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mr.otto
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 10:12 pm
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 31 Location:
--- description ---
Haven’t you always wanted to play Magic The Gathering and still have SOME money left in your wallet and/or bank account after building a new tournament deck?
--- end description ---

Compete AND stay out of MTG induced poverty

Haven’t you always wanted to play Magic The Gathering and still have SOME money left in your wallet and/or bank account after building a new tournament deck?

This hardly seems like a possibility. Just think about all the money you have to spend to stay competitive. A tourney deck can easily push you to spend $100 on land cards alone. Take your good ole Boros Wins deck.
4x Sacred Foundry = $40
4x Battlefield Forge = $30
4x Gemstone Mine = $35
2x Flagstones of Trokair = $30
Basic Lands = Free
Total = $135 (OUCH! these really ARE painlands!)

For those keeping count that’s over 26 hours of work at minimum wage before they take out for retirement and taxes. Think of all the good things you could have done with that money: Saved a starving child in Africa, bought your 8 year girlfriend an engagement ring (if she is still with your sorry butt after 8 years, she’ll say yes to a cheap ring), Ordered 27 medium one topping pizzas from Dominoes, or bought a full booster box of Magic Cards.

If this realization gets to you the same way that it does to me, then I have something that you need to hear.

If you don’t care about all this money lost, don’t shut down your computer to get away from my heresy just yet. I have something for you too, Mr. Monopoly Money-pants. I want to give you a way to use those box fulls of "useless" cards and a way to let you stay competitive in a whole new way.

I would like to focus your attention to the Cheapest way to play MTG that doesn’t involve you taking off any clothing....the Standard Pauper Deck Challenge.

Rules of Standard Pauper Deck Challenge
1.Only commons. No Rare, uncommon, or time-shifted cards.
2. All cards must be standard legal.
3. A card must be both a common and standard legal. A card is not allowed if it WAS a common in some other set, but ISN’T a common in the newer set. An example would be Kird Ape. This card was a common in the Revised expansion, but it is an uncommon in the 9th edition. So it isn’t allowed.
-There are also a classic and extended Pauper Deck Challenges. The rules get a bit more complicated, and the cards a bit more expensive so that must be saved for another time.

If you’ve never heard of this gametype, I’ll give you a chance to pick up the pieces of your skull. Now, by no means did I invent this game type or am I a terrific PDC player, but I am a big supporter. This is a type that EVERYONE can afford to play. This is one of the reasons that I am writing this article.

Consider that most commons sell for a dime. If you consider that all most all of your lands are going to be basic which you most likely have, a new SPDC deck could cost you $3.80..... over $120 less than a group of STD tourney deck lands.

There are several things to consider when building a SPDC deck. The first thing is that the card pool is much smaller. Usually the number of commons in Standard is about 600. This is much easier for new players since trying to build a good deck requires knowledge of the available cards.

Now I realize that some players will automatically denounce this gametype because they think that there are no "Star" players in the commons. This is ridiculous. Every STD tourney deck uses some commons. Just check out the utility of some of my favorite STD commons. People can feel free to argue with the choices. By listing commons that I "forgot" you’ll be only strengthening my point.[/size]

Black - Killing Creatures and Loving It
Last Gasp - give a creature -3/-3 at instant speed
Vampiric Link - hook to your creature for life gain OR make their fattie almost useless as an attacker.
Seal of Doom - destroy a creature = OK.
Festering Goblin - a turn one drop that can take down a 2/2 is nice.

