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!

The big Pauper question on everybody’s radar is: “What to play for the Major Event?” In today’s issue we’ll be covering metagame analytics from the previous two Weds Weeklies, 4-0 decklists, as well as getting some insider, expert insight into not only what to play at the Major event but also how to prepare for it.

METAGAME BREAKDOWN

I put together a graphic of what the last two weeks Pauper metagame has looked like across two large weekly Wednesday events.Basically anything that had two or less copies got filed into the Rogue category and anything with three or more decks earned a slice of the pie.

The biggest players in the meta: Elves, Madness, Terror and Grixis Bots combined are only ⅓ of the metagame! For a larger event like the upcoming Saturday Championship event, as the pool of players expands I do expect so will the percentage of players who select from the big 4.

Since the biggest players in the meta are relatively small, and the decks that are trending to 4-0 were 3-to-1 from the Rogue category over the pie slice decks, I’d say the best deck in the metagame is likely whatever any player has the most experience with! Expect to play a diverse field of match ups where knowing your deck well adds a lot of equity.

4-0 DECKLISTS

RECENT UPGRADES TO TURBO FOG

The 1st time I tried it in Fog was last night, 2x felt right. It’s the least efficient way to draw cards in the deck, but it’s playing a bunch of roles against mid-range and control decks. Also nice it gives the deck a couple more sources of U for Stream of Thought.

Upgrade for Eureka Moment which I have played for quite a while.

WHAT’S ON YOUR RADAR FOR THE MAJOR EVENT?

I would make sure that whatever deck I choose has decent game into the top 5 decks of the format. Currently, those are: Mono-Red Madness, Terror (both Mono-Blue and Dimir), Grixis Affinity, Elves, and Jund Wildfire. All of these decks get targeted by different things, so I would make sure my 75 has a little of the following things:

1. Incidental Life Gain – Cards like Reckoner’s Bargain, Lembas, Wellwisher and Unexpected Fangs all are examples of effects I would want to have access to for this event. Not only are they great vs the red decks, but they help swing races in your favor and are main deckable. This alleviates some of the pressure on your sideboard as well and can open up space for you to add more cards for your bad matchups.
2. Graveyard Interaction – It’s no secret that the graveyard is an incredible resource in the Pauper format. Very few decks can function without touching the graveyard in some capacity, so being able to interact with that zone is a high priority. Once again, a premium goes on cards that can easily slide into the main deck. The cards that come to mind are Bojuka Bog, Nihil Spellbomb and Thraben Charm for the main boards and cards like Relic of Progentius, Tormod’s Crypt, and Faerie Macabre for the sideboards.
3. Artifact / Enchantment Removal – This is very similar to the previous point as nearly all decks either rely on artifacts and enchantments for their removal or as a core component of their strategy. Being able to answer either of these card types is at a premium. Some colors shine better than others in this area, but I would make sure my deck has a plan for these decks or if my deck is weak to these cards types. Cards like Thraben Charm, Masked Vandal, and Cast into the Fire are flexible enough to be in the main deck while more targeted options like Annul, Dust to Dust, and Troublemaker Ouphe can be in the sideboard.

As of right now, Grixis Affinity is my forerunner for this event. It’s powerful, has both proactive and reactive elements, and can do all three of the things I listed here. It’s a great deck and I am ready to run it back for another 1K. In terms of the overall meta game, there are so many decks that it’s hard to answer what’s on my radar. Anything can do well right now. Pauper is kind of a wild west right now, which makes deck selection more important than ever.

If I had to pick one deck as my sleeper pick, I would say Boros Tribe. It’s a combo deck with an insane grind game and a lot of card filtering to find its pieces, and it can do all three of the things I mentioned before. Seems like an archetype worth keeping in mind.

Best of luck to all the players who attend the 1K! – Nick Sobczak

Thinking about the upcoming 1K, I want to be on a Snuff Out deck. The main reasons are that right now, Elves and the Tron Monster decks are popular, and I fully expect there to be some Boros Tribe decks at the top tables. Snuff Out is pretty decent against a wide field in general, but is also my preferred style of deck. With summer finally here, I have not been tinkering as much as I normally would, so I will probably just stick with something I already know.

If I had the time to get enough practice in before the event, I might be on the Boros Tribe deck because, as Nick said, it might be a sleeper deck. It does some really powerful things and still manages to have some great grinding power. Having played against it a few times, it seems like the deck is pretty resilient to graveyard hate, so being prepared to attack on multiple angles seems key. It reminds me of the Spy Combo deck in that if you can shut down their graveyard, you’re in a decent spot, but that just means they are switching to plan B. I like the plan B of Boros Tribe better, as it can really grow Spirit Mascot to insane levels very quickly, and if you’re not careful, a Fling might end the game unexpectedly.

With that being said, I fully expect a good amount of Mono Red Madness, Grixis Affinity, and Jund Wildfire to be around, as those decks just never seem to be in too bad a position; they’re powerful and consistent, too. I would stay away from non-interactive combo decks unless you’ve got a good answer to a potential turn 2 win from Boros Tribe, or can be faster than that (I don’t think any deck has a faster win).

I look forward to seeing everyone at the 1K on Saturday and what kind of spice is in the room! – Jason G.

I will be looking to have strong game against Combo decks, Red Madness, Terror & Affinity. Combo pilots have had a solid conversion rate this year at RIW and Terror always is well represented. Against red decks, I would prefer to have hydroblast over green cards.

A question I struggle to answer is: ‘how to beat the red green decks’. I think I would want to fit more targeted removal against them but I feel that silver bullet sideboard cards simply don’t exist to combat them. Further, I think Bonder’s Ornament helps them go long where card advantage might have been the way previously.

I think mono blue faeries is a strong choice against decks that aren’t green, but perhaps UB Fae has the best ability to answer all comers. Flyers are harder to mass remove, hydroblast is good against madness, and being proactive with counter backup is strong against combo.

1. I want creatures that matchup well against opposing creatures and removal.
2. These are the categories of cardboard I want as much as possible in the main and side:
   • Lifegain
   • Graveyard Hate
   • Board Wipe
3. Even better If I can do 1 & 2 and also have counterspells in my deck.

-Polzin

Kyle Boggemes also wrote about the deck he would consider playing (if he wasn’t doing commentary for the Saturday event on the twitch steam), Jund Wildfire: https://riwhobbies.com/jund-wildfire-in-pauper-2/

It’s been a great two weeks of Pauper at RIW Hobbies and we’re super excited for another fun Weds 6PM $5 Weekly as well as the big Pauper Championship event on Saturday. Whatcha thinking about playing on Saturday?