Beggars CAN Be Choosers: A Monthly Metagame-Focused View of a Deck

Hello again and welcome back to my monthly musings on the Classic Pauper format on MTGO! I want to give a bit of personal background this month to provide some framework for where my head has been, as it may help you to understand both my deck choice and my play this month.

First off, I chose to play Goblins for this iteration, and the reason is twofold; one, I had acquired the cards for this deck already, and two, as mentioned in the comments from last month’s article I am an aggro player at heart, and I should play to my strengths in this experiment, at least initially.

So first, I have to explain my headspace while approaching this article. I mentioned last month that I am a scientist, currently working as a post-doctoral researcher for the U.S. government in agricultural research (hence my username and icon). If you are not familiar with what this means, a post-doc is someone who works a fixed term (mostly) position after they receive their doctoral degree in order to get some more specific experience and some publications under their belt. Well, I am in my fourth year as a post-doc, and it is clearly time to move on. So I have been frantically applying to jobs for more than a year. This past month, everything began to settle into place, but, as is often the case, things still became very complicated quickly. Basically, I had been offered a very prestigious position at a well-known government institution and was very flattered and tempted. As soon as that offer came through, however, (literally next day) I received notice that I had been granted an academic interview, as well. So, since the first offer had a tight timeline for acceptance, I was granted the opportunity to have the most rushed interview process imaginable. Now, again, if you are not familiar with the academic interview process, it is immense. In short, I had six days to compose two separate seminars to be presented to the entire faculty of a department, as well as prepare for a dozen individual interviews with administration and faculty of this university. This is extremely stressful, as you might imagine, especially when trying to determine career fate as well as the location to move my family and where to raise my children. So, long story not-so short, my time for Magic was pressed this month. Interestingly, one of the professors I had the pleasure to interview with was a long time paper player and had a Legacy collection going back to Arabian Nights. That weighed briefly on my consideration, but I took the government position, and will be starting in the near future there.

With all of this craziness going on in my real life, Goblins was the perfect deck to play (since Goblins, as I have always understood the archetype, basically involves playing every creature you draw and swinging all out as fast as possible). I don’t mean to belittle the play decisions that must be made, as they are plentiful and sometimes difficult to navigate correctly, but they are surely not as convoluted as the decisions to be made playing a control-ish deck. Maybe. Here is the deck list:

Incidentally, Pauper appears to be having a resurgence of popularity online. Just this past week or so has seen the launch of the “Pauper to the People” podcast on the MTGcast network (I highly recommend the whole network but of course this cast in particular). I was then surprised to hear one of the main hosts mention interest in Pauper on the “Monday Night Magic” podcast this month. So, at least in the public “ear”, if not the public eye, Pauper is getting some love. So now is a great time to go back and read my first article, as well as stay tuned for more, as the format grows in popularity and more newcomers jump in.

Last month, I shared a disclaimer that still holds true for my article series: I am a newb to Pauper. I know next to nothing of the current metagame, or of the archetypes that comprise it. I expect lots of comments from you, trolls included. I think this series can be a jumping off point for players semi-intrigued by Pauper, as well as a focal-point for the discussion of my mistakes, false-assumptions, and general bad play. But — and here is my main point — I think my lack of knowledge will help this series. It gives an edge other writers don’t have: a fresh, unbiased perspective. I come at this not knowing if Red Deck Wins (RDW) is a dog, or if White Weenie (WW) is king. I will do some research prior to playing to get a concept of this, but research is no substitute for experience. As such, I plan on learning along the way, and you are encouraged to join me on the ride. It’s gonna be bumpy, and likely ugly at times, but we learn more from failure than success, so let’s get learning!

This month provides me with a bumpy ride, an ugly ride, as well as evidence of my inexperience in playing this deck. How fortuitous! Here is the metagame as determined by looking at some Pauper Daily Event results on the Wizards of the Coast website.