White- Look I Stopped Your Fattie
Mana Tithe - a white counter spell for 1 mana is fun.
Sinew Sliver- I know, I know it’s a sliver, but for 1W it’s a 2/2 that pumps every other sliver.
Momentary Blink- save a creature from combat damage and play "into play" effects over
Faith’s Fetters - Stopping a creature AND life gain = great card

Green-Getting Some (Mana)
Llanowar Elves - a poor man’s green birds of paradise
Essence Warden - I just love gaining life for every creature.
Silhana Ledgewalker - Tons of evasion
Gemhide Sliver- WHAT! ANOTHER SLIVER? yes, calm down, another cheap BOP

Red - Dealing Damage
Dust Corona - put this on a flyer to make it almost unblockable (stupid spiders)
Psychotic Fury - Double strike at instant speed makes sure that you deal some damage.
Rite of Flame + Seething Song - together they equal major mana
Burn spells - Volcanic Hammer, Rift Bolt, Seal of Fire, Sudden Shock - BURN, BURN, BURN!!!! sorry.
Skred - it deserves it’s own category since snowlands are common.

Blue - I’ll Find what I need.
Sleight of Hand - A very nice 1 drop
Compulsive Research - card draw is VERY alive in blue commons
Looter il-Kor - Looter helps you sort through your deck and deal some damage
Repeal - Very useful in removing a threat and lets you draw a card
Counters - Rune Snag / Mana Leak - I’ll let the readers pick which is better
Mystical Teachings - I want that instant this instant

Gold- The Best of Many Worlds
Scab-Clan Mauler - 2 mana for a 3/3 is good, right?
Coiling Oracle- Extra cards are my favorite kind of cards.
Skyknight Legionnaire- a hasty 2/2 flyer for 3
Wee Dragonauts - A pet card of mine.
Pillory of the Sleepless - Like Faith’s Fetters but they lose life every turn

Land - Mana Burn Waiting to Happen
[All the Snow Covered Lands
All the Ravnica Guild Lands - Mana Fixing
Terramorphic Expanse - Mana fixing and deck thinning.

Artifact - Um, Robots and Stuff, I Think
All the Ravnica Guild Signets - very good for mana fixing.

Players that get interested in playing SPDC should realize that you can’t just bring any pile of commons to a SPDC tourney and win. The standard deck types (aggro, control, combo, etc) still apply. Decks need to be built with specific techs and versatility in mind. Also there is a game type specific Metagame that you will have to learn if you want to be competitive.

Below are a sample decks for each of the three major types and a description of how each plays in the Meta.

Sample Combo Deck
Dragonaut Storm


7 Island
8 Mountain
4 Terramorphic Expanse

Combo pieces - use the rite and seething song to play a couple other spells and then a large warrens
4 Rite of Flame
4 Seething Song
4 Empty the Warrens

Burn spells - these specific burn spells not only do damage to your oppenent and his creatures, but they also aid or are aided by storm
4 Grapeshot
4 Rift Bolt
4 Surging Flame

Draw spells - these very cheap ways to draw cards and up the storm count
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Think Twice
3 Chromatic Star

Other
4 Wee Dragonauts - a second win condition that works very well with storm
3 Simian Spirit Guide - helps you get out your combo faster or boost the storm count

Sideboard
4 Compulsive Research
4 Remove Soul
4 Muddle the Mixture
4 Cancel
3 Rain of Embers


Strengths - fast (I once went off on turn 1 without even playing a land), fairly consistent, ability to "half go-off"
Weaknesses - your tokens are only 1/1’s. While you don’t have to worry about Wrath of God like spells, you do have trouble with cards like rain of embers and sometimes counter spell decks are tough.

Sample Aggro Deck
PDC Bloodthirst Gruul


Lands
4 Terramorphic Expanse
9 Forest
9 Mountain

Creatures - cheap, fairly powerful thanks to Bloodthirst, and a bit of evasion.
2 Rootwalla
4 Scab-Clan Mauler
4 Silhana Ledgewalker
4 Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
4 War-Torch Goblin
4 Keldon Marauders
2 Bloodscale Prowler
2 Uktabi Drake

Burn - Can finish off an opponent or open the path for your blockers
4 Seal of Fire
4 Shock
4 Volcanic Hammer

Sideboard
4 Rain of Embers
4 Lava Ax
4 dead//gone
2 Bloodscale Prowler
1 Rootwalla

Strengths and weaknesses- similar to Std Gruul or Boros only because of the other decks it faces. It can really over power other deck types (sideboard rain of embers to decimate storm decks), but it also tends to run out of steam quickly and anylife gain deck will make finishing the job with burn difficult.

