I have been building Standard Pauper decks for the new players to use for playtests and future tournaments. I sold them for about 50pesos each 60-card deck, which is a little revenue for me whenever I go on a booster buying spree.

One of the recent decks I made was the Eldrazi Mono Blue deck. It has utilized most of its components from the set Battle for Zendikar and Oath of the Gatewatch. Below is the decklist:

Lands
2 Skyline Cascade
2 Holdout Settlement
2 Unknown Shores
4 Crumbling Vestige
2 Warped Landscape
12 Island

Creatures
2 Stitched Mangler
4 Cultivator Drone
2 Blinding Drone
4 Kozilek’s Channeler
1 Coralhelm Guide
3 Eldrazi Devastator
2 Eldrazi Skyspawner
1 Gravity Negator
1 Incubator Drone
2 Kozilek’s Pathfinder
1 Mist Intruder
1 Monastery Loremaster
1 Oracle of Dust
1 Ruin Processor

Spells
2 Spell Shrivel
1 Sweep Away
1 Tightening Coils
2 Sleep Paralysis
2 Explosive Apparatus
2 Disperse

For this weekend’s Magic: the Gathering tournament schedule, we will be having part two of the Standard Pauper on Sunday at Hi-Gear in Marymart Mall. This time we will accommodate more players as the Beginner Benefits Program will be implemented.

The details of the events below:

February 19, 2016
Friday Night Magic
Standard Constructed format, 80php entry fee.
Top 4 gets an exclusive FNM Promo foil card and Oath of the Gatewatch booster packs
Tourney starts 6:00pm, Rei’s Place

February 20, 2016
Saturday Standard, 80php entry fee.
Oath of the Gatewatch booster pack prizes based on player attendance
Tourney starts 3:00pm, Rei’s Place

February 21, 2016
Sunday Standard Pauper (all-Commons)
40php entry fee, free for new players
Oath of the Gatewatch booster pack prizes (depending on player attendance)
One booster pack to be raffled if player count reaches 10 or more.
Tourney starts at 1:30pm
Hi-Gear, Marymart Mall

For updates, just check out our Magic The Gathering Iloilo Community Facebook page.

The second Standard Pauper event was attended by 8 players and this time I was forced to participate because we were lacking players to complete the minimum number. That means three rounds of gameplay. The deck I piloted was Black White Warriors with Rush of Battle as its alpha-strike card. I was supposed to give the deck to Muzzy’s son Orven John. Unfortunately, he could not play on that day so I’ve decided to use the deck. My matchups went as follows:

Round 1 vs Ristom’s Mono White Aggro (Won 2-0)
Round 2 vs Allen’s BW Warriors mirror (Won 2-0)
Round 3 vs Rino’s Blue Red Tempo (Drew 1-1-1)

I won a BFZ booster pack which got me another crap rare Angelic Captain and a foil full art Mountain. Oh well, at least I got a prize. Overall, the deck is more of a grind route when faced against other fast decks like Mono Red and it is somewhat hard to set up a Rush of Battle attack as at times trading your creatures is necessary to mitigate the damage and be out of the burn range.

I did saw one new player that Team Carbo recruited and aside from him we had the same attendees from the previous Pauper tournaments. I am hoping to promote the event more but then I guess Lanai is still not access-friendly to the new players. I will contact Rino again with regards to the letter request to Robinsons to give us a play space on weekends. Hoping for some good news.

Until the next post.

I have recently scouring the net for reference decklists for the current Standard Pauper. I have come upon this website that tallies results from the tournaments on Magic Online. One of the popular and I think is currently the most popular archetype in their metagame is Rakdos midrange. Here is one list which utilizes sacrifice effect and later on Delve into the big creatures.

Rakdos Delve Midrange by Forli
Standard Pauper

Maindeck
7 Mountain
6 Swamp
4 Bloodfell Caves
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Mortuary Mire

4 Vulturous Aven
4 Gurmag Angler
4 Sultai Emissary
3 Sultai Scavenger
3 Ghirapur Gearcrafter
2 Dutiful Attendant

4 Tormenting Voice
4 Bone Splinters
3 Read the Bones
1 Act of Treason
1 Duress
2 Collateral Damage
1 Altar’s Reap
1 Twin Bolt

Sideboard
3 Duress
3 Fiery Impulse
3 Boiling Earth
2 Mire’s Malice
2 Debilitating Injury
1 Butcher’s Glee
1 Act of Treason

Here is the third part of the deck ideas that I have listed for Standard Pauper. I had a few references and ideas from various blog sites that I have visited. The current local metagame is more on Green Red Aggro, Golgari Delve and Black Devotion decks and my recently played deck is a Grixis version of a midrange Exploit deck. Here is a partial list of what it looks like:

Creatures
2 Gurmag Angler
2 Gurmag Drowner
4 Palace Familiar
2 Prescient Chimera
4 Sultai Emissary
2 Vulturous Aven
2 Silumgar Butcher

Spells
2 Anticipate
2 Bathe in Dragonfire
2 Cancel
1 Disdainful Stroke
3 Divination
3 Lightning Strike
2 Nullify
2 Reach of Shadows
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Twinbolt

Just add the Grixis playsets of two-color gain life lands and the list is basically complete. Access to Red gives you spells like Scouring Sands which is good sideboard on matchups with tokens. The deck went about 2-1 in the last weekly Standard Pauper, losing to Blue Red Control but fares well against Golgari Delve and Mono Black Aggro. My sideboard is basically switching to specific counters like additional Disdainful Strokes, Negates and Coral Barriers to hold off fast Red aggro and again, Scouring Sands for tokens.

I will have the deck on standby for this weekend’s tournament, though I am checking for another new list from the results of recent tournaments on MTGO.

A short recap on last Wednesday night’s Standard Pauper tournament: I decided to try the stompy Formidable Green decklist from PDC Magic and the result was outstanding as it reflected a similar tournament result on the website.

The deck can curve out pretty well and overpower most of the creatures in the format.

There were ten players present and four Swiss rounds were organized. I went 4-0 defeating a mirror match, Grixis Control, Sultai Dredge, and Black White Warriors. Here is my decklist.

Formidable Green
Standard Pauper

Maindeck
4 Elvish Mystic
4 Stampeding Elk Herd
4 Swordwise Centaur
3 Alpine Grizzly
2 Glade Watcher
4 Nylea’s Disciple
4 Atarka Beastbreaker
3 Dragon-Scarred Bear
1 Sedge Scorpion

4 Epic Confrontation
3 Aspect of Hydra
2 Hunter’s Ambush

2 Evolving Wilds
20 Forest

Sideboard
2 Savage Punch
2 Leafcrown Dryad
2 Hunter’s Ambush
4 Ranger’s Guile
2 Sedge Scorpion
1 Hunt the Weak
1 Plummet
1 Return to the Earth

My friends and day shift colleagues have been playtesting Pauper decks on MWS in preparation for our upcoming month-end Pauper Magic tournament. The five of them started playtesting last week, holding mini tourneys every afternoon. So far, they have come up with great deck ideas for the tournament. Check out some of their build below.

UB Midrange by Oliver
(3-0) Jan. 13, 2009 mini tournament
Maindeck
4 Terramorphic Expanse
10 Island
9 Swamp

4 Pestermite
4 Mulldrifter
2 Warren Pilferers
4 Festering Goblin
4 Phyrexian Rager
1 Fencer Clique
4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Rendclaw Trow

4 Agony Warp
4 Nameless Inversion
1 Snakeform
1 Turn to Mist

Sideboard
1 Snakeform
1 Turn to Mist
4 Consign to Dream
3 Festercreep
4 Negate
2 Terror

This UB list seems to really abuse the true nature of Blue Black decks. A few card advantages, counters, and creature kills can do the trick. Next is the UW Faes list created and piloted by Sarsi.

UW Faes by Sarsi
(3-0) January 7, 2009 mini tournament
Maindeck
4 Plains
2 Terramorphic Expanse
16 Island

4 Spellstutter Sprite
4 Silkbind Faerie
4 Mulldrifter
2 Fencer Clique
4 Pestermite
3 Cloud Sprite
4 Dream Thief

4 Cancel
2 Courier’s Capsule
4 Recumbent Bliss
3 Ponder

Sideboard
2 Plains
2 Fencer Clique
1 Cloud Sprite
2 Courier’s Capsule
1 Ponder
2 Dispeller’s Capsule
4 Negate
1 Oblivion Ring

Finally, the Mono White Kithkins was built by Oliver.

Kithkins by Oliver
(3-0) January 12, 2009 mini tournament
Maindeck
23 Plains

4 Order of the Golden Cricket
4 Burrenton Bombardier
3 Cenn’s Heir
4 Ballynock Cohort
4 Mosquito Guard
4 Goldmeadow Harrier
4 Kithkin Zephyrnaut

2 Oblivion Ring
4 Unmake
4 Surge of Thoughtweft

Sideboard
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Barkshell Blessing
3 Recumbent Bliss
4 Fire at Will
1 Turn to Mist
3 Wispmare

*A big thanks to Mao for posting the decks at Magiciloilo.com.
**This is a repost. The original was posted January 14, 2009 at Death-mark.blogspot.com.