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By: Blackdeckwins, Anthony Davis
May 30 2016 12:00pm
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Reprint sets create different experiences for different kinds of Magic players. Limited players get a new limited environment to experience. Legacy, Vintage, Modern, and Commander players get reprints of cards they may be looking for and new artwork options, and in this case, first-time premium cards. Pauper players, however, get a very unique experience: reprint sets often have rarity-shifted cards, which introduces old cards into the Pauper environment. Unlike nearly any other format, Pauper gets new cards from a set with nothing but reprints!

Once the common spoilers started with Nimble Mongoose, Pauper players started creating dozens of new decks and archetypes out of the newly-introduced cards. However, these new decks will have a pre-existing metagame they have to compete with, and it can be difficult for new decks to handle the finely-tuned monstrosities that plague the format. In addition, pre-existing decks can pick up new and exciting tools to make them even more difficult for new brews to handle.

Today, we are taking a look how these new cards impact the format. There are a total of twenty-seven cards that have been added to the format, which you can take a look at here:

Elite Vanguard Humble Mistral Charger Monk Idealist Rally the Peasants Cephalid Sage Glacial Wall Peregrine Drake Stupefying Touch Tidal Wave Warden of Evos Isle Night's Whisper Prowling Pangolin Wakedancer Avarax Carbonize Desperate Ravings Dragon Egg Kird Ape Orcish Oriflamme Undying Rage Wildfire Emissary Elvish Vanguard Emperor Crocodile Nimble Mongoose Sylvan Might Yavimaya Enchantress

Many of the cards have the opportunity to impact the format, be we are going to focus on the ones that could change the current dominant decks in the format. There are plenty of upper-tier decks in the format, so let’s get started!

 

One of the premiere aggressive decks in the format, Stompy is built to play aggressively-costed green creatures and power through its opponents with pump spells and Rancors. As the deck currently exists, it does not stand to gain much from Eternal Masters: the premiere green creature of the new entrants, Nimble Mongoose has shroud and relies on getting cards in the graveyard, so it does not fit well with this kind of deck. If the deck raises its curve, it could possibly make use of Emperor Crocodile as a large top-end threat, especially since the deck almost always has multiple creatures around. If the deck leans more towards grinding for card advantage, Sylvan Might could help, since it gives a creature trample and has flashback.

Currently, Stompy is a powerful deck that does not gain much from Eternal Masters. However, it also was not looking for any upgrades. The deck is currently powerful and stable, and was not looking for any cards to improve that.

Delver
5-0 Pauper League by nrjets99
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Faerie Miscreant
4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
4 Spellstutter Sprite
3 Spire Golem
19 cards

Other Spells
1 Bonesplitter
4 Counterspell
2 Deprive
2 Gitaxian Probe
2 Gush
1 Logic Knot
2 Ponder
4 Preordain
2 Snap
1 Spell Pierce
4 Vapor Snag
25 cards
Lands
16 Island
16 cards

Faerie Miscreant

 

Speaking of powerful decks, Mono-Blue Delver is one of the premiere, top-tier decks in Pauper. It thrives on tempo plays and small flyers backed up with counter spells, and is easily the best Aggro-Tempo deck available. The core of the deck is pretty set in stone, so there probably not be many changes there, but there are a few cards that could be potential sideboard tools. Stupefying Touch could be useful against important activated abilities if such a strategy became relevant and counter spells could not stop them. Tidal Wave could also function as a “removal spell” against big-creature decks, especially for stray Gurmag Anglers. Or, if the deck is willing to be re-structured, Warden of Evos Isle could allow for some extra flying synergy, and could let the deck play some larger flyers faster.

The biggest benefit for Delver, though, comes from the uncommon reprints: namely, Daze and Hydroblast. Both are prohibitively expensive to the point that most players do not play them, especially online. Eternal Masters introducing more into circulation could help lower the prices, or at least make them more available for players who want them.

