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By: Arctic_Ghost, Arctic_Ghost
Sep 05 2016 12:00pm
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UG Threshold has been around for many years. The first time I came across it was in Legacy and back then, I remember people trying it in the Extended format for a little while as well. UG Threshold is a typical tempo deck that wins by getting at least 7 cards into your graveyard so that you can activate Threshold and you win with either Nimble Mongoose or Werebear in a short amount of time.

 

As always, if the video isn't good for you, or you prefer a deck list, here is the deck list for your pleasure. 


UG Threshold
- 75 Cards Total
Creature
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
8 cards

Instant
4 Vapor Snag
1 Deprive
1 Gush
1 Oona's Grace
4 Rune Snag
4 Counterspell
4 Thought Scour
4 Brainstorm
23 cards
Sorcery
4 Ponder
3 Preordain
7 cards
 
Land
4 Thornwood Falls
4 Evolving Wilds
9 Island
1 Forest
18 cards

Sideboard
4 Moment's Peace
2 Naturalize
3 Dispel
3 Piracy Charm
3 Stormbound Geist
15 cards


As you can see, the deck is close to the Delver Blue archetype in what you are trying to do, which is draw cards, counter your opponents spells and win with some decent sized creatures who don't cost much mana at all. You also have the luxury of needing to only play 18 lands because all of your spells are so cheap, so you won't get flooded very often and you can easily play multiple spells in a 1 turn. Your creatures of choice are Nimble Mongoose because when you get threshold, it becomes a 3 power creature for only 1 green mana that your opponent can't target with removal, or you have Werebear, which becomes a 4 power creature with threshold. You also get access to Delver of Secrets because you run so many spells, it's very easy to flip it over. Instead of me ranting on, let's check out the games.
 

Round 1 vs Burn

 

 

Game 1 my opening hand only had 1 land in it, but with a Delver of Secrets and a Ponder to follow it up, I felt it was a decent keep. My opponent chose not to kill my Delver of Secrets and I was able to blind flip it and also was able to find a second land off of my Ponder. My opponent did not have a very quick draw and I was able to get value off of my Vapor Snags by being able to bounce back my opponents Keldon Marauders a couple of times and my creatures went untouched. I found a Nimble Mongoose and was able to make threshold by bouncing back my opponents creature for a second time and was able to swing in for the win.

 

Game 2 my hand didn't have any threats in it, but with already having 4 land and having 2 counter spells, I liked my odds of getting some gas to work with. It took a few turns but I was able to sculpt a hand of 4 counter spells and a couple of Werebears to try and win the game with. It turned out my opponent was heavily flooded and had no answer for my creatures and with a hand full of Dispels in my hand, I was able to take the win.

 

Burn is not the greatest match for you, but it is not horrible. You really want to hit threshold quickly and race them to the finish line with Werebears or Nimble Mongoose and you also need to make sure you get the most out of your counter magic as you possibly can. All you need to remember is you don't lose unless your life reaches 0 and try to make sure to put a lot of pressure on your opponent early.

 

Round 2 vs GW Hexproof

 

 

Game 1 my opening hand was decent with a couple of lands, Delver of Secrets and a Brainstorm to ensure that I would make it flip. My opponent did not have a quick start, but my cards were not coming together quickly enough to be able to race my opponent either. Aura Gnarlid gave me a ton of trouble because I couldn't chump it with any of my creatures to buy any time and I found myself dead to the creature very quickly. I needed to draw a third Vapor Snag to be able to win, but didn't get there in the end.

 

Game 2 I had only 1 land, but I had a Preordain to help me set up my draws and if I am able to hit my second land drop, I was going to be in good shape. I was able to hit my second land drop, but unfortunately, my opponents draw was very good and I fell behind very quickly, even with Naturalize in my hand, I had no pressure going on my opponent and destroying only 1 enchantment was nowhere near enough. My opponent soon made their Slippery Bogle very large and on top of that, gave it trample and within a few turns, I was very dead.

