
Competitive
A Guide to Pauper Archetypes - Combo
In the last article in the series, we'll look at the top decks that fall into the Combo category in Pauper, how they work, and what their pros and cons are in today's competitive landscape.
By Humberto, 18/06/22, translated by Humberto - 0 comments
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Combo in Pauper
Izzet Drake
, a combo-control that generated infinite mana with the interaction between Ghostly Flicker, Archaeomancer and Peregrine Drake,Infect
during the period when Invigorate was legal, giving a mighty free spell that allowed for consistent turn 2 and 3 wins, andStorm
, where due to the high access to efficient rituals and cantrips, essentially all cards with this ability that won the game on their own were eventually banned. Currently, basically all existing combos in Pauper require major deckbuilding concessions to work, as their pieces need a specific base: Elves obviously need numerous elves, while Cycling Storm needs a lot of Cycling cards, and so on โ Making them less efficient in adapting to the Metagame and, therefore, more vulnerable also to the point that any well-prepared player can have a positive winrate against them.Storm

banned
from Pauper. Although there are no longer lists on the main tiers that fit this category,Storm
is most responsible for the times the format was broken. The main reason for this feat is because of how Storm works, creating a copy of the spell for every previously played spell, this strategy isextremely difficult
to interact within the format, as Counterspell only deals with one copy, while its lists have enough redundancy that Duress and other discards aren't enough to stop the combo, just delay it for a turn or two at best. In addition, Pauper supports all the best Storm enabler options available in Magic: The Gathering, with Dark Ritual, Rite of Flame, Manamorphose Lotus Petal, cantrips and very high-quality draw spells such as Preordain and Night's Whisper, as well as spells to mitigate the natural weaknesses that some of these spells would have, such as Flaring Pain, First Day of Class or Goblin Bushwhacker, making this strategy too powerful to exist in a format regardless of time and occasion, as we have seen during the long period where Chatterstorm was legal.Ad
Cycling Storm
This doesn't mean that players don't try to reproduce and improvise their own versions of Storm with "build your own Grapeshot", and the most successful example isCycling Storm
.
Elves
Elves
, which fits into the Aggro-Combo spectrum and is in a gray area between them.

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Walls
Walls Combo
tries to reproduce the same proposal as Elves in terms of adding absurd amounts of mana with its creatures, but with the difference of being entirely focused on finding and casting the pieces that allow it to have access to infinite mana.
Moggwarts
Moggwarts
if you prefer, recently emerged with the release of First Day of Class in Strixhaven, and is perhaps the healthiest and most efficient combo the format currently has.

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Familiars
Familiars
must be the most famous and the one with the most enthusiasts in the competitive scene.
Flicker Decks
category, Familiars look to resort to the interaction between Ghostly Flicker and Archaeomancer, but instead of generating absurd mana like Tron, it makes Ghostly Flicker cheaper with Sunscape Familiar for value. With two copies of Sunscape Familiar, one Ghostly Flicker and one Archaeomancer, you can produce infinite ETB and cast, generating infinite life with God-Pharaoh's Faithful or infinite mill with Sage's Row Denizen.

Inside Out
Inside Out
is Pauper's most contradictory combo because it has the potential to be the fastest and most efficient in the format, while also being the hardest to build in the long run.
only
two pieces, Inside Out actually requires both spells and a total of five cards in hand to deal 21 damage to your opponent. An incredibly easy task in the first few turns โ to the point that it's the only turn 2 combo currently available โ but it continually becomes harder to pull off as the game extends.
Blue Monday
, Inside Out was the best strategy to play Gush (which added up to four cards in your hand, a 16 power boost to Tireless Tribe) and Gitaxian Probe, which provided the information to know if it was the right time to perform the combo, or if there was a need to create a backup with Circular Logic beforehand.Ad

extremely vulnerable
to interactions and removals: from Snuff Out to Electrickery, not counting counterspells and discards, make this strategy very risky, as the opponent can always wait for the opportune moment to trade with your creature when you've discarded a huge amount of cards, fundamentally ending the game by putting them in an extremely advantageous position, while you won't be able to recover so easily.Egg Tron
Egg Tron
.

Conclusion
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