I’m back from RIW’s second flagship event in the Pauper Championship Series. I didn’t make the Top 16 (or better) this time around, but the tournament was a lot of fun.
While there were a lot of prizes on the line, it was a casual atmosphere and I got to catch up with old friends. A good day overall.
In case you missed the coverage it can be found here. Brian Demars and Ben Topping did a great job covering the rounds. I’ve been watching nearly all of the matches in both the Wednesday and Saturday events to get a feel for what to expect.
You can also subscribe to the RIW Twitch channel to support the stream. Personally, I just used my Amazon Prime sub which is free to me. You’re allotted one free sub per month; if you don’t use it you lose it.
There were a whopping 67 players with seven rounds of swiss followed by a cut to top 8. I heard from Ben Topping there were 28 unique archetypes out of the 67 players. Pauper is an open format and there were even some surprising strategies in the top 8. Black aficionado, AJ Grenke, made the finals with Black Devotion and Nick Frost top 8ed with Devoted Druid Food Combo.
You can find the top 16 decklists here.
The RIW Pauper Championship Series is also just cool. It can sometimes be hard to describe what makes something cool, but in this case it’s the atmosphere, growth in attendance, good value, balanced format, and every tournament building toward something bigger.
It’s cool to be part of a growing tournament series. The first big event of the year had 63 players and this one had even more. Momentum is here. As a thank you, Pam also gave everyone a pack of Modern Horizons 3 for playing the event; I got a Polluted Delta and some Pauper staples. There were also free muffins to start off the tournament.
Here’s the list I played:
I wrote two articles about Jund Wildfire recently which can be found here and here. In the articles I go more in depth about how the deck is constructed and my thoughts on individual card choices.
There were a couple card choices I made for the 1K that aren’t stock, but the overall list functions similarly.
The single Blood Fountain once again proved its worth over an Ichor Wellspring. I was able to ramp out Refurbished Familiar ahead of schedule and had a game where I brought back two Writhing Chrysalis in an otherwise even battlefield. A Chrysalis can get stronger as the game goes on if there are left over Eldrazi Spawn tokens.
I ultimately settled on the third Toxin Analysis in the sideboard which worked well given my matchup spread:
Round 1: Azorius Familiars (2-0)
Round 2: Dimir Delver/Terror (1-2)
Round 3: Jund Wildfire Mirror (0-2)
Round 4: Red Rally (2-1)
Round 5: Blue Terror (2-0)
Round 6: TurboFog (1-2)
Each match was difficult as I played against strong archetypes in each round. A bonus of Pauper decks being relatively cheap is that you don’t face budget decks often. The barrier to entry of Pauper is low.
I didn’t go to time in any of the rounds. This was a good result as Jund can take time to close out a match. My decisions were mostly made quickly to avoid going to time.
A second Pulse of Murasa was something I tried at the last minute and would not play again. While Pulse does do great work in Jund, the second copy was too much for matchups where my creatures don’t die often. It came in clutch against Red Rally, but the Pauper format is currently too diverse to play something that specific. There are also many maindeck Nihil Spellbombs to counter Pulse.
In an ideal world I wouldn’t play Nyxborn Hydra or Makeshift Munitions in Jund Wildfire, but it’s necessary to have at least one closer. Munitions would have been much better than Nyxborn Hydra against Turbofog, but did some great work against Blue Terror. I bestowed a large Hydra on an Eldrazi Spawn meaning I could sacrifice it if needed to get an untapped creature to create pseudo vigilance. Overall, I was happy to leave Makeshift Munitions at home last weekend.
I played a third Duress in the sideboard instead of Thorn of the Black Rose in case I faced slower decks with pesky fliers to take the monarchy. Again, it can be hard to predict the Pauper metagame and a third Pyroblast would have overperformed as I faced four blue decks.
This was the first time I played against Azorius Familiars with Jund and I felt the matchup was good. I kept a Krark-Clan Shaman on the battlefield for as long as possible to threaten blowing up Sunscape Familiars and prevent the combo. There was also a situation where I was able to exile Ghostly Flicker with Nihil Spellbomb and there was only a single copy in the deck so it could not be rebought with Archeomancer. This doesn’t happen often because the Familiars pilot will protect their Ghostly Flicker if there’s only one in the deck.
The matchup against Jund Wildfire was difficult. My opponent had both Thorn of the Black Rose and Avenging Hunter after sideboard. Throwing the monarchy and initiative into the mix can backfire depending on the battlefield, but they are both easy to maintain in the mirror. If you expect a lot of Jund Wildfire mirrors these creatures will surely improve your win percentage.
Mike Antrim, on TurboFog, and I played an interesting match. He has plenty of bouncelands I can destroy with Cleansing Wildfire, but Growth Spiral effects can threaten a bounceland to enter the battlefield at instant speed to fizzle my spell. His transformational sideboard plan of going TurboMurmuring Mystic was strong. TurboFog felt like a true bad matchup where there aren’t many of those with Jund as it’s pretty close against everything if you’re prepared.
I feel very good about the Red Rally matchup because I had the two Toxin Analysis, two Pulse of Murasa, and even the Sagu Wildling. My opponent was pleased as he was able to play a turn one Burning-Tree Emissary into Rally at the Hornburg thanks to Simian Spirit Guide to easily win game two of our match. It was a cool interaction; Pauper is a very strong format considering Simian Spirit Guide isn’t a popular card despite it being so powerful elsewhere.
I was happy with both Cast Into the Fire and Troublemaker Ouphe against Red Rally and the split felt solid once again. Exiling Campfire felt relevant against TurboFog because the two life per turn gives them way too much time to establish their card advantage spells.
Go For the Throat was strong in the sideboard as it came in against the Tolarian Terror decks, Azorius Familiars, and even TurboFrog for Murmuring Mystic. The only matchup I didn’t want the extra removal spells was Rally Red where I cut Cast Down due to it trading down on mana.
I was afraid of an influx of White Weenie decks playing Leonardo, Big Brother and Orzhov value decks playing Oruku Saki, Shredder Rising. Cast Down loses value with each Universes Beyond set with common legendary creatures.
Jund Wildfire is still a deck I like in Pauper, but will use this time before the next big event on April 25 to try other strategies, too. Affinity is at the top of my list to try because it plays similarly to Jund, but is faster. I wouldn’t mind more time to think about my plays.
Here’s my current Jund Wildfire list:
I likely should have maindecked four Nihil Spellbomb the entire time.
The second Blood Fountain is another way to have early sacrifice fodder and recoup threats in the late game. Coming back full circle as I began with two Blood Fountains.
A big reason to maindeck so many Nihil Spellbombs is that you gain more valuable sideboard space. I would have wanted a third Pyroblast as well as the Thorn of the Black Rose against some of the slower decks. The third Duress felt strong in theory, but I found myself only boarding in two copies when I had access to more.
Pauper is currently my favorite format as the games can be rich without having to spend much money. RIW is providing a great avenue to play this format as the points for the championship mean the circuit is more of a marathon than a race which is fun for me, too.
Jund Wildfire is a good choice for your next Pauper event. Even if it’s not for you, there’s value in learning how it works as the games can take a bit of time so it’s good to have your plans mapped out ahead of time.
