For the purpose of this series of articles, I intend to limit the growth of individually identified archetypes as it thins the data beyond a meaningful historical context.  Basically, decks that work in similar manners will get group together, even if the coloration of those decks is altered slightly.  For instance, a Blue-Black control deck splashing white for a single spell or to support a sideboard has been classified as Blue-Black control rather than as Esper control which uses a number of white elements in the main deck.  Admittedly, this decision has been somewhat arbitrary on my part, but if the means by which a deck wins and the methods that should be used in combating and sideboarding against a deck are consistent, then the decks will get lumped together in a single archetype.

One very noticeable difference in my list of archetypes and those I have seen in other articles or on other sites, is that I do not identify Cloak as an archetype.  For me, Armadillo Cloak is not defining as an archetype, but is rather an enabler of Zoo, Slivers, and Bant Shroud (note that Bant Shroud has not reached the finals of a PE this year and is not listed in the archetype section).

This means that the Reload deck which reached the top 8 in the PE was classified as a Blue-Red Aggro-Control rather than something new.  When I saw this deck, I had three options in my mind concerning its identification in the charts and archetypes discussion.  Beyond the option I went with, I also considered classifying it as a new archetype and treating it as Red Deck Wins.  Until the deck takes a greater role in the metagame and shows it is truly a different beast than the existing archetype, I am loathe to give it a new label.  In functionality, the deck operates very much like RDW, except that the deck features broader creature control in (Martyr of the Ashes), can impact life totals through the non-temporary Mulldrifter, and does not work off of the short clock of RDW in that it seems to both plan for a longer game than RDW through (Martyr of the Ashes) and it is designed to replenish its resources via card draw.

The new wave of MUC decks also varies substantially in card selection from their predecessors, but here the decision was easier.  The deck is still not an aggressive deck and the creature selection primarily supports card draw and control mechanisms, in the same manner that previous MUC decks included instants and sorceries.  A player facing a MUC-Faerie deck must still contend with a larger number of counterspells and card draw.  With the option to use Echoing Truth to return multiple Spellstutter Sprite to hand and generate a new batch of counterspells, the MUC-Fae deck does not seem to deviate significantly from the modus operandi of the mono-Blue control decks with fewer creatures.

For those of you who tend towards the casual side of Pauper, this section presents a deck I have been using in the casual room.  For about two weeks, I have been toying around with a mash-up of Blue-Black control decks with an affinity backdrop.  The deck has performed relatively well and I find it very fun to play, though I will note that I have more opponents concede after my first turn than any other deck I run, so this may no fit everyone's definition of fun and it can look a lot like a straight affinity deck early.  The deck has plenty of leeway for customization with opportunities to run Quicksilver Behemoth over Somber Hoverguard or to change out Exclude for the more flexible Counterspell. 

Given that I play mostly duels, I have not developed a sideboard for the deck.  However, I would suggest focusing the sideboard around black, blue, and either red or white.  Based on that decision, I would replace Darksteel Citadel to support Great Furnace with Red Elemental Blast and Gorilla Shaman or Ancient Den with Benevolent Unicorn.

Affinity Control
Lands (17)     3x Island     1x Swamp     4x Seat of the Synod     4x Vault of Whispers     4x Darksteel Citadel     1x Evolving Wilds	Creatures (12)    4x Frogmite    4x Myr Enforcer    4x Somber Hoverguard	Non-Creatures (31)    3x Agony Warp    4x Chromatic Sphere    4x Chromatic Star    3x Duress    3x Exclude    4x Override    3x Rush of Knowledge    3x Springleaf Drum    4x Thoughtcast

Pauper is a straightforward environment.  It allows for deck construction using only cards that have been printed as common on MTGO (note that this means that some cards printed as common in paper Magic are not legal in Pauper and that some cards have been printed as common Online, but never in paper, and these are legal).  The banned list for Classic Pauper is very manageable and consists of exactly one card:

• Cranial Plating

The next Pauper Challenge Premier Event will be held:

• Saturday July 10, 2010 at 11AM EDT
• Saturday July 17, 2010 at 5PM EDT
• Sunday July 25, 2010 at 11AM EDT

In addition to the Pauper Challenge, there are currently two player run events using the Classic Pauper format.  The first is the Tuesday Pauper Deck Challenge (or TPDC) which is held on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM EST.  The second is the European Pauper Deck Challenge (or EPDC) which is held on Thursdays at 3:30 PM EST.

Note that EPDC is on hiatus while a search for a new permanent host is underway for season 2.  If you are interested in volunteering to be the host, please check here.

The following table provides an overview of each event showing the number of players for each event and the deck archetypes that reached each round of the finals of these events.

