RIW’s sixth 1K Pauper Championship Qualifier is on August 15 and I plan to play instead of calling the shots in the booth. While I’ve been favoring Jund Wildfire recently I do want to try my hand at another deck that suits my play style- Dimir Faeries.
My name is Ethan, and I am back writing for RIW, which means I had a pretty good weekend recently. After falling in the finals of the June Pauper Championship Series tournament, I had my eyes set on the July $1k for some redemption.
Pauper isn’t the only format I play. I consider myself a grinder, which entails playing a multitude of different formats. Right now, the RCQ season is Modern, so I was walking those streets between the big Pauper $1ks and earned my second qualification for the next RC. With Modern checked off the to-do list, I also had my sights set on some limited tournaments…
MTG Arena doesn’t support multiplayer, much to the chagrin of Commander players everywhere (i.e. the majority of the player base now). The solution? The Commander alternative introduced in Dominaria: Brawl.
This weekend is RIW’s fifth 1K qualifier for the end of year 5K Invitational. Today I’m going to share metagame updates as well as the list I would play. I’ll be in the booth with Brian DeMars so I still plan to be up to date on the format.
The Modern RCQ season is ongoing and I’ve had some success so far with my favorite deck, Dimir Frogtide. Modern is currently very fun and you can likely achieve some level of success playing what you enjoy so this is a safe time to Frog if that’s what you’re into.
Last weekend was an exciting one for MTG Pauper at RIW Hobbies, as we hosted our fourth Major Event of the 2026 Pauper Championship Series season! Much thanks to the SIXTY players who joined us and competed!
A quick tournament report for the June 6th RIW Pauper 1k by Jason Golembiewski piloting the custom version of Black Sac that I refer to as Mono Black Midrange because it plays more like a mid-range strategy than the aforementioned aggro/combo deck.
Hi, I’m Chad Kay – I’m a competitive MTG player who enjoys playing Red-based aggro decks across many formats. My most recent success was winning the most recent Pauper Championship Series 1K with the Rally Red deck, which I also took to the finals in the previous 1K, making me the current points leader. This latest finish makes me feel more confident that I’m capable with the deck and my success may be somewhat sustainable.
My name is Ethan, and I like to think I am above average at Magic: The Gathering. Most of the time I am playing Standard or Modern, usually for an RCQ, to prepare for an upcoming RC, or just jamming limited for the latest set on MTG Arena. Lately, however, you have probably seen me at RIW on Wednesday nights casting artifacts.
I have only been playing Pauper for about a year. I started playing the format strictly because the NRG Series was coming to Lansing for a team event and no one on my team wanted to sit in the Pauper seat. I took the bullet for them and started exploring the format. Originally a Mono-Red player, I took one look at the Pauper Red Aggro decklists and decided they lacked power for various reasons. I moved over to Jund Wildfire for a time. I liked the grindiness of the deck but disliked the lack of closing speed. Playing Jund did help me formulate one strong opinion
It’s been an exciting past two weeks of Weds Night Weeklies and this upcoming week is going to be packed with Pauper at RIW Hobbies because we not only have a Weds Weekly but also a Major Championship Eventing on Saturday!