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Hello, Metagame people, I'm Mr.B. You might remember me from other articles like Glitters Affinity, Affinity Glitter – Why no one says it the same way, or the Pauper article – why it's the best Magic format for a homeless person.
Today I'm here to talk about my favorite Pauper deck: Caw Gates! And I'm not saying that because the pigeons living on my apartment building's roof threatened me with death (now, pigeon gentlemen, I've done as you asked, please leave me alone).
Let's start from the beginning. In the beginning there was darkness… no, too soon. Let's fast forward several billion years, to 2022, when Caw Gates first achieved results with a list incredibly similar to current ones.
Now that we have the list at hand, albeit archaic (you can tell I opened the thesaurus, right?!), I can illustrate the deck's magnificence.
The card that allowed the archetype to be born is Basilisk Gate, a bomb that gives a huge buff to our creatures as long as we have enough Gates on the battlefield. Being a land (and therefore colorless) it can also target Guardian of the Guildpact, which in Pauper reads: "protection from the format except four cards".
Paired with the Gates are the inevitable Squadron Hawks, which always fly in flocks and, along with Brainstorm, cause havoc. Alongside them, we also include some recursive threats like Sacred Cat. Season everything with card draw, counters, and a pinch of removal, and you get a very solid midrange/control deck, ideal for any season (except combo season).
The deck revolves entirely around the synergies between the various cards. Besides those just illustrated, another excellent synergy in the deck is that between the looting produced by The Modern Age and Sacred Cat / Prismatic Strands, which can be discarded without losing value.
Let's move on to a more recent list.
As you can see, the core of the list has been identical for two years, because the basic structure is extremely solid while the peripheral cards can vary depending on the meta we are in. The key addition was Lórien Revealed, which provided consistency and an additional way to shuffle the deck after Brainstorm.
If you want to play Caw Gates, never leave home without these cards.
This is what I believe to be the core of the deck. All the synergies and interactions that make the deck strong are contained here. Everything else consists of flex slots that make our plan highly customizable and adaptable to the meta.
For example: if we face a lot of go-wide decks, like Elves, we put in 3-4 sweepers along with some removal and counters, and off we go to deforest the Llanowar forest without the green folk being able to do anything to us.
We can play a Plains or an Idyllic Beachfront if we want the ability to tutor for white mana with Lórien Revealed, at the cost of having an additional tapland.
We have several flexible slots in the list that we can use to have specific interaction against many decks in the meta or to throw in a bunch of absolutely useless super secret tech that makes us want a shot of bleach when we draw them.
Generally, good players (not me) use them to broaden the spectrum of reactive spells in the deck or to gain more card advantage.
Dawnbringer Cleric Serves as our Swiss Army knife: wall, lifegain, graveyard hate, and destroys Glitters. Unfortunately, it doesn't make coffee, but it's working on it.
Spell Pierce and Dispel To improve the interactive package.
Behold the Multiverse or Deep Analysis To improve card advantage and gain a better edge in the mirror.
Suffocating Fumes, Arms of Hadar If we expect very creature-heavy matchups like Kuldotha Red.
Destroy Evil Is a maindeckable card right now. It does nothing against Mono R, but it's useful against almost everything else in the meta.
Some people splash green for Open the Gates. We don't do that in a Mono R and Glitters meta (and you shouldn't do it at home).
Strategy
Caw Gates is a deck that is relatively easy to pick up but very complex to master. You'll likely take a lot of beatings the first few times you try it, but with experience, you'll find it very rewarding.
This is a deck for all-round Magic lovers, as it behaves like many different archetypes depending on the matchup.
Against UW Familiars, it plays almost like a combo to try and resolve Guardian of the Guildpact and kill the opponent before they can set up.
Against Mono R, it plays like a control deck, then switches to a beatdown plan with cats protected by counters.
The deck highly rewards pilot skill, knowledge of the opponent's deck, and knowing how to correctly sequence plays. One small mistake and the entire plan crumbles.
The fact that we play a truckload (technical term, trust me) of taplands often puts us behind, only to catch up to the opponent later.
Games are a real grind, but bringing them home is truly satisfying.
Tips & Tricks
- We usually start with Azorius Guildgate, then Citadel Gate, and finally Sea Gate, so we can name the splash color on the last Gate.
- If we're playing Dust to Dust, it's better to reverse Citadel and Sea Gate.
- Brainstorm is best used in the late game.
- The Modern Age is very strong if we can discard Sacred Cat or Prismatic Strands.
- If the opponent has Relic of Progenitus, we can still discard the cat and embalm it before the activation.
Favorable Matchups
Mono R Kuldotha We need to buy time until we can attack with a Sacred Cat buffed by Basilisk Gate.
Terror Decks Our threats are perfect for the matchup. They have no answers to Guardian of the Guildpact.
Only annoying card: Murmuring Mystic.
Boros Synth We have counters and many flying creatures.
Bogles We can interact with auras while they are on the stack.
Grixis Affinity Fairly even, but with an adequate sideboard, we are favored.
Mono U Faeries and UB Faeries We are slightly favored.
Average Matchups
BG Gardens and Glitters Matchups are approximately 50/50.
Ponza Very variable.
Bad Matchups
We struggle a lot against combo decks:
- UWx Familiars
- Goblin Combo
- Walls Combo
- Altar Tron
Ephemerate decks are also difficult.
Sideboard
Color Hosers
- Pyroblast
- Hydroblast
- Red Elemental Blast
- Blue Elemental Blast
Removal
- Destroy Evil
- Suffocating Fumes
- Arms of Hadar
- Breath Weapon
- End the Festivities
- Tectonic Hazard
- Echoing Truth
Artifact Hate
- Dust to Dust
- Cast into the Fire
- Smash to Dust
- Gorilla Shaman
- Revoke Existence
Additional Counters
- Dispel
- Spell Pierce
- Essence Scatter
- Remove Soul
Yoink Tech
- Standard Bearer
- Coalition Honor Guard
Graveyard Hate
- Relic of Progenitus
- Nihil Spellbomb
- Tormod’s Crypt
- Faerie Macabre
And that was more or less Caw Gates explained badly.
Follow us for more bad decks explained badly. If you have any questions, leave a comment or visit us on the forum: we are friendly (sometimes).
Special thanks to Gn42 and his fantastic primer which helped me a lot when I started playing Caw Gates.
If you wish, I can also provide an even cleaner version in an editorial article style for a website (much more readable and ready for WordPress).
