Time for the last poll of this season, to determine the most "competitive" pauper decklist. Here's the rules: viewtopic.php?p=546984#p546984 Anyone can join this poll, by building all these decks and testing them. Then you can vote up to 2 decklists, the one with the best record and if you want the one with the second best record or a decklist that you enjoyed particularly. It will be nice if you can also post the record for any decklist and leave feedbacks for the decks you enjoyed. Only the best decklist will win, but having feedbacks for all the decklists is appreciated and also a reward for people who joined this contest. Let's see the options:
6 decklists submitted this time, less than other rounds but i think they are enough to make you tired to lose rank on ladder The poll will be open until Easter, i think it should be enough time, since people is also busy with Easter stuff maybe and Amonkhet spoilers (why not). Testing should be faster this time though. Decklists are public as in round 1,i think a good choice for this round since you wanna shame them because they made you lose 10 rank close to Amonkhet update. Here's the list of the deckbuilders: callmemaggit, Haven_pt, Modulo, Sjokwaave, Sl33pHumper, TheFlakyMage. (To the deckbuilders: i named some of your decklists, but i'm not very good at doing it, if you don't like the name just write it below and i will change it) I usually say "only one deckbuilder will win", but maybe for this round is appropriate to say " only one deckbuilder won't lose" Testing is up to you, you can decide to test them vs ai (recommended) or throw them in ladder, not a big difference than going out for a walk in Syria. It's something different that you probably won't try again in duels, so have fun testing them and remember, if for whichever reason you win against mardu vehicles using one of these decklists then we already have a winner
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
The interesting part of this contest was that it made me have have to really look at all the commons in our card pool and try avoid my prejudices towards them.
Joined: Nov 10, 2014 Posts: 39 Location: New York
Identity: Lost
Preferred Pronoun Set: it/thing/blob/?
No such Duels card as Cinder Marsh, in Flaky's decklist. With only 18 lands, I didn't want to guess and play, be wrong and have to do it again! Should it be 4x Cinder Barrens?
5-0 vs AI on Insolvent Neonate, with 3x Turn5 wins. I'll post details later and then decide if I want to play em on the ladder...
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
LOL this is great! I take Insolvent Neonate on ladder and get a rank 1. He T3 drops à Nissa Voice if Zendikar which is almost impossible to deal with. Takes me three turns to kill it, in the meantime he's dropped a phalanx of Anoik Guides that are all either 2/2 or 3/3. Not looking good . Act of treason shows up with two shocks and my Mage Ring Bully is let through cuz he has lethal next turn. The prowess boosts are enough and Barney pulls off an impossible win!!! 1-0 with insolvent neonate which might be enough to give it the crown.
Onto testing the other ones now
Look I don't know what Cinder Marsh is supposed to be so I'm doing 2 cinder barrens and 2 smouldering marsh
No such Duels card as Cinder Marsh, in Flaky's decklist. With only 18 lands, I didn't want to guess and play, be wrong and have to do it again! Should it be 4x Cinder Barrens?
5-0 vs AI on Insolvent Neonate, with 3x Turn5 wins. I'll post details later and then decide if I want to play em on the ladder...
Yeah i think they are Cinder Barrens because he wanted to use only common cards. Thx for the post.
Joined: Feb 29, 2016 Posts: 2899 Location: Portugal
So lets kick off the testing! I'm following the list in the op, so Sjokwaave's Rdw list (Insolvent Neonate) goes first.
I pretend to do 2 games vs AI and 3 games on the ladder for each deck. After that we'll see how it goes.
