Christmas is fast approaching, which means, giving and receiving gifts, cold weather, and spending time with family. That last one rings especially true for me, as my family lives in a remote rural town in Northwestern Ontario, Canada. If you don’t know where that is or what I’m talking about when I say Northwestern Ontario, that’s alright, just picture the beginning of the Christmas classic Elf. That’s essentially my life right now, hell, the power just randomly went off for 2 hours last night because of the vast amount of snow fall. But enough about that, you are here for this weeks Pauper Ponderings, and after I promised a Holiday classic last week, I’m sure you’re all excited. But, like life, promises are meant to be broken, or is it rules are meant to be broken? Either way, the internet is so egregiously bad here in this neck of the woods that I am unable to upload my videos.

But, the crowd pleaser that I am, I decided to write you all an article instead. I apologise that you don’t get to see my pretty face this week but those are the sacrifices we have to make, when family is important. I will make it up to you guys though. As next week, I will not only be uploading this weeks videos, but, I will also have an all new episode of Pauper Ponderings for Thursday as well. I hope that is enough to not make you mad at me.

So now that that is all cleared up, let’s get into my article. I figured that I have a decent amount of videos up, so why not rank them, on a scale that is both mathematical, and subjective? I have rated every Pauper Pondering deck to date and compiled them into a list. So without further a do:

Austen’s Pauper Ponderings Decklist Rankings

 

Number 7: Witness Me!

I loved Mad Max: Fury Road, and I loved the concept for this deck. A bunch of war boys sacrificing themselves for the chance to go to Vallhala. But in practice this deck turned out to be a complete runt. Even in the game that we won against elves, where we stripped them to 1 card in hand, no creatures in play, and 2 lands, with a commanding board presence, it still took a series of good top decks to win the game. I enjoy form over function, most of the time, but in this case, it was far too much form.

Power Level: 1/5

Cool Factor: 4/5

Consistency: 2/5

Playability: 1/5

Overall: 8/20

 

Number 6: Gruul Goggles

The first User submission deck lands next on our list, and this deck just fell into the rut of a little too slow, and a little too under-powered. Like Witness Me! this deck looks very aesthetically pleasing, with artificers and the goggles to back them up. But, as seen in the games our creatures, even while wearing goggles, were too small to compete with the midrange decks, and were too slow to match up against the super aggressive decks.

Power Level: 1/5

Cool Factor: 3/5

Consistency: 2/5

Playability: 2/5

Overall: 8/20

 

Number 5: Whirlpool Mill

The inaugural Pauper Ponderings deck cracks our Top 5, maybe based more on personal preference than pure efficiency. As sweet as this deck was, and as powerful as some of the effects were, it was just so damn hard to win. Multiple copies of Jace’s Erasure were required to even contemplate thinking about winning a game. And, in addition to being slow, it had few pieces of interaction so any amount of disruption or a clock from our opponents meant it was pretty tough to win. Regardless, we drew a lot of cards, and milled a decent amount of cards, and it did just enough to crack the Top 5.

Power Level: 2/5

Cool Factor: 2/5

Consistency: 4/5

Playability: 2/5

Overall: 10/20

 

Number 4: Perilous Blood

Finally we get to a deck which recorded an on camera match win. This was not close the most complicated deck I’ve played in the pauper format. With all of the sacrifice triggers and spots to try and maximise damage with your low number of win cons. We created one of the coolest stacks I’ve ever witnessed, and even though we went 1 – 2 with the deck, I really enjoyed playing it and may even come back to it in a future video.

Power Level: 3/5

Cool Factor: 3/5

Consistency: 2/5

Playability: 3/5

Overall: 11/20

 

Number 3: Goblin Storm

The the most recent deck finds itself next on our list. Goblin Storm out did all of the expectations that I had for it. Straight up over powering a lot of decks was something I was unaccustomed to in the format (especially for Pauper Ponderings), but wow was the power level off the charts for this deck. And, you can bet I will be playing this deck when I start regularly streaming Pauper Ponderings, make sure to check out this playlist for some of the most fun I’ve ever had playing Pauper.

Power Level: 5/5

Cool Factor: 3/5

Consistency: 2/5

Playability: 4/5

Overall: 14/20

 

Number 2: Greedy Jund

Probably the most popular deck I’ve played to date, Greedy Jund is just that, Greedy! 3 colour mana bases are rarely do able in Pauper but we made it work. Going 3-0 in our recorded matches proved that it works when you get a little lucky and your cards are powerful enough to warrant it. I even streamed this deck with an updated mana-base using ash barrens over some of the fetch lands and that shored it up even more. If you want to play Jund but don’t feel like selling a kidney to play the modern version, this may just be right up your alley.

Power Level: 4/5

Cool Factor: 3/5

Consistency: 4/5

Playability: 4/5

Overall: 15/20

 

Number 1: Sultai Lantern Control

The first deck we ever took to a 3-0 finish, that mixed form, function, playability, and consistency into a beautiful concoction. This deck over performed in every way. Being able to play a midrange game plan while having a prison plan for the long game and an oops I win button built in is a rare thing to see in even modern power level decks. I’d say we even cruised to a 3-0 finish beating basically every deck easily and in a different way. Against blue based control decks we could play a midrange game plan with hard to remove threats, while disrupting their draw steps. Vs aggressive decks we had efficient blockers and removal with the ability to kill quickly once we turned the corner. This had everything we wanted in a pauper deck and it proved itself to be the gold standard for our series so far.

Power Level: 5/5

Cool Factor: 4/5

Consistency: 4/5

Playability: 4/5

Overall: 17/20

 

Well thank you for reading this year end review of Pauper Ponderings, I hope you enjoyed going back and re-watching some of my older deck series’ or for newer viewers, watching some of my older series’ for the first time.

I really appreciate everyone who has supported me so far and I am excited to continue creating enjoyable content for you guys!

So until next week, Have a Merry Christmas, and may your stockings bring you plenty of Delver-free 2 mans!

 

Austen

 

 

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