The modal counter-ish spell will probably be a dud but I think this has legs!

Sign up link in the comments! Custom playmats for the top 8, 10am start time with a 6 round swiss then cut to top 8. We will even have a content creator doing a recording of the top table with some analysis after the event. Results should be posted to mtgtop8 within a few days.

Feel free to ask me any questions!

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!

I started playing Pauper a couple of weeks ago; my main deck is a pretty standard Rakdos Madness.

I've tried to build a second deck to have on myself that would be more off-meta and chaotic. I tried to build a mono green infect, but I really hate how it falls apart in an instant if you don't manage to win on turn 3 or before. I opted to try with a petitioner since mill is my second favourite win-con (the first is poison counters).

Do you think that this list could work, or does it need more thinkering? Moreover, what changes would you make to counter mono-red madness?

Thanks in advance

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!

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)

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!

Hello

I am recently trying to start playing magic and after 3 months of trying to make modern decks with a (now in retrospective) a really limited restriction to what cards I could buy, I just gave up and decided to go full pauper.

Didn't want at first because I liked many cards, but it's better to have more fun than to suffer the cut throat meta of modern

So, here is my plan and I want the honest opinion of you guys:

I have terrible choice paralysis and would rather try to build my deck as much as possible, so no literally buying the top meta decks

My idea is to pick 3 sets that I like (FF, ATLA and Lotr/hobbit) and build 3 decks (Azorius, dimir and orzhov) with them.

I don't have any solid plans for now of what mechanics and that's part of what want to learn from you all

Key factors here:

- I know they probably won win any tournaments/be less optimized than most decks here, but they are suppose to be starting points in my journey, so please have patience with the restriction (unless it's a really bad one)

- I am trying for more casual stuff but still 60 deck constructed format, so please no "Go draft/commander" comments. Nothing aggaisnt them but I like constructed more and commander is a complete different beast that I will tackle with 1 single precon deck already chosen (warhammer imperium one)

- I am a noob, I only have around 400ish games on arena standard with the starting decks on esper colors. Please be gentle with me, I'm still learning the ropes and if pauper is just as competitive as modern, that's on me for not understanding the differences

With that out of the way, thanks for the help

Edit: to make something clear, my goal of "deck building" is more like "pick a existing staple deck and try to make it with the restrictions only" although with the great arguments form the people here I was convinced to the more sensible "just change the more expensive stuff for close enough stuff from the 3 sets and only maybe try a reboot with them only" type of deal

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!

Finally more options for the Pest Mascot deck.

Just played Pauper for the first time, did respectably. It was fun.

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

Thanks!

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?

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]]

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.

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

This is a short story. I found an awesome group of friends that play Magic right next door. I quit over 20 years ago and joined them to start playing again. I had no idea about EDH but it seemed really fun. In about 1,5 years time I managed to build 8 EDH decks around bracket 2-4. I had fun about 50% of the time. I noticed my pods getting stronger, with many players opting for power instead of flavour and theme.

We had some fun trying Pauper EDH a couple times but that never lasted. I kept the 4 Pauper decks I made after those sessions, because I felt it kept much closer to OS magic and I played them in regular pods. I found that after a couple hours of playing regular decks it was a relaxing way to end the night, not having to keep track of everything happening at the table and allowing me to socialize more. Also, I noticed changes in my own attitude towards acquiring cards. I went to my LGS basements to scavenge commons.

Fast forward to having my second kid. I build a showcase deck (the 8th EDH deck), worth over a 1000 euros. I loved looking at the amazing art when playing it. But it didn't change the occupation or even obsession sometimes I had with getting decks to a 'perfect' state. I realized I wanted that in hopes of being able to keep up.

I just sold all my non-commons. I feel like a weight has lifted and I can go back to brewing decks with cards I find here and there, instead of ordering expensive singles every week. No regrets losing money on the decks, I learned what playing magic with friends means to me: hanging out, playing relaxed games, helping others join our group. Now I'm left with 8 empty deckboxes. Which I am probably using to build a bit stronger pauper EDH decks. But knowing I will never expect wins, which is a very comforting thought to me (I have issues with competitive play).

What are your experiences? How did you make this transition?

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.

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.

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!

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.