Pauper Challenge: Red Results

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zandl

11 November 2012

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Red results!

Gotta love Red decks. I knocked out this bracket in just a matter of hours. Quick, cheap, and very decisive, Red decks get it done quickly or not at all. But who rose the top of the bracket? You might be surprised.

Lo, and the good zandl spake, “Not all Red decks may winneth.”

Decks!

nsgreiner – Cheap Fire Fling
nanoomega - Shocking Hanweir Lancer
shuflw - monored-pauper-challenge
JamesHughes - Time Bomb
jminute14 - bigbadaboommonoredpauperchallenge
dmint - Beating Face
exarkun809 - Red Team Go! Red Team Go!
MTNman - Goblin Sac (changed after submission deadline to non-Pauper)
Zickzag - R P. from Power. (Zandl's Challenge)
Jaya_student - cheap-as-a-box-of-matches-pauper-challenge
Demarge - May I melt your pauper face off?
justen - Breath Mints

Round 1 results:

winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)

nanoomega (2) vs. nsgreiner (0)

I understand what nsgreiner was trying to do with his deck (pump Immolating Souleater , attack, hit, and Fling for the win). However, against any given Red deck, this strategy has two major speed-bumps to overcome. First, instant-speed removal is in every opening hand. Second, most of these Red decks have either creatures that come out on turn-1 that you don’t necessarily want to swing into or destroy, like Goblin Arsonist or Ashmouth Hound, or cards that make multiple creatures at one time, like Krenko's Command.

JamesHughes (2) vs. shuflw (1)

Game 1, JamesHughes really only saw Wall of Torches, which is fairly weak in Red Pauper. It dies to every burn spell and isn’t the most efficient blocker of 1/1 bodies. Game 2, things got on track when Wall of Fire landed and starting blocking everything relevant. Curse of the Pierced Heart and Goblin Fireslinger consistently pinged the opponent down to 0. Game 3 was exactly the same.

dmint (2) vs. jminute14 (0)

Goblin Gaveleer came out and found itself soon with 2 Sylvok Lifestaffs on it. Sylvok Lifestaff is probably the best artifact you can have in a Red bracket. You can block or swing haphazardly and gain life if your opponent tries to do anything. It also makes using burn on the equipped creature a huge dilemma. Game 2, dmint dropped 2 copies of Mogg Flunkies and starting beating face after clearing the way with burn spells.

exarkun809 (2) vs. MTNman (1)

The first game made MTNman’s deck look like the clear winner in the round with things like Chandra's Fury against a board of 1/1 tokens. However, the second and third games gave exarkun809 his Brimstone Volleys and Artillerize spells and allowed him to race the board destruction quite well.

Jaya_student (2) vs. Zickzag (0)

Infernal Plunge allows for very explosive turns. You can go from 5 open mana and a Goblin Arsonist out to Infernal Plunge, a Morbid Brimstone Volley, and a Chandra's Fury (for 10 damage to the opponent) all in one turn, while wiping out most of your opponent’s creatures.

justen (2) vs. Demarge (0)

Ogre Menial is a boss. He comes down on turn 4 or 5 (after a lot of burn spells are already gone) and sits with 4 toughness. Then give it Volcanic Strength and swing, and you win on the next turn unless your opponent can come up with 6+ damage from a mostly empty hand without blocking.

Round 2 pairings!

justen vs. exarkun809
nanoomega vs. JamesHughes
Jaya_student vs. dmint

Round 2 results:

winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)

justen (2) vs. exarkun809 (1)

exarkun809 took the first game handily with over half a dozen Goblin tokens and enough burn to contain the Infect creatures hitting the board on the opponent’s side of the field. In the latter games, though, Ogre Menial and his big butt hit the board and exarkun809 didn’t have enough mana open to burn it before Furor of the Bitten enchanted it in the same turn. Following things like Assault Strobe and Volcanic Strength, both games ended in one turn.

JamesHughes (2) vs. nanoomega (0)

Wall of Fire is hard to deal with in Pauper, and using 2 burn spells (or a Morbid Brimstone Volley) to kill a Defender is a bit heartbreaking, though sometimes necessary. While both games were VERY close (the first of which had JamesHughes at 1), Wall of Fire is just too good once the opponent is confined to top-decking for answers.

dmint (2) vs. Jaya_student (0)

dmint started the first game with 2 Sylvok Lifestaffs and a bunch of burn, drawing into even more of both. Jaya_student’s deck held on for a surprising amount of time, but just couldn’t deal enough damage in top-deck mode to dmint, who was sitting comfortably at 30+ life for most of the game. Game 2 showed that 1/1 tokens can be very aggressive, though their efficiency and effectiveness is lowered on each passing turn when they can’t attack.

