Everyone is excited about 10th Edition, right? Well, if you aren’t, you should be. 10th Edition promised to be one of the coolest Core Sets ever printed, and they pulled out all the stops this time – Black borders, a 16th token or tips card in every pack, and amazing rares like Troll Ascetic and Mobilization.

But Pauper isn’t about rares. It’s about commons. This week, as part of the 10th Edition review articles, I’ll be looking at some of the “new” commons in 10th Edition, and what they mean to the current Pauper deck formats.

The Pauper summer season is still ongoing, and while I haven’t had time to sit down and properly enjoy it the way I’d like with the Pauper Deck Challenges on Magic: Online, I’ve still been keeping up with all the decklists and all the changes in the current Standard and Classic metagames. Pauper is one of those formats that’s just fun enough to keep you interested even if you don’t have the time to play it, and it’s a good way to take your mind off work, and all the stresses of summer life – and if there aren’t any stresses of summer life (lucky!), then it’s a great way to have fun.

As I’ve mentioned so many times before, Pauper constructed isn’t like other constructed formats – you’ve got a lot of experimentation going on within and outside of many different archetypes. This is mostly due to the strength of common cards in newer sets, and the constraints of the format. If you can only use commons, then cards that used to be worthless now have value – Wrap in Vigor being the best example I can fathom right now. A card that is a very low pick in Limited and that sees no play in other Constructed formats, Wrap in Vigor is a good sideboard card for the extremely powerful Spore Cry deck. Spore Cry variants use Wrap in Vigor to sideboard in against powerful anti-weenie cards such as Martyr of Ashes – if all your Saprolings would roast, then just regenerate them all!

But what about 10th Edition? What new variation and strange new/old cards will change the metagame of Standard?

The Death of Storm?

10th Edition is here, and that means that 9th Edition is officially in the books, and out of Standard. This change is exciting for me, because one of my greatest pleasures is realizing and understanding how much a current metagame will change with all the new cards moving in, and all the old cards moving out. Pauper is no different from any other more “formal” metagame – as commons come and go, decks change and mutate to take advantage of new cards, and try to fill holes that other cards have left in their absence.

Standard has felt this change, and it’s because a common card has been removed from the Core Set – Seething Song. Seething Song was a great card in the old Standard because it helped power the Dragonstorm combo deck that relied on Seething Song and Rite of Flame to generate large amounts of mana in order to play its namesake card, Dragonstorm. Dragonstorm was good because unless you had an answer like Trickbind or Shadow of Doubt, it was almost unstoppable if the combo went off – each Storm would have to be dealt with separately, and ultimately, if you didn’t lose to the 20 damage that your opponent’s 4 Bogardan Hellkites would deal when they came into play, you’d inevitably lose to their attack next turn.

The loss of Seething Storm in Standard has almost certainly killed Dragonstorm combo. But has the loss of Seething Song in killed Storm decks in Standard Pauper?

In a word – no.

The key to this deck is actually not as complicated as you would think – synchronize your suspend spells so that they all happen on the same turn, then follow up with an Empty the Warrens to seal the deal. Rift Elemental is the key that holds this somewhat shambling mess together – by pulling time counters off of other spells, it gets larger, and also lines your suspend clock up, or at the very worst, brings your Errant Ephemeron in a turn or two early (and there is nothing terrible about that!).

Forsee, the miracle common I mentioned last article, comes back to do what it does best – create amazing card draws. Grapeshot acts as a finisher, and can hold off hoards of Saprolings if need be. Martyr of Flames also deals with creatures quite well, but I’d advise you not to use it after you play Empty the Warrens. If you play it after Emptying, you could see some rather disastrous consequences. Skred keeps cards like Aurochs Herd out of the picture.

Initially I was shocked that Keldon Halberdier didn’t make a place in this deck, but with the amount of Martyr of Ashes being played in the format right now, it’s a rather fragile card.

A Gain of Standards, a Loss of Classics

One thing to mention about 10th Edition – 10th mostly affects the Standard environment, because for the most part, Classic already has all the reprinted cards in common. Now, some cards that were reprinted, such as Aggressive Urge, will now be easier to get a hold on if you’re a newer MTGO player, which may cause an increase in their use in Classic, but for the most part, 10th Edition is a Standard thing.

Core Sets are all about reprints, and thankfully, some cards that are Standard staples have been reprinted in 10th – most notably, Civic Wayfinder, who plays a big part in certain Black/Green/Red control decks.

Another interesting reprint is Demolish – it’s been moved from uncommon in 9th and 8th Editions to common in 10th. This would be the start of a great land destruction deck, but for one problem – Stone Rain wasn’t reprinted in 10th. Rain of Tears was reprinted however… the only problem is that it was reprinted in an uncommon slot. Boo!

One of my favorite Champions of Kamigawa cards, Distress, is being reprinted – this does loads of great things for the Black mage in the upcoming weeks before Lorwyn. With Distress and Castigate, along with cards like Tendrils of Corruption, there are some pretty good things going on there. Black/White discard weenie may have a chance in this new post 10th Standard.

