Pauper is a new format. The banning of Frantic Search doubled the size of its Banned list, and playing Pauper now is almost like playing an entirely different format than before. Without a consistent combo deck as a major player in the competitive scene, creatures rule in the Pauper arena. White Weenie, Affinity, Mono-Black Control (MBC), and various forms of Stompy are the new major players. Decks like Blue-Red Post and Faeries act as the traditional control decks in the format, but are less prevalent than the beatdown-based strategies.
In a format where even the more controlling decks like MBC and Tortured Existence-Rock decks revolve around creatures, there are, in my experience, three good ways to approach competitive play. The first option — the one that currently isn’t viable due to the recent banning — is simply to play a faster combo deck than the fastest aggro deck. Frantic Storm was such a deck, but it hasn’t been able to put up results without Frantic Search. People have attempted to keep the deck alive using Toils of Night and Day but these attempts have been largely unsuccessful since Toils doesn’t leave open as much mana as Frantic Search does and also doesn’t help dig deeper into the deck. As for other combo options, TPPS (The Pauper Perfect Storm) and Mono-Red Storm are too inconsistent to put up results with any regularity. Both can end the game on Turn 2, but also both frequently flounder with hands that do almost nothing or completely wither and die in the face of a single piece of disruption.
The second option heading into a metagame infested with critters is to play a control deck with the goal of killing just about anything with power and toughness. This is what MBC essentially aims to do, and it does so with a fair degree of success. My issue with MBC in Pauper, though, is that it isn’t a true control deck nor even a true aggro-control deck. As a result, it is prone to sometimes draw hands that are incredibly awkward in particular matchups. I don’t like risking drawing a hand full of 4-cost removal against the occasional control or combo deck, just like I don’t particularly want to draw a hand full of slow 1/1s that provide marginal card advantage against a deck like Affinity that can be slamming with 4/4s around the same time.
That leaves open the last option, and the one I really want to address in this article. The best way to describe this last approach is with the old expression “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Personally, my favorite approach to the critter-laden metagame of Pauper right now is to win with creatures as well, just with better creatures than everyone else is using.
Enter: Affinity.
Pitlord’s Pauper Affinity Decklist
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.In a metagame full of 1/1s backed by pump spells, Grizzly Runeclaw Bears that provide card advantage, and medium-sized white creatures with assorted abilities, 4/4s are incredibly dominant. For the same two mana they spend on an Ichorclaw Myr, you get a Myr Enforcer. Other decks get to “go off” by Unearthing a Chittering Rats, while you get to go off by Flinging a gigantic Atog at their dome. And Thoughtcast and a plethora of Chromatic Sphere effects let you keep pace with the draw effects of the best control decks.
Going into any given event, I expect to be heavily favored against White Weenie and blue-based control lists, and generally favorable against MBC, Goblins, and Stompy. I hoped not to face many Cloudpost or Burn decks since those seemed like the worst matchups for Affinity, though I expect both to be fairly rare in events right now. TPPS could also be a bad matchup for Affinity since they can easily race, but once again, I didn’t expect the deck to be a major player in any events due to its inconsistency.
Now that there is some background on the list and a note about the expected metagame, let’s get into a Daily Event.
Pauper Daily Event, Round 1
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Show Pauper Daily Event, Round 2 »
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Show Pauper Daily Event, Round 3 »
Click the arrow to download the above video in .mp4 format.Show Pauper Daily Event, Round 4 »
I’ve omitted the Round 4 video because it wasn’t very exciting. We both began suffering connection issues very early on, and after we had each used around ten minutes of the clock for a single turn, we decided to split since neither wanted to risk timing out and throwing away a match for no reason. He was playing White Weenie again, and I had a fairly solid hand, so I think I probably could have taken Game 1, but that’s irrelevant now. I apologize because I know splitting is far from the most exciting conclusion to a video series, but given the circumstances, it seemed like the best option for both of us.
As for my analysis of the metagame and my deck choice, I feel pretty confident in both. Goblins, Burn, and White Weenie were the top performing decks in the event, with myself being the only Affinity player at 3-1 or better, and a single UB Control deck being the only other deck at 3-1. As predicted, the metagame, at least for this event, revolved around small to medium creatures trying to kill their opponent quickly, and Affinity performed admirably in such a field.
As for the list itself, right now I wouldn’t change a single card in the maindeck except to swap out the Ancient Den for a second Darksteel Citadel, which I will admit was simply an oversight before playing in the DE above. Fling was very good and provided me with a fair number of wins, and could have provided me with another had I not misplayed my Galvanic Blasts and mismanaged my mana in one game. At no point in the tournament did I really want Pyrite Spellbombs or anything else in the place of the last few Chromatic Spheres, which were excellent at fixing my colors.
