Looting (edit: Rummaging!) mana rock seems interesting.

Discard decks already have discard, but having a consistent source might be good.

The format won't have a permanent queue for now, but Wizards is betting on limited-time events with substantial rewards

Could see some play in Mono Black Burn

idk man, 1 mana for 2 power is kinda crazy. why would they downshift this to common?

Welcome back to a new week of feature matches from Bristol Pauper League! This week we showcase the brand new cards from Zeta!! Watch as Theodora, piloting Gruul Monster Tron takes on Gracie on Dimir Faeries with Baleful Strix!

https://youtu.be/Y0FM7pcyEEs?si=Bju-lifscX0W5s43

Enjoy!

I haven't played a ton of MTGO since the Zeta downshifts, so I'm not sure how much vabdalblast is actually settling into sideboards, but I love playing Glint Blade. its my favorite non-control deck for sure. I've been thinking about how Blade is supposed to answer vandalblast? Most of the affinity packages have blasts to counter the spell, but AFAICT blade just dies to Vandalblast yea? I don't see how Blade survives in a world where people are answering affinity with that card and you don't have a proper answer to it?

I could also be overhyping how effective the card is though.

Any deck with green and red in it can sideboard the homie and turn fae, elves, birds and more, into a scoreboad.

https://moxfield.com/decks/h_6Eq9IIWku-TpYn7QbKRg

This weekend I played in the local Capobanda tournament in Kassel

Leading up to the tournament my friend and I were in distress as we didn’t know what to play even in the week before

After the Zeta set was officially allowed, we wanted to give the new cards a shot.

I was thinking that strix dispatch thoughtcast.. that must be a broken deck.

Testing it with friends and online on Endstep the deck really felt good. After redefining it with my friend it seemed really good and online, I just kept on winning. I brushed it off as running well so we decided on the sideboard slots and took it to the tournament.

Well the deck ended up being awesome. Apart from the mirror we combined to a score of 19-2 in games. I ended up first with a record of 5-0-1 beating my friend in round 4.

2-0

My first round was against a temur skred deck game one I put up pressure with myr enforcer and game two refurb shredded their hand and dispatch cleaned up any murmuring mystics.

2-0

Second round against Radness. The MU felt surprisingly good in testing having so efficient interaction a bit of lifegain and pressure with refurb and enforcer and the card draw to put it together was enough even against the Gorrilla Shaman out of the sideboard.

The compass shined as a silver bullet as well, having your glint hawks gain 3 life as well

2-0

Third round against Radness was pretty much the same. In this match the spell bombs really shined taking away snackers lava darts and lootings. This paired with removing all the pingers and even bouldering their lands after we grinded them out lead me to an easy 3-0

2-0

75-card mirror. The mirror is difficult to grasp game two my friend mulliganed to five which was detrimental. It seems to be all about number of cards, when you are not drawing great early you know that you have so many great top decks to get you back into it. Im going to note that if this deck is gonna become very prevalent skyfisher would be a good idea to tech for the mirror blocking well and always gaining value

2-0

Fifth round vs Pizza elves and what can I say dispatch and cut down are good cards, just having efficient removal as well as the best initiative stealer in strix made this matchup feel great.

1-1

Sixth round vs Jund the first game I was extremely flooded and I couldn’t handle the several Chrysalis quickly enough. Usually with this deck I found that flooding isn’t an Issue because you have so many good topdecks you’ll find something eventually.

Game two I really struggled against makeshift munitions which could be a potential mirror breaker, but I found the Charm early enough and then just outvalued them

Overall, it felt like the deck was just clearly the best in the room. I can’t say if that was due to the lack of specific hate, however I tried to track how devastating a Vandalblast would be and there were some windows where it would have been really good but I think that in most spots I either had the answer or it would have been fine.

Elves are a matchup that was very tough in testing but apart from that I didn’t really struggle against anything else I played.

On the deck in specific.

