November 17th Pauper Challenge Breakdown

There are two main takeaways from the November 17th Pauper Challenge. The first is that Tron currently holds Tier 0 status in the metagame. Winning the event and taking three of the Top 4 slots, it is clear that locking your opponents out of combat phases is a Good Thing at the moment. 

That is the headline for sure. Going into a Challenge without being prepared to take on both Moment's Peace and Stonehorn Dignitary is a recipe for failure. There are many ways to try and get around these cards - from Skewer the Critics to Shepherd of Rot - but one rising strategy seems to be running good old Counterspell. Delver made a Top 8 this week and was backed up by two different stripes of Faeries decks - Dimir and Izzet. The ability to apply pressure while saying no to key spells can buy enough time to beat Tron before they can fully assemble their prison lock.

But I want to talk about another way to use creatures here. I want to talk about Slivers. Back when Modern Horizons was fully revealed, Pauper players (including yours truly) recognized that Bladeback Sliver could provide Sliver decks with the reach needed to close out games. The new addition to the deck provided a way for Slivers to win in a board stall and through effects that obfuscated combat.

Frucile - who has put a lot of effort into Slivers in years past - put this change into practice. They made Top 8 while a similar list made it into the Top 16. Gemhide Sliver allows Slivers to explode on to the board a la Elves and Bladeblack Sliver means that board stalls do not matter (outside of the mirror). Slivers has always been a powerful tribe thanks to its three traditional lords. The result is a deck that can fairly quickly blank toughness based removal while also applying a ton of pressure and thanks to Virulent Sliver, a way to win through Weather the Storm.

The addition of Hunter Sliver in these decks is fantastic. It can help push through key creatures while also acting as a form of removal for smaller bodies (or bodies made smaller by Sidewinder Sliver). Considering that recent decline of Stompy in the past two Challenges, I think it is safe to say that Slivers is coming for the title of premier beatdown deck. An interesting, if not welcome, change.

The next Banned and Restricted update comes in four weeks. Until then we have a good idea of what the metagame is going to look like. With that being the case, how are you going to approach Pauper?

Pauper continues to grow in popularity and 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!