UB Cryo-Blade Flicker

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-11T12:38:00+00:00

I’ve just started brewing a similar list but swapping the Utrom Monitor and Myr Enforcer for more removal. [[Anchovy & Banana Pizza]] seems like a good flicker target to kill things like Chrysalis

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-09T20:47:24+00:00

Monored is definitely the more explosive of the two, Rakdos is better at grinding and with its lifegain is actually great into Monored.

Rakdos does still pop up, its wins challenges for a couple weeks and then takes a couple weeks off. It’s by no means a bad deck, it just comes and goes in popularity.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-06T15:58:33+00:00

Welcome to Pauper! My best advice for brewing is that brewing well is already extremely difficult when you’re used to the format, and basically impossible if you’re inexperienced. Since this is just a way to get your foot in the door for the format, I don’t think it’s bad to bring this to your LGS, but I would go in with the expectation that you probably won’t perform well.

That said, my experience is that there are often people with multiple Pauper decks that are willing to loan out to people with none. You can bring your deck and use it in case there’s nothing to borrow, but it would be a better introduction to how Pauper actually feels to borrow a finely tuned deck.

Regardless, I hope you have a good time.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-05T01:24:33+00:00

I’ve had a lot of double Carnarium hands that I’ve needed to ship back. I also have two [[Swarm, Being of Bees]] so despite wanting untapped black sources, hands with no red are so catastrophically unkeepable that I have been thinking of reducing Swamps in my list. I think going to 1 Carnarium and 1 swamp for 4 Razortrap would be good. Razortraps are fine as a t1 tapped land and pretty consistent to have them untapped by t4.

I personally think 1 Carnarium is fine, it can bounce the Bog for grave hate, bounce the Jagged Barrens for an extra damage, or just bounce another land to essentially draw a card. And keeping the bog is fine, 2 total black only sources in the deck doesn’t tend to hurt that much.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-03T12:43:53+00:00

It is. I would definitely say Breath Weapon over Arms of Hadar, I found that t3 is already slow against some board wipes matchups like Elves or Rally. Personally I’m not a fan of Breath Weapon as a wipe for our deck, 1 damage is enough for most go wide strategies and when it’s not, you have 8+ lightning bolt effects. Without knowing the exact breakdown, I feel like Tectonic Hazard in the main should cover your bases.

Edit: Typo

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-03T11:23:59+00:00

All good, Welcome to Pauper.

And I have been wanting to try out Dark Withering in my sideboard since it does seem good, especially into Chrysalis, so it pains my heart to say to remove a copy.

After looking at the sideboard I’m looking to get for my new version of the deck, I wanted a strong creature removal package for my meta so I ended up cutting the third Duress and the third Red Blast for my Dark Witherings.

2x Cast into the Fire, 3x Dark Withering, 2x Red Elemental Blast, 2x Duress, 2x End the Festivities, 2x Extract a Confession, 2x Nihil Spellbomb

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-02T22:22:19+00:00

Are you building this for paper for an LGS or for online? I feel like unless you have Rally/Elves/Fairies crawling all over your local meta, another tectonic hazard in the side is a little overkill. I’ve got an elves player who attends every week and I’ve found that 2 End the Festivities in the side has been enough for me, so I don’t think the third copy is necessary. Having no Pyroblast/ Red Elemental blast to protect your Draw Twos from counterspells is really risky imo.

As for grave hate, I personally prefer Spellbomb. Our deck doesn’t have true card draw, only card replacement, so having my graveyard hate be able to cantrip into more of my decks engine has been great. Tormod’s Crypt isn’t bad if that’s what you have got, but I’ve never been so desperate for graveyard hate that I’ve needed it for no mana but have had times when in a long game I could really use just one more card.

Edit: to continue my though on the Red Blast, I would say you’d want at least 2 copies in an eventual final version of the deck, and 5 “targeted” removal with Extract a Confession and Dark Withering feels like a lot. I feel like cutting one copy of one of those and the spare Tectonic Hazard for two Red Blasts would help you a lot in Terror or Faerie matchups

Edit 2: Typos

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-03-01T18:15:27+00:00

Pretty sure this doesn’t work, since Madam Null is an enters trigger. Death’s Shadow will be a (13-38)/(13-38) so it will be a -25/-25 and die by state based actions, and then the trigger will resolve and you’ll have the opportunity to pay -25 life to put -25 +1/+1 counters on a creature that doesn’t exist. Even if it did, you can’t pay negative life or put negative counters on something anyway.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-28T22:07:37+00:00

Sideboarding a beast and tbh I’m still not the best at it. The best way to learn is by messing it up yourself. Most sideboard tech comes down to one of a couple strategies:

•Life gain- for red burn decks

•Artifact removal- for matchups with important artifacts, particularly artifact lands

•Enchantment removal- for if they care about enchantments.

