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Post by RockBass on Dec 9, 2012 13:56:50 GMT -5
This thread will be an overview of the standard Pauper decks I'm encountering in my playtesting. Feel free to add to it.
I'm loathe to make each deck I encounter because I don't know them in and out yet, so I'll just list them here. Once they're more flushed out from playing against them, we can give them actual individual threads.
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Post by RockBass on Dec 9, 2012 17:35:06 GMT -5
1. White Weenie
Your standard White Weenie build, featuring creatures like Chapel Geist and Seraph of Dawn. Bladed Bracers for equipment, and enchantments like Ethereal Armor.
2. Red Deck Wins
Forge Devils, Geistflames, and Annihilating Fires.
3. Jund Hexproof
Primal Huntbeasts, Rubbleback Rhinos, and cards like Prey Upon and Wild Hunger. I have not seen the cards that are utilized by Swamps yet.
4. U/G Soulbond
This is the deck with the big baddies in it. Flowering Lumberknot, Elgaud Shieldmate, Gryff Vanguard, Stitched Drake, and Trusted Forcemage all coming together to wreck stuff. Kill this deck quick!
5. Mill
Much like Matti discussed a couple of episodes ago, Doorkeepers, Axebane Guardians, Trestle Trolls, Gatecreeper Vines, and Stab Wound.
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Post by yugular on Dec 9, 2012 17:51:39 GMT -5
You havent faced any Flicker decks yet? Those are tier1 stuff imo. Comes in many colors too..
I run BW exalted myself.
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avery61
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Post by avery61 on Dec 10, 2012 1:34:22 GMT -5
Reposting this from another page, belongs here now. - - - The hexproof decks are usually GB or GBW. The cards from black are removal spells and the amazing Mark of the Vampire. Hre are a couple of decks that are doing well. Junk 2 Plains 2 Forest 5 Swamp 4 Borderland Ranger 3 Sign in Blood 4 Evolving Wilds 2 Altar's Reap 3 Dead Weight 3 Victim of Night 1 Gravepurge 4 Haunted Fengraf 1 Undying Evil 4 Abundant Growth 4 Seraph of Dawn 4 Murder 2 Centaur Healer 4 Golgari Guildgate 3 Keening Apparition 2 Ogre Jailbreaker 3 Selesnya Guildgate Sideboard 3 Pacifism 2 Ray of Revelation 2 Mind Rot 4 Deadly Recluse 1 Dead Weight 1 Victim of Night 2 Centaur Healer Keening Apparitions are making MD's in any list that plays white to combat the plethora of aura's out there - big reason why Selesnya decks aren't doing so well. Victim os Night is a solid replacement for Doom Blade. Here's one that won an event on Nov 29th and was copied twice over in the next event with two decks in the top 8. U/R Demise by Licktung 4 Cancel 4 Think Twice 8 Island 5 Mountain 1 Swamp 4 Essence Scatter 4 Evolving Wilds 3 Forbidden Alchemy 1 Geistflame 1 Harvest Pyre 1 Silent Departure 2 Bone to Ash 2 Fires of Undeath 2 Haunted Fengraf 4 Pillar of Flame 4 Faerie Invaders 4 Searing Spear 2 Electrickery 4 Izzet Guildgate Sideboard 4 Thunderbolt 3 Dispel 1 Harvest Pyre 1 Bone to Ash 1 Fires of Undeath 1 Electrickery 4 Frostburn Weird Of course Licktung piloted one of those decks and the other guy did give him credit.
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avery61
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Post by avery61 on Dec 10, 2012 1:41:36 GMT -5
The top decks to me are
UR various builds Junk GW auras Flicker White Weenie (just won't die already)
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Post by The.Angry.Man on Mar 30, 2013 16:59:47 GMT -5
RockBass, Yugular, & Avery61,
Would it be out of line to create a "N00b Deck Analysis" thread? Give us FNG's a place to post our decks, the reasoning behind the card selection, etc...then experts can offer some advice to how they would approach designing a similar deck (or not even bother if there are things the n00b missed)...
Also, I see a lot of different deck archetypes being referred to...is there anywhere I can reference the deck archetypes to give me a better idea of what is being discussed?
Thank you for your time...
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Post by yugular on Mar 31, 2013 1:47:02 GMT -5
I don't know what FNG means but feel free to create a thread for the purpose.
