One of my biggest surprises returning to Magic Online earlier in December was Pauper’s emergence as a format. Playing magic for cheap?! It’s every player’s dream come true. And although I personally have played the format in the past (namely, I won some Player Run Events over 2 1/2 years ago playing an archaic version of the current Mono Black Control deck that runs Crypt Rats, Corrupt, and Consume Spirit in conjunction with Phyrexian Rager and Gravedigger for card advantage), this in my mind is a new format, and like any emerging formats, needed a burn standard.
For those of you who don’t know what a “burn standard” is, it’s the capacity of the format to beat the most straight forward burn deck imaginable. I figured I had 15 tickets, and that five queues would be perfect to test the format. Given the non-restrictions of the artifact lands, I figured affinity would be a default choice for many people, as would generic control decks. I knew that the Burn Standard could beat these decks, so I figured it’d be worth a shot.
Just a note: The Burn Standard deck is traditionally a winning deck in the birth of a format, followed by control decks adapting, and then the Burn Standard deck following out of use until the control decks become complacent.
So how do we go about making a Burn Standard? Well just porting one from Extended would probably work!
Here’s the list I’m taking to Grand Prix Los Angeles:
Ouch. Although I suppose it could be worse, we lost 15 cards from the main deck and 8 cards from the sideboard. On the bright side, Mogg Fanatics are legal! As are the other two creatures and the majority of our burn. The loss of Shrapnel Blast, however, also makes the need for Darksteel Citadels and (Great Furance)s disappear, and so we can safely remove those cards as well.
Now the auto includes. Obviously the most efficient burn spell ever, and the most efficient finisher ever,
Lightning Bolt and Fireblast respectively are automatically included in this deck. If you need to ask why, consider this. The deck runs Lava Spike and Spark Elemental. These two cards are copies of what Lightning Bolt does best, with built in weaknesses (Lava Spike can only target players and is a sorcery, Spark Elemental is a creature with one toughness). Also, I consider Fireblast to be the Force of Will of red, allowing for ridiculous and sometimes unexpected wins to occur.
Another burn spell that was in consideration for the extended deck can definitely fit in here. That spell is Seal of Fire. This spell is definitely great, and just barely got cut in the extended deck. Will definitely fit here.
Alright now. Spell wise, we have room for 3 more spells, but given the fact that we just removed our entire top end, (seven 3-mana spells in total) and a chunk of our middle end (eight 2-mana spells), replacing them with four zero casting cost (the fireblasts), and eight 1-casting cost spells, it’s safe to go down to 20 lands here. We don’t want to cut to 19 because the fireblasts do eat up lands, and therefore we need to be able to draw into two to four mountains.
In replacing the 4 slots we have left, I decided to shore up our mid-game (should the game last that long).
There’s no better way to shore up a midgame than with my personal favorite from Dragon Stompy,
Gathan Raiders. This card functions in two capacities. First of all, it provides a body for 3 mana, at 2/2. We usually don’t have a hand after burning a person out anyway, and thus, the Raiders serve as a good 5/5 finisher. The discard cost can be easily accounted for as you’re likely to draw more than the three to four lands you need for the game, therefore you can discard the extra land to morph the Raiders. We don’t need them in multiples and we dropped down to 20 lands, so I decided to run three (and trust me, three or two is the correct number of Raiders to run in this deck as they’re pretty bad in multiples in your opening hand). Lastly, we have room to mise another spell, and so I found a 5th incinerate effect in Thunderbolt.
As for the land base, we have room for 20 lands. So I took a mix of 16
Snow-Covered Mountains, which are probably the most expensive component of this deck (expensive mana bases in a magic format? Go figure). The reason? You’ll find out when I go over the sideboard choices (Hint, it’s the best creature removal spell in Pauper right now). As for the remaining 4 lands, I chose to augment my deck with Forgotten Caves. This may seem like a bad choice, given our need to start quickly, but I assure you that you want to have 2 lands in your hand to begin a game. That way you have access to all but 3 of your spells throughout the game (and the Gathan Raiders you have time to draw into). That said, if you draw too many lands, you set yourself to automatically lose. The Forgotten Caves help with mulligan decisions, as it allows you to keep a 2-3 land hand with a Forgotten Cave, as it provides options for you to cycle it away. They’ve proved to be quite good in testing so far, but if you disagree, I understand the counterarguments, but I still feel they’re a strong pick.