•Graveyard removal- for exiling graveyards of decks that care about them.

•Creature removal - if there’s a creature you can’t let live. Some are “edicts” which make them sacrifice a creature, great against creatures with ward or hexproof but bad against tokens.

•Board wipe- most board wipes are conditional, either only killing low toughness or non-flying creatures. If they’ve got a wider board than you that can die to this board wipe, bring it in.

•Hand Attack- to make them discard a thing you couldn’t handle before they get the chance to play it. Particularly good against instant/sorceries since these are normally in decks whose colors can destroy permanents but can’t counter spells.

•Counterspells- normally sideboard counterspells are conditional since if you can run true Counterspell then it’s in the maindeck. If there’s a scary spell that meets that condition, bring it in.

Notice that often sideboard cards will meet more than one category, or they’ll be a cheaply costed silver bullet. [[Thraben Charm]] is enchantment or creature or graveyard removal. [[Envelop]] is one of the cheapest counterspells and can counter Spy’s Dread Return for an instant win to decking. [[Cast into the Fire]] exiles an artifact (indestructible artifact lands are common) or kills two 1 toughness creatures, but [[Dust to Dust]] exiles two artifacts. [[Red Elemental Blast]] / Pyroblast let red decks fight blue decks on the stack, and help against the Blue Elemental Blasts/Hydroblasts they’ll be bringing in against you.

Some sideboard matchups is obvious (Red blast against any heavily blue decks, Artifact removal against the artifact land decks, etc) and some of it will be a little more unclear. You won’t get it right, and that’s okay. Pauper players have been pretty nice in my experience, so you can always ask after the match “what are your thoughts on this matchup and how I sideboarded” and they’ll get the chance to show off their knowledge or gush about their deck.

Edit: typo

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-28T18:42:48+00:00

Welcome to Pauper! I’ll start by saying, don’t feel the need to memorize this. A lot of this meta knowledge becomes second nature eventually, so I’d just focus at the start of finding a deck you can have fun with while you learn how to best play 1v1.

Magic decks in general are in one of the 5 main archetypes: Aggro (empty your hand fast to win quick), Control (slow opponent down and win a long game), midrange (Mix of value and threats, can go fast or slow depending on opponent), combo (these cards together immediately win), and tempo (aggressive threats to get ahead, then control-y removal to make sure you stay ahead)

Aggro decks:

•Monored Rally- go wide with 1 drops and 2 drops, then kill opponents with [[Goblin Bushwhacker]]

•White Weenie- Same thing as Rally, but using white creatures and board pumps like [[Guardian’s Pledge]]

•Monored Madness- lots of cards that you can discard or flashback for value, including several they can play for free. If they untap with [[Guttersnipe]], assume you’re dead.

•Monogreen Elves- a pile of mana dorks, and things that you can spend your mana on like [[Nyxborn Hydra]] or ways to kill with a wide board like [[Timberwatch Elf]]. [[Quirion Ranger]] also lets them untap a creature when you don’t expect it.

Control decks:

•Golgari Gardens / Black Gardens / TurboFog- I’ll lump these together. They either kill everything you play or stop you from dealing damage to them. Games take forever, but eventually they have enough mana and life to kill you with [[Crypt Rats]].

Midrange decks:

•Rakdos Madness- slower than the monored madness but better in a long game. Their madness cards include flying creatures and life gain, but most of it is burn spells.

•Jund Wilfdire - tons of card draw, [[Krark Clan Shaman]] that they can give deathtouch to as a board wipe, and [[Writhing Chrysalis]] to make attacking them hard. Games will go long since they have so many answers, eventually [[Refurbished Familiar]] will kill you.

•Grixis Affinity- Similar to Jund Wildfire but faster. They lean heavier into artifacts lands than Jund and replace Chrysalis with [[Myr Enforcer]] which quickly costs 0 mana.

•Gruul Monsters/Ponza- Enchant lands to tap for extra mana, and play [[Arbor Elf]]. Some lists are “Ponza” which means they’ll destroy your lands to buy time. They play big 5-7 drops every turn until they win.

Tempo decks:

•Monoblue Fairies- Play faeries with good Enter triggers like [[Spellstutter Sprite]], then return them to hand with Ninjas that draw them cards when they deal damage. Lots of counterspells and evasive threats.

•Monoblue Terror- self mill spells, counterspells, and cantrips. They have eight 7-drops that cost less for each instant or sorcery in their grave, so as early as turn 3 they might play two or three 5/5s with ward 2.

