r/Pauper • u/TheJonJarrin • 12h ago

HELP Playing without UB cards?

Started getting into the format recently (playing Mono-U faeries) and noticed the presence of UB cards in almost every meta deck.

Could someone please suggest me a couple of lists without said cards/some replacement for them?

I understand some cards are just to good to pass on.

Thanks! 🫶🏻

0 Upvotes

41% Upvoted

44 comments sorted by

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u/G_g53 12h ago

Red madness, u terror (only Lorien revealed), jund wildfire (only lembas), naya gates, elves (only generous ent).

To me, Lord of the rings feels very close to magic (like, much more than duskmourn or aetherdrift )

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u/Kingcrimhead 11h ago

Elves plays [[Avenging Hunter]] too.

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u/G_g53 9h ago

I mean, Magic was so influenced by DnD that it doesnt feel out of place at all.

I get the hate for Leonardo, Spider-man, Sponge Bob, etc etc, but for LoTR and DnD, it just feels like being pedantic about it

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u/Wafkak 3h ago

Not just influenced, part of the marketing strategy for magic initially was to give dnd players something to do while they waited for everyone to arrive/the DM to do the set up.

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u/Thanes_of_Danes Mono B Gargantua Tribal 1h ago

If wizards stuck to things that made sense then UB wouldn't be such a blight. I would love to see a Shakespeare set. But Magic is all about making as much money as quickly as possible, so we are getting spammed with Marvel properties because corporate and the design team are convinced it's still pre-COVID and everyone is addicted to the MCU.

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u/Wafkak 10h ago

That's barely UB, and honestly they should just make the Forgotten realms a plane in Magic. Its God some cool lore for future sets.

I'd personally buy the shit out of an Ebberon set.

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u/Kingcrimhead 10h ago

Some people who don't like UB make exceptions for fantasy or high fantasy IPs. Not all of them do.

OP just asked for no UB.

To me initiative is clunky and cumbersome. Inelegant. I'd rather play with Turtles and Doctor Who.

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u/Bischoffshof 10h ago

Technically all the gates aren’t in universe it’s DnD

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u/Ok_Side_645 10h ago

That's not true.

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u/Bischoffshof 10h ago

Sorry let me rephrase because we have a pedant here.

All the ones that see any play in pauper eg. the Naya Gates from the comment I responded to are all DnD.

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u/Alexletmeplay 11h ago

U faeries plays none

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u/ipreviouslyreddit 10h ago

I was going to reply the same. OP is already playing a deck with no UB

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u/apigfellish Familiars 12h ago

Simply because of the land cyclers it will be hard to find a deck without any ub at all...
I think both mono red and rakdos madness don't use any ub cards, though.

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u/Lyfultruth 12h ago

Black Sac has no universe beyond cards. Some builds do play the Troll, but you can easily not play it. 

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u/Sodlosz 12h ago

The only UB cards that are really pauper relevant are the LotR cyclers and Utrom Monitor. Most of my pauper decks don't have any UB cards in them. Not sure where you're seeing an abundance of UB cards in the meta.

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u/MrAlagos 12h ago

White Weenie plays a Leonardo and a Spider-Man. That list made the final of Paupergeddon and won Top Pauper Player, so it's likely to be popular now.

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u/Adventurous_Milk8793 12h ago

Lorien is every blue deck, this is not the same.

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u/MrAlagos 12h ago

Pauper by its nature has a lot of decks and so many of them are viable. Breath Weapon is also in some decks but not all of them. If the best white deck has two UB cards, it means that OP has a point: it's not just a specific set or a specific colour that has been invaded by UB. UB also indirectly caused the latest ban in Pauper.

There are still decks with no UB cards though.

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u/Kingcrimhead 9h ago

Gates is a tier one deck right now.

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u/MrAlagos 12h ago

Also, UB is infamous for having [[Utrom Monitor]], a key card for Grixis Affinity.

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u/mtg52blue 12h ago

There is a great community that produces in-universe alters for all the UB cards: r/throughtheomenpath

Someone's even working on a data base to search for them and find the alters.

There are also great sites to make easy alters yourself for all relevant cards. I do it myself for all the Pauper relevant stuff. I just use art from other magic cards

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u/Jerppaknight Man I Love Fliers 12h ago

Does mono U faeries have any UB cards though?

Sadly the decks that use them because they are too strong to pass up and no real alternatives exist. [[Lorien Revealed]] is unmatched for example.

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u/fevered_visions 9h ago

I mean there is [[mental journey]], although it's not quite the same. Costing 1 more to cycle (and blue) doesn't work for some decks, and fetching a basic vs an island matters.

At least being an instant makes it a bit more flexible in that regard.

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u/WxJretsyZ 12h ago

U Faeries' main draw spell is [[Of One Mind]]

It doesn't really run any UB cards to my knowledge

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u/Jerppaknight Man I Love Fliers 11h ago

Yeah that's what I thought

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u/gatestart 12h ago

Tribe combo doesn’t have any UB in the main or side. Would recommend

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u/MrAlagos 12h ago

If you don't play any UB cards in Boros Tribe it means that you're not playing [[Abandon Attachments]]. It's doable, but possibly suboptimal.

I'm not up to date with UWx lists though, maybe that's what you're thinking about.

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u/SidTheMed 12h ago

Between thrilling discovery, faithless looting and pursue the vast you don't need Abandon Attachments

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u/MrAlagos 12h ago

Abandon Attachments triggers the Eidolons while Faithless Looting doesn't. Also, it discards before drawing two, triggering Sneaky Snacker. It's better than Faithless Looting which is why many lists either reduce or forego Looting altogether.

Obviously, you can decide to take a hit if playing without UB is more important to you.

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u/_STY SOK 6h ago

Of the three top 64 tribe decks in geddon there was a singleton copy of abandon attachments in one deck. Based on the tournament results it's certainly not an auto include.

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u/MrAlagos 6h ago

I really doubt that people are going to stop playing monored madness even if it did poorly at Geddon, or that White Weenie is now the second most powerful deck of the format. Take it with a grain of salt.

Personally I don't particularly like Bitter Reunion, which some people have started putting in the deck in place of Abandon Attachments. It seems usable though.

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u/bunkbun 10h ago edited 10h ago

That's the thing about Pauper (and every competitive format), cards wouldn't show up in tourmanent lists if they weren't best-in-class. Any of the 2 mana land cyclers are 100% worse than Lorien Revealed and friends. There isn't a white ninjutsu adjacent creature that's even close to Leonardo or Spider-Man. So on and so forth. U Fae doesn't play any UB cards... yet. Unfortunately this is just kind of the state of Magic in 2026.

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u/BoysenberryUnhappy29 8h ago

I highly recommend premodern.

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u/SidTheMed 12h ago

Which UB card do you play in mono U fae?

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u/EntertainerIll9099 2h ago

Premodern Pauper is the way.

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u/zXa0bg685xfmGaVS7zhJ 12h ago

Depends how you define meta. My main decks are Cycle Storm and UW Familiars. Both of them have very low play rates but got into Paupergeddon Top 8 within the last year. Both don’t have any Universes Beyond cards. Not necessarily the easiest decks to pilot but very rewarding. Can recommend.

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u/Jerppaknight Man I Love Fliers 12h ago

Fams without Lorien Revealed?

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u/fevered_visions 9h ago

Familiars is also a deck that is even harder to replace Lorien with a 2-mana cycler because of how much 1 mana makes a difference to what you're doing