Hey there. So I'm building elves, and all I'm missing is Avenging Hunter, the most expensive card in the deck. Is Entourage a reasonable replacement in the meantime?

(I can see how trample and the extra point of power matter, in addition to the effects the Initiative gives access to.)

Also, if Hunter were to be banned, do you think Entourage would replace it, or would decks revert to splashing for [[Distant Melody]]?

Thanks!

New player to MTG and even newer to pauper. My brother recently got a Modern Horizons 3 booster box and pulled 6 copies of Sneaky Snacker. I know that card is a big deal in Pauper, and I’ve even seen talk of it possibly getting banned. I think my lack of understanding for the game and the format are keeping me from understanding why the card is so good. Can you explain to me why this card sees play in nearly every deck? Thanks!

I’m struggling to find a way to stop Madness from dealing 16-24 damage in one turn. They don’t need to attack to kill you. It’s basically a combo deck. As soon as one of the spellslingers hit the field, they can win, especially after turn 4-5. I’ve noticed that they can sit on resources, drop one, and if/when it resolves, win on the stack. One Bolt, two Lava Dart’s, and a Fireblast is usually enough to win. Sometimes they’ll have an extra Dart or an extra Fireblast ready for a response (that’s the smart play anyway)

I’ve lost games where I’ve been over 30 life on the stack, trying to target to kill a spellslinger that was just cast.

It doesn’t seem like there’s a way to stop it, besides countering the spellslinger itself. Removal doesn’t matter.

It’s so so so frustrating.

Again, yes, I understand it’s chain burn and essentially a combo, but I hate that there’s no interaction to it.

Weather the Storm doesn’t do anything, Crypt Incursion doesn’t do anything, because they can respond to the cast and still kill you if they’re able to. Removal doesn’t do anything, all because of the rules of the stack.

Any advice?

Good morning SoCal, with everyone’s increased effort across the US to get pauper more connected I thought I would lend a hand.
Here is a list of known pauper weekly events that are always firing.
I plan on updating this list monthly, so if I missed your local please reach out and I’ll update it for the following post.

If you’re active in discord and would like to connect with a community who plays pauper, please reach out via PM for an invitation to the SoCal MTG Discord. We have members from every store listed who can help get you started.

We hope to see you out there !

Hi!

I'm Skura also known as IslandsInFront - I'm a Geddon Trio winner, Geddon top4 and top16 competitor, Top 8 LPI player of the year, Top16 of Top Pauper of the Year, and the 2024 National Champion from Poland 🇵🇱🦅

Today, I want to share with you a particularly cool video. I analyse my opponent's plays trying to interpret the unseen and make a prediction about what their hand has to be like for the presented sequence to make sense.
I think it's going to be an interesting lesson for any player, regardless of which deck they play.

Let me know what you think! Would you have made the same read? How do you see the whole situation?

Video - https://youtu.be/gQwYmbX0SfU

you can find me at:
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@islandsinfront
X - https://twitter.com/IslandsInFront
Public Fae Discord - https://discord.gg/ZCVkcBKjJa
Metafy (paid content) - https://metafy.gg/@skura

Cheers!

I’ve been grinding Modern with Domain Zoo for a long time, but I’m finally jumping into Pauper tonight.

I’m starting a new series called "The Lab" where I focus on technical field testing. First up is Naya Gates. I really like the technical side of this deck, so I’ll be talking through every play and sideboard choice as I go.

If you’re a Pauper veteran, I’d honestly appreciate it if you dropped by to help me with the nuances of the meta or just to point out where I’m punting. If you’re thinking about picking up Gates, come see how it handles in the wild.

Going live at 10:45 PM (CEST) / 4:45 PM (EST) here: https://youtube.com/live/IkL57_1Co9A

Hope to see some of you there. Let's see if those Gates are as strong as they look. Cheers!

My deck is a rogue brew: reanimate kind of adapted from cycle storm but whatever. It does okay in my local store except it keeps catching strays from sneaky snacker hate.

Main deck graveyard hate can end my run quickly.
I was looking to pivot from sideboard but don’t know exactly what that means. My first inclination is just more rituals and petals to power out the big guys manually but… other ideas? Thanks in advance!!

Ending this week's flurry of feature matches with this banger! It's William on Mono-Blue Terror vs Niko on Jund Dredge!

https://youtu.be/uVEgg1cLw_w?si=zeBoNuFaUadrySLY

Enjoy!

Vision of Love is a good reason to join Writhing Chrysalis, artifacts and Sneaky Snacker on the same list without any splashes!

