Dabil

This looks like an interesting deck. I have been looking for a new and interesting deck list for the next Legacy SilverBlack event I play in. (SilverBlack is where only commons and uncommons are legal). This looks like it could fit the bill. Only thing is Contested War Zone wouldn't be legal but I suppose just extra swamps and islands will do. I guess there is no point to a sideboard.

Here is a list of the Legacy SilverBlack events I have played in so far if anyone is interested: http://www.gatherling.com/eventreport.php?format=Legacy+SilverBlack&series=&season=&mode=Filter+Events

If I play this deck list, I will post a comment with a link to my puremtgo.com article as well as my videos of how I do.

I feel like this newly tuned version with the Journey's is a solid Classic Pauper deck list. It now has answers for everything you face, has a solid mana base, and is a very viable Tier 1 deck list IMHO. I still think there is room to improve it, as I still don't like the mana curve. I sided out the Snake Umbra almost every match, which tells me that it just isn't a great fit in the maindeck. I think removing those 3 Snake Umbra's, and bringing in some 2 casting cost enchantment, such as Crystallization, would improve the deck list by smoothing out the mana curve. Most of the time my turn 2's were dead, since I have limited play on turn 2. Giving up a free turn like that, makes winning that much harder.

Crystallization would add a little more creature control against Standard Bearer, and is a little better than Journey to Nowhere, which has the potential to allow the creature to be bounced back to hand and be replayed. Crystallization would instead, cause the creature to be exiled from the game. In addition Crystallization can be used to stop Guardian of the Guildpact, which is another creature that can be tough against this deck.

There may be other better 2 casting cost enchantments out there that are better, particularly in different meta's. I just haven't spent any time looking as of late. I am just sitting back and enjoying my tournament victory for now, and starting to look forward to the next deck list I am going to tackle. I hope you all enjoy this look at building a winning Classic Pauper deck list. Remember that this is post 2 of the series. Post 1 can be found here:

http://www.mtgvault.com/dabil/decks/classic-pauper-selesnya-beats/

Okay the January tournament (Top8 Pauper Classic 1.04) came and went. What happened?

I got matched up against White Weenie in round 1, and got shelled immediately. The problem was that my opponent had Standard Bearer in his maindeck!

Game 1):

I got blown out as, he played the Standard Bearer turn 2, before I was able to drop any enchantments. The problem here was that now I had to target the Standard Bearer for my enchantments instead of my own creatures. Sp I wasn't able to get anything going, and pretty much had to just sit there and watch him take me out.

Game 2:
I side in 3x Hornet Sting and 3xJourney To Nowhere, taking out a the Lay of the Land, 2x Abundant Growth, and 3x Snake Umbra. I draw into my Standard Bearer hate with a Journey to Nowhere in hand, and adequate lands. So I keep and drop a Slippery bogle turn 1. My turn 2 I continue dropping land to develop, and he again, drops a turn 2 Standard Bearer. No problem though as I have the Journey in hand, but I also draw a Hornet Sting! So I remove the Standard Bearer and am left with a decision, do I start playing creature echantments or Aura Gnarlid? I decide on the Ara Gnarlid since he will give me the greatest potential to win quickly. I am able to make this decision because I still have a Journey to Nowhere in hand, and can again remove a Standard Bearer should my opponent drop one. If not for the Journey in hand, I for sure would have played the Ancestral Mask in hand instead of the Gnarlid. Classic example of the cards in hand influencing play. My opponent drops a flyer, and I play the Mask next turn and run him over.

Game 3:
I like my still for turn 3 and so I leave it. Game 3 my opponent gets a very fast draw and starts dropping creatures and attacking. He gets 2x Icatian Javelineers, a Loyal Cathar, and a Razor Golem in play before I can really get my first viable creatures online. He has me at 8 life, while I get a Slippery Bogle with Rancor, and an Aura Gnarlid in play. Not a great defensive position for me and my opponent subsuquently rolls over me. Blah....

I have this on video and will put it up on line when I get a chance. So being that Top8 Pauper Classic is a Single Elimination event, that was the end of my night. So I spent the rest of my night tuning it for next time (Which will be Friday, January 25ths Top8 Pauper Classic 1.05).

I have that deck list here:

http://www.mtgvault.com/dabil/decks/classic-pauper-selesnya-beatz/

I still feel like this list has potential. I like the mana base way more now, as at least I am getting the land and colors I need to make the deck work. I obviously need to maindeck some creature control, since White Weenie is moving Standard Bearer into its maindeck. And it really shouldn't surprise anyone that WW is doing that, since it is a great card against at least 3 of the Top 10 most popular deck lists right now. And those are:

1) Infect
2) Stompy
3) Selesnya Beatz

So I will detail my changes in my next post, which is the link above. Cya there!

You may want to look at Jace's Erasure and some more creature control. But it looks like a fun deck. I don't think this is a very competitive Pauper deck though overall. Mill in Pauper is just tough to make work.

