Yeah, that's an unfortunate downside of the format. Many of the "niche" cards need uncommons to let it flourish. For example, we have all these cool mana-efficient creatures that bring eldrazi spawn, but the only use of those tokens out of straightforward mana accel is to shortcut a Hand of Emrakul. I noticed that there's a Green "Spawn Lord" that gives all those tokens +2/+1, which is amazing... But it's an uncommon.
That's the real challenge. WOTC meant for these types of commons to be paired for X/Y/Z cards that are usually rares and uncommon in the same set. In pauper, we don't have it so cut and dry, so we have to scour our massive pile of "good cards" and find what interaction is both practical and worthwhile. Sometimes it just won't work though.
Blue not so much but white has several powerful ways to do so. And also some interesting cards like Ruin Ghost to further enhance the wackiness plus fun lands that do things when they enter the battlefield. I see that card as being very very good.
Edit
though I realize I am thinking of the rares and uncommons...so perhaps not so much in pauper. I find it hard to think of cards as only useful/not useful in a narrow format.
yeah goblins are out simply because i almost won a non-pauper tribal event with it, losing only to a tier 1 classic fish deck. And elves are just blah lol we have elves all the time, lets not have an all elves! pauper the rest i think are varied enough to have a somewhat interesting format.
Ive never studied collages ...how does that work? You buy a bunch of magazines, cut out the faces/etc glue them together then talk about the potential wackiness of each image? (J/k just find it funny that you misspelled that.)
Yeah blinking the Journey would be ftw if you could.
Deluxeicoff - It's true that Soul Warden shines more in the longterm and helps stall against Storm. I guess it depends on the Goblins list, but I assumed that the Soul Warden would usually die to Mogg Fanatic, Lightning Bolt, or Chain Lightning before it can grow more than 4 life, and post-SB get hit by Flame Jab. My reasoning for Lone Missionary is that it always gets 4 life and then can trade with a 2/2, which makes it better against Control decks as well. If Soul Warden is consistently gaining more life than that against Goblins though then yes you're absolutely right, Warden is better. Since you play WW so much more than me I'll go with your judgement.
I just want to double-check on the mana curve though. 1cc has 4x Boydguard 4x Shade suspend, then Knight of Sursi if you're running it. 2cc has 4x Kor Skyfisher, then I guess some Safehold Elites / Benalish Cavalry if you run them? I dunno, it looks like 2cc would want more slots than 1cc at that point.
Paul - Well, the thing about blue is you really DONT have much ways to abuse landfall. Snapper ain't that great so you've got Halimar Depths, and that's about it right? But like I said, we all know how ridiculous Counterspell is, and this is Counterspell with a small drawback.
Since I skipped all the Umbras, you can tell that I'm not their biggest fan. Huge in limited for sure, but in classic pauper I have a couple beefs: 1) 2for1 risk as usual 2) WW's removal ignore the totem effect, and Black's Edict / Blood do as well. Everything requires testing though.
5N531 - Ah, so there ARE active pauper clans then? That changes things.
BobaJames - Thanks for the feedback. I tried to put in every card's picture because it's such a new expansion, but my html skillz are very basic. Next time I do something like this I'll make the pictures smaller so that it fits easier and stays right beside the descriptive paragraph. I'll make more liberal use of spaces too.
Mecha - I'm a college student too! Can't blame it on that. Intoxication due to occupation, maybe :P
..was much easier than that. You already have lethal damage on the board if you take into account that 1) you can play a land (you can) and 2) that you can remove at least two of his creatures from blocking (which you can). So...
1) Cast Aven Riftwatcher, tapping 2 Kabira Crossroads and an Island (3 mana).
2) Daze Aven Riftwatcher by returning an Island to your hand, let it be countered, spending no mana (3 mana).
3) Play the Island, switch the power/toughness on Calcite Snapper.
4) Flashback Momentary Blink on Journey to Nowhere, with new target on either Talon Trooper or Knight of Sursi, tapping an Island and 3 Plains (7 mana).
