Hello my dears, I am "Betão", and today we are going to talk again about our beloved Pauper, but in a different way. We will go through a time travel to take a look on all the cards banned in the format, showing the context and deck lists . Pauper, as I said before, [link](https://mtg.cardsrealm.com/articles/ouvi-falar-do-pauper-e-quero-jogar-e-agora)(artigo) was officially announced as a sanctioned format on Magic Online in December 1st of 2008, although it was already played for fun for a long time, taking in regard the existence of Affinity decks, *Cranial Plating*. [cardinfo](Cranial Plating) Simultaneously to the sanction, it was created a preventive ban list. This was the right decision because, at the beginning, Affinity already took off as a tier 1 deck, with lists pretty similar to the ones from nowadays, as we can see here: [deck](51444) The format had its balance, for a short period, up to when some experienced deck building players from other formats started understanding the essence behind Pauper and studying different common cards. From there on, we saw the arise of "broken" decks to turn the life of some players into nightmares. A precursor of Tron became known: [deck](51445) Although having different lands, its soul, if we may call this way, wasn't much different from Tron with Urza lands that we see nowadays. Of course the deck took use of what was printed until then and from different resources attached to the period the meta game. Pauper from the beginning of 2010 decade was unlike what we had seen in the last 2 years, as players fought for the sanction, since some cards that made part of non released online collections were allowed in IRL, some stores had its own rules regarding championships, if they would follow the MTGO or the list of common printed cards. On July of 2011, a card had to be banned to contain a deck on MTGO because it had a high win percentage on daily events, getting repeatedly to the top 4. This ban also affected players who only played IRL, *Frantic Search* had its end since it would draw cards and untap lands, something that the notorious Storm decks would abuse to achieve combo easier. [cardinfo](Frantic Search) [deck](51570) Some players disagreed with the ban, saying it was unnecessary, seeing that the meta game was regulating itself. So, Storm lost its place to stronger decks. Those players couldn't imagine that these new decks would become extremely dominant and dangerous to Pauper. About 2 years later, a triple ban came in and cards of two decks were took off since their winrate was way too high and it was very complicated to play against them, having in mind that the format has few answers to Storm or early turns attacks that lead to victory. Were banned: [cardside](1 Grapeshot || 1 empty the warrens || 1 invigorate) Wizard hopped to weaken the dominant decks that were: [deck](51572) Storm could even be considered one of the best decks on Pauper throughout its history as it had a unbalanced combo regarding the power level of the format. On the other hand, Infect is a deck with a simple way to win, causing combat damage, and invigorate represented 40% of the needed poison damage to win the game and it also was almost always a "free" spell, as of it, it was banned. [deck](51573) In the same year, precisely in September of 2013, *Temporal Fissure* and *Cloudpost* were banned. [cardinfo](Temporal Fissure) In the previous ban wizards also thought to take out *Temporal Fissure* because, some decks were also presenting risky numbers, however, this card wasn't as oppressive as the others, so they tried to leave it alone. It didn't last much. After the release of [card](Ghostly Flicker), decks that relied on ETB effects became even stronger since, besides being more efficient in its strategy and having a way to defend its creatures and artifacts they could also target a land they own to produce more mana. Decks such as *Temporal Wall* and *UR Tron Post* unhealthily stood out in victories. Temporal Wall abused flicking some of its permanents, mainly *Mnemonic Wall*, returning cards with storm and reusing them to almost clear the opponent's field in a single turn. [deck](51806) Tron had its main land banned as it enabled having early enormous quantity of mana. [cardinfo](Cloudpost) Similarly in Modern, WotC banned the same land hoping that Urza lands would take its place, and this way, big mana decks wouldn't produce too much mana. [deck](51808) Another Locus deck that took advantage of having lots of mana was the *UG Locus*: [deck](51807) After 2013 bans, there were almost 2 whole years for the format to regulate itself. Although, with the release of Khans of Tarkir, a card shook Pauper, principally in decks that could fill quickly their graveyard. *Treasure Cruise* may be considered one of the cards that should never have been printed as common. [cardinfo](Treasure Cruise) This card was responsible for reducing the diversity of the metagame as it was the