Round 3 pairings!

dmint vs. justen
BYE!: JamesHughes

Round 3 results:

*winning player (games won) vs. losing player (games won)*

justen (2) vs. dmint (0)

Game 1: Until this point, dmint’s biggest strength came from his inordinately large amounts of life-gain. Against Infect, however, it means nothing. Ogre Menial coming down with Furor of the Bitten in the same turn led to dmint not having an answer to 6 toughness on the fly. Hoping to block and draw more burn spells, justen cast Volcanic Strength and got dmint to 80% poison. Even after swinging all-out and shooting all the burn spells to the dome, justen was at 5 and infected his opponent.
Game 2: When Volcanic Strength isn’t drawn, Goblin Tunneler makes for a very good substitute, especially when burning the Goblin means that you don’t have enough burn for the Ogre Menial with Furor of the Bitten.

White Bracket Finals!

justen vs. JamesHughes

Game Deets

Game 1: Ogre Menial is simply too big to be burned in the late-game when it has either Furor of the Bitten or Volcanic Strength on it. JamesHughes’s Wall of Fire was dominating nearly every game it landed in, but against Infect, it dies a painful, slow death. And trying to find the Red mana to use Firebreathing while your creature has a negative Power is a lost cause.
Game 2: A turn-5 Ogre Menial after a Razor Swine with Goblin War Paint ate a burn-spell meant that JamesHughes was suddenly staring down a threat that he had no direct damage for. Drawing a Brimstone Volley meant that a 1/1 blocker + Morbid would kill the Ogre, but Volcanic Strength landing on the following turn quickly put the fate of the game on JamesHughes’s next card-draw. After flipping over the top card, a Mountain was revealed and James couldn’t deal enough damage to kill off justen, ending the Red bracket games.

So our Red bracket champion is…

justen

Congratulations! You now have 2 piping hot Feature Tokens, a Round Robin tournament with the other champions, a game against my personal White Pauper deck, and eternal internet glory to look forward to!

Also, congratulations to JamesHughes for making second place! One Feature Token will be awarded to your account within a day or two of this article’s posting.

Post-bracket thoughts…

Ogre Menial was far and away the star of the bracket. By the time it hits the board, the opponent’s burn has been used up on the predecessor Infect creatures, like Razor Swine. Also, Corpse Cur keeps the Ogre Menials coming, each one requiring at least a Morbid Brimstone Volley to deal with. Add Volcanic Strength, Furor of the Bitten, and/or Goblin War Paint into the mix and you suddenly have a game-win in 2 turns.

Wall of Fire, as I had secretly predicted (and may or may not have based my private Pauper Red deck around), was amazing. Throw some things like Glimmerpost and Sylvok Lifestaff into your deck and your deck can now deal with a lot of momentum. Unfortunately, life-gain only goes so far (as indicated by the only Infect deck in the bracket winning the whole shebang).

I was quite impressed at how quickly Infernal Plunge can give you board-advantage. Being able to sacrifice something that might want to die anyways, ramp yourself up by 2 mana overall, and trigger Morbid all at once definitely swayed some games in this bracket.

Sylvok Lifestaff was huge in most games that showed it. The small boost in power for a small price is exactly what any given Red deck wants to be doing. The life-gain you get from your creature dying means that you’re gaining 3 life AND your opponent likely had to block or burn the equipped creature, wasting resources on NOT your face while you stave off the previous hit to your life total. And then it costs 1 mana to re-equip and do it all over again. One game had 3 Lifestaffs on the same side of the board and that deck shot up to 30+ life in a very short amount of time. And that’s completely out of reasonable range for a Pauper Red deck that only draws 1 card a turn.

Cards I didn’t specifically like or was underwhelmed by: Hanweir Lancer, Thatcher Revolt, Slash Panther, and Furnace Scamp. Hanweir Lancer gives First Strike to another creature, but most combat tricks are in the form of burn spells, so First Strike rarely made any differences to the board-state. Thatcher Revolt was never really good at any point. For 3 mana, you have a Lightning Bolt in the best-case scenario. Might as well just run another Searing Spear or Incinerate. Slash Panther’s 2 Toughness and high mana cost was its largest downfall. Haste is alright, but most/all of the burn is Instant-speed. Lastly, Furnace Scamp’s need to connect with the opponent’s face was ultimately its least favorable attirbute. Beyond turn-2, it’s essentially a 1-Power vanilla creature for 1 mana that dies to every burn spell and block.

Thank you to all of the people who submitted a Red deck to this Challenge! You’re helping to make this Challenge a TappedOut tradition! Now on to our *next* and *final* color in the tournament:

Green Pauper Tournament Pairings!

anderoide vs. BenHurrr
ThatCrazy_Walrus vs. Carsf
InquiringMindscrew vs. vazhar
06saxplayer vs. BiggRedd54
Thanatoaster vs. Aelorith2117
WoostBoost vs. cuban_medic
mossflower vs. UGplayerWillie
Dritz vs. Zarum
BYE!: poopdarkstar

This article is a follow-up to Pauper challenge: white results The next article in this series is Pauper challenge: Green results