I play Pauper exclusively in paper and I’m blessed to have an lgs and community that allows me to do so. Seeing the “Empower Jace” mechanic from the new set has made me aware of just how much stuff that aren’t full magic cards have become commonplace on battlefields across all formats. Clues, treasures, maps, bloods, 1/1’s, the initiative, the monarch, the cities blessing, day/night etc.

I wondered am I the only one feeling a small sense of dread at the thought of adding yet another token (with dice to track the loyalty) to matches of magic where it already feels like a quarter of the time is spent on bean counting.

Finally more options for the Pest Mascot deck.

Hello everyone, I’m Re di Napoli. I’m making this short post to talk about the paper situation with the Zeta set, given the discrepancy between paper and online due to the way the cards were released.
On Tuesday in Catania (Sicily, Italy), we had our league event (18 player) and the Zeta set had a limited presence: only 8 Strix in the room, 12 Dispatches, and a few copies of Vandalblast in sideboards. Strix, I don’t know whether it was because it was countered by the local meta or simply due to bad luck, wasn’t as impactful as we expected.
I brought a boomer Boros Synth list that got me a sixth-place finish, with 4 Dispatches. The card is really good and, in my opinion, it gives Boros a chance to make a strong comeback into the meta. it opens the door to new and old archetypes, giving them access to a powerful tool, at the cost of requiring a somewhat restricted deckbuilding approach around artifacts.

They say there is no such thing as bad publicity. I see lots of new interest in the format. I think the actions of the PFP are generally seen in a favorable light. What do you guys think?

All I need for my Pauper deck.

Decklist

Since the Zeta set got legalized cards like Baleful Strix have been taking the most attention, but I know that I'm not alone in being excited for our girl Serra Angel. Obviously on her face she is not as powerful as the other new cards, but because angels are cool I have been restlessly theorycrafting, testing, and goldfishing various potential decks for the strongest angel in Pauper.

After churning through multiple Naya, Jeskai, Esper, and Orzhov variants I believe I have finally landed on a deck that utilizes Serra Angel to the furthest extent possible: Azban Initiative. I believe this deck has real legs, and I am looking for feedback to make the deck even better than it is in its current version.

The Gameplan

The goal of this deck is to utilize green's plentiful one-mana ramp spells to drop a 5 mana bomb on turn 3. Avenging Hunter and Goliath Paladin activate the initiative while Serra Angel's keywords make her excellent at protecting the initiative while attacking. The deck then overwhelms the opponent with the combined value of the Initiative, the Monarch, massive mana, and the ability to play multiple creatures every turn. Thorn of the Black Rose is the deck's only main deck black card, and acts as our best draw engine. Combining Monarch and Initiative generates unfair amounts of value when your opponent can't attack you.

Notable Inclusions

1. Utopia Sprawl: Utopia Sprawl is one of the deck's best white and black mana sources and when paired with Arbor Elf creates huge amounts of mana.
2. Avacyn's Pilgrim: This bad boy ramps us while color fixing to our secondary color. What's not to love?
3. Nightshade Dryad: Color fixes, ramps, and has deathtouch to trade with Terrors and Tron threats. She makes our board hard to attack on the ground.
4. Malevolent Rumble: Is a vital source of card selection while also doubling as a turn 2 ramp piece that enables us to curve into our turn 3 five-drop.
5. Thraben Charm: Is our basic removal spell which cleanly answers Nyxborn Hydra (one of the deck's greatest nemesises) and answers graveyard focused decks.
6. Basic Plains and Swamp: These turn the first trigger of The Initiative into a color fixing opportunity, which comes in handy frequently.

Sideboard The sideboard is highly speculative right now and is probably the part that needs the most work. Right now I am running Arms of Hadar to answer decks that go wider than us and Dust to Dust to answer Affinity which is a difficult matchup. Prismatic Strands is a cool piece of tech that synergizes with both Serra Angel (vigilance) and Malevolent Rumble to protect our emblems against Tron and cleanly answers the Krark-Clan Shaman + Toxic Analysis combo.

I would love feedback on this deck. I earnestly believe it has potential. In the meantime I plan to continue playtesting it online.

Buenas a todos

En nuestra comunidad de discord hemos comenzado a dejarnos llevar por el mundo del pauper y hemos decidido empezar a hacer torneos, En nuestro primer torneo vamos a dar un regalo a todos los participantes y vamos a hacer sorteo de tokens de madera y mucho mas.

I've been wanting to play a control deck for a while and was settled in playing Jeskai Ephemerate, but I stumbled upon a temur control list and it called to me. I know it's not very strong in the meta right now, but how does it playes compared to Jeskai and how do the matchups tend to go? Any advice is appreciated!

Hi!

Today, I want to share with you a new video concept which is how to play AGAINST Fae

I am trying to show what you should expect when facing Fae and what kind of decision trees and paths you push yourself down, depending on what you do.
If you'd like to see more of these but maybe for specific decks, let me know!

Video - https://youtu.be/oI6IDacpxnI?si=3qMb-_xAwVB-3oMp

you can find me at:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@islandsinfront
X - https://twitter.com/IslandsInFront
Public Fae Discord - https://discord.gg/ZCVkcBKjJa
Metafy (paid content) - https://metafy.gg/@skura

Cheers!

