Anything But: Pauper’s Toolbox

It is the calm after the storm. This is where we currently sit with Pauper. It seems like just yesterday to me, but at this point in time it has been about a month since Wizards, in their infinite wisdom, decided that it was past time for a change in the Pauper format. Over my last two articles we’ve covered the metagame from both sides of things, analyzing the end of the Storm meta and taking a look at what we have in store for us as we approach the new. We’ll revisit this type of article in a few weeks as we take a look at another “month in review” with the new metagame.  So far we’ve done a lot of looking at charts and decklists, but now it’s time to get back to individual breakdowns. This time around we’re going to take a look at one of my favorite decks and my favorite deck types with an examination of UB Teachings Control. Let’s jump right into things with a look at the current metagame with this week’s Competitive Corner…

We’re comfortably at the point of just over a month into our new metagame and things seem to have settled out a bit, but there is still continued switching at the top to see just, which deck can work out to be the best. I think at this point it’s safe to say that we’re well aware of what decks we’re likely to see daily in events.

Daily Events 2/28 – 3/13

In kind of an interesting move we had Affinity come out swinging to the point where it managed to basically switch places with last week’s number on contender, Stompy. This doesn’t come to me as a big surprise because if you were watching the Daily Events at the end of last week we were already starting to see a large increase in Affinity’s play. The deck can work out at great speed and manages to hold its own easily against a deck like Fissure, which will bounce permanents. An interesting note about Affinity here is that most lists are starting to lean towards the Fling versions whereas in the previous meta we were seeing a large variety of Affinity decks being successful. The addition of Fling gives the deck a lot of power when it can sack off the entire board to Atog for half the damage and then throw it in your face for the remainder. Our big four remains the same with only that change in order, but things of course get a little closer once you move down the list a bit. The drop off beyond the top four is about half and that fifth place belongs to FissurePost. This week there were five out of the 22 showings that were the monoblue version, but the deck has gotten quite a bit of hype recently. With many writers talking about the power of the deck it may have worked to get people on the bandwagon. At the bottom of the list we even had a decent showing from Infect despite the decrease in power level.  Here’s a look at this week’s rogue decks…

1. EnchantStorm – 4
2. WeeFiend – 2
3. MWA – 2
4. DimirTrinket – 2
5. EnchantAggro – 1

Really small showing this week, but we do get a few interesting things. The first thing I like to see here is the reemergence of DimirTrinket, which has been unseen for quite awhile now. The deck brings quite a few tricks to the table and works off a great tutor card in Trinket Mage, but we’ll have to see if it has the teeth to work its way up the ladder here. Based upon the small opening I’m not sure it will reach that plateau where it used to sit in its prime, but a lot of that will come down to where the meta sits from here out. Also mildly interesting to me is that WeeFiend is sitting at two. With the absence of red storm variants I had figured that this would be the new top combo deck, but it would seem that the combo players in Pauper would much rather play Temporal Fissure storm instead. I can’t really blame them as I’ve never been a huge fan of WeeFiend since it seems quite vulnerable. There is very little in that deck that can work to protect the main creatures so it becomes very hit or miss for an all-in type of strategy.

At this point you guys might have noticed the Competitive Corner has been smaller than normal in the past two weeks. Unfortunately I work a job that constantly requires more than 40 hours a week on top of attending grad school. This tends to mean that some weeks I just get swamped and as a result I’ve had to cut this part down a bit since it takes more time than most probably realize. Next week we’ll be right back at it with the full spotlight and I’m even going to be bringing back the look at 4-0. So I apologize for the shorter sections here the past two weeks, but no worries this is only temporary!

This article has probably been a long time coming. If you’re a regular reader/follower you’re probably aware that when it comes down to it I’m a control player through and through. Maybe I’m not smart enough for combos and maybe I just enjoy frustrating people too much for aggro, but no matter what the reason is I’ll always be the first one to try and set a game’s tempo. Maybe this is a simple reflection of my life outside of Magic. I’m the type of person who always wants to be the driver in a car and would rather drive than fly so that I can dictate speed as well as when/where/if stops are made. When it comes to Magic I don’t see how anyone could want to play anything else! This game is incredibly dependant on concepts such as card advantage and favorable trades. These things all come naturally to a control deck on a good draw.

The color combinations are always tempting as well. Out of the five colors we all know that blue is considered to be the linchpin of control decks and it pairs well with all of the other colors to grant us a variety of different control variations. One of the most powerful of these combinations would be the marriage between blue and black. Blue obviously brings countermagic to the table, but also provides us access to the best draw spells in the game to work directly at creating literal card advantage. So what does black bring to the table? Many players might even debate back and further as to whether blue or black is the best “control” color in the game because where blue provides a player with countermagic, black allows you hand control and creature control. No matter which side of that argument you agree with the bottom line is that the combination of the two provides the control player with the ability to hit the opponent’s game from all sides.

So what does this mean for Pauper? Well Pauper has had a decent history with these colors. We’re all familiar with the long history of MonoBlack Control even if it doesn’t show as strong as it did “back in the day” as well as the current strength of DelverBlue, which is easily the premier control deck in the format. Today we’re going to set those aside and focus on the wonderful marriage between the two in an attempt to see what if any potential the deck has in the current metagame.

