[Sensei]

So I'm in the 100CS tournament, playing a Pauper 100CS deck I modified from the other 100CS thread here in this parent forum. Here is the list I am currently using:


-----=100CS BGU=-----

Additionally, for the purposes of this conversation, here are two other decks I have in rough draft form:

-----=100CS BUW=-----

-----=100CS Domain=-----

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Obviously these lists are all heavily flawed, but I needed them all up here for discussion so you can help me decide what is the best color combination/archetype for a Pauper 100CS deck to survive in a 100CS format.
_________________
Achievements:
- UPDC (1.11, 2.05) | MPDC (1.13, 3.11) | XPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.13 | COTW Guildmage Challenge
- UPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.02 | MPDC (1.12, 3.12)
- UPDC (1.12, 2.03, 2.08, 2.09) | SPDC (3.08, 3.17) | MPDC (0.01, 1.07, 1.08) | XPDC 0.08 | BPDC 1.03
- UPDC (0.12, 1.13) | SPDC (2.12, 3.17, 3.18) | MPDC 0 Champs

Burning the Ever-Loving crap out of Benny Smith since 2007.

The Ninja Guy

My Profile

[Sensei]

Drawing from this article, I think an important facet of the successful 'Moral' Pauper 100CS deck could be the usage of card pairings.

[Sensei]

I definitely think Blue is a 100% requirement for a Pauper 100CS deck striving to hang with the big boys. Blue allows you to stop spells before they have a chance to do anything with your counterspells. Granted, you have to be wary of cards like Orim's Chant, but for the most part, your ass can be covered very easily with these cards. A quick search for counter in the deck builder gives us the following card list: http://pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?id=9622&mode=view

41 cards. And although most of these we wouldn't want to play in our deck, I can probably figure you agree, that even skimmed of the chaff, we don't need nearly that many counters in our deck. Or do we? Lets first look at the kind of ratio's that we are aiming for in a 100CS deck:

Constructed Aggro -- 23 Lands = 38%
Constructed Control -- 27 Lands = 45%

So Therefore...

100CS Aggro -- 38 Lands = 38%
100CS Control -- 45 Lands = 45%

Now obviously, our Pauper 100CS deck isn't going to be capable of packing nearly enough control magic to classify it as a direct upscale in terms of ratios. I estimate we will be able to find about 75% of the counterspells we would ideally want, so lets go with 42. I think this gives us plenty of room to fit in all decent common counterspells and still have plenty of room left for more action. Here is the list of counterspells I came up with that I think should be ran: http://pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?id=9623&mode=view. Down to 33!

This leaves us with 35 cards in the deck. How do we split this between Creatures and other cards?
_________________
Achievements:
- UPDC (1.11, 2.05) | MPDC (1.13, 3.11) | XPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.13 | COTW Guildmage Challenge
- UPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.02 | MPDC (1.12, 3.12)
- UPDC (1.12, 2.03, 2.08, 2.09) | SPDC (3.08, 3.17) | MPDC (0.01, 1.07, 1.08) | XPDC 0.08 | BPDC 1.03
- UPDC (0.12, 1.13) | SPDC (2.12, 3.17, 3.18) | MPDC 0 Champs

Burning the Ever-Loving crap out of Benny Smith since 2007.

The Ninja Guy

My Profile

[Sensei]

Creatures are going to be an iffy matter for the Moral Pauper 100CS deck. Some of the best creatures in Magic, able to strike fear into the heart of the most skilled mage, are notoriously easy to kill. Pauper creatures are EASIER to kill, and LESS powerful than creatures of higher rarity! What the hell do we do here? How are we supposed to win with these things? Do we have to?

Unfortunately, a no-creature Pauper 100CS deck would have some pretty gigantic problems, so some is a necessity. The question is, is there a combination of spells that we can use to win easier? While possible, I refer you to my second post, where I note that basic combos are less effective in this format, due to its singleton nature. What I am envisioning is a suite of creatures designed to do three things: Find your non-creature combo(s). support each other with as much synergy as possible from creature-to-creature and spell-to-creature to maximize card advantage. Finally, to provide physical defense and pressure against opponents who are either putting the beats on, or suffering from a weak draw.

Easier described than executed I'll wager you're thinking. So what are the best colors to use for this theoretical mix of creatures? Well, we are going to need to find our non-creature combo. Blue is also great there, giving us access to Trinket Mage, Transmute cards, and Mystical Teachings. Black also helps here with its own transmute cards, enabling us to play Dimir Infiltrator, and a plethora of methods for abusing not only our graveyard but our opponents as well. With these methods, we can bring back key spells/creatures needed to either find or execute our combo and keep the beats on coming for when the going is rough.
Not only that, but Black is characteristically the best color in the game for removal spells. Unfortunately, lots of creatures at the non-common level have Protection from Black, so what is a Pauper to do? You burn the Ever-loving crap out of them, that is what you do.

Red, I think this is the color we are going to have to call it at for consistencies stake, but in my opinion, red always was the color to end discussions, not start them. So what? What can red do for us? Well, it gives us the aforementioned method of dealing with pro-black creatures (that our counters can't already handle <_<), and a red card will be one of our combo pieces I think, so that's always a safe bet. Red gives us access to Izzet Chronarch and lots of interesting little options for us to consider and dip into.

So then, we have our three colors, but only 35 cards left to work with. Not only that, but we don't even know how we are going to win the game? What the hell is this guy thinking? If you already figured it out, you win a cookie.

