Thanks to its budget-friendly nature, Pauper is the perfect place for new players to dip their toes into competitive MTG. With so many choices, however, narrowing in on a deck to play with such a vast card pool can be a challenge. Luckily, we’ve come prepared with a list of top options. Here are the best MTG Pauper decks.
10 | Grixis Affinity
As the name implies, Grixis Affinity is designed to maximize a variety of cards that each feature the Affinity for Artifacts mechanic. With 18 artifact lands and simple trinkets like Blood Fountain and Ichor Wellspring, reducing the cost of threats like Myr Enforcer is trivial. At the same time, your efficient artifacts serve as fodder for Reckoner’s Bargain, pulling you ahead on cards.
With this in mind, Grixis Affinity does an excellent job churning through its library. This puts it in a great position to out-grind decks like Dimir Faeries that fail to apply tons of early pressure. While you do risk getting run over by Mono-Red Rally and other go-wide beatdown strategies, Krark-Clan Shaman can bail you out.
Admittedly, though, Affinity is far from the Boogeyman of the format it used to be. A long stream of bans over the years to powerhouses like Sojourner’s Companion and Deadly Dispute ultimately lowered the deck’s potential for explosive draws. This makes it harder to race opposing combo archetypes.
Combined with the deck’s natural weakness to artifact hate cards like Dust to Dust, it’s safe to say Grixis Affinity has taken a step back. Still, the deck continues to put up some strong results in the hands of good pilots.
9 | Dimir Faeries
Dimir Faeries is the current go-to tempo deck in MTG Pauper. The goal is to get on board with cheap creatures, then back up your pressure with counterspells. Spellstutter Sprite is particularly important to this game plan since it doubles as a threat and piece of interaction. Once you start resetting it with your Ninjas, your opponent is in a lot of trouble.
While the Mono-Blue variant of the Faeries archetype also sees some play, Dimir Faeries has the advantage of leaning on efficient black removal like Snuff Out. Black also gives you access to Mukotai Ambusher, which provides a steady stream of life gain versus red aggro.
On the flip side, though, this deck plays a lot less creatures than the Mono-Blue version, which is problematic against big mana decks like Tron. Similarly, the incremental advantages Dimir Faeries gains from Augur of Bolas and its Ninjas can easily be outdone by Mulldrifter out of Jeskai Ephemerate. In this sense, Dimir Faeries does have its weaknesses, but it’s still a decent deck choice.
8 | Mono-White Aggro
Mono-White Aggro may just look like a pile of creatures, but it presents a surprisingly versatile gameplan. On one hand, this deck does a great job going wide, especially with draws involving Battle Screech. When combined with Guardian’s Pledge, Mono-White Aggro can deliver a relatively fast kill.
At the same time, though, what sets this deck apart from other assertive strategies is its grinding potential. Novice Inspector and Thraben Inspector do a lot of the heavy lifting, providing a steady stream of Clues to crack. Coupled with Kor Skyfisher and Leonardo, Big Brother to rebuy them, you’ll never run out of gas.
As such, Mono-White Aggro has what it takes to defend itself and turn the corner versus Mono-Red Rally, while also grinding through the spot removal of Dimir Faeries. White also provides some of the best sideboard cards, like Martyr of Sands versus burn strategies. The main thing holding this deck back is its lack of disruption for combo decks and its vulnerability to board wipes, but there’s still plenty of upside to playing it.
7 | Spy Combo
Centered around the all-powerful Balustrade Spy, Spy Combo is a bit of a convoluted strategy. This deck typically only plays four lands in the maindeck, which can be found with Land Grant and Landcyclers like Generous Ent. The rest of the deck is primarily made up of mana-producing creatures like Overgrown Battlement, as well as Winding Way and Lead the Stampede to find them.
Once you manage to get all of the lands out of your deck, casting Balustrade Spy enables you to Mill your whole library. By Milling Dread Return, Lotleth Giant, and a fistful of creatures, you can simply resurrect the Giant to deal lethal to your opponent in one fell swoop! This strategy sets up turn four kills surprisingly consistently, which many decks like Tron and Golgari Gardens simply can’t race.
The downside to playing this deck is that you’ll always have to be prepared to face down graveyard hate. Having access to a playset of Masked Vandal helps a lot, but you’ll need to find an answer to Nihil Spellbomb or Relic of Progenitus before you can combo off. This deck can also struggle against counterspells, but the presence of Mesmeric Fiend at least gives you the opportunity to fight through them.
6 | Naya Gates
Naya Gates is centered around the land Basilisk Gate, which alongside other Gates, is capable of providing a big buff to any of your creatures. While this ability doesn’t help when blocking, it can still provide an enormous life cushion during attacks when paired with Sacred Cat or Outlaw Medic. With Prismatic Strands as a protective element, these tools give you inevitability against red aggro decks.