Here is a video I recorded playing against stompy at a PRE on MTGO since this deck was listed here, if you would like to see how I play it and my thoughts during the match.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_KgDMIKowk

I personally have never played this deck list. This deck list was played by MTGO player Lickitung in a PRE on my website (Gatherling.com). Lickitung has played this deck archetype 5 times now at our Friday Night Standard event. This is the first time that he played the Searing Spear, and this is his 2nd event win with this deck type. So I am sure he will be back to play again, and when he does it will be interesting to see if the Searing Spear stays a part of the list. As for now, it seemed to be the biggest change he made from the last time he player in one of Gatherling's event.

Yeah I bet this was a good finals match between this deck and the Azorius Tempo deck that won. I didn't get to watch the match since I was competing in the Modern SilverBlack tournament. I imagine though that the Azorius Tempo deck just edged him out because he didn't draw his Hexproof creatures. The Archaeomancer + Ghostly Flicker + Mist Raven would nullify the creature aura's pretty effectively with out them. So I am betting this really came down to who got the luckier draws.

This is pretty much a picture perfect mid-range deck. The creatures are more defined by their resilience and abilities than by their over-all power. This kind of deck is clearly at a disadvantage if they draw too much control, since the point of the deck is to gain an advantage on the board itself. Essence Harvest isn't much good with out a large creature.

And it should be noted that Essence Harvest is merely tech in this deck. It's not part of the overall game plan. Although certainly an effective piece, the deck itself is completely capable of winning with out it.

Nice combo.

Okay so I spent some time today tuning this deck. I just really was unhappy with how it was performing. It seemed like if I didn't get lucky enough to get the right lands and get the land enchantments, I just couldn't function. So I needed to address that. Also I wanted to provide some extra protection for the Aura Gnarlid since he is the only creature in the deck without Hexproof. And finally I wanted to add additional draw to get me to my combo's a little faster.

Here are the changes I made:

Out:
1x Manamorphose
1x Land Grant
1x Lush Growth
1x Fists Of Ironwood
6x Forest
1x Khalni Garden

In:
3x Snake Umbra
1x Lay of the Land
4x Evolving Wilds
2x Plains
1x Selesnya Guildgate

Okay so as you can see I removed the 1x cards and put in x Snake Umbra. There is a place and time to do 1x card lists like this, but this deck isn't it. Here are the reasons I would do a bunch of 1x cards like this:

1) If you have some way of tutoring to get the exact card you need when you need it, then it makes sense to use a lot of 1 of cards.
2) If you want to try to mask your overall stragegy in some way by including a lot of 1x cards, this can add "card confusion". As it becomes more difficult for your opponent to decide when sideboarding, what cards in your deck are core cards and advance the overall strategy, and what ones are just tech.

I think for this deck I prefer a more solid list of cards that advance the overall strategy of the deck. Snake Umbra does this. It provides protection for the Aura Gnarlid and other creatures, as if they are destroyed, instead you just remove the umbra. And if the creature does damage to an opponent, you get to draw a card. This is a good addition to the deck list. I have a little concern about adding another 3 converted mana cost card while removing 1's and 2's though. That is why I am also adding Lay of the Land. This will help by adding an additional land drop. I almost want to include more of it, but I am not sure what I would take out. Finally I was really struggling every match to get white mana, so much that getting white mana in time actually was determining if I would win or lose, and a number of times I got stranded with Armadillo Cloak in hand instead of being able to play it. So I added an extra guildgate, 2x plains, and 4x Evolving Wilds. Evolving Wilds will allow me to fetch the exact land I would need, and also pull additional lands from the deck to make drawing power cards more likely. Certainly a great addition.

So how did it do during the next practice session?

Practice Match 4: Selesnya Beatz vs RDW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWnTn0rAQq8

I will add the additional practice matches when I get a chance. But I am very pleased with how the deck is performing now that I have tuned it some. I was feeling pretty unprepared for tomorrow nights tournament with this deck, as it just didn't feel like it was flowing right. But now I am feeling much better about it.

Yeah I have to agree with you Newish on the Torchrunner, though I admit he is tempting. I think another strong creature to consider is Intimidator Initiate. As again he could help clear the road to get that last little bit of damage in.

Wow you have created a lot of Pauper decks on here. And I love that you are organizing them by format. You are now my new favorite person on MTGVault.com and I am totally following you. hehehe.

It's funny that you have already been working on a Spikeshot Goblin deck. Me and one of my friends yesterday were just talking about our epic failures at building a good Modern Pauper Spikeshot Goblin deck. My idea was, maybe we should try build him into a Goblin deck and see how that goes.

Then I come here and see you have already done just that! hehe.

But I am curious about some of your card chocies. When I first saw this deck list I thought it must have been an old list since you seem to be missing some really powerful cards. But according to the top you posted this on 01/13/13? I would be curious to see what you think of the following cards, and if you considered them in your decisions, since I feel like they are automatics in a Modern Pauper Goblin list.

The first one is Goblin Bushwhacker, he gives all Goblins haste and +1/+0 if he is kicked. Since you can clear paths for Goblins using the Spikeshot, it makes sense then to be able to maximize you attach phase. Seems like Mr. Bushwhacker would be a good choice.

next: Mogg War Marshal. He is better than both Dragon Fodder and Krenko's command since he yields a total of 3 Goblins. And adds resilience as a blocker. Against infect that is really important as you can block with him, and then get another goblin.

