Eternal Masters, Pauper, And You

Features

Boza

21 June 2016

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Eternal Masters has hit the street last week and people are cracking boxes and pulling mana crypts and jace, the mind sculptors with such Force of Will that you would be Karakas krazy not to get in on the fun!

However, at 10 bucks per booster in the best of cases, that can be prohibitively expensive for a lot of people. So, what is the cheapest way to participate in the joy of Eternal Masters at the lowest of costs?

Pauper!

Eternal Masters has a lot to offer to commoners - new to pauper cards, online-first time commons, exciting reprints of older cards and spicy new brews! I am Boza and I will be your guide in the world of Pauper Masters!

Newcomers to pauper

We will start off with the 29 newest cards that were never printed as commons. I will briefly highlight and discuss each card and in the bottom of the article you can find a cool challenge related to all!

White

Mistral Charger - 2 mana, 2 power fliers are not really in high demand in pauper. This is the brother from another mother to Stormfront Pegasus, but neither has had or will have a big impact on the format. Better cards like Kor Skyfisher and Leonin Skyhunter are there. Trades with a transformed Delver of Secrets  ^Flip, I guess.

Monk Idealist - speaking of functional reprints, here is the new/old Auramancer. As above, if the original is not impacting the format too much, ideally, the newish card will have about the same effect.

Humble - rounding off the new white cards is an exciting removal spell that can humble even the great Gurmag Angler; an instant that white did not really have access to. White Weenie has relied on Journey to Nowhere for creature removal so far, and this is an instant. I predict this will see sideboard and possibly main board play in the deck. Works great with Holy Light or as a splash in other decks, like a new BW control brew.

Elite Vanguard - a 2/1 creature with no drawback? I have dust off ye old White Weenie and stick that bad boy right in there. Looks even better in a Soldier Tribal White Weenie deck. Craig Wescoe would be proud!

Blue

Glacial Wall - the iceberg that hit Titanic has seen more action than this card ever will. Very unexciting stats and there are better walls for cheaper if you are in that market.

Stupefying Touch - nice card to have access to, but there are not too many activated ability creatures in pauper. Sure, it stops mana abilities as well (makes Llanowar Elves and Fyndhorn Elves cry) as well non-mana ones (Crypt Rats, quiron ranger, Wild Mongrel) , but it still leaves the body behind and does not prevent attacking or blocking. Decent card, but I am not stupid and I know that straight up removal is better.

phantom mosnter - this new-to-paper common does not have a ghost of chance to take off in the format. Both its arts are quite cool.

Tidal Wave - will not make a splash. Making a token that can trade with Gurmag Angler is pretty nice, but does not really slot into any deck right now and has only one purpose - defensive.

Cephalid Sage - decent card that can be a big draw for decks that fill up the graveyard and like it that way. A bit too expensive at 4 mana, but a nice option to have and could mature into a solid contender in decks that do not exist yet. Not even sages know what cephalids are.

Warden of Evos Isle - previously in uncommon prison, it is now unchained and free to soar in Pauper. Wind Drake with a serious upside can easily find its way into pretty much any deck with blue. Bird Tribal anyone?

Peregrine Drake - oh no. I mean, they literally just banned Cloud of Faeries a few months ago. Why? The nightmare, the torment, the combo of Esper Familiars is back! Slotting right in where Cloud of Faeries once stood, alongside Sunscape Familiar and Nightscape Familiar, this card can combine with Mnemonic Wall and Ghostly Flicker to produce infinite mana. With a Sage's Row Denizen in tow, the deck easily infinitely mills out the opponent.

Except, it is now worse - you do not need familiars, nor do you need any of the Ravnica bounce lands to generate infinite mana. You only need Drake, Wall and Flicker and any 5 lands to produce infinite mana. The deck can now be mono blue.

Black

Prowling Pangolin - a vanilla creature that has underwhelming stats for the cost and has a big chance of not resolving? The only place this pangolin will prowl is the bottom of the barrel.

wake dancer - This should have been a common originally. It used to be just a dream, but it waltzed its way into reality. Cool card that could see play in Bx control alongside Unearth.

Night's Whisper - Bx control now gets a very playable Sign in Blood. This card should have been printed as common originally, but now that it is available, sign me up!

Red

Carbonize - cool name and Jaya Ballard flavor text but it is not a very efficient card. In order to not trigger on-death effects, you are overpaying by for a Lightning Bolt. Play Pillar of Flame instead.

Avarax - the red Squadron Hawk is just not worth it. 5 mana for 3/3 haste are not the best stats, has firebreathing for the high cost of and still dies to Lightning Bolt. Goro from Mortal Kombat just costs too much.

