There are clearly 2 new favorite toys for brewers in the pauper format: The AstroHawk package and
Ephemerate
and
Mulldrifter
. The value from
Ephemerate
and
Mulldrifter
to draw 6 cards if unopposed is just insane, and combining it with a bunch of cheap white flyers that effectively replace themselves by way of bouncing cantrip artifacts can out value any fair decks if they can survive the early game. The obvious progression will eventually lead to brewers combining both packages, and then jamming them into old proven decks in the format that share at least one of Red, white, or blue colors. Here's my take on the Seeker Boros progression.
With just the standard AtroHawk and fulls sets of
Ephemerate
and
Mulldrifter
we have a core 24:
4x
Arcum's Astrolabe
4x
Prophetic Prism
- we want the full 4 if going 3 colors and running the glint hawks
4x
Glint Hawk
4x
Kor Skyfisher
4x
Ephemerate
(Just 3x Ephemerate with or without 1x
Archaeomancer
instead would also work if you don't mind the UU cost and plan to go more grind-y).
4x
Mulldrifter
We add in the obvious Seeker boros aggro cards:
4x
Lightning Bolt
4x
Galvanic Blast
- (we will need a few more artifacts to support the metalcraft, but if burning them out is the plan we won't need them early so can get away with around 12 total)
4x
Seeker of the Way
- Turns all that bouncing artifact cantrips into prowess/lifelink triggers too for even more value
Just 4 flex spots left now with so many good options. I think any of the following would easily be valid options:
- Mini-monarch package (2x
Palace Sentinels
with or without 2x
Prismatic Strands
to help protect it)
-
Archaeomancer
/
Mnemonic Wall
- ephemerate loops while gaining another card every other turn if you want the boost in the grind-y matches. We aren't running the counters to protect the loop though, so this is more of a nice value trick than a goal/lock in our deck.
- More burn (
Firebolt
,
Chain Lightning
) - good against aggro to buy more time, good for going to face after getting enough early beats.
-
Flayer Husk
- An admitted pet card of mine, but I like it here to chump and then beef up your flyers so your Glint Hawks/Kor Skyfishers/Mulldrifters match up much better against the same since everyone seems to be playing them.
-
Tinker Mage - Already good for just Arcum's Astrolabe or artifact lands, but 2x Tinker Mage with some toolbox picks would be even better (Relic of Progenitus / Slyvok Lifestaff / Bonesplitter / Flayer Husk)
-
Okiba-Gang Shinobi
- Could really catch some folks off-guard game 1, so much value if it lands and forces the 2 discards (bouncing a glint hawk when it comes in allows another cantrip too for more value)
-
Faithless Looting
- With so much draw and not really needing much land after the first 5-6 we can trade those extra land cards into action while also digging (Burn to the face to end it is our primary goal, and Faithless looting is a great tool to help find it). It can also help smooth out some rough starts if we just need to find threats and help dig for our sideboard cards in game 2 and 3.
-
Lone Missionary
/
Aven Riftwatcher
- My paper environment has a lot of burn and aggro, starting with some pre-sideboard extra life gain goes a long way, especially with the
Kor Skyfisher
option to bounce an play them again.
I am currently running 2x Faithless Looting and 2x Lone Missionary (and also cut 1 Ephemerate for a Firebolt as all my creature targets are not quite as juicy or plentiful as I would want for a full set without all the ponder/preordain digging power to match up both pieces consistently). Digging into my pure theme and just buying time with more main deck life-gain seems a better choice than trying to add something cute.
Sideboard (work in progress):
Decks I think we will need help with are affinity with a bunch of 4/4s, bogles as we have no interaction with them and need to race against them getting a Armadillo Cloak, and burn/aggro if they can get under us, and we have no answers to Ulamog's Crusher. Our match-up against fair control decks is pretty good as we have a ton of value and threats, but against control with loop tricks we will eventually run into problems if we cannot close out the game quickly. To that end, the sideboard is a work in progress trying to find the right mix (like we need to not hit bogles or hit our only 2x Leave No Trace answers, but seems fine given how often bogles is played).
Pulse of Murasa
,
Aven Riftwatcher
, or
Weather the Storm
might take another 1-2 sideboard slots if my paper meta is all burn and aggro again.
