Hey Metagame.it friends! I'm Mr.B, you might remember me from other articles like Commander - Deckbuilding Guide or How to make 3 people hate you simultaneously by showing them a picture.
Welcome then to this lysergic article-delirium: today I'm here to talk trash about my favorite competitive format, the cheapest and ugliest format of all, the people's format, Pauper!
For those unfamiliar with it, Pauper is a format where only ugly cards that have had at least one common printing in any expansion or supplementary product are legal (if it weren't banned, even Sinkhole would be legal).
If a common version of a certain Magic card was previously released as a physical Magic: The Gathering product or on Magic: The Gathering Online, all versions of that card are legal in this format. So you can flex on your friends with a Japan foil playset of Lightning Bolt from the Mystical Archive with the golden symbol, while they have the ugly ones from Battle for Baldur's Gate.
Lands printed with rarity code L are also included, because you can't play without lands.
The format is ugly (I'm kidding, of course, it's probably one of the best competitive formats right now), but in my opinion, it has two strengths: the meta is very diverse, with tons of decks and archetypes that compete with the tiers, and most importantly, for a poor soul like me who barely makes ends meet with my salary, it's super cheap! Compared to other competitive and non-competitive formats, right Commander?! You and your lists that cost as much as my car. For example, for the modest price of one Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, you can buy an entire tier 1 deck.
Players currently have a lot of extremely powerful cards available that make many ugly strategies playable:
— Are you a dedicated aggro player who only knows how to turn creatures sideways without thinking?! There's a deck for you! Kuldotha Red is a tier 1 despite Monastery Swiftspear just getting banned. Do you miss Affinity in Modern? No worries: we have 16 artifact lands legal in the format along with a plethora of 0-cost artifacts and trinkets that will make any Mirrodin Standard nostalgic happy.
— Do you like tempo strategies? There are a plethora of decks based on Tolarian Terror, ranging from Mono Blue Terror to Izzet Terror or Dimir Terror, and they all focus on making your opponent waste time. If you prefer fairies to big serpents (wink), Mono Blue Faeries or Dimir Faeries are excellent!
— Are you a hipster who only plays quirky combos? We have multiple combo decks available, which can go infinite with graveyard loops like Altar Tron and Familiars, or decks with one-card graveyard combos like One Land Spy or Dredge. If you like to make infinite mana, there's Walls Combo (but if you play Walls Combo, you're a bit [censored], just because I have a very respectable 3-25 record against Walls).
— Do you like midrange decks? Boros Synthesizer and Orzhov Blade can grind games infinitely, as can Grixis Affinity.
— Are you a hardcore control player and enjoy making your opponent feel miserable? BG Gardens is for you, but Dimir Control or Caw Gates are also very strong (although Caw Gates isn't a true control deck, but no one ever agrees on where to place it, and since I play it, I couldn't not mention it).
— Do you have OCD and hate things being out of order? You'll greatly appreciate that I didn't follow the WUBRG order for the previous points.
In short, we have decks for every taste in a very interactive format that rewards pilot skill (which is why I don't win much) and at the same time is very affordable (which is why I keep playing it).
The great thing about Pauper is that it's also widely played on MTGO, so if you don't have a local store or league nearby (I strongly doubt it), you can still play comfortably sitting on the toilet or on the couch, if you prefer.
Now let's get serious for a moment, or the higher-ups will hit me with a stick. As I said before, in the last B&R, they crippled Monastery Swiftspear. Since then, the online meta has settled roughly like this:
As you can see, many of the decks I mentioned earlier are present. Mono R still dominates with almost 20% of the online meta and is also winning many leagues in recent weeks. Following closely are Glitter Affinity, BG Gardens, UB Faeries, and Izzet Terror. These are the format's tier 1 decks in terms of popularity, so prepare accordingly, as you'll face quite a few of them.
As for a true power ranking, the top two spots probably remain unchanged, because Mono R and Glitter Affinity have the ability to steal a lot of games with explosive starts. Glitter, in reality, isn't very well-positioned against any of the other tier 1 decks, but it crushes most of the rest of the meta. BG Gardens kills you with Crypt Rats, initiative, or boredom, depending on whether it feels like playing a wincon or not. Terror splashes red to better deal with all of Glitter's and Mono R's threats, while Faeries plays a pretty even game against everyone in this UB version.
Meanwhile, in paper tournaments, where turns are timed, the meta over the last two months has been roughly like this:
Unlike online, there are more viable strategies in paper. For example: playing Altar Tron will make you smash your mouse the first time you combo off; in paper, however, you just need to demonstrate the loop to your opponent and enjoy their sad face as they realize they've lost. Nevertheless, the tiers — understood as the most played decks — are still more or less the same. Here we have a reversal between Glitter Affinity and Mono R, followed by the omnipresent BG Gardens, Dimir Terror, and Caw Gates.
I'll say a few words about Caw Gates, which is a very solid deck and can be configured against a wide spectrum of matchups; in this meta, I see it as very well-positioned as long as few combo decks are played.
Here in Italy, we have a slightly different meta, given our passion for midrange and combo. The tournament was won by BG Gardens, while the Top 8 included 3 UW Familiars, 2 UB Faeries, one Goblin Combo, and one Jeskai Glitter. Let's take the meta of the last Pauper Fest on February 10th as an example:
As you can see, the meta is quite different from the online meta and that of major tournaments, including foreign ones, with an extremely lower presence of Mono R and a considerable increase in blue-based midrange strategies. Strangely, Boros Synth, a deck beloved in Italy and very popular (perhaps because Mengu plays it), which has recently been performing well in online leagues too, is absent. A final note on White Weenie, which is always in our hearts.
In the coming weeks, I and other members of the Metagame staff (much more skilled and qualified than me) will illustrate our favorite decks in the format and provide an overview of the tiers, also in view of Paupergeddon 2024 - Winter Edition in Lecco (which I'm told by the control room has already sold out with over 700 tickets sold).
So stay tuned for updates.