Sample Control Deck
Orzhov Blink


Land
8 Swamp
7 Plains
4 Orzhov Basilica
4 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Island

Creatures - Good in/out effects (discard/lifegain)
4 Blind Hunter
4 Ravenous Rats
2 Shrieking Grotesque
4 Aven Riftwatcher
2 Whitemane Lion

Instants - save your creatures/kill theirs/ reuse the in/out effects over and over.
4 Last Gasp
4 Momentary Blink

Enchantments - very good for control. These may be moved to sideboard depending upon match up
4 Faith’s Fetters
4 Pillory of the Sleepless

Artifacts
4 Dimir Signet

Sidboard
4 Mana Tithe
4 Ronom Unicorn
4 Sunlance
3 Gravedigger

Now imagine those decks being THE major decks in the meta. Hopefully you’ll see that this allows you to have fun in a competitive tournament situation and to have lots of money left to spend on other things. Honestly my combo and (hybrid) control decks are builds of two very strong decks. I haven’t found or made a very successful aggro deck, but perhaps that is just my play style.

Ok, I hoped that I’ve sparked your interest in the gametype and you’ve got tons of deck ideas that can destroy the decks I’ve posted.

Next, I would like to do something a bit out there and hopefully a bit fun. I am going to take one of my SPDC decks and compete in several random Standard legal matches against random opponents in Magic Online (yes, I talked about wasting money and I’m addicted to MTG in two forms. I realize the irony) By doing so I hope to prove that money and rare cards don’t always make your deck better. I am going to play ten games and give a small report about the game for each one. Everything is random and unedited to make me look good....I hope that I don’t do too poorly.

First let’s take a look at the deck I will be using during this experiment. It should seem familiar.

Orzhov Blink
    Land
    8 Swamp
    7 Plains
    4 Orzhov Basilica
    4 Terramorphic Expanse
    1 Island

    Creatures
    4 Blind Hunter
    4 Ravenous Rats
    2 Shrieking Grotesque
    4 Aven Riftwatcher
    2 Whitemane Lion

    Instants
    4 Last Gasp
    4 Momentary Blink

    Enchantments
    4 Faith’s Fetters
    4 Pillory of the Sleepless

    Artifacts
    4 Dimir Signet

    Sidboard
    4 Mana tithe
    4 Ronom Unicorn
    4 Sunlance
    3 Zealot il-Vec


For those interest in price.

Main deck total - $5.40
8 Swamp
7 Plains
4 Orzhov Basilica -.40
4 Terramorphic Expanse 1.40
1 Island

Creatures
4 Blind Hunter - .40
4 Ravenous Rats - .40
2 Shrieking Grotesque -.20
4 Aven Riftwatcher -.40
2 Whitemane Lion -.20

Instants
4 Last Gasp -.40
4 Momentary Blink - .40

Enchantments
4 Faith’s Fetters - 2.00
4 Pillory of the Sleepless - .40

Artifacts
4 Dimir Signet -.60

Sidboard Total - $3.10
4 Mana tithe - 2.00
4 Ronom Unicorn - .40
4 Sunlance - .40
3 Zealot il-Vec -.30

Entire deck total = $8.50

It has a little bit of all kinds of goodies - creature removal, life gain, discard, fliers, etc. This is my own build of a common deck type. It was a mediocre deck before Planar Chaos was introduced. The addition of Aven Riftwatcher and Whiteman Lion really have given me a major way to gain life and reuse my star "Blind Hunter"

Most MTGO casual matches are not 2/3 so I don’t expect my sideboard to be used, but it is there for reference purposes. Let’s take a look at my first match.

