Simic standard pauper deck

By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters

I have an admission.  I have recently decided that I would dust off my old MTGO account and resurrect it.  The intent behind me opening up my MTGO account again was ostensibly to get some more repetition at drafting. I’ve gone and started a few drafts and have fared reasonably well and opened up some very sweet cards.  However, by the time I convert any rares into tickets the pool of residual cards is too poor to take on the Standard decks running around these days.  However, they are perfect for building a perfectly reasonable Standard Pauper deck and that is exactly what I have done.

In the drafts I have played I seem to usually end up playing G/X meaning that my card pool has a fair amount of Green. That suits me just fine.  So, I was browsing through my collection online and noticed I had a pretty reasonable U/G deck.  The deck reminded me of a U/G Flash deck I built from RTR/Theros standard that I really liked to play and so I pieced it together.  I have been running it against other home brews and decks that lack some of the firepower of full on Standard decks and have been faring reasonably well.  It suggests the deck has a certain amount of play that can have it hang around with more robust builds and grab a win.  Here’s the deck list.

Deck list

This deck doesn’t really want to play on its own turn, like any Flash deck, but the reality is that the creature pool generally lacks a variety of common Flash creatures apart from the Cloaked Siren. The way this usually plays out is that you cast your creatures on your turn, and then at Instant speed bounce their stuff or get their critters when they block by pumping your creature.  It can do some pretty mean things and set your opponent back with some sizable Tempo plays quite easily giving you an edge to resolve your threats, load them up, and smash face.

The creature package should really have MORE War-Wing Siren as they are just about the best card in this deck.  The 1/3 flier with Heroic does an awful lot of work and can get very big very quickly.  It becomes a 5/5 if you Bestow the Nyxborn Wolf on it. That’s a full on Dragon.  It’s a 4/6 if you cast a Feral Invocation.  There are plenty of ways to target this creature, meaning it can get out of control super quickly and really turn up the heat on your opposition.

The other piece that I wish I more of is the Pheres-Band Tromper.  This guy is an all-star if you can give him flying with a Stratus Walk because every time he untaps he just gets bigger. Connect a few times with him and you will quickly erase any deficit.

The Asp, the Siege Wurm, and the Benthic Giant are just general all-purpose fatties that plug up the ground and can go on the offensive once you’ve bludgeoned them and need to finish them off.

Of the rest, the Centaur Courser are lacking in punch and other abilities, but in a deck where you need some fodder or just to keep some more pressure up, these guys make for good pals. Sedge Scorpion is the ideal first turn drop and trades with almost anything acting as a real deterrent.  I really like the Scry on the Sigiled Starfish to help smooth out those rough patches.  The last guy I want to talk about is the Nyxborn Wolf which is probably my favorite common from Born of the Gods.  This innocuous Bestow creature really packs a mean punch at +3/+1.  Suit up anything with this guy and you have an instant threat.  I would happily trade the pair of Coursers for a pair of these guys to round out the deck, but I’m not quite there yet.

On the whole, the deck performs quite well against decks that are of a similar power level, which seems to make it an ideal casual brew where the focus is more on having fun than on winning every single time.  There is no doubt this deck suffers from some inconsistency because of the lack of play sets and the relative high variance, but considering it is made up of spare parts it seems to overcome that.  And of course, since we all like to win, even if we’re playing around the kitchen table, the fact that this can just about steal a win out of nowhere is also a nice treat.

If this is something that catches your fancy give it a try and let me know what you think.  I think it’s fun and surprisingly tricky to balance out the need to go aggressive with the need to hold up your mana for tricks.  There is no doubt this sort of strategy is not a full on aggro assault and so patient players are more likely to come out ahead.  However, it is fun, interactive, cheap, and deceivingly powerful. Give it a whirl.  I doubt you’ll be disappointed.

Thanks for reading and until next time keep it fun, keep it safe…keep it casual.

By Bruce Gray – Casual Encounters

@bgray8791 on Twitter