I am willing to bet that your friends can read Cloud of Faeries in less than five minutes.

First, let us agree that Stutter Spirite and Cloud of Faeries are common and easy to find on MTGO. Second, I dont think that the availability of the paper card in your local area is very good benchmark for banning in an online format. You are free to play standard pauper with your friends in paper or online. As an online format it was not very popular because of the very limited card pool.

I understand metagames have archtypes, and competitive decks need to be mindful of probable plays from opponents. However, as a new MTGO player, I am discouraged by how abusive some archtypes may be. I wonder if Wizards of the Coast thinks similarly, and opts to no longer offer Pauper Tournaments.

Delver reigned supreme in recent past when it was part of the Standard card pool. Today, Standard Pauper can enjoy those temporary difficult-to-play-against cards (read: almost anything with Heroic, it seems). Even if too tough in a homebrew, players can work around their limited options in the Standard common card pool. I can even pick up a deck from my local card shop without breaking a sweat or my wallet.

How does one even FIND Stutter Sprite nowadays? Who has a playset of Cloud of Faeries just lying around in a binder? I suggest that in order to be relevant, Pauper may need to draw a line, and this line means banning at least one of the two previously named cards. Perhaps I can go farther: ban cards older than Modern age. If the goal of Pauper is to empower people to play competitively, having access to cards would seem to be a high priority. While I'm sure I can find a Cloud of Faeries through online sales, it doesn't seem fun to me.

Imagine the next generation of players gathering at a table to learn to play Pauper. We may have a Hexproof deck, like this OP thread. We could have Stompy, and even MBC with Gary. Now, I drop a Cloud of Faeries onto the table, and wait five minutes for everyone to read the card. Imagine their frowns when I tell them that this card is older than some of the people sitting at the table. Yes, I could redefine my limits to a Standard card pool, but why limit myself just because of a few cards? Modern has a rich card pool from which to draw, removes some abused cards from play, and makes the game more accessible to a larger population. Isn't this the whole POINT of Pauper play? If we have our own versions of the Power Nine, we'd play in a lot of different tournaments, I bet. However, we don't, and have to make due with something else. Isn't this the genesis of Pauper play- not having access to ONE or a small number of very breakable cards?

In trying to position ourselves as the every-man card game players, we threaten to alienate the next generation (read: longevity) of this format. Yeah, ban a card or two. My suggestion is to look at the cards being abused as a restriction to allowing more diversity, greater staying power, while keeping to a common mindset. In your local neighborhoods, I challenge anyone reading this post to find a PHYSICAL copy of Cloud of Faeries in their local brick-and-mortar stores. Now, find a play set inn your hometown. How much did they cost? How easy was it to break into a game format with those cards literally in hand? How "common" is Pauper, really?

My own research lead me to find ZERO copies of the above-named cards in York, Lancaster, Altoona, Johnstown, Bedford, Baltimore, and Harrisburg hobby shops. Again, how easily do we toss-around the word "common" to justify our own feelings of have-nots-the-Power9, when really, some cards that win the format really aren't so common anymore.

Pauper has become elitist, and has become the very thing which it stood against. Outside of Standard Pauper, I see the format being a bunch of people who can't spend the cash of a Power 9 set but still feel the need to dominate competition using cards from 1998. How many other cards were banned from that set because of play balance? Why do we let a similar disruptive card get a pass because it is a common-rarity card? It seems foolish to think lightly of a card from the "Combo Winter" set just because it is common, but the whole FORMAT is common-based? In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is King. So too is Cloud of Faeries, and other threats from beyond Modern builds.

In summation: An out-of-print card from a powerful set printed EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO can hardly be called "common." Continuing to think it IS welcomed into the card pool is a direct middle-finger raised to the next generation of Pauper players, and justifies WotC's lack of commitment to how we currently run the format as a barrier to new players.

EIGHTEEN YEARS?! You've grown-up and are a legal adult now, Cloud of Faeries. Time to move out and get your own apartment.

Well Oath is pretty good against Workshops anyway. But this list is probably even better because Karakas is way less effective.

With cage out dromoka will stay on top of your library so you can draw it and hard cast it.

Oh, I didn't realise that Hall of Triumph was legendary. I thought only the Spear of Heliod was. This is bad news, I am less inclined to play White Weenie now that the global pump cards are few.

Are you convinced about the Launch the Fleet? It seems to me like a win-more card. The more you are winning, the better it is. The more you are losing, the worse it is. And it doesn't have the advantage of a "Glorious Anthem" type card because the Fleet forces you to commit very heavily to the board and play into the hands of sweepers. Are you sold on this card?

I know that he sometimes stacks his deck with Dig Through Time to put stuff on the bottom.