 

Eternal Masters is packing no new common artifacts and no new artifacts-matter creatures, so Affinity probably will not be changing much with this set. Some of the Black-based lists with Disciple of the Vault could look at Night’s Whisper for a little extra card draw, but those lists often play Blue and have access to Thoughtcast, so the card draw may not be necessary. Affinity will remain largely the same (though most players are happy that Affinity is not getting any stronger).

 

One of the format’s Voltron strategies, Bogles is built around hexproof creatures, enchantments, and invalidating the opponent’s removal spells while outgrowing the opponent’s creatures. Eternal Masters is not bringing any new commons with hexproof into the mix, but it did add a new enchantments-matter card in Yavimaya Enchantress. While lacking the protective elements of Slippery Bogle, it does outgrow most of the Red removal spells in the format very quickly, and can become a force to be reckoned with even when the enchantments are not on it. Yavimaya Enchantress may require a slight rework to fit in the Bogles game plan, but it has potential.

Much like Delver, Bogles gains the most from the reprints in the set, rather than the rarity shifts. Rancor, Ancestral Mask, and Armadillo Cloak were some of the most expensive cards in the format, but with their Eternal Masters reprint, this deck could become even more accessible to newer players looking to jam common enchantments.

 

Arguably the most successful control deck in the format, Mono-Black Control gets to play some of the best removal spells and some of the best value creatures, eventually winning with big drains from Gray Merchant of Asphodel or big beats from Gurmag Angler. Sign in Blood is still likely to be the two-mana card draw spell of choice, but the existence of Night’s Whisper could allow the deck to dip its toe in more colors besides Black. Wakedancer is another Black card that could fit well with the “removal spells and value creatures” plan, as combining it with a removal spell nets you two 2/2 bodies for three mana.

Some discussion has been made about Mono-Black Control being a home for Prowling Pangolin, but I am not convinced this is the right place for it. Sure, Mono-Black is good at keeping the opponent’s creature count low, but at that point, is a 6/5 creature really better than a Gurmag Angler? And against token- or small-creature decks, it becomes a big-mana removal spell that probably just hit two tokens, while Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Gurmag Angler can gum up the board and make it even more difficult for your opponent to lose. There could be an altered version of MBC that wants the pangolin, but the current version is definitely not it.

 

While it may look like a million small plans mashed together, on of Kuldotha Jeskai’s main plans is to abuse enter-the-battlefield triggers. Eternal Masters is not really introducing many of those into the format, outside of Cephalid Sage, which (when turned on) can do a lot of digging through the deck and dumping unwanted cards. Four mana may be a bit too high, but that is approximately all that jumps out from the spoiler for this deck. Perhaps Wildfire Emissary could be a sideboard card for the mirror, but that may not be worth the slot.

 

Tron, the big-mana deck that either plays combo (assembling the pieces quickly) or control (using the mana advantage as a later win condition), does not stand to gain anything on its own. Perhaps the deck could look to play Cephalid Sage, as its graveyard tends to fill with Expedition Maps and such fairly quickly, but even that may be a stretch. The biggest rumbling for this deck is a newer, Mono-Blue version built to bring back the old “Esper Combo” with the new Peregrine Drake.

For those that are unfamiliar, Esper Combo was a deck from the days of Cloud of Faeries that used Ghostly Flicker, Cloud of Faeries, and Mnemonic Wall in conjunction with Karoo lands to make infinite mana. Nightscape Familiar and Sunscape Familiar could make Ghostly Flicker even cheaper, so the deck could combo faster. The deck eventually starts flickering Mulldrifter or other card draw creatures to find Sage’s Row Denizen and mill its opponents. The deck was quite powerful, and definitely format-warping, until Cloud of Faeries met the ban hammer. Mono-Blue Tron could potentially make use of the engine even better now: imagine untapping five Tron lands with a Peregrine Drake.

