Alex Ullman

Innistrad Midnight Hunt Pauper Review – Blue

It is not easy for new Blue cards to make waves in Pauper. This has less to do with how strong the Blue cards from a given set are and more to do with the potency in older commons. Midnight Hunt concentrates some of the strength in Blue into the Zombie theme, which in turnContinue reading “Innistrad Midnight Hunt Pauper Review – Blue”

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Pauper Review – White

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt continues the trend of printing commons with Pauper potential. While it feels like a lifetime ago, Strixhaven injected a ton of interesting options into the format and Midnight Hunt looks to do the same (now that we are out from under the thumb of all those squirrels). Now that I am writingContinue reading “Innistrad: Midnight Hunt Pauper Review – White”

The September 8th Pauper Bans

Where do we go from here? In case you missed it, Chatterstorm and Sojourner’s Companion have been banned in Pauper. You can read my collected thoughts on the bans in this thread but that’s not why we are here today. Instead I want to look ahead and get a jump start on what the metagameContinue reading “The September 8th Pauper Bans”

Not Very Effective: The Pidgeot-Steelix Core for Great League Remix

For the past 23 sets I have run one team in the Great League Remix. I ran my record with this team to 69-46 and only have three negative sets (0-5, 1-4, 2-3). I’m currently sitting at Ace with an ELO of 2136. The team is similar to the one I wrote about here butContinue reading “Not Very Effective: The Pidgeot-Steelix Core for Great League Remix”

The Problem With Grave Pact

I wrote about one of my all time favorite Commander cards, and the issues it presents, over on ChannelFireball!

Pauper’s Problem Periods

Today I woke up to messages about this – Pauper is in such a state that a tournament was set to fire and to fill the seats 11 people joined with decks containing only basic lands and due to a quirk of human behavior one of them won the event. I’m not going to goContinue reading “Pauper’s Problem Periods”

Not Very Effective: Remixing the Remix Cup

Season 9 is underway and with it I am renewing my goal of finishing in the Veteran Rank, above a 2500 ELO. While I started this season battling in the Great League it only took one day for me to switch to the Great League Remix. The first team I ran through the wringer wasContinue reading “Not Very Effective: Remixing the Remix Cup”

August 28-29 Pauper Weekend in Review

Let’s cut right to the chase. The current format has been dominated by Affinity, Dimir, and Storm since Modern Horizons 2 came out. Since that set was released there have been 26 Challenges, which means 208 Top slots and 832 Top 32 finishes. Looking at just these big three – Affinity, Dimir Faeries, and SquirrelContinue reading “August 28-29 Pauper Weekend in Review”

Not Very Effective: Missing the Mark

I did not hit my stated goal in Season 8 of GO Battle League. I wanted to not only hit Veteran (which I did), but I wanted to end the season at above 2500 ELO. After finishing my battles today I’m ending at 2248. Not only did I fall short of my target, but IContinue reading “Not Very Effective: Missing the Mark”

Not Very Effective: A Fearless GBL Inventory

After climbing to about 2614 in Ultra League Premier Cup I hit a wall that I put up myself. After years I finally had access to a decent PVP IV Heracross and wanted to put it to use, and so I spent the final few days of the Premier Cup trying out team comps onlyContinue reading “Not Very Effective: A Fearless GBL Inventory”