Pauper: 5 Decks with Modern Horizons 3

Modern Horizons 3 is here! You can check out everything it brought to Pauper and its main highlights here.

In this article, I'll show you five competitive lists with the best this new set can offer, in both new and old strategies.

Dimir Terror

Sneaky Snacker is, for me, the card that stands out the most in MH3. Besides the fact it is a Faerie, this creature has an incredible interaction with Brainstorm, and will give a few decks a new way to approach their matches. Out of all the strategies that will use this little Faerie, the one that looks best to me is Dimir Terror.

Dimir Terror can now be more aggressive; you'll be able to bring back your Faeries from the graveyard and put them on your battlefield, preferably on your opponent's turn. Like so, you'll put more pressure on your opponent and overall just do it more efficiently.

The best thing about this card is the fact it may see play in various strategies and builds. We'll probably see many builds that focus on this new Faerie, and they'll be quite similar to what Izzet Phoenix is in Pioneer.

Broodscale Combo

Basking Broodscale is the central piece in a new combo that may see play in MH3. You can check out more details about it here.

The idea is to set up the combo as fast as possible and find all the pieces you need, as well as enough recursion to get them back from the graveyard and play around counters and removals.

Malevolent Rumble plays well with Commune with the Gods and Deadly Dispute when you want card advantage. Siege Smash, on the other side, is a great tool in this list because it introduced "Split Second" to this format, helps you in many matches, and breaks a Relic of Progenitus, which is always annoying for this type of strategy.

Rakdos Affinity

Cranial Ram is the most important card for Affinity's future in Pauper, but Refurbished Familiar is just as interesting, and both should shine in Affinity and Artifact lists in this format.

The idea behind Rakdos Affinity is to lean on a Midrange style and step away from Grixis' control approach so you can use Cranial Ram more aggressively. Refurbished Familiar, on the other side, gives this version something so interesting that blue might not even make that much of a difference in the end: it lets you attack your opponent's resources or draw a card while you put a relevant body on the board. You will always cast this body for just with the help of Blood Fountain on turn 1, and, with it, you can reuse it later on.

Boros Energy

Energy was another incredibly exciting mechanic in the new set. Unfortunately, it didn't really bring anything that inspired us to build a deck to abuse it - but that doesn't mean we can't use it at all in Pauper. Conduit Goblin is fascinating and may become the heart of various Boros Synthesizer builds.

The plan behind the list above is to create enough Energy counters to put a Goblin that can act as a Goblin Bushwhacker on the board. This would bring some explosiveness to creatures that don't die that easily, like Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher. It isn't that difficult to get enough Energy counters if that's your goal, even more if you use the Energy cards MH3 will bring.

Smelted Chargebug's ability is interesting for combat, and it will bring you a lot of value with bounce cards. It is also an artifact that has a great body for combat.

Galvanic Discharge is useful as a removal or as an Energy "Dark Ritual", and can also set up the way for your Goblin. Considering Jolted Awake brings back any creature or artifact from your graveyard, it is a really fascinating tool.

Dredge

Dredge is in a sort of "secret Pauper tier". It always performs surprisingly well, even though not that many players invest in it.

Malevolent Rumble will be quite valuable for this archetype, as it lets you feed your graveyard and also puts a land or creature in your hand. It does all of this while it puts a token on the board - which you can sacrifice for a Dread Return later.

Dredge may become even more important in the meta that MH3 will create. It may become an outlier combo deck that will both create a lot of value by putting giant creatures on the board or gaining a lot of life with Gnaw to the Bone. It might even literally win out of nowhere with Lotleth Giant. All of this makes Dredge an excellent option for anyone who wants to test out MH3 in Pauper.

Pauper will change a lot because of MH3, and we still have a lot to explore in this format with the new cards.

What do you think about MH3? Tell us your thoughts, suggestions, and feedback in our comment section below!

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!