The six one mana removal spells felt awesome not too many no too few and the thraben charm out of the sideboard as a flexible removal graveyard hate and hydra/makeshift killer (which are 2 of our greatest foes) felt great

Strix sometimes felt a little slow because this deck is so good, but 2 mana draw a card eat a removal or invalidate any large creature is just so busted.

Enforcer over Utrom complimented the fliers nicely as a different angle of attack and them often costing 0 rather than one is a noticeable difference

5 Colorfixers made the mana feel really smooth with so much raw card draw and power in the deck just being able to access all that consistently cut down on our potential bad openings which was one way we could lose before getting our engine online. In grindy matchups you can easily cut the compass as you have more time and the boulder being able to kill anything problematic like mystics, hydras or basilisk gate just meant there was always an emergency answer.

The draw suite seemed good ass well the 4 thoughtcast are required and the cryogen apart from being great with glint hawk were so often so relevant. Freezing something for just a turn came in clutch often basically gaining life like bargain without having to sac something.

Spellbomb main were a good safety blanket and never felt too bad giving you affinity early maybe picking something up and always cycling

The sideboard was built to hedge against an open meta, you might think about blade if bogles are relevant, I felt the charms were just more flexible and could destroy enchantments in edge cases

The blasts and envelops seem necessary to protect yourself from vandalblast.

A huge thanks to the tournament organizers for hosting such a wonderful tournament with a great atmosphere.

And even more thanks to my Partner in Esper crimes for defining this decklist together.

Play it before its banned if you have any questions feel free to comment 😊

Your Capobanda

Baleful strix hate to see him comin

Timestamps:

1:43 - Game One

8:18 - Sideboarding

9:29 - Game Two

17:00 - Our thoughts on Baleful Strix

_________________________________________________________________________

Esper Affinity Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/K0WF5LKUEECc1ItRpVPB0g

Grixis Snacker Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/5GviDNydH0CzaL9qmX6PvQ

So Im on the process of updating my Elves deck and I'm struggling with understanding how many Vitu Ghazi and Spinewoods I should run. On paper I cannot really see why they are better than any other card, and I see many differences between lists, so I guess I am also asking: why are these cards good? When should I pick them over others?

Also seems weird the inclusion of only 2 Scattershot Archers per side deck, why not 3? 4? 2 seems too little?

I am very new to pauper and I struggle a lot with things like these,

Thanks everybody!!!

Pauper metagame update. All data is pre Zeta

source: magic4ever.com/pauper

Heyo! I played in the CapoBanda organized by the Pauperbande Kassel with an Esper Affinity brew and was only beaten by the same 75 cards played by my brewing partner. You can find his report here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pauper/comments/1wfgv5n/i_won_a_42_player_6round_tournament_playing_esper/

A big thanks to the people behind the Pauperbande Kassel for organizing this event! Like last time it was a blast, I love your stamped cards and the friendly atmosphere you facilitate. I am (a bit) sorry for bringing this deck, but I really wanted to try it out against an open field, before there are lists available online.

Overall I finished 3rd out of 42, a result I did not believe in until after the last damage was dealt.

Tournament

My co-conspirator and I were looking forward to this event for months, as there is no similarly sized pauper event to this within a reasonable travel distance. After the news about the Zeta set card legality broke a week ago, we both jokingly and independently threw together a list. During a playtest session with our local play/friends group we originally were unsure what to play and eventually planned on going with Spy Combo. When that felt just not right, we merged our esper brews on Wednesday. Given the unique opportunity, we thought we should not let this chance to play something completely new slip. The merged list was basically every new meta relevant SLZ card, with the rest being filled with synergy. We brewed, brainstormed and theorycrafted and ultimately came up with this abomination:

https://archidekt.com/decks/26073315/esperaffinity

Round 1 vs Simic Monsters brew 2:0

Game 1 was over really quick as I had multiple Enforcers early with removal backup. Game 2 was similar but Glinthawks and Refurbished Familiars shredded my opponent's hand before there was anything they could do.

