Magic: The Gathering,GO TEAM MS!

[InflatablePie]

Changed the list a bit. Dropped an ORing for the 4th Journey since I'm running the Sanctifiers and tweaked the manabase again.

I'm thinking of going down to 22 land since I've been flooding out in lots of my testing, and I'm not running Ruin Processor as a top end threat anymore. -1 land (Kabira Crossroads prob), -1 Read the Bones (drawing two early on is bleh), bring in the 4th Castigate from the board which frees up a sideboard slot? Not sure what else I'd want in the main though. 4th Lone Missionary seems decent.

I've noticed my Tron matchup is really hit or miss. Depending on the Tron flavor, I can sometimes out-grind them or at least make them spend 15+ minutes winning game 1 and just play against the clock game 2. But sometimes Haunted Fengraf just rolls me if I can't find a Relic, especially in Maul Splicer variants. Think I'd like a Choking Sands in the board just to guarantee I have enough ways to deal with it (besides GY exiling).

[InflatablePie]

Interesting question: should I bother siding in both CoPs against Tron, if I know their only wincons are Rolling Thunder and Fangren Marauder?

I don't want to over sideboard, but after playing the matchup a few times, I don't think there's another way for them to win if I resolve both. Their only other creatures are Sea Gate Oracle and Mulldrifter. The former isn't a problem ever, and the latter just gets blocked by Skyfishers all day. Ulamogs Crusher just gets Journey'd or O-Ringed.

Obviously this doesn't apply to Maul Splicer variants etc., just against "stock" Temur lists.

It's probably not correct but idk.

[Shanba]

I would probably avoid it - they're likely bringing in any enchantment removal against you anyway, so I doubt it's that effective. I think you're better off overloading on the hand disruption to try and take the rolling thunders out of their hand, which is the only card you can't deal with on a 1 for 1 basis. Still though, I reckon tron's just going to be tough whatever you do.

[xyzzy]

tonight the person to the right of me had a first pack with Nahiri and Arlinn Kord and so now I'm in possession of a wolf mom. love that wolf mom

[Shanba]

tonight the person to the right of me had a first pack with Nahiri and Arlinn Kord and so now I'm in possession of a wolf mom. love that wolf mom

Sweet, grats

[InflatablePie]

Wondering if Relic of Progenitus is better than Nihil Spellbomb?

a) Relic exiling my GY was relevant in matchups where I wanted Fonts.
b) I forget that Nihil Spellbomb's second ability doesn't rely on the first. So with Angelic Purge, you get a sorc-speed cycling Utter End.

spellbombs are back in.

updated list, changed the manabase (Shanba was right), trying Seal of Cleansing over Erase to see if exile+1 mana is better or worse than recurring with the one-of Auramancer + extra removal for artifacts. also testing Phyrexian Rager and going down to 2 Read the Bones. also going down to 3 Mind Raker since two in the opener can suck, it's not amazing in every matchup (especially when it ends up being a Hill Giant) and with all the card draw it's not hard to find 2 regardless.

[InflatablePie]

played in a free pauper tourney on gatherling (Tuesdays, 8pm EST/12am GMT). won 2-1 against Goblins, lost 1-2 and 0-2 against Burn/Soul Sisters, and opponent dropped round 4.

only problem I really have with the deck now is that it floods out often. going down to 22 seems to mana screw me, though. considering if I want a one-of Raven's Crime/Cenn's Enlistment or something, but I'm not sure what the cut is... maybe 2 Castigate is correct even though I love the card and was running 4 for a while.

[edit] think I might cut the Font main. I like Font, and it only leaves me with Dead Weights/sac'd Journey/ORings for Auramancer targets, but it accomplishes a similar goal in a grindy matchup. plus it might stop opponents from siding in GY hate when they see the Auramancer combo g1 and I want the combo for g2 (which has happened a few times and made me sad).

[Shanba]

Raven's crime I think might be awkward in a deck like this, since in the early game you really want to be hitting your land drops. The deck looks like it gets a lot stronger when you're getting your engines online with the skyfishers and cracking inspector clues and so on. And then later on it starts to lose relevance. Still, it's at its best when a deck is really trying to attack the hand of the opponent which yours is trying to do. I think I like it better than Cenn's enlistment - I've tried that card in a bunch of decks and even as sideboard tech and it always disappoints me. It's so slow that by the time you finally get it online it immediately starts losing relevance.

Seal of cleansing is a neat idea, but you do only have one auramancer now, so counting on recurring it seems iffy.

The current build of the deck looks like it's stretched in a lot of different directions. You have some auramancer synergies, some mind raker synergies, some of this, some of that... I think I'd like it to look more focused, somehow. It's clear the deck is built around kor skyfisher, but you only have 4 of those. I just look at the list now and wonder, you're gonna get hands that are like castigate, kor sanctifiers, angelic purge and 4 lands and they're going to be bad against everything because the cards aren't really working together.

I think if I wanted to take the deck forwards, I would sit down and work out what the most powerful synergies are in the deck (thraben inspector+kor skyfisher? Auramancer/Dead weight? O-Ring/Mind Raker?) and just try and get the deck to do that as consistently as possible. Then you can like, in the board tailor it so that you bring in the right combos for the right matchups. You're very hedged in the maindeck and some hedging is advisable in the main, but it feels too much right now. Most of the cards are powerful enough on their own that perhaps it doesn't matter? But perhaps it does, and perhaps it could make the deck stronger.

