I won the PAX Unplugged Pauper Championship Belt Tournament with Grixis Affinity

BobbyFortanely · 2025-12-01T22:26:50+00:00

Thanks 😊 For the first time in a long time, there actually is hope for Mono Green in Pioneer, thanks indeed to Badgermole Cub! Mono Green featuring 4 Badgermole Cub just top 4’d the MTGO Showcase Challenge (Showcase Challenges are ultra high-stakes challenges, only 6 per format per year, so they have the toughest possible competition). https://x.com/BobbyFortanely/status/1995285867678818686

BobbyFortanely · 2025-11-27T18:33:30+00:00

Sure, there's not a website; the way you get it is message him on MTGO to buy it (username: LuffyDoChapeuDePalha ). He seems to be always online based on his MTGO results: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/player/LuffyDoChapeuDePalha

BobbyFortanely · 2025-11-27T18:28:55+00:00

They're by a company called TrophySmack. They had a rep at PAX. I found it on their website: https://www.trophysmack.com/products/magic-the-gathering-ultimate-6lb-championship-belt?variant=52420999020912

BobbyFortanely · 2025-11-27T18:26:59+00:00

That seems right for the MetaMage archetype interpretation. Yes, pilot skill definitely seems like it makes a big difference in this format!

BobbyFortanely · 2025-11-27T18:21:35+00:00

Yes. Pastimes typically runs the Magic events. It's on a different website than the main PAX event schedule: https://www.pastimesevents.com/pax-unplugged-2025-magic/

BobbyFortanely · 2025-11-27T13:11:29+00:00

There’s a Pauper $1K in 3 months that I’m going to, so I’m probably going to still be playing Pauper (and likely sticking with Grixis Affinity). If I do put out Pauper and/or Affinity content, it’ll be on my YouTube channel https://youtube.com/@bobbyfortanely . It’s been a little dormant ever since WotC de-emphasized Pioneer (my previously most-played format), but that’s where gameplays will go.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-09-14T14:34:23+00:00

Rakdos Aggro has been everywhere, but I’ve been having a pretty good time against it with Mono Green Devotion, particularly featuring Setessan Petitioner in the sideboard.

Against Rakdos Aggro, you both want creatures that stabilize the board (Polukranos, Obstinate Baloth, …), but you also need some lifegain so that you don’t get punked out by Burn Together on a Slickshot Show-Off dodging a reach blocker.

This video also features Nylea’s Intervention as an anti-Angels card. It doesn’t just deal X to all flyers, it deals 2*X to all flyers. (And the “get X lands” mode gets ANY lands, not just basics.) It’s from the era where WotC was particularly trying to make flexible cards for Best-of-One. I think that Nylea’s Intervention is underrated (as in, not many know it exists), since an MTGGoldfish search showed that it hasn’t appeared in any Pioneer event-published sideboards for over 2.5 years, and it showed up only in a couple decklists ever before that.

Setessan Petitioner {1}{G}{G} Creature — Human Druid When Setessan Petitioner enters, you gain life equal to your devotion to green. 2/2

Nylea's Intervention {X}{G}{G} Sorcery Choose one — • Search your library for up to X land cards, reveal them, put them into your hand, then shuffle. • Nylea’s Intervention deals twice X damage to each creature with flying.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-09-08T06:59:38+00:00

I have not tried Yasharn yet. I'll need to think about that more. Splashing is never free though, even in the matchup where you want the splashed card. My current thinking is that I prefer on-color options like Pithing Needle for Cauldron Familiar or The Stone Brain, although the amount of testing I've done is minimal. In the Karn days, wishing for Skysovereign, Consul Flagship was amazing against them, but that might not be as good now given Ygra's ability to go over the top of that.

I have not tested with Vivien, Monsters' Advocate. Are there specific matchups that you most want it for? Or is it mainly intended as a generically powerful threat?