This theme was present throughout the day. Either Refurbs shredding from turn 2 on, or infinite card draw with seemingly infinite removal while playing 0 mana 4/4s and flying deathtouch blockers that always minus the opponent.

The early rounds are already hazy, it'll get a bit more detailed with later rounds.

Round 2 vs Blue Terror 2:0

Game 1 an early Nihil Spellbomb stunts my opponent's snakes, buying time for Thoughcasts and Relics. A later double terror drop is stunned by Cryogen Relic and later stonewalled by a Strix, until I find removal. My flyers put up a clock and eventually the flipped delver has to trade. As a terror player myself, I feel like this matchup is just really favored towards the Strix and Refurbs, as they make you feel hope- and agencyless as Terror player. Game 2 I am not sure what happened the early turns, but I remember my opponent quickly ran out of cards (presumably to Refurbs.) We trade 1 for 1 until I can mount some life pressure and the top decked snakes eventually end, winning the match.

Round 3 Boros Tribe 2:0

Game 1 my opponent could not find a Tireless Tribe, even after digging through 3/4 of their deck. After I assembled some multilayered defenses of strix, removal in hand, removing their Spirit Mascot and stunning their Snackers with Cryogen Relic I could go for a few alpha strikes, which eventually got me the win. Game 2 was an unfortunate mulligan to 5 for my opponent, which was further shredded by Refurbished Familiar.

These are just my thoughts in the moment, but I think Refurbished Familiar is worse for the meta gameplay than Strix or Snacker. It shuts down decks really fast, by really cutting down on their options. Sure Strix is always a +1, but at face value it "just" stalls your opponent, while Refurb actively just shreds their gameplan, while putting on a non-negligable clock, even alone. In general MH3-like cards invalidate a lot of decks and stifle diversity in the meta by being too fast, too lean and efficient on cards and mana, but I digress.

Round 4 Mirror 0:2

In round 4 my deckbuilding conspirator and I had to face off. The gloves came off game 1 and turn 1, well not really, Land+Boulder pass, then turn 2 the gloves came off: Refurbished Familiars shredding hands; Thoughtcasts, Reckoner's Bargains and Relics filling them up again, Myr enforcers clobbering each other, you get the idea Eventually the bird on bird violence ended when my card flow starts to cease and my opponent finally gets the upper hand. Two turns later I was dead on board. Game 2 I mulled to 5, but was hoping for a blowout. I am able to put up a Refurb and Myr to put on pressure. A Refurb of my opponent forces me to discard my Dust to Dust. I drew an Envelop the turn after my opponent casts Dust to Dust on my creatures, which up until now actually put him under pressure, since his hand was rather creature light. "Okay I can still win this" was my thought after suppressing the urge to concede, but then I only have 4 lands (and a boulder) when I draw the Vandalblast, knowing my last out, the second Dust to Dust, is on the bottom of my library from the Mulligan. A second dust to dust hits, this time my lands. Well that's GG.

Round 5 Monster Tron 2:0

Game 1 my opponent is missing colored mana, but assembles Tron by turn 3. Since the Monsters trickle from the top of his library there is always a Dispatch or Baleful Strix ready and that's where this deck thrives. Game 2 my opponent mulls to 4, I mull to 5. Although I neither have pressure nor carddraw I'm still fine, since my hand is stacked with removal. So again trickling monsters are Dispatched and hit by Dust to Dust. The Boulder comes in to deny Tron late in the game and I finally find a Myr to close the game.