[Debonair Danny DiPietro]

Anyone coming to Columbus for the Legacy GP?

[InflatablePie]

@shanba - Haven't updated the list yet but I've dropped the Auramancer, it just feels bad to sandbag it to get value. Not sure if I want to switch Dead Weights with Disfigures or run any splits. Dead Weight can be useful for neutering things like Kor Skyfisher/Spire Golem, but instant speed might be worth it? idk. Added the 4th Journey back in, so the 4 Dead Weights/4 Journeys should be enough to deal with fast strats.

Raven's Crime has also been disappointing me more than I expected. Maybe I'll add another Rager in to draw all the cards, might want to go down to 1 Read the Bones potentially.

[e] also, the deck doesn't really have issues with 'conflicting strategies' from my testing. working on streamlining though.

[Shanba]

Having to sandbag the auramancer was more or less exactly what I meant, I guess, when I was talking upthread.

Disfigure's good. Dead weight also kills Atog dead, and is better against stompy since it kills through gather courage/mutagenic growth (of course vines still gets you!).

[InflatablePie]

EMA spoilers look sweet.

I want paper foils of Pyroblast and Hydroblast, that art is fuckin' sick.

[Shanba]

The art for this set is out of the park.

Commons that stood out to me for pauper:

peregrine drake (poor man's cloud of faeries for the flickers deck?)
Nimble Mongoose (powerful card, but weirdly I think it might be quite badly positioned for pauper. Tons of edict effects, and the green decks that might want this tend to want to be able to target their dudes.)
Elite Vanguard - I don't think this will see play, but astonishingly this is the first no drawback 2 power creature in pauper.
Cephalid Sage - interesting. Not sure where it would be useful, but a card to keep in mind.
Warden of Evos Isle - Familiar effects can be pretty strong, and this is on a decent body. Still, it's pretty narrow. Notably hits peregine drake and mulldrifter.
Night's Whisper - Sign in blood copies 5-8, with a less restrictive mana cost? I'm sure there's a deck that wants this.
Wakedancer - pretty sure this makes this pauper legal while the previous conspiracy printing did not. It's an interesting value creature and I might well try it in a tortex deck. That said, I don't think the power level is quite high enough.
Avarax - Herd of Aurochs saw some play in the old mono green cloudpost decks? IDK though this one seems a bit loose. I could see tron wanting it, but I sort of doubt it, you know?
Desperate Ravings - Sweet card. Not sure what deck wants it, since storm is dead.
Dragon Egg - More tortex goodies maybe eh eh eh? Probably not, but a sweet effect to have at common.
Orcish Oriflamme - this one is very interesting. The cost is high, but this is literally the FIRST permanent anthem at common. There have long been some ok token makers, but without anthems they've relied on stuff like guardian's pledge or whatever, which are clearly strong but still. This might have a place somewhere.
Wildfire Emissary - If a deck that relies on the journeys and o-ring effects for its removal became popular, this could be tech?
Elvish Vanguard - Elves is sort of a deck, this might make it better?
Yavimaya Enchantress - So, Aura Gnarlid is a thing, which restricts the space for this to be good a little. But this does count every enchantment, not just every aura.

[Natirasha]

Peregrine Drake ban incoming

[Shanba]

Peregrine Drake ban incoming

I mean, it's so much worse than cloud of faeries in that deck. Like, cloud of faeries gave you super broken fast starts to go with the deck being outrageously resilient. Honestly that's the best deck I've ever played in magic, it was just... so good. On every axis.

[Natirasha]

Well yeah it's worse than Cloud of Faeries, but Cloud of Faeries was literally the entire reason I quit pauper.

[Thestatusquo]

Don't have a trade binder anymore, but now the proud owner of these minty beauties:

[Klazam]

nice!

[Shanba]

Don't have a trade binder anymore, but now the proud owner of these minty beauties:

ooh they're gorgeous. Congrats!

[InflatablePie]

"hey guys whatever happened to Gisela and Bruna? we got Sigarda in SOI but-"

Spoiler: Eldritch Moon

[Natirasha]

I liked the part where they implied the lesbian hunters went through the same metamorphosis. I'm legitimately impressed they had the guts to do that given the current climate w/dead lesbians. I guess it's fine because they're not technically dead or something.

[TheButtonmen]

current climate w/dead lesbians

did innestrads new topography cause the forecasters to predict a dearth of dead lesbians?

[TheButtonmen]

new emrakul seems fairly underwhelming compared to the past one but that is probably on purpose, that extra turn though really removes the haste aspect of mindslaving so im not really sold with its limited protection and somewhat lacking etb (for its cost).

new g/r guy is going to win tons of drafts then sit in a trade binder forever it seems

[hasdgfas]

new emrakul seems fairly underwhelming compared to the past one but that is probably on purpose, that extra turn though really removes the haste aspect of mindslaving so im not really sold with its limited protection and somewhat lacking etb (for its cost).

new g/r guy is going to win tons of drafts then sit in a trade binder forever it seems

I think Emrakul is super busted.

[Shinobi]

New Emrakul sucks.
So my ramp deck is completely dead and isn't coming back. I'm so sad. D: