I don't really agree with this. Jace decks have plenty of answers to aggro. Gideon is an obvious example, but if Valakut suddenly disappeared and got replaced by a pile of aggro, we'd just see a return to stuff like wall of omens in U/W.

I do believe that if Jace gets banned, then Valakut needs banning too, or we'll just get an infinite number of Valakut mirrors. I've heard it said that Vengevine decks are the natural plan to deal with Jace decks if Valakut alone were to be banned, but they've just printed a colourless extirpate, so that's no longer a solution!

I like the budget article a lot. I think most of us know the Commander staples at this point, but your budget deck forces some new choices and approaches that make things interesting.

As far as white land destruction there is also Saltblast. Sure it is a kinda pricy one for one, but it is super versital, and does hit those pesky lands. I run it in my Jareth voltron deck, because maze lands are some of the few things that can keep my commander down.

Hi Dave.

Thanks for mentioning my deck's composition in your article, I'd like to make a small comment on that.

First of all, the deck was modified kind of in a hurry so I was lucky that it worked as it did. You noticed Glint Hawks as a main difference between 'standard' BW and my version but personally I think that the difference is Glint Hawk + Flayer Husk . I just love the husk. It gives a deck a colorless 1st turn drop that helps to put a little bit of pressure early and one is not afraid to loose it (early blocks against aggro decks for instance) since its easily bouncable by glint hawk (and cheap too) and even if not bounced it's still usable as an equipment. It even makes a good life gain being bounced while holding the sylvok lifestaff - it's a three card 'combo' that is not used very often but it may save your life against those really fast aggros like mono R /RW ladnfall (worked for me a couple of times).

However, what I really wanted to write about is the situation with the kor skyfisher and squadron hawk. As you stated they are very good and very popular. Standard pauper looks a little bit like standard in mirrodin-affinity era (maybe a little of a far fetched simile but that's when i last played magic before coming back to mtgo recently, so that's what i remember ;) ) in the way that you either play that or have to be able to counter it ( beat or join as you nicely put in you article ). I chose both and for the latter part I come back to the flayer husk. In the end it's a measly +1/+1 for 2 mana but what it does is - my hawks and skyfishers are that 1 measly point better than opponents equivalents and that i a big difference.

Got carried away a little, let's finish this post before it becomes an article ;)

Anyway, thanks for the mention. Looking forward to reading your future articles as I plan on playing more Pauper Standard and your insight is really valuable.

Cheers

Gabriel

BTW - It may not be apparent from the mtgo nick but I'm a he ;)

Hi Naga and sorry for the late reply.

I think any mono Black deck should pack 6 discard spells in total (no less, no more). The questions is how many of which one.

I would personally start with 3x Inquision of Kozilek + 3x Despise and keep 3x Duress in the sideboard. Duress' main purpose was getting rid of Jace but now Despise can do that too. Duress will most of the time come in handy against Pyromancer Ascension type of decks.

Surgical Extraction is, in my opinion, a good sideboard card but not maindeck material. My opinion may of course change depending on the new meta. But for now I would keep it in the sideboard.

LE

had a lot of writing credits saved up, I'm not sure what we are going to do with those, but I would love to see them somehow make it into the families hands.

I'm pretty sure you could have won Round 2 game 3 inside time - proliferate before your final attack, killing the drake and letting your 1-power flying infecter through. Proliferate puts him on 7, infecter on 8, mirran mettle takes it to 10.

And yeah, the zooming in the first video is insanely annoying. Also, you kept zooming in on cards in the draft, while discussing the rest of the pack (which we couldn't see).

That said, apart from the corrupter (which would have made a big difference in round 2, I think) that is a pretty nice deck you pulled together at the end.

I love block Grixis. I've been playing with it for a few weeks and think it is really strong - the best control deck in the format (but can be susceptible to WW). However, it is basically moot at this stage since the meta is going to be completely altered by NPH. If you do block vids next week make sure you give some solid context regarding how you think NPH is going to affect (infect? ;)) the format.

Erik must have had a few thousand dollars invested in his MTGO account. Any thought as to holding an auction for it, or for parts of it?

-4leyline of the void
-4 Powders
+4 workers
+2 Sculpting Steel
+2 Staff of Domination

This is based off of the last list I played in a Classic DE that can be found on CQ. It is really really good. I found that the Leylines are not needed in the maindeck since there is the combo feature of the staffs.

I also like a multi-colored version of the deck I found online that tinkers and tutors for the combo and then just blows the doors off with a Emrakul hard casted. Looked pretty good and capable of a turn one kill.

Precisely that. I'm kinda worried it will be even too strong, even though the possible answers are already out there.

At least we'll have some boost to aggro decks. :-)

LOL, even though you prefaced it, I wasnt prepared for the insane land zooming disco.

I actually like that you do swiss so we can always see 3 rounds, keep up the vids! Much more entertaining than the draft viewer.

Nice vids as always, it's a pity your pc melt down during the event. Do you take requests? If so, I'd like to see you piloting Bo King's UB Archive Trap Mill, it really seems a nice budget deck in the current meta. :-)