I would probably change the sideboard a bit. In this event I obviously never needed my Hydroblasts or artifact hate, but I feel I have the correct amount of each in my sideboard. Duress was also never used in this event, but I think it may still be correct over Pyroblast since Duress is good against Burn and combo as well as the blue-based control decks. What I would change in the future is my removal suite. Lightning Bolt was never really useful, even in the matches where I thought it would have been, and Diabolic Edict was fine, if not terrific. Some number of Doom Blades will probably become the spot removal of choice since, as I noted in-game, I don’t really want or need spot removal against black decks anyway, the main matchup in which Edict is better. Krark-Clan Shaman may also make an appearance in the sideboard, especially in light of how well Goblins did, which was somewhat unexpected to me. He isn’t my favorite, though, against White Weenie, since they bring in cards to protect against red spells each time, and they don’t tend to flood the board with creatures quite like Goblins does. The final card I want to address is Relic of Progenitus, which has been seeing a fair amount of sideboard play recently. It seems to only be really good against Tortured Existence, and, in my opinion at least, that isn’t quite yet worth the slots it occupies. If the deck does become very popular, I would consider them, but for right now, Relics are too narrow for my liking.
That’s all I have for you right now on the insane deck that is Affinity. If you have any comments on the list, sideboard, metagame analysis, or just want to call out any misplays that I didn’t articulate myself, please feel free to sound off in the comments.
-Grant Champion
Pitlord on MTGO and most forums
@Grant_champion on Twitter
i would’ve liked to see a match vs infect. you think affinity is fast? infect kills on turn 2 literally every game. only problem is you need to shell out like 60+ tix just to get a playset of invigorates, and lists that don’t run invigorate aren’t competitive.
Shrip, how does it kill on Turn 2 every game?
Grant, these videos were quite good. Good commentary and well-thought-out play for the most part.
While you acknowledged several possible misplays, I noticed another one, I believe. In Round 2, Game 3, you could’ve won a turn early by smashing his face with all four of your creatures. No matter which three he blocks, you hit him for at least 1 in combat damage and can sacrifice all of your artifacts to finish him off precisely. Since he’s tapped out, this seems like a really safe play, rather than wait and let him draw an Unmake or life gain or something. Am I missing something?
r1g1 it was absolutely the wrong play to cast galv blast at the end of his turn. you had 3 mana already and could have very easily just killed him with it+fling next turn.
@Shrip I think infect stompy is a decent deck and it is very fast, though a bit inconsistent IMO. It would also probably fall into my first category of decks, the win faster category. It’s a deck I’ll keep in mind for later installments though if it continues to perform.
@PlanetwallsI – You’re right. It’s become habit to not swing with Disciples to ensure they live, and it came back to bite me when I played too conservatively this game.
@Wat – You’re right, Galvanic Blast was probably the card I misplayed the most in this event, not going to the dome on at least a few occasions.
The one thing I would consider doing is adding in some sideboard for burn especially if its doing well in the meta right now. I play burn and the matchup against affinity is very good game 1 and after sideboard its actually just a cakewalk. Affinity is just way to slow when also being hit with smash to smithereens and searing blaze. Something as simple as some life gain though could really improve the matchup
Nice article!
I think you misplayed springleaf drum the most, at least in r1g2, you can tap the guys the turn they come into play. Sorry if you said that later, im taking my time watching the videos.
ps: i would cut the videos in games because the player is kind of annoying having to buffer from the begining :/
I disagree with your sideboarding choices in your first matches. Your Edicts didn’t really do much against White Weenie with Hawks. By siding out your frogmites you lose a lot of the quick overpowered starts (for instance instead of having an Edict choked in your hand you would have had another attacking 2/2 into a Hawk). I think that lightning bolt would have been more correct if you need more reach/ways to clear paths.
CRANIAL PLATING.
that being said, i liked these videos quite a bit. i’m a big fan of the pauper format and even though it’s “just affinity” i think you could make this deck quite a bit more competitive. of course there were misplays but affinity can actually be quite skill intensive sometimes when you’re trying to kill your opponent with a well-flung atog. i would recommend a bit more practice and some sideboard changes.
my sideboard recommendations:
-4 diabolic edict. they did nothing for you, i can’t think of a reason to run this over doom blade.