There are currently four generic versions of UB control decks in Pauper and we’re going to take a quick look at the other three before jumping into a breakdown on Teachings. First, although these are in no particular order, is DimirPost…

Like the IzzetPost deck this type of 8-post deck comes in a different variety for each player who chooses to run it. The deck can draw upon any number of blue or black spells to create the toolbox of control spells that they feel will best suit them for the meta. The deck draws upon a lot of the same concepts as IzzetPost when it comes to gaining life, drawing cards, and getting to a mid-to-late game in order to finish off the opponent. Of all the different 8-post decks this one would easily be my favorite. Before the deck really started showing up in Daily Events I had written about how I thought that black was a more favorable color combination for blue in order to create a solid post deck. I think this still can hold true though it’s hard to debate against the easy finishers of IzzetPost. DimirPost decks often do not rely on finishers in the same way instead favoring things like the Ghostly Flicker combo to add extra control. The use of black brings in a lot of great options for the deck such as Evincar’s Justice, which provides a great option for keeping control over the heavy aggro we’re starting to see in the form of Elves, Goblins, and Stompy. This card works more effectively than targeted kill in dealing with Hexproof decks and more effectively than things like Pestilence, which requires only black mana to cast. The use of 8-post allows the easy access to the mana required to repeatedly buy the spell back. The deck brings in a lot of great control options, which serve it well in the current aggro-heavy meta. We’ve seen the deck show up in good form and hold its own well, but oddly it is not nearly as popular as other options in the meta. If one thing can be said about 8-post variants it’s that they can be a fickle beast and you can run into awkward draws here and there, which slightly decrease the decks reliability.

Now I’m not sure this is a perfect list, but you can see some of the new focuses that the deck has taken in adapting to the new metagame. Things such as an increase in the number of Chittering Ratswork well to take down a large pile of creatures. You’ll also notice that the mana base and spells tend to lean much more towards favoring black as opposed to older lists, which could lean more to blue for additional draw. The deck almost works more like a monoblack control deck that splashes blue for the tutor abilities of Trinket Mage. The deck works well to create card advantage in several ways through discard, draw, and tutoring. You’ll also notice that the deck can get away with running a low mana curve despite running two colors thanks to the fact that it favors cheap removal in the form of Executioners Capsule and Tragic Slip. The deck actually gets quite a bit of additional synergy thanks to the Fume Spitters and their ability to die on command. I think the deck does provide a decent amount of control, but wonder if it can handle the Affinity match on a regular basis.

UB Control decks haven’t really shown up in this new metagame so you’ll have to understand that this deck could probably use quite a bit of updating to make it a little more meta friendly. That being said this is what a typical UB Control deck looks like. It runs quite a bit similar to the way Teachings does, but without the easy tutors. Instead it will use extra draw in the form of things like Mulldrifter and Probe in order to find pieces that you need. As a typical UB control variant it does facilitate the use of both heavy creature kill and hand control in order to maintain tempo in the game. Some of the options in the main at sorcery speed might be enough to win the argument for playing a deck like this instead of Teachings, which can only work with instants. The use of Ravens Crime allows the deck to siphon out extra lands and Evincar’s Justice again is a great option for wrath effects. I will say though you have to be a bit more careful around that as the deck is unable to provide a heavy mana base in the same way that the DimirPost deck can. This brings us to a look at Teachings Control…

This is what a typical version of Teachings control looks like today. As you can see the deck runs a little bit lighter on the creature base in order to make more room for instant spells to tutor up off of Mystical Teachings. This single card is the backbone of this type of UB Control as it works as almost the only tutor spell that we have available to us in Pauper. The idea is that you can run a large number of instant spells in 1 and 2-ofs so that you’re prepared to face anything come game one. By increasing the odds of winning in the first game you also increase the odds of winning the match. This also leaves a lot of possibilities for card choice as well. To tackle this type of deck we’re going to take a look through most of the plausible possibilities that you may find/run in Teachings Control. If you’re looking to save yourself from reading through each individual card choice then feel free to watch the deck video below. This covers the basics of card choices in this specific deck as well as my thoughts on how Teachings decks run.

The Lands:

I’m going to just cover these real quick in not a lot of detail because it is pretty self explanatory. Obviously the deck is going to favor a bit higher on the basic land count like most Pauper decks do, but there are still a few nonbasics that work their way in. Most decks like to run Dimir Aqueduct, which was the basic staple dual before the gates were introduced. The reason that most haven’t switched these out in favor of Dimir Guildgate is the secondary ability that forces the player to bounce another land to their hand. This is most often used alongside Bojuka Bog to keep an opponent’s graveyard under control. This is an underestimated thing in Pauper, but it takes down a lot of popular mechanics such as flashback and undying as well as stopping the Ghostly Flicker combos. The other favorite bounce option comes in the form of Halimar Depths. Both of these options are only ever ran as a singleton because the deck often sits a bit heavy on lands that enter the battlefield tapped. In the mid-to-late game it’s very important for this deck to have plenty of mana available, but you can get some terrible starts if you get too many of those tapped lands. The decks also tend to lean towards favoring the use of Evolving Wilds or Terramorphic Expanse not so much for the ability to adjust color balance, but for the ability to thin the deck. Teachings runs a lot upon the idea of card advantage and while the impact of land thinning has been proven to be minimal, every little bit helps.

Creatures:

The creature base is also pretty standard between variants. From a generic stand point the most important thing you’re going to be looking for is creating card advantage. Everything about Teachings is about creating card advantage in one way or another. There are two important things to keep in mind when it comes to the creature base in a Teachings deck. The first is that there is a focus on “enters the battlefield” effects. The second is that it is important to keep the creature base as small as possible. As you can see in the example list I’m running only 16 creatures and even that could be cut back one or two. The key to this deck is the toolbox of instants that you’re looking to tutor off of Mystical Teachings. Let’s take a look at some of the options you can pick from when creating your creature base…

Archaeomancer – This creature may be the one that people will look at and not understand the card advantage right away. With the ability to return a spell to your hand, Archaeomancer allows you to use that single instant spell a second time, which saves room in the deck. More importantly it is used alongside Ghostly Flicker in order to combo off the use on some of the other “enters the battlefield” creature effects you’ll be running. Going beyond one of each of these combo pieces is not considered ideal because you don’t have more abusive options such as Glimmerpost and the key for teachings is to be able to handle as many situations as possible. The combo is powerful, but doesn’t directly give you options to control game tempo and instead relies upon additional pieces such as a Ravenous Rats to add the control and at a decent cost. In every instance this should be considered over Mnemonic Wall because it comes in cheaper and can attack so that you can switch it out with Ninja of the Deep Hours. Few decks will favor the use of the wall and are mostly restricted to 8-post variants, which can find that double blue mana cost to be troublesome.

