Pauper: Best Cards from Innistrad Remastered

Magic: The Gathering's first expansion of the year, Innistrad Remastered, is a set focused on the Innistrad expansions, with striking reprints of cards from each of them, as well as some extra additions that, despite not having been released there, fit into the Victorian aesthetic of one of the game's most lore-rich planes.

The first block of Innistrad expansions was originally released in 2011, with Innistrad, Dark Ascension and Avacyn Restored, and two more sets released in 2016 with Shadows over Innistrad and Eldritch Moon, and in 2021, Magic returned to the plane for Innistrad: Midnight Hunt and Innistrad: Crimson Vow.

As usual, Pauper receives some new additions in reprint expansions through downshifts: the change of rarity of a card to common. Innistrad Remastered doesn't bring many new features in this regard, with only eight downshifts (in addition to some important reprints), but some of them may have some relevance in the Metagame, such as Essence Flux and Village Messenger.

Essence Flux is, by far, one of the most interesting cards in Innistrad Remastered for Pauper. Commonly seen in Commander combos, a blue Ephemerate (a one-hit, but still, an Ephemerate) can find practical applications in lists that want to take advantage of creatures like Mulldrifter or Kenku Artificer, but don't want to pay a high price for Ghostly Flicker, or don't want a splash for Ephemerate.

It also serves as complementary copies of the white card, although Cloudshift or Momentary Blink would be more appropriate options in this case. Its +1/+1 counter is irrelevant, since we don't have many Spirits seeing play in Pauper.

Gisa's Bidding costs relatively low with the Madness ability to put four power on the board. With enablers like Voldaren Epicure or Blood Fountain, it's possible to extract some value from this card, but is still a high value for Pauper, especially in Madness Burn.

Seize the Storm can give players reasons to try new Control variants on with Pieces of the Puzzle, or other cards that put plenty of spells in the graveyard, complementing Serpentine Curve with the advantage of having Trample and Flashback.

These lists have the problem of being unable to deal well with hate, which Seize the Storm doesn't solve. Maybe it will find slots in some Izzet Terror variant that is more Control-oriented and has fewer permanents in the maindeck, using the shell of Skred and Galvanic Discharge as removals while feeding the graveyard with cards like Forbidden Alchemy, Consider and Thought Scour.

Red gained another potential 2/2 for in Pauper. However, unlike Goblin Tomb Raider, this one is much more conditional and doesn't interact with cards like Goblin Grenade.

One advantage of it is how much playing it on the first turn can make a big difference in matches against slower archetypes that start the game with a tapped land and/or without a one-drop. In the current Metagame, except for Affinity, there are few Tier 1 decks that can afford not to do something on the first turn, and Village Messenger is a worse topdeck than other one-drops used in Kuldotha Red.

It's worth a try, but don't expect it to become the new most powerful, aggressive one-drop in Pauper.

Bramble Wurm is an interesting addition to Ramp decks in Gruul or Golgari colors due to its ETB and body with evasion, in addition to the potential life gain from the graveyard, but the cost of is very restrictive and cards like Annoyed Altisaur don't even show up often in Ramp lists anymore due to its mana value.

On the other hand, its ETB interacts with the problem of paying seven mana in Pauper today: Mono Red has probably already won the game before, and it has good interactions with Malevolent Rumble that serve to play it in the graveyard and have an extra breath with its ability against Aggro.

Dredge and Self-Mill strategies may be interested in Bramble Wurm as a target for Exhume, Dread Return or another reanimation card in the format, perhaps with better results than Ramp lists with the new creature.

That's all for today!

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Thanks for reading!