Pauper - A Mid-Year Reflection
Pauper is currently experiencing one of the most open ended, meta diverse periods any MTG format has ever been through.
And it’s not close to being done.
As I write this article, Commander Masters looms on the horizon. The Lord of the Rings expansion set has sent waves throughout all formats. Power creep in MTG demands to be felt. With all the hype around almost every facet of MTG, I’d like to take a minute and reflect on how this year in Pauper has gone; in short, it has been phenomenal.
In 2023, very few sets have been released, yet the landscape of Pauper has changed dramatically. It feels like every month there is a new deck to beat. And, to some, this is seen as a bad thing. But this shows growth. This shows adaptation. This shows that people are willing to try new things - to be right, to be wrong, just to try. And I, for one, am very welcoming to this evolving format.
The beginning of the year started in a way I personally expected, and that was the overperformance of BW Ephem. In the month of January, BW Ephem made Top 8 of the Pauper Challenge on MTGO all but 1 time. Tron and UB Terror dominated the shortest month of the year, but Affinity decided to finally show up as expected. The March 4th Challenge had Affinity as 4 out of 8 decks in Top 8. While this never happened again, people certainly expressed their concern for how good Affinity was looking. Fast forward to the release of March of the Machines, and the printing of Wrenn’s Resolve gave rise to 8-Impulse Burn lists that immediately made an impact. May saw shifting in deck philosophy to deal with the growing number of Burn decks in the meta. BG Gardens made it’s first Top 8 appearance on the May 6th Challenge, with White Weenie and White Heroic decks making a come back as well. And June - well, before the LOTR set drop - saw a HUGE rise in Mono U Faeries play, with only 1 June Challenge (pre-LOTR) not including the deck in Top 8.
There have been - by my count - 41 unique decks that have made Top 8 of the Pauper Challenges this year. We’re all familiar with the big names such as Affinity, Tron, Ponza, etc., but other, more obscure decks have made Top 8, like Poison Storm and Cycle Storm. Even some unconventional style decks - Tribe Combo and UG Ponza - have people taking notice. And that’s not including large paper tournaments, like the Paper Pauper Magic discord, that has not had a repeat winner for their monthly tournament from November 2022 to April 2023 - with Elves taking down both months. Additionally, May and June had unique winners, as well. All the way down to the local meta, where - speaking personally - I have a deep and diverse meta around me, to include 3 places that play Pauper in a 1.5 hr radius.
In my mind, there are around 20 decks that could show up at a large scale pauper tournament and threaten to win (a tier list is a challenge for another time). Are there good decks? Decks that feel more favored than others? Yes, however, everything isn’t all “Turn 1, Mountain, Swiftspear, Deal 1, Go.” I mean, yes - that does happen, but statistically that isn’t happening in any meta stifling way. In just the month of July, 23 unique decks managed to crack Top 8 of the MTGO Challenges, including a brand new decklist to Top 8 on the year in Golgari Reanimator (July 30). In addition, the July 16 Challenge had 8 different decks among the top 8!
While it’s true that Mono Red decks are skewing the format into a more aggro focused one, I hope that everyone who has made it this far can reflect on the overall health of the format. Is it annoying to run into 5 back to back Kuldotha Red decks in MTGO Leagues? Yeah. Are there cards people don’t like in the format? Yes, and I have my own opinions as well. But pound-for-pound, deck-for-deck, Pauper has the most wide open meta in Magic right now. And I hope we can appreciate what a golden age we’re currently in.