Pauper: The 10 Best Cards of 2023 for the format!

The year 2023 was intense for Magic: The Gathering. With the culmination of the Phyrexian arc, a journey back into the past with The Brothers' War, and the fateful conclusion of one of the Multiverse's greatest antagonists with the March of the Machines, in addition to recent trips back to Eldraine and Ixalan.

This year was also the year in which competitive Magic formats took their first big step outside the game's universe: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth became the best-selling set in the game's history, and brought staples to all formats where it is legal.

In this week of retrospectives, I present the ten best cards released in 2023 for the main competitive formats, and we start today with Pauper!

The selection criteria for this list are based on the impact each card had on Pauper's competitive environment this year, whether by establishing a new archetype, leveraging an old strategy, redefining the way games are played, or by being present in multiple decks.

10 - Cast into the Fire

Cast into the Fire was one of the most promising spells in Lord of the Rings, but its space in the competitive environment was limited due to the size of the creatures in the current format and the fact that most of the main decks with red today have a more aggressive approach, or also runs white, which grants access to Dust to Dust.

It is still a very effective piece of Sideboard, with occasional appearances in Ephemerate lists and the Boros Synthesizer.

9 - Mephitic Draught

Mephitic Draught has grown in presence in the Metagame since its release, in decks like Black Gardens and Grixis Affinity, where it operates as extra copies of Ichor Wellspring to reproduce the effect of Ancestral Recall alongside Deadly Dispute, or to extract more value from Makeshift Munitions, making it a potential staple in the future as more artifact interactions shows up!

8 - Drown in Sorrow

A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable for Pauper to have an efficient three-mana sweeper. For a long time, black decks needed Evincar's Justice as an efficient method for dealing with multiple creatures on the board.

Times have changed, Fiery Cannonade changed much of the behavior of the format's go wide strategies, and Arms of Hadar was the first step for black cards to follow the same line until the reprint of Drown in Sorrow in Commander Masters.

Today, the card is a Sideboard staple for black-based midrange, especially Black Gardens, a strategy that gained tons of popularity this year.

7 - Goblin Tomb Raider

Goblin Tomb Raider, or "the Goblin Guide we have at home" arrived at Pauper with the release of Lost Caverns of Ixalan and soon became a staple of Kuldotha Red, which predominated as the best deck in the format this year and even raised Metagame speed standards to the point of banning Monastery Swiftspear.

Without its main competitor in the one-drop slot, the card has become a staple alongside Goblin Blast-Runner.

6 - Cryptic Serpent

Also coming from Commander Masters, Cryptic Serpent was the necessary trigger for Tolarian Terror decks to gain a new formula, giving up black cards to follow a Tempo route alongside Delver of Secrets, not only establishing a perfect Meta Call for a format where Mono Red Aggro was the best option, but also creating a solid strategy to compete against other opponents.

Its impact on the Metagame remains even after the ban on Monastery Swiftspear, and there is still a lot of potential for it to evolve as new spells come out in 2024.

5 - Tithing Blade

Recently released in Lost Caverns of Ixalan, Tithing Blade has already become a Pauper staple, present in decks like Black Gardens, Grixis Affinity, which reuse the artifact for their interactions and/or to sacrifice with Deadly Dispute, and in Orzhov Ephemerate, where Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk allows you to reuse it on grindy matchups.

Tithing Blade has replaced Chainer's Edict in archetypes interested in long games, and demonstrates how the interaction between cards gained a little more space in Pauper in 2023, despite the high-power level where the format finds itself today.

4 - Murmuring Mystic

Murmuring Mystic is an interesting case: its presence in the Metagame is very notable, but it does not define an archetype, and we rarely find more than one or even two copies of it in the main decks of the format.

While four mana for no immediate effect is too high a cost, Murmuring Mystic takes on a role that used to belong to some Monarch cards and/or the splash that Bonder's Ornament made in several lists: if left on the board, its potential to dominate the game is too high as it popularizes the battlefield with birds, transforming your removals, counterspells and other spells into potential threats.

3 - Lembas

Lembas was one of the most hyped cards in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, and one of the few that met players' expectations and became a staple, present in Black Gardens and Boros Synthesizer, as well as other less famous strategies, such as Orzhov Ephemerate.

The artifact ended the discussion of which supplementary pieces to use to complement Kor Skyfisher or Deadly Dispute between Golden Egg and Spare Supplies, guaranteeing some of the quality of each card in a single slot, added to a level of inevitability and recursion.

2 - All That Glitters

Considered the most dangerous downshift in Commander Masters, All That Glitters brought back Affinity's hit-kill potential, and gave rise (or return) to the Azorius version, with Ornithopter and Thraben Inspector , accompanied by the already well-known archetype's package, being one of the most represented decks in the current Metagame.

It was a slight surprise that the enchantment wasn't banned alongside Monastery Swiftspear to slow down the format, and the post-ban Challenges demonstrate a growing presence of the archetype - therefore, one of the mysteries for the next year is whether this new version will dominate the Metagame in the first quarter of 2024.

1 - Lorien Revealed

Lorien Revealed and, on a smaller scale, Troll of Khazad-dum, have altered the way we build the mana base in Pauper. Where before we needed to run Ash Barrens and Evolving Wilds to correct our mana, we now have efficient spells that also operate as "extra lands", with the advantage of also seeking duals like Contaminated Aquifer and utility lands, such as Witch's Cottage.

The insertion of Lorien Revealed was extremely impactful for all blue decks and turned it into a staple, especially in Tolarian Terror lists, which take advantage of its cycling to feed the spell count while also operating as a "Draw 3" in longer games.

With a lasting impact that will remain on the format for years to come, and will only improve with the release of other lands with basic land types, Lorien Revealed was the best and most important card for Pauper in 2023.

That's all for today.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!