Match 1 - White Stuffy Doll/ Wrath of God
I get out a shrieking grotesque and an Aven Riftwatcher by turn 4. He has yet to play anything but land.

He plays a calvary master on turn 5. I hit it with a pillory and keep swinging away.

He plays a wrath of god. I gain more life from the Aven and go on to play another grotesque. He gets a tough combo out of a Knight of the Holy Nimbus and a Griffin Guide which I proceed to fetter on the next turn.

I play another Aven. He plays a stuffy doll....which I fetter...

He plays a magnus of the disc. I wait a turn and play whitemane lion to save my Aven and give me more life. The board is cleared of all but lands and the doll. He’s at 1 life and I have 36.

He plays 2 more creatures that I hit with Last Gasps. I though out my saved Aven, fetter his stuffy doll and attack for the win 36 to -1. I earn a complement on my play and deck.

Match 2 - Some horrid white and blue 250 card deck
He played Adarkar Wastes, Hour of Reckoning, Howling Mine, Celestial Dawn, and Gemstone mine to name a few, but no creatures or defense.
I destroyed him. He complained that my deck didn’t contain any original thought. I told him to loan me some money so I could afford all the expensive cards he had, and I would surely get some new ideas. He passed.

So far 2 - 0 against expensive but mediocre decks.

Match 3 - Black Control
I had him down to 4 hit points but his combination of Debtors’ knell and gravepact plus Loxodon Warhammer + Phyrexian Totem provided to much creature regeneration and life gain for me to overcome.

No artifact/enchantment hate in main deck means I’m 2-1 although I’m sure that after sideboarding I could have pulled off a 2/3.

I’m now at 2-1

Match 4 - Green Red Land Destruction
Now this could have been messy. He uses green to play Harmonize and Mana creatures which enables a steady flow of land destruction starting on turn 2 with stone rain... Luckily I played first so I get out a couple of fliers quickly as he proceeds to destroy all my lands in play. I hold back playing a couple of lands just to be able to blink my blind hunter for the win.

I’m now a respectable 3-1.

Match 5 - Red/White starring Soltari Priest, plenty of burn, and an Akroma, Angel of Fury
Thanks to my fetters, pillory, and Last Gasp I kill or stop anything that comes close to attacking. He does get the Akroma out which I proceed to Last Gasp and block with two creatures to destroy. After its gone, I attack with my fliers and it’s straight forward gg.

Record 4-1

Match 6 - Blue/Black Reanimator
He uses Scrying Sheets to pump out cards and then reanimate an Autochthon Wurm which hits me once but then gets fettered. A couple turns latter I had him down to 4 health when he reanimates Blazing Archon. He sends me a smiley face thinking that I can’t attack, so I play a blind hunter and then blink him for the win.

Record 5-1

Match 7 - Mono Green Aggro
Now this was a challenge. Turn one he played a llanawar elf. Turn two a call of the herd. Turn three a groundbreaker. Turn 4 another groundbreaker. OUCH. Luckily I was holding 3 fetters and the life gain managed to keep me safe. He used a moldervine cloak on his elf and played the herd from the graveyard. I fettered and pilloryed them all. I played fliers and blinked my discard creatures during his draw phase to keep him with nothing in hand and won quite easily after I recovered from the first 15 damage.

Record 6-1

Match 8 - Green Flash / Blue control

Sadly my fetters didn’t show up in this round and his counters did. At the end of the match I drew lands 4 turns in a row and in 10 turns never had a fetters or pillory. That’s just how the draw goes sometimes. It is a shame too since I was feeling so good about beating the monogreen.

Record 6-2

Match 9 - Monoblack
He opens up the game with a pair of foul imps which cost him 4 life. I open up with a pair of pillorys which cost him more. I play blind hunter, attack with him, and blink him twice for the win.

