April 10-11 Pauper Weekend in Review

Well, Kaldheim season has finally ended. With the Strixhaven Prerelease starting on Magic Online this Wednesday we can expect the new cards to be available for next weekend’s Challenges. As a result, the April 10 and 11 Challenges put a cap on one of the most interesting and dynamic Pauper seasons to date.

At the end of the day Flicker Tron came back in a big way while Boros Bully and Stompy also had some return to form. The new players – Gruul/Jund Ramp and Jund Cascade – struggled as the metagame shifted towards aggression and more cheap interaction. Elves and WonderWalls had solid showings in the last few weeks of the season and Cycling Songs also made its presence felt.

So at the end of the day, what is the story of Kaldheim season?

Going into Strixhaven season the deck to beat is Flicker Tron, Make no mistake – it remains the best deck in the format by a decent margin. It isn’t the utterly dominant force it has been in years past but it is still absurdly good. Izzet Faeries and Dimir Faeries are also fantastic – I would have Dimir Faeries as the better deck but the numbers seem to contradict that. Boros Bully is also back on the menu. SanPop ran a version with maindeck land destruction to a Top 8 this past weekend and I wonder if that becomes the standard moving on.

What about Jund Cascade? The deck is certainly powerful but it suffers from the same fate almost all midrange decks meet: when its answers miss the meta, it will suffer. The biggest problem with Jund Cascade is that its spell suite is constructed in such a way that it only has so many spots to work with, meaning it has to lean on less specialized answers. It doesn’t surprise me that as the meta has gone wider a deck leaning on Chainer’s Edict has suffered. Will it be back? Of course – Cascade is powerful.

So where would I be week one? That’s simple. I’d be running First Day of Class combo with Skrik Prospector and Skirk Drill Sergeant. Because that just seems fun.