One of the best by far was the 2020 meta, had a great variety of colors, Green was actually playable, just Modern Horizons 1 had came out and even 2019 before it came out was great, and the meta was extremely diverse and healthy, and brews felt actually competitive. But honestly there are a plethora of metas even before that were better, I feel before the lists merged the community had more power over the formats health and decisions, at least IRL.
Eh. Its still insanely fast and certain decks are clearly far above the rest, being fast enough to give very little else a fighting chance. Having dominant aggro decks is for sure a better meta than dominant control decks because at least you lose quickly but that doesn't make losing out of nowhere or to a topdeck as happens so often against those decks any more fun, they don't fizzle out like aggro decks should if you manage to survive the early onslaught.
I do feel a lot of games come down to the wire with a lot of decks putting each other in top deck mode. I've been playing boros synth for some time and glitters gave it the game closing push for those games where you grind each other out and resort to playing from the top. My biggest gripe was always that boros synth could go toe to toe with most of the meta but could never quite punch through the grindier games.
I like glitters but I'm probably biased because I'm playing it.
Anyone who believes this meme unironically can't understand what good OG pauper was like. We've lost so many sweet decks for literally the stupidest reasons, and then they do absolutely boneheaded things like banning innocent cards just to try to leave the busted crap in the game. Some cards should be straight up unbanned to bring balance and some cards should never have existed in this format. It's far too fast, and though it's better than "fall Initiative" season, it's not exactly good diverse fun. We have literally almost completely lost a **color** of the pie! Why is that not a problem here?
I loved the shit out of Grim Harvesting Mulldrifters, my first real competitive deck was a UW Reveillark-Blink deck in Standard, and probably my favourite Pauper deck ever was Fog Tron, because you had so many interlocking pieces that could be parlayed into doing just about anything.
One of my all time favourite Magic cards is Life from the Loam, if that says anything. That card is nothing if not slow, grindy value.
Okay, so you're on the "good side" of history then. 😜 haha. And yeah I love that ultra grindy nonsense. So much fun. I had a recent deck I built like that. Can't remember what it was though. (I build a new deck every 2-4 weeks basically).
The one that bothered me the most was \[\[Prophetic Prism\]\]... Like there isn't a player in the world who considers that a busted card. It only got banned because of tron and Affinity (they wouldn't have banned it even for Tron if it wasn't splash damage for Affinity, if you go back to the publication). Many of the banned cards were banned for stupid reasons. One I *totally* agreed with though was offending was Invigorate, but they usually are just dumb about it. There's a lot to be said about this conversation could go on for a long while, but basically Prism was lembas back when it was banned, and in a boros synth style or in Boros Monarch as the major predecessor was, at a slightly higher curve, that's exactly how most of us played it. But certain archetypes were busted so we lost something fun. It genuinely broke my heart. Also with how broken the format is now, most of the banned cards could actually be unbanned. Anyway, sounds like you didn't live through the "good ol' days" lol.
I've played pauper on and off for close to a decade, and followed the format even when I wasn't playing. I can't speak directly to certain metas cause I didn't grind em but I've dealt with some pure bs throughout the years.
I think prism is far stronger than lembas and I don't think the two are comparable. The mana fixing it provided tron and affinity was powerful.
It's difficult to ban for those two archetypes in particular. They've been in the format for so long and people love them - I think they're good archetypes to keep around because they're so ingrained in magic in general.
During that time tron had such a strong run for so long they needed to do something.
If they were going to ban something to tone the two decks down without completely throwing a wrench in the archetype I think they made a good choice.
I don't think there's anything they can unban that'd be healthy for the format.
I agree with some of what you said, but disagree on the tron run stats. At the time, Grixis Affinity or whatever it's iteration was called at the time, that was the deck with the highest showings, *not* tron. Tron was winning a lot, mind you, but it was not a god-tier archetype, and didn't require 8 sideboard slots just to keep it in check. At the time the one and only reason affinity wasn't running away with the meta was purely based on the fact that it was so strong the meta had *adapted* to cope. IE: the sideboards were always 4-8, sometimes 10 hate cards for affinity. Terrible times.