5) Cast either Veil of Secrecy or Eye of Nowhere on Petrahydrox, returning it to owner's hand, tapping an Island and a Plains (9 mana).
6) Attack for lethal damage, at this point no matter how the opponent blocks, he/she dies. As you can see, it only takes 9 mana to get the job done. I have 5 Islands still untapped (including the replayed one).
Unless I missed something, but I don't think I did.
I found the way the article was formatted, was hard for me to find that flow. my eyes were jumping around a lot just to follow what card i was reading about.
Funny, this week, I can't see a listing (STILL as of Today, Thursday Apr.15th) of the Pauper Challenge - anyone have info? I usually look on, www.mtgonline.com - but there's still no challenge listing!
I'd be interested in a majority pauper clan. Finally make the tab worthwhile...like ratings, when are these things going to start to matter online? I hope soon, otherwise I'll be raredrafting my way to a 1500 ;)
Heh I find it hard to believe there are less than 100% Terry Pratchett fans in any gathering of Magic players. That said, not sure what I said that channels him. :p
Interesting look at RoE. I am still unexcited by the Set as a whole but I do want to get a hold of some of those commons and having read your analysis of the commons let me think about them myself. I don't agree with all of your conclusions but it is nice to see a perspective that is different from mine. Some comments: Deprive is going to be huge. 2cmc is the sweet spot for counters even if there are drawbacks. (and with plenty of ways to abuse landfall losing a tempo isn't going to hurt as much as you think.) I am not a huge fan of enters the battlefield life gain, even though I have always liked Riftwatcher (despite it's ephemeral status.)
I much prefer Soul Warden in most decks. On the other hand a quasi bear with benefits is always a plus so I expect Lone Missionary to be hot in limited and so so in constructed. I am certain the Umbras will see play in limited and may have a place constructed as well since they can be abused with enters the battlefield creatures or creatures that your opponent really wants to see off the board permanently. Yes Auras are still iffy but the Umbras are not typical Auras. I haven't really looked at all of the spoiled set yet but I am certain there are a couple that are missing. Anyway thanks for the read.
I like the article and the deck seems really fun to try. As for which deck format...Im going to say the first one with the actual table is just cleaner looking.
No love for Geyser Glider P1p2? I think I'd've gone for it, especially having passed a vines and nissa's chosen P1p1, and with the knowledge that you'll be passing basilisk and KHE in this pack. Then you'd get a torch slinger and a geopede in your next two picks (although obviously, you don't know that at the time!).
Anyway, cool report, and I'm certainly not saying that geyser glider over baloth is correct, just that it may have been worth considering, as you're shipping a fair bit of decent green, and pretty much nothing red. Your deck ended up looking pretty strong anyway!
Puncturing Light and Hyena Umbra seem to have a place, I was thinking of Angelic Renewal if I had the room, but Hyena would be more aggro and act as a cheaper Safehold Elite. Of the two, puncturing light is the bomb
Nice to see focus on things not 100/100 with Annihilator 8 ;)
My only critique is in speaking for WW: the Lone Missionary. It is nice, but I wouldn't dare run him over Wardens - the warden shines long term, and is a partial answer to storm, usually buying you a turn if warrens triggered. Additionally against goblins, between WW's decklist and their's you have 70+ creatures, that all come out fast, so in one average turn your gaining 4 life, not to mention when you get multiples AND the fact that WWs' two-drop spot is chalk full of crazy quality already, unless they come out wih a mechanic "Affinity for 2cc" :) - I won't be running this guy anytime soon, but that counterspell is NUTS!
Order & Journey, are also 2 spot
Thanks sin thats what I was looking for.
Yeah, that's an unfortunate downside of the format. Many of the "niche" cards need uncommons to let it flourish. For example, we have all these cool mana-efficient creatures that bring eldrazi spawn, but the only use of those tokens out of straightforward mana accel is to shortcut a Hand of Emrakul. I noticed that there's a Green "Spawn Lord" that gives all those tokens +2/+1, which is amazing... But it's an uncommon.
