This'll start in 1 1/2 hours, and I'm excited. Really excited what my deck will be able to do:

Creatures (28):
4 x Llanowar Elves
4 x Ixalli's Diviner
4 x Pollenbright Druid
4 x Jungleborn Pioneer
4 x Tishana's Wayfinder
4 x Bloom Hulk
4 x Jade Guardian

Non-creature spells (12):
4 x Giant Growth
4 x River Herald's Boon
4 x Courage in Crisis

Lands (20)
20 x Forest


I wanted to maximize on Proliferate; so this deck has everything that works with it: Hexproof, Explore, +1/+1 counter synergies and a slight Merfolk subtheme because they work well with basically all of the above. Also, of course, we have access to the OG Llanowar Elves and Giant Growth.


What will you guys play?

YUCK!

Don't fret Barney, you'll get your Shocks, Viashino Pyromancers and Skewer the Critics from Cucho I'm sure.

I love it Modulo. Mono green doing what mono green wants to do. and on the cheap at that.

I sure hope so!

I can't even imagine how I'd feel dropping an Ixalli Diviner. What am I doing with my life?!

Welp. Turns out Barney was right and the green deck is just YUCK. And I didn't even need to drop a single Ixalli's Diviner. After starting off 0-2 against two mono-red decks I swiftly BELETED it.

I'm 5-0 with its successor, and I'm not proud of it.
I actually brewed up this deck before I found the mono-G Proliferate, but decided the deck would be so horrible that it'd be best to never talk about it again. But little did the mono-R players kno they opened the Pyxis of Pandora.

**** Control
Counterspells (11):
3 x Syncopate
2 x Essence Scatter
4 x Thought Collapse
2 x Devious Cover-Up

Bounce & removal (15):
3 x Blink of an Eye
3 x Moment of Craving
3 x Mephitic Vapors
4 x Ob Nixilis' Cruelty
2 x Deadly Visit

Carddraw & wincons (10):
4 x Notion Rain
2 x Clear the Mind
4 x Ill-Gotten Inheritance

Lands (24)
11 x Island
9 x Swamp
4 x Dimir Guildgate

I hate control like poison but I much prefer this deck. That Notion Rain card look AWFUL tho. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to slowly lose to Ill-Gotten Inheritence, love it.

Notion Rain is basically Read the Bones, except some decks can utilize Surveil's upside over Scry better. This one doesn't, but I still prefer it as my card advantage spell over Divination (no selection), Secrets of the Golden City (Ascend is not relevant for this deck until the super-lategame, and it's unnecessarily hard to cast), Tamiyo's Epiphany (costing one more mana is a big deal) and Dark Bargain (Instant-speed, but a lot less selection).

If you really dislike the lifeloss, I'd run Divination or Epiphany, but Notion Rain is preferable IMO.

With the prominence of red mages lurking about, i would think you'd really want to avoid taking damage while trying to grab total control of the game. Given that you're playing blue, i thought there might be better draw options but what the hell do I know, I'm a red mage at heart, lol.

I used to LOVE seeing opponents play dig spells that damaged them when I was flying red back in the day.

That Dimir deck could *really* use Dead Weight - would probably sub out Mephitic Vapors, and one copy of Ill-Gotten Inheritance. Maybe even two copies of the enchantment for a 25th land, too.

EDIT: Scratch that, the shell's probably not good enough. Yes, you can control stuff, but there're too many things that just beat you - e.g. Martyr of Dusk, Blade Juggler - since they generate inherent card advantage and the sweepers are awful.

EDIT #2: Yup, definitely not good enough. Creatureless control doesn't work without good sweepers. Recommend some other idea instead. Two examples could be UR Spells with Jaya's Greeting, Spellgorger Weird and Aven Eternals, or UB control with Watcher in the Mist, Omenspeaker, Salvager of Secrets etc. Omenspeaker for example is very much capable of holding the ground against red aggro, and will always put you up the scry 2.

Ill-Gotten Inheritance is surprisingly powerful in my experience - there's no way to remove it after it's hit the battlefield, and it's a steady clock that keeps you alive. Also works great to enable spectacle for Blade Juggler.

Some quick impressions of the colours, based on my decks and what I've played against:

White is universally aggressive. Their best cards are the 2/2 flyer for 2 (Silverbeak Griffin) and Trusted Pegasus which allows them to attack over ground opponents. Law-Rune Enforcer is also strong. Aside from that there's nothing particularly standout here.