Pyromatics + Lifespark Spellbomb + Freed From the Real
_________________
Achievements:
- UPDC (1.11, 2.05) | MPDC (1.13, 3.11) | XPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.13 | COTW Guildmage Challenge
- UPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.02 | MPDC (1.12, 3.12)
- UPDC (1.12, 2.03, 2.08, 2.09) | SPDC (3.08, 3.17) | MPDC (0.01, 1.07, 1.08) | XPDC 0.08 | BPDC 1.03
- UPDC (0.12, 1.13) | SPDC (2.12, 3.17, 3.18) | MPDC 0 Champs

Burning the Ever-Loving crap out of Benny Smith since 2007.

The Ninja Guy

My Profile

[Sensei]

So, based on our discussions, here is the list I have so far (Plus some obvious staples from the Freed deck that we need to function): http://pdcmagic.com/gatherling/deck.php?id=9624&mode=view

65 Cards Total. Only 16 lands because I'm waiting till we finish building the rest of the deck for that. So given that our land goal is 42, we have...23 remaining slots for spells. Getting tighter in here, hope you aren't claustrophobic.

Spells? Creatures? What do we need most right now? We already have Trinket Mage, Dimir Infiltrator, Spiketail Drakeling, Drift of Phantasms and Izzet Chronarch. Seems like all of our tutoring, now we just need some recursion for Insurance. Dare we go with Tortured Existence? I'm not sold. I think I will go with Grim Harvest, Grave Digger, Desecrator Hag, Warren Pilferers, Death Denied, and Stir the Grave. 6 cards there, is that too much? I think we will be fine just trying it out. We might cut some more later, but this is a good start.

So we have our combo, we have the tutors for it and the insurance for the tutors, and the countermagic to insure the whole package. What else are we missing? 17 slots remaining, and we only have 8 creatures in the deck. Looks like its time to go to the pet store.

What do we want the rest of our creatures to do? The majority of the ones we already have will either be transmuted away, or we actively want them to die so we can use them again; not a very lively bunch. Lets maximize the effectiveness of the next few picks to pack as much efficiency into each slot as possible. I'm thinking...Mulldrifter, Shimmering Glasskite, Chilling Shade (Alternate win condition), Cavern Harpy, Ninja of the Deep Hours, Tolarian Sentinel, and Stinkweed Imp to start. 7 down, 10 cards to go.

What other spells could this deck make use of? We have our acceleration enchantments to enable our indestructible land Darksteel Citadel. Do we need more? After some consideration, I think we might have actually gone a bit too light on lands, considering all of the X spells we have. Instead of just playing more land though, I'm going to advocate some Signets here, as a way to increase our mana-per-card ratio, grant us easier access to G mana, and provide needed acceleration for our X counterspells. I add the 3 GX-producing signets Golgari Signet, Gruul Signet, and Simic Signet, along with the always fantastic Prismatic Lens. That's 4, only 6 more cards!!!

I figure considering the fact that we have so many transmute cards and a plethora of ways of tutoring, that we should have some sort of toolbox package here to try and to hedge off a lot of our weaknesses in a limited amount of space.

Tokens? Echoing Truth.
Shroud? Diabolic Edict.
Artifacts? Ancient Grudge.
Enchantments? ...uhh...we are gonna fudge our colors on this one and run Spring Cleaning.
Disruption? Yes, please. Raven's Crime.
Oh, and I guess I said all that stuff about red helping us destroy creatures without actually putting any burn in, so...Lightning Bolt, Puncture Blast, or Yamabushi's Flame? All three are tutor-able, all do 3 damage. One is cheap, one brings high-toughness creatures down to manageable levels, and one provides a solution to creatures that we DON'T want in the graveyard. I think I'm going to go with Yamabushi's Flame.

THAT'S IT. That is my attempt at a good Pauper 100CS deck designed to beat decks that don't exactly follow the same set of rules as I do. After my 0-2-1 record in week one, how will this deck fare? Hopefully I'll be able to let you know soon.
_________________
Achievements:
- UPDC (1.11, 2.05) | MPDC (1.13, 3.11) | XPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.13 | COTW Guildmage Challenge
- UPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.02 | MPDC (1.12, 3.12)
- UPDC (1.12, 2.03, 2.08, 2.09) | SPDC (3.08, 3.17) | MPDC (0.01, 1.07, 1.08) | XPDC 0.08 | BPDC 1.03
- UPDC (0.12, 1.13) | SPDC (2.12, 3.17, 3.18) | MPDC 0 Champs

Burning the Ever-Loving crap out of Benny Smith since 2007.

The Ninja Guy

My Profile

[shardfenix]

you could have just post the link to the article...
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Congratulations, I Hate You

[Sensei]

I wrote this earlier.
_________________
Achievements:
- UPDC (1.11, 2.05) | MPDC (1.13, 3.11) | XPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.13 | COTW Guildmage Challenge
- UPDC 1.09 | SPDC 3.02 | MPDC (1.12, 3.12)
- UPDC (1.12, 2.03, 2.08, 2.09) | SPDC (3.08, 3.17) | MPDC (0.01, 1.07, 1.08) | XPDC 0.08 | BPDC 1.03
- UPDC (0.12, 1.13) | SPDC (2.12, 3.17, 3.18) | MPDC 0 Champs

Burning the Ever-Loving crap out of Benny Smith since 2007.

The Ninja Guy

My Profile

[shardfenix]

oh ok i got halfway through and was like i read this earlier...
_________________
Congratulations, I Hate You