The Power of Pauper: Pre-BnR Pauper Check-In
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of The Power of Pauper! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be giving a look at Pauper from a high level overview and seeing how things sit before Monday's BnR announcement. We've also got some MTGO news for some Premier events, as well as Challenges from last week.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Pauper Metagame Check-In
We've got a Banned and Restricted Announcement on November 10th (this coming Monday), and it has been noted that Pauper will have an update from the PFP in terms of a few things, primarily as to whether or not High Tide's trial unban status will be revoked and it gets rebanned or if it gets removed from trial unban status. Either way, the PFP will be providing an update on the format at large, and I think we can reasonably expect a video from Gavin Verhey on the subject as well, which will be great because the PFP does a great job of communicating why and how changes are made in the format with a lot of transparency and information.
With that being said, let's talk a bit about the overall metagame just a bit and some of the major concerns.
High Tide
I think the biggest topic of discussion for this BnR is absolutely going to be High Tide and what happens with it. The PFP unbanned High Tide as a trial unban, meaning they would revisit it and reban it if necessary within a set time frame. That original time frame technically was extended because at the time the amount of data on the deck wasn't quite what they needed to make an informed decision on the card. Much of the deck's win rates at that time were cited to be pretty bad against the format at large.
Since then, we've seen the deck do reasonably well. It often has at least one or two 5- 0s in every League posting, and it's had some strong finishes in Challenge events from several Top 8s and several First Place finishes as well. It does seem like much of the results, though, are usually in the hands of a few specific pilots, and without a lot of full data on the subject, it's hard to really tell if the deck's power level is just from the fact that a few really good players are playing it or if it's actually super hot busted. I do think it's more likely that the deck is great in the hands of a solid player, but it still can have its moments. League results are still rather curated, and we don't really know how many 3-2s or 4-1s or even less are being put up by people trying the deck and not doing well versus the one-two 5-0s a day or so.
The primary concern behind the deck is really much more rooted in play patterns and how the deck operates and the fact that more often it can operate rather slowly. It takes some time to get off the ground and you can potentially mess up or fizzle out in the midst of the combo. It is fair to say that this isn't much fun from a play pattern perspective, but I don't think that is a firm 100% reason to get rid of the card. The data. win rates, play patterns, and everything else need to be taken into account in the context of the format to truly get a bigger picture of what this deck is doing to the Pauper metagame. Even if the deck loses a lot, the play patterns may still possibly necessitate some action, but realistically, I don't think it does. I do think the deck is not a bad deck, and in some hands it's probably pretty good. If the deck ends up being too good and overpowering, then a ban is absolutely warranted, and that is fine.
Jund Wildfire
In terms of sheer metagame between this deck and Mono Blue Terror, this deck is pretty much everywhere it seems, and it's not hard to understand why. The deck plays a lot of the format's biggest hitter cards, many of them very impactful cards that were introduced in Modern Horizons 3. Slotting that into a shell that also ramps with Cleansing Wildfire is solid, and it's actually given Pauper a very real and powerful midrange strategy. Pauper has had eras that have trended between fast aggro and durdly control mirrors, so it's actually somewhat nice to see this deck exist and be a powerful top deck in the format.
Personally, I don't see any changes coming down the line for this strategy. The only thing I think that would really impact it in a big way would be a Writhing Chrysalis ban, and personally, I think that's silly. Having a cool midrange pile that's also competitive is pretty nice and pretty fair.
Terror
This is another deck that has a lot of results in the current format, and I think a good portion of that is the fact that it does have a very powerful control over High Tide, while boasting a really strong clock at the same time. If you want to talk about fair Magic, this is functionally as fair as it gets and not even close. Good clean tempo strategies with countermagic and big threats is the bread and butter of a lot of formats, and generally those formats tend to be pretty good when that sort of thing is at the top of the heap. I don't really expect any changes to this deck at all, if ever.
The Wideness of Pauper
I think the good thing about Pauper specifically right now is that the format is very wide and diverse, with a lot of really good decks across multiple spectrums of play. There's a reasonable carving out in the format of midrange, aggro/burn strategies, combo, and control that is seems like just about any deck in the format has a chance of a good day or a good tournament. Decks like Madness Burn have split into multiple variants (Mono Red and Rakdos variants), while Faeries both Mono Blue and Dimir have been seen to do very well.
