Pauper: Temur Midrange - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Since its unbanning, Bonder's Ornament had yet to put up significant results in Challenges, and no deck outside Tron had run the card with much success. The Metagame, apparently, has adapted, and the artifact's power level no longer matches Pauper's competitive standards.

An emerging strategy, on the other hand, seems to have found a way to extract value from Ornament without needing to rely on Urza lands or running the card to the point of redundancy: Temur Midrange mixes Murmuring Mystic and the cheap spell core of Izzet decks with Writhing Chrysalis and a green splash, letting it attack from different angles while widening its range of answers.

The archetype made Top 8 of the Pauper Challenge on May 30 in the hands of player True-Name Nemesis and may present a new way to play a grindy deck in Pauper.

Maindeck

The main win conditions.

Writhing Chrysalis is the closest thing Pauper has ever had to a Tarmogoyf. It can come down as a 4/5 for if we run the tokens it creates in the same turn. It blocks flyers while dodging Lightning Bolt and Galvanic Blast, and its 0/1 tokens also help hold the board against Aggro for a turn.

Murmuring Mystic turns any spell into more power on the board. Since we run many cheap interactions and cantrips, keeping it on board for a turn and untapping usually guarantees three or more tokens.

The card advantage sources.

This is one of the best Bonder's Ornament decks to emerge since the unban as it uses the artifact to fix mana while also extending the game, letting it play cheap interaction while gaining an extra draw each turn cycle.

The Monarch mechanic has become too slow, but we are an archetype almost as slow as the format's Control decks, and Azure Fleet Admiral ensures we can take back the crown if the opponent deals damage to us and fails to deal with it.

We round out the threats with one copy of Avenging Hunter, which, besides providing an efficient clock on an empty board or against small blockers, also guarantees additional resources through the Initiative.

The combination of Preordain, Brainstorm, and Lorien Revealed is already well‑known in the format. Temur Midrange benefits a bit more from Lorien than Terror decks do, using it to fix mana without making major concessions to access blue for Counterspell.

After all, Counterspell remains Pauper's best stack interaction, and running fewer than four copies in a mid‑to‑late‑game deck would be a mistake. Lose Focus adds to the unconditional interaction and can scale in scope or counter Cascade spells with a single card.

Skred and Lightning Bolt provide versatility in dealing with individual threats, with Skred benefiting from how long we extend the game, while Breath Weapon answers go‑wide Aggro problems or decks like Elves.

The flex slots.

Campfire provides recurring life gain against Aggro and a way to extend the game without losing to decking in Midrange mirrors or against Tron.

Heritage Reclamation, with two maindeck copies, works as graveyard hate in Game 1 while also dealing with artifacts and enchantments. In the worst case, it turns into another cantrip.

Dispel protects our creatures from Cast Down or wins Counterspell wars to resolve our threats.

Pulse of Murasa also provides extra breathing room against Aggro, but its main job is to recur one of our threats, especially Murmuring Mystic.

Sideboard

Relic of Progenitus complements Heritage Reclamation in graveyard hate. Cast into the Fire adds answers against artifacts while also increasing board interaction against smaller threats, complementing Breath Weapon.

Weather the Storm and Hydroblast hold off the format's red decks. Storm can come in against other Aggro categories but loses effectiveness if the board grows too large. Pyroblast answers problems against Mono Blue Terror, Faeries, Tron, in the mirror, or against other heavily blue archetypes.

Mono Blue Terror

IN

OUT

Madness Burn

IN

OUT

Elves

IN

OUT

Spy Combo

IN

OUT

Grixis Affinity

IN

OUT

Faeries

IN

OUT

Tron

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!