Obviously, there are issues with variance, but he played the list very well and I think his innovations are really interesting.

There would be times that he'd just draw dromoka as well.

Brian beat Paul Mastriano, former world Champ with this deck, he was playing a Shops deck called Hangarback MUD. Take that to mean whatever. but I do think he had a solid plan against them. He beat MUD by comboing off too!

Thanks for your help.

Here's a few things:

"Imagine you're facing Delver. They have a Cage out, so they just let you resolve Oath. You Oath up Dromoka and cast it because it CAN'T be countered! :) Then the lifelink lets you stabilize, so during your next main phase, you can go off with the Auriok Salvagers/Black Lotus/Spell Bomb combo!"

But it's possible Dromoka is not the first thing you hit with Oath so it can take up to 3 tries. Even after getting Dromoka, you still have to cast it and it's 6 mana. But if you actually do that, Cage doesn't matter anymore because you Oath Auriok, play it and your opp can't do anything about it. After that you just go infinite.

The deck also seems worse against Shops than regular Oath.

Dromoka is there to be a castable oath target that a lot of decks can't beat.

EDIT: Now that I'm home and in front of my laptop, I can give you more detail.

First off, here's an article that Brian Kelly wrote about the deck after winning a fairly large tournament with an earlier incarnation of Dragonlord (Bomber) Oath: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=47917.0

The removal spells that see Vintage play and can kill a Dragonlord Dromoka are: Swords to Plowshares and a tiny amount of Snuff Out's can be found in sideboards. The thing has seven toughness, you'd need to bolt it THREE times! Yeah, it isn't going to happen.

Imagine you're facing Delver. They have a Cage out, so they just let you resolve Oath. You Oath up Dromoka and cast it because it CAN'T be countered! :) Then the lifelink lets you stabilize, so during your next main phase, you can go off with the Auriok Salvagers/Black Lotus/Spell Bomb combo!

Nobody sees it coming. His deck is awesome, and I am very happy for the guy. I hope to ask him a few questions for "The Eternal Spotlight" soon!

P.S. Those altered Moxen were the shizznit!

Nice job with your predictions!

I'm really interested in the Oath list. He won the whole thing but several things don't make sense to me and I want to understand them. I understand how Auriok Salvagers is good but I don't see how Dragonlord Dromoka is better than running about Griselbrand or no other creature at all! I know it makes opponents not play anything on your turn but Griselbrand is going to be better than that most of the time (in my opinion and experience with the deck). No Time Vault I understand because Auriok fills that role. And there are many more things I'd love to understand.

Are there any videos of the Champs? I'd love to watch his games. I'd also love to talk to him.

COngratz to Brian Kelly, not only for winning, but also for using a cool Oath list!

Yep. Both accounts have play points. A friend asked if my Telir account was in the beta and I was like...yeah a billion years ago...(ie the first open beta pre v1.)

Yeah not complaining about getting them but I do think everyone should have. *shrugs* WOTC works very hard to be enigmatic. There were no tweets that I could find either.

I like the idea of the White Weenie deck (for FNM events like you said).

My suggestions to tweak the deck are:

1. I would add an extra Kytheon (because you want to see him in the opening hand, and if you draw multiples he will usually be killed or traded with in any case). And there are enough creatures in the deck that if you draw multiples of Kytheon in the opening hand, you will probably have 2 other creatures in your hand (or a Raise the Alarm) to ignite his spark, in which case you can cast the second copy of Kytheon in your hand post the spark.

2. Add 3 extra copies of Hall of Triumph. These are super important in my opinion, and drawing multiples is welcome. Hall works spectacularly with Raise the Alarm, Consul's Lieutenant and Brimaz in particular, and works well with every other creature. And 4 x Hall of Triumph is the only weapon against sweepers like Languish and Anger of the Gods, because the Hall allows you to deploy less threats and avoid over-committing to the board. I realise that you already have 2 x Spear of Heliod, but these are very vulnerable to Dromoka's Command and cannot be relied on.

3. Add 1 extra Knight of White Orchard, given that the curve is now higher.

4. Remove 2 x Launch the Fleet, and 2 x Devouring Light, and maybe remove 1 x Spear. (Spear of Heliod is a very risky card now that Dromoka's commands are now rampant, and removing one copy eliminates the risk of drawing multiples).

I like these types of decks for FNM, but I would not enjoy playing it in serious events like Dailies or Single Elimination, because this deck is a house of cards. A glass cannon. A single Languish or Anger of the Gods or even Drown in Sorrows is usually game over for this deck (unless you can resolve a Hall of Triumph or flip a Kytheon), and often these sweepers are in the main deck of your opponent.