Pauper: 5 Decks to face the 2023's Metagame

Many players have moved away from or even completely left Pauper out of frustration with the current Metagame. Affinity and Mono-Red are very consistent decks with a high presence in competitive events, especially in the online scene. These two decks, along with Caw-Gates and Dimir Terror, have an absurd power level compared to other decks in the format.

Phyrexia: All Will Be One recently entered Pauper and hasn't made any significant changes that would diminish the success of Tier Decks. However, the format still has great options to deal with the main threats and even take advantage of them.

Affinity and Mono-Red are the most present decks in Leagues and Challenges. Together, they represent something like 40% of the Metagame and if we add Dimir Terror and the Gates decks, that rate easily reaches 50% of the meta.

While this can be considered a bad thing and a reason to define the current meta as unbalanced, evidencing a need for adjustment through bans (or unbans, as has also been widely discussed), we can see an apparent trend in the Metagame.

This data shows what you will probably face if you open a Pauper League on Magic Online and with that, there is the possibility of working with some deck options that can benefit from this trend in the meta.

Orzhov Ephemerate

Orzhov Ephemerate emerged as an answer against the meta's main decks. A midrange that is basically a compilation of the best possible hates against the top tiers, with a removal package that can easily deal with Tolarian Terror, Monastery Swiftspear, Myr Enforcer and still eliminate 1/1s like Sacred Cat and Kuldotha Rebirth tokens.

But what can the deck do against other threats?

Dawnbringer Cleric is a great answer against decks like Bogles and Heroic, as is Chainer's Edict, and Goliath Paladin is the perfect finisher for the deck that can abuse these ETB effects with Ephemerate.

Matchups against combo decks can be quite difficult, but Orzhov still proves to be a great option with efficient and consistent results.

Flicker Tron

Tron was already the best deck in the format for a long time, making the Metagame revolve around it in a very similar way to what happens today with Mono-Red and Affinity.

The deck suffered with the arrival of Modern Horizons 2 and with the banning of Prophetic Prism and Bonder's Ornament, cards that allowed the deck to use the five colors more easily and were still sources of card advantage, but the return of Expedition Map and the release of Energy Refractor put Fog Tron back in the format spotlight.

Perhaps the deck is not fast enough to be tier 0 again, but it certainly deserves respect and remains a more than viable option.

Mono-Blue Faeries

Faeries still have room in the format, and Mono-Blue Faeries is proof of that. This deck manages to be fast enough for the current Metagame and has efficient responses to most threats in the format.

Spellstutter Sprite continues to be a powerful card, being able to counter both low-cost and heavier spells, Snap is now one of the best ways to deal with Kenku Artificer's indestructible lands, and also slows down Monastery Swiftspear

The addition of Brinebarrow Intruder in the Delver of Secrets slot gave the deck greater flexibility, allowing it to interact better during combat and generating more synergy with ninjas.

Azorius Familiars

A versatile deck that can assume different postures depending on the situation.

UW Familiar or, as it is affectionately called by fans of the deck, UW Fams, is a very difficult deck to pilot and has some similarities with Flicker Tron.

The idea here is to use the deck's main card, Sunscape Familiar, to reduce the cost of blue spells and abuse loops like Ghostly Flicker + Archaeomancer, controlling the board and completely breaking any opponent's strategy. This list manages to gain a lot of life, counter spells, draw plenty of cards and still impose an efficient clock with Mulldrifter and The Modern Age.

Access to the Blue and White colors allows the deck to dedicate its side almost completely to dealing with Affinity and Mono-Red and still have answers for a wide range of match-ups.

Golgari Initiative

This deck is a kind of evolution of Mono-Black Control, a Pauper classic that nowadays has become something of a meme in the format. But make no mistake! Golgari Initiative is a very strong deck that I see as a great option to surprise and attack the format.

The strategy is to clear the board of any threats while reloading resources with the massive card advantage provided by Deadly Dispute and Reckoner's Bargain until the way is clear for Avenging Hunter to shine.

This list also features cards like Guildsworn Prowler, which is an excellent tech against Tolarian Terror, and Crypt Rats + Unexpected Fangs is absurd in the match against Mono-Red Kuldotha. The deck has a lot of recursion and I have seen this list with good eyes, since it has a more “Rogue” feel and, for that reason, can be very difficult to play against.

Pauper has gone through many changes in the last couple of years and maybe Mono-Red and Affinity deserve to be banned, but perhaps that only wipes out a small part of the problem. This article presents excellent options for decks that can achieve results and keep up with the best decks in the format. I believe that exploring new decks and approaches to adapt to the current Metagame is quite possible, and that Pauper can still be a fun format.

I hope you enjoyed! Leave your questions and suggestions in the comments, and I'll try to answer them all.