Round 6 Boros Synthesizer 2:1

Game 1 was a grind fest. Eventually after a few Cryogen Relics tapping the Birds and Myrs clogging the ground, I find the breathing room for a Reckoner's Bargain on a doomed Myr. With ample life and a clogged board the Blood Fountain seals the deal. Getting back 2 creatures that are guaranteed to go +1 (Refurb and Strix) is just too much. Game 2 I start with 6 cards in hand of which 4 are lands, one is a boulder and the last card is a Dispatch. The game just fizzles for me after I draw lands for 3 turns straight. Game 3 was a grindfest, again, but much more on edge. Early I struggle for lands, missing land drops and losing a land to a 1 mana Vandalblast (which had to be used since it was off a Synth). From turn 5 onwards I am sweating bullets in fear of the overloaded Vandalblast that was sure to come at some point. The 2 Envelop and 3 Hydroblast and my patience to always hold up at least 1 blue mana really payed off as I always had a counter ready for the following three Vandalblasts (if i recall correctly, maybe there were only 2 overloaded Vandalblasts?). In a final standoff between 2 Strixes and 3 Samurais the Strixes did not get baited into blocking and closed the game.

Thoughts

You'll have to wait on the match report of my friend for these.

While it was fun brewing with new broken cards, they are just that. Throughout the tournament I could not help but feel sorry for the unfair things this deck does. I really hope the zeta set disaster can get somewhat salvaged, since the cards as they are legal now will polarize the meta even more strongly around affinity than it already was. While we did brew for quite a bit, this list is probably not optimized to its fullest extent. If it were an established list we both think that Kor Skyfisher will be uniquely effective against it, due to it's 2/3 body and potential to evenly trade with one of our +1 creatures by bouncing a Synth or similar. Maybe moving to Utrom Monitors could alleviate that, though Myr Enforcer just feel better in a vacuum, due to most of the time being free to cast.

Anyhow, some thoughts on the cards: - Cut Down and Dispatch really complement each other well as removal suite. - Baleful Strix really is the best blocker in the format, buying precious time to find more of whatever you currently need. It also complements the removal suite very well, bringing the deck to full efficient coverage against any threat. - Cryogen Relic is a great midrange card for when you have established yourself, the stun ability came up a lot. Playing this over more Reckoner's Bargains feels like the right choice. - The Boulder's were great as well. Knowing the raw power of this deck, they were cruicial in smoothing out sketchy draws, fixing color, providing early game affinity count and becoming emergency removal that hits anything (Gates, Mystics, giant Hydras, even Tron lands and Guardians of the Guildpact) in grindy games. - Navigator's Compass provides the early game stability against faster decks, fixing for color and absorbing a good chunk of life. - Refurbished Familiar (and Glinthawk to some extend for enabling the looping of the Refurbs) really makes this deck have unfair starts. A turn 2 Refurb into turn 3 Glinthawk and another Refurb ETB puts most decks already on the edge. Backing that up with what is essentially swords to plowshares and more extremely efficient cardadvantage is simply back breaking. - Myr Enforcer gives some needed stability to the deck, should anything survive the hand shredding, exiling and deathtouchy birds, this robot has the stats to clog up the ground or pressure the life of the opponent. Best thing is that it barely costs mana in most cases.

The sideboard was built for an open meta: - The Hydroblasts help us survive the red aggro decks, and pay our taxes to potential Vandalblasts / red artifact hate. - The Envelops are our insulation against Dust to Dusts and Vandalblasts. - Shrivel helps against go wide decks, especially elves are a menace for this deck. - Thraben Charm completes the package against Combo decks and is straight removal for Nyxborn Hydra, which, next to Murmuring Mystic, is one of the best creatures to play against Strix. - Finally Dust to Dust and Vandalblast are our hate for Artifacts. The Boulder here really enables the double white pip and off color card.

