This is a beta build of UG Thresh for Pauper I've been fussing around with today. The concept is what you'd expect: lay some cheap, efficient threats, dump cards in your graveyard, and keep your opponent from catching up on board while beating down with them.
Deck Breakdown:
Manabase: Land Grant, Evolving Wilds, and Terramorphic Expanse fix your mana, shuffle your deck, and fuel Threshold. They also impose restrictions on the deck; you are a deck that wants to beat down quickly but most of your mana comes in tapped. This issue makes a Red or Black splash too much to bear for the sake of speed, I feel. 3 Forests with 4 Land Grants might seem odd, but ultimately you want to draw one or two of the sorcery per game and the full playset is designed to ensure that. I can see the reasoning for 3, though.
Cheap efficient threats: Delver of Secrets
, Nimble Mongoose, and Werebear. Hooting Mandrills may seem like a non-bo, but this deck dumps cards into its graveyard so quickly that it has delve to spare. 3 feels fine, though I could be persuaded into 2.
Cantrips: Brainstorm and Ponder are auto-includes, and Brainstorm is stronger in this deck from the extra shuffle effects. Mental Note and Thought Scour help the deck hit Threshold fast.
4 Daze: Maybe 3 is correct, but this deck has trouble with slow draws due to lands coming in tapped. In this case, Daze does everything you want. It keeps your opponent from curving out efficiently and it keeps countermagic up when you're tapped out.
So far, the flex slots in this build are as follows:
1 Eldrazi Skyspawner: This will likely be moved to the sideboard as protection against edict effects.
2 Vapor Snag: An overachiever in preliminary testing. Can buy time through slow draws in the early game and can clear bigger creatures out of the way in the late game to seal the win. 3-4 may be correct.
1 Impulse: Good card economy but plays like filler. I am open to replacing this with any Maybeboard card.
2 Counterspell: For when Daze isn't enough. Mana Leak may be easier on the manabase though.
Maybeboard & Possible Maindecks:
Graveyard value: Grapple with the Past, Deep Analysis, or Pulse of Murasa could all help the deck find value in its graveyard. Pulse seems like a lock for sideboard against Burn.
Removal: I predict that Tron could be a rough match-up for this deck based on how difficult it is to deal with fatties like Ulamog's Crusher. This is an argument for Vapor Snag and non-Daze countermagic maindeck too.
Wretched Gryff: If you sac a Mandrills to it, it's a 3/4 flyer for U that draws a card. I'm just not sure if this card is a liability in the match-ups it could address - for example, it blocks Delver, but countermagic is a blowout.
Moldgraf Scavenger: Pauper Goyf, but besides Land Grant, we're not running sorceries and we have no enchantments or artifacts to make Delirium feasible.
