In General: Magic 2015 Pauper Picks

Hello Zoners! I am glad that all the hustle of the set review is behind us. It is a very busy time here on the blog and that doesn't leave us very much time to dedicate to other projects that we want to get to in the future. This week, I want to stop and talk about a few of the cards that didn't make it into the set review, specifically, some commons.

A common has to be truly outstanding to make an appearance in Commander. So, unless you are playing a pauper variant, you aren't likely to care about them for casual use. I however, play a ton of limited, a ton of Pauper online, and maintain a Pauper Cube which is an absolute blast. In the near future I am going to post my list and preach the virtues of this criminally underplayed format. It is the most fun I have playing the game. That is the truth, but I digress.

Magic 2015 is a powerhouse set. It is a telling sign! When your set is strong, it is strong all the way down to the commons. M15 doesn't appear to have anything that is going to break the game or shatter your favorite format, and thank the lord for that, but it does have solid cards all across the board. Everywhere you look in this set you will find juice!

Today I want to share some of my favorites from the set and talk a bit about why I find them so interesting. Let's jump right in!

We're going to kick things off with a SALAMANDER! I am not a hundred percent sure why we have both both lizards and salamanders. I am also not sure why this is either one of them when it could easily have been a merfolk.

There have been many similar Creatures in the game. Hard/impossible to block is a very common mechanic at this mana cost. That is certainly playable; in my pauper cube I have some slots dedicated to this kind of thing. What makes Pathmage exciting is the ability to make other Creatures, and possibly multiple Creatures unblockable. I can get behind that. It singlehandedly solves board stalls and gives a way for smaller midrange strategies to punch through a control deck's defenses.




This is another mild upgrade, but a key difference that makes this very valuable is there is not yet enough of this effect to saturate your decks. A three-power two-drop with no drawback is pretty special. It isn't much help on defense, but the same could be said of Gorehouse Chainwalker. This is going directly into my cube, where it will happily smash face.







I really dig that they have now brought color-specific (or rather exclusive) hosers to common. There are enough one toughness Creatures in Pauper that this can realistically sweep the board. At the very least you will be able to kill a few of your opponent's dudes and set up some messy blocks.



Kor Hookmaster has happily been occupying a spot in my Pauper Cube since the initial design. I am excited to include a second copy, even if it is positioned in a slightly less aggressive color. This is okay for two reasons: First, Blue and White work well together. Secondly, there are enough multicolor decks, that having another cheap value Creature is never a bad thing.







It isn't very often that I have to review a card that I have no precedent for. This is a cheap Creature. That is a good thing, but it combines the Creature half with another kind of card that I never play...Burst of Speed. Is that good? I have no idea, but it is interesting.





We have had a lot of Creatures like this in the past. They are huge, they have some sort of weird drawback that prevents you from attacking players who don't control an island, and they have some combat-related keyword ability that is mostly irrelevant.

Well, this shakes up the mold by making it care about mountains instead of islands. This would normally be a problem. Since it is a Blue card, you will most likely have an island laying around, but perhaps not a mountain. Six mana is too much to pay for a Creature that can't attack. Trample is also unheard of on Blue cards. All that adds up to something interesting, but probably not worth serious play.



This effect is extremely powerful. Totem-guide Hartebeest sees play in Commander decks because tutor effects are just that good. There are only a handful of ways to search your library at common and those almost always find some kind of land. This can find removal spells AND buffs. The body is mediocre for its cost, but this is a full two mana cheaper than its closest historical counterpart. You had best believe that this is going to make an appearance in Pauper.

So the Green color-excluded card is pretty sweet as well. This is a combat trick that I can get behind...mostly because, instead of exposing you, it protects you. Fog effects are occasionally used in Pauper, but this is really more like a Safe Passage than a Fog. This is going to make some normally reasonable blocking decisions look very silly.

There aren't many combat tricks in a traditional Cube. In Pauper Cube, they make up a much larger portion of the card pool and they make for some very interesting game play. Knowing what combat tricks to play around and when is a key aspect of winning matches in basically any limited environment. Adding unique rider text such as 'nongreen' to a card like this is going to make that mental chess match much more difficult.



BRO FIST! Where are my Pewdiepie fans at?! Oh, they don't play Magic. I forgot.

We already got to look at one interesting Red card that could sort of switch functions mid-game. It is a true testament to the awesomeness of Magic 2015 that there is actually a SECOND interesting Red common that can switch functions mid-game.

Inferno First doesn't look like much, but I think I will get some real mileage out of this in my Pauper Cube. If it trades with a Creature, that is fine. If it does more than four damage to your opponent on the way...well that is pretty incredible for this price.



A 3/3 for three in common sounds good in theory, but it turns out that there really isn't anything special about that. This however, has the added value of an enter the battlefield trigger. It looks like a drawback or an additional cost, but we have seen before that this effect can be very valuable. Kor Skyfisher has been a staple of the Pauper format for years. Giving you the ability to retrigger other etb effects, reset enchantments or the permanents they are attached to, generating an extra mana, or creating an expensive untap effect. I'm surprised this can't cook your breakfast too.

So we know that the ability is powerful and relevant. The key to evaluating this card then, lies in its body. A 2/3 Flier for two mana was an excellent deal and certainly better than getting a vanilla 3/3 for three, but I think that is alright. This card is still going to have a place.



Deathcult Rogue saw plenty of play in it's limited environment and has done good work in my Pauper Cube. Enforcer here fits the same role, but it is easier to block and harder to cast. Why does Red always get the short end of the stick?

Still, I think this is worth a shot because aggressive decks need to punch through crucial points of damage in the late game and it is much less likely that your control opponents will have Red Creatures. They would probably have a Mulldrifter or Ulamog's Crusher instead, which cannot block this.




Sentinel Spider is a huge threat in my Pauper Cube. It is just such a brick wall for opposing Creature decks. This is not anywhere close to the same power level, but it does share one important characteristic: It can effectively block 95% or more of the Creatures commonly played in Pauper. That alone makes this an excellent defensive play. I think that is reason enough to test this out.

Because Cube is almost exclusively a singleton format, you can't include some of the most important cards in the Pauper world. Squadron Hawk, Cloudpost, Glimmerpost - those are some important names. The format still wants something like Glimmerpost though, and I am happy that this will give me access to that. At the very least, it is something to return with your Invasive Species.





I admit that this card seems kind of bad. It bears a striking resemblance to Puppet Strings, which was already thought of as 'the bad Icy Manipulator'. Keep in mind though, this effect isn't common. I repeat for emphasis: This is an uncommon design, that has been printed at common. That demands a certain amount of attention. Conventional logic would state that they have made it safe by increasing the cost, but a colorless removal spell is nothing to sneeze at in limited.


I just hope that this a little more Moonglove Extract and a little less Razor Boomerang.

The flavor text on this card isn't entirely vapid. It sort of breaks the fourth wall in talking about how R&D has had to go through the design process for umpteen different variations of Boomerang. Because, you know, they can't just print Boomerang. At least this is one of the better variations. Sigh.


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-GG