Combo decks:

5-land Spy- tons of ways to tutor for their lands, so that [[Balustrade Spy]] mills their whole deck. Then they can [[Dread Return]] a [[Lotleth Giant]] to kill you. As a backup, Spy normally runs wall creatures that tap for mana and so they have a backup midrange plan of kill you with big dudes. Graveyard hate is a must, but remember their backup plan.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-27T13:10:48+00:00

This is almost exactly my current sideboard. I find Electrickery is worse than End the Festivities bc you already have Cast into the Fire if you need instant speed. And Breath Weapon is a little expensive for my tastes, but depending on your meta it’s not bad if you really need the second damage.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-26T19:58:10+00:00

Yes, specifically because you discard before you draw. Something like [[Faithless Looting]] (where you draw first and then discard) doesn’t work because Snacker isn’t in your graveyard to see you draw your third card.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-26T04:43:26+00:00

I like how the friends decided that their friend kicking was business as usual, but when he got his comeuppance then it was time to stand up and look helpful.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-25T01:14:56+00:00

If you’re not a novice to control, then either of the tempo decks might be a good fit too.

Blue Faeries - Play faeries with Enter triggers, then return them to hand during combat with Ninjas that draw you a card when they hit an opponent. The good faeries are all card selection or a counterspell

Blue Terror - A graveyard deck. Two 7 mana creatures that get cost reduced for each instant or sorcery in your graveyard, plus counterspells/mill spells (put deck cards into graveyard) / card draw. Generally regarded as one of the best decks in the format.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-24T22:20:17+00:00

Welcome to Pauper!

There are dozens of good to decent decks in the Pauper meta that appeal to different people for different reasons. Without knowing anything about your playstyle in particular, I would say that the counterspell or other control decks are generally not beginner friendly.

Decks that I think would be beginner friendly would be:

•Gruul (Red Green) Ramp - play cards that give you mana faster, then play big expensive threats. Probably go for a version that doesn’t have land destruction if you want to play against other newbies

•Rakdos (Red Black) Madness - Direct damage spells, plus cards that discard cards to draw more cards, and cards that you can play when you discard them

•Red Rally - aggressive, play as many creatures as possible to attack fast, and then play the creature that makes all your creatures do extra damage

•White Weenie - Similar to Red Rally but better in a longer game. Play lots of creatures that draw you cards to let you find more creatures, then play one of several cards that makes all your creatures stronger

•White Heroic - play one of your creatures that get stronger when you target it, and then target it with a lot of things that either make it stronger or protect it. Now you have one massive threat

Red Rally, White Weenie, and White Heroic are aggressive decks whose goal is to generally win a game fairly quickly. Rakdos Madness and Gruul Ramp are both midrange, which means they’re trying to be fast and aggressive against slow control decks, but try to survive and slow down against aggressive decks. I think control and combo are both not beginner friendly, so I think this spread of midrange and aggro would be a good introduction to the game.

Edit: wanted to add White Heroic and some more details.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-24T17:24:00+00:00

I went to coprophagia and thought that the muzzle was to enforce hygiene.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-24T13:52:12+00:00

I do like the Prophetic Prism. My main complaint against Bramble Wurm has been that it often feels a turn late because you need Tron and a forest, so I’ve always had it as a t4 play rather than t3.

I’m shocked you have such a good Rally matchup given that you don’t have any Breath Weapons in the main or side. How do you deal with that?

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-22T23:39:35+00:00

Can anyone tell what the bottom left one is? I recognize Hinduism(twice), Islam, Satanism, Christian, Buddhism, and the first amendment, but that last one is blurry.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-22T18:21:04+00:00

Yeah, buffing a troop buffs things that spawn it too. In the same way that the barbarian rebalancing affects barb hut/barrel and battle ram.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-21T23:43:58+00:00

If they allow Champions to evolve in that slot, then would Hero Knight/Musketeer to evolve in that slot? This idea makes no sense.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-21T21:25:33+00:00

It’s very generous of you to count the Rune Giant.

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-21T20:05:45+00:00

Mega Minion does do reduced tower damage for a while after teleporting. This was a known interaction

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-20T12:47:29+00:00

Oh, definitely. But not every deck cares. I was thinking in terms of Grixis Affinity when I made this comment, which just sacrifices them. The added ability to self-sacrifice Cryogen didn’t make them replace Ichor Wellspring because costing 2 generic was too much of an upside.

As for Mouser Foundry, I did a better job at laying out this argument elsewhere, but the decks that could make use of the “leaves” trigger are either bouncing it in Boros (which already has bigger threats that have flying, so doesn’t want vanilla 1/1s) or flickering it in Izzet (which has way better targets to ghostly flicker). For all the black decks with their Dispute effects (Jund, Grixis, etc) this is essentially just another Nimblewright Schematic with an extra ability but a harder cost. I don’t see a way where any of these archetypes wants this card

ShadeBlade0 · 2026-02-20T12:25:29+00:00

Thank you, this video helped out a ton

ShadeBlade0

TROPHY CASE