Author Archives: Alex Ullman

August 15-16 Pauper Weekend in Review

We have hit the third week of Double Masters season and the metagame is rounding into shape. To the shock of almost no one, it looks a lot like the metagame before the bans of Expedition Map and Mystic Sanctuary. The best decks remain Tron, Monarch, and Spellstutter Sprite variants. Let’s take a look. Saturday’sContinue reading “August 15-16 Pauper Weekend in Review”

Center Stage: Sire of Stagnation

You thought I was going to talk about a common today? Think again! I hate this card in Commander. I have trouble articulating why when this hits the table I seethe, but I have less of a problem with the extremely similar Consecrated Sphinx. I think a not so small part of it is thatContinue reading “Center Stage: Sire of Stagnation”

August 1-2 Pauper Weekend in Review

The results from the August 1 and August 2 Challenges were published this week after a backend issue was resolved. Rather than look back at these events and try to predict what they mean for the format moving forward, I want to use this as an opportunity to take a look at the best decksContinue reading “August 1-2 Pauper Weekend in Review”

Looking at Lists: Azorius Metalcraft

Deluxeicoff is a long time Pauper player and deck brewer. This past weekend they put up a Top 8 and followed it up with a 5-0 league run with one of their builds. Let’s take a gander: There’s a lot going on in this list, all in the service for resolving 3/3s. This deck runsContinue reading “Looking at Lists: Azorius Metalcraft”

August 8-9 Pauper Weekend In Review

It’s good to be back! While the weekend of August 2 and 3 have seemingly been lost to gremlins in the code, we have our first look at the impact of Double Masters and the downshifts it brings – Abrade and Cast Down being chief amongst them. Before diving into the “start” of this season,Continue reading “August 8-9 Pauper Weekend In Review”

Center Stage: Ixalli’s Diviner

I’m going to let you in on a secret: as a content creator, I love and loathe spoiler season. I love it because who doesn’t love new cards? Who doesn’t enjoy trying to figure out where the new pieces fit or what entirely new puzzles have been crafted? And yes, as a content creator, I’mContinue reading “Center Stage: Ixalli’s Diviner”

Look at Lists: Dimir Flicker

Pairing Archaeomancer and Ghostly Flicker in a Dismal Backwater deck is nothing new. One of the first decks to attempt to leverage the combo in a meaningful way did so with Chittering Rats, attempting to lock an opponent out of the draw step. USPDudes did something slightly different with their take on Dimir Flicker fromContinue reading “Look at Lists: Dimir Flicker”

What is Commander?

I love Commander. Before the Covid-19 pandemic it was my preferred way to play Magic in paper. The last social event I did before the shutdown was attend a Commander night at a friend’s place. At one point I had 20 Commander decks in a fully constructed and ready to play state. And if there’sContinue reading “What is Commander?”