Pauper's Christmas Wishlist - Multicolored Cards

In the last month, I started a series of articles with a list of cards that the Pauper community would like to be reprinted or cards that could be interesting to have access to the format, composed by the opinion of different communities and groups together with some cards that I find particularly interesting to the format and that could be reprinted as common at some point in the future.

Some cards will be off the list as they are part of a cycle, and I will be talking about card cycles in a separate article.

Today, let's talk about multicolored cards!

Unlike the other lists, the logic for the multicolored card list will be a little different: As there were relatively few multicolored card suggestions, I added more cards from my personal list to the article, making it an article whose ratio between suggestions and personal options are on average 50% for each.

Another important point to note is that there are many multicolored cards that are out of the list because they will be part of the last article in the series, where we will be talking about card cycles that could enter the format, so don't expect to see cards like the Khans of Tarkir Charms on this list, for example.

A change that I also made in this article was to separate it by guild order instead of alphabetical order to facilitate association and reading.

I have problems with putting High Alert on Pauper because Walls has become an extremely relevant deck in the Metagame and High Alert does absolutely everything for the archetype: Creates another angle of attack that is difficult to interact with, transforms all the walls into threats that can close the game quickly and, with the right amount of creatures, generates infinite mana with Axebane Guardian

Despite being out of the archetype colors, the enchantment does a lot and splashing to white on the deck is not impossible, especially since Axebane Guardian generates mana of any color and Sunscape Familiar is a creature with Defender as well.

Despite being on the list because it is an effect not accessible in the format, I consider that High Alert is no longer a card that could be fun and is now card that would bring a deck of the format to the status of "broken deck"

I've put it on the list under the proposal of "giving a good effect to the Tribe Decks and an alternative way to build certain lists", but High Alert became almost a no-go due to the rise of Walls in the format the past few months.

Sorry, Tribe Decks, it won't be this time.

Sky Hussar could be an interesting addition for creating a Card Advantage engine for decks like Faeries, Boros, among other White or Blue-Based decks that don't depend exclusively on Monarch or cards like Ninja of the Deep Hours .

Furthermore, Sky Hussar is a 4/3 body for 5 manas with evasion that can draw a significant amount of cards in the long run while serving as a mid or late-game finisher for UW versions of Faeries or other archetypes in that color combination.

Some players asked for a Psychatog downshift for the simple fact of being one of the most iconic cards in Magic: The Gathering, especially for Brazilian players (Carlos Romão was the first Brazilian to become world champion in 2002 with aPsychatog deck), and would like to be able to use this card in the format to give it an opportunity to have a competitive space somewhere since it has become a dated card and has little or no impact on other formats.

At Pauper, Psychatog would have significant uses being a good enabler and payoff for UB Reanimator or UB Delver decks, where it could streamline Delve to Gurmag Angler or become another card that feeds on the graveyard and that establishes a clock that needs to be respected.

The deck could also enable other versions of Dimir Control or even multicolored control decks focused on cleaning the other side of the board and then playing a big threat and closing the game in a few turns. The Monarch also favors the former champion, as he always allows for a flow of cards that can occasionally be discarded to increase his power.

On the other side, the card would be competing with Gurmag Angler at the spot of big finisher, which is also in kind of a bad shape right now as it falls off pretty easily to Fall from Favor.

The most annoying card to be played against you on turn 2 of last year's Standard could be an interesting addition to a format where most engines starts to be played in the first two or three turns of a match.

Thought Erasure works as a more accessible Distress for Dimir decks, with the upside of being able to fix the top of the deck and even occasionally speed up Delve for Gurmag Angler, then serving as a good early-game interaction, especially on the play.

While recognizing that Anathemancer can be problematic with Ephemerate, I believe that having a way to punish players who use a lot of nonbasic lands is gradually becoming a necessity at Pauper.

Some players always mention that Pauper needs some fairer version of Price of Progress to punish decks like Tron, Affinity or Boros Monarch and, although I agree that this type of effect could be beneficial, I don't like the idea of ​​giving it to decks like Burn.

For this reason, Anathemancer seems like an option that, while might look kind of absurd on decks like Mardu Monarch or Ephemerate decks, still looks like an addition that could serve as a way to punish some decks that take too much advantage of nonbasic lands, but not to the point of being devastating as a Price of Progress would be.

It would definitely become a maindeck or sideboard addition for Mardu or Rakdos Monarch decks, and possibly bring with it the possibility of decks like the old Rakdos Burn that did some minor results in 2019.

The simplest and least detailed card that will exist in this series of articles: Rakdos Cackler is essentially a 2/2 for 1 mana creature whose drawback is irrelevant on many occasions and which would serve as another aggressive drop for decks like RDW and it could even appear on decks like Black Burn or other aggressive black decks as a low-cost threat.

I mentioned several times in the red and green articles that these colors are in need of better creatures and Boggart Ram-Gang fits perfectly in this regard.