Pre-testing Analysis: Rdw is a deck I know pretty well and I have plenty of experience with this kind of deck and know that it can punish any deck that gets a slow start. The big question is if it can get to the finish line before your opponent stabilizes. This list is pretty simple with 10 4-ofs and 20 basic Mountains, without any real tech cards, except for actually of treason (which is the finisher), that should probably be hijack since its mono-red and hijack would be strictly better and more versatile. The curve is low and very focused topping out at 3cc. The potential to run out of steam is big, so its an all-in, blitz or bust approach. One problem that at first glance can arise is that the twin-bolts and Shocks are good at handling 2 toughness blockers, anything with 3 can be tricky, with only the Fiery tempers to handle those. Anything bigger and we better hope lethal is close... Sweepers are probably game over too... The temptation to over extend is big, because you want to do maximum damage asap, holding back can be a misplay.
Game 1 (AI - Boros)
Spoiler
On the play. Mulled a 5 lander, then kept a 4 lander with a good curve. Kept drawing gas, AI didn't really do much and it was all over on T5. A steady Stream of creatures, and a shock for the Lone creature AI dropped, made it just like goldfishing. AI did drop a Harvester T4, but without any pilots it was just too late. So the deck showed what it can do: Win quickly. WIN
Game 2 AI - (Mono-white)
Spoiler
On the Draw. Things get complicated: Mulled a no lander. mulled a 1 lander. Mulled a hand with no creatures. Kept a 1 lander and an arsonist. So 5 cards on the draw vs AI... Hmmmmm. AI drops a T1 dreadnought. Oh sh@t. I don't draw Land, drop my Mountain and arsonist. T2 drops some hienas. No Land, Shock hienas, hit for 1. T3 AI drops solemn recruit. This may get nasty... I draw a much needed Mountain and twin bolt the recruit (yes!) and hit for 1. T4 AI drops a 4th land and plays an Aetherstorm Roc. Great... No Land. I look at my hand see another twin-bolt and decide to bait the AI. Attack with the arsonist, he blocks, I burn it and arsonist does his Last point of damage to face. Clean board. T5 AI plays more Land, drops sram and is out of cards. Still no Land, I play Aether Chaser and pass. T6 AI drops a Map and passes. I attack and make a Servo. AI doesn't block. T7 AI crack the Map, gets a Plains and plays a hub (great job AI... Why don't you just play with your hand facing me?) then attacks with Sram... Ok, I take a hit. T8 I attack with the Chaser and Servo, that Plains isn't gonna do much so I double titan's strength and don't see any Mountains with the scry, sending a Bully to the bottom and keeping a second Chaser. T9 drops that vehicle that gets counters and sacs itself to draw cards... No problem. I play the Chaser, attack and make another Servo. T10 AI plays Angel of Invention. Grrr. I Shock the lifelinking Angel, he crews the vehicle in response. I look at my critters and his life total and go all in. He kills a Chaser and a Servo is at 2 life. T11 doesn't do much. I finally draw the 3rd Mountain and play inferno first and sac it ftw. Yay! So, coming back from a mull to 5 on the draw even against the AI is pretty sweet, I'm kind of impressed. WIN.
Now the big challenge, the ladder.
Game 3 R39 (boros vehicles/dwarf tribal?)
Spoiler
On the Draw. I Mull a 4 lander. Keep a slowish 2-lander. T1 he drops Exemplar. (Oh great, on the play vs Vehicles...) I play a Mountain and hold up for a shock since I've got a feeling he's gonna drop an Artifact next turn. T2. No Artifact. He attacks and I Shock anyway. It was a mistake I guess because he plays the revolt dwarf that makes servos. I play a neonate and pass. T3 he plays Depala. Great, now he has two 3/3s and a 1/1. He attacks and I don't block. I have a shock, so I drop a Bully and don't attack hoping to kill Depala. T4 He attacks I chump with the Neonate and twin-bolt Depala. He twin-bolts my Neonate and my face. I look at my hand, nothing worth discarding, so ok... That didn't go well. He also used Depala's ability and drew a Caravan...
All down hill from here... He kept drawing gas, I got him down to 9 life but just couldn't race.
