Dime a Dozen #18: A Miniature Pauper Survival Guide

Posted on March 19, 2013 by Jason Moore

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  1. Great article! What are your thoughts on Obsidian/Crimson Acolyte in white weenie?

  2. This is an excellent article.
    Do you find this to be better positioned than the war falcon WW list? I can definitely see match ups it shines in but feel like it is even more vulnerable to the post decks. I’m also curious about selecting rune of protection black over something like obsidian acolyte for the sideboard. I can see reasons for both but the obsidian acolyte is very good against Dimir Post as well as mono black.

  3. Hooligum2 – I appreciate it. General thoughts, or in the metagame right now? 

    Crimson: only applicable to Goblins/Affinity. Post has Capsize Oracle, Mulldrifter and Arrows for her. Burn burns you and not your guys. Goblins: she will be very good for you, but you don’t need her to win. Aven is a way more versatile use of sideboard space. 

    Obsidian: Has more applications than Rune, but can be answered with Edicts or Arrows. Rune is purposely included as something narrow that will absolutely destroy a particular matchup. Can I fault you if you play him? Not really, but any deck playing black can have an answer to him if they want to.

  4. Deejford – Thank you! Will have to analyze matchup by matchup to gauge which version is better placed. Don’t worry, your deck is getting its place in the sun next week. For your playstyle, I think Falcon is probably better. What makes this is more vulnerable vs. Post? That seems inaccurate, aside from the fact that it has some slower draws. Lastly, this isn’t a personal attack, but quit worrying about Post! 

    Obsidian thoughts can be found above.

  5. Yea, it is really just the slower draws that concern me in the post match ups, at least with the fissure decks. I feel like time is the only limiting factor in those games. If I can’t worry about Post than I would have nothing to worry about. That would just seem strange :P. I do feel like this format is in a very good place right now though. the amount of different decks performing well in the dailies has been nice and there definitely seems like there is a good counter strategy to all of the popular decks.

  9. Wow, great read!

    I sleeved this up today and ran it in just for fun.

    I am a noob with it but it is extremely efficient and fairly resilient.

    Best fight was against gw hex proof. I was at 1, opp was at 27. He had a 15/17 ledge walker, I had three birds, one with an axe, a javelineer, and a loyal cathar. I drew a prismatic strand and made a crazy comeback and won the match 1 to -1.

    Very exciting!

    Thanks for all the tips.

  10. Cyrulean – That’s awesome! Glad to hear you tried out the deck. Someone else mentioned on Twitter that they went 2-1 with it in a tourney. You guys are amazing. Keep it up!

  11. it does have the capability to walk all over Fae, Goblins, Hexproof, and Stompy “….LOL

  13. One of your better articles to date Jason, very informative. Thanks.

  15. That was me! (deluxeicoff) – never feel like digging up my password. Interesting brew, find me online sometime and let me see how it does :)

  16. Anonymous – Or you can play it for yourself (let me guess, you’d NEVER play this in a million years). It’s pretty sad and predictable that I can recognize your posts – based on their “quality” – without needing to see your ID. If I see you online I’ll gladly go about my business. Hope you enjoyed my post! It’s the last time I respond to a comment from you.

  18. Anonymous – Hi! You’re right, it’s one of the worst matchups. I mentioned that in the article. Did your testing reveal anything else?

  19. Thanks for the article Jason, great as always. I’ve actually been on-board with your opinions since the bans when I was thinking to myself, “man, affinity looks so good right now”. After your article saying the same thing, I was convinced. Sure enough, I’ve cashed about 80% of my affinity dailies in the past month.

    But, I’m getting tired of keeping 1 landers! And the hate is starting to tilt me. Time for something more consistent.

    I was initially gonna sleeve up mono-red burn, since it seems pretty good now (against a field of predominantly midrange and late game decks). But, some of my favorite Standard decks ever have been WW. Unfortunately, I lack experience in Pauper to know what’s better.

    Now, I know you’re a much stronger WW player than most… Do you feel WW has a better matchup against affinity, cloudpost and mono u than burn does? In my mind those are the must-beat decks.

    Also, are there any sleeper cards for WW that you feel might warrant a slot? (thinking Syndic of Tithes, field surgeon, or soul sisters)

    Anyways, sorry for the long comment, just want some of that spicy hot insider knowledge you’ve got over there.

  20. Sfen – Hi! I don’t know what the Burn matchups are like, but it has put up strong showings in a couple recent events. It plays as many lands as Affinity though (sometimes fewer), so your frustration probably won’t see much relief. As far as WW, I would consider Attended Knight a “sleeper” card to begin with. Is there a reason these two decks are your only considerations? Goblins and Stompy are both proactive decks that regularly place.

     I think I could be of more help if you told me your highest priority goal: I see that you want to avoid low land hands, extreme hate, and want decent matchups vs. Delver/Affinity/Post (which one?), but achieving all of that at once might not be realistic. Hope that makes sense.

  21. Makes total sense Jason.

    My draw to a mono colored aggro deck over affinity is consistency. Mono R runs the same number of lands, but affinity really can’t do much with one land other than play a mana rock. Mono r, while it has the same number of lands, can trade that 1 mana for 3 damage several turns in a row and at least you won’t be draw-go’ing. Plus, you’re immune to color screw, which is not a HUGE problem with affinity, but still existent.

    Honestly, more than anything I want to beat Post. Mostly because I hate losing to it. I suppose that answers my question for me then, doesn’t it? If Mono W has a sketchy post matchup, I need mono r.

    As for the reason I don’t like goblins, it’s just never impressed me. Don’t think I’ve ever lost to it with affinity. Although I’m sure that’s just me being results-oriented around a favorable matchup. Mono G is definitely an option, although I do have Affinity for Rogue Decks, so there’s that. Which is another reason affinity – the deck – is no longer as appealing now that it’s like 15% of the metagame.

    I do have to admit, first strike creatures plus bonesplitter sounds like a great ol’ time. Bad post matchup aside, I’ll have to sleeve up your mono w brew to see what’s up.

    Have you considered slivers at all? They almost seem like affinity without the silver-bullet weakness. I dunno though.

    Anyways, I know I’m a rambler so I do appreciate your responses here (thanks)… Keep up the good work!

  22. Ack, I should explain that I’m a writer by trade, so you’ll have to pardon my obscenely long comments.

  23. Thank you so much for this breakdown. I used to be an avid pauper player. I stopped when I found that 99% of my decks dedicated a large portion of sideboard power to storm matchups. With the recen bannings, I have been wondering what the format looks like.

    This article summed up a lot of my questions. I’m sure the format is still somewhat untapped and there are deeper lines of strategy, but this is great. Thanks again.

  24. Sfen – If Post is your your top priority (I’m guessing you mean Izzet Post), then my understanding is that Mono Green Stompy will be your best bet out of those options. Good luck with your endeavor!

    systemic – Glad you like the article! There is a lot going on, and a lot of information available. It’s a good time to be a fan of Pauper! Please check out some of my other content sometime.

  25. Stompy, eh? Well I’ll try it! Thanks for the help… Looking forward to your next article.

  27. Jason,

    Thanks for this article. I’ve been playing the WW deck for a week as a new player and it’s worked very well. I think I paid less than $5 and it’s been very competitive. The biggest challenges have been post (of course) and aggro burn decks. To that end, I am thinking of sideboarding Hallow, as it might be able to buy me an extra turn or two vs them. I may also remove a Kor Sanctifier, as often I don’t have 4 lands to kick it or my opponent is not playing enchantments/artifacts.

    Post is killer. I have drawn a nut hand and still lost…