I dont know if you can actually refer the decktypes somewhere, the ability to reckognize decks by name comes with exprience of playing the format, but they are for example: GW auras - Green/White deck that plays Auras to enchant hard to deal creatures like Primal Huntbeast. Flicker - Ghostly Flicker & Archaeomancer combined with value card like Elvish Visionary or Mist Raven White Weenie - Small white guys
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avery61
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Post by avery61 on Mar 31, 2013 2:07:49 GMT -5
RockBass, Yugular, & Avery61, Would it be out of line to create a "N00b Deck Analysis" thread? Give us FNG's a place to post our decks, the reasoning behind the card selection, etc...then experts can offer some advice to how they would approach designing a similar deck (or not even bother if there are things the n00b missed)... Also, I see a lot of different deck archetypes being referred to...is there anywhere I can reference the deck archetypes to give me a better idea of what is being discussed? Thank you for your time... I wouldn't pay to much attention to anything posted prior to your post. New set since then, and the decks have changed. GWx Aura's are still strong White Weenie is ok but Boros is better (IMO) A Flicker deck takes lots of practice Check out these last two events for up to date decks. pdcmagic.com/gatherling/eventreport.php?event=SPDC+19.20& pdcmagic.com/gatherling/eventreport.php?event=MPDC 20.04 Esper Control is my personal favorite.
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ckangas
Raging Brainstorm
Posts: 69
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Post by ckangas on Mar 31, 2013 18:28:30 GMT -5
The PDC links are probably the best place.
FNM means f'ing new guy. It's popular in the US armed services as well as elsewhere.
I'll add Junk good stuff/control (basically, just the most powerful creatures from BGW and removal and mana fixing).
GW aggro (imo the straight up token version is weaker). Mono-green aggro (which is quite strong), GR and jund aggro (green creatures with removal/reach added). There's also a few mono black evasion decks (all intimidate/flying) and MBC decks.
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Post by The.Angry.Man on Apr 1, 2013 23:13:04 GMT -5
I don't know what FNG means but feel free to create a thread for the purpose. I dont know if you can actually refer the decktypes somewhere, the ability to reckognize decks by name comes with exprience of playing the format, but they are for example: GW auras - Green/White deck that plays Auras to enchant hard to deal creatures like Primal Huntbeast. Flicker - Ghostly Flicker & Archaeomancer combined with value card like Elvish Visionary or Mist Raven White Weenie - Small white guys Yugular - Much appreciated...as ckangas pointed out, "FNG" stands for "f'ing new guy," - the newest guy to the unit who still needed a lot of practical education even after getting a year (or more) of formal training. You also bring up a good point...experience. Thankfully, MTGO is providing me plenty of opportunity to play when my schedule permits. Does anyone out there have a benchmark for how many games they will play with a given deck before they call it "good?," understanding there are many tweaks that may be have made in first five (or so) games a given deck is played? Avery61 - Thank you for links...I will check them out when able... ckangas - I am going to assume (I word I do not like to use, but in this case it fits), that a "junk" deck is used in the context of "throwing together whatever junk will get the job done," without any regard to a given theme? My apologies for all the questions, but this is like pulling together a master's thesis. I am trying to organize the data and terms of reference so I can get a better baseline to brew my decks.
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Post by yugular on Apr 2, 2013 0:30:17 GMT -5
Does anyone out there have a benchmark for how many games they will play with a given deck before they call it "good?," understanding there are many tweaks that may be have made in first five (or so) games a given deck is played? If you pick up a deck that has put results up in dailies it is possible to see how the deck works in about 20-30 mathces, but if you are brewing something or really want to go deep to the interactions and matchups you need to play 20-30 matches against all the different decks in the tier 1-1.5 metagame bringing the matchcount somewhere around 100-200 matches. That is my opinion
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ckangas
Raging Brainstorm
Posts: 69
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Post by ckangas on Apr 2, 2013 1:48:00 GMT -5
Does anyone out there have a benchmark for how many games they will play with a given deck before they call it "good?," understanding there are many tweaks that may be have made in first five (or so) games a given deck is played? The number is honestly different for everyone. I friend of mine plays zoo in legacy. I'd say it took him thousands and thousands of matches to become comfortable the list, and to get a sense of when to substitute in or out cards. To clarify, I don't mean which cards to run in the 60. I mean how to slightly alter the list to prepare for each meta, and which cards to SB in and out against each deck, and how to make an ideal 15 card SB for each meta. It's simply all going to depend. The more magic you play, the more comfortable you get with a format, and the more practice you get within a specific metagame is all going to affect this...a lot. Once you're very familiar with building decks, for example, you'll be able to get your mana-base pretty close to perfect without actually playing the deck. You might be 1-2 lands off, or need to make minor changes, but you'll need 20+ matches at a minimum to test this in-depth. If you're 5 lands off in either direction, you will probably