Two cards from Mirrodin block show up in 10th that I think may be worth mentioning – Fists of the Anvil and Essence Drain can both be stellar cards in the right decks. Essence Drain is an especially powerful card in a format when the average creature has less than three toughness. Fists of the Anvil is a great filler/win condition for Storm decks and for red Aggro decks.

Speaking of Red decks, Incinerate was printed again! This will replace its extremely inferior cousin Volcanic Hammer in burn suites as a piece of choice removal.

Red has some powerful cards to use in Standard right now – it has favorable match ups versus slower mid-range decks, and with the amount of burn in Standard, should be able to keep up against Spore Cry. In fact, I expect Mono Red Aggro to do very well in the upcoming weeks. Here’s my list.

Playing this deck is pretty simple. My advice to you? Burn things. Use your early burn spells to push through damage, and use your cheap creatures to finish the job. Your burn spells provide some early pumping for Scab-Clan Mauler, the main reason for my green splash. Although I don’t see him all that much in Pauper play, I still think that it’s a great card, and backed up with large amounts of burn spells (with 8 of them able to be played on turn 1), it should be extremely viable in the early and late game.

I chose Spitting Earth for this deck because it does something that the other removal in this deck doesn’t do – kill large creatures. With more than 3 Mountains in play, Spitting Earth suddenly becomes a very nice piece of removal. If you’re willing to invest in Snow lands however, I’d suggest just playing Skred. Skred is better in all ways, but it’s a little more costly. (Online, Snow-lands can be expensive.)

Bogardan Firefiend is an interesting card, but I’m not sure how good it is. It can potentially kill a 4/4, but more than likely, it’s going to be an unblockable 2/1 while there aren’t any 5/5s in play. Still, it offers a chance to get some good card advantage, and with a high number of low toughness playable cards, it could be a decent pick. Time will tell if this Weatherlight reprint will affect the face of Pauper.

When you think about the colors Blue and White paired together, you don’t necessarily think about attacking. 99% of the time, you’d think that Blue and White make the ultimate control deck, with mass removal in the form of Wrath of God, and a plethora of counterspells to keep things in… well, control.

Wrath of God is still in 10th, despite what many people thought, and in some respect, the mentality of the Blue/White control deck is still a dominating one. However, as counterspells like Cancel are printed in Core Sets, the Counter-Draw type deck of days past is no longer what it once was. The Blue/White deck has to change in order to keep up with the times.

Before Ravnica, Blue/White was merely a control deck. But when Ravnica, a set that’s about to rotate out, came along with its guild system, and gave all the color combos some good creatures, and when Time Spiral came around and gave us Suspend cards, well, things changed. In the common places, cards like Errant Ephemeron and Azorius First-Wing got printed, and well, after that, you’ve got history.

10th Edition does bring an interesting card in the form of Youthful Knight – this 2/1 for 1W has first strike, and that’s a very relevant ability in the early game against opposing creatures. I expect to see him show up in a deck or two as 10th Edition is released on MTGO.

While Youthful Knight might be finding a place in decklists soon, for now, this UW aggro deck will have to go without him. This deck uses Planar Chaos’ topsy-turvy color shifted abilities to provide some much needed removal, while it soars high above the ground pounders and Saprolings that have been running amok lately, and just wins while other decks are trying to set up their ground forces.

This deck is primarily an aggro deck, with fliers and other evasive cards taking up almost all the space reserved for creatures in this deck. There are some pieces of removal here and there (Sunlance and Shaper Parasite come to mind) but mostly, this deck will want to win with its fast, powerful fliers before anyone else can figure out what is going on. This deck, however, does have the ability to morph into a control deck – its suite of counterspells can be sided in for your less beefy creatures, and all of a sudden, you’ve got the Blue/White Draw-Go of old!

This deck uses Momentary Blink as a way to keep its creatures alive, as well as abuse Aven Riftwatcher, and it makes for great card advantage. I love how amazing Momentary Blink is, and in this deck, it really shines.

I was surprised to see that Remove Soul was in the Sideboard of this deck’s original version, and since the deck’s creator himself stated that the Marshalling Cry that were in his deck were useless, I’ve replaced them with the Pauper hard counter of choice. Remove Soul is so great against creatures (you think??), and in Pauper, everyone is playing creatures as part of their control element. Remove Soul is a quintessential counterspell in any Pauper format. And, thankfully, it’s back in 10th edition. (Even if Mana Leak is not...)

So – my final verdict on 10th Edition? Strap in. It’s going to be one hell of a ride.

Death_By_Beebles

Death_By_Beebles is a relatively normal guy. When he’s not working on a new Raiding the Dollar Bins deck, or thinking about what to play for next week’s 3CB tournament

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Articles Spotlights from 2007:
Lorwyn Theme Week Intro & Schedule of Events
Blink And Bounce: Timing is Key
Going Blind: XCB Metagaming - A Prolonged Conclusion.
The Science of Magic: Genetic Engineering, Part Two.
Shifting Lineaments: Casual Metagaming (Pt. 2).
The Dungeon Of Malefict: Pure Evil!
Land Week Introduction & Schedule.
Combofusion: Legends Timeshifted.
One Card to Rule Them All: Coastal Piracy
Irrational Love: Chimeras. The Lego's of Magic.