Welcome to a new chapter of Weekly Pauper Recap! As always, we’re going to start with a Metagame Recap, then we’re looking at the Decks I Played This Week and finally there will be two Intriguing Decks from this week’s published decklists, one of which i am going to play next week.

Metagame Recap

If you’re just interested in the raw data, refer to my Google spreadsheet. If you’re also interested in what i have to say about the data, let’s get to it!

Who needs format diversity when you can have Burn? In case you’re wondering, Mono Red this week was 1 RDW and 12 Burn. Cool. Good thing i played Bogles for the majority of those matches. Speaking of which, Bogles has made it in for the third week in a row. This really stinks because i like playing Bogles and i don’t want people to start packing hate for it now. Poor me.

Other than that, not much is going on. Somehow, there’s a lot of UB Alchemy, which i don’t really get because, well, the deck is bad. But, of course, this data is from a low sample size and therefore high variance.

Comparing to last week, we have no newcomers. But we lost Affinity and Stompy, probably to make room for all that Burn. I still vividly remember playing against Affinity four matches in a row last year, so it’s weird to see the deck fade into antiquity like that.

Anyway, here’s the not-as-low sample size data:

We have the same decks in slightly different order. While Mono Red has not yet reached the absolute top again, it did overtake W/x Midrange. For those to lazy to look up the complete data, W/x Midrange has fallen off a bit because there isn’t as much Rhystic Tron around anymore. Which i can’t fault anyone for not playing because it can be quite tedious.

UB Control is still in the same position it was last week, but it did get slightly more popular.

You could argue that Tron and Bogles overtook Stompy and Creature Combo, but you could also say that Creature Combo and Stompy had low numbers this week. Both statements are true.

What do i like in this metagame? Bogles. We’re probably at a point where you want to pack some Standard Bearers though. The Bogles mirror is dumb. You could also play Orzhov Monarch, although i prefer Boros against the blue decks and Burn. Rhystic Tron is best in the mirror, but worst against Faeries. All are reasonable. And of course, obligatory mention of UR Faeries.

Decks I Played This Week

(Elves by navi_stabber, 7th Place in the 16/09/18 Pauper Challenge)

I played two leagues with this, both 2-3. I faced Burn four times, Boros Monarch and UB Alchemy twice each and UR Faeries and Izzet Blitz once each. I went even against everything i faced more than once and lost to both UR decks.

I would say i got unlucky with my matchups, but that would be a lie. Sure, that was an unusual amount of Burn, but not too unusual. This does happen frequently and is one of the reasons i really don’t like playing decks that are bad against Burn.

As for the list, i think it was alright. I don’t see zero copies of Viridian Longbows being correct pretty much ever though. The card is just too good. That’s all i have to say about Elves.

(deckstats.net link)

Changes from previous list:

Maindeck:

-2 Faithless Looting

+1 Aven Riftwatcher

+1 Boros Garrison

Sideboard:

-2 Seeker of the Way

+1 Aven Riftwatcher

+1 Standard Bearer

As i mentioned two weeks ago, i did not like Faithless Looting and generally wished to just draw more lands instead. I also didn’t miss Battle Screech all that much. Seeker of the Way was bad, but more lifegain is good. Also a miser’s Standard Bearer for splash damage on Bogles (this did pay off).

I played one league with this and went 3-2. I wasn’t feeling the deck so i switched to this:

I’m not an expert on the deck (and never will be), so no need to go over the changes i made. I signed up for a league with this and two matches in, i remembered that i absolutely don’t enjoy playing this deck. The most interesting thing this deck does is casting Ulamog’s Crusher on turn three. Of course, it’s perfectly fine if you think differently; the deck is a very reasonable choice when there isn’t too much Tron, Elves and Creature Combo.

(deckstats.net link)

Changes from previous list:

Maindeck:

-1 Aura Gnarlid

+1 Heliod’s Pilgrim

Sideboard:

-1 Lifelink

-1 Flaring Pain

+2 Dispel

I figured Pilgrim and Aura Gnarlid do pretty similar things, but with Pilgrim in the mix, i could cut the sideboard Lifelink to try Dispel. Dispel did not do anything. I had one opportunity to cast it when my Tron opponent cast Serene Grace, but i thought they were casting Moment’s Peace so i let it resolve and lost. But i won game three so whatever. #skillgame

I played six leagues with Bogles, 4 4-1s, a 2-3 and a 3-2. Pretty neat. I like the deck. Playing against Burn a ton helps. I also like how my list doesn’t auto-lose to Izzet Blitz.

Going forward, i would probably cut the Gorillas to play Standard Bearers. I play Gorillas in most of my red decks, never draw them, but beat Affinity anyway. I haven’t really decided on Dispel yet, but cutting them is also a possibility.

Intriguing Decks

(UB Alchemy by curlycorki, 8th Place in the 23/09/18 Pauper Challenge)

Yeah, i know, i bash the deck a lot. I actually played UB Alchemy for a bit last season and did alright with it though.

(UB Reanimator by TomatoCheese, 5-0 from last week)

This looks pretty cool.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

j