-3 duress
-1 smash to smithereens
-1 bolt
+1 gorilla shaman. if you’re that worried about the mirror then you might as well use the card that hoses it the best.
+4 disfigure. does almost everything edict does, and more.
+2 nihil spellbomb. currently i’ve found the meta to be saturated with tortured existence decks. i’m not sure how bad this matchup is, though, so use your own discretion.
+2 sunbeam spellbomb. as josh said above, burn is a bad matchup and you need at least some way of dealing with it.
some other options: fog (depending on how much you’re encountering infect), pyrite spellbomb (more decent removal).
*This series rocks, ty.
*Cranial Plating is not legal in mtgo pauper.
*Infect does not kill every game on turn 2, but it is indeed a very strong deck. Many players are gunning for it right now (notice the standard bearers from R2 WW, curfew from blue, edicts over doomblade in Pitlord’s board), so sling poison at your own risk.
*Pitlord, affinity games don’t go to time, so spend some seconds calculating your potential damage per turn. As someone mentioned above, you missed an on board kill in Match 2. You also risked not closing a game in Match 1 by cycling a spellbomb that should have been fed to Atog. It gets freaking complicated with Galv Blasts, Disciples, Flings, and combat damage.
Also,
*Your M3 MBC opponent should have Crypt Rats for 3 then 1 (holding control) to kill your disciple, then the artifact creatures. That 3 dmg would have given him an extra turn.
*I think you underrate Sunchaser not because it is better than the 4/4, but because 4x Ancient Den gives you more SB options.
*In that vein, the SB seems a mess! Why devote 4 slots to an affinity mirror that isn’t likely to come up. WW and Infect are the two most problematic matchups, so I’d shore them up.
Thanks everyone for pointing out how awful I am and that my sideboard wasn’t the best. I obviously addressed some of the issues with the sideboard in the article, and will further consider the suggestions here.
Also, thanks to inneutral foe the constructive replies, not only to the article, but to a handful of other posts. I don’t think I could have phrased my replies any better. As for the deck changes you suggest inneutral, I believe I mentioned the use of Sunchaser/Ancient Den/white sideboard cards in another version of the deck tech that I wasn’t happy with overall. Basically I found in testing that the extra power helped more than evasion, and the white sideboard cards weren’t worth the maindeck swap, though I only tested a few board cards so that may yet change.
As for my decision to play a fair amount of affinity hate, the list was based on my examination of the first two weeks directly following the banning, when Affinity was still a dominant deck and Infect Stompy was gaining momentum. I took a week off playing, got lazy, and didn’t anticipate the plummet in Affinity’s numbers that I didn’t bother to double-check. I apologize for that, and will be more diligent keeping my lists up to date in the future.
Pauper is my favorite format and i loved to watch those video`s.
I`m WW player myself and i have to say that affinity isn`t really that hard to deal with, if you draw the correct cards. With 4x Dust to Dust in sideboard affinity has usually 1 land on turn 3.
Also Affinity isn`t played widely becouse it has week combo match-up. Yes White Weenie has a weak combo match-up too but WW is very consistent while Affinity got`s often sketchy hands.
Thanks again for this one.
This was a small mistake, but in r1g2 you missed 2 damage on the turn after he plays Kor Sanctifiers. With 14 life, he would have been forced to block a lethal all-in Atog + Disciple attack, so the Disciples would have got in for 2.
I’ve been back-reading after having been recently introduced to your series.
You posted in your most recent article that you still think this is one of the best decks in the format. Do you think its better than some of the Goblin lists that have been cropping up, or do you think they are doing well because people aren’t playing the obvious anti red cards?
Very good commentary and video, but not the best play and saying that WW isn’t very powerful is just silly. Just today I played in a 4-RND went 3-1 I only lost to a mirror match WW it was very close. I crushed control and affinity. I beat two control and one affinity. Side boarding Dust to Dust. makes WW better than affinity in my opinion.
I really like watching some of the vids on this website but you need to step up on the gameplay and info to keep people watching.
thanks for the videos guys.
Round 1 Game 1,
End of turn Galvanic Blast him putting him at 16
Your turn draw a artifact from your draw step or
Draw an artifact from your chromatic sphere or
draw an artifact from your chromatic star and you fling for 17
Sac: frogmite, 3 x great furnace, chromatic star, chromatic sphere, spring leaf drum and sac 1 / 3 cards you draw from the turn drawing natural and sac effect draws.
He tapped out on his turn so you were clear to go off, only card he could have to win was Prismatic Strands.
Obviously sac your cantrips first