most present card in all decks, excluding islands. So on March 23 of 2015 the ban hammer came. In the following year, the familiar was again a problem. Having a card that untaps lands, alongside the black and white familiars (that reduces the manacost) a player can easily produce infinite mana having the combination of *Mnemonic Wall*, *Cloud of Faeries* and *Ghostly Flicker*, then he easily searches for or has a win con. [cardinfo](Cloud of Faeries) Blue cards were dominant, 9 out of 10 of the most used cards were blue. Diversity once more became a problem, and in the end the ban was needed, the card above was the victim on January 22 of 2016. [deck](52044) Still in 2016, another blue card, that untapped 5 lands, was unbalanced. Who would have guessed that after banning a blue card that untapped only two lands due to its interactions? [cardinfo](Peregrine Drake) There already were speculations on cutting off *Peregrine Drake* alongside the previous ban, although its winrate wasn't out of the curve yet, so Wizards decided to leave it be for the time hoping for Pauper to adapt to it. Clearly, that wasn't the case, the winrate rose quickly side by side to the number of the decks in online tournaments, getting to the point where they represented one forth of the field. Inevitably there had to be another announcement in November of 2016, leaving behind another bully deck, Izzet Drake: [deck](52045) Two years came by. Pauper was balanced with multiple decks on the top, varying from time to time. However, the cards that came in editions didn't have enough Power Level to make changes in the main decks. Considering this, the community asked WotC a lot for a change. In December of 2018 2 uncommon cards were downgraded: [cardside](1 Fire // ice ||1 Foil) The last one broke the balance again, turning UB Delver into a fast, strong and oppressive deck. See bellow one example: [deck](52141) The interaction that *Foil* added to the deck was way too strong. Now the player could be tapped out, cast gush, draw two cards, discard 2 cards and counter a spell with *Foil* while filling its graveyard, enabling *Gurmang Angler* delve ability earlier in the game. It is important to say that opponents also had cold feet to make actions without extra mana since *Daze* could also counter them. The deck had high synergy, "fetches" would fill the grave along side lots low cost instant and sorcerys. The can trips made easy finding another threats such as *Delver of Secrets* and flipping it. The whole format had to have lots of answers to try to win against it, sometimes the easier path was just playing with it. Seeing that, Wizards decided to weaken the Blue color banning the cards bellow: [cardside](1 gitaxian probe || 1 daze || 1 gush) A month later, WotC sanctioned IRL Pauper and unified the lists of cards that were legal on both online and paper. Seeing that, more than 400 cards became pauper legal and some preventive bans came along: [cardside](1 High Tide || 1 Hymn to Tourach || 1 Sinkhole) In 2019, *Modern Horizons* was released and showed pauper some new cards like [card](Ephemerate) and *Arcum's Astrolabe*. [cardinfo](Arcum's Astrolabe) This artifact brought the ice age to the format. Lots of decks tried to take advantage of the bonus that astrolabe came with while fixing their mana. The card was the perfect one drop because any snow basic land could pay its cost. The card made Pauper into a too fast format with lots of decks using it. [link](https://mtg.cardsrealm.com/decks/2p3c-snow-bogles)(Snow Bogles) Tron also bet on a snow version, but the deck that really took off was *Jeskai Ephemerate*. It could generate infinite resources and, due to this, its winrate rose to the point were it would be in 5 spots of top 8 in tournaments. [deck](52143) The snow artifact saw the end of the line in October of the same year. Some months came by and, again, the meta could control itself without interference. Lots of decks emerged with great results again. Some decks were a little stronger as *UR Skred*, *Mono Blue* due to the interaction between (Tragic Lesson), [card](Deprive) and the recent banned card: [cardinfo](mystic sanctuary) This card managed to make these decks to survive to late game and win with its advantage. Shoulder-to-shoulder to sanctuary *Expedition Map* also said goodbye to Pauper. Lots of players had been asking for a hit on Tron decks as they were always strong. [cardinfo](Expedition Map) That's all the banned cards we have until now, I hope all of you liked the article. I'd like to take this paragraph to also thank Cards Realm for the support, space, and trust. I extent my gratitude to Vipermats for offering a 10% discount in any playmat, its pretty easy redeeming it, you just need to create an account on Cards Realm, using either your Facebook or Google, and comment in one of my articles #querodesconto that I will forward you the code. That's it for to day, thank you for your time and until the next article!