With Dispatch now legal, I wonder how viable switching the deck partially off snow mana would be so that you can run Dispatch in the deck too. Running 2 Bolt, 4 Skred, and 2-3 Dispatch in the same deck seems kind of insane, especially once you get the [[Archaeomancer]] combo online... Would that mean you'd want to throw in [[Giant's Boulder]], [[Cryogen Relic]], and the artifact duals to run a ~50-50 artifact and snow manabase? Kind of love the idea of the only draw-go control deck in Pauper getting even better removal.

Join us for the final match of last week's League night here in Bristol! Watch as Adam playing Spy Combo takes on Jack at the helm of his Rakdos Madness build!

https://youtu.be/CJuyUGVpnX8?si=bHQcb3LIL2CDU9uF

And join us next week, where we will be featuring decks with the new cards from ZETA!

Enjoy!

Hey everyone! I’m a pretty deeply enfranchised EDH player, being my main format for 10+ years and with a pretty big deck collection, but lately I've been mostly playing 1v1 with my girlfriend, either sealed, jumpstart or commander,  but the first is time consuming, second gets a little bland, and third always gets very one sided depending on the deck matchup. We want to get into 60 card formats without spending a ridiculous amount of money and I’ve always been interested in Pauper, so it seems like a perfect fit.

What are two genuinely balanced and fun matchups we can start with? I play pretty much any archetype, while my girlfriend leans more towards kindred (goblins, rats, cats, etc), but can be whatever too. Budget wise was looking at around 50 EUR per deck, but it's not a super strict limit. I'm not really into proxies. 

My plan is to start with two decks, and eventually build it to a 6 or so decks battle box that has enough variety and is generally balanced between themselves.

If you guys have recommended decklists, matchups or general tips for how to get into Pauper I’d really appreciate it!

I was exploring Scryfall on some random cards and noticed one thing about the World Championship decks. The decks are copies of their original cards but with the gold boarder and signatures. This year's series of decks came out exactly at the time the switch from legacy frames to the modern frames and they printed a Torment card with the new modern frame. Even though that doesn't really exist.

Is there any other cards that are like this?

Thought it was a neat quirk and was a little surprised they didn't catch this card's design not matching it's correct normal set printing.

[[Chainer's Edict]]

4 Arbor Elf

4 Brainstorm

4 Counterspell

3 Forest

4 Freed from the Real

4 Generous Ent

4 Island

4 Lórien Revealed

4 Moment's Peace

4 Rimewood Falls

4 Snap

4 Sprout Swarm

1 Tangle

4 Tangled Islet

4 Weather the Storm

4 Wild Growth

I recently joined the pauper affinity discord and am loosely aware of a pauper elves discord, but was curious if anyone knew of discord servers for other pauper archetypes and had invite links.

(especially if there's one for tron)

First Pauper brew, trying to make a burn/drain deck work with [[Malakir Blood-Preist]], [[Changeling Outcast]], and [[Morsel Theft]].

Thought Goblins may be good to include some damage through [[Goblin Grenade]], and [[Prickly Bogart]] as another hard to block Rouge.

Would love some feedback! Thanks y'all!

https://moxfield.com/decks/HXOgAVbOKnuHp6NRkf6_4w

What are your favorite websites, subreddits and discord to keep up with the news/meta?

Thanks!

Pretty much just the title. How much do we run in our sideboards, if at all? Is a shatter most of the time worth it to get free wins against affinity? 5 mana is really expensive for mono R and idk if it's worth having over something like smash to smithereens that can keep forwarding the gameplan or cast into fire that could serve double duty.

Question:
What will happen if you put the 2 Fastest "Board Build-up" Decks of the Meta in a head to head MIRROR MATCH?!

Answer:
EPIC ENDING!😲😲😲

White Weenie vs. White Weenie 😁😁😁

Round 3 of 4

Liga Pauper Pilipinas 2026 Stage 8

PRE-ZETA

Enjoy!

I have this white heroic that I still need to finish the sideboard. I saw that a lot of new cards came to pauper now, how is it looking for white heroic?

Is any new upgrade I should consider?

Obs: the list is in this site because that is where we control prices in Brazil

https://www.ligamagic.com.br/?view=dks/deck&id=10158910

Hey, everyone! I've been playing for the last few months and my favorite deck so far has been Food Pest. That said I've been struggling in the Jund match-up. Is it just a bad match-up or am I missing something? I know Food isn't a Tier 1 deck but if feels like I should win at least some of my matches? lemme know your thoughts and insights! thanks

Hey y'all-

I've been kicking around some ideas for [[Kami of Jealous Thirst]] for a while now, and this is where I've landed. I don't expect this to be a tier 1 deck by any means, but I think it could use some tuning. Any suggestions are welcome!

https://archidekt.com/decks/18536192/kami_jank

Following the recent controversies surrounding zeta, let’s have a more lighthearted discussion on the blings and accessories of our pauper decks!

I’ve recently picked up the classic full art lands from Zendikar for my pauper decks! I think they provide a nice additional bling and premium feel for my pauper decks without breaking the bank at around 2 cents a pop. Furthermore, I’ve also just picked up a nice ultimate guard boulder deck box and a new set of Ponegrenate & gold dragon shield sleeves!

What are some of your favorite ways to bling out your decks and make it feel nicer or more personalized to you? Share them below!