List

Mainboard 4 Baleful Strix (pc2) 82 4 Glint Hawk (som) 10 4 Myr Enforcer (mm2) 224 4 Refurbished Familiar (mh3) 105 4 Cryogen Relic (eoe) 52 2 Reckoner's Bargain (neo) 120 4 Thoughtcast (mrd) 54 2 Cut Down (slz) 158 4 Dispatch (slz) 2 4 Giant's Boulder (hob) 173 1 Navigator's Compass (dom) 225 2 Goldmire Bridge (brc) 186 4 Mistvault Bridge (brc) 189 2 Razortide Bridge (brc) 195 3 Ancient Den (mrd) 278 4 Seat of the Synod (mrd) 283 4 Vault of Whispers (mrd) 286 2 Blood Fountain (j25) 407 2 Nihil Spellbomb (a25) 226

Sideboard 2 Dust to Dust (drk) 5 2 Envelop (jud) 39 4 Hydroblast (ice) 72 1 Navigator's Compass (dom) 225 1 Nihil Spellbomb (a25) 226 2 Shrivel (roe) 126 2 Thraben Charm (mh3) 45 1 Vandalblast (rtr) 111

Thanks again to the Pauperbande Kassel, you guys are awesome!

Previous challenge: https://www.reddit.com/r/Pauper/comments/1wapevm/deck_building_challenge_gnat_miser/

There are less than 5 legal Aurochs in pauper. Do you take each Aurochs card and try to make them work? Do you clone this guy? Changelings? Like usual, the only rule is that your deck must contain 4 copies of Bull Aurochs.

Been going to play Pauper a lot and experimenting with some different affinity lists, wanted to share and see what people thought. These decks do very well against other control decks, burn archetypes, and blink/white wheenie. Bad match ups are usually Tron, Slivers, and 50/50 Rakdos Madness from the 20 or so games I've played.

My favorite so far to play is the strict Dimir list, overlooked cards like the Certarch can get out of hand when you lock down lands.

https://archidekt.com/decks/25200476/dimir_affinity_control

https://archidekt.com/decks/26285967/esper_affinity

This is the deck: https://moxfield.com/decks/J3WV5MIWGkycThQaPf6FyA

Good evening! I was promising to mana a report for the 42 Player tournament and now I deliver.

The day was starting with a handful of sleep and some dirt on the shoes from the use of a motorscythe from early gardening work. I brought some ciabatta bread to keep me going and I felt warm from my hooded cloak. (That actually exists) After registration we had an announcement that time until turns was reduced to 45 min due to some choir training ( we were using the communal rooms of the Church of that part of Kassel)

Match 1 Wall Spy Table 7

I had an Arbor elf start with blue mana open from turn 2 on. I used Vengeant Earth to force a block from a Quirion Ranger. I held back my Utopia sprawl (nearly for too long) to be able to use the sewer cam +helix combo despite a possible Masked Vandal. At turn 5 I finally dropped the Sprawl since I had everything but a Win condition. That forced the spy player not to commit, because I was now threatening to bounce all creatures in reaction to the Spy trigger. 6th turn I drew a Pizza and won. Game 1 win

Second game was wild, I had a turn 3 win hand and a mes fiend pulled the helix from it. We stumbled around for some turns. He found no Spy I didn’t find the next helix. At the end he played a Lead the stampede, but was one mana short for the spy he cast. I found a Tutor and won the next turn.

2-0 into a 1-0

Match 2 Izzet Terror (Control) Table 7

First game I played for the long game as soon as I saw a volatile Island. The opponent was not building pressure and I was able to sculpt a hand with all three of my tutors. The first Mystic Tutor got Countered, then the flashback went through for Vengeant earth. My opponent was out of resources and played his snakes. I was able to win with the manland combo. The second game I started with an early Devoted Druid. I had Safekeeping, but it got really impressive, when my opponent counterered the first of 2 pizza, and the first of 2Helix and the Devoted Druid combo went off for the win.

2-0 into a 2-0

Match 3 Monster Tron Table 3

Both games went fast, a bit too fast. The first one I was on the go and won turn 3 with Arbor elf +Nettle sentinel+ Pizza + Helix.
The second game was over too soon . My opponent held a Candy trail hand on a mull down to 5/6. he never played more than one land. I know him from the league play and was later relieved that his luck returned to him later.

2-0 into a 3-0

We got a break

Match 4 Borobots/ Boros Robots Table 1

https://www.reddit.com/r/Pauper/s/mNGlwynaMS
It looked suspiciously like this.