Next article in this serie Feedback

Send anonymous feedback

Social

Hello my dears! Is everything all right? My name is Fogaça and I'm here to talk about Commander. On the last article I have announced that we have entered the final stage of our series, which leads us to discuss some deckbuilding tendencies which appear on cEDH and which shouldn't be left out of our texts. Considering that, we'll have a special article for this season finale, where today's article and the one for the next week will be connected, bringing a worthy end to our conversation in these last months. For that end, today I'll discuss some commanders previously used as mana synthesizers, as a way to present more options to those who enjoy infinite mana combos. [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/uploads/1598626909.jpeg) *THE COMBO* When I was thinking about discussing this theme, I knew I would have to introduce it in a better way than simply throwing the commanders on the table and describe what they do but, in the end, that's our only option. Infinite mana combos are common characteristic in the format, having a huge diversity of sources and forms, from the simplest combos to the more complex ones, but, when I think about them, I also remember that classic play where a player reaches the greatly desired unlimited mana source and then passes the turn without a way to benefit from it. Thus, today's article will present options to players who prefer a strategy based on an infinite mana condition, having this loop as their objective, allowing their commander to solve the game based on that. *COMMANDERS* Basically, a legend which leads the deck which has the objective of generating infinite mana should be called a mana sinker and, thus, make use of this mana generation, be it colored mana or not. We may, thus, connect this thought to our first article, where we discussed [[Food Chain]] - on that occasion, our commander needed a favorable effect to enter or leave the battlefield or even during it's casting process. For today's list, I have selected a few commanders which integrate the main tiers of the format, with the objective of presenting options according to the different archetypes of the game, allowing a choice malleability for a diversity of players. [cardinfo](Breya, Etherium Shaper) We'll start with one of the classics, already present on the format for some time now. Breya had her good and bad moments, derivating her build between the value and the proactivity of a fast combo. Today, we'll talk about this second option, as a infinite and colored mana combo solves our game plan: With Breya's own ability, we may sacrifice her and a thopter created by her, causing direct damage to the opponents and repeating the cycle, recasting her and activating her abilities to win us the game. For this combo to work, an explosive build with plenty of tutors and mana generators is necessary, as Breya is affected both my creature and artifact hates, in addition of demanding a combo in sorcery speed. [cardinfo](urza, lord high artificer) Entering now the more disruptive decks, we have the blue Archenemy. Urza is considered the best blue general of the format for his adapation on the environment he is, allowing him, as his predecessor Chain Veil Teferi, to impose a certain rhythm on the table, such as in a way to choose the moments where he wants to explode and find a play of value or get back and hold the opponents at bay. His ability to cast cards from the library may, at first glance, be considered a russian roulette, as you need to shuffle the deck to resolve it but, when connected to an infinite mana combo, this becomes a clear way to play the entire library and replay as a loop using [[Timetwister]]: play [[Stroke of Genius]] for X > 100 targeting an opponent and replay it again after [[Timetwister]] shuffle it back in your library. And, as [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveEDH/comments/ii8kz8/the_cedh_archetypes_11_infinite_mana_what_now/g363h5l/?context=3)(Shezestriakus said in Reddit), [[Timetwister]] can be used with cards that would already be in the deck, you can with it: bounce all permanents; play [[Narset, Parter of Veils]] then wheel away opposing hands; make infinite constructs; and pass turn with [[Trinisphere]] in play. For a budget win condition, cards like [[Jace, Wielder of Mysteries]] and [[Thassa's Oracle]] can win by overdeck, while [[Nexus of