Augur of Skulls – Augur of Skulls is a very tempting card when you’re looking to use a creature base that will add hand destruction to your toolbox. There can be some benefits to the use of the Augur thanks to the regeneration ability that will give you a decent balance against the early game of faster aggro decks as well as the discard control on control/combo. The trap for this card is the fact that the ability is an activated ability as opposed to a triggered “enters the battlefield” ability. As you see in my example deck above you’re often going to rely heavily on those types of abilities so you have additional abuse off of key cards such as the Ghostly Flicker and Ninja of the Deep Hours, which is a staple. If you’re looking for heavier hand control there are great rat options, but if you just have to have it then don’t push it beyond say two copies.

Cavern Harpy – When I first got involved with UB control decks the Cavern Harpy looked to be a good addition to a deck that uses so many “enters the battlefield” effects. In small quantities I still like the harpy, but not in the current metagame. That secondary ability of the Cavern Harpy, which allows you to pay a life in order to evade kill spells. This makes the harpy a great option against a heavy control meta, but again quantity shouldn’t go over say 2 because it is a medium that is used to abuse the abilities of other creatures the way Ghostly Flicker does and wasting a lot of space for more Cavern Harpys means less space for the effects you need.

Chittering Rats – When we talk about creatures that provide hand control, Chittering Rats can sit pretty atop that list, especially when you’re running the Ghostly Flicker combo. While the Chittering Rats ability doesn’t directly cause a reduction in an opponent’s hand size you can’t say enough about the fact that it removes a card from their hand for a turn followed by forcing them to then skip their draw on the following turn. In comparison to Ravenous Rats, this rat doesn’t see as much play in this deck. Part of the reason for this is the mana cost, which you may not consider as it only sits at three. What continues to draw it back is that double black mana in its cost in a deck that leans more towards the blue side of things. You also find it slower to get to work on switching it out off of Ninja of the Deep Hours as well where Ravenous Rats can be reused a turn earlier. I’ve always found this guy to be more effective in a deck that has a better control on its mana base and isn’t looking to hold back as much as it could for tutoring. I have seen it show up in Teachings here and there, but not usually going beyond three.

Crypt Rats – This is one creature I’ve been considering recently as a new addition to the deck. This specific rat hasn’t really seen play in Teachings because, again, it doesn’t fit the “enters the battlefield” selection of creatures. Another drawback is the fact that the deck leans more towards blue and Crypt Rats requires that only black mana be spent on the ability. What has been forcing me to consider its use is the fact that we’re facing a heavier aggro meta and I find myself more and more wanting to find more mass kill against everything from Stompy to Affinity. As you can see by my example list it hasn’t quite worked its way in just yet, but maybe it can find space in the sideboard.

Liliana’s Specter – This is another tempting creature, but its drawbacks are similar to those of Chittering Rats. The mana cost is higher for the same effect you get off of Ravenous Rats. The only benefit you get is that it flies and can swing for a single extra point of damage. I don’t feel this is enough to cancel out the drawback of the extra mana cost.

Mulldrifter – Mulldrifter is the meat and potatoes of this deck when it comes to drawing cards. Like most decks this one relies on the heavy draw off of this little guy and actually it relies on the damage quite heavily as well. I always feel that this guy is kind of an odd ball in this type of deck. Teachings Control relies on being a draw-go kind of deck where it looks to play instant speed control to maintain tempo. When you’re playing a deck so reliant on instants you usually want to have the mana open on your opponent’s turn in order to use that Mystical Teachings, find the control you need, and ideally play it from there. In order to cast out Mulldrifter you’re setting aside five mana that could be spent elsewhere. There isn’t even much to gain off of some kind of combination between the Mulldrifter’s evoke ability and Ghostly Flicker. To do so would require six mana, this is obviously going to be more mana to do that as opposed to just casting the Mulldrifter. Where this creature really shines is of course going to be that mid-game where you’ve established a significant mana base, will have enough land to cast the Mulldrifter and an instant, and you’re reaching that point where you’ve depleted your hand pretty well. Because of the evasion and draw ability, Mulldrifter is basically a staple for the deck, but don’t ever be afraid to evoke it in the early game.

Ninja of the Deep Hours – The ninja is another staple for the deck. The most obvious bonus of this creature is the fact that when it does damage you get to draw a card. In most cases you’re going to be dropping spells like there is no tomorrow so you’ll need these creatures and their ability to refill your arsenal. The second amazing reason to be running the Ninja of the Deep Hours (and if you’re not already aware of it then you’re not paying attention!) is going to be how it interacts with the other creatures you’re going to be using. As you’ll notice 99% of the remaining creatures in your deck are going to be using those “enter the battlefield” effects and with the Ninja of the Deep Hours you can re-use those effects. This is that card advantage concept once again. By successfully using the ninja you’re able to turn add additional creature counts and abuse the rule of no more than four. In using creatures over and over like this you also decrease the need for you to draw into say a second Ravenous Rats. Three tends to be the sweet spot for this guy as well. There really is a fine balance between needing enough copies in the deck to ensure you draw it often, but not too many so that you don’t find yourself in a situation with no other creature to return with it. If you can’t tell already, it is definitely ideal to use the ninja for its 1U cost as opposed to hard casting it, not only for the ability to return a creature, but for the opportunity to have mana open for other spells as well.