The deck has a hard time coming back from behind even against a janky vehicle deck. LOSS
Game 4 R36 (GW ramp)
Spoiler
On the play (Oh yeah!) Kept a 3 lander with a great curve. T1 I drop Neonate He plays a Forest. T2 I drop a Chaser and hit for 1. He plays a Plains and nothing else. T3 I attack for 3 and make a Servo. Nothing from his side, so I drop a Bully thinking that he's gonna Radiant Flames me next turn... He plays a Land and Retreat to Kazandu. Wtf? T4 I play inferno fist on my Chaser and attack since he's tapped out. That's 9 damage, so he's at 8 and in trouble. He plays Nissa's Pilgrimage, +2 life. (not good enough, I still have lethal with the fist), then he plays Evolving Wilds and sacs it, so +4 life. He's at 14, hoping that's enough to buy another turn. T5 I top-deck titan's strength (yes!). I attack with my mob, cast titan's on the Servo (he's tapped out anyway) do 12 damage and sac the fist ftw. Yes! A win on the ladder! Pauper power showing it has game! WIN
Game 5 R33 (Mono Colorless Eldrazi/Vehicles)
Spoiler
On the Play Keep a 2 lander with plenty of burn, but only 1 bully. T1 mountain He plays waste T2 mountain + bully He plays another waste and a mimic. T3 Shuffler doesn't want me to see more land, I twin-bolt the mimic and face, then hit for 3. So far, so good... He Plays titan's presence and shows me endbringer. Bye-bye bully. T4 No land. I play another Bully. He drops his 4th land and drops thought-knot seer, exiling my titan's strength. T5 Still no land. I drop a neonate, since I have 2 tempers in hand. Attack with the bully, he doesn't block because he knows what I'm holding. He drops another waste and a 9/9 walker of the wastes... (Can this deck get a better god-draw than this?) T6 lands are all at the bottom of the deck. I attack with neonate and bully. He blocks the bully with the 9/9, I shock and sac the neonate to make bully 4/4 and do it 5 burn damage. I don't draw land. He drops Endbringer. (Oh yeah, he showed me that earlier, so the answer to that earlier question is yes.) T7 Mountains don't want anything with me. Got no creatures to play and 2 inferno fists in hand... He plays fleetwheel cruiser and beats me down hard. I twin bolt him for the sake of it. T8 A Mountain! Hurray! Nothing much to play and staring down a 4/4 a 5/5 and a cruiser... He plays a second cruiser (Really?) I temper to the face and promptly lose.
Final verdict:
Spoiler
2-0 / 1-2 Deck impressed e against AI, so props for that. Ladder games were more or less as expected. Big creatures are a problem, as are opponent god-draws. More aggressive mulls are probably recommended. The strategy will work sometimes, but will fall flat on its face a lot too. I like the deck, because RDW is fun, but a lot can go wrong with this game plan.
Not bad, lets see how the next decks do.
I'll give scores only at the end when I test all the decks so I can make a more global assessment of the submissions.
No such Duels card as Cinder Marsh, in Flaky's decklist. With only 18 lands, I didn't want to guess and play, be wrong and have to do it again! Should it be 4x Cinder Barrens?
5-0 vs AI on Insolvent Neonate, with 3x Turn5 wins. I'll post details later and then decide if I want to play em on the ladder...
Yeah i think they are Cinder Barrens because he wanted to use only common cards. Thx for the post.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Ok Sleeps deck, that common type of madness wins his first ladder game against a decent Selesnya deck. Dragoon was huge. I had two alchemists out and I never knew if the spells were better to be discarded to Drsgoon for 2 in the air or to get cast to trigger the alchemists. I ended up discarding creatures like the pricey hound who have no hope of ever hitting face. Take Inventiry was always a tough decision
Joined: Mar 18, 2016 Posts: 5365 Location: Anyway the wind blows
Identity: doesnt really matter
Preferred Pronoun Set: to me
I wonder what the high rank steam players think when they go up against these? Would prob be hilarious to see their faces, specially if they lose.