Record 7-2

Match 10 - Dragonstorm
HAHAHAHA! Laugh, that was all I really could do. I didn’t have anything that would stop this combo from happening, and my deck wasn’t fast enough to win by pure speed. So I laughed and ignored the comments from the guy playing the tournament deck in the casual room.

Final Record 7-3

Conclusion

This is not suppose to prove anything other than that a well developed, well played SPDC deck can play and win against other more expensive decks. It was fun to try out. I encourage all of you to try out my strategy. Maybe you’ll mess around with some friends and have your our commons only tournament. Maybe someone will have a Friday Night Magic just for SPDC. Maybe you’ll build a deck that costs you less than your opponents first land drop and beat them. Whatever happens I hope you think about this cheap way of competing in the game that we all love.
Last edited by mr.otto on Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:09 pm; edited 2 times in total
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:25 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Just a reminder: Peasant Deckbuilding (I beleive it’s the same format) DOES allow you to use 5 uncommons, and it DOES consider the lowest rarity possible the card has ever had. Or are you creating your own format? Otherwise, just ignore this reminder! Very Happy
I don't like YOU.
mr.otto
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 11:49 pm
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 31 Location:
You bring up a good point, Felipe. May people think of Peasant and Pauper magic as the same type, but there is a small difference between Pauper and Peasant magic, and you have just pointed out the differences.
Pauper is a format that was developed by the same group of guys who developed Peasant magic.

Both formats are fun, cheap, and have limited card pools. Pauper is just even more so. Maybe not the fun part, but the rest applies


Here are a couple of sites that deal with issues surrounding Pauper magic.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/jm67
paupermagic.com
Felipe Musco
Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 4:45 pm
Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 2434 Location: Florianópolis, SC, Brasil
Thanks for the clarification! NOW I feel prepared to go through your article. i’ll be back to talk about it as soon as I’m done. Very Happy
I don't like YOU.
The First
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 6:19 am
Joined: 07 Oct 2005 Posts: 195 Location: Anderlecht, Belgium
Match 1 - White Stuffy Doll/ Wrath of God
I get out a shrieking grotesque and an Aven Riftwatcher by turn 3. He has yet to play anything but land.

How do you do that? Both cards have a cost of 3. Even with a signet, that is quite impossible...

Match 2 - Some horrid white and blue 250 card deck
I destroyed him. He complained that my deck didn’t contain any original thought. I told him to loan me some money so I could afford all the expensive cards he had, and I would surely get some new ideas. He passed.

Well, he is right: Your deck ISN’T original. Whether or not it can be played in the casual room is another question. It seems casual enough. His deck just looks bad.


Match 3 - Black Control
No artifact/enchantment hate in main deck means I’m 2-1 although I’m sure that after sideboarding I could have pulled off a 2/3.

Probably if that is the only "combo" he is relying on. Don’t forget that he probably had a sb as well though.


Match 4 - Green Red Land Destruction
Now this could have been messy. Using green to play Harmonize and Mana creatures enables a turn 2 stone rain...

Mana creatures and Harmonize on turn 1 then?? If that is resulting in a turn 2 stone rain... Seems impossible to me... Harmonize just does not seem to fit.

Match 7 - Mono Green Aggro
Yeah, life gain packed in a Pacifism is deadly for MGH/MGA. It nukes a creature and you need to deal 24 damage instead of 20... It runs out of steam and after that, it is gg.

It is fun to play but not very competitive sadly...

Match 8 - Green Flash / Blue control
I would assume that UC is a lot harder to beat than MGA. The Blue deck does not really care that much that you gain life and it will counter the things it dislikes like your Blind Hunters, Pillories etc.


Match 9 - Monoblack
He opens up the game with a pair of foul imps which cost him 4 life. I open up with a pair of pillorys which cost him more.

And it is gg on turn three.

