Finally, paper pauper. I recently visited a new card shop that opened up here in Jacksonville, 'The Old Book Shop' (jaxcardsingles.com), and after getting to know the owners, I pitched pauper to them. They loved the idea, in no time it caught on, and now Monday and Tuesday are pauper nights.
I decided to chronicle the events, and attempt to break mono color decks in the new standard (w/Mirrodin Besieged). We'll see how it goes.
Monday, February 21st, 2011
Standard Pauper Tournament @ TOBS
I decided to go with mono black. I've honestly been waiting to play with Phyrexian Rager for a while, and with the suite that mono black has, I can't imagine how more people aren't smashing faces with a build similar to what I ran tonight. Let's get to the decklist.
Mono Black Control 1.1
Creatures:
4 Fume Spitter
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Cadaver Imp
4 Liliana's Specter
2 Moriok Replica
3 Crypt Ripper
Spells:
4 Disfigure
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Sign in Blood
2 Shrivel
3 Mind Rot
Land:
4 Quicksand
2 Bojuka Bog
16 Swamps
Sideboard:
2 Shrivel
1 Mindrot
4 Vendetta
4 Doom Blade
4 Nihil Spellbomb
The deck is pretty much self explanatory. Card advantage, board control, 2 for 1's. Liliana's Specter ended up being the MVP of the night, and any game where you follow a Specter with a Mindrot, it's pretty much good game.
Round 1: Scott, Grixis Control
Game 1: I have to mull to 6, and keep a shaky hand. He has all the answers, enough countermagic to stop any threats I drop, and I'm beaten to death by a Rotting Legion. Not a good start, and I have to say, my ego was definitely bruised.
-1 Fume Spitter +1 Mindrot
Game 2: He seems flooded, and I mop up with plenty of card advantage and flyers.
-3 Fume Spitter +3 Nihil Spellbomb
Game 3: He's flooded again, but stabilizes as he draws removal after removal. After a few turns and a couple Crypt Rippers, he can't keep up.
1-0
Round 2: Zeke, Red Green Infect
Game 1: He mulligans to 5, and keeps a shaky hand. He just can't do anything against Disfigure and Fume Spitter.
-4 Disfigure -4 Grasp of Darkness, +4 Vendetta +4 Doom Blade
Game 2: Opening hand is Swamp, Swamp, Swamp, Liliana's Specter, Liliana's Specter, Fume Spitter, Sign in Blood. I drew into a 3rd Liliana and that was all she wrote.
2-0
Round 3: Jacob, Boros
Game 1: I have answers for most of his threats, but not all of them, and I end up doing more damage to myself than he does. Squadron Hawk is just dumb.
-2 Mindrot, +2 Shrivel
Game 2: I get plenty of flyers, eliminate all of his threats, and clean up with a Crypt Ripper.
Game 3: I attempted to mulligan for at least 1 shrivel, and I see nothing. Kept a shaky hand. I keep drawing removal, he runs out of creatures, and a Crypt Ripper to the face, followed by a second Crypt Ripper with enough black on the board to negate any removal ends the match.
3-0
From what I saw of the metagame, I had no need for Nihil Spellbombs, as there was ZERO recursion. Paper pauper is a lot different, metagame wise, than MTGO. All in all, it was a pretty good tournament, and next week, I'll try and break mono white, most likely white weenie.