 

This matchup is very bad for you game 1 because you don't have much to interact and you don't really have any way to kill them quickly enough. After sideboard, you do have access to Moment's Peace to buy time and access to cards that destroy enchantments. I learned my lesson and that is, to beat this matchup in particular, you will need Serene Heart if you going to stand a chance.

 

Round 3 vs UR Drake combo

 

 

Game 1 my opening hand was a little land heavy, but with a Delver of Secrets and a Ponder, I had hope that the hand would go somewhere. I was able to find some good cards and set up a tiny bit and a few turns later, I found what I believe to be the best creature in this match, Nimble Mongoose. The reason the little goose is so good, is because it has shroud, so my opponent can't kill it, except by blocking with multiple creatures and also the fact that it having 3 power when you reach threshold, makes for a decent clock. My opponent and I played back and forth for a little while, but eventually my opponent was able to resolve more creatures than I was and not only could I not deal with them, my opponent was also able to burn me out.

 

Game 2 I was able to flip my early Delver of Secrets and had some early pressure going, but my opponent eventually was able to kill it. The game did not go on for too long when I was able to achieve threshold for my Nimble Mongoose and my opponent conceded shortly after it because, I can only guess that, they ran out of gas and wanted to save time for game 3.

 

Game 3 My opponent and I just went back and forth for a good long while, my cards didn't come in the right order in the beginning of the game and my opponent didn't have a ton going on. We traded spells back and forth for a while and then we both ended up in top deck mode. The problem came with my opponent was able to not only draw more cards then I was, but their removal was too much for me to handle and their creatures were enough to kill me in the end.

 

This matchup seems fairly bad for you and that is due to their removal being so good against what your doing. Your best creature is Nimble Mongoose and the problem with it is that it doesn't kill your opponent fast enough and eventually they will be able to either combo past it and win, or have enough creatures to block it and rebuild after. Their spells are also better than yours and do more than anything you have to offer, which is just all kinds of bad. I may have messed up with not bringing in Stormbound Geist as a good flier to attack with, but I didn't feel it was better than Werebear and it wasn't better than any other spell I could swamp it for, but again, I could easily have been wrong.

 

Before I recorded against UR Drake, I also played a match against MBC that I decided wasn't worth recording. Your matchup against MBC, I personally, feel that it is horrible. The reason being is that, UG Threshold only has 12 creatures and usually, you try to ride one or two of them to victory, but because MBC is known for killing creatures every turn and disrupting the blue players hand, not only are you fighting an uphill battle by resolving a threat and then trying to protect it for however many turns it takes to win, but now you also have to play around their hand disruption spells like Duress and Wrench Mind as well. They also don't have to attack to win, they can just play a few creatures and then resolve Gray Merchant of Asphodel and drain your life away and really, your only way of dealing with their creatures is mainly by not letting them resolve, so now the counter spells you would use to protect your threats, is spent on dealing with their threats and then they are free to resolve their removal spells. They also have graveyard disruption in the form of Bojuka Bog and Nihil Spellbomb and once they remove your graveyard, 8 of your creatures become little 1/1 creatures that do next to nothing. All in all, it's just very hard and horrid to play against MBC.

 

Where we go from here? Updates to the deck list, aftermath thoughts and possibly more!

 

I wasn't too fond of this deck and I think the videos show that. It could easily be that my list wasn't very good as well, so this time what we are going to do is take a look at my new deck list before I say anything else.

 

New Thresh
- 75 Cards Total
Creature
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Nimble Mongoose
4 Werebear
8 cards

Instant
4 Vapor Snag
1 Mental Note
1 Snap
3 Spell Pierce
4 Counterspell
4 Thought Scour
3 Daze
4 Brainstorm
24 cards
Sorcery
4 Ponder
2 Deep Analysis
6 cards
 
Land
4 Thornwood Falls
4 Evolving Wilds
9 Island
1 Forest
18 cards

Sideboard
2 Hydroblast
3 Serene Heart
3 Dispel
3 Piracy Charm
3 Stormbound Geist
1 Negate
15 cards


First up, I took out the Rune Snags because I always felt like they were weaker versions of Mana Leak and I replaced them for Spell Pierce because I wanted a cheap counter spell that stops removal from hitting my creatures. I wanted Daze in the deck because you don't need a lot of lands in play to win and having access to a counter spell when your tapped out, I personally believe, can be crucial and took make room I took out Oona's Grace because I never felt like it did enough and the games where I was using it, I was already too far behind to come back anyway. I then took out the Preordains in favor of 2 Deep Analysis for more straight up card draw and a copy of Mental Note to be just a little quicker with getting threshold. I also added a single copy of Snap so I had another way to remove a creature off the battlefield.