Blue has some strong effects. Counters are always good, Omenspeaker is great in defensive decks, and the best card draw is here as well. Aven Eternal is a strong 3-drop even without other Amass cards. Cloudreader Sphinx and (especially) Watcher in the Mist are great top-end. Tamiyo's Epiphany is probably the best draw spell in the format.

Black has the best removal. Moment of Craving is really good against aggro decks. Ob Nixilis's Cruelty and Eviscerate are likely the best hard removal as well; however nobody seems to be playing big creatures making Eviscerate significantly worse (Cruelty is instant too which is great). There are plenty of great cards as well: Blade Juggler, Lazotep Reaver, Deathbloom Thallid, Ill-Gotten Inheritance, Caligo Skin-Witch and even Toll of the Invasion are all strong considerations.

Red has the standard cheap burn and creatures, but they tend to be stone-walled quite easily. Would definitely look to go big; I think Fanatical Firebrand is barely playable for example. Spellgorger Weird has been surprisingly effective when played against me. Jaya's Greeting is maybe the best removal spell.

Green has ramp and the biggest creatures in the format. Nothing can fight a Colossal Dreadmaw, and nobody is playing deathtouchers either. From what I've seen the only semi-common cards that can answer these big creatures are Callous Dismissal (not even a good answer, but big tempo loss), Ob Nixilis's Cruelty (doesn't work against 6/6s) and counters. Green also has Sauroform Hybrid as a mana sink.

The gold cards are generic goodstuff, nothing that seems especially strong though. Also, there aren't many mana sinks in the format; flooding out is an easy way to lose.

There're many of plausible decks, but if there's something broken out there I've not found it.

The extra 2 life and the instant speed of Moment of Craving make up for the mana saved on Dead Weight in my experience.

I absolutely hate Vapors as well, but you need it against the 'go-wide' decks that mostly run 1/1s and it's card advantage vs. mono-red. I'd love to shave them down to 2, but that doesn't quite work methinks.

Cruelty actually gets around many on-death effects because of the exile clause; and most of the comes-into-play abilities you are supposed to counter.


That said, the deck dos have its weaknesses; the main one that I noted being that it cannot beat a resolved Jade Guardian, and 3 Blink of an Eye might not be enough against enchantments. In fact, I do believe Jade Guardian (and to a lesser extent Cold-Water Snapper) to be very problematic creatures.


EDIT: TBH; it's very possible Green is the best control colour in the format if for one card only: Crushing Canopy. Kills any flier or enchant. If you can stall the board enough otherwise, you cn then probably win with your big creatures.
Biggest problem: Basically all common Gx gold cards suck balls.

What do you think about this proliferate deck?

Instant/Scorecry
4 x Contentious Plan
3 x Disperse
4 x Teferi's Time Twist
4 x Band Together
1 x Courage In Crisis

Creatures
4 x Pollenbright Druid
2 x Snarespinner
4 x Aven Eternal
3 x Iron Bully
2 x Bloom Hulk
4 x Wardscale Crocodile

12 x Islands
13 x Forests


I think it explains itself well. Put a few +1/+1 tokens on a few weenies, maybe get a 3/3 or 4/4 flyer or Menace. Then when you get a Crocodile out, put a token on him and proliferate till he's huge. Or proliferate your weenies till you have an army of... well... not weenies that also maybe have flying or menace on them.

I just wanna get some feedback first. I don't have all the cards. well, I just started so pretty much whatever pauper deck I go with will be from this thread and I'll use all of my common wildcards, so I wanna have a feeling for the deck before I buy it.

Pro Tip: You have to set a manual stop on their second main phase. You cannot wait until the game normally passes priority, which is the End Step. You need to cast Teferi's Time Twist during their 2nd Main Phase or you will not get your creature back until the end of your turn. When using it offensively.

I will probably test all the decks here:
https://mtgazone.com/part-ii-no-escape-pauper/

Edit:
White Weenies 3:0 (+ 4:1 for the last 4 wins)
Green Proliferate 2:3
Golgari Saprolings 0:3
Selesnya Tokens 3:2
Izzet Wizards 3:1
Boros Mentor 0:3
Dimir Control 0:3

^ Not a fan - there aren't enough ways to give +1/+1 counters. If you want to play proliferate, I would absolutely include Courage in Crisis and possibly New Horizons.