Even Mono White Aggro and Black Sacrifice decks have looked strong and interact well with the format. Personally I think Pauper looks pretty great and there's a whole bunch of different decks to play, and I think the format is pretty good. I'm hopeful that we get a great update next Monday from the PFP, and even if High Tide has to go, I think I'll understand that even if I think the space for a spell based combo deck is cool.
MTGO Pauper News!
This week brought some sweet news for MTGO fans of Pauper! Not only are we getting a Pauper RC Super Qualifier this weekend on November 9th, but there's also a Pauper Championship Week starting next Monday! You can find the full details of all the events here.
And if you've ever wanted to try Pauper (and not just one deck but the breadth of the format), All Access is returning to MTGO until November 18th!
Pauper Challenge 32 10/31/2025
The first Challenge event of the weekend was the Friday event. This event had 51 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dimir Faeries | 1st | barff |
| Familiars | 2nd | Mikibairon96 |
| High Tide Combo | 3rd | kuldothared |
| Jund Wildfire | 4th | Triso |
| High Tide Combo | 5th | A_AdeptoTerra |
| Mono Red Madness | 6th | boom_bust |
| Dimir Terror | 7th | Inerzia709 |
| High Tide Combo | 8th | wolf777 |
Quite a bit of High Tide in this Top 8, but the event was won by Dimir Faeries.
Fairly straightforward list here. The numbers game is on point for sure. Mind Extraction is a cool sideboard card.
In Second Place we had Familiars.
Solid list. I love seeing Meeting of Minds because the card is pretty groovy in this deck where you can convoke it for just U in a lot of cases.
Also in this Top 8 we had Dimir Terror.
Artful Dodge is super sweet honestly. Being able to ensure your Tolarian Terror or Gurmag Angler sneaks in for lethal is pretty groovy. It having Flashback means you can do this twice for each copy too!
Pauper Challenge 32 11/1/2025
The second Challenge event of the weekend was the Saturday event. This event had 42 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| High Tide Combo | 1st | xxSystemxx |
| Mono Red Pingers | 2nd | mugent |
| Mono Red Madness | 3rd | Denisevich |
| Grixis Affinity | 4th | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono Red Madness | 5th | SanPop |
| Familiars | 6th | Kampo |
| Golgari Gardens | 7th | __Noob__ |
| Elves | 8th | CrouchingPig |
Fairly interesting Top 8 here. At the end of the event, it was High Tide that won.
This deck is obviously the talk of the town at the moment, and it is having some good results lately, as we talked about earlier. The adoption of Fallaji Archaeologist is kind of cool in the sideboard.
In Second Place we had Mono Red Pingers.
This is actually a result of some feedback on how we classify Burn decks as some decks are more straightforward and aggressive with cards like Rally at the Hornburg but this list is more about using things like Thermo-Alchemist and Kessig Flamebreather to add extra ping damage on top of your normal burn spells to close the game out faster.
Also in the Top 8 we had Golgari Gardens.
I like this list quite a bit. It's doing some really strong things and has a lot of really powerful pieces of removal.
Pauper Challenge 32 11/2/2025
The final Challenge event of the weekend was the Sunday event. This event had 72 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| High Tide Combo | 1st | Adrowo |
| Jund Wildfire | 2nd | billsive |
| Grixis Affinity | 3rd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Grixis Affinity | 4th | pepeisra |
| Mono Blue Terror | 5th | Luminati |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | Gn42 |
| Grixis Madness Burn | 7th | Leobertucci |
| Turbo Fog | 8th | HoldTheElle |
Lot of Terror and Affinity here, but it was again High Tide as the winner.
Two Snow-Covered and thirteen regular Islands are kind of amusing to me.
In Second Place, we had Jund Wildfire.
Every time I look at this deck I basically just see all the best cards in the format smushed into one pile, and that's basically what it is. It's crazy how good this deck really is to be honest. It has a lot of staying power and isn't absurdly unfair.
At the bottom of the Top 8 we had Turbo Fog.
I absolutely still dig the Gates plan as a way to win the game in this deck. It's incredibly cool and powerful.
Around the Web
- Bryant Cook has some Ruby Storm. Check it out here.
- GiorgioCombo is playing Faeries/Elves. Check it out here.
- Heartyshow has some Elfball action. Check it out here.
- Pauperganda is going full convoke. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
As League results are now spread out across the week, let's dig in and find something spicy!
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Pauper!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGPauper Discord Server.
Until next time!