That's the real challenge. WOTC meant for these types of commons to be paired for X/Y/Z cards that are usually rares and uncommon in the same set. In pauper, we don't have it so cut and dry, so we have to scour our massive pile of "good cards" and find what interaction is both practical and worthwhile. Sometimes it just won't work though.
I love the breakdowns and the visual pie charts. Keep it up as always.
That Stompy list running 4x Scryb Sprites makes me a sad panda.
Blue not so much but white has several powerful ways to do so. And also some interesting cards like Ruin Ghost to further enhance the wackiness plus fun lands that do things when they enter the battlefield. I see that card as being very very good.
Edit
though I realize I am thinking of the rares and uncommons...so perhaps not so much in pauper. I find it hard to think of cards as only useful/not useful in a narrow format.
yeah goblins are out simply because i almost won a non-pauper tribal event with it, losing only to a tier 1 classic fish deck. And elves are just blah lol we have elves all the time, lets not have an all elves! pauper the rest i think are varied enough to have a somewhat interesting format.
Ive never studied collages ...how does that work? You buy a bunch of magazines, cut out the faces/etc glue them together then talk about the potential wackiness of each image? (J/k just find it funny that you misspelled that.)
Yeah blinking the Journey would be ftw if you could.
Deluxeicoff - It's true that Soul Warden shines more in the longterm and helps stall against Storm. I guess it depends on the Goblins list, but I assumed that the Soul Warden would usually die to Mogg Fanatic, Lightning Bolt, or Chain Lightning before it can grow more than 4 life, and post-SB get hit by Flame Jab. My reasoning for Lone Missionary is that it always gets 4 life and then can trade with a 2/2, which makes it better against Control decks as well. If Soul Warden is consistently gaining more life than that against Goblins though then yes you're absolutely right, Warden is better. Since you play WW so much more than me I'll go with your judgement.
I just want to double-check on the mana curve though. 1cc has 4x Boydguard 4x Shade suspend, then Knight of Sursi if you're running it. 2cc has 4x Kor Skyfisher, then I guess some Safehold Elites / Benalish Cavalry if you run them? I dunno, it looks like 2cc would want more slots than 1cc at that point.
Paul - Well, the thing about blue is you really DONT have much ways to abuse landfall. Snapper ain't that great so you've got Halimar Depths, and that's about it right? But like I said, we all know how ridiculous Counterspell is, and this is Counterspell with a small drawback.
Since I skipped all the Umbras, you can tell that I'm not their biggest fan. Huge in limited for sure, but in classic pauper I have a couple beefs: 1) 2for1 risk as usual 2) WW's removal ignore the totem effect, and Black's Edict / Blood do as well. Everything requires testing though.
5N531 - Ah, so there ARE active pauper clans then? That changes things.
BobaJames - Thanks for the feedback. I tried to put in every card's picture because it's such a new expansion, but my html skillz are very basic. Next time I do something like this I'll make the pictures smaller so that it fits easier and stays right beside the descriptive paragraph. I'll make more liberal use of spaces too.
Mecha - I'm a college student too! Can't blame it on that. Intoxication due to occupation, maybe :P
True that, I have no idea what I was thinking there. Dufus me.
Plus, I hadn't realized the Drift of Phantasms was the opponent's card.
I is a collage studant.
you can't blink an enchantment
..was much easier than that. You already have lethal damage on the board if you take into account that 1) you can play a land (you can) and 2) that you can remove at least two of his creatures from blocking (which you can). So...
1) Cast Aven Riftwatcher, tapping 2 Kabira Crossroads and an Island (3 mana).
2) Daze Aven Riftwatcher by returning an Island to your hand, let it be countered, spending no mana (3 mana).
3) Play the Island, switch the power/toughness on Calcite Snapper.
4) Flashback Momentary Blink on Journey to Nowhere, with new target on either Talon Trooper or Knight of Sursi, tapping an Island and 3 Plains (7 mana).
