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

As always, let’s start with a quick comparison to last week. The mainstays of the format – Faeries, Mono Red, Tron, UB Control and W/x Monarch – have all made it in.

Then we have Affinity, which was more of a niche-choice last season but has been consistently represented over the past weeks. At this point, it’s not yet as popular as the two Mono Green decks combined, but is more popular than either of them. Speaking of Mono Green, Elves and Stompy are still taking turns – one always makes it in, but it’s been a while since both made it.

Last week our surprise entry was Mono Black Control, which has been replaced with Bogles this week, which i somehow faced five times this week after only playing against it once in the previous two weeks.

To round out this week, there’s creature combo. I have only played against Izzet Blitz once, but i have faced the same person on Inside Out combo three times, so take this with a grain of salt. Still, players enter leagues with these kind of decks at a higher frequency than they would with, say, Tron or Faeries, so they will always be overrepresented in how often you actually face them compared to how many people are playing them.

A good choice this week would have been Bogles, but Inside Out combo also seems to somehow always work. Tron is rough against Mono Red, Affinity and creature combo, so we might be reaching a point where i might not necessarily recommend the deck anymore. But if you can at least make the Burn matchup work, you should be in a decent position.

The four week metagame entails the same decks as the previous two weeks, in almost the same order. The only difference is that W/x Monarch has swapped positions with UB Control.

My prediction for the four week metagame next week is Burn in first place, Tron second and Faeries in third. I am considering grouping Rhystic Tron with W/x Monarch though, which might shake things up a little.

It is also likely that Elves won’t make it in next week and it is possible, although unlikely, that Bogles will make it in. More likely to make it in than Bogles is creature combo, which i think should be on your radar.

I think you should prepare for Tron, Mono Red, Faeries, W/x Monarch, UB Control, Affinity and creature combo. If your deck has the option to cover both Stompy and Elves with the same cards, that would also be a good idea. If you have some spare slots, try packing cards for creature combo and if you’re satisfied with your setup there and still have room, you might want to look at Serene Heart or Leave no Trace.

As a reminder, you can look at the complete data in this Google spreadsheet.

Decks I Played This Week

(Rhystic Tron by mlovbo, 6th place in the 12/08/18 Pauper Challenge)

I played three leagues with this deck. 3-2, 2-3 and 3-2 again. I really should have lost my last match in the second 3-2, but my Tron opponent timed out. Having played against Tron five times and managing to win only that one match, i came to two conclusions.

The first was to stop playing this deck (for now). The bar i set for myself is to switch decks as soon as have two losing records within one week. Well, i did not actually go 2-3 the second time, but that was close enough. This deck is not well positioned right now.

My second conclusion was that Rhystic Tron is not actually a Tron deck but W/x Monarch with Tron lands. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but relevant information nonetheless. So how does this deck compare to Boros Monarch?

Rhystic Tron puts more emphasis on late game value, with cards like Mulldrifter and Custodi Squire, cards that outclass what most fair decks with regular manabases do. Not quite Dinrova Horror or Mystical Teachings level (which are the cards “real” Tron decks take advantage off), but still enough to have hilariously good matchups against decks with Swamps. It’s also quite good against Boros Monarch, but Boros can definitely steal games and even matches.

But because this deck puts emphasis on the late game without fully committing, it does quickly get outclassed by both Marauder Tron, which is frankly better at attacking with Ulamog’s Crusher, and Blue Tron, which has Mnemonic Walls, Dinrova Horrors and Ghostly Flickers (Dinrova Horror is such an awful card to play against with this deck).

Against Burn, i would say there isn’t much difference between Boros Monarch and Rhystic Tron. Sure, Rhystic Tron is great at actually locking up games, but in my experience, simply staying alive long enough against Burn does the trick. Burn is hard to beat when it kills you on turn four or five, not when you get to play until turn ten.

Against Faeries, i definitely prefer Boros. Maybe because Boros vs. Faeries is exactly the kind of resource-based game that i enjoy so much and have a good deal of experience with, but i also feel like more things can go wrong with Rhystic Tron. I think Rhystic Tron absolutely needs to assemble Tron in order to win in the matchup, whereas Boros really only needs to not be manascrewed to allow you to maneuver through the Faeries players’ permission.

This deck has felt worse against Affinity than the Boros lists i have been playing, but that’s mostly owed to the fact that mlovbo doesn’t seem very scared of Affinity at all – just add a couple sideboard cards and you should be good to go.

I think Rhystic Tron has the potential to be better than Boros overall, but not with the way the metagame looked over the past few months. If everybody played Teachings instead of UB Alchemy for example, that would be a good reason to consider Rhystic Tron over Boros Monarch. It’s also better in the “mirror”, which might be worthwhile.

Overall though, i think this deck has the same problem Boros Monarch has right now: Too much Tron. The lack of Lightning Bolts and Galvanic Blasts also means this deck is more likely to be just overrun by decks like Affinity or even Stompy. There’s also creature combo, which isn’t exactly great against Boros but pretty damn good against CMC 5 spells backed up with almost no interaction.

I will keep this deck in mind, but i will play Boros again before playing this.

(deckstats.net link)

Changes from initial list by Kurupacc:

Maindeck:

-no changes

Sideboard:

-4 Keldon Marauders

-1 Electrickery

+3 Martyr of Ashes

+1 Flaring Pain

+1 Molten Rain

The only other deck i played this week. I went 3-2, 3-2, 4-1, 4-1, 2-3, 4-1, 2-3. For some reason, i decided to play one league with only fourteen sideboard cards, which may or may not have lost me a game here or there.

There really isn’t much to say about this deck. It’s Burn. Generally, you lose if your opponent either gains a bunch of life or counters several of your spells. Or if your mana malfunctions. The last one is big and i’m honestly considering more Cycling-lands to remedy flood.

Speaking of Cycling-lands, i don’t think there’s a deck i like them in more than here. When i have to play them, i’m always happy to be able to cast my spells without running more useless lands, and when i get to cycle them, i’m always happy that i haven’t drawn a useless land instead. You also get away with playing tapped lands more than most decks. You almost never need more than three lands so you usually don’t have to play more than one of them and if you are at that stage in the game, you tend to have enough Mountains to cycle your extra Caves anyway.

As for the sideboard, well. I think Martyr of Sands is the one card you really want, but beyond that, you mostly want to be able to board out your creatures or Searing Blazes when they’re bad. A repetitive source of damage for creatures would be amazing, but i don’t think there are any that are good enough. As it stands, there are worse cards than Smash to Smithereens and Molten Rain.

I am going to play this deck again.

Intriguing Decks

(UR Delver by Dibenzopiceno, 12th place in the 19/08/18 Pauper Challenge)

I like all these spells, but i am a little sceptical of the manabase. I really want to deal ten off back to back Thunderous Wraths to someone though.

(Stompy by carvs, 5-0 from this week)

I think this is a very reasonable deck to play right now and i haven’t played it enough in general.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

j