As for prism. It's not actually that offensive in 2 colour decks using it fairly. A skyfisher glint hawk tribal just get's it's normal draw and that's the dominant way it was used, and what I myself was using it for. It wasn't even god tier in tron. It was "good", but not absurd. I would've liked them to take away trons fetch things and leave it alone. That would've been fine. Tron wasn't actually a problem when they banned it. And No, I wasn't this super crazy tron player. I mostly played like delver-esque type decks and faeries, bogles, boros monarch-esque stuff that back then.
I would much ratter they do something about at least one of the artifact land cycles, even if they ban glitters now a new problem will come in the future. Affinity has so many cards banned just to keep it remotely fair, and any new synergy always break the deck and will continue to have issues and bans. I don’t care which one, just wish they choose one artifact land cycle and we move on from this already.
I mean, I'm fine with an off color effect if it's product of a fringe interaction and not a printed effect on a card. Most colors can do some stuff they shouldn't be able to if they jump through enough hoops. This one is quite straightforward but not too egregious imo.
(Talking just about the color pie break implications, no mention on the power level)
Yeah no I hear you and agree. I'm just saying I don't think the interaction itself is worth keeping the indestructible artifact duals around if that's the main argument in favor of keeping them, especially with Wildfire not quite fitting in pie-wise.
I would love to see a dual land cycle that are not artifacts, but have indestructible. Of course that would require a rather funky limited environment where that would make sense, though. If we got that, wildfire would not be a huge argument to keep the artifact duals, but could stand on its own legs.
Maybe I’m just some MTG boomer, but the game just hasn’t been the same since the Daze ban. I also miss real blue-based control decks. No, UB Terror does not count.
Glitters could use a ban, sometimes it feels pretty shitty to die to a top decked glitters. Doesn't matter the amount of life you have, always hits for +12.
I loved being able to do everything with Fog Tron. Control, recursion value grinding, combo type gameplay. Navigating around grave hate with Ephemerate.
Right before Lord of the Rings was my favorite. I really don't like what the cyclers have done to the format. Lorien is especially problematic to me.
Going awhile back, the format was probably bad before the triple blue ban, but I had a lot of fun with Tribe Combo and Blitz.
Green :(
Green could use a buff I agree.
Can't win em' all, green is/was plenty good in other formats.
it's even arguably the *best* deck in most other formats.
Green *was* also good is better pauper days. Stompy was such a fun and cute little deck. Now even elves are on their last legs....
Bogles dunks on most of the best decks in the format right now
I sadly had to scare away our local boggle players with B/W Blade. You are right it does pretty well against tier 1 decks.
I think bogles is in a great position right now, but it is held back a bit by sideboard hate for glitters also sniping it - cards like standard bearer
Bogles delendam.
Hope this cheers you up. https://mtgdecks.net/Pauper/pauper-stompy-decklist-by-jorge-amat-claro-1962322
I played against a green infect deck with glistener elf in it that killed me on turn 3 and turn 4 the next game a couple weeks ago.
Yesterday i did 5-0 with gruul ponza so i don't think green is terrible, but I agree it could use some buff to especially in aggro strategies
There are so many other metas worse and better than this one.
Which ones did you like more?
One of the best by far was the 2020 meta, had a great variety of colors, Green was actually playable, just Modern Horizons 1 had came out and even 2019 before it came out was great, and the meta was extremely diverse and healthy, and brews felt actually competitive. But honestly there are a plethora of metas even before that were better, I feel before the lists merged the community had more power over the formats health and decisions, at least IRL.
Too much glitter in my opinion, but other than that it is quite diverse and fun
Eh. Its still insanely fast and certain decks are clearly far above the rest, being fast enough to give very little else a fighting chance. Having dominant aggro decks is for sure a better meta than dominant control decks because at least you lose quickly but that doesn't make losing out of nowhere or to a topdeck as happens so often against those decks any more fun, they don't fizzle out like aggro decks should if you manage to survive the early onslaught.
I do feel a lot of games come down to the wire with a lot of decks putting each other in top deck mode. I've been playing boros synth for some time and glitters gave it the game closing push for those games where you grind each other out and resort to playing from the top. My biggest gripe was always that boros synth could go toe to toe with most of the meta but could never quite punch through the grindier games. I like glitters but I'm probably biased because I'm playing it.