Pauper Daily 3-28-11 #1

4-0

• RDW
• Frantic Storm

3-1

• Goblins X2
• RDW
• MBC (Mono Black Control) with Red

Pauper Daily 3-28-11 #2

4-0

• Affinity

3-1

• Mono Blue Control
• Goblins X2
• GW Slivers
• WW
• Storm Combo
• Affinity

Pauper Daily 3-28-11 #3

4-0

• Goblins
• Frantic Storm X2

3-1

• Frantic Storm
• WW X2
• Eldrazi Post
• Storm Combo X3
• MBC
• RDW
• Odd Blue-Red control Eldrazi
• Mono Green Beats

Pauper Daily 3-29-11 #1

4-0

• MBC
• Frantic Storm

3-1

• Frantic Storm
• Affinity X2
• Mono Blue Control X2

Pauper Daily 3-29-11 #2

4-0

• Storm Combo

3-1

• Mono Green Beats
• Frantic Storm
• Eldrazi Post
• Affinity

Summary

4-0

• Frantic Storm X4
• Storm Combo
• MBC
• Goblins
• Affinity
• RDW

3-1

• Affinity X5
• Goblins X4
• Storm Combo X4
• Frantic Storm X4
• Mono Blue Control X3
• WW X3
• Mono Green Beats X3
• Eldrazi Post X3
• MBC X2 (1 with red splash)
• RDW X2
• Odd Blue-Red control Eldrazi
• GW Slivers

So, by popularity:

1. Frantic Storm (8)
2. Affinity (6)
3. Storm combo (5)
4. Goblins (5)
5. Mono Blue Control (3)
6. White weenie (3)
7. RDW (3)
8. MBC (3)
9. Eldrazi Post (3)
10. Mono Green Beats (3)

So these are the decks to be aware of currently, though clearly Frantic Storm, Affinity, Storm Combo, and Goblins are the most popular. This indicates that Goblins is certainly a tier 1 deck, but maybe not the highest contender. Surely the lower price of entry for Goblins plays into its popularity. Interestingly, one of the most expensive decks in the format, Storm Combo, is seen at the same level in these results.

The Matches:

As previously, I begin the assessment of this deck in the Tournament Practice Room. Due to time constraints, I played mostly single game events in practice, as opposed to full matches. This seemed to be reasonable for a deck with very straightforward sideboarding options. This may have been a mistake, simply for getting playtime in, but I leave that for you to determine (and feel free to discuss in the comments). I also took the advice of a commenter from last month and simply played my games without worrying about taking notes. I honestly did not even know the replay option was available, and that comment really changed this series in a great way, so thanks very much for that tip! (I had previously thought only drafts were recorded, as I had the option to turn that on… you learn something every day, right?)

Tournament Practice Game 1 vs. Green-White Aggro

My opponent opened with Terramorphic Expanse, getting a Forest. My opening hand was three Mountains, Mogg Raider, Mogg War Marshal, Sparksmith, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Blot. Mogg Raider hit the table, and got hit with Crystallization. In short order, I had Sparksmith, and my opponent answered with Sacred Wolf. Mogg War Marshal landed and was followed by Chain Lightning. Opponent eventually landed Oblivion ring, which is not very effective against swarm-style decks, and my board had developed into lots and lots of Goblins. A Guardian of the Guildpact landed on the other side of the table (one of my favorite Pauper cards!) and scared me for a bit before I realized that my numbers and burn would do the job before I would’ve lost to protection. This game ended as planned, with a win.

Tournament Practice Game 2 vs. Red-Green Eldrazi Ramp

I won the die roll and chose to play first (again, a commenter last month pointed out that going first is almost always correct in this format, and this is obviously true with an aggro deck like Goblins). By Turn 2, I had three creatures, and my opponent had none (seems good). Opponent played the typical ramp stuff, Nest Invader and Overgrown Battlement. We fought over board state a bit, trading Lightning Bolts aimed at creatures, but I quickly overran his creatures with superior numbers and a Sparksmith, eating his creatures, and beat him before any ramp resulted in any significant threats. So far, so good.

