Pauper has a well‑established Metagame: Blue Terror, Red Aggro, Affinity, Spy Combo, Elves, and Midrange decks like Gardens and Wildfire define what is competitively viable most often, and also which archetypes struggle to put up results.
Abzan Lifegain, built around the interaction between creatures that trigger life gain when other creatures enter and Marauding Blight-Priest / Pest Mascot, received recent support from Secrets of Strixhaven. Still, it has not grown significantly in the competitive environment, and list variants still differ greatly on what the ideal version should look like.
This time, we bring a new version of this deck to the table, seeking to maximize Lead the Stampede and Winding Way by replacing part of the mana base with one‑drops and mana dorks to create a more combo‑oriented build.
The Decklist
This deck is more suited for casual games or Leagues than for a more competitive Pauper environment. After all, it loses automatically to Krark-Clan Shaman, Crypt Rats, and other two‑damage sweepers, and it does not have the same explosive potential as decks like Elves to "make up for it."
On the other hand, it obviously does well against Aggro and archetypes that, for whatever reason, fail to interact with us once we set up the life gain engines and a payoff. Pest Mascot moves out of range of most burn spells, and we have "protection" against Edict effects due to the abundance of one‑drops. This leaves only cards like Cast Down as truly strong against it.
Maindeck
Pauper does not lack creatures that give their controller extra life when other creatures enter the battlefield. We chose Soul Warden and Essence Warden since they are the cheapest. We could add Soul's Attendant, but Bogwater Lumaret survives End the Festivities and counts itself when it enters, increasing our triggers.
These triggers turn into Burn and a clock with Marauding Blight-Priest and Pest Mascot. With two life gain triggers on board, Mascot already enters as a 4/5 and dodges Galvanic Blast. When another creature enters, we already have a 6/7 with Trample for the opponent to answer.
Blight‑Priest piles up damage easily if we untap with it. Since most of the list consists of one‑drops, having her on board turns every creature we control into a Shock or even a Lightning Bolt.
To increase the number of hits from our card advantage effects, we reduced the land count and increased the number of mana dorks with Elves of Deep Shadow and Avacyn's Pilgrim, plus Jaspera Sentinel and Sagu Wildling. The Omen ability on Wildling can fetch basic lands.
With so many one‑drops and mana dorks, we empty our hand quickly and need ways to restock resources, find our enablers or win conditions, or repeat the life‑drain loop with more creatures.
Lead the Stampede and Winding Way are classic staples for creature‑based archetypes, commonly revealing three or more creatures. Follow the Lumarets synergizes with the life gain plan and has the advantage of finding lands in addition to creatures, making mana access easier early in the game.
Among the 12 lands, we have Khalni Garden to ensure the land drop of the turn without losing potential life gain interactions; it functions effectively as another one‑drop. We also run one copy of each Life Land to fix mana.
Sideboard
Faerie Macabre and Masked Vandal work as targeted hate against graveyards and Affinity in slots that both interact with our game plan and can be found with Lead the Stampede and Winding Way.
Mesmeric Fiend helps hold off some Counterspells, removal, or combo pieces, and Tamiyo's Safekeeping protects our payoffs from removal while also providing life gain against Aggro.
Sideboard Guide
Mono Blue Terror
IN
OUT
Grixis Affinity
IN
OUT
Spy Combo
IN
OUT
Madness Burn
IN
OUT
Golgari Gardens
IN
OUT
Wrapping Up
That's all for today!
If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!
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