On xbone players prob don't even notice. At rank 40, I get paired up against R1 D card decks often enough I might not even think about it playing against these on the ladder.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Man Safe and Scion just won its first game on ladder too! Borrowed Grace ftw! What is going on here?? 1-0 as well Only two more for first round of playtesting. Oh boy Haven is next, can't wait.
Ahhhhh! El Loco wins as well! Destructive Tampering almost became a key card but fiery temper was enough. T3 needle spires into a slide runner is great. 1-0. Man... almost everyone has passed round one. Only Maggits deck remains...
Joined: Nov 10, 2014 Posts: 39 Location: New York
Identity: Lost
Preferred Pronoun Set: it/thing/blob/?
I did 5 games vs the AI using the first 2 decks. My write-ups are brief at first, but I tried to be a bit more verbose in the later games - though no-one probably cares vs the AI!
Insolvent Neonate
Spoiler
5-0 vs AI: Can get out to a good, quick start with a variety of removal, combat tricks, and treason to clear the path. AI should have won Gm 4, but its just stupid with vehicles. 3 T5 wins isn't too bad at all! While this would might struggle on the ladder, it's speed at least gives it a chance against many slower decks.
Gm 1 vs AI T6 Win: 3 lands after mulligan, with weenie rush plus 2x titans strength and 2x Fiery Tempo. Mage-ring Bully did good work with the Prowess.
Gm 2 vs AI T5 Win: start with 3 lands, T1 Neonate, T2 Chaser, T3 Fist, T4 Treason and a T5 twin bolt + fiery tempo to finish him off.
Gm 3 vs AI T5 Win: 3 lands after a mulligan, T1 Neonate, T2 Bully, T3 Twin Bolt his Aether Poisoner, T4 Neonate+Arsonist, T5 Treason his Esperzoa for the win
Gm 4 vs AI T7 Win: Mana flooded with 6 consecutive land draws after keeping a 2 lander, T1 Neonate, T2 Chaser ,T3 Bolted his Weldfast Monitor on his turn, T4 land he drops Chandra, T5 land & kill his chandra he drops harvester, T6 land he drops Angel of Invention, T7 treason his Angel and swing for the win with the help of Titan's strength.
Gm 5 vs AI T5 Win: start with 3 lands, T2 Chaser, T3 Fist on Chaser + Arsonist, T4 Bully + Strength on Arsonist to kill his Esperzoa, T5 Treason his PeaFowl and swing for the win.
I Must Be MAD to Play This on the Ladder! (much better write-ups starting with gm 2 here)
Spoiler
4-1 vs AI: Land was a big factor, as I had to mulligan 7 times in 5 games. Things seemed much smoother when the Alchemist was present. I haven't played it on the ladder yet, but I would worry that it's just too slow against anything and everything. I could see this going off, if you could drop an alchemist and Olivia's and draw all [madness] burn.
Gm 1 vs AI T7 Win: T1 both play a land, T2 AI Countless Gears Renegade Me Alchemist, T3 AI Countless Gears Renegade, Me Alchemist, T4 AI Aether Inspector and I Touch of the Void it (maybe a mistake, should have held it), T5 he drops Airdrop Aeronauts for 5 life after I Galvanic a Renegade, I play 2x Olivia's Dragoons, T6 AI drops a Dawnfeather Eagle to +1/+1 his attackers, I Fiery Temper to face, T7 AI atks, but no drops, I bolt his other renegade, then attack and tap the alchemists FTW.