@Modulo if it works for you then more power to you, but I genuinely think these two archetypes are better:

U/B control:

4 x Dimir Guildgate
4 x Blade Juggler
10 x Island
4 x Caligo Skin-Witch
3 x Ob Nixilis's Cruelty
3 x Moment of Craving
2 x Ill-Gotten Inheritance
10 x Swamp
4 x Lazotep Reaver
4 x Deathbloom Thallid
4 x Watcher in the Mist
4 x Aven Eternal
4 x Herald of the Dreadhorde


There're other good cards here, mentioned above. You could conceivably run them. You could add more synergy with Darkblade Agent and Whisper Agent, more card draw with Secrets of the Golden City, etc. The shell is quite strong and I suspect this is similar to the Sultai Midrange deck of last season. It's good against aggro because of the early plays that stabilize easily, and is still okay against other midrange/control decks. It's weak to the deck below however:

R/G monsters:

4 x Sauroform Hybrid
13 x Forest
4 x Jaya's Greeting
4 x Rampaging Cyclops
4 x Druid of the Cowl
11 x Mountain
4 x Rampaging Rendhorn
4 x Colossal Dreadmaw
4 x Vivien's Grizzly
4 x Frenzied Arynx
4 x Savage Smash


This deck beats up on the UB deck above because the top end is too big to kill without Eviscerate. It's also got some strong mana sinks - I'd completely forgotten about Vivien's Grizzly. However, it's weak to flyers and counterspells. Rubblebelt Recluse is likely missing from this list, because it's a rare day when you don't want to attack with a 6/5.

The deck cruves out at 5 so Horizons for a +1/+1 counter is not as good as another Iron Bully or Ironshell Beetle. Horizons does not play with Teferi's Time Twist like the creatures do, which creates 2 more (potential) proliferate targets.

What do you suggest I take out for 1 Iron Bully and 1 or 2 Courage in Crisis'?

That's the problem - there aren't good ways to put +1/+1 counters. With a card like Ajani, the Greathearted or Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter - maybe. Without it, there just aren't good ways to buff your creatures. The turn you play Courage in Crisis it's like playing a 3-mana put two +1/+1 counters at sorcery speed card, which isn't going to be playable. Other possible cards like Iron Bully are also bad for the same reason.

That said, you could try something like this:

4 Llanowar Elves
4 Jungle Delver

4 River Herald's Boon
4 Ironshell Beetle
4 Pollenbright Druid

4 Courage in Crisis
4 Jungleborn Pioneer
4 Tishana's Wayfinder

4 Jade Guardian
4 Bloom Hulk

20 Forest

I'm skeptical - how is this deck going to beat the U/B deck above for example - but maybe. Hexproof is really strong in Pauper, there's no way to kill the hexproof creature except via combat.

I agree with T3 courage, it's not even a play. I don't feel like Courage is a good play until T5 at earliest. The only line of play you could squeeze it in on T4 is if you got T2 Pollenbrite T3 Aven Eternal, at least then you'd get 4 +1/+1 counters. At sorcery speed I really don't even like it that's why I only run 1.

Got 6-2 (one loss from screw) with this, apparently taken from reddit:

4 Rosemane Centaur (GRN) 197
8 Plains (RIX) 192
10 Forest (RIX) 196
4 Llanowar Elves (DAR) 168
4 Sworn Companions (GRN) 27
4 Gallant Cavalry (M19) 12
2 Angel of the Dawn (M19) 7
4 Saproling Migration (DAR) 178
4 Yavimaya Sapherd (DAR) 189
4 Inspired Charge (M19) 15
4 Selesnya Guildgate (GRN) 256
4 Law-Rune Enforcer (WAR) 20
2 Jungleborn Pioneer (RIX) 137
2 Civic Stalwart (RNA) 6

I've had the greatest success with Golgari in Pauper. This deck idea is mostly unchanged since open beta just modified after a new set comes out. Basically go wide Saprolings. I have a lot of luck with it. Mono red isn't a big issue. The only deck that's beaten me so far was a proliferate deck. I'm 4-1 since I started last night.

3 x Doomed Dissenter
9 x Swamp
3 x Deathbloom Thallid
4 x Yavimaya Sapherd
9 x Forest
3 x Thallid Omnivore
2 x Siege Wurm
3 x Fungal Infection
3 x Vicious Offering
4 x Saproling Migration
4 x Llanowar Elves
3 x Golgari Guildgate
1 x Golgari Guildgate
3 x Sauroform Hybrid
2 x Wrecking Beast
4 x Ob Nixilis's Cruelty