Fate]] and [[Beacon of Tomorrows]] can win with infinite turns. [cardinfo](Thrasios, Triton Hero) We have a lot of fuel to burn when we talk about [[Thasios, Triton Hero]]. I could stay here, writing for hours, dissertating about the innumerous variations that this companion allows but, between them, one thing is certain: Both to generate deck value and as a mana sink, Thrasios is essential, possibilitating, like Urza, a consistent finisher for a infinite mana condition. However, this time, we won't have the russian roulette factor. Instead, we also have card selection through a scry 1, allowing for the same options provided by our old grandpa Urza, but in an broader color pie and a greater consistence as a piece of individual card advantage. [cardinfo](Kenrith, the Returned King) Finally, we talk about our dear king, which characterizes, in my view, the maximum elevation of a single commander for the format. If Thrasios is excelent because of his aggregated card advantage, Kenrith is everything a cEDH player wishes for, allowing draws, buffs, life gains, reanimate and evasion for our creatures, becoming, thus, a unique piece for the format. To end the game with our monarch, we won't need an additional piece, like in the other cases, as the king himself does everything: Through a infinite mana condition, we can use his draw ability to draw our entire library and, with that, we may play any creature, like mana dorks, to grow them, grant them trample and haste and then use them to end the game through an attack, directing each of them (including Kenrith) to a different opponent, and using all of our library (now in our hand) to answer possible survival attempts by the enemy players. *NOTABLE CARDS AND BUDGET ALTERNATIVES* Now it's official: Combining these two sections has become a tendency. Jokes aside, let's once more connect these two to present a list of options for you - I'll show you some commanders which may be effectively used through a infinite mana condition, thus giving more options to those who want to use this type of archetype and build around it. If you have any questions about how to use them, please post them in the comments section, and I'll try to assist you in your deckbuilding task. [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/piko-ikoria:-lair-of-behemoths-promos/kinnan-bonder-prodigy-192p.jpeg?196) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/frf-fate-reforged/tasigur-the-golden-fang-87.jpeg?9314) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/m20-core-set-2020/golos-tireless-pilgrim-226.jpeg?6459) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/thb-theros-beyond-death/kroxa-titan-of-deaths-hunger-221.jpeg?5646) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/shm-shadowmoor/oona-queen-of-the-fae-172.jpeg?7274) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/mh1-modern-horizons/sisay-weatherlight-captain-29.jpeg?6393) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/thb-theros-beyond-death/uro-titan-of-natures-wrath-229.jpeg?3990) [image](https://cdn.cardsrealm.com/images/cartas/en/c13-commander-2013/marath-will-of-the-wild-198.jpeg?8017) CONCLUSION I know our previous articles had a more argumentative path than this one, which had a more expositive presentation, but this is due to the construction of our next text, which will end our series. For today, I want to leave a message that we need to analise the advantages and disadvantages of using a combo, regardless of each one, in relation to the build and the commander - it's easy to find infinite mana combos in many decks in a disconnected way where the following question might appear - are these really necessary? This is a thought for the next week. That's it for today. I ask you to leave your feedback so that we can always improve. The series aims to address only part of an entire sphere that covers an extremely diverse format, so I invite you to subscribe to my [link](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyqfJp8MNsmyE89F2ALRYrg)(YouTube channel), where I talk about Commander, not only competitive, but also in other varieties, as well as about other formats. Until next time, my friends!

Jogador de Magic desde Tarkir, sou apaixonado por interações e sinergias que quebram a curva do jogo. Para mim, o cEDH é o teste máximo para o jogador de Magic, tanto para deck build, quanto para gameplay. Para me acompanhar no YouTube, acessem meu canal.

Social