 

Hexproof is the most dominant all-in Voltron deck in Pauper, but Delver Fiend is right behind it. Most of the decklists for the archetype are finely tuned, and do not have a lot of room for innovation. Eternal Masters also did not give the deck much in the way of new cards: Wildfire Emissary could be a sideboard card against White removal, but that is the extent of the new cards. However, Delver Fiend is another deck that benefits from reprints, as Hydroblast and Pyroblast were two of the most expensive cards in the deck, and were pretty necessary for important matchups.

Burn
5-0 Pauper League by jarhall
Creatures
4 Keldon Marauders
4 cards

Other Spells
4 Chain Lightning
4 Curse of the Pierced Heart
4 Fireblast
2 Flame Rift
4 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Needle Drop
4 Rift Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
38 cards
Lands
2 Forgotten Cave
16 Mountain
18 cards

Lightning Bolt

 

Burn decks exist in one form or another in almost every format. Pauper Burn hangs around, though often not at the top tables. It also does not stand to gain much from Eternal Masters; Wildfire Emissary may be a plausible sideboard card, but it is a bit slower than the deck normally likes. Many of its burn spells saw reprints, in addition to Keldon Marauders and Pyroblast, though, so it can be thankful that its pieces may be slightly more affordable.

Angler Delver
5-0 Pauper League by mfm0ller
Creatures
4 Delver of Secrets
4 Gurmag Angler
1 Stormbound Geist
2 Sultai Scavenger
11 cards

Other Spells
2 Agony Warp
4 Brainstorm
4 Counterspell
4 Deprive
4 Dismal Backwater
3 Ghastly Demise
2 Gush
4 Mental Note
4 Ponder
4 Thought Scour
35 cards
Lands
4 Evolving Wilds
9 Island
1 Swamp
14 cards

Gurmag Angler

 

Combining the aggression of Delver of Secrets with the power of Gurmag Angler, Angler Delver is on the edges of the metagame, but is a powerful force against unprepared opponents. This is one deck that could certainly benefit from Night’s Whisper, although the card does not churn through their library as fast as most of its cards do. Speaking of which, Cephalid Sage can churn quickly and provide a body for offense or defense. Threshold would not be hard for this deck to hit, so it could easily be a strong value deck for slightly slower versions.

 

Blue/Black Teachings is easily the slowest control deck in the format, fueled by the instant-speed engine of Mystical Teachings. Eternal Masters does not introduce many instants that are not invalidated by the cards already in the Teachings deck. I could see it using Night’s Whisper as some early-game card advantage, though it already has access to be Think Twice and Accumulated Knowledge as instant-speed card advantage.

 

Elves is a combo deck centered around the creature type of the same name, looking to flood the board with the small forest folk and run over opponents with size and numbers before their small creatures can be removed. Eternal Masters has an Elf subtheme in its limited archetypes, but the only rarity-shifted card is Elvish Vanguard. Even though it does synergize with Elves, I do not think it is an appropriate card for the deck. One of the advantages of Elves is that one creature is basically as good as any other creature. Adding a big “target” like Elvish Vanguard fights against that principle; suddenly, Doom Blade at its single-target removal spell friends go from worthless to very real. I may be wrong; it may be the sort of power-level push that the archetype needs to break into the metagame, but I would not be surprised if the card never shows up.

Overall, Eternal Masters does not hold a lot of new tools for the top decks, which is actually a good thing: the top decks did not need any help, since they are already at the top! Eternal Masters is potentially a home run for the Pauper format, as it helps pre-existing archetypes by reprinting some of the valuable cards, and it helps encourage new archetypes by rarity-shifting powerful cards like Nimble Mongoose, Rally the Peasants, and Peregrine Drake. I, for one, look forward to seeing all of the new decks that might spring from Eternal Masters.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, you can always contact me on Twitter (@blackdeckwins) and on Tumblr (also @blackdeckwins), where I write articles about Limited and custom Magic card design. You can also check out all of my previous articles on PureMTGO by following this link.