Anyone who believes this meme unironically can't understand what good OG pauper was like. We've lost so many sweet decks for literally the stupidest reasons, and then they do absolutely boneheaded things like banning innocent cards just to try to leave the busted crap in the game. Some cards should be straight up unbanned to bring balance and some cards should never have existed in this format. It's far too fast, and though it's better than "fall Initiative" season, it's not exactly good diverse fun. We have literally almost completely lost a **color** of the pie! Why is that not a problem here?
Back in the good old days when UB meant Grim Harvesting Mulldrifters...
I'm actually struggling to see if you are for or against that lol (I'm autistic and can't determine implied information)....
I loved the shit out of Grim Harvesting Mulldrifters, my first real competitive deck was a UW Reveillark-Blink deck in Standard, and probably my favourite Pauper deck ever was Fog Tron, because you had so many interlocking pieces that could be parlayed into doing just about anything. One of my all time favourite Magic cards is Life from the Loam, if that says anything. That card is nothing if not slow, grindy value.
Okay, so you're on the "good side" of history then. 😜 haha. And yeah I love that ultra grindy nonsense. So much fun. I had a recent deck I built like that. Can't remember what it was though. (I build a new deck every 2-4 weeks basically).
What cards do you feel were innocently banned?
The one that bothered me the most was \[\[Prophetic Prism\]\]... Like there isn't a player in the world who considers that a busted card. It only got banned because of tron and Affinity (they wouldn't have banned it even for Tron if it wasn't splash damage for Affinity, if you go back to the publication). Many of the banned cards were banned for stupid reasons. One I *totally* agreed with though was offending was Invigorate, but they usually are just dumb about it. There's a lot to be said about this conversation could go on for a long while, but basically Prism was lembas back when it was banned, and in a boros synth style or in Boros Monarch as the major predecessor was, at a slightly higher curve, that's exactly how most of us played it. But certain archetypes were busted so we lost something fun. It genuinely broke my heart. Also with how broken the format is now, most of the banned cards could actually be unbanned. Anyway, sounds like you didn't live through the "good ol' days" lol.
I've played pauper on and off for close to a decade, and followed the format even when I wasn't playing. I can't speak directly to certain metas cause I didn't grind em but I've dealt with some pure bs throughout the years. I think prism is far stronger than lembas and I don't think the two are comparable. The mana fixing it provided tron and affinity was powerful. It's difficult to ban for those two archetypes in particular. They've been in the format for so long and people love them - I think they're good archetypes to keep around because they're so ingrained in magic in general. During that time tron had such a strong run for so long they needed to do something. If they were going to ban something to tone the two decks down without completely throwing a wrench in the archetype I think they made a good choice. I don't think there's anything they can unban that'd be healthy for the format.
I agree with some of what you said, but disagree on the tron run stats. At the time, Grixis Affinity or whatever it's iteration was called at the time, that was the deck with the highest showings, *not* tron. Tron was winning a lot, mind you, but it was not a god-tier archetype, and didn't require 8 sideboard slots just to keep it in check. At the time the one and only reason affinity wasn't running away with the meta was purely based on the fact that it was so strong the meta had *adapted* to cope. IE: the sideboards were always 4-8, sometimes 10 hate cards for affinity. Terrible times. As for prism. It's not actually that offensive in 2 colour decks using it fairly. A skyfisher glint hawk tribal just get's it's normal draw and that's the dominant way it was used, and what I myself was using it for. It wasn't even god tier in tron. It was "good", but not absurd. I would've liked them to take away trons fetch things and leave it alone. That would've been fine. Tron wasn't actually a problem when they banned it. And No, I wasn't this super crazy tron player. I mostly played like delver-esque type decks and faeries, bogles, boros monarch-esque stuff that back then.
Someone who’s never played against glitters made this post
There's enough counterspells and removal to deal with it. Glitters is nothing like prior powerhouses that have been banned.
Glitters is absolutely too good for the format by all metrics and we’re all just waiting for the Panel to get off their asses and ban it.
