Welcome back to another thrilling week of the Pauper Brewer’s Cup. We had some good Extended Pauper submissions last week, and hopefully some of you decided to sign up for the league as well. League registration runs through this Thursday. As always, if you have theme suggestions, don’t hesitate to suggest them!

By now you know the score. If you’re new here, don’t worry, I’ll go over it each week. This week’s article has two sections. First you get to vote on your favorite list from our top contenders last week. Second, you get to submit new lists around a new theme, which will be voted on next week. Here is a reminder of how this whole thing works.

The Pauper Brewer’s Cup

Here are some rules and stuff.

Every week, I will offer some kind of constraint or challenge to our readers. Submit a fun, innovative, or powerful brew built around those constraints. Your submission must be legal for Pauper in Magic Online. Guidelines are here. I will select three lists out of your submissions, and you will get to vote for that week’s winner. After 8 weeks we will have 8 innovative brews, and they will enter the gauntlet portion of the Brewer’s Cup. Whoever owns (submitted) the deck that wins this gauntlet will be endowed with fabulous riches (to be determined) and great esteem.

If any of that doesn’t make sense, ask for clarifications in the comments. The idea is that we should have fun sharing ideas and brewing, maybe discover some new, powerful decks, and in general support and promote the format we love the most, Pauper.

If at any point you have a suggestion for a theme or challenge, send those along too. I will do my best, but I am relying upon the ingenuity of you guys to make this thing really successful. I know you won’t let me down!

So, rules and stuff aside, let’s get down to business.

Week Four Winner

We had a respectable 59 votes cast this week, and a clear winner.

GreaterGerardon secures the win with his Distant Spirits list, bringing in 30 votes. Distant Spirits is now the fourth list that will play in the brewer’s gauntlet.

Heltoupee almost got his back to back wins, but only brought in 21 votes for his UB Zombies list, while RRemedio brought up the rear with his wizards at 9 votes.

Voting for Week Five

Our constraint in week five was to brew an Extended Pauper list, using cards in Standard-rotation sets from Innistrad through Origins. This was a crossover with our league event that starts this Friday, so hopefully some of you were inspired to join. There were some excellent submissions, and here are my three picks for you to vote on.

[d title=”A Cruel, Beautiful World by midnight_memory”]

Creatures

4 Doomed Traveler

4 Ravenous Rats

4 Seller of Songbirds

2 Kingpin’s Pet

Spells

1 Tragic Slip

4 Gather the Townsfolk

4 Raise the Alarm

4 Kytheon’s Tactics

2 Read the Bones

4 Harsh Sustenance

1 Inspired Charge

3 Triplicate Spirits

Land

4 Evolving Wilds

4 Orzhov Guildgate

4 Scoured Barrens

5 Plains

5 Swamp

Sideboard

4 Revoke Existence

4 Beckon Apparition

4 Duress

2 Tragic Slip

1 Rootborn Defenses [/d]

From my play-testing, going wide could certainly work in this format, just so long as you don’t get hit by a Shrivel or Electrickery. I like this BW tokens list with the requisite [c]Harsh Sustenance[/c] (also a card I would like to see played more). I like the name, too.

[d title=”All Deaths Welcome by ModernFever”]

Creatures

4 Falkenrath Torturer

4 Doomed Traveler

3 Bloodflow Connoisseur

3 Unruly Mob

3 Qarsi Sadist

3 Cathedral Sanctifier

3 Vulturous Aven

2 Loyal Cathar

Spells

4 Tragic Slip

4 Gather the Townsfolk

3 Gods Willing

2 Reave Soul

2 Bone Splinters

Lands

3 Scoured Barrens

8 Swamp

9 Plains

Sideboard

3 Spare from Evil

3 Crypt Incursion

3 Revoke Existence

2 Reave Soul

2 Pharika’s Cure

2 Devour Flesh [/d]

I keep trying to make Exploit work in Classic Pauper, so far with no luck. I definitely think it has a home in this format, though (my one personal favorite list right now is Mono Black Exploit), and I chose this list by ModernFever to represent. Despite the stunning originality of the 13-card sideboard presented, I went ahead and added 2x [c]Devour Flesh[/c] to “flesh” things out a bit.

[d title=”Grixis-Go by obZen”]

//Lands

4 Dismal Backwater

4 Evolving Wilds

6 Island

4 Mountain

4 Swamp

4 Swiftwater Cliffs

//Spells

4 Cancel

4 Contradict

4 Devour Flesh

4 Font of Fortunes

2 Murder

4 Think Twice

4 Twin Bolt

//Creatures

2 Archaeomancer

4 Omenspeaker

2 Prescient Chimera

//Sideboard

1 Benthic Giant

1 Murder

2 Negate

1 Essence Scatter

1 Crypt Incursion

2 Magma Spray

2 Hooded Assassin

3 Stormbound Geist

1 Disdainful Stroke

1 Harvest Pyre [/d]

obZen hates you and doesn’t want you to enjoy Magic. We’ve had our fair share of “durdly” lists so far in this thing, but this is more just “straight-up control” than durdly. I do have concerns about “getting there” with only 8 creatures, only 2 of which have evasion. [c]Curse of the Bloody Tome[/c] might be a good sideboard add for the control mirror. [c]Whirlwind Adept[/c] could also find a home in here, somewhere.

A hat tip, here, to Roberto and Han and bigdumbgreen. I liked all three lists, but there are only so many spots to fill. Keep on submitting, though!

Vote Here!

Alright, which of these three lists do you like the most? Submit your votes by the end of the week. One vote per reader, please.

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Week Six: A Tron of One’s Own

Since [c]Cloudpost[/c] was banned, Pauper has had only one set of ramp lands, the classic tron pieces. Tron is big in Modern right now, but how is it fairing in Pauper? RUG Tron, the most popular Pauper list, has been in decline. UW Tron only ever had the briefest moment in the spotlight. I have seen Simic Tron as well, and I wonder what other variations of Tron there may be yet undiscovered. Here are your constraints this week:

Brew up your best “Ramp” list in Classic Pauper. Tron lists are encouraged, but I will consider non-Tron ramp as well.

I don’t want to be too strict, so while I am advocating for Tron lists, specifically, I will consider interesting and creative ramp lists as well.

Submissions will be judged on power, innovation, and how well you work within the constraints.

This is a brewing contest, so creativity is paramount.

Submit your brews and ideas

That’s it! Submit your lists in the comments below. Yes, that means other people can see your stuff and copy it or adapt it, but I do really want this to be an opportunity for us to discuss and brew together for Pauper.

Lists need to be submitted before next Tuesday, July 28, to be considered.

I will pick three submissions to highlight in next week’s article, and you guys will get to vote to decide the winner.

Our Forum Guidelines and Style Guide are available here, so you can make your decklist look like a list. Please use it.

Other thoughts, comments, or concerns? Suggestions for a weekly challenge? Leave those in the comments too!

Last but not least, if you like this challenge or any of our other content, please consider supporting us via our Patreon.

Happy brewing!

/bava