The creature fits on all non-white decks that need support for better creatures today like Stompy, Red Deck Wins, Goblins, RG Aggro, among others. Boggart Ram-Gang also has a body that exchanges favorably with many creatures of the format and constant blockers of these archetypes such as Augur of Bolas and Kor Skyfisher while still serving to weaken larger creatures and, finally, it has an immediate impact on the table since it has Haste

In all, Boggart Ram-Gang looks exactly like the creature that Red-Based and Green-Based Aggro could have today to give a boost to their respective archetypes.

In 2018, one of the Pauper Masters participants made Top 8 with a Gruul list that consisted of creatures like Kiln Fiend, Kird Ape, Viashino Slaughtermaster and Burning-Tree Emissary along with removals like Lightning Bolt and pump spells like Rancor and Colossal Might in addition to Temur Battle Rage.

The deck was very functional at the time and was used by other players afterwards, but it seemed to have a constant problem that the parts of the deck did not always fit as they should and you often lacked creatures when you needed pumps and pumps when you needed creatures.

Ghor-Clan Rampager might not make this deck a great competitor to Pauper, but it would be the first step to give more consistency to the base of the Gruul "Stompy" decks.

Conclave Mentor could be a great enabler for an archetype of GW Counters with cards like Ainok Bond-Kin, Hunger of the Howlpack, Inspiring Roar, Travel Preparations] ] and [[Pollenbright Druid in addition to several other cards with +1/+1 counters theme and Modular cards presents at the format.

Although it doesn't seem like the type of card that would enable an archetype that would be competitive for the format, Conclave Mentor would certainly be a good incentive for players to try to innovate and for other cards with this theme that appear as common could impact the Metagame.

Dryad Militant would, in my view, be one of the best and most possible additions that Pauper could have in the coming years.

The Card is a fair creature, with a body comparable to that of Elite Vanguard or Jungle Lion, within the colors where we already have an abundance of low cost creatures but that adds a very important hate effect against graveyards in a format where interactions with Mnemonic Wall exist and are still prevalent in the metagame as a central Card Advantage mechanic.

Etchings of the Chosen joins the list because of a relatively frequent mention of Adaptive Automaton by some different communities.

My problem with Adaptive Automaton is that it goes into absolutely any tribal deck with virtually no concession: Elves, Goblins, Faeries, Birds, Soldiers, etc.

Therefore, Etchings of the Chosen appears to me as a substitute for this card for the reason of significantly restricting the archetypes that can have access to it: Faeries will hardly use this card because it would need to splash a lot for a card that does little for the archetype Elves would need to do some laps with Birchlore Ranger to have access to this effect.

The decks that could most benefit from this card, therefore, would be Slivers that have easy access to different colors of mana with Gemhide Sliver and Thriving Lands and decks like Boros Bully, Tokens or even a variant of White Weenie with focus on soldiers, as they naturally use white and the splash to black ends up compensating because Etchings of the Chosen would give them the Glorious Anthem effect that some players would like to have.

If Hymn to Tourach is too strong and Wrench Mind is too fragile due to the high use of artifacts in the format, would Gerrard's Verdict be the perfect combination for efficient discard at Pauper?

Decks like Orzhov Monarrch already use a few copies of Castigate and Raven's Crime as a means of disruption, and Gerrard's Verdict would be a good addition that would help promote a discard-based Midrange.

Honestly, it would be even more interesting if Gerrard's Verdict cost BB instead of WB so that Mono Black Control could have an effective disposal that really works in a beneficial way against Burn.

Quillspike is on the list for having a 2-card-combo with Devoted Druid: You generate a green mana with Devoted Druid, put a -1 / -1 counter to untap it, pays the cost of activating Quillspike's ability with the mana generated by the druid and repeats the process until you have a creature with an arbitrary amount of power and toughness.

The combo even existed in Standard Time Spiral / Lorwyn and Lorwyn / Alara, but never had a chance to shine in any format.

Like the Gond Combo, the Quillspike Combo needs a turn of setup to work, in addition to requiring the opponent not to use effects like Moment's Peace, Stonehorn Dignitary, have removal or even a blocker for the giant Quillspike.

The advantage of this combo over Gond is that it is Mono-Green, which means that it is much easier to maintain the deck's manabase, include evasion means such as Rancor and also collaborates to splash other colors such as example, red for Fling or Tuktuk Rabblefort.

In a general context, I don't believe that the combo would be efficient enough to be broken, but it could somehow be competitively viable for the format.

Putrefy is, in short, a black and green Abrade that destroys creatures of high resistance and does not allow River Boa to regenerate. It's another card that I consider to be an addition that would make it justifiable to start splashing green in Black-Based Midranges instead of the other colors.

There's not much to say about this card, to be honest. If Abrade made it to the format with Double Masters, I see no reason why Putrefy couldn't go through the same.

There is a rogue deck in Simic colors at Pauper that uses mechanics like Evolve, Proliferate and +1/+1 Counters.

Like Conclave Mentor, Bred for the Hunt would serve as yet another card that would motivate players to try to build viable and minimally competitive strategies in this combination of colors and themes.

It wouldn't make the Proliferate deck a competitive archetype, but at least it would give a reason to try to play with it and look for the most optimized build.

The effect of Vedalken Heretic is already well known in the format due to the Ninjutsu of Ninja of the Deep Hours and is, currently, a staple of the format.