Mogg Flunkies: He is a recent edition to Modern Pauper since he was re-released with M13 this past summer. But still, no one is using him yet. But I use him in my Classic Pauper deck list, so I think he should be an almost automatic here.

And this next choice is just a card I am throwing around since it works great with Spikeshot Goblin, Claws of Valakut. And it plays just as nicely on other goblins since it gives first strike. But really, it shines on the Spikeshot as it allows you to send 5 or 6 damage per turn directly to your opponent. I think it is better than any of your other enchantments you are using. Although I admit it is a little on the expensive side with a converted mana cost of 3. Just some ideas.

Hope you will have the time to comment about them.

Very interesting deck list. I was beginning to think I was the only person on here posting Modern Pauper deck lists. So have you actually played this deck list any where in a Modern Pauper tournament? If so how did it do?

I run a MTGO tournament tracking site, and Modern Pauper is one of the formats that we have events for. I find that the Modern Pauper deck list to beat is Cogs, Stars and Stripes:

http://www.mtgvault.com/dabil/decks/modern-pauper-cogs/

How do you feel this deck would do against it? If you like playing Modern Pauper it would be great to see you come and play this deck list at one of our events. We play all of our events on MTGO (Magic: The Gathering Online) and use Gatherling.com to organize the tournament, produce pairings, track results, and determine the winner. I don't remember seeing anything like this list being played in any of our events, so I always get excited to see something new come along.

My websites name is Gatherling.com. Here are a couple examples of Modern Pauper tournaments that we have run:

http://www.gatherling.com/eventreport.php?event=PK%20Modern%202.15
http://www.gatherling.com/eventreport.php?event=PK%20Modern%202.08
http://www.gatherling.com/eventreport.php?event=PK%20Modern%202.02

These links above are to 3 of the Modern Pauper events that we have run. So if you like Modern Pauper, we may be the best place for you to come and see what is developing in the Modern Pauper meta. Hope to hear from you!

I also do Classic Pauper and Standard Pauper events. If you look on my profile there are a number of Pauper deck lists I am show casing. A number of them with videos so you can see how the decks and matches play out.

I just uploaded new video's for this deck to youtube. I finally got the deck tech video uploaded, but I am going to apologize for the ugliness of the video. Seems the compression in the video made some really funky artifacts. The shading on Gatherling for example caused some issues. But despite the annoyance the video is there and watchable.

Also I uploaded practice match 3 vs Tempo Delver, which is the most popular deck in Classic Pauper right now, and has been for some time. Well enjoy, and again, feel free to leave comments.

Please feel free to follow along with the development of this deck list. I appreciate all constructive ideas that you may have for how I can improve this deck list.

The current issue I am having with this deck is with the mana base. If you watch the practice videos you will see that I keep loosing games in the matches due to not getting the white mana I need. I am wondering if I shouldn't increase the Selesnya Guildgate to 3 or 4. Or add in plains with Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds.

The Selesnya Guildgate would slow me down a turn each time I played one since it comes into play tapped. The Terramophic Expanse or Evolving Woods also would slow me down a turn since the basic land you pull comes into play tapped as well. But they also have the added benefit of thinning out your library by removing additional lands, so that it becomes more likely to draw your power spells instead of lands.

I do need to be careful how many non-forest lands I play since both Utopia Sprawl and Land Grant both need forests. But they only make up 5 cards in the deck, so maybe a wide consideration isn't necessary.

If you have an opinion feel free to jump in!

PK23 showed up at Gatherling.com again last night for one of our modern events with this deck list. Last night's Overdrive! 1.79 event had 26 Registered players. This birthing pod deck went 5-0 and again won the event, making this it's 7th event win. Pretty impressive! Think you can stop it? Feel free to come by and join us for our Modern events...

Sunday at 1:00 pm for Where Angels Fear To Tread
Monday at 8:30 pm for Overdrive!
Saturday at 7:00 am for Eurodrive!

All times are Eastern Standard time. You can pre-register for any of these events at Gatherling.com (or any of our other 10+ weekly events). All matches will then take place on Magic: The Gathering Online in the casual/anything goes room.

Yes it is a really interesting build of Pauper WW. He has answers for pretty much every common pauper deck type. If you go look at Gatherling.com, you will see that I was his first round opponent. And our matches were out right brawls. I played a removal heavy version of Pauper Izzet Post, and even then I couldn't keep his creatures off the board. It seemed like he always held the magic card to get him out of every situation. The Prismatic Strands, Crimson Acolyte, and Benevolent Unicorn all gave me fits. I had answers for them as well, but I was just a turn too slow drawing them.

In the finals he played a version of Pauper GU Elvish Melody where Holy Light really came into play. In both of his wins he was on the verge of loosing, and then played Holy Light to wipe out 15 or so elves. It was a great match to watch. I think I am going to start recording the finals of these events and put them on YouTube. Because the final round match always seems to be spectacular.

Thanks for the comment! ;)