Pauper with awesome mana!

A while back I wrote an article for mtgoacademy.com about why aggressive decks in Pauper are generally mono-colored and control decks usually play 2, potentially 3 cards at absolute most. Recently I’ve been working on my peasant (rareless) cube as well and I’ve noticed that mana fixing goes significantly later than it does when I draft regular cubes because the best fixing available is the karoos, shard lands, vivids, and signets. In a regular cube I’ll snap up a fetchland first pick without hesitation if the pack is only average. In the pauper and peasant cubes I’ve played though I can routinely wheel a shard land because they simply aren’t all that insane. After the third draft or so where I consciously tried to draft the multi-colored good stuff cube deck and failed despite having infinite fixers, I began to seriously contemplate the effects of adding better lands to my cube. Shortly thereafter I thought back to my old article on constructed Pauper and began to wonder even more.

There are myriads of awesome common cards and insane strategies that fall by the wayside due to the lack of mana fixing available in pauper. I briefly discussed the idea on a recent episode of the Pauper to the People podcast that I guest-hosted, and these are some of the cool deck ideas we brewed using Pauper card legality and access to any land:

Boros

Zoo

Uxx Delver Tempo

Big spell control with Urborg/Cabal Coffers

Rock/junk decks with Volraths Stronghold

4/5c Control (likely Teachings)

Goblins adding Wasteland and Port

All of these deck ideas flew out of our minds in about three minutes, and I’m sure there are a plethora of other ideas that people can brew up given some time and thought. In order to encourage brewing for this format, I will be running a league event this summer where all Pauper deck construction rules must be followed, except when it comes to the lands.

Details still have to be worked on but it will happen. This format seems awesome to me and hopefully to lots of you as well. I would like feedback on a few areas though.

First of all, what lands should be allowed? When I discussed the idea on Pauper to the People, the issue was pointed out that people play pauper because it’s cheap, and adding things like duals and wastelands defeats that purpose. This is a valid concern, and depending on feedback from everyone I might consider making only modern-legal lands available to help cut down on the very expensive lands while still allowing great quality of mana-bases. Another option is running the league through a forum where a fixed number of rounds are played with fixed pairings based on record so the competitors could use whatever medium they’d like to play matches.

Any other suggestions on how best to run the event are welcome, and please post in response to this if you’d consider playing so I can gauge potential interest and hopefully get this off the ground!

-          @Grant_champion

-          Pitlord on MTGO

Ps. We need to think of a cool name for this format! Post any naming suggestions you may have too!  

Sale List!

I can't remember my email or password associated with my MOTL account, so while I wait for one of my friends who's a mod over there to get back to me, I figure mise post the list here first and pimp the hell out of it on social networks. Here's the list, let me know in comments here or on your social media outlet of choice if you want to buy anything!

1.     Prices listed are per card.

2.     Cards are generally in NM to EX condition unless noted. Willing to provide scans of anything upon request.

3.     Payment via personal Paypal, money order, or concealed cash only.

4.     U.S. buyers only.

5.     Shipping costs will be determined by buyer preference.

Plain envelope + toploaders - $1

Padded Envelope + toploaders - $2.5

Delivery Confirmation and insurance optional, extra costs apply

6.     I am not responsible for lost or stolen mail.

7.     I understand I appear to be a new seller but will not send cards first, will send after payment received or go through 3^rd party.

Eternal Staples

Timetwister (UL) - 250

Mana Crypt - 60

2 Lion’s Eye Diamond - 39

4 Polluted Delta – 38

2 Dark Confidant – 37

Wasteland – 35

Tolarian Academy (SP) – 19

Survival of the Fittest – 18

Vampiric Tutor (6th) - 15

Bloodstained Mire (Chinese) – 14

Umezawa’s Jitte – 14

Yawgmoth's Will - 12

Demonic Tutor (RV) – 9

Tinker – 4

Sol Ring (SP) - 3.5

Mana Vault (RV) – 3

Mystical Tutor (MI) (played) - 2.5

Lotus Petal (played) - 2

Foils

FOIL Grim Monolith – 105

FOIL Life From the Loam - 28

FOIL Iona, Shield of Emeria – 26

2 FOIL Trygon Predator – 17

FOIL Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon – 13

FOIL Anowon, the Ruin Sage – 3

2 Ghostly Prison (FNM) – 3

Modern/Standard Cards

Elspeth Tirel – 16

Seachrome Coast – 13

2 Tooth and Nail – 10

2 Gifts Ungiven – 7.5

Sower of Temptation – 7

Solemn Simulacrum (MRD) – 6

2 Blood Moon (CH) – 5.5

Black Sun’s Zenith – 5

Nissa Revane – 4.5

2 Garruk Wildspeaker (M10) – 4

Basilisk Collar – 3

Glissa, the Traitor – 2.5

Rootbound Crag (M10) – 2

2 Restore Balance – 2

3 Chameleon Colossus – 2

3 Pithing Needle (M10) - 2

Slaughter Pact - 2

Pyromancer Ascension – 1.5

2 Magus of the Arena – 1.5

Older/EDH/Other

Grove of the Burnwillows – 8

2 Sylvan Library (4th) – 7.5

Firestorm – 7

Concordant Crossroads (CH) – 4.5

Nevinyrral’s Disk (4^th) – 4

Winding Canyons – 4

Darksteel Colossus (M10) - 3.5

Phyrexian Processor – 2.5

3 Scapeshift – 2.5

Underground River (5^th) – 2

Memory Jar - 2

Reg Shield Sphere – 1

Basalt Monolith (RV) – 1

Rerowth (4^th) – 1.5

Chain of Vapor - 1

Teferi’s Isle – 1

Hivis of the Scale – 1

Crystal Vein - .75

2 Mystic Remora - .5