Tournament Practice Game 3 vs. Mono Black Control

I lost the die roll, and opponent went first, hitting me with Funeral Charm. I played the typical route of dumping creatures ASAP, and opponent did his thing, making me dump my hand into the Graveyard ASAP. Everything was going reasonably well until opponent played Cuombajj Witches, a card I was not really familiar with. Well, I got familiar with it really quickly, as it ate my team, then me. I think this matchup may be closer than this game represents, as that card is not a typical choice (at least, I have not seen it in a list before), though it particularly wrecks Goblins.

Tournament Practice Game 4 vs. Mono Blue Affinity

This was a new deck to me, and still seems a little oddball, but it does play one of my favorite cards of all time, Phyrexian Walker. I don’t know why I love zero-casting cost creatures, as I know the cost of a card is certainly more than just mana (deck space, mainly), but I do love them nonetheless. In interest of full disclosure, I currently own approximately fifteen Memnites. I dream of one day having the sixty-card all Memnite deck to bring against my friends without notice. How does it get better than that? Anyway, back to the game. I say “Affinity” loosely here, as the main affinity creature I saw was Spire Golem. As you may expect, free blockers that are too big for my goblins, combined with attackers mostly out of my burn range, made quick work of my horde. So, in the practice room, I won two and lost two. I thought I was prepared at this point, so I jumped into my first Daily Event.

Pauper Daily Match 1 vs. Storm Combo

This is a relatively non-interactive deck to play against, so I went ahead and dumped out my hand, loading the board with creatures, and started beating down. My opponent combo-ed off on Turn 4, and got ten goblins off of Empty the Warrens. Then he did it again, same turn, resulting in a total of twenty-two goblins. Hmmm. Not much to do against that. I fought the good fight, and lost on Turn 6. Game 2 was more of the same, so there is really not much point going over that one in detail. To be honest, that replay also is not on my list for some reason. I recall he killed me with Grapeshot in that one. There was one interesting note about Game 2, in that I realized that I kept a loose opening hand, and should have mulliganned more aggressively in order to try to get one of my Seismic Shudders. This was the main loose play I’ve found for this deck, in knowing exactly what a “good” opener is versus each archetype. Now, again, this isn’t that hard of a call, but one I am certainly not above mistaking.

Pauper Daily Match 2 vs. Storm Combo

Hey look, it is my deck from last month! Well, at this point in the Daily, it was win this match or drop, as only 3-1′s or better get prize. So it came down to my deck of choice this month versus my deck of choice last month. Keen. Anyway… So this match was interesting for a few reasons. I think my opponent here actually made a big mistake, but it was one that really benefited him in this match-up. Basically, he had a large number of maindeck anti-red hate cards, including Hydroblast and Vedalken Outlander. I really don’t see the value in this choice, as much of the field, as seen in the above metagame analysis, is not red. Of course, packing hate for my deck made it really hard for me to win, and I didn’t. I mentioned in chat to this player that I was surprised by the choice, and he told me he also had a full fifteen-card sideboard against red. I just don’t get this, personally. But, he beat me handily in Game 2, as well, since he had at least twenty cards in his deck that I couldn’t deal with.

Summary

This deck was a ton of fun for me to play this month, as some of the interactions were new to me in playing Goblins in general. I had never really played a version of this style of deck that had so many sacrifice outlets that gave the opponent such difficulties in blocking. It actually felt a lot like playing Ravager-Affinity to me, in that the one creature getting through often was simply lethal from the sacrifices to pump power.

This is a great, popular deck to pick up as a beginner, and it will provide great value for the cost in allowing you to be competitive and get a real feel for the metagame out there. The main drawback that I see to this deck, aside from the simplicity, is that many people seem to be prepared for it since it is a cheap, easy option to start on. I still say to go ahead and give it a try. It is a good option for anyone who wants to build a quick deck and have the option to simply play without too much mental effort.

Thanks for taking the time to give this a read! Please leave some comments, tell your friends, and join me next month, when hopefully my life will be a bit more stable and allow me to effectively tackle either Mono Black Control or Affinity.