The following pie chart illustrates the overall performance of the archetypes to reach the finals of each tournament.

Five different decks reached the top eight of the PE and TPDC had at least seven different decks in the finals (one deck is unavailable).  Once again the distribution of decks among the Top 8 of the PE and PRE shows how wide open Pauper is as a format.

Before getting into a discussion of the metagame, here is a breakdown to the deck archetypes found in Classic Pauper.  While some archetypes are perennial top performers in these tournaments, other archetypes are more sporadic in the performance.  The list below identifies the most common archetypes in Pauper Classic.  This list will be updated as new archetypes enter the collective consciousness of Pauper Classic.  While many players will have a slightly different perspectives on why a deck fits into an archetype or not, these definitions will be used to breakdown the metagame for each week's tournaments.

The graphs provided indicate the number of decks of the archetype that reached the Top 8 of the week's Pauper Challenge PE.

• Affinity
  Using artifact lands and other low-cost artifacts, this deck casts Frogmite and Myr Enforcer cheaply and then uses Thoughtcast and Rush of Knowledge to keep a hand full of cards to build an insurmountable battlefield presence.  Affinity can be a single or multiple colored deck, but is always centered around blue.  With Springleaf Drum, the deck can easily support one or more splash colors providing it with the ability to use a handful of slots in the main deck and the entire sideboard to the best options to combat the field regardless of color requirements.

• Black/White Control
  This deck leverages these enemy colors to utilize powerful multicolored cards such as Castigate and Unmake to limit the opponents options.  The variations among these decks ranges from heavy discard to heavy creature control with a wide range middle points.  Most modern versions run Pestilence, Guardian of the Guildpact, and Wall of Hope, providing for extensive life gain to stymie many opposing decks.

• Blue/Black Control
  Starting with Agony Warp and including card draw, discard, counterspells, and creature control from these two colors, this deck typically attempts to control both spells cast and eliminate creatures that enter the battlefield.  There are two sub-archetypes of Blue/Black Control.  The first centers around Mystical Teachings and a large mana base to pull the most relevant instants from the deck at any time.  The second eschews Mystical Teachings to include more raw card draw.  The Mystical Teachings variation will occasionally include a third color, typically white but infrequently red, but still operates very similarly to the two-colored version.

• Blue/Red Aggro-Control
  This deck pulls in blue's card draw and Counterspell with red's direct damage (Lightning Bolt and Firebolt for example) to produce sufficient power to minimize the opponent's presence on the board and to keep a full hand.  The key card in the deck is Steamcore Weird which provides for a 1/3 blocker while often eliminating an opposing creature when it comes into play (potentially multiple times with due to Dream Stalker or Ninja of the Deep Hours).

• Blue/White Blink
  Built around Momentary Blink and creatures with enters the battlefield triggers such as Kor Skyfisher, Spellstutter Sprite and Pestermite, the deck also includes a staple for slowing down many aggro decks in the form of Deft Duelist.  The deck features multiple flyers for an evasive means of dealing damage while extending the game with Kabira Crossroads, which is player repeatedly after returning to hand via Azorius Chancery and the Skyfisher.

• Elves
  While Storm may the primary combo deck of Pauper, Elves has the ability to strike for lethal damage before an opponent establishes a battlefield presence.  Build around Nettle Sentinel and (Birchlore Ranger) to produce piles of mana, the deck deals lethal damage using Timberwatch Elf and Wirewood Pride.  Some versions splash blue for massive card draw from Distant Melody.

• Esper Control
  This flexible archetype varies from build-to-build, but commonly includes Aven Riftwatcher, Mulldrifter, Disfigure, and Echoing Decay.  The deck seeks to trigger "enters the battlefield" effects and gain creature advantage through cheating creatures into play through Amrou Scout-like abilities or the saving and reusing creatures with Momentary Blink.  This deck leverages the strengths of blue's card draw and black's creature destruction with efficient white creatures and flexible sideboard options.

• Goblins
  A red deck featuring aggressive, low cost red creatures with a smattering of direct damage.  The deck can run as few as 18 lands and rarely runs more than 7 non-creature spells, leaving space for more than 30 red creatures with casting costs of 2 or less.  Goblins is a really a subarchetype of Sligh, but Goblins is the version you are most likely to see in Pauper, so this archetype is indicated as Goblins/Sligh (rather than Sligh/Goblins).  Typical inclusions are Goblin Sledder, Mogg Fanatic, and Sparksmith.  

• IzzetPost
  This control deck centers around three cards.  Cloudpost powers out Capsize with buyback and Rolling Thunder to significant amounts of damage.  While a significant portion of the deck is engineered to provide a mana ramp (Expedition Map to search for Cloudpost and Dimir Signet & Izzet Signet to increase mana production).  Card draw and enough counterspells and direct damage round out the deck to allow it to reach the mid-game when its strategy can take control of the game.