Phyrexian Rager – This is another one of those creatures that I’m mostly adding to this list as a warning. There are always some tempting options out there that look like they may fit, but there are better choices. With the single black mana the Phyrexian Rager fits in the color balance and it also allows for card draw, but there are some things that bring it back down. The first is going to be Sea Gate oracle, which falls in the same converted mana slot and allows you more control since you can choose what card you’re getting. The other reason the Phyrexian Rager falls a bit behind may be an odd one. In most cases paying the single life in exchange for drawing a card is a price anyone playing black is willing to pay. Unfortunately for Teachings it needs to get to the mid game and throwing away life isn’t the way to do it. Whereas DimirPost has the ability to survive early damage thanks to the use of Glimmerposts, but in Teachings you need to rely on certain smaller creatures or cheap kill spells in the early game to possibly absorb some of that damage.

Ravenous Rats – This little guy is a powerhouse when it comes to hand control. Few black decks ever find themselves far from a set of Ravenous Rats for its ability to provide fast discard. This obviously fits well into UB Control decks thanks to the single colorless mana in its cost, which makes it more accessible as a turn two play. In most versions of Teachings Control a set of Ravenous Rats will be the only discard that you’ll see in the maindeck. Sideboard options can look to things like Duress for certain matches, but you really don’t have a need to go all out for discard in the maindeck. Despite the fact that there are only four discard spells off of these rats you’re able to get additional use thanks to Ninja of the Deep Hours and Grim Harvest. These additional uses give the deck a decent balance between countermagic, kill spells, and discard.

Sea Gate Oracle – Sea Gate Oracle is another great card advantage creature. There aren’t a ton of draw creatures in Pauper, but this one works great as it allows you the opportunity to not only draw a card, but it also grants you the chance to pick something better than what you would have drawn. This of course gives you more flexibility than a Phyrexian Rager and the cost fits well since it requires two colorless. It’s of course a bit unfortunate that it comes in only at one power, which can give you trouble when looking to slide it past an opponent’s creatures to use Ninja of the Deep Hours. Some of that can be made up off of the three toughness, which makes the Sea Gate Oracle a great early game blocker. In most Teachings decks you’ll find a full set of Sea Gate Oracles because while it only digs two cards deep it still works as a make-shift tutor. The fact that the Sea Gate Oracle allows you the freedom to choose your card draw makes it a powerful option in a control deck that is running so many different choices. It, a lot like Mystical Teachings provides you with that opportunity to choose the card you need based upon your current situation.

Spellstutter Sprite – This is another warning creature. You can’t underestimate the power of Spellstutter Sprite in control decks. The fact that it works as a Counterspell on a creatures body allows for that implied card advantage, but there is a time and a place for this type of card. The power of Spellstutter Sprite is based upon the ability of your deck to produce additional fae to help support the needed converted mana cost limit. There are some UB Control variants that can tap into this by running the familiar DelverBlue combination of the Spellstutter Sprite and Cloud of Faeries, but these don’t fit as well in a control variant that wants to be more focused on spells. Spellstutter Sprite can be tutored up by Mystical Teachings just like any other countermagic, but you’d be gimping yourself by filling your deck with and fae beyond the sprite and if you left yourself with only four copies of Spellstutter Sprite and be limiting yourself significantly when it comes to your ability to reach the faerie limit required to stop your opponent’s spells. Also by trying to fit in even just the four copies of Spellstutter Sprite you’d be forcing yourself to reduce the number of creatures in your deck that would great you more direct card advantage through draw. The only reasonable switch would be along the lines of Spellstutter Sprite for Ravenous Rats, but in doing so you’d be completely giving up the only hand control that the deck has.

Non-Creature Spells:

The non-creature spells are the backbone of a Teachings Control deck. These will always account for the majority of the deck and will be made up of 100% instants so that all options can be found with Mystical Teachings. In most instances of deck building it is a common sense rule to build decks and try to stack card choices as close to four as possible. In a sixty card deck you increase the odds of drawing into a specific spell by adding more copies of that spell to your deck so by running the max of four you’re going to be providing yourself the best possible opportunity (not taking into consideration draw or tutor effects) to find that spell. Also if a spell is powerful enough you want as many chances to use that spell over and over as you can. If you’re running a deck that as too many singles or doubles you’re going to often be too unfocused. Too often I see people trying to build decks like this and the deck really is trying to do too many things at once. In Teachings Control, however this is no longer the case since Mystical Teachings’ tutor ability creates that same idea of being able to find what you need when you need it. Essentially a copy of Mystical Teachings acts as another copy of a spell in your deck when it comes to drawing into what you need. Take for example the use of two copies of Agony Warp in my example deck. Your odds of drawing into either of those two copies is going to basically be 1/30, but with the addition of those three copies of Mystical Teachings you increase those odds to 1/12. Now I know math geeks are grinding their teeth at this point because I understand there are more factors. The generic idea you should understand is that it is only 1/12 based upon the deck as a whole. After you’ve drawn one copy things shift a bit and after drawing two copies you’ve spent the ability to find it out of deck, I’m trying to over simplify in order to prove a point. I know this is a bit confusing so just remember that the use of Mystical Teachings allows you a better chance of finding a specific spell when you need it and increases the chances that you’ll see a specific spell during a game. The other benefit you get from this toolbox of cards is you can finally reach that point where you can cover a lot of different control angles at once and do so with moderate success. In most cases having a toolbox of options can increase the chance that you’ll have the answers you need in order to win game one. From there it becomes easier to win the match. For each player there are going to be a different set of preferred spells and for each meta there will be a number of better card choices. It’s important when playing Teachings Control to be well aware of what type of decks are being played in the current metagame so that you can tailor your instant package as well as your sideboard to fit your needs.