 

In the sideboard, I took out Moment's Peace because, having a fog effect can be a very good thing, but with this archetype, your opponent can easily play around it, force you to use it and then block your creatures or go have a big enough board state to work around them and kill you, I just feel it doesn't do enough. I also took out Naturalize because it just doesn't do enough and to even stand a chance against GW Hexproof, I feel you need Serene Heart. I also added a couple of Hydroblast to help against any red decks and a copy of Negate to have a flexible counter spell against any form of removal.

 

My verdict on this deck is that, unless you want to have some fun and do something different, you should just be playing Delver Blue because the deck has better creatures, the flow of the deck is better and is way faster and consistent. This deck just doesn't have enough against anything: It doesn't have any removal spells to keep the board clear, it relies too much on its graveyard and keeping the cards in the graveyard (I am very tired of losing to Relic of Progenitus) and the creatures in this deck are very vulnerable to any of the powerful removal that pauper has to offer to any of the 5 colors. The creatures are also just not big enough to win the game in a quick enough way and not to mention, unlike Angler Delver, you don't have a way to bring your creatures back.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am no expert and I think the deck is fun, but your win rate with the deck will most likely not be anywhere near what you want. From further testing, I can't honestly recommend this deck in the format right now and would be very wary of taking it into leagues.

 

My apologies if this article may be unpleasant to some, but this is just the way I am feeling about the deck after doing over 15 games with it (by no means do I think this is a lot of testing). I am no expert and I could easily be wrong and playing the deck bad, as well as my deck list could also be poor. Let me know in the comments what you think of this deck and what you would play and if you want to take it for a spin, I see no reason not to at least try it out.

 

Twitch.tv/arcticghost_tv

 

Pauper Classic Tuesdays happens every Tuesday on Gatherling.com at 8:00pm, always Eastern Standard Time. It's free to enter a lot of fun. I also stream it as well every Tuesday! I will be looking to stream more during the week when I have time, I hope to see you all there!

 

Thanks for reading and watching! See you all next time.

3 Comments

Murasa Tron by MichelleWong at Wed, 09/07/2016 - 04:27
MichelleWong's picture
5

Nice article about UG Threshold. I hope one day that this deck will become competitive.

Regarding your Murasa Tron deck, I saw that you defeated everyone except Burn and Goblins. Wow it seems that red decks are a rough matchup for you!

Heh well they are tough no by Arctic_Ghost at Wed, 09/07/2016 - 09:54
Arctic_Ghost's picture

Heh well they are tough no doubt, but I have been getting rather absurdly unlucky as well vs burn, goblins and affinity. You can beat them fine, just so long as your luckier and play better than me, which is quite easy haha.

Thanks for the comment Michelle!

Good times past. by GorillaShaman at Wed, 08/11/2021 - 11:20
GorillaShaman's picture
5

This deck is my pet deck, even if it is no longer competitive I keep playing it, I love its cards, mongoose, bear, delver, counterspell etc. I'm sorry that wizard hasn't printed a mongoose yet is an improved bear to play this type of deck yet. By now Mangusta in pauper is too small 3/3 dies from everything, werebear is a 4/4 that does not hold up against the myr, and gurmag. Not to mention hate del graveyard, Bujuka bog, nihil spellbomb, etc. And threshold is a very slow mechanic right now, it would change a lot to have a flying mongoose, which counts both cards in exile and in the graveyard, so that we can have 8 flying evasive creatures . But wizard preferred to support other decks apparently.
Wizard I am waiting for two green creatures to unearth this ug Threshold deck!