5) Cast either Veil of Secrecy or Eye of Nowhere on Petrahydrox, returning it to owner's hand, tapping an Island and a Plains (9 mana).
6) Attack for lethal damage, at this point no matter how the opponent blocks, he/she dies. As you can see, it only takes 9 mana to get the job done. I have 5 Islands still untapped (including the replayed one).
Unless I missed something, but I don't think I did.
I found the way the article was formatted, was hard for me to find that flow. my eyes were jumping around a lot just to follow what card i was reading about.
6 tix.
Funny, this week, I can't see a listing (STILL as of Today, Thursday Apr.15th) of the Pauper Challenge - anyone have info? I usually look on, www.mtgonline.com - but there's still no challenge listing!
I'd be interested in a majority pauper clan. Finally make the tab worthwhile...like ratings, when are these things going to start to matter online? I hope soon, otherwise I'll be raredrafting my way to a 1500 ;)
Good information. What does the WotC PE cost?
Great article, I enjoyed reading it. Also, Common Cause is already a pauper clan. Check http://forums.pdcmagic.com/viewforum.php?f=25&sid=99247a054684f700fac4ed... for a general list of the most popular common clans.
Heh I find it hard to believe there are less than 100% Terry Pratchett fans in any gathering of Magic players. That said, not sure what I said that channels him. :p
Interesting look at RoE. I am still unexcited by the Set as a whole but I do want to get a hold of some of those commons and having read your analysis of the commons let me think about them myself. I don't agree with all of your conclusions but it is nice to see a perspective that is different from mine. Some comments: Deprive is going to be huge. 2cmc is the sweet spot for counters even if there are drawbacks. (and with plenty of ways to abuse landfall losing a tempo isn't going to hurt as much as you think.) I am not a huge fan of enters the battlefield life gain, even though I have always liked Riftwatcher (despite it's ephemeral status.)
I much prefer Soul Warden in most decks. On the other hand a quasi bear with benefits is always a plus so I expect Lone Missionary to be hot in limited and so so in constructed. I am certain the Umbras will see play in limited and may have a place constructed as well since they can be abused with enters the battlefield creatures or creatures that your opponent really wants to see off the board permanently. Yes Auras are still iffy but the Umbras are not typical Auras. I haven't really looked at all of the spoiled set yet but I am certain there are a couple that are missing. Anyway thanks for the read.
I like the article and the deck seems really fun to try. As for which deck format...Im going to say the first one with the actual table is just cleaner looking.
No love for Geyser Glider P1p2? I think I'd've gone for it, especially having passed a vines and nissa's chosen P1p1, and with the knowledge that you'll be passing basilisk and KHE in this pack. Then you'd get a torch slinger and a geopede in your next two picks (although obviously, you don't know that at the time!).
Anyway, cool report, and I'm certainly not saying that geyser glider over baloth is correct, just that it may have been worth considering, as you're shipping a fair bit of decent green, and pretty much nothing red. Your deck ended up looking pretty strong anyway!
Glad to see I'm not the only Terry Pratchett fan here :)
lol...nevermind, puncturing light is attacker/blocker scenerio, my optimism meter was running too high.
Puncturing Light and Hyena Umbra seem to have a place, I was thinking of Angelic Renewal if I had the room, but Hyena would be more aggro and act as a cheaper Safehold Elite. Of the two, puncturing light is the bomb
Nice to see focus on things not 100/100 with Annihilator 8 ;)
My only critique is in speaking for WW: the Lone Missionary. It is nice, but I wouldn't dare run him over Wardens - the warden shines long term, and is a partial answer to storm, usually buying you a turn if warrens triggered. Additionally against goblins, between WW's decklist and their's you have 70+ creatures, that all come out fast, so in one average turn your gaining 4 life, not to mention when you get multiples AND the fact that WWs' two-drop spot is chalk full of crazy quality already, unless they come out wih a mechanic "Affinity for 2cc" :) - I won't be running this guy anytime soon, but that counterspell is NUTS!
to ban all those and goblins and elves would be just a mess lol