Reprint sets like Innistrad Remastered are exciting on a number of different axes. On one hand, they provide an opportunity for expensive cards to receive much-needed reprints. On another, they mix up the rarity of cards in ways that are relevant for Limited and Pauper. Innistrad Remastered has many such rarity downshifts, bringing a total of 16 new cards down to common and, consequently, to Pauper.
While many of these downshifts were clearly made with Limited in mind, some have real potential to slot into some of the meta decks in the Pauper format. If recent developments like Glee Combo have taught us anything, it’s that Pauper is anything but stagnant. These newcomers are unlikely to have quite that level of impact, but they could certainly shake things up a bit.
Blue Moon
Before we begin, it’s worth noting that we won’t be covering all of the Innistrad Remastered rarity downshifts to common in this article; just the highlights. If you want to see the full range, you can check it out on Scryfall here. There’s plenty to work with for the aspiring brewers among you!
While the new white commons aren’t anything to write home about, blue got some very tasty numbers indeed. One of these is Imprisoned in the Moon, which is absolutely wild to see at common considering it was a rare originally. This card is mostly known for being a very effective answer to opposing Commanders, but it could have legs in Pauper too.
The ability to target lands makes Imprisoned in the Moon fairly unique as far as removal spells go. This makes it a possible alternative to Spreading Seas as a sideboard answer to Caw-Gates. While a fairly obscure strategy it’s still a relevant portion of the meta, and shutting off its lands pretty much wins you the game against it.
The other blue highlight here is Essence Flux. You can ignore the Spirit synergy here for the most part: we’re here for a one blue mana blink spell and nothing else. Mono-Blue Faeries is probably the best deck in Pauper right now, and this card slots into it beautifully.
The big synergy here is blinking Spellstutter Sprite, essentially making Essence Flux a one-mana Counterspell with enough Faeries out. There are other tricks too though, including locking down a creature with Snaremaster Sprite or drawing a card with Faerie Miscreant. It may prove too much of a win-more in testing, but I think Essence Flux has serious Pauper potential.
Seein’ Red
The black rarity downshifts from Innistrad Remastered, like the white, aren’t much to write home about, however, Red brings some interesting options to the table. Chief among these is Village Messenger. This is a hasty 1/1 for one, which can become a 2/2 with Menace if a player passes the turn without playing a spell.
Aggressive red decks, such as Kuldotha Red, are some of the most consistent players in Pauper currently. While there’s serious competition in the one drop slot, I think Village Messenger has a shot at making the cut in certain matchups. The available mana fixing in Pauper means a lot of decks run enters-tapped dual lands. If you can drop Messenger into one of those, a 2/2 with Menace on turn two is a huge headache for the opponent.
This isn’t guaranteed, of course, and Messenger does lack the artifact synergy we’ve come to expect from the likes of Goblin Tomb Raider and Voldaren Epicure. It’s a shaky bet at best given how tight red lists are at the moment, but I can definitely see Messenger being tested at least.
Speaking of shaky bets, Seize the Storm is a full-on swing for the fences. There’s a series of obscure Control decks in Pauper right now built around Serpentine Curve. This is a four-mana sorcery that makes a token with stats equal to the number of spells in your graveyard. Seize the Storm does the same thing but for five mana instead. Your extra investment buys your token Trample and also lets it scale with future spells added to the ‘yard. Getting an extra playset of its key card could push Serpentine Cure over the top, but at the same time, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Playing With The Big Boys Now
To close things out, let’s look at a couple of good ol’ fashioned beefy boys. Both Bramble Wurm and Abundant Maw are on the heavier side, in terms of stats and mana cost. Both also have the potential to fit into powerful existing archetypes as well.
Bramble Wurm, in particular, has Dredge players very excited. For one thing, it’s just a fantastic creature to reanimate with Exhume and the like. 7/6 is great stats, it has evasion in Trample, and it shuts down fliers thanks to Reach. It also gains you life on entry, which is huge against Aggro. If you need even more lifegain, it serves as a three mana gain five spell in the ‘yard, too, which is a nice bonus. Dredge is the most likely home for this but it also sits at that magic mana cost of seven, so Tron may well try it out.
Abundant Maw isn’t quite as exciting, but I think it still has a lot of potential. Some players have already mockingly compared this bulk Eldrazi to the legendary Siege Rhino, and there is some validity to that. In the right deck, you can cheat the bulk of the mana cost here and achieve something very similar to that Khans classic.
Like Bramble Wurm, I could see this slotting nicely into Dredge. You can swap out a Lotleth Giant for it right away via Emerge, thus stacking up a lot of burn damage in one turn. You can do the same with Gurmag Angler and Tolarian Terror, over on the Dimir side of the tracks. Basically, it’s very easy to cheat Maw out in Pauper, which makes it a great bit of extra reach for multiple strong archetypes.
