It's not as good as Bushwhacker since it's less consistent and it's not a goblin, but giving your creatures +4/+0 and swinging with all of them is still ridiculous.

For those who want to tweak their decks for as much explosive potential as possible, Fireblast is a fine way to finish a game with some powerful reach. I personally never tested Fireblast in Goblins, but I've had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of a double Fireblast + Lightning Bolt for the win before. Good times.

Sideboarding:


Pyroblast is a proper rebuttal to blue-based decks like MUC.

Martyr of Ashes can answer Storm's Empty the Warrens or help fight against other aggro decks like the mirror. Hold back while the opponent over-commits to the board, wipe it all away with Martyr, then drop down your creatures.

Gorilla Shaman is the ultimate hoser to Affinity decks. If not dealt with immediately, this great ape will wipe away all the artifact lands from the table in the blink of an eye. It can't do much against artifacts that are more than 1cc though.

Electrostatic Bolt is great against both Affinity and MUC. It can take out Affinity's Somber Hoverguard and Myr Enforcer, while also able to take out every creature that MUC Fae runs outside of Errant Ephemeron.

If you're still not satisfied with the anti-artifact options, there's also Smash to Smithereens, which is a mana efficient burn and removal rolled into one. Like Bolt, it's great against both Affinity and MUC Fae.

The easiest way to hose a tricolor deck is to hit a crucial land with Molten Rain. Target a Karoo and you're really in business.

Flame Jab used to be a popular way to give the deck some lategame steam against control decks, but was voided out once people started catching on that Death Spark is better.

The Good:

Goblins rose to prominence about a year ago during a time when control had a stranglehold on the meta. MBC was dethroned by more lategame-oriented MBCu, which in turn was being trounced by even more lategame-oriented UB Teachings. Goblins walked onto the scene and quickly taught those uber lategame decks some humility. Once Bushwhacker went online it cemented the deck's reputation as a control-killer.

Fastforward to the present and not much has changed. Goblins still dominates decks that are simply too slow, and it seems that many decks fit this category.

I would say that Goblins' largest asset is how absurd some of its hands can be. Here's a scenario that can happen:
Turn 1: Mountain, Goblin Cohort
Turn 2: Mountain, Mogg Conscripts, Jackal Familiar, swing for 2
Turn 3: Mountain, Goblin Cohort, Goblin Bushwhacker (kicked), swing for 14
Turn 4: Goblin Sledder, Goblin Bushwhacker (kicked), swing for a bajillion

This doesn't happen all the time, but there's so many variations of this type of draw that it happens often enough. All you need to do is make your first three land drops (no more than that though!), a fistful of 1cc 2/2's, and one or more bushwhacker. There's not much any deck can do against that type of hand and even the most dedicated anti-goblin hate can fall to this sort of thing.

The Bad:

Like all RDW variants, Goblins is ultimately trumped by heavy lifegain. Decks like WW have risen in popularity in the past just by piggybacking on Goblins' success and posting strong numbers against the little green dudes. Other White decks like UW Blink have also abused good lifegain counters like Aven Riftwatcher, Soul Warden and Lone Missionary to get the edge. Perhaps the most crushing white counter is Pestilence, which stalls with a mix of lifegain and removal until it locks down the board with an unsolvable Pestilence to seal the game.

Overall:

With its many ways of pushing damage through, resiliency to removal, and potential for absurd plays, Goblins remains one of the most powerful decks in the format. It can put the beating on lategame control decks like MUC and UB Teachings, but falters against white lifegain decks like WW, UW Blink and BW Pestilence.

Off to the PEs:

Last week was likely the last chance I had to participate in a 7+hour Premier Event so I decided to queue up. I felt that Affinity was still a good choice, but now that it picked up popularity I wanted to run something more rogue. In the end I settled on my newest creation, my own version of MBCu:

MBCu

by Doctor Anime

Creatures 4 Sea Gate Oracle 4 Phyrexian Rager 4 Chittering Rats 4 Crypt Rats 4 Mulldrifter 20 cards Other Spells 4 Unearth 4 Tendrils of Corruption 3 Agony Warp 3 Doom Blade 2 Probe 16 cards

Lands 3 Dimir Aqueduct 1 Evolving Wilds 4 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Island 14 Swamp 24 cards Sideboard 1 Agony Warp 1 Doom Blade 4 Hydroblast 2 Deep Analysis 4 Duress 3 Distress 15 cards

 
I'm not going to go into too much detail about this deck as my next article will explore card choices more thoroughly. I wanted to beat the meta and expected to play against MUC Fae, Goblins, Storm, Affinity, Stompy and random control decks. After testing it in the 2man queues, I felt confident that it is a strong meta choice right now.

Unfortunately, I made an grievous error in the second round of this PE that crushed my chances of winning.

Here's the situation. I'm up against MUC Fae. I've got Mulldrifter and Sea Gate Oracle on the board, while my opponent has Spire Golem and Ninja of the Deep Hours. I'm at 13 life, he's at 6. It's my first main phase. I hit him with a kicked Probe and he discards Echoing Truth and Spellstutter Sprite, leaving one card in his hand. I discard two lands, keeping Doom Blade and Tendrils of Corruption in hand. We're both even on card draw. I have five lands untapped. He's used a Mana Leak already in this game. He has nine minutes left on the timer, while I'm at eighteen minutes. What do you do?

If you said, "play Doom Blade targeting Spire Golem, swing with Mulldrifter and win in two turns," you'd be half right. It's smarter to play Doom Blade over Tendrils because his graveyard holds a Mana Leak and he has one card left... but you'd still lose! Why?

The other half of the answer is, "buy a power generator before even queuing up so that when the power goes off on your block for ten minutes you can still play and not be kicked for inactivity," obviously! Unfortunately, I guess I wasn't thinking straight that day and neglected to purchase a power generator for the event. Due to my mistake, not only did I lose that game, but I was eliminated from the entire event.

Moral of the story? Buy yourself a power generator before queuing up for a PE. Prepare for the unexpected!

That's all for now! Thanks for reading!