Now for the sideboard.
Although this format is relatively new, two decks instantly pop into people’s minds when they think about pauper: Affinity and Storm. Strangely enough, both strategies are vulnerable to sideboard cards we brought over from Extended:
(The 4 Smash to Smithereens are already in our sideboard from the port).
Why Smash to Smithereens over the other options? Simply put, it’s the single best artifact removal spell in pauper. Moreover, it does wonders against Affinity, because they no longer have broken creatures (like Arcbound Ravager and Master of Etherium ) to back up their strategies, and are thus vulnerable to spot removal in relation to the damage race (as a Smash to Smithereens on a Myr Enforcer slows them down, and takes 3 life off their total).
Skreds are the best removal spell in PDC. It’s a one mana removal spell that kills a lot of things (especially without doing anything more than playing lands). Against aggro strategies, these Skreds will help you win the damage race. The 2 Pyroblasts and Molten Rains both serve the same purpose: keep control decks off balance. By countering their early spells, destroying bouncelands, and hindering their development, your superior burn can rule the day!
Other ideas for the sideboard:
Considering that
Sunbeam Spellbomb seems to be a growing problem, Artifact Blast from MED1, which reads “Counter Target Artifact Spell), may be a good sideboarding solution. In fact, I’m testing them in my deck right now. The sideboard provided is what’s already been tested to be strong and useful (and is very useful against a tad more controllish metagame).
So without further adieu the Pauper Burn Standard:
Want to see how powerful this deck is? Well here’s an example match taken from the 4-man Pauper queue, which shows just how ridiculous this deck can get.
And that was a regular draw (and I didn’t even draw any Fireblasts!). Also expect to draw consistently, as consistency is one of this deck's strong points.
Considering the options this deck has in PDC and its pure raw power level as a linear strategy up there with the Storm deck, I think it’s definitely worth making sure your deck beats it. As for actually playing this deck, I have an important recommendation. Goldfish the deck a lot. The most important and most difficult decision you can make with this deck happens before anyone plays a single spell: the mulligan decision. Once you get a feel for mulliganing with the deck, I fully recommend the deck for this budding metagame, but I’ll hold my judgment for the future metagame after more data comes back.
Best of luck to everyone with the deck and special congratulations to PureMTGO’s very own SpikeboyM and the rest of the PDC community for getting this format sponsored. I’m sure enjoying it.
Happy New Years everyone. Here’s to 2009 being great!
One of my favorite decks of all time has been the burn deck. Why? It was the first deck I learned to pilot efficiantly to win a friday night game (What FNM was before FNM). I still have the original deck constructed. I ove this version and to be honest, there really isn't much difference from this one and my original except of course the rares, and I only have a few.
Now if they would only reprint Ball Lightning as a common.
Good content, maybe a little more info about the different matchups would have been nice. But what is up with all the line breaks ? There is more white space in this article than in a coke factory. ;)
7 Comments
Hold shift plus enter to do a single line instead of double. :)
One of my favorite decks of all time has been the burn deck. Why? It was the first deck I learned to pilot efficiantly to win a friday night game (What FNM was before FNM). I still have the original deck constructed. I ove this version and to be honest, there really isn't much difference from this one and my original except of course the rares, and I only have a few.
Now if they would only reprint Ball Lightning as a common.
Good content, maybe a little more info about the different matchups would have been nice.
But what is up with all the line breaks ? There is more white space in this article than in a coke factory. ;)
Great article. I agree that a follow-up article would be great; detailing anaylsis of dealing with the major decks in the Pauper meta.
(By the way, both Arcbound Ravager and Master of Etherium are rares, so they won't be in the meta...)
The deck is great. On turn three of game one, you should have cycled the forgotten cave before combat on the chance the you would draw Lava Elemental.
True that.
There's way too many linebreaks. I blame the editing software! I'll be sure to check on why that is next time.
Hey in regards to the ravagers and masters, I'm sorry if I didn't articulate the fact they're not in the meta correctly.
What I meant was that because they don't exist in the Affinity deck, the affinity loses a lot of its explosiveness.
Thanks for your comments