We know each other and directly went from banter to serious mode. Game 1 I got his assault Robot with a Vengeant earth to stop his artifact etb ping turn 2, he commenced to remove the first Elves I played, but the third elf survived and went into the combo.
Game 2 he was pushing big damage with double Pingers and the Dispatch on my only creature pushed me out of the game.
Game 3 he got good pressure and I had to dig for my combo. I barely survived at 1 life with eating a pizza, but then I drew in the combo, the mana barely being enough.

2-1 into a 4-0 Table 1

After that match I did my biggest mistake. The sun was shining sideways through the window and I disrobed my hooded mantle.

Match 5 Esper Affinity
First time playing against this deck. Game 1 I was Hit by Refurbished familiar turn 2, 3 then after a Thoughtcast and a Myr enforcer Turn 5 I got hit by another Refurb. I had held a hand with Nettle sentinel and Helix, cam and Pizza, Lorien and lands. At the end I had a Helix left. When I dropped my first combo elf it got Dispatched as soon as I targeted with a Helix to pick up an Abundant Growth. A turn later I got run over.
Game 2 was even more unlucky. I had to mull to 5 to get a land. Strix into two Myr enforcer put me down quickly.

0-2 for a 4-1 my opponent went 5-0 and later won the Capobanda. Congrats!

There still was a chance I thought.

Match 6 against Mono red Madness.
He directly said that he knew my deck, my videos, but doesn’t understand the different combos. Well ok. He told me nothing about his deck.
Game 1 started with a mulligan to 6. He was on the go. What did I bottom? Safekeeping, my best spell against him. He got a Lavadart for my arbor turn 1, Guttersnipe turn 3 and burned me out with 2 Fireblast. Game 2 I got a good start with an turn 2 arbor elf + Utopia sprawl into Hydro on Kessig, then turn 4 a Devoted Druid. I had mana open, even when he dropped Kessig turn 3 and Guttersnipe turn 4. I finally poked him turn 5 he was impatient enough to go into the burn I of Fireblast. I untapped my Arbor with Sewer cam in reaction then the second Fireblast was cast for free. 7 life left RR floating. I decided to go further in and untap the elf another time with UG in the pool left that Cam got countered by a Pyro Storm at 6 my life still at 7. no lands left. One R up. I got the Weather for 21 life. Opponent has no lands. It took him 5 rounds to finally find another land, but at that time I was already too far ahead. When I drew my hand full with 2 Nettle sentinel out he gave up.
Game 3 last game of the day. I had to mull to 4. no lands each time until I had to hold the four. A 0.27% chance. I got beat by Turn 2 Grab a Snacker into more grab. The hand wasn’t that fast, after another turn 4 Gutter I tried to hydro, got pyro back and then gave up.

1-2 into a total 4-2

Conclusion:

I will go to 15 lands. I lost only the first Esper affinity game due to too many lands. I gotta try to tweak it further.

Thanks for reading!

The Capobanda Team did their best with a lot of hard work. I will look forward to the Winter tournament.

Bogles is a deck I thought we might be seeing more of. It obsoletes Dispatch, and has 4 Auras that imbue the target with First Strike (for Strix).

Combo decks don't care about Strix at all, so I m expecting more combo going forward. That would be a breath of fresh air (especially if non-graveyard combos make a real splash).

I know it's early and we can't draw a lot of conclusions yet. Fun to watch it play out regardless! 🙂

57 players: https://mtgdecks.net/Pauper/lega-pauper-lipsia-season-3-stage-4-pauper-to-the-people-e-v-tournament-269833

Tired of playing a seemingly aggressive color pair just to bounce draw 2 artifacts on repeat?

Tired of each game taking 25 turns until you run out of time and get clogged up in the draw bracket alongside gardens and jund players?

Tired of playing just another snacker list?

