Win +: Measures all wins better than X-3 in Swiss (X-2 is 1, X-1 is 2, etc). Measures a deck’s relative strength against the field in that event
K-Wins: Measures all wins less all losses, Top 8 inclusive. Measures a deck’s strength in a winner’s metagame
Wondering where my long-form breakdown went? You can find it here on my Patreon!
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
As I was packing for MagicCon Philadelphia I left four of my Commander decks behind. One of these was a deck I had together for quite some time but had yet to play beyond playtesting – Multani, Maro-Sorcerer. I had the chance to play the deck for the first time this past weekend when a friend came into town. Our first game was at a bar a few blocks from the game store but we had to stop about five turns in, but by that time I had resolved a Multani on an empty board as a 26/26 and was about to start one-punching people. Luckily (for my opponents) the game store called and our table was open so we packed up the cards, walked a few blocks, and started a new game.
Seedtime
I started playing Commander in earnest once I moved back to Brooklyn in the late summer of 2011. I had found a playgroup and the bug bit me hard. Fairly early on I decided I wanted to build a mono-green deck based around Baru, Fist of Krosa. I loved the idea of turning green creatures sideways and since Baru would turn my acceleration into extra damage it seemed like a good idea. Like so many decks of mine from that era this one did not end up seeing a ton of play as there were other things I wanted to be doing. But I never lost the mono green bug.
After moving and finding a different playgroup that was a bit more competitive I put together a Seton, Krosan Protector deck that made a ton of mana and spit out all sorts of gigantic monsters while also making some pretty serious enemies that the table. This period of my life was also one of my most prolific for building decks. Seeing as how I had a LGS with a vibrant Commander scene I wanted a wide array of options to bring to the table.
It was at this time that I started to squirrel away cards for a Multani Group Slug style deck. I wanted to feed everyone a ton of cards but turn those cards against them with Multani and cards like Viseling and Psychosis Crawler. These cards sat in the corner of my closet and collected proverbial dust as the Covid pandemic took over.
Season of Growth
I have a strong affinity for old legendary creatures. Part of this stems from the fact I have been playing Magic for nearly 30 years. A not-so-small portion of this also comes from the fact that when I started graduate school in the fall of 2006 I shipped my cards – along with most of my other belongings – to my new apartment. Only one box was lost, and it was the one that happened to contain the majority of my collection at the time. Now some of my cards did make it, including my rare box which had multiple copies of Multani. The fact that I still have these cards and am playing them feels right.
So I had the Multani idea in the back of my mind for years before I actually put the deck together. I was on the AffinityArtifacts stream one night and everyone else brought out their green deck. I didn’t have one at the time and got my face summarily punched in, and had a blast. Less than a week later I had the first version of Multani built, which looks a lot like the build you can find here.
Harvest Season
We sat down and shuffled up for the first real game of the night. The table included my old friend Andrew on his Edric Kingmaker deck, Hobbes on Phabine Group Hug, and Andy on Roon Elephants and Rhinos. I immediately regret having both Compost and Bellowing Tanglewurm in the deck. Regardless I start to accelerate aided by Hobbes. While I draw some heat – my Psychosis Crawler ate it early – I was able to generate a ton of value off of Lurking Predators. Hobbes, however, is popping off and what would have been a timely board wipe from Andy proved to be useless thanks to a Heroic Intervention. Andy and I are about to take lethal damage when Andrew comes through with a fog effect, which buys us another turn cycle.
The game goes back to Hobbes and he goes for broke, sending his army. Thanks to my own Intervention I manage to survive while Andy goes to to the mid-teens and Andrew kicks the proverbial bucket. As the turn passes back to me I start to do green things. A Selvala means I started the turn with 21 mana thanks to Multani. I resolve Beast Whisperer and Zendikar Resurgent, which provide me the gas to churn through cards. Eventually I pick off Hobbes’ green blockers, which means Bellowing Tanglewurm is online. Heartwood Storyteller helps me grow Multani when I am not casting creatures and I eventually find that very same Baru. At this point Multani is easily a 50/50 creature and my other attackers are sufficiently large. A Crop Rotation and Nature’s Lore later I attacked for lethal damage.
Second Harvest
There are a few cards I am exploring for this deck. First up is Monstrous Onslaught which seems like a slam dunk way to clear a path. The second card is Woodland Bellower – I am not sure I want it in the 99 anymore but am not sold on cutting it quite yet. What cards do you think fit into this Multani deck?