Accumulated Knowledge – Accumulated Knowledge is one of the best instant speed draw spells available to us in Pauper. At its cost it can compete with Think Twice for the one instant speed spell that can grant the most draw. In some cases it can be argued that this is in fact the weaker of the two draw options, but more importantly it shouldn’t be used in Teachings Control. One of the biggest things about Teachings Control is that it requires the creation of heavy card advantage, especially along the lines of hard draw. You’ll find that you want to regulate most of your draw to creature spells so that you can free up additional space for control magic. Consider the idea of a kill spell for a second. If you look at non-creature vs. creature spells there are no options to run a creature that has the same kill power as running Doom Blade. When it comes down to the same comparison in card draw you can find effective creatures with draw abilities easier than you can creatures as kill spells. Maybe I can better illustrate this idea by looking at having a body like Sea Gate Oracle provides a great draw option whereas Fume Spitter is a mediocre kill spell. Beyond that the options drop off into worse options like Faceless Butcher.

Agony Warp – I think that every Pauper player out there has a few “pet” cards that they consider to be underplayed in the format. Most of the time this comes down to thing like Agony Warp or Blightning, which get left off based upon color combinations that aren’t favorable beyond these spells. Agony Warp is a fantastic kill spell. With the ability to grant both -3/-0 and -0/-3 you’ve given yourself the option to prevent damage from two creatures in one spell. This implied card advantage obviously fits perfect in UB Control variants where it’s often the premiere kill spell. In things like generic UB Control you’ll easily find a full set of Agony Warp, but despite the power of this spell its relegated down to only a few copies in Teachings in order to make room for a larger variety of spells. A good rule for building a spell package for Teachings is to try not to go over three of any one spell in your deck so you can maximize the decks variety, but I think my example could probably bump this up to that max. There are so many times I wish I had another copy because of the fact that it works so well at combat tempo control on more than just one creature.

Brainstorm – Brainstorm is the only single mana draw spell that comes in at instant speed. Other great options like Ponder and Preordain are powerful options, but because they come in at sorcery speed they become basically no goes for Teachings. Despite the fact that Brainstorm has a lot of power behind it for finding cards it is not a great option for Teachings decks because of similar reasons to not run Accumulated Knowledge. Card draw is just more effectively left to creatures, which will be needed to provide the win condition. Most decks that look to these single costed draw/filter spells are doing so because they need/want their mana curve to be low, but Teachings doesn’t really have that issue. In the early game you should be well off based solely upon your cheap options in kill spells. As you approach that mid-game you’re finally at a point where you’re hand needs to be refilled, but you should have made close to if not all your mana drops and easily have land available to put a draw creature into play in order to fill that need.

Counterspell – I don’t think there is a lot to talk about here. When it comes to countermagic in Pauper you really can’t do much better. There are a number of countermagic options in Pauper, but the majority of them don’t hard counter. Many options like Mana Leak give your opponent an “out” for the counter. When you attempt to counter an opponent’s spell with Mana Leak they can stop it from resolving by simply paying three mana. When you compare this to Counterspell it’s easy to see that it is inferior since Counterspell makes it so that it can only be stopped by an opponent’s own countermagic. The biggest drawback is going to be the double blue cost, but since Teachings runs heavier on the blue side this is not as big a drawback. Beyond Counterspell the hard counters run at a much higher cost and become harder to play when you want the option to cast not only the countermagic, but a Mystical Teachings to find that countermagic as well. Because Counterspell is easily the strongest countermagic in the format it is uncommon for a Teachings Control deck to run less than three copies.

Curfew – With the printing of Ethereal Armor in Return to Ravnica the Hexproof deck was able to come into its own as a regular contender. This resulted in the increase of edict abilities in the format so players can contend against this new threat. In most cases it was easy to slide in Diabolic Edicts, but blue soon realized it had its own version of Innocent Blood that could be used. Curfew finds a great home in DelverBlue since it allows the player to not only clear an opponent’s creature of enchantments, but get Spellstutter Sprite back as well to now counter that single cost, hexproof creature. Curfew becomes a great option for Teachings control in main or sideboard for its ability to not only counter Hexproof, but clear +1/+1 counters off of Stompy’s creatures as well for example. Curfew gets even more bonus since your own creatures focus on “enters the battlefield” effects and it comes in at instant speed. This means it can be tutored up with Mystical Teachings as early as turn five.

Diabolic Edict – As we just stated the use of Diabolic Edict allows you to get around hexproof abilities whether inherent or otherwise. Of all the possible edict effects in Pauper this is going to be your best option, but it should be balanced in number against a targeted kill like Doom Blade based upon your meta. Keep in mind when doing this that Stompy and Infect also have ways to protect creatures with spells that grant hexproof. The drawback to Diabolic Edict and similar spells that allow your opponent the choice of what creature dies is that you can’t get rid of a specific creature on the board. In order to make that happen you need to be at a state where your opponent only has that one creature on their side of the battlefield. That way they will have only one choice as to what creature to sacrifice. I’m not sure it really needs to be said, but Diabolic Edict should always be used instead of Devour Flesh since it does not grant your opponent life upon sacrifice. The win condition in Teachings Control is going to be based off a small quantity of creatures with power no greater than two, but means heavy amounts of life gain can make it quite hard to finish an opponent.

Disfigure – In most black control decks I like to favor Dead Weight over Disfigure because it can be used to reduce a larger creature on a more permanent basis, however the fact that Disfigure is an instant makes it an obvious choice for Teachings Control. Disfigure like Counterspell is a card that must be played as a full set of three. In order for Teachings to reach that mid-to-late game point it is necessary to capitalize on cheap creature kill and Disfigure is the cheapest you can get. This also works in a similar way to Curfew where you can tutor it out with Mystical Teachings as early as turn five. Since the deck is usually pretty good at not missing those drops it shouldn’t be very hard to reach that point.

