Welcome to Season 4 of Weekly Pauper Recap! As always, we’re going to kick things off with my Metagame Recap. My goal is to play 50 matches per week and analyse 200 matches worth of data. You can read about my process here: Weekly Pauper Recap Season 4 Overview. Next is the What I Played This Week section, where i’m going to feature a different deck every week. To wrap things up, we’re going to look at two Intriguing Decks, one each from the most recent Pauper Challenge and the most recent League results.
Metagame Recap
(google spreadsheet with the complete data)
Metagame Going Into The Week
This Week’s Metagame
I faced a lot of Astrolabes this week. At this point, Faeries is the only common deck that tries to interact and doesn’t play Astrolabe. On one hand, that might be changing and on the other, Faeries is on the downswing. Ugh.
This metagame is very unexciting. As i alluded to last week, we now seem to be at a point where you’re playing Astrolabe plus either Kor Skyfisher or Tron lands, or you’re betting on a linear deck that you hope those decks aren’t prepared for (i did the latter).
Affinity is a great choice because it can exploit Tron’s volatile early game, a problem that Snow Skyfisher/Ephemerate decks also have, although much less pronounced. Stompy benefits from a) the printing of Savage Swipe and b) the downfall of straight Boros and thus Prismatic Strands. I’m not quite sure where Mono White Heroic fits in, but my previous experiences with the deck left me with the impression that it’s very similar to Bogles, with lower consistency overall, but better game against Edicts, of which there are none in the current metagame. One edge Affinity has over Stompy and Heroic is Fling, which not only gives it game against not only Moment’s Peace recursion, but also Stonehorn Dignitary, which is becoming more and more common.
Notably, i only faced Burn twice this week, which is the lowest presence of Burn in a year. It’s also been two weeks since i played against any form of UB Control, which now isn’t just outclassed by Tron, but also by UW/x decks.
Next Week’s Metagame?
Going forward, i expect both Tron and Skyfishers to adapt and improve, with various new challenges thrown at them in the form of Elves, Affinity, Bogles and Stompy. Maybe something like Heroic thrown in here or there. Both archetypes have exceptionally strong late games, so the best way to beat them is by going underneath.
This is the kind metagame that’s only really interesting if you get to play a lot. It’s not necessarily a metagame that rewards you for going deep into one deck (unless you’re on Skyfisher or Tron), but rather one that rewards you for being proficient with a multitude of decks and paying close attention to metagame trends. If you’re only playing one tournament per week, it’s very easy to run bad on the matchup lottery, which is something i’m familiar with. I know that i’m happy i’m not playing in the Challenges right now.
What I Played This Week
I have actually been playing Bogles again for two weeks now. My initial list had Commune with Nature over Heliod’s Pilgrim, but if i’m being honest, i think Commune with Nature is just bad and Pilgrim does the same thing better. If you want to have access to more hexproof creatures, just play more hexproof creatures (which compared to other Skyfisher lists, i actually do).
Astrolabe is not quite Abundant Growth, as it doesn’t count towards Ethereal Armor and Ancestral Mask, but speaking strictly in terms of mana fixing, it’s slightly better. I’ve also had people bring Ancient Grudge against me, which really hurts losing to, but has only happened once so far. The rest of the time, my opponents had useless cards that didn’t impact anything, which is great when you’re on a deck that ignores a large amount of your opponents’ cards already.
Astrolabe also means the deck has amazing mana now. It was good before Astrolabe, but 17 basics is so much better than 10 basics, 4 tapped lands and 4 Crumbling Vestige that sometimes are awkward. The range of keepable hands and aggressive draws has increased greatly, despite the fact that i’ve cut four auras. And that’s not even taking the London mulligan into account, which makes mulligans better as well.
Given how low on removal the format is right now (with most of the removal that does see play being damage-based), Kor Skyfisher is actually a pretty decent beatstick right now. I have won several games just putting auras on Skyfishers and the extra card draw is neat as well.
This list is favoured against Kor Skyfisher strategies because they’re generally quite underprepared. Usually, they have four copies of Counterspell, two copies of Leave no Trace, and that’s it. No Electrickery, no Standard Bearer. That’s pretty great.
More or less the same is true for Tron. They most definitely can play enough cards to have a favourable matchup, but most lists seem to fall short. They don’t run Serene Heart and rely on mana-intensve Flicker loops to lock you out of winning via combat damage, giving you some great opportunities to steal games with Dispel, Flaring Pain or Fling.
Affinity seems slightly underprepared as well, but i always feel lucky to win – i’m 6-1 in the matchup so far, but it seems like take one game per match just because their deck doesn’t function.
Stompy is relatively even, although they have a hard time winning without me not doing anything meaningful or them drawing Gleeful Sabotage. Sabotage is especially annoying because they’re all playing four copies, but there’s no good counterplay. At least i haven’t found anything i like.
With quad-Electrickery, Elves actually seems even, although i’m not sure it’s worth it, given Elves isn’t even half as common as it was four weeks ago. It’s very possible that i should concede the matchup and put those slots to better use.
Faeries is still a decent matchup. I liked it before, when i had eight one-mana toughness boosting enchantments, but Kor Skyfisher is honestly a great card against them as well.
Overall, the deck has been working out great for me although it’s very possible that people are going to start packing more hate again soon. Anyway, there’s a low chance that i’ll ever completely stop playing Bogles without quitting Pauper altogether.
Intriguing Decks
(Mono Blue Delver by Mezzel, 5-0 from last week’s League results)
I don’t think i have ever featured Mezzel and that just seemed wrong. I genuinely admire Mezzel’s commitment to Mono Blue Delver in times when almost noone else would even consider the deck. To be fair, it is one of the greatest decks in all of Magic.
(Dignitary Tron by Hellsau, 3rd Place in the 28/07/19 Pauper Challenge)
I didn’t like Dignitary Tron in the past, but this seems pretty cool. The mana base is a little ambitious for my taste, but i do like the spells. It definitely helps that there’s no Burn to worry about.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading, see you next week with the final chapter of Weekly Pauper Recap Season 4! I’m not sure what i’m doing next, so if there’s a deck you’d like me to play and talk about, let me know on reddit or twitter.
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