Pauper Meta Report - Final Week of August 2023

 

Pauper Brews

Table of Contents

Wilds of Eldraine Spoilers Aftermath

The complete set is already revealed, and as usual, I did a video with what I think are the cards that are likely to see more impact in the meta.

I'm very excited about three cards, specifically:

Warehouse Tabby is a great build-around in a deck that wants to send enchantments to the graveyard from the battlefield. I already have a brew in mind, so stay tuned in the upcoming weeks.

Stormkeld Prowler is very hyped in terror decks. Still, eight slots are already dedicated to Tolarian Terror and Cryptic Serpent. Two extra possible to run two Gurmag Anglers, and then it becomes a preference of whether you run four of Fallaj Archeologist, Augur of Bolas, Delver Secrets, Murmuring Mystic, or this new card not to screw your instant and sorcery count.

Troublemaker Ouphe is an excellent addition for green decks that want to exile artifacts and put a body into the battlefield. Masked Vandal is already an option, but it requires a creature in the graveyard. Another one is deglamer, so it will have to compete over those two to make room in decks that would love to run it.

Honorable mention to Grabby Giant, Candy Trail, and Rowan's Grim Search, which seem to be brew-worthy, but, at the time, I had no idea how to use them in an efficient deck, so I excluded them. How would you brew around it? Let me know!

Top Decks of the Week

Black Gardens - Saturday Challenge Winner

Saturday's Winner was black gardens, a deck destined to win the challenge given on how the pairings went, since in the semifinals, both Black Garden decks that made the top eight crossed their paths, and the Finals was against Familiars. The 2-0 result is deceiving as we need to know if they split the match or not. Still, regardless, it's a bad match for Familiars, as the winner's deck is full of removal with broken mechanics like Monarch and Initiative that can take over games and outvalue pretty much any other deck. The deck main deck and sideboard are very well suited for the meta, so I highly recommend them if you prepare for any upcoming tournament.

Azorius Affinity - Sunday Challenge Winner

Sunday Challenge Winner is a smoother version of All That Glitters, similar to my Glitter Squad deck I posted last week, but with a few significant difference that makes it, in most cases, more solid. First, it runs 17 lands vs. the 13 I had, it has the affinity package and a cute ninja package that can be abused with Ornithopter and Gingerbrute.

The rest of the deck in both top eight was diverse to some extent, with a tendency of blue decks on the rise, as those are the ones who can run both Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast in the sideboard to prevent being run over by Burn decks.

Saturday Challenge Most Played Cards

While the format is healthy regarding available archetypes, it has a clear tendency on how narrow sideboard slots are these days. There's only a little sideboard against certain decks like affinity or burn, as every piece you can add against them is critical. The problem is that with eight dedicated slots, you only have seven to toy around, let's say, three relics of progenitus and two against the rest of the field. One way to get around this is to build your main deck, specifically to beat a portion of the meta or run main deck answers against some of the popular decks, free your sideboard slots a bit, and rely heavily on it to win your difficult matchups after game number one, which is the case of Golgari Gardens.

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Hamuda 5-0 Jeskai Affinity

Once again, Hamuda is brewing a different deck for us with quite a success. What I like about it is that Galvanic Blast gives us more depth and answers to pesky blockers. My only concern is how Experimental Synthesizer would work because of how pricy some top-end cards can be initially. The best bet is to hold them onto the late game rather than play it recklessly on initial turns.

Event Promotion

r/Pauper - UK Pauper Event!!

**This space is not sponsored. It’s just a collection of events that I happened to have found. If you want yours to be promoted in the next newsletter, please DM me on my socials.

Wrap Up

The newest set is not likely to change pauper, but it will have some key cards that can be beneficial for it, and I will try my best and brew some decks for everyone to enjoy.

As always, you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree!

Take care, and I will see you next week!

Where to Play Pauper?

I have compiled a list of places to play Pauper, mostly IRL. The address may vary, but it's a helpful place to start and check if some of them are near you. They may not play Pauper every day, so it's always a good idea to ask before traveling.


My Latest Pauper Brews

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