My first steps into the new landscape of competitive Pauper revolved around playing the Draw-Go game. While there was early success it could not be sustained. Izzet Tron is a strong choice but at its core it is still a control deck. Therein resides the problem. Control decks have to pack the right answers to be effective. The top of the Pauper results are highly visible but nothing is illuminated in the two person queues. Those queues are Groundhog Day - round one until the end of time.

The conundrum is trying to find the correct answers for unknown questions. Some control decks - notable the Dimir Teachings deck - seeks to respond by including cards with broad applications that can be fought on a temporal scale (going under). Other control decks - Mono-Black Control comes to mind- attempts to fight to format on its main axis (or rather the perceived angle of attack) in creatures. These do not appeal to me in that if I am going to leave myself open to clearly bad matchups, I would rather put myself in the position of posing the threats than trying to solve their problem.

After I settled on attacking, I had to explore the nature of the format as it stands today. Here is the framework from which I drew my conclusions.

First off the best decks are clearly Esper Combo and Delver. Almost as important these decks are both very popular in the winner’s circle. Esper Combo is capable of simply steamrolling any opponent and Delver has game against the field. These two decks are clearly going to be present and failing to prepare for them is as good as flushing an entry fee down the toilet.

The next two decks I had at the corners of my diagram were Stompy and MBC. Mono-Black Control is like Delver in that it can go toe-to-toe with just about anything in the metagame. Stompy represents the second fastest deck in this quad and has been a very popular choice in recent weeks.

No matter what I selected I wanted to have at least a chance at winning against these four. Other decks like Burn and Izzet Blitz exist but they are strategies that I would feel more comfortable addressing in the sideboard. As it turns out, the deck I selected actually does not mind playing against these two and has built in resilience against other aggressive decks

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It is going to be easier to explain my choices if you see the deck first. So here we it is:

I settled on Hexproof for a few reasons unrelated to the aforementioned decks. First I have quite a bit of experience with the deck. Hexproof is a hyper-linear deck in that it wants to repeat a specific line of play as often as possible. To aide this some versions have relied on Commune with the Gods or Kruphix’s Insight to reload. I have opted instead to include Heliod’s Pilgrim. Pilgrim provides a body as well as a card and the body half is relevant. One of Hexproof’s weaknesses is that it is soft to Diabolic Edict style effects and Heliod’s Pilgrim can mitigate that. Pilgrim also lets the deck run a few specialty Auras - Favor of the Overbeing enchanting a Slippery Bogle is the tiniest of Serra Angels. In order to aid the redundancy I have opted to include Qasali Pridemage as well. Exalted is similar to an Aura in that it sits around to boost power. Unlike Auras it can share its bonus to multiple creatures (Rancor notwithstanding).

Snake Umbra is a personal choice. I like the option to recoup cards in longer matchups. While Hexproof is rarely assuming a role where the number of cards will really matter. That being said the ability to draw extra cards while also protecting a threat in combat is hard to pass up. Spider Umbra is great, but Snake Umbra can break games against attrition decks wide open.

The ideal game state is turn one Hexproof creature turn two load it up and start attacking. Khalni Garden is another “one drop” but it is vulnerable to traditional removal. Hexproof is excellent against decks packing Lightning Bolt, Snap, and other targeted cards, turning its creatures into a form of virtual card advantage. Unlike Izzet Blitz which requires an additional card - like Apostle’s Blessing - Hexproof turns off most removal simply by resolving creatures. In a format that many seem to define by creatures the ability to just blank a wide swatch of spells in certain decks is enticing.

The key to winning with Hexproof is playing around the hate while also continuing to apply pressure. Often times this means learning how play into The Fear.

The Fear is a concept as old as tournament Magic itself. It is the idea that your opponent is holding the exact card(s) needed to win. With Hexproof, the Fear manifests itself as counters, edicts, and Electrickery. Sometimes Hexproof can play around the Fear but more often than not I have found that the reason this phenomena trudges into relevance is because if they do have It then Hexproof is absolutely dead. In these instances it can often be correct to fight that pit in your stomach and actually go face first into whatever they may hold. Why? Because waiting does not bode well for Hexproof. The longer the game goes the more likely the Fear becomes real so might as well press the aggressive advantage and charge headlong. The best example I can think of is Counterspell. Often Counterspell (or Spellstutter Sprite) will only matter the turn before Hexproof can win. Here it is correct to weigh the amount of time bought by the perceived counter against the chances of them not having it and going for the win.

So Hexproof is a deck that wants to enact a game plan and has some glaring holes. Yet I still decided to run it. Why?

It comes down to the fundamentals. Right now in Pauper the Philosophy of Fire and Tempo matter more than Card Advantage. Esper Combo is a deck that wants to manipulate a set resource - the number of cards in the library. While it cheats on turns thanks to Cloud of Faeries it is still, at its core, akin to an aggro deck. Hexproof has draws that can race Esper Combo and has access to cards in the sideboard that help the cause. Aerial Volley and Epic Confrontation combine to help keep Esper Combo off of key pieces, often buying enough time and stealing enough tempo to keep the game in hand. There is no perfect sideboard plan for fighting Esper, but trying to interact with their creatures is better than loading up on Thermokarst and hoping to hit.

Delver is a rather interesting pairing. Here is where the Fear matters most. Games play out one of two ways. Either Hexproof will hit every drop and quickly put Delver on the backfoot or Delver will establish an early defense and prevent anything relevant from resolving. Here is where the sideboard I propose comes in handy. Siding into extra threats at the cost of low impact Auras - Abundant Growth in this case- makes it easier to actually overwhelm defenses. River Boa may turn on Snap but it also represents an impossible to block threat against Delver. Again, Aerial Volley pays dividends. Casting it on upkeep often will choke Delver on mana which is one way to keep the Fear at bay.

Stompy, the third deck I considered, is another event matchup. The advantage Hexproof has is that it can access Armadillo Cloak and, in this case, Hopeful Eidolon. Odd as it may seem Hexproof is the control deck in this pairing and Epic Confrontation is necessary to contain their army. If Stompy is unable to resolve copies of Groundswell and Vines of Vastwood for huge chunks of damage then Hexproof should be able to prevail. Snake Umbra may be at its best here in that it can keeps the cards flowing.

Finally there is Mono-Black Control. Out of the four I listed this is the pairing I least want to see. Chainer’s Edict is a nightmare and if the deck features cards like Geth’s Verdict then the games can become unwinnable. Khalni Garden and Heliod’s Pilgrim are maindeck concessions to this reality. Valeron Outlander is something I am trying out as a way to add threats while also continuing to blank certain removal. No number of Disfigure or Oubliette will matter and increasing the threat count can only help. Again, the idea here is to simply stick to the plan and try to attack for victory. The current reliance on Chainer’s Edict bodes well for Hexproof in that it becomes easier to play around the removal.

Hexproof is not the only choice for Pauper. Rather it represents a deck that, with the right cards and the proper mindset, represents a strong choice for taking on the two-person queues. I am not sure I’d take this deck into a longer event, but for an endless stream of first rounds one could make a worse choice.

Keep slingin’ commons-

-Alex

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