• Mono-Black Control
  This is a deck that is widely adaptable, as it leverages card draw (e.g., Sign in Blood and Phyrexian Rager), discard (e.g., Duress and Chittering Rats), creature control (e.g., Diabolic Edict and Disfigure), life gain (e.g., Corrupt and Tendrils of Corruption), and graveyard reuse (e.g., Warren Pilferers and Grim Harvest) to produce a deck that is greater than the sum of its parts.  This mono-colored black deck runs more land than either White Weenie or Goblins, but each Swamp drawn improves the effectiveness of Tendrils of Corruption and Corrupt. 

• Mono-Blue Control
  The quintessential blue deck that comes into varieties.  The basic variation runs a plethora of counterspells (including Counterspell) and card draw (such as Brainstorm and Think Twice) in combination with a few creatures (Mulldrifter and Spire Golem being the most common) to provide a methodical approach to outlasting and then defeating an opponent.  A fae version includes multiple faeries such as Spellstutter Sprite and Pestermite to replace instants in the first version for creatures with similar, those less utilitarian, abilities.  Some variations run a few bounce spells (such as Into the Roil) to deal with anything permanent that makes it through their counterspells.

• Parlor Tricks
  One of the most customizable decks in all of pauper.  This archetype is a red, black, and blue combination built around snow-covered lands and Skred.  Creatures such as Mulldrifter and Izzet Chronarch are used to refill a player's hand.  The only other standard card in the deck is Probe.  The deck utilizes a wide range of control mechanisms including additional creature destruction such as Strangling Soot, discard such as Ravenous Rats, card draw such as Train of Thought, and counterspells such as Memory Lapse.
  

• Red Deck Wins (or RDW)
  Red Deck Wins is an archetype that has existed in a wide variety of environments.  The deck uses a limited number of creatures to back a exhaustive range of direct damage spells.  Running as few as 16 land, the deck can draw into damage inflicting spells on a consistent basis.  Common inclusions in Red Deck Wins are Lightning Bolt, Spark Elemental, and Fireblast.  Kiln Fiend and Needle Drop show up in some variations for longer lasting threats and card draw, respectively.

• Slivers
  In pauper, this archetype is White and Green and centers around the Muscle Sliver and Sinew Sliver to produce very large, cheap creatures.  With Virulent Sliver, the deck has an option that allows it to win even against decks that gain a substantial amount of life.  Finally, the deck features Thrill of the Hunt to protect its creatures from direct damage and trades with blockers.

• Stompy
  Primarily a green deck, the Stompy archetype features a heavy preponderance of creatures and a low land count.  Where Sligh and Zoo contain direct damage and control elements, Stompy uses spells to increase the effectiveness of their creatures and end the game before an opponent can mount a concentrated defense.  Cards such as Giant Growth, Jungle Lion, Rancor, and Skarrgan Pit-Skulk are common inclusions.

• Storm
  This is the premier combo deck of pauper and comes in two flavors.  One variation uses only red and blue to produce its cascade of mana production and card draw leading up to its finale, while the other includes black in place of some of the blue card draw and some of the red mana creation.  Both versions ramp up to Empty the Warrens or Grapeshot as their finale.  The red/blue variation will run Goblin Bushwhacker to expedite a win condition via Empty the Warrens.

• Tortured Existence
  Inspired by the synergy between Tortured Existence and Madness, this archetype includes mono-black decks as well as black-green decks.  The deck features a variety of Madness creatures such as Gorgon Recluse and Grave Scrabbler alongside Dredge creatures such as Stinkweed Imp and Golgari Brownscale.  The reliance on Tortured Existence varies by build, but discard enablers such as Vampire Hounds and Wild Mongrel can provide additional discard mechanisms.  Able to produce a substantial number of aggressive creatures, this deck can eschew any form of control for an aggressive attack approach or include a measure of black control such as Nameless Inversion.

• Zoo
  This deck combines highly efficient creatures to (e.g., Basking Rootwalla and Boreal Centaur) with creature control that may come in the form of the flexible Lightning Bolt or more guaranteed creature elimination of Journey to Nowhere.  Variations include two-color Red-Green, Red-Green with a single Plains along with mana fixing such as Terramorphic Expanse (boosting the extremely efficient Wild Nacatl to its full potential), White-Green, and Red-Green-White.
  

Now that we have been through high level overviews and breakdowns, here are the first and second place decks from the week's Pauper events: 

Good luck navigating the currents of Pauper Classic and I hope this provides a useful resource for the overall environment.