Vedalken Heretic does not seem so beneficial for archetypes already established with Ninja as it does not allow reusing ETB effects and is in a color combination that is not usually focused on attacking, but it could be another card that would motivate players to try new things in UGx combinations other than Fog decks or Lock-based decks.

Lorescale Coatl was placed next to Vedalken Heretic because of its synergy, but it is a very interesting threat to the format since it grows significantly with a generous range of cards of the format like Brainstorm, Monarch, or Frantic Inventory, and other options.

Although it initially looks dangerous, we are talking about a format that has a 5/5 creature for 1 mana or a deck that can make multiples 4/4 in the same turn, Lorescale Coatll seems like a very under-optimized option in this context.

The UG combination has access to cards like Arcane Flight, Aqueous Form and Rancor to evade as well as cards like Mizzium Skin and Dive Down next to the suite suite of classic counterspells and cantrips commonly used in Blue-Based decks.

Who knows, a UG Tempo could appear with Vedalken Heretic, Lorescale Coatl, Nimble Mangoose or Hooting Mandrils and a combination of disruptions and low cost interactions like Vapor Snag and Snapback next to the classic suite of counters and cantrips.

In the red card article, I mentioned that Monstary Swiftspear was a card that would become too strong for Pauper, but that a 1/1 for 1 creature with Prowess would be an acceptable option and some players mentioned that Blistercoil Weird could be that option.

Blistercoil Weird looks "almost" fair on decks like Burn, Prowess decks, blue-based tempo decks and still benefits MUCH from the fact that it can be used in any Rx or Ux combination with very few concessions.

But ... Blistercoil Weird has the potential to be its own Jeskai Ascendancy in a combo deck, which makes it a dangerous card to have on Pauper.

Blistercoil Weird, combined with Karametra's Favor and a significant range of spells that untap permanents like Cerulean Wisps, Dream's Grip and Vitalize can generate extra mana and create a "pseudo-Storm" base with any number of CMC 1 cards as these cards would come out "for free" if Blistercoil Weird can pay their mana cost and be untapped.

Consequently, this makes the card a dangerous piece in terms of Combo decks as an enabler AND a payoff at the same time, being essentially a 2-card combo or even a 1-card combo if you choose to just use it as a finisher and following a more classic Storm shell and the fact that it is in a color that can filter your deck very well and protect your pieces makes it even more problematic.

So, as much as I would like to see its application on decks like Burn, Prowess decks and even different versions of Tempo decks, I consider Blistercoil Weird to be a potentially too dangerous addition to the format.

Enigma Drake is more of a personal wishlist than a suggestion.

I tried to make Non-Faerie blue-red Tempo decks work many times whenever a card came out that seemed to add something relevant to the deck like Ghitu Lavarunner or Fire // Ice, and the deck never worked because having Delver of Secrets as the deck's only major threat has always been very bad.

Therefore, I would like to see a card that is a big and significant threat on UR decks and that could close the game in a few turns if the opponent is unable to interact, and there are a few candidates:

Experimental Overload and Invade the City have the problem of offering a body that is much more difficult to remove with damage effects like Lightning Bolt or Galvanic Blast. Invade the City can also be used with cards like Archaeomancer, while Experimental Overload allows you to resort to protection or removal from your graveyard in addition to creating a large body.

Crackling Drake having an ETB effect and not being affected by Relic of Progenitus could make it a very problematic card despite its more restrictive cost.

Finally, Spellheart Chimera dies to Lightning Bolt, but we are talking about a blue and red deck, where there is no lack of ways to protect your threat and, because of that, I consider that Trample could be a huge problem since it makes any blockade unfavorable.

So, in order of elimination, I ended up with Enigma Drake because it is a body that does not grow so much in resistance that it is not impossible to remove with Galvanic Blast or Lightning Bolt + a blocker, etc, and although I am kidna uncomfortable with it having an evasion, it can also be answered with effects such as Relic of Progenitus.

My biggest concern, however, is to give a finisher and a clock to the Izzet Faeries, which today has established itself as the best deck of the format and does not necessarily need its own version of Gurmag Angler today.

Heroic decks today are predominantly Mono-White, with a Mono-Red version appearing occasionally. The deck needs speed and the format's manabase is still very punitive for a deck like Heroic trying to splash other colors.

However, another point that makes the archetype lack reasons to splash is that the payoffs in the other colors are not relevant enough.

Tenth District Legionnaire is one of the payoffs that could serve as a justification for a splash and the qualification of a Boros Heroic deck within Pauper's Metagame.

Weapons Trainer is another card from the list of cards that could help promote an Equipment theme that came up last year, serving as a Pseudo-lord for the other creatures on the deck and whose means of activating your pump is relatively easy with cards like Flayer Husk and Bonesplitter.

There is not much to say about it, except that the card can also be used in possible Metalcraft decks with Ardent Recruit, Auriok Sunchaser, Galvanic Blast and some equipment.

And here we end the wish list for multicolored cards. If any card you would like to see in Pauper was left out of the list, feel free to leave it in the comments!

In the next article, we will be going to Mirrodin to talk about colorless cards, artifacts and lands in the penultimate article in the series !!