Playing Pauper: Temur Tron

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Welcome back to Playing Pauper! This week's deck is Temur Tron, the fastest Pauper Tron variant! The deck attempts to win with an early Fangren Marauder, Ulamog's Crusher, or Rolling Thunder. It's actually more of a five-color deck once you count Chainer's Edict and the sideboard, and it manages those five colors off of lands that produce colorless mana — including the deck's signature lands: Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower.

Check out the matches, then read the discussion below. If you enjoy Playing Pauper, subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube channel! It helps us draw more people to the channel, and it helps you to never miss any of our great video content.

Temur Tron Intro

Temur Tron vs Orzhov Empyrial

Temur Tron vs Acid Trip

Temur Tron vs Dimir Teachings

Temur Tron vs Angler Delver

Temur Tron vs Mono Blue Delver

The Deck

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In case you need further evidence that Mulldrifter is good, it's played in this deck, a deck that can cast spells of almost any cost and any color of mana. When you want the best of the best, you choose Mulldrifter. Also, the deck needs to win the game somehow, so it also plays Fangren Marauder and Ulamog's Crusher as attackers.

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These are the only interaction spells, but the interaction they provide is strong. Firebolt and Chainer's Edict take out creatures efficiently, while Rolling Thunder takes out opponents efficiently.

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It's hard work turning colorless lands into five different colors of spells. That's why there's lots of slots in the deck dedicated to making sure the mana from the Tron lands is converted into something usable.

The Sideboard

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These anti-aggro cards are quite powerful against the corresponding color of decks. Circle of Protection: Green protects against Stompy and Bogles (Elves can go too wide for this enchantment to be good enough), Circle of Protection: Red is good against Izzet Blitz and Burn, while Feed the Clan is good against Burn and other hyper-aggressive decks.

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Ancient Grudge works wonders against Affinity's artifacts, while Ray of Revelation does a similar job of destroying enchantments like Journey to Nowhere and Spreading Seas. Relic of Progenitus is good against the graveyard decks like Angler Delver, and Earth Rift is extremely powerful in the Tron mirror matches.

The Matchups

Against aggressive decks, Tron needs to get Tron online quickly or have a hand with lots of interaction, such as Firebolt into Sea Gate Oracle to buy time. Once Tron is online, Fangren Marauder with some life gain stabilizes quickly, and Rolling Thunder as Plague Wind can derail an aggressive deck's plans. All things considered, hyper-aggressive decks are still the worse matchups for Temur Tron and are therefore good choices against those wanting to beat it.

Against medium or slow decks, Tron is given the time it needs to assemble the three Urza lands, and it often takes over the game once that happens. Against decks with countermagic, assembling Tron means you can deploy two threats in a turn, which is great if your opponent only has enough mana for one Counterspell at a time.

Beating Temur Tron

If you'd rather beat down Tron than beat down using Tron, keep these tips in mind:

If you have a chance to stop your opponent from assembling Tron, take it. Everything in the deck gets better and harder to beat once they have a ton of mana.

Unless you can win a long game, kill Fangren Marauder before it gains five to fifteen life. Not after.

Pay attention to what color is being chosen for Chromatic Sphere and Chromatic Star if you need a hint about what your opponent is trying to cast next.

Duress is a great sideboard card against Temur Tron. Dealing with a Rolling Thunder for just one mana can buy a huge amount of time.

If you're an aggressive deck, don't bring in Relic of Progenitus from the sideboard. By the time this deck is ready to flashback Chainer's Edict or crack a Haunted Fengraf, it's so late in the game that you've probably already lost. Just apply enough early pressure that they don't have time to use their graveyard.

Conclusion

If you want a focused deck that can generate tons of mana and burns the opponent out from twenty life, Temur Tron is a great deck. It gets to play powerful cards in all five colors and can smash opponents who can't keep up with the speed. I think it will be a staple of the format for a long time to come and has the highest chance of being improved by new cards, since it isn't limited to specific colors of mana.

Tell me what you thought about Playing Pauper this week! Tell me what you want to see in the future! You can drop me a note in the comment section below, the YouTube channel, or on Twitter @JakeStilesMTG.