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The Horrors of Pauper

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Modern Masters may be a set comprised entirely of reprints, but that doesn’t mean it can’t shake up some formats! The set brought with it a number of cards downshifted to common, many of which could cause substantial changes to the Pauper landscape. While the most notable of these is certainly Burning-Tree Emissary, other cards such as Augur of Bolas and Thunderous Wrath certainly have exciting implications. The card that powers this new deck is the Modern Masters limited superstar Dinrova Horror:


Dinrova Horror
Burning-Tree Emissary changes a lot about Pauper. Previously, the format had been defined for many years by the oppressive presence of Delver of Secrets variants at the top of the metagame. While those decks are adapting, and are certainly still going to be a force in the metagame, Burning-Tree Emissary marks an important shift in the metagame dynamic. Now, you don’t have to worry about having quick answers to key threats like Delver of Secrets, Spellstutter Sprite, and Ninja of the Deep Hours. Instead, you have to worry about getting tempo-ed out by Quirion Ranger into Burning-Tree Emissary plus another threat or two.

Consequently, there’s a lot less value in trying to play spot removal spells, since it’s less likely you’re going to be able to keep tempo with a deck built around 1-drops plus Burning-Tree Emissary, no matter how many Firebolts and Lightning Bolts you’re playing. This deck chooses to solve that problem by shifting to playing Moment's Peace over removal spells.

Your goal with this deck is rather dissimilar to other Tron variants. You’re not looking to to trade removal spells with creatures. Instead, you’re looking to ignore what your opponent is doing as much as possible. Moment's Peace is effectively multiple Time Walks while you use cantrips to help assemble Urzatron. Then you can start chaining Mulldrifters together and spend a turn trading off your resources. Then Mystical Teachings into Pulse of Murasa or [card]Moment's Peace" href="/p/Magic+The+Gathering/Moment's Peace" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/%5Bcard%5DMoment%27s+Peace">[card]Moment's Peace">Moment's Peace" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/%5Bcard%5DMoment%27s+Peace">[card]Moment's Peace lets you do it all over again.

Your endgame can go through any number of paths. The most straightforward is to Fierce Empath up an Ulamog's Crusher to slowly decimate your opponent’s board. You can also go for Ghostly Flicker plus Mnemonic Wall, setting up loops with a Dinrova Horror to dismantle the opposing board or with Mnemonic Wall to infinitely rebuy [card]Moment's Peace" href="/p/Magic+The+Gathering/Moment's Peace" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/%5Bcard%5DMoment%27s+Peace">[card]Moment's Peace">Moment's Peace" href="/p/Magic%3A+The+Gathering/%5Bcard%5DMoment%27s+Peace">[card]Moment's Peace or a counterspell. I think it’s particularly interesting that Fierce Empath allows you to do all kinds of cute things out of the sideboard, such as playing Fangren Marauder, Wretched Gryff, or even Mournwhelk and Faultgrinder as tutorable bullets to dominate particular matchups., All told, if you’re looking for an interesting and flexible deck that takes advantage of the new direction of the Pauper metagame, I think Sultai Tron is a great place to start.


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