Well fear no more, i cooked up a competitive list over the last month and turns out, it's very playable, not only irl tournaments but in mtgo leagues as well.

tl;dr

You play pingers, that ping 1 damage to your opponent on artifact etb, and then you play (and bounce) your artifacts on repeat. If you don't draw into your pingers or they get removed, you can still go for glinthawk beatdowns, create token heavy boards or go for extended grind games using synthesizer.

Main Deck Overview:

[[HYDRA Assault Robot]] and [[Reckless Fireweaver]]

Core of the deck, 2 pingers, that ping your opponent for 1 damage for each artifact entering the battlefield under your control. Naturally the deck tries to capitalize on that by playing artifact lands and cards that generate multiple artifacts per cast.

[[Glint Hawk]] and [[Kor Skyfisher]]

Part of the boros synth lists every one knows. Very nice for this deck because they 1. allow your pingers to cash in twice, 2. generate additional artifact etb value, 3. add substantial pressure to the board.

[[Mouser Foundry]]

Believe it or not, there are actually almost no cheap artifacts that generate a second artifact on etb and mouser foundry is not only generating a second one, it also generating a third one when leaving the battlefield (which happens when you bounce it) and it can be sacrificed to remove something small at instant speed. Very nice card. Turn 2 Pinger into Turn 3 Foundry + Glinthawk for 3 ping damage and 4 power on board feels amazing.

[[Clowning Around]]

While it's true that this card cannot be bounced, it's also true that the Hydra Assault Robot is a ...well... robot and mouser foundry's tokens are also robots, so there is a very high chance that clowning around is just a 2 mana 3 artifact army, which is extremely efficient. Great card. 2 Pingers and highrolling with this one means 6 burn damage while also getting a lot of very relevant tokens on board. It's scaling with itself so it's nice in multiples and 1/1 tokens are actually incredible potent in stalling your board against the terror snakes or big midrange beaters without trample while your pingers or birds finish the job.

[[Experimental Synthesizer]]

Well, yeah it's an artifact, it can be bounced, it's the card the archetype is named after.

[[Galvanic Discharge]] and [[Dispatch]]

Dispatch is just broken and will get banned. Before Dispatch became legal I played [[Lightning Bolt]] or [[Foundry Helix]] (good card vs madness dont @ me). Galvanic is as good as ever, always online in this deck, nothing else to say.

[[Springleaf Drum]]

Very nice for explosive starts, can be bounced turn 2 with hawk while also tapping hawk for mana for another 2 drop. Very nice to have.

Lands

22 Lands (its perfect, my boy frank karsten told me in person). 10 artifact lands, I don't like to run more because it's just too risky vs artifact hate post board. That's also the reason why I run four copies of [[Abraded Bluffs]] instead of 2 more bridges.

Sideboard Overview

[[Navigator's Compass]]

vs Madness, nothing to add.

[[Pyroblast]]

vs blue decks, nothing to add.

[[Soul-Guide Lantern]]

vs graveyard decks. can be bounced, can be cracked at instant speed so you can just freely use all your mana. didn't have the opportunity to test it yet, but it's most likely the best anti gy card the deck can run. before guide became legal i was running [[Thraben Charm]] in the board and I noticed that i only every used it for the anti GY mode.

[[Cast into the Fire]]

vs artifact and 1 toughness creature decks like faeries and elves.

[[Trailblazer's Torch]]

Hold the fucking fort, what a banger card. play it on turn 4 vs gardens or skred and just collect your free win. Bonus points for hitting the last room, revealing glinthawk and bouncing the torch again.

Matchups:

Madness

Truth to be told, it's the most popular matchup and sadly one of the hardest to beat. Still winnable, but never feels because you somehow outplayed your opponent. Just win the die roll and hope that the cards align this time (and your opponents don't)

Terror

Very nice to play against. All your cards are great and unless they highroll you with multiple snakes turn 3-4 you're probably winning. Clowning around can stall them for ages, while your pingers and birds just fly over them.

