Pauper Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide - Moggwarts

Moggwarts recently got a significant buff in Pauper thanks to a new card: Troll of Khazad-dum. With it, now it has access to another angle of stealing games, and In today's Article, I will cover in depth the cards in the deck sideboard options, strengths, weaknesses, and more!

Table of Contents

Pauper Moggwarts Decklist

How to Play it

Moggwarts is a powerful combo strategy because it can have two faces during a game. However, to fully take advantage of its strength, we often have to make the game last longer until we take over the game with our Main Combo involving First Day of Class.

Explaining the cards will help you understand their role in the deck, so we will go over each category.

The Creatures

Skrik Prospector is one of the main pieces of our combo, as it acts as a ramp spell and also a sacrifice outlet.

Putrid Goblin returns to the battlefield with a -1-1 counter once it dies, and alongside Skirk Prospector, you can abuse this interaction to add extra mana when needed.

The Win Condition

First Day of Class is the glue for this deck. How it plays is that once you have both Skirk Prospector and Putrid Goblin in play, you can cast First Day of Class. Once resolved, every creature enters the battlefield with a +1+1 counter, meaning that when you sacrifice Putrid Goblin the -1-1 counter gets nullified with the +1+1 once it enters the battlefield. This interaction can in theory, get you infinite red mana, which you can use in a couple of ways.

With Makeshift Munitions, you get to sacrifice a creature or artifact and deal one damage to any target, so as long as you have infinite mana, you can spend it to deal infinite damage to your opponents, as the Putrid Goblin will keep coming back to the battlefield every time you sacrifice it.

Most of the time, you will use Troll of Khazad-dum to just tutor for a land, but in some cases, reanimating it turn two with Exhume can be game-changing against certain decks that are unable to kill it in time.

Tutors

If you don’t have the combo yet, you can use Dark-Dweller Oracle to exile cards from your library until you find your win condition, and once you get infinite mana, you can exile your whole library if needed.

Shred Memory is also another flexible card that can be used to search for First Day of Class, Putrid Goblin or even Exhume in a pinch.

Last but not least, Goblin Matron can fetch other goblins you may need, like Skirk Prospector, Dark-Dweller Oracle, or Putrid Goblin. Sometimes, you can fetch more Goblin Matrons just to have chump blockers or extra fodders.

Card Advantage

This deck runs smoothly thanks to the multiple-card advantage spells it has. The most powerful interaction it has is the one with Ichor Wellspring and Deadly Dispute, as you invest four mana to draw four cards. Still, you get a treasure token as well, allowing you to look at more cards from your library when you are performing your combo.

Faithless looting, while not raw card advantage itself, can be used to discard your extra lands in exchange for your combo pieces.

Reanimation Spells

Unearth is a critical piece on this deck, as for one mana, you can return any of your goblins for cheap. This is key as you can go off with your combo with less mana or surprise your opponents with an unexpected kill after they thought they dealt with one of the combo pieces.

Exhume has a similar role, providing more depth to the combo, as its synergy with Troll of Khazad-dum is amazing.

Utility Cards

Some cards from the deck, like Duress, serve you to go off with your combo safely by getting rid of your opponent's reactive cards.

Nihil Spellbomb, on the other hand, can disrupt some decks like Dimir Terror while being a pseudo-can-trip that allows you to look further into your library, and it also has the plus side that it makes your Exhumes strictly better as your opponents won't be able to return cards from their graveyard to the battlefield.

How to Mulligan with Pauper Moggwarts

This hand is acceptable only because we have the troll to tutor for a mountain. From there, you can tutor for Skrik Prospector and start adding mana. One cool trick that you can do with tight mana is you can sacrifice Putrid Goblin, add a red mana, and hold priority to cast First Day of Class with the mana you just added.

This is another acceptable hand to some extent, as now you just are missing the First Day of Class, and can potentially delay your opponents with Duress. You will have a hard time against heavy creatures deck, but those are narrow to like two or three competitive ones in the whole format.

On this hand, I would mull this as it's a bit too over the place, and your only real play is by turn three, which is not optimal.

This one is somewhat the dream hand, as you have a lot of cards to dig deeper into your library for the final piece of the combo, as you can tutor for the mana goblin right off the bat.

How to Sideboard with  Pauper Moggwarts

If you are looking for a more in-depth sideboard guide, take a look at my free sideboard guides on Ko-Fi. Here is a sample of my Latest Moggwarts List.

Gameplay

Also, here is a video of me playing the deck that can help you understand its basics and feel.

How to Play vs. Pauper Moggwarts

Beating Moggwarts requires preparation but, more importantly, understanding how the deck works and how the interactions play out. For example, if they go for their combo with exact mana, you can kill in response their Putrid Goblin before the First Day of Class resolves, or you can remove the Skirk Prospectors as well and hope they don't have a second or a reanimation spell. Another trick is to remove the Putrid Goblin while it is in the graveyard with a Nihil Spellbomb or a Relic of Progenitus, as that way, it won't come back to the battlefield.

Generally, counters and cards, like Duress, work well against combo decks, as they won't be able to set up their plans as they want, and if you get rid of their most important card, First Day of Class, you can slow them down until you win.

Other Cards you should Try

This deck has room for some flexible cards depending on the meta you may be facing.

I’ve seen some lists go with fewer lands by adding Oliphaunt to the mix. In theory, it seems like a good choice; I’m just worried about the initial hand that could lead to more mulligans. That being said, this deck does not require many lands to perform well, as its curve is very low.

This is for the potential turn one combo of Troll of Khazad-dum into Exhume, but it can also lead to faster combos if you have enough red mana and the other combo pieces.

If you want extra hate against some affinity creatures, Abrade is a fine option to pair it with Cast Into The Fire. You can also bring it in against other aggressive decks

This is another card that goes great against affinity and creature-heavy decks overall.

Wrap-Up

Moggwarts is one of the most potent combo decks on the format now, and if things go according to my prediction, it won't be the only one in Pauper, thanks to the new cards introduced with Commander Masters.

Did you like the deck? What changes would you make so it performs better? Let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading up until now, and I really hope this deck coverage was helpful for you.

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Take care, and I will see you in my next article.