Spoiler Highlight: Gold Pan and Reckless Lackey in Pauper

Aggro decks have dominated Pauper and made other archetypes' lives incredibly harder. Mono-Red is still a threat, even after Monastery Swiftspear was banned, and, additionally, All That Glitters has turned artifact decks into true killing machines.

Outlaws of Thunder Junction (OTJ) will bring us Gold Pan and Reckless Lackey, two recently revealed common cards that have a lot of potential in this format.

Gold Pan is an artifact - equipment that costs and, when it enters the battlefield, it creates a treasure token.

Among the artifacts that cost this same amount of mana in Pauper, this one might seem inferior, considering it doesn't create card advantage like Ichor Wellspring, or Prized Statue, which can create up to two treasure tokens. But the most significant difference regarding Gold Pan is that, besides counting as two artifacts, an important detail for some strategies, you can also equip it to a creature, and like so give it +1/+1.

Reckless Lackey is a Goblin-type creature that costs and has haste and first strike, besides an activated ability that costs and guarantees you a card draw and a treasure token.

A 1-drop with these abilities can surely try to get some space in this format, particularly in decks like Mono-Red. Another interesting detail about this card is its artistic reference to One Piece, the anime: its artwork references the pirate Roronoa Zoro.

Gold Span

Gold Pan might be an interesting addition in Affinity lists, considering it can set up relatively explosive turns and maximize All That Glitters' potential, besides creating an extra mana through its treasure token, which we can use in several ways.

Imagine the following hand:

With this hand, you can place a Myr Enforcer on the board on turn 2 and equip it with Gold Pan. This will turn it into a 5/5 creature, which will put pressure on your opponent as early as turn 3. Additionally, Gold Pan will give an extra +1/+1 to a creature enchanted with All That Glitters, and this can make all the difference in the world for Affinity's game plan.

Boros Synth can also benefit significantly from this new artifact, even if it's in its own way. Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk can combo with Gold Pan to create more treasures and they, themselves, are excellent targets to equip it to.

Barbed Batterfist fills the slot Gold Pan can go in, and, even though Batterfist places a body on the board, Gold Pan brings more immediate effects, such as creating an extra mana for an Experimental Synthesizer or a Galvanic Blast.

Another interaction we must highlight involves Gold Pan and Crypt Rats, which can be equipped to deal up to 1 damage and survive.

Reckless Lackey

This new Goblin will probably fight for a spot in Mono-Red lists with the already known Goblin Blast-Runner, which is now a standard addition in these lists, and replaced Monastery Swiftspear after it was banned.

Blast-Runner has a very strong synergy with Kuldotha Rebirth and Mono-Red's sacrifice theme, which make it a true threat on the battlefield. However, Reckless Lackey is already ready to attack as soon as it enters the battlefield, which makes it really similar to Goblin Tomb Raider. Goblin Tomb Raider, in turn, is one of the most important creatures in this deck nowadays. Additionally, Lackey has first strike, and the way it creates card advantage and places a treasure on the board in later turns makes it way more versatile.

Of course, we can still see a list with these three Goblins, and, the more Goblins we have, the more interesting are synergistic cards like Goblin Grenade and Goblin Sledder.

Just like Novice Inspector gained footing in Affinity playing side-by-side with Thraben Inspector, and bringing more speed and consistency to this list, I believe Reckless Lackey can do the same for Mono-Red, playing side-by-side with Tomb Raider. This way, it will either give us more aggression or provide the trigger Blast-Runner needs.

Boros Synthesizer can also use Reckless Lackey in a version that uses elements from Mono-Red Kuldotha, and thus incorporate the explosion Goblins give us in a more aggressive game plan.

Reckless Lackey's activated ability can be valuable in other strategies that work with sacrifice, and, therefore, will be able to play next to creatures like Gixian Infiltrator, which become stronger when we sacrifice permanents, just like Goblin Blast-Runner and value cards like Deadly Dispute.

Gold Pan and Reckless Lackey bring more redundancy to Pauper, as it seems to be the standard for the most recent Standard sets. These cards are interesting, but they can't provide a lot of diversity to this format, just like Novice Inspector couldn't recently.

Thank you for reading! Tell us in the comment section your first impressions of these cards, suggestions, or feedback. I'll try to answer all of you.

See you next time!