notice this in 3-5 matches. The same thing goes with deck MUs. Let's say I already play UR Delver/Izzet Control, and that I've tested (more or less) all the variants. I'll have a pretty good idea of how to design a deck to counter it (or at least know how to attack the deck). If I'm new to the format and haven't played the deck, I'll need a sizable amount of games before I develop that knowledge. If you're brand new to the format, I'd recommend taking a deck you like the look of (and that you'll be comfortable piloting) and play 20 matches with it. After that, you should know if there's a deck that is more attractive. In order to tailor a deck to the meta-game it's going to take a lot more matches than that - both with the deck and to find out how to attack the best decks in the format. It's up to you whether you want to try to stick with one deck and master it (and simply learn how to play against the rest of the field with practice) or to take a wider approach. In classic pauper, for example, I own and play every deck that pops up more than 2% of the meta. It's more of the sort of player I am...I simply play whatever deck I believe it best positioned in the meta. And although cockatrice works for standard and legacy, pauper is an attractive format (to me) since it allows for doing so. The opposite approach (for example, my friend playing thousands of matches with Legacy Zoo) is to simply practice a deck for a really long time, and test out each small change. This is harder to do since you'll have less of an idea how the other decks work, but it allows you to focus in on just one deck. ckangas - I am going to assume (I word I do not like to use, but in this case it fits), that a "junk" deck is used in the context of "throwing together whatever junk will get the job done," without any regard to a given theme? Ha, I believed that for a short time myself. It's especially confusing given the similarity to a "jank" deck. Junk is a term for a GWB deck. The colors are also called "The Rock". While I know where "The Rock" comes from (an old deck featuring deranged hermits and phyrexian plaguelords), I'm actually not sure where "Junk" comes from. I'd google it, but I'm at work and a lot of the sites are blocked here : /. It could be from the artifacts that the deck uses, but I'm really not sure. In any case, The Rock tends to be more of a controlling deck, and sometimes means (more generically) a GB (or GBx) control deck. Junk, at least in legacy, means a GBW deck that runs stoneforge mystics and equipment, while The Rock does not run an equipment package/stoneforge mystic. Junk decks can also be a bunch of good cards from the colors tossed together, where The Rock hinges more on synergy and a specific strategy. It's worth noting that these terms get applied to a wide range of decks and formats, so they're "soft" definitions that at times can get confusing. Currently in standard Junk Rites is Junk colors (GBW) that plays the card Unburial Rites. Thus, Junk Rites. Why did it pick that name instead of Rock Rites, GBW Rites, GBW Reanimator,etc.? Well, someone probably named it early in the process, and early names tend to stick. In any case, since Junk Rites is a popular standard deck, the standard pauper versions get named after it (Junk Control or Junk Good Stuff). Names can occasionally be pretty...well, not related to the actual deck. Solidarity and Dead Guy Ale are two good examples.
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Post by The.Angry.Man on Apr 2, 2013 23:08:00 GMT -5
Yugular & ckangas - Thank you for the education...I am quickly finding out that even scoping my "study" of MtG to Standard Pauper, there is a ton of stuff to learn. Both of you helped confirm what I suspected...."book learnin'" is useful to a point, but I also need to get out there and play as many games as I can! Do either one of you have a favorite Standard Pauper deck you like to pilot? I am cutting my teeth on Weird Aberration ( gatherling.com/deck.php?mode=view&id=6251). I have only played about 10 games with it so far, but realize I have a ways to go before I am really competent at piloting the deck...
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ckangas
Raging Brainstorm
Posts: 69
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Post by ckangas on Apr 3, 2013 1:05:47 GMT -5
Since commons lack some of the more "advanced" functions of other rarity cards, most standard pauper decks aren't too bad to play. Personally, I've always argued that it's more of a "builders" format than a "players". You're rewarded for being able to build a tune a deck to the metagame more-so than other formats. That being said, the play can be pretty slow and uninteractive at times. I actually like the latest Mono U aggro deck. pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?mode=view&id=23136It seems like it has a good mix between being a straight-forward deck (play evasive creatures and attack), but still allowing the option of play decisions; do I need to leave mana untapped for a counterspell, or should I tap out for a creature? This is perhaps a tad sadistic, but it's also a deck that will let you know when you make mistakes. When you tap out against a deck and they land a winning card at 4-5 mana, it lets you know that it was the wrong play. Otherwise, there's lots of mono-green, GW, boros, etc. aggro decks to be played as well. If you have a penchant towards a certain type, you might as well start off with it. Flicker decks are straightforward to figure out, as are most control decks in the format.
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Post by yugular on Apr 3, 2013 1:29:08 GMT -5
My favourite deck is my homebrew Defender deck that aims to mill your opponent with Curse of Bloody Tome and Doorkeeper. It's not good though Other than that I like exploiting Ghostly Flicker. That card is the most powerful card in the format coupled with Delver.
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