I’m not sure when the next time I’ll be able to play this deck but I am for sure looking forward to it. There’s something incredibly satisfying about sticking a massive threat early and becoming the problem.
I want to take a moment to thank all my Patrons – both old and new. I am going to do my level best to keep providing you with the kind of content that brought you here in the first place. If you are interested in supporting my work, rewards for my Patreon start at just $1 and every little bit helps.
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
Today on ChannelFireball I reexamine the pillars of competitive Pauper. Check it out here.
I want to take a moment to thank all my Patrons – both old and new. I am going to do my level best to keep providing you with the kind of content that brought you here in the first place. If you are interested in supporting my work, rewards for my Patreon start at just $1 and every little bit helps.
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
Win +: Measures all wins better than X-3 in Swiss (X-2 is 1, X-1 is 2, etc). Measures a deck’s relative strength against the field in that event
K-Wins: Measures all wins less all losses, Top 8 inclusive. Measures a deck’s strength in a winner’s metagame
Wondering where my long-form breakdown went? You can find it here on my Patreon!
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
Today on ChannelFireball I explore Krark-Clan Shaman’s rise from role-player to format defining one-drop. Check it out here.
I want to take a moment to thank all my Patrons – both old and new. I am going to do my level best to keep providing you with the kind of content that brought you here in the first place. If you are interested in supporting my work, rewards for my Patreon start at just $1 and every little bit helps.
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
The Top 32 metagame for the first 8 Challenges during Phyrexia season on MTGO; minimum 2% metagame volume (~5 appearances)
DISCLAIMERS
A quick aside: While I am a member of the Pauper Format Panel, I see my role on this page as one where I talk about the format from the perspective of a player. The suggestions I make here are made with the intent to provide different ways to approach the format that may yield you success. Good? Good.
A second aside on terminology: I use a few different metrics when looking at the Top 32 metagame. The first is just Raw Volume. The second is Win+, which takes the sum of all wins at X-2 or better in the Swiss and assigns a score; Win+ is helpful in measuring a deck’s Swiss round performance. K-Wins takes all of a deck’s wins and subtracts its losses, Top 8 inclusive; this helps to give a measure of overall performance. The final is one I call True Volume, which takes the average of all three volumes (Actual, Win+, K-Win). This number helps to provide the most robust image of a deck’s performance in the metagame.
Someone has a Case of the Mondays
Well, it’s certainly a choice to write this post today given the recent update to the Legacy Banned List. But I am nothing if not someone who makes those choices voluntarily.
So with that out of the way let’s get into the first four weeks of Phyrexia: All Will Be One season. The above chart pulls from the 8 Challenges in this season to date on Magic Online and then further breaks it down to only those lists with a minimum of 5 Top 32 appearances (approximately 2% metagame volume). There are three decks with Top 8 finishes that did not make this cut – CawGate (which also has a challenge win), Goblin Combo, and Tireless Tribe Combo. But looking at the chart we see a fairly clean Tier 1, the hint of a Tier 1.5, followed by a Tier 2 and Tier 3.
Let’s start there. While some of these decks are clearly more popular than others there is a relative diversity of options available in Pauper at the moment. The top two decks are taking up a lot of volume in the Top 32 metagame but unlike Legacy they are not exactly keeping each other in check – much of that is left to other actors in the metagame. Now is it my idealized version of any format where the top tier takes up around 45% of the Winner’s Metagame? No, but when all three of the top decks are separated by less than 3% that is significantly better than two decks running away with the show. This is also marks an improvement over The Brother’s War season where Affinity led the way with a True Volume of 19.36% while Kuldotha Red came in at 13.13% and Dimir Terror clocked in at 12.5%. So far this season the spread is significantly reduced with Affinity (16.25%) only slightly ahead of Red (16.22%) and Dimir (13.87%) far closer than the almost 7% points behind it was last season.
Tier 1.5
An example of a Top 8 Faeries list
As a long time Pauper player and format observer it has been refreshing to see Faeries – straight up mono-blue Spellstutter Sprite and Ninja of the Deep Hours – continue to be competitive. The deck has as many Top 8s as Kuldotha Red this season while having a Swiss performance that is comparable to Dimir Terror and Grixis Affinity. While it’s Swiss + Top 8 average looks better than Affinity, it has done that in 9 fewer trips to the elimination rounds. Compared to Red, however, it’s a full 1/5 of a win better in this metric.