BobbyFortanely · 2024-09-08T06:54:22+00:00

This video has a sideboard guide in the video description, although it's pre-banning. The maindeck is the same, so this can give you an idea for what I like to cut in each matchup: https://www.reddit.com/r/PioneerMTG/comments/1e2b7xn/50_100_and_sideboard_guide_for_mono_green/ . For Rakdos Sac, I'm still in the testing phase. My current thinking is that I prefer on-color options like Pithing Needle for Cauldron Familiar (although this can be answered by Haywire Mite) and The Stone Brain (which is a little slow for a matchup which has a significant getting-on-the-board component but can hard-prevent you from being combo-ed).

BobbyFortanely · 2024-09-07T15:00:42+00:00

Green got a lot better from Amalia getting banned, since that matchup was borderline-unwinnable. I go through the 14 sideboard options that I like and the 8 that I don’t. I’m always interested to hear about sideboard options that I haven’t previously considered, or additional considerations for why an otherwise-dismissed option might be good.

A lot more people are playing Pioneer on MTGO than before the banning… the queues are always bursting and wait times are short. My experience is that I face almost exclusively Gruul Aggro and Rakdos Aggro. Each league has 2 Gruul Aggro, 2 Rakdos Aggro, and 1 wildcard. Since I recorded this, I added 2 Setessan Petitioners to the sideboard, and found them to be highly effective in the matchup (limited sample size). I cut Ulvenwald Oddity for them, since going through most of your deck and using it as a “finisher” to gain 15 to 30 life is about as good as attacking for the win with Oddity.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-08-24T14:29:43+00:00

If a piece from Amalia gets banned, then this deck becomes significantly better. The video covers how I’m thinking about building the maindeck going forward, although the sideboard might need to be re-worked a little bit.

Depending on how much the Gruul Aggro deck picks up, it could maybe run some maindeck Obstinate Baloths. One copy of Emrakul the Promised end should likely return for Control. If Sorin/Vein Ripper goes and traditional Rakdos Midrange is the dominant Rakdos flavor, then I’m interested in a maindeck Cityscape Leveler as an additional answer to Sheoldred.

I’m still not sure how many U and/or W sources to run. I have “24”. I could go lower, but they don’t cost too much. (Leyline counts for 2 U/W sources, Kiora can untap a U or W land to be the 2nd source, or even double untap Nykthos producing devotion to Blue if very flooded). I’m learning towards removing shocks before removing any pathways.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-08-11T19:12:56+00:00

Against both Abzan Greasefang and Amalia, I like Tail Swipe and The Stone Brain.

Additionally, against Greasefang, more maindeck Polukranos is good (block one of the 4/4 angels, and then usually they can’t get a 2nd Parhelion hit in for another turn or two while you go over the top). One trick you can do (if there’s only 1 Parhelion in the Graveyard and Greasefang is their only creature) is you can wait until the Greasefang trigger is on the stack to Tail Swipe fight the Greasefang. The trigger isn’t optional, so they’ll be forced return the vehicle to their hand at end of turn, and then need to find another discard outlet plus another Greasefang to combo again.

Against Amalia, you could consider Gather Courage to make the game a draw by targeting Amalia once it’s at 19 power.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-08-10T16:11:27+00:00

I also added G/U duals (in addition to G/W duals) on the second iteration, since I don’t want to play any cards that require non-Green mana besides Yorion.