Dispel – Dispel fits a similar need to something like Disfigure. This is the cheapest counter magic you can find that offers a hard counter. This spell has a significant drawback in that it is only usable against instants. While Dispel still has some great use against things like DelverBlue and Fissure variants it has lost a bit of its edge since the banning of Grapeshot and Empty the Warrens. In our currently aggro heavy meta I’m tempted these days to move it to a sideboard position as I’m often dropping it in sideboarding for game two any ways against a number of decks.

Doom Blade – In Pauper Doom Blade is the most powerful targeted kill spell you’ll find. The card does have a drawback that does not allow you to use it against a black creature, but those are far between. The few decks that do run black creatures aren’t heavily played and usually contain a second color, which allows you to save the Doom Blades for the non-black creatures and then use something like Agony Warp to deal with the things it can’t target. Like most cards the power of Doom Blade increases with your knowledge of your opponent’s deck. For example in IzzetPost the majority of variants are running only a set of Mulldrifters and one or two Ulamog’s Crushers. In that case its wiser to hold onto a Doom Blade for dealing with the Ulamog’s Crushers that can’t be killed with Agony Warp and save those types of spells or an Echoing Decay to deal with the Mulldrifters.

Echoing Decay – Despite the fact that we no long have to worry about a swarm of 1/1 goblin tokens thanks to the banning of Empty the Warrens there is still a lot of power that can be found in Echoing Decay. As those who are familiar to Pauper are aware there are very few options to wipe off an entire board of creatures. Echoing Decay is a great option to do so, but it does have some drawbacks in the fact that it only can kill a creature with two toughness or less. It can be useful as a combat trick, which is especially helpful when your creature base tends to run so low on power. With our currently aggro-heavy meta cards like Echoing Decay work great to help keep your opponent’s creature count low. There are several better options in black to keep a board clear such as Crypt Rats or Evincar’s Justice, but Echoing Decay gets the nod for being an instant speed spell that you can find off of Mystical Teachings. With how much we’re leaning towards aggro I’ve considered raising the count on this spell to two across the deck whether that means sideboard or main I’m not really decided yet, but it’s another spell that I’m often finding myself wanting more of.

Exclude – I’m going to use Exclude here as a generic example of what not to do when it comes to picking countermagic for this deck. In most cases you want to avoid countermagic that has specific targets like Exclude, which targets only creatures. Removing this type of restriction frees the spell up for greater use across different deck types. The other thing I want to caution against is countermagic with a high converted mana cost. The ideal spot for countermagic in Teachings Control is going to be two. Another less will likely be underpowered (Force Spike) and anything greater will be too mana hungry (Cancel/Rewind). As I’ve stated several times prior to this, the key to Teachings is to make it to the mid-to-late game through the use of cheap control and creatures in the early game. If you have to wait until turn four to use your countermagic then you’re slowing your deck down too much to be effective. By the time you reach that point you’ll be too far behind in life to come back and you’ll be forced to leave too much mana open for the counter. Countermagic with X in the cost are great and a lot of fun, but leave these for 8-post variants that have access to a lot more mana.

Funeral Charm – Funeral Charm is an old school favorite. You can see the appeal of a card like this in a deck that looks to create as much card advantage as possible. In this one spell you get access to discard as well as creature kill (although limited). This has dropped out of favor because there are so many more powerful options when it comes to doing those things. Ravenous Rats provides better discard because it comes with a body and can be reused thanks to Ghostly Flicker and Ninja of the Deep Hours. When it comes to kill spells Funeral Charm is limited to directly killing creatures with toughness no greater than one. It can create some kill when used as a combat trick, but it’s quite situational. Card slots can be better utilized through more solid kill spells like Doom Blade.

Geth’s Verdict – With the need for edict effects you might find yourself tempted to go down the path of Geth’s Verdict. With the same ability and single point of damage it is a stronger card than Diabolic Edict in most cases. This is not one of those. The reason that Geth’s Verdict gets the additional power of doing that single point of damage is that it trades that single colorless mana into a second black. In decks that run heavy on the black mana this drawback isn’t something you have to worry about, but Teachings Control is more favorable to blue mana as it wants to hit double blue for Counterspell and have plenty of chances to play its blue draw creatures. When running such a balance having that second black mana becomes a hindrance and it can be harder to cast Geth’s Verdict. It’s an easy choice to trade that single point of damage in favor of playability.

Ghostly Flicker – Most of the explanation for Ghostly Flicker can be related back to the use of its partner Archaeomancer. While it’s great to have the combination in the deck if anything was going to be increased it would be a second Archaeomancer instead of a second Ghostly Flicker. That would allow you more options for spell reuse alongside damage, but I still think the sweet spot for the deck is with a single of each. As I stated with Achaeomancer it’s a great thing to have, but it’s not the focus.