Faeries is loaded with cheap and efficient interaction. It also can bring in a number of highly specialized sideboard cards – many of which cost one mana. Some have pointed out that Affinity can have up to 8 “Annul” effects in the sideboard (and the featured build has six), but I think what is far more important to Faeries’ recent run of success is its willingness to go for the most efficient option even if a more expensive option could have improved returns.
Faeries has also benefited from the relative dearth of good Kor Skyfisher decks as of late. Kor Skyfisher usually comes hand in hand with other creatures that are good at blocking which can put the brakes on Faeries’ plan. This may also contribute to why the deck is doing rather well at the moment: none of the big three decks are well set up to block early.
Tier 2 and Tier 3
These decks all fall into a similar bucket, separated by a few percentage points. As the season progresses decks could easily move up or down in these standings. Together these decks make up just over 31% of the Winner’s metagame. I consider Tier 2 to include (in no particular order) Orzhov Ephemerate, Flicker Tron, and Naya Gates. Tier 3, therefore, includes Delver (as a separate entity from Faeries), Izzet Faeries, Gruul Cascade, Selesnya Initiative, WonderWalls, and Azorius Familiars. Breaking this into buckets we have a Tier 3 that includes
Ephemerate decks
Big Mana (Tron)
Fair (Orzhov, Naya Gates)
Arbor Elf Ramp
Non-Faeries (archetype) Spellstutter Sprite
Walls Combo
Taking this into consideration with Tier 1/1.5, there’s actually a diversity of competitive play style available in Pauper.
The Conundrum
Just because there is a diversity in available play style does not mean every archetype is viable, nor does it mean that the format is necessarily enjoyable to everyone. Part of the issue stems from the top. Affinity can drag out games and then easily reload, making hard work for naught while Red can prey on poor draws. These decks being popular can lead to a repetition of these experiences, making for a somewhat dejecting play session. I will say that having run into the red deck three times in a row during one league- that wasn’t fun! If that was my only league experience it would be pretty bad!
Pauper, like many other formats, has gotten faster (for want of a better term). As spells enter the format the ones that break through are going to be the most efficient or powerful options which in turn pushes the onus on acting earlier. As a result strategies that might take more time set up have fallen by the wayside. However outside of traditional Stompy style aggro, most Pauper decks that were viable three years ago have an analogue available today.
Looking Ahead
What would I try to play next week? Affinity just had a very good weekend so it is going to be at the top of everyone’s mind. Faeries also looks like a deck on the rise. I would be looking at a Kor Skyfisher deck as a way to have defense against Faeries while also having access to powerful sideboard options for Affinity and clean removal for Dimir Terror (even if I have to pay the Ward cost).
I want to take a moment to thank all my Patrons – both old and new. I am going to do my level best to keep providing you with the kind of content that brought you here in the first place. If you are interested in supporting my work, rewards for my Patreon start at just $1 and every little bit helps.
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What I’d Play Next Week: Mono-Black Control with Khalni Garden
Win +: Measures all wins better than X-3 in Swiss (X-2 is 1, X-1 is 2, etc). Measures a deck’s relative strength against the field in that event
K-Wins: Measures all wins less all losses, Top 8 inclusive. Measures a deck’s strength in a winner’s metagame
Wondering where my long-form breakdown went? You can find it here on my Patreon!
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
Live now on ChannelFireball, let’s make a SplinterTwin situation in Pauper. Check it out here.
I want to take a moment to thank all my Patrons – both old and new. I am going to do my level best to keep providing you with the kind of content that brought you here in the first place. If you are interested in supporting my work, rewards for my Patreon start at just $1 and every little bit helps.
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
Win +: Measures all wins better than X-3 in Swiss (X-2 is 1, X-1 is 2, etc). Measures a deck’s relative strength against the field in that event
K-Wins: Measures all wins less all losses, Top 8 inclusive. Measures a deck’s strength in a winner’s metagame
Wondering where my long-form breakdown went? You can find it here on my Patreon!
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
Win +: Measures all wins better than X-3 in Swiss (X-2 is 1, X-1 is 2, etc). Measures a deck’s relative strength against the field in that event
K-Wins: Measures all wins less all losses, Top 8 inclusive. Measures a deck’s strength in a winner’s metagame
Wondering where my long-form breakdown went? You can find it here on my Patreon!
Looking for another way to support my work? Click here for my TCGPlayer affiliate link. Any purchases through the link let the folks there know you like my content!
NerdtotheCore 
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