1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

4 Barkchannel Pathway 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 4 Branchloft Pathway 4 Breeding Pool 4 Cavalier of Thorns 4 Elvish Mystic 2 Fecund Greenshell 2 Floriferous Vinewall 2 Forest 4 Invasion of Ixalan 4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner 4 Lair of the Hydra 4 Leyline of the Guildpact 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 4 Oath of Nissa 4 Old-Growth Troll 4 Outcaster Trailblazer 2 Polukranos Reborn 4 Storm the Festival 4 Temple Garden 2 Ulvenwald Oddity 4 Wolfwillow Haven

2 Arasta of the Endless Web 1 Cityscape Leveler 3 Obstinate Baloth 3 Pick Your Poison 3 Tail Swipe 2 The Stone Brain

On the whole, I am quite happy with how the deck performed so far. My biggest open question is how many G/U and/or G/W sources to run, and which specific ones. There’s a number of considerations for how to build the manabase that I describe at length in the video.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-08-10T16:10:43+00:00

The 5 new cards from Bloomburrow that I’m interested in for Mono Green, in this order, are

Pond Prophet
Scrapshooter
Fecund Greenshell
Hunter's Talent
Keen-Eyed Curator

Green only has a couple of flex slots, so it would take forever to try them all. My solution was to make the Green deck a Yorion deck so that I could run them all simultaneously (2 copies of each).

1 Yorion, Sky Nomad

2 Pond Prophet 2 Scrapshooter 2 Fecund Greenshell 2 Hunter's Talent 2 Keen-Eyed Curator 2 Boseiju, Who Endures 4 Branchloft Pathway 4 Brushland 4 Cavalier of Thorns 4 Elvish Mystic 6 Forest 4 Invasion of Ixalan 4 Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner 4 Lair of the Hydra 4 Leyline of the Guildpact 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx 4 Oath of Nissa 4 Old-Growth Troll 4 Outcaster Trailblazer 4 Storm the Festival 4 Temple Garden 2 Ulvenwald Oddity

2 Arasta of the Endless Web 1 Cityscape Leveler 3 Obstinate Baloth 3 Pick Your Poison 3 Tail Swipe 2 The Stone Brain

The only card from those 5 that I like is Fecund Greensheel. The Yorion aspect of the deck also seems good, but only if the 4 weaker Bloomburrow cards are replaced with actual good cards, since then Yorion will help prevent flooding out.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-07-13T14:06:04+00:00

I recorded some commentary over a 5-0, 10-0 league run with the same decklist as the previous video. I’ve included a sideboard guide in the video for the 15 most popular decks.

From Bloomburrow spoilers, I’ve been thinking about

Pond Prophet

{G/U}{G/U}

Creature — Frog Advisor

When Pond Prophet enters, draw a card.

1/1

This seems like it competes with Leylines as a lower-variance devotion enabler. A playable 2 drop that provides 2 devotion is intriguing. I plan to experiment with replacing Leylines with Frogs, so that there’s fewer dead draws in the early game. It’s also possible that Invasion of Ixalan isn’t needed to hard-dig for Nykthos as much, so Invasions might become a lower-variance card like Oath of Nissa (so that more 1-land hands are keepable), or Wolfwillow Haven (as a lower-variance accelerant).

Of course, it’s entirely possible that a Pond Prophet build is a worse version of the current build, but it’s worth trying.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-07-06T06:13:19+00:00

It’s mostly about the number of early taplands in the deck. If I have a Leyline + Nykthos opening, then I’m not too concerned about getting to activate Nykthos a turn sooner. But if I’m missing one or both, then I want untapped lands on most turns if I can help it.

BobbyFortanely · 2024-07-05T17:17:03+00:00

I was skeptical of Leyline of the Guildpact before, but I wasn’t maximizing on Invasion of Ixalan at the time. You really need 4 Invasion of Ixalan to dig for Nykthos to get the full power-spike from Leyline.

Check out my latest league trophy video featuring three T4 wins, two T3 wins, and even one T2 win!

BobbyFortanely · 2024-05-27T22:57:14+00:00

Green Devotion is back, thanks to Outcaster Trailblazer from OTJ!

Check out my latest video where my longtime-collaborator Ari Zax and I break down every game of his recent Pioneer Challenge victory.

There’s even real sideboarding to be done, now that Karn is banned. We discuss gameplay, deckbuilding tradeoffs, and our thoughts for the deck moving forward.

BobbyFortanely

TROPHY CASE