Grim Harvest – Speaking of cards that all the deck to be a jack of all trades… Grim Harvest really works great as a singleton in this deck. This card has never really been a game breaker by any means, but when you do draw it, it can make for some great moves. We talked a lot about card advantage with regards to creatures when it comes to replaying them off of Ninja of the Deep Hours, but this spell takes that another step. As long as you’re smart about how you play around Grim Harvest you can ideally generate yourself an unlimited number of reuses on your creatures and their effects. This spell generates so much card advantage based on the fact that it not only allows you to recover dead creatures, but recover itself as well. The tricky part is making sure to play around it because if it is every in your graveyard and you’re tapped out to the point where you don’t have that three mana available then you’re risking your opponent killing a creature and permanently removing the Grim Harvest. Through some smart play you can even force a return in the late game when you evoke a Mulldrifter. I will warn players however that while this is a great card and can set up some fun plays don’t overvalue it and don’t hold back on a better play in favor of leaving mana available to recover the spell. If you have a good play on the board, but I means risking the removal of Grim Harvest make the better play and just keep your fingers crossed that the Grim Harvest will survive until your next turn. Also don’t tutor the Grim Harvest out if you need to be playing a bit more defensive or are starting to get behind on mana drops. Players running teachings should be very aware of the fact that the deck can run very intensively on mana when it wants to be able to cast a creature, tutor a spell, and play that spell all at the same time, which isn’t all that uncommon. You’ll have to learn fast how to evaluate the importance of one play over another as you won’t always have the mana available to do it all. In an ideal world you will, but we all know that’s not how this game works!

Hydroblast – Hydroblast is a sideboard spell. There is hardly ever a reason for it to be maindeck. The use of Hydroblast can be awesome against decks that favor red such as WeeFiend, Goblins, or IzzetPost. Even the slight increase in Burn could make this useful. The card even gets some use as a way to get rid of Affinity’s Atogs. Atog can be a very difficult card for Teachings to deal with because most of its best kill spells are spells that kill based on doing /-X. Against an Atog the Affinity player simply has to sacrifice off almost any available permanent in order to keep that Atog alive through that spell. While this can be tough to deal with it is important to note that this does not make Affinity an auto loss. There can be some benefit gained off of making an opponent lose an artifact to keep Atog alive and thereby reducing the max power it can gain. In the example deck I showed I’m currently running three copies of Hydroblast to two copies of Steel Sabotage. I feel this really is the sweet spot because I’ve found most Affinity players are running the version that favors Flinging Atogs for the win. The use of Hydroblast can also be stretched well beyond that single match-up where as Steel Sabotage is more limited in use.

Mana Leak – The use of Mana Leak is notably worse than that of Counterspell for the fact that it has that ability for you opponents to stop you from countering built in. While it is attractive to most Ux Control decks because of the colorless mana in its cost you can find a better use for your card slots in Teachings Control. If you look at a counter control deck like DelverBlue you’ll notice that it sits usually around 11 countermagic spells on average. For a deck where the focus is countermagic this is relatively low. Therefore you’d imagine that the use of countermagic in a deck that doesn’t focus simply on counter control would have be significantly less. In a similar way to the non-use of Spellstutter Sprite, Teachings doesn’t want to really overload itself on countermagic. As you’ll notice in the main deck of my example version we’re only running two options for countermagic in our toolbox of control as we favor a little more towards creature kill. Most countermagic options get limited to sideboard use because the deck wants to hold down creatures more than countermagic. When playing against counter control one of the best things you can do to combat the fact that they are targeting down all your threats before they hit the board is to play more threats than your opponent has counters for. With the ability of Teachings to do so many different things it becomes harder for the counter player to find a good target and you also have options such as Archaeomancer and Grim Harvest to help you recover things that didn’t resolve. With the draw and replay-ability in this deck it doesn’t need a lot in the way of countermagic to try and force home its plays.

Mystical Teachings – I’m not sure there is a lot that can be/should be said about Mystical Teachings itself that I haven’t already discussed. Mystical Teachings is the card that makes it all possible, allowing you to find specific cards and making the play you need. The one mistake I always see people making when playing Teachings Control is running a full set of Mystical Teachings. While this obviously increases the odds you draw into your main tutor you lose valuable space for additional spells. The deck is very heavy on the “tools”, but that still isn’t an outrageous number because it has to run a full set of 24 lands. With the flashback ability on Mystical Teachings you get two copies of the same spell in one card. The mana cost obviously increases, but with three copies of Mystical Teachings you still get six opportunities to tutor. This becomes less effective if there is a heavier focus on grave control in the metagame, but so far that’s not happening.

Negate – As we move further down this list we find less and less that needs to be resaid. Negate falls under that umbrella of countermagic that is limited by what it can target. This makes it a decent sideboard option, but nothing beyond that. The only reason that Dispel makes it into the main deck despite having a similar drawback is that it comes in at that single blue mana cost.

Recoil – Recoil reminds me of Agony Warp. It is another one of those “pet” cards from an older set that doesn’t get play because of its cost. Because Teachings Control is a great balance between the two colors in the cost it may seem to be a decent control option, but it’s has a few holdups. We already discussed the use of Ravenous Rats in Teachings and how excessive discard is not necessary. I still have great love for the card, but when you look to use a spell as creature control you want something more permanent. The problem with any type of bounce control like Boomerang is that it is only a temporary solution to a permanent problem. By bouncing a creature you’ve prevented the damage from occurring for two turns, but that creature will be coming back onto the battlefield if you don’t have a counter available. These effects work well in counter control because they usually have trouble dealing with any permanent that sneaks by their countermagic and lands onto the battlefield, but since we’re playing black we have plenty of answers for those permanent creatures. At this converted mana cost there are other singleton cards I’d rather throw in such as Soul Manipulation.

Soul Manipulation – Speak of the devil. Again this falls under those restrictions for other countermagic. It comes with a drawback in that it has a specific target and an odd converted mana requirement. What this gains in comparison to say Remove Soul is that by paying that one additional black mana you get a chance to return a creature. This is something I would easily consider running as a singleton in a Teachings Control deck, but it isn’t set for every meta. This type of spell is perhaps better suited for a more control heavy environment.