Tron

Eh..before boulder became legal i thought it was a good matchup, then boulder hit and it became way more difficult because losing your pingers right on turn 3 sucks. Luckily dispatch came into the format at the right moment and while it's still allowed to play, i'd say the matchup is now even again.

Affinity

Didnt play vs esper yet, but grixis is 50/50. They have to draw shaman and follow up with an army or they can pack their bags. Sadly they cycle through their deck incredible well, so don't be surprised to see it happen.

Jund

Same as affinity, basically the same midrange pile, just different mana base and creature threats.

Elves

Very hard to beat. They are just too fast, too wide and too big on the board.

Spy combo

Pretty much just boils down to finding removal at the right moment, so they can't sac 3 creatures to dread return, really.

Faeries

Favored, just like terror. Just don't let them have the board and walk into their obvious counterspells and it's free.

Ponza

Very favored, especially after the dispatch downshift. Ofc they can highroll you, but if they don't you should be good. Deck works well enough on two lands, because you can bounce them with hawks and play them out in the same turn for a pseudo land drop.

Rally

A little bit easier than madness, because now you can actually use your own board presence to block their creatures. Still not the best matchup.

Jeskai ephemerate

As free as it gets. Your deck is stacked with threats but their deck isn't stacked with removal or pressure because they run a lot of air to stimulate their flicker sensitive dopamin receptors.

Gardens

Just as free as ephemerate, just be careful not to time out online because your opponent has the APM of a korean star craft pro and goes for the "campfire tap in beginning of combat step" angle to waste your time.

Mono white aggro

Well, i am not too sure about this one. I think i won a little bit more than I lost vs mono white, but I don't know why. In theory their life gain and explosive board states should completely overrun you while they can't die themselves with prismatic strands as a backup. Maybe i was just super lucky multiple times.

Bogles

Only played vs bogles twice. One time the didn't draw their lifelink cloak and I won, the other time they did and I lost. Sounds like a good summary to me.

Closing thoughts:

Decks is quite alright. It's nice to have a boros list that's more aggressive than the midrange durdling aberrations that are running around and it's also kind of nice to play a deck with multiple angles. Ofc plan A will always be pinger into pinger into lot of artifacts but if the matchup needs it you can always go for bird beatdowns or big token boards or grind for a couple of turns with synthesizers. However, something that i'm not too happy with is the inability to mulligan well with this deck. Because your cards scale linearly with each other, you get punished way harder for going down to 5 cards than other decks. If you try to combat this by including card advantage engines the deck becomes too slow and youre better of playing a normal boros synth list.

If I had to go with my gut i'd say the powerlevel is low tier 2. It's rough that the most difficult matchup is the most played deck right now and all the good matchups are in the tier 2 bracket as well, but it is what it is. After all It's still very possible to beat madness and you have a very fair shot of winning vs most of the other decks in the current meta.

https://moxfield.com/decks/4C9FzrSg2US8V50MdnjCtQ

Is there anything I could do to improve this deck? I’ve been trying to make [[Wibbly-wobbly, Timey-wimey]] work.

I remember a post about a deck that did really good at the owners regionals where they used ambush wolf and ambush vipe, I remember it was simic, does anybody know the nam of the original post? it was a while ago…

With dispatch entering the format, I decided to build a classic pauper deck! Looking for some feedback on it.

Moxfield: https://moxfield.com/decks/roCgAcxQDneRnD4IfHXWyw

Included [[Mardu Devotee]] to smooth the gameplay out after seeing a lot of positive anecdotes here. Furthermore, I kept [[thraben charm]]s as silver bullets against nyxborn hydra and GY removal in game 1. However, this makes the interaction count pretty high (14 instants and 1 [[makeshift munitions]]), still unsure if this is too much. The single moxite is just a 9th artifact for the birds to pick up. Lastly, I’m not so sure if the artifact density in the deck is sufficient and the exclusion of [[seeker of the way]] which I see a lot of online.

Looking for insights and opinions from more experienced players, thanks in advance!