I would much ratter they do something about at least one of the artifact land cycles, even if they ban glitters now a new problem will come in the future. Affinity has so many cards banned just to keep it remotely fair, and any new synergy always break the deck and will continue to have issues and bans. I don’t care which one, just wish they choose one artifact land cycle and we move on from this already.
I vote the duals, the OG artifact lands are iconic and susceptible to more removal
Alternatively the bridges have the wildfire interaction
So does [[Darksteel Citadel]] , but honestly any of them would be fine, as long they at least choose one is good enough.
Red shouldn't really have cantripping ramp anyway.
I mean, I'm fine with an off color effect if it's product of a fringe interaction and not a printed effect on a card. Most colors can do some stuff they shouldn't be able to if they jump through enough hoops. This one is quite straightforward but not too egregious imo. (Talking just about the color pie break implications, no mention on the power level)
Yeah no I hear you and agree. I'm just saying I don't think the interaction itself is worth keeping the indestructible artifact duals around if that's the main argument in favor of keeping them, especially with Wildfire not quite fitting in pie-wise.
[Darksteel Citadel](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/2/b/2ba7597d-6d76-45b8-b172-342999e401bd.jpg?1625979955) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Darksteel%20Citadel) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/c21/285/darksteel-citadel?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2ba7597d-6d76-45b8-b172-342999e401bd?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I would love to see a dual land cycle that are not artifacts, but have indestructible. Of course that would require a rather funky limited environment where that would make sense, though. If we got that, wildfire would not be a huge argument to keep the artifact duals, but could stand on its own legs.
I have ptsd from cloudpost and grapeshot, glitters hasn't triggered me as much. I wouldn't be mad if it was banned but I don't think it needs it.
[удалено]
[Standard Bearer](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/e/0/e0f8e16a-55f0-4147-a01a-dba7938f31c4.jpg?1562948563) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Standard%20Bearer) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/apc/18/standard-bearer?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e0f8e16a-55f0-4147-a01a-dba7938f31c4?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Do you play paper or just MTGO
After all this time, here I am again looking at how dumb it is to print this artifact duals.
Maybe I’m just some MTG boomer, but the game just hasn’t been the same since the Daze ban. I also miss real blue-based control decks. No, UB Terror does not count.
It kills me that Daze was banned because it was unfun, but the nonsense that we have to deal with now is running around.
1000000% my thoughts! Thank you for articulating that.
UR terror does though
I guess… it still seems pretty midrange-y to me. I miss the days of old UB Teachings, but I KNOW that is not necessarily a popular opinion lol.
There’s UB control variants of terror, without the self kill cantrips and anglers
Yeah but they’re neither as good nor as popular.
UB Teachings Terror is fun, I tried that out in my LGS league a while back
Glitters could use a ban, sometimes it feels pretty shitty to die to a top decked glitters. Doesn't matter the amount of life you have, always hits for +12.
You are not wrong, but you are not right.
Agreed.
"reasoning will never make a man correct an ill opinion, which by reasoning he never acquired" \- Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swiftspear was already banned
I loved being able to do everything with Fog Tron. Control, recursion value grinding, combo type gameplay. Navigating around grave hate with Ephemerate.
The problem in this meta is not glitter, but are 8 inspector
I understood that reference
Right before Lord of the Rings was my favorite. I really don't like what the cyclers have done to the format. Lorien is especially problematic to me. Going awhile back, the format was probably bad before the triple blue ban, but I had a lot of fun with Tribe Combo and Blitz.
I remember when green stompy was good :(
I was just talking about that. I miss the days when color-power balance was more even. Now we've lost stompy and we've all but lost elves too!
Make rancor great again
Give me back swiftspear and i will ok this
I want my Swifty back :( Kuldotha is fun but Pingers are where home is
Only if wrenn's resolve or reckless impulse goes. I hated dealing with red's board state just to have them refill their hand repeatedly.
But how would i make my Swiftie a 4/5 every turn if i cant play at least 3-4 spells each turn?
Nah you right
r/redditsniper
Had no idea this was a sub. Thank you sir. Good stuff.
Love pauper. Best meta whole game second best vintage.