Steel Sabotage – Steel Sabotage is another great sideboard card. Most of the time this will be used against Affinity where it can prevent Myr Enforcers from landing, which is important because they have a toughness of four that puts them well beyond reach of Agony Warp and Disfigure. Beyond that there are very few targets for Steel Sabotage, which is why the Hydroblast gets the more favorable count. Other targets could include things like Prophetic Prisms in 8-post in order to get them off that third color when it comes for flashing back their own Mystical Teachings as well as Bonesplitters in things like MonoWhite Control (both of which aren’t great targets and there are better choices to side in for those matches).

Snuff Out – I love using Snuff Out in black control decks. This card along with Spinning Darkness are fantastic for things like MonoBlack Control because you can play them while completely tapped out. While Spinning Darkness is out of reach due to black being the minority color, but Snuff Out’s only requirement is that you have a Swamp in play and a minimum of five life. It’s very tempting in UB Control to run a spell like this that allows you to tap out and still kill a creature, but the heavy life cost makes this a no go. With no way to gain life back the cost of four life is too much to pay and hard casting the spell is incredibly inefficient in comparison to Doom Blade. DimirPost works by using Glimmerpost to stall for time until it gets established, but in Teachings it needs to rely on early creatures and kill spells to make it to that same point. This means that there will be several times where you have to be smart and take some damage until you stabilize. When you know going into a game that you’re going to have to take damage in order to reach a stabilized point then the ability to pay such a high life cost to play the spell becomes less likely.

Think Twice – For the most part you can see the notes under Accumulated Knowledge for a discussion on draw in spells vs. draw in creatures. If non-creature draw was going to be used Think Twice would get the nod over Accumulated Knowledge. In a deck running a full set of Think Twice you’ll be able to draw eight cards for a total cost of 20 mana. In a deck running a full set of Accumulated Knowledge you’re drawing 10 cards for a total of eight mana. The difference is that Accumulated Knowledge moves forward a bit slower than Think Twice, but ultimately it will net you more cards for less mana. In a Teachings deck, however you’re going to be running no more than three copies. At that point both Accumulated Knowledge and Think Twice will get you six cards, but Think Twice gets the edge because it can get drawing smoother and can get better returns. For example a single Accumulated Knowledge can get you two draws when returned with Archaeomancer, but a single Think Twice can get three uses with the Archaeomancer plus the flashback.

Tragic Slip – When this card first came out I had high hopes. A spell that costs a single black mana and has the potential to give a creature -13/-13 just seems too good to be true. The drawback on this comes down to the fact that you need to trigger the morbid ability (which occurs when the spell is cast after one or more creatures has died that turn) to get it to do more than just -1/-1. Where a spell like this really shines is in a deck like DimirTrinket as seen above. The reason this gets more power is the use of Fume Spitter, which gives the user the ability to dictate when the morbid trigger happens. Consider a regular game where you need to rely on combat or an opponent to make a creature die and get morbid. This leaves too much to chance. By running Fume Spitter you’re now granted an activated ability that gives you the ability to dictate whether or not Tragic Slip will have morbid. In a similar way cards like this work great with evoke, another way for you to dictate whether or not morbid will occur.

Undying Evil – Undying Evil is another one of those cards I’d love to find room for in Teachings. Since the majority of your creatures are based upon that “enter the battlefield” effect you can find great value in the undying ability, which allows the creature to return to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it when it is killed. If you’ve ever played or played against Stompy then you know the power of something like Young Wolf, which is begging for opponents to kill it so that it can come back stronger. Undying Evil would also work to create that same type of card advantage that is gained from the recursion granted by Grim Harvest as well. What’s better than the use of Ravenous Rats, but chump blocking with it and having it come back bigger to make an opponent discard again. This would also combo well with Mulldrifter’s evoke ability, which allows you to draw twice as many cards, play the Mulldrifter for one less mana, and it comes into play bigger. With so many apparent benefits why doesn’t Undying Evil make its way into Teachings Control? Most of the time it comes down to the simple fact that the use of Undying Evil would take up a card slot that could be used for countermagic or creature kill. If you were to work this in it would best be suited to replace something like the Grim Harvest (although Grim Harvest has the ability to be used more often thanks to recover) or the Ghostly Flicker (which has great use from the fact that it allows you reuse of “enters the battlefield” effects). These singleton slots are the best opportunity for finding room and as you can see, even those are very hard to part with.

There are two final, quick thoughts I want to provide about Teachings Control. Be aware of your clock and be aware of your deck size. With all of the tutoring and control you’ll be doing it is important to use time efficiently by setting yields and using the F keys. Also the deck may not seem capable of heavy draw, but since it is focused on getting to that late game point you’ll have drawn through a lot of cards off of your creatures and your ability to reuse them as well as the opportunity to tutor up six additional cards off of Mystical Teachings and thinning four lands from Evolving Wilds. There will be times where you actually don’t want to cast that Mulldrifter that you have in hand despite the fact that the game will be dragged out a bit longer due to the fact that playing it could lower your deck to a point where you’re going to lose the game through decking.

Well hopefully that provides some insight into what you can expect when putting together your own Teachings toolbox. There are obviously a lot of additional considerations to be made well beyond these. For example you may have noticed that in the sideboard there are a few sorcery options. While you want 99% of your non-creature spells to be instants so that you can search them out with Mystical Teachings there are some exceptions to be made when it comes to sideboarding. The best example of this is Duress, which is a must have against things like DelverBlue and Fissure. Best way to refine things is to put it all together and give it a go. If you’re wondering how it went for me in testing in our current meta check out the videos below…

As bonus content I’m going to give you guys that five color Teachings Control list. I won’t waste any more time breaking it down, but it is a lot of casual fun to play even if it doesn’t win every game.

There you have it guys… wordy as always, but hopefully it provided you with some helpful information. As always feel free to post your comments and thoughts on the deck below and check me out on Twitter @MTGOJustSin.