I put together a Sultai Dredge build! It’s still in the theorycrafting phase and I haven't playtested it yet, but I'd love to hear your thoughts. Any suggestions to make it more consistent?

https://manabox.app/decks/AZ9namiHeFKkeMZ8CrKevg

I’ve played some with mono u tron after being a longtime mono g tron player and compared to other tron play styles it seems a lot stronger and more versatile. Why isn’t it played more?

FlickerTron players - how often do you actually use the infinite mana loop? Usually if I'm winning with [[Rolling Thunder]] or [[Kaevrek's Torch]] I don't mind taking two turns to do it - finite mana is usually enough.

Are there any games where this made the difference between winning right away vs losing the next turn? Are there any matches that specifically want this (besides Tribe, of course)?

I am thinking of switching it to the board and adding another [[Prohibit]] to the main. Thoughts?

My list for reference:

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/05-03-26-flickertron/

Looking at building my first pauper deck. I've always been a fan of unique/less played deck archetypes. Any suggestions for something to build around or some fun jank?

Soooo. Hey there. Could anybody tell me why I shouldn't play the mh3 fetshes like [[ sheltering landscape ]] in my selesnya deck? Just because its to slow like [[evolving wilds ]] ? Or because I can't cycle it. I like the upside of beeing a untapped land if I dont need the fixing but get the fixing if I need. Last time competetiv play was, when modern just came out and I want to grind pauper a bit in the future, because gameplay feels like modern back in the days, but has the priceing of standard back in the days 😀

I'm Hypergeomancer, mathematician and competitive Magic player.

Paupergeddon Summer 2026 has just wrapped up, and I'm happy to say that this edition's champion is not only a friend, but also one of my regular playtesting buddies: Jan Plachý.

Today, I have Jan on the channel to tell the story of his incredible tournament run. We talk about his deck choice, tournament preparation, the key matches that defined his run, and the decisions that ultimately brought him the trophy. Beyond that, we dive into his approach to improvement, deckbuilding philosophy, competitive mindset, and what it really takes to become a consistently strong Magic player.

If you'd like to hear it directly from the champion, you can watch the full interview here:

▷ Video: https://youtube.com/live/b0UEJ_0xETM

Huge congratulations again, Jan! It's great to see all the hard work pay off with a Paupergeddon champion title.

Jan is also working on a detailed tournament report, so if you'd like an even deeper look into his winning run, stay tuned: that's definitely one to watch out for.

Enjoy the interview!

Follow my work

• LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/hypergeomancer
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Hypergeomancer
• Twitter/X: https://x.com/Hypergeomancer
• Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/search?q=hypergeomancer&l=list&p=1&s=10&sort=newest
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Hypergeomancer/

Math bless your draws

Goodmorning! I decided to build my second pauper deck. I'm not really good at deck building though. It's an artifact deck.

Here's the link: https://moxfield.com/decks/lahbzxVUvU6wHVnytoGgOw

What do you guys think about it? Do you have any suggestions?

Hi! After 3 years playing pauper i finally started to brew a little, i know brewing is extremely hard in this format, and usually brews in pauper are meta lists with some spicy cards added

So i dont think this will be strong or meta in any way, but i need some help

Since im a lover for the lorwyn block i wanted to create a brew around some cool cards or mechanics in that block,

So I opted for a multicolored based deck that only plays one colour (i opted for black but im currently trying something in white)

The deck should be an aggro list with a fair amount of protection and removal, just to slow down the opponent or remove blockers, thanks to 2 creatures with lifelink that can get sort of big, i can afford to cycle street wraith (so i can play with 56 cards in the deck to make it a little more consistent) and to pay for snuff out life cost

Do you all have some advices? On how to make the deck better? Cards suggestion, some tricks or tech?

Im still working on a sideboard, thank you in advance!

I went in my lgs today and went 2-2-1, loosing vs UR Skred and Faeries, draw against UB Terror. Do you have advices on sideboarding against these decks ?

https://moxfield.com/decks/Xc_iOZ34LkOP0g4ymD98Pg

I added my loved Avenging Hunter and it won me several games alone. I won against familiar and monoR burn.

Buenas paupers players! Cuando banearon disputa mortal pensé qué sería el fin del motor de robo de cartas de muchos mazos pero sacaron otras opciones (eviscerator insight - fanatical offering) y aunque baneen ichor wellspring está (cryogenic relic / mephitic draught) y es jugado en muchos mazos como tron , jund , BG garden, fog.... Consideran que es negativo ? Al igual que sneacky snackers se usa en muchos mazos