Match 10 - Dragonstorm
HAHAHAHA! Laugh, that was all I really could do. I didn’t have anything that would stop this combo from happening, and my deck wasn’t fast enough to win by pure speed. So I laughed and ignored the comments from the guy playing the tournament deck in the casual room.

I would even say that your deck is pretty slow. You have no 1 drops. Quite a few 2 drops though. Not enough creatures to really compete with rush decks... Its real power lies in the 12 "removal" cards and the creature rescuing.

I don’t get how you manage to get creatures out so consistently though. If I would play this deck, I would probably lose 1/2 just by getting no creatures or bad ones like the Ravenous Rats. Did you have to mulligan a lot actually?
Great minds bleed alike.
Do not copy media. Support creativity.
mr.otto
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:14 pm
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 31 Location:
Quote:
Match 1 - White Stuffy Doll/ Wrath of God
I get out a shrieking grotesque and an Aven Riftwatcher by turn 3. He has yet to play anything but land.

How do you do that? Both cards have a cost of 3. Even with a signet, that is quite impossible...


Obviously a typo that has now been fixed. Thank you for noticing.


Quote:
Match 2 - Some horrid white and blue 250 card deck
I destroyed him. He complained that my deck didn’t contain any original thought. I told him to loan me some money so I could afford all the expensive cards he had, and I would surely get some new ideas. He passed.

Well, he is right: Your deck ISN’T original. Whether or not it can be played in the casual room is another question. It seems casual enough. His deck just looks bad.


I agree that Orzhov Blink isn’t original - Wizards created guilds for a reason. It’s my commons only build on a very common deck. His deck was just plain bad and somewhat expensive especially by comparison.

As to whether this deck is "Casual" I would have to say yes. It DOES have elements of discard which isn’t very casual, but I would say that compared to at least 1/2 of the decks I played it is at least as casual. After all, could this deck compete against Dragonstorm or Boros wins. I think not. This deck is only tourney worthy in PDC where Zoo or Boros are very difficult to make and Dragonstorm is impossible.

Match 4 - rephrased for clarity.

Quote:
I don’t get how you manage to get creatures out so consistently though. If I would play this deck, I would probably lose 1/2 just by getting no creatures or bad ones like the Ravenous Rats. Did you have to mulligan a lot actually?


I didn’t go into too much detail about how I aim to play this deck. Yes this deck is slow, but it does have 12 cards (Blink Hunter, Faith’s Fetters, Aven Riftwatcher) on turn 3 and 4 that gain life. The creatures can be rescued or blinked to gain even more life. Unless a deck can deal 12-20 damage before I get those creatures/enchantments going, I have a chance. That is a definite possibility in T2, but in casual or SPDC it is less common.

I deal damage though the fliers or by Blinking Blind Hunter for direct damage. I try to fetter, pillory, or gasp any creatures that either deal too much damage or threaten my fliers. This deck is based upon control and life gain.

To answer your question, I don’t find myself taking a mulligan much more than usual. The big problem that I worry about is not having the 3/4 land to get my deck going. If I have 2 lands in hand, I usually feel confident, but like all decks drawing no creatures can be a pain.

But using the Rats + gasp + blink + fetters + pillory will usually help me hold on long enough to draw a couple of the better creatures.
mr.otto
Posted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 6:10 pm
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 31 Location:
Updated. I added a couple decks to point out how SPDC can be a competitive format.
Cobra
Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 1:27 am
Joined: 12 Jul 2005 Posts: 1202 Location: Austin, TX, USA
Congratulations to mr.otto, who takes 2nd place and $25 store credit in the April 2007 Magic: The Gathering Strategy Article Contest. Cheers
http://cobracards.com -- Web's best deals on Trading Card Games.
mr.otto
Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 6:02 pm
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 31 Location:
Hey, thanks a lot. It’s been a lot of fun working on these articles. I can’t wait to see what everyone comes up with this month. Laughing

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