Undying Rage - red Rancor, is that you? I did not even know this was a card until EMA revealed it. It feels better to splash green for Rancor in your deck than to pay extra for 2 toughness and the inability to block or trample over. It is quite costly to rage so much.

Kird Ape - new to Pauper only online, was a common in {insert set name from 15 years ago} in paper. Good card that will push Domain Zoo online to new heights and Paper Pauper Zoo can ape that movement.

Wildfire Emissary - firebreathing for is NOT OK, Wizards. Give us regular firebreathing and much less than 4 CMC on this guy and we can talk! Otheerwise, this card does not emit any vibes.

orcish oriflame - Oriflame is not actually just a brand name for cosmetics, but also means "battle standard". I do not think it is good enough for Standard, let alone Pauper at this high cost.

Dragon Egg - the deck to house this has not yet hatched and I am doubtful it ever will. Getting a Dragon Whelp for 1 less mana and more work is not a good idea.

Green

Emperor Crocodile - could very well be the crowning jewel in Mono Green Stompy. Costs and stats are nice and it can be played easily alongside Imperiosaur for the up-and-coming Lizard Deck (Crocodiles are not really lizards, but close enough).

Roots - this new-to-paper Common is rooted in mediocrity. Green Pacifism for double the cost is not a great rate in Constructed Pauper.

Elephant Guide - a new-to-paper Common that can slot right into the top end of Stompy with ease. Amazing stats for the cost and alliviates the problem of auras by leaving behind a beast. Terry Pratchet would be proud if you put 4 of these on Giant Tortoise (do it now in EMA Draft!)

Sylvan Might - reusable rate at a reasonable cost for both casting and the trample is key. Strictly mightier than Tread Upon and better in the long game than Predator's Strike, this card is a solid addition for GR aggro decks and Stompy.

Yavimaya Enchantress - the only common enchantress card (that does not have the enchatress effect) is severely outclassed by Aura Gnarlid. GW auras does not have space for both and gnarlid wins out by a country mile.

Elvish Vanguard - not to be confused with Elite Vanguard mentioned previously, this card slots right into Aggro elves. Great compliment to Lys Alana Huntmaster and allows the deck to go tall without Timberwatch Elf.

Nimble Mongoose - where has UG madness gone? It was nibbled out like a snake from the meta, but support from SOI in the form of madness cards and a new 1 mana threat could push it over the edge of playable once more.

Multicolor

Desperate Ravings - I am raving about the possibilities of this new common. RUG threshold? RUG Madness? UR delver with decent draw? And it is an instant? What is not to like?

Rally the Peasants - this card is an instant. Grants 2 power to any kind of creature. Has flashback. Cool Stuff! Previously accessible only to Peasent players, common players are rallying in droves to drool over the possibilities. How awesome is that in a Jeskai aggro deck as a finisher? WR gets a much needed push!

Best new commons in each color

And that is all 30 cards! Top cards per color from my point of view, the ones most likely to make a impact on the format are:

Elite Vanguard - Great push to common and much needed!
Peregrine Drake - I wrote two large paragraphs on why, oh why WOTC!
Night's Whisper - not really a choice there.
Kird Ape - even though it is not new to Paper Pauper, not really mono red, it still is the best in category.
Nimble Mongoose - Elvish vanguard wins this in terms of more playable, but I like the opportunities for deck building this provides.
Rally the Peasants - toughest to call by far, but this has more applications.

Top 5 Exciting Pauper-legal reprints

Hydroblast and Pyroblast - the sideboard all stars are now more widely available in Paper and it will hopefully blast the price creep on these in MTGO.

Chain Lightning - ALL THE HYPE! This 15 bucks common has already had its price slashed by about 2/3s making it a lot more accessible.

Hymn to Tourach - more copies are quite exiting.

Sinkhole - still legal, still expensive. Currently awaiting its price to finally sink.

Ancestral Mask - difficult to find in Paper and costs a few on MTGO, now not so.

Conclusion and Challenge

Wow, this gotten quite long by now. I will have to put off the deckbuilding for the next article. I hope this has given you a clue of what Eternal Masters has done for the format.

If you are still with me, I will need your help for the next part, that will be focused on deck building. Select one card from the 30 plus the 5 exciting reprints in the above list and a pauper legal deck with that card.

Eternal Masters Pauper Battles

1. Choose up to 3 from the 35 cards highlighted in the article.
2. Make a pauper deck with them.
3. I will select 8 of those (could be more) and do a 3-game single elimation tournament.
4. That means up to 21 exciting Pauper games will be headed your way very soon.
5. All decks will be rated on creativity before the start of the tournament ( and gameplay performance for the top 8 decks that will participate.
6. Check out the banlist below: