Pauper: The Best Cards from Bloomburrow for the Format

Pauper changed a lot in the last few weeks after Modern Horizons 3 came a long and new strategies popped up. Some old friends got some well-needed backup, and others just disappeared as the meta settled.

The meta is currently centered around combo decks, most notably the new Glee Combo, midrange decks like Affinity and Gruul LD, and aggro decks like Rakdos Madness.

Green decks are popular. Land Destruction, Glee Combo, Walls, and Elves are great examples of that, and mechanics centered around artifacts remain popular in most strategies as well.

Furthermore, White Weenie has been performing well in the format recently. Counterspell decks are still a bit unpopular; Mono-Blue Terror is the most popular blue list in the format and hasn't conquered many relevant results since MH3 came along.

Grixis Affinity exploded in popularity in the first few days of MH3, even after Cranial Ram was pre-banned; Refurbished Familiar put this deck at a higher level, and pushed it towards control even more. This card also brought back archetypes centered around Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk, namely Mardu and Orzhov Blade, which have an extra synergy with the Familiar.

As for Affinity, it became a bit unpopular after RG decks started dominating the format, mostly due to the consistency that new Eldrazis and Malevolent Rumble gave these decks. However, after the first few weeks, it once again returned as the most popular deck in the format.

Finally, decks like Bogles and Mono-Red Kuldotha also took advantage of the favorable meta, and thus Modern Horizons 3 became another mark in Pauper, just like other Modern Horizons sets.

White

Food will return in this new set and bring more pieces for any deck that focuses on this mechanic in particular. Cauldron Familiar has been flirting with this format for a while now as well, showing up in one relevant list and then completely disappearing again. Much of this is because Pauper still doesn't have its Witch's Oven, which would make a deck centered around Food actually viable.

Still, this card deserved an honorable mention, as, besides being Food and costing 2, it also creates a 1/1 creature token and gives you Scry 1, which makes it a bit better. On the other side, Pauper always prefers artifacts that create card advantage.

Boros Synthesizer, Orzhov Blade, and even White Weenie could see some way to use Carrot Cake.

Blue

This duo has an interesting ability that this color has never seen in a creature before: it lets you flicker a creature under your control. The fact it is also a blue, flying, 3/3 creature is what makes it stand out, however, and most likely makes it the best blue common in this set for Pauper.

Skyskipper Duo may see play in Azorius Familiar, perhaps a single copy, and let you interact with Ghostly Flicker and Ephemerate in different ways, as its abilities doubles these cards' effects.

Black

Black seems to be the weakest color of all when we look at this set and the current Pauper meta. Ravine Raider is a 1-drop that may stand out in Mono-Black Burn, and put on a lot of pressure on early turns. It also enables Morsel Theft's Prowl because it is a Rogue creature.

Red

This is a red aura that not only gives +1/+1 to a creature but also grants it haste. War Squeak can find space in a Bogles list or Boros Heroic, which performed well in this format some time ago.

Green

For green, we have Cache Grab, a two mana instant that works similarly to Malevolent Rumble, but has a curious synergy with Squirrel creatures. It grants you a food token if you control a Squirrel or returned a Squirrel to your hand with it.

This card has possibly secured a spot in Dredge lists, a deck that interacts with the graveyard quite heavily and uses Acorn Harvest, which could be a nice synergy. Even if you don't have any Squirrels, you'll still benefit a lot from an instant that feeds your graveyard, even more if you have cards like Gnaw to the Bone and Eviscerator's Insight in hand, as they'll speed up your game plan and give your deck even more consistency.

Dredge is vulnerable to graveyard hate, but can play around it and has great matches against decks like Affinity or even Mono-Red.

Bloomburrow, like any other Standard set, doesn't have many powerful cards to actually impact Pauper that much, which is to be expected. However, even with these few highlights, I can see there is space for some new approaches in the current Pauper meta.

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Thank you for reading, and see you next time!