Gm 2 vs AI T8 Win: On the play, I mulligan a 1 land into 3 lands, Galvanic, 2x Shock, and a Cathartic Reunion. T1 I play a mountain and pass. AI drops a swamp and a Map. T2 I draw Fiery Temper, drop a swamp and pass, AI plays an Island and Underhanded designs. T3 I draw my 1st creature and play Olivia's Dragoon and a swamp, AI plays a tap land and passes as I shock to the face (20-18). T4 I draw another Fiery Temper atk for 2 and pass, AI plays a Cogwork Assembler and passes I discard Fiery Temper for 3 to face (20-13). T5 Draw and play Thermo-Alchemist and pass, AI plays land, Scrap trawler and uses UD for 1 (19-14). T6 Draw Touch of the Void, tap Alchemist and play Touch on his Scrap Trawler and pass, AI plays Defiant Salvager and another map, then sacs both maps for +2/+2, I tap Alchemist at EoT (19-12). T7 Draw another Galvanic, tap Alchemist for 1, discard Fiery to Olivia for 3 to face, attack for 2 and pass, AI Atks for 4 (I don't block) and passes I tap Alchemist for 1 (15-5). T8 Draw another Thermo-Alchemist, tap Thermo on the board, discard a Galvanic to Olivia and swing for 2, shock to face for the win.
Gm 3 vs AI T8 Loss: On the draw, I mulligan 1 land into another 1 land into 0 lands into swamp, mtn, Cathartic Reunion, Galvanic Bombardment and Fiery Temper. T1 both play a land I draw Shock, T2 AI plays Land & Implement of Malice, I draw Neonate and play it and land. T3 AI activate Implement and I discard Galvanic, he plays land and another Implement. I draw and play Cinder Barrens and swing with Neonate (20-19). T4 AI activates Implement and I discard Temper to face, he plays land and Foundry Inspector. I draw 2nd Neonate, play it, and swing for 1 (20-15). T5 AI plays land, Scrap Trawler, Weldfast Monitor, and swings with Inspector for 3, I pretend to be the AI and make 2 mistakes: I draw and play mountain (should have held it as discard fodder) and I shock his Monitor instead of the Trawler (he gets back Implement), and I swing with both Neonates. (17-13). T6 AI plays Irontread Crusher and Weldfast monitor, Activates the sick vehicle with the active Inspector, and ends up swinging for only 3 instead of 6. I draw Touch of the Void and remove the Scrap Trawler and swing for 1 (14-12). T7 AI plays another Irontread Crusher and Implement. He activates the implement and I panic and sac one of my Neonates thinking to at least get another card - stupid me, but it worked out ok. I get an Alms of the Veins, which the implement activation on the stack makes me discard, which is ok because I have mana for the madness use. AI foolishly activates both Crushers, one of which is sick, and only attacks with 1 (9 points of damage AI has lost). I draw a land and pass. (11-9). T8 AI plays Aether Charger and a Fleetwheel Cruiser, actually manages to crew the vehicles correctly, and swings for 17, my poor lone vampire dies valiantly in the loss. Well, I made a few mistakes, but none of them would have changed the outcome.
Gm 4 vs AI T5 Win: On the Draw I mulligan 6 lands into 1 land, into 2 lands, Cathartic, Olivias, Alchemist, and Alms - I'll play it. T1 Both play taplands (I draw a land). T2 AI plays a tapland + Oviya Pashiri. I draw Twin Bolt, play a mtn + Alchemist. T3 AI land & activates Oviya for a token. I draw another Alms and play Olivias Dragoon. T4 AI plays a tapland and taps for another token. I tap Alchemist at EoT for 1 and then draw and play another Alchemist. I tap an Alchemist then discard an Alms to Olivias and swing for 2 (23-13). T5 AI plays Snare Thopter and attacks with all for 4 (I block 2), plays a land and a map and I tap Alchemist at Eot for 1 (19-12). I draw Shock FTW! Tap alchemists for 2, shock for 2, tap alchemists again for 2, Discard Alms (madness) to Olivias for 3, attack with Olivia for 2, tap alchemists again for the win.
