Want to learn more about the metrics I use in tracking the metagame? You can find an explainer here.
It’s the first week of a new season. Secrets of Strixhaven is here and in a bit of a twist the latest set has provided quite a few cards to Pauper. While the days of Modern Horizons and its lineage completely reshaping the format might be in the rear view mirror the last two releases have shown that Pauper is not exactly stagnant.
Being so early in the new cycle it can be hard to draw reasonable conclusions about the texture of the format, so I won’t. The first weekend Challenges were on the smaller side, which led to plenty of X-4 and even a few X-5 records making it to the Top 32. This can confound the data although it tends to even out over the course of several weeks.
Jund Wildfire had the best weekend by quite a bit. It was not only the most popular strategy but it also dominated the Winner’s Metagame with a 22.87% share against 14.84% of the Top 32 Metagame. It’s Adjusted Meta Score Above Replacement of 0.95 was only matched by Red Synth, but Jund had more than six times the number of Top 32 finishes.
It is notable that both Dimir Terror and Elves finished with negative AMSAR scores last weekend if only because the two decks ended the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cycle in the top three of my Power Rankings. Elves might have been on a slight downward trend but Dimir Terror seemed poised to continue its recent success. Whether the last four tournaments were a blip or an indication that perhaps these decks are not as surefooted on the podium remains to be seen.
Since it would be a dereliction of duty to extrapolate too much from one week of results I would rather focus on three decks that make use of cards from Secrets of Strixhaven. While two of these decks existed prior to the latest set the decks have certainly gotten a boost from some new additions.
Page, Loose Leaf has improved the consistency of Cycle Storm. The combo deck wants to leverage creatures with cycling to fill the graveyard before resolving a series of rituals, including Songs of the Damned, to then get back creatures with Reaping the Graves and repeat to process until the deck can win with a Drannith Stinger or two. Cycle Storm has been a solid choice for quite some time but has suffered in part due to how vulnerable it can be to graveyard hate. Page does not solve the deck’s reliance on the graveyard but it does improve its consistency. The deck has a few choke points – namely mana and finding Reaping the Graves. On the combo turn Page can help you find one or the other (albeit at random) while also being an artifact for Rowan’s Grim Search and a creature than can be recycled with Reaping the Graves. If you’re interested in learning more about this deck I highly recommend Bryant Cook’s YouTube Channel which has a massive playlist dedicated to the archetype.
The next card that has made waves in Pauper is Follow the Lumarets. Two mana for a card tha tets you one creature or land out of the top four is not a good card, but if you can gain a single life the Infusion ability turns on and you can get two such cards. That’s quite a difference. Sacred Cat decks make perfect sense for Follow the Lumarets as it can find key threats including Basilisk Gate. I’ve also seen the card show up in Tron builds which feels inspired since it can dig deep enough to find two Tron pieces. While the set up cost is very real the payoff of this sorcery is worth the work and I expect it to fuel various green decks for the foreseeable future.
The third deck I want to highlight today isn’t exactly new as Boros Inside Out Combo has existed in the past. However it has gotten a ton of new tools in the form of Spirit Mascot and Pursue the Past. Pursue the Past might be the most important card from Secrets of Strixhaven for Pauper. It is a fantastic glue card and we can see all the themes it ties together here. First, it helps to grow Spirit Mascot when cast out of the graveyard. It can also wing a Sneaky Snacker into play. As it is multicolored it can return Eidolons from the graveyard to your hand which in turn can fuel the Tireless Tribe kill. And this is just scratching the surface of the new sorcery. The graveyard is a well plumbed resource in Pauper and another way to leverage that is always welcome.
We are just a week in to Secrets of Strixhaven’s release on Magic Online and already Pauper has seen multiple new cards enter the format. What cards have piqued your interest? Which of these decks are you most excited to play?
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