Now that they’ve had a few days to sink in, we’re starting to see the effects of Monday’s multi-format MTG bans and unbans. With Breach decks out of the way Boros Energy looks to be back on top in Modern. Over in Legacy, a more tempo-driven take on Dimir seems to have overtaken Reanimator. As for Pauper, the mix of bans and unbans for the MTG format has led to a number of strategies rising in prominence.
With three major players gone and two long-banned cards unbanned, big change is hardly surprising. What is surprising is just how fast the unbanned cards have found their way into League-topping lists. It’s early days, of course, but we’re immediately seeing just why these cards were banned in real time. If things continue at this rate, these “Trial Unbans” may last just a single season.
High Tide
The first of the MTG Pauper unbans we’ll be looking at today is High Tide. This is a really interesting case because the card has never actually been legal in digital Pauper. It was legal in paper Pauper prior to the unification, but that’s all. As a result, we’ve never really gotten to see what this card can do in the format.
Quite a lot, it turns out. In Wednesday’s MTGO Pauper League, Cicciopalla piloted a modified Mono-Blue Terror list running the card to a 5-0 finish. As an addition, High Tide makes perfect sense here. Since the deck runs only basic Islands in the manabase, all of your lands will double up on your High Tide turn. You can also use Snap as a tempo swing/ritual effect in one thanks to the extra mana. You can tap one Island for High Tide, tap another for two blue to cast Snap, then untap both and tap for four blue to cast all manner of spells.
The rest of the deck is built around this kind of wanton spellslinging. Filling your ‘yard with spells lets you get the titular Terror out early, or summon a swarm of 1/1 Birds with Murmuring Mystic. Lorien Revealed, Preordain and Brainstorm help you draw into more gas, while Spellstutter Sprite keeps your opponent from playing on curve.
Mono-Blue decks running similar packages of cards have long been successful in the format, but High Tide offers them a major boost. The ability to go big so early in the game allows for some overwhelming starts. It also lets the deck function like a Storm deck on occasion, breaking the usual rules of tempo decks firmly in your favor.
Prophetic Prism
The second of the MTG Pauper unbans we saw on Monday was Prophetic Prism. So far, this card seems to be doing even more work than High Tide is. Looking at the card, it’s ridiculous to think it was banned in any format. It’s just a clunky cantrip with clunkier fixing attached, after all. Turns out it actually has a lot to offer in a format as artifact-centric as Pauper.
For starters, the card is showing up in Ephemerate Tron lists, such as this one from Raptor56 that went 5-0 in today’s Pauper League. Ephemerate Tron focuses on assembling the three Tron lands for a ton of colorless mana. It then filters said mana into all five colors to cast a vast toolbox of spells, eventually grinding the opponent out over a long period.
This deck has existed for a while, relying on Energy Refractor to do its fixing. With Prism in the mix, the deck now has a lot more redundancy. Prism also offers much cheaper fixing provided you only need a single colored pip, which is the case most of the time.
Prism is also showing up in Affinity decks, specifically the Grixis variants. LuffyDoChapeuDePalha took such a deck to a 5-0 finish yesterday. In these decks, the applications of Prism are fairly obvious. Firstly, it serves as another artifact in play for all your synergies, and one you don’t mind sacrificing since it replaces itself. Second, it helps fix that tricky Grixis mana. Hitting three colors when you need them isn’t easy in Pauper; this card goes a long way towards easing that burden.
It’s not quite as big an addition here as it is to Tron, but it does certainly smooth this Grixis deck out a lot. In some cases, that can be just as impactful.
Are The MTG Pauper Unbans Here To Stay?
Both of the unbanned cards are making their mark already, then. That said, they may not be around to do so for very long. As noted in the official announcement for these unbans, both are “Trial Unbans” for now. This means that they may well be banned again during the next announcement, which is currently planned for June 30th. This essentially gives a two-month window for Wizards to determine whether the cards are too good for the format or not.
As of right now, it’s pretty hard to tell which way the decision will go. Both cards have shown evidence of being viable in competitive decks, but that’s hardly grounds for a reban. The decks in question would need to be played in problematic numbers, or have a negative enough sentimental impact on matches, to warrant such a move.
Of the two cards, High Tide seems more likely to end up back on the ban list. The effect it offers is more unique and volatile, which can create frustrating non-games for players on the receiving end. The card is good enough that it still powers a viable deck in Legacy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it wound up being too good for Pauper.
Prophetic Prism is a bit more subtle in terms of its effects on the metagame. While what it does isn’t powerful at all, the fixing it offers lets decks be much more freeform with their color requirements. This, ultimately, can lead to five-color good stuff piles dominating the format, which is problematic on the opposite end of the spectrum to High Tide. Only time will tell if these new MTG Pauper unbans will stick around or not.