Gm 5 vs AI T6 Win: On the Draw I mulligan 1 land into 4 lands, Olivias, Alms, and Fiery Temper. Not the best but I'll keep it I suppose. T1 AI land and pass, I draw and play Neonate. T2 AI tapland and pass, I draw another olivias and play it attacking with Neo for 1 (20-19). T3 AI plays land and Cogwork Assembler. I draw Distemper of the Blood and play a land. Attack with both, he blocks Olivias and I Distemper it. Play 2nd Olivias (20-17). T4 AI plays land and Harvester. I draw Cathartic Reunion and have perfect mana to play it, and discard Alms+Fiery Temper to madness drawing land, 3rd Olivias and Thermo-Alchemist. Swing for 5 (23-6). T5 AI plays Chandra Torch+land (21-6). I draw land, play the Alchemist and swing for 5, ignoring Chandra (21-1). T6 AI plays Weldfast Monitor off of Chandra, crews Harvestor with it and swings for 3+3 life (18-4). I draw Galvanic Bombardment and swing for the win.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Maggits artificers deck won as well which means ladies and gentlemen that Barney went undefeated in his first round on ladder with all six decks. The only two decks that didn't feel like they deserved to or should have won were Maggits and the I must Be Mad decks. The other four felt much stronger. But a win is a win so into the second round! Who will be the first to fall?? Let's snake draft and start with Maggit this time
Ugh Maggits deck lost to the worst Grixis Control deck I've ever seen. I didn't play a single creature but I did have a handsome fleet of Vehicles with matching Goggles. Awful. 1-1
Oh no regular opponents have noticed. I just got a nice message, "you don't normally play stuff like that." I'm so embarrassed
El loco goes 2-0, nicely done
Safe and scion wins 2-0 too. Modulo, when I have a might of the masses with a full board, say 7 creatures. Opponent blocks my 4/4 trample with his oblivion sower, should I pump one of the dudes that is hitting face , leaving opponent with 5 life but still the Sower and other blockers, or should I pump the trampler to kill the sower, save the trampler and hit face for just a little bit, I chose the latter and ended up winning but with a red deck, this would have been the wrong choice. I think I would have killed him sooner had I pumped someone hitting face instead but then his board is better
Ugh The Common type of Madness just lost against an awful Selesnya deck played very badly. 1-1 final record. Deleted.
Jesus is round two tough. I must be Mad just lost to your tradional mono white vehicle deck. Final record 1-1. If Neonate loses then I'll be able to declare two winners already , lol.
Alright Neonate easily won so at the end of two rounds of playtesting on the ladder, we have three decks left. That's one too many to declare winners so onto round three of testing with: Insolent Neonate 2-0 Safe and Scion 2-0 El Loco Pobre 2-0
I wonder what the high rank steam players think when they go up against these? Would prob be hilarious to see their faces, specially if they lose.
On xbone players prob don't even notice. At rank 40, I get paired up against R1 D card decks often enough I might not even think about it playing against these on the ladder.
Eh, I got to rank 40 on steam with a mediocre GR Energy deck with half of Kaladesh. The talk of steam being so much harder is jokes.
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Alright Neonate easily won so at the end of two rounds of playtesting on the ladder, we have three decks left. That's one too many to declare winners so onto round three of testing with: Insolent Neonate 2-0 Safe and Scion 2-0 El Loco Pobre 2-0
Alright Neonate easily won so at the end of two rounds of playtesting on the ladder, we have three decks left. That's one too many to declare winners so onto round three of testing with: Insolent Neonate 2-0 Safe and Scion 2-0 El Loco Pobre 2-0
Congrats to our top three
I honestly don't get how this happening, lol.
I have 3 theories:
First, Barney is a piloting Genius ninja that is right at home playing simple aggro decks and thus is wrecking people on the ladder with these sub-par pauper decks.
Second, at this stage of the season people get bored and start playing janky "fun" decks that often are so bad that they aren't even a match for some slightly tuned pauper decks...
Either that or Barney just keeps getting paired with R1 D-card decks and is seal-clubbing with a metaphoric toothpick.
Joined: Nov 10, 2013 Posts: 17753 Location: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
I'm really glad two of the three decks still left are mono red. That's my wheelhouse baby. Safe and Scion is highly aggro which also is something I love playing. I've been going straight for the jugular with all three
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