After a few weeks on the decline, Boros Bully took the top two spots in the March 17 Pauper Challenge. The go wide version of a Boros Garrison - Palace Sentinels deck had two pilots in the Top 32 and the only undefeated player on the day. The two Top 8 finishes helped to push Bully further up the Ravnica Allegiance power rankings.
A lot of innovation over the past few weeks has been centered around Gurmag Angler. Being able to answer a singular large threat has become paramount in the format. While Gurmag Angler is the standard for what amounts to a large threat in reality this is anything with more than two toughness. Palace Sentinels, Stormbound Geist, Guardian of the Guildpact - these are all sizable threats that have a direct impact on the game. And when looking at the recent spat of answers - Curse of Chains springs to mind - they are about stopping these threats.
But what happens when you can go wide? What happens when your threats are resilient?
We are starting to see a shift in the way Pauper players are posing threats. Boros Bully has not had a good season (compared to previous performance) to this point. However the ability to go wide has proved valuable. But there's another way to fight the good fight against removal.
Zombies and Azorius Blink are both based on resilient threats - that is creatures that can either dodge removal or can be easily recurred. The recent advent of Tethmos High Priest in Tireless Tribe decks follow a similar thread - you can stop me once but can you stop me three times? The answer, at least for now, seems to be no. I've been having my own success with Black-Green Aristocrats, a deck built around converting dying creatures into victory.
4-1 in the #MTGPauper Comp League with BG Aristocrats. Beat Burn 2x, Boros Monarch, WB Pestilence. Lost to Zombies.— Alex Ullman (@nerdtothecore) March 18, 2019
Loam Dryad is a house. pic.twitter.com/KjpPxAkjfk
On the season, the threshold for the power rankings has moved to 6 total appearances.
The interesting thing about this new spat of resilient decks is that they are not as easily blanked by Moment's Peace. Azorius Blink can gain just as much value as a Ghostly Flicker Tron deck while Boros Bully has access to Flaring Pain. Even Zombies can stick a Shepherd of Rot and go to town. So what is a good answer to these decks? At the moment, it might just be Stonehorn Dignitary based Tron decks, but even that could be a stretch if Burn comes back.
Despite not making the Top 8 this week, Dimir Delver stays in the number one spot. It remains the best deck by a fairly significant margin but multiple Monarch variants are coming for its crown. Hexproof is also climbing the standings but I wonder if a pending shift in removal could stop its rise.
There's five more weeks until War of the Spark and while the Pauper metagame is very much stable at the moment, there could be changes coming. We'll just have to wait and see.
2019 is going to be a banner year for Pauper. I want to continue to be at the forefront of the metagame. If you like the work I do, please consider becoming a Patron. Thank you!
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