While this alone is extremely appealing in the current context of Pauper, Naya Gates also has what it takes to dominate long games against removal-heavy decks. This is made possible by Sneaky Snacker, which when coupled with Pursue the Past or Melded Moxite, can repeatedly come back from your graveyard for free. This makes it easy to overload your opponent’s answers and set up a lethal Gate activation.
Ultimately, Naya Gates is designed to crush the fair decks of the format. The problem is that its slow closing speed is a big problem against Tron. This deck’s reliance on maintaining a high Gate count makes the land destruction elements out of Gruul Ponza an issue as well. This swingy matchup spread is certainly awkward, but there’s no doubt this deck has the potential to be an elite metacall.
5 | Tron
The primary objective when playing Tron in Pauper is to get all three different “Urza’s” lands into play as quickly as possible. Land tutors like Expedition Map and Crop Rotation help the cause significantly. Once Tron is assembled, you’ll be able to use your massive mana advantage to cast monsters like Maelstrom Colossus and Pinnacle Kill-Ship ahead of schedule.
Against slower strategies, these haymakers do a great job providing inevitability. Then, to help combat the red decks, many Tron lists are leaning on some life-gaining top-end creatures like Bramble Wurm and Boulderbranch Golem.
As good as Tron is, though, it’s extremely weak to land destruction. This makes the Ponza matchup a nightmare, and means you’ll have to be on your toes against any deck that might sideboard in Molten Rain. Luckily, land destruction isn’t super popular at the moment, which is a big reason why the deck remains popular and cracks our top five.
4 | Mono-Red Rally
With a whopping 16 one-drop red creatures in the deck, getting on board early is never an issue for Mono-Red Rally. From there, this deck can use the one-two punch of Burning-Tree Emissary and Rally at the Hornburg, enabling a wide attack for a lot of damage all at once. Throw in Goblin Bushwhacker and some burn spells to finish the opponent off, and you’re golden.
Naturally, this deck’s biggest strength is its explosiveness. This deck is built to race most decks in game one, and is especially strong against slower decks like Tron that lack interaction. Unfortunately, while it’s gameplan is streamlined, it’s weak to efficient board wipes like Breath Weapon and Suffocating Fumes. These sideboard cards have grown in popularity recently, which ultimately keeps this deck from top three status.
3 | Jund Wildfire
At its core, Jund Wildfire is a midrange deck built to gain incremental advantages. The deck gets its name from Cleansing Wildfire, which, when targeting your own Indestructible Bridges, acts as a ramp spell and cantrip. This sets you up to make strong plays ahead of schedule, like casting Writhing Chrysalis turn three to brick wall aggro decks.
Much like Affinity, Jund Wildfire utilizes an artifact package to maximize Fanatical Offering and Krark-Clan Shaman. By not leaning too heavily into the artifact theme, however, this deck is much less vulnerable to hate cards.
In a similar vein to traditional Jund from the good old days of Modern, Jund Wildfire has a lot of close matchups, and it’s up to the pilot to navigate them well. The deck can be weak to big mana decks like Tron that go way over the top, though, which is why it doesn’t beat out either of our top two picks. Still, with wins at Paupergeddon and the most recent Magic Online Pauper Showcase Challenge, Jund Wildfire continues to show off its chops.
2 | Mono-Blue Terror
Mono-Blue Terror has emerged as a Pauper mainstay, and is undoubtedly one of the strongest decks to play. During the early turns of the game, you’re mostly looking to cast a boatload of cantrips like Brainstorm and Ponder. These spells give you a great shot to find Tolarian Terror or Cryptic Serpent in a timely manner, while simultaneously lowering their casting costs.
Any deck relying on damage-based removal will struggle to get these beefy bodies off the board. Tolarian Terror’s Ward ability can also shut off some hard removal if your opponent doesn’t have enough lands in play. While Edict effects like Tithing Blade can theoretically be annoying, it isn’t that hard to cast multiple threats with Counterspell backup.
Even hate cards like Relic of Progenitus are easily beatable by simply overloading their activations with Mental Note and Thought Scour. The only thing truly keeping this deck from earning our top spot is its lack of removal, which can be a problem against threats like Guttersnipe that sneak past counter magic. Regardless, given how consistent Mono-Blue Terror is, it’s hard to imagine the deck falling out of favor anytime soon, barring a ban.
1 | Mono-Red Snacker
While red burn decks have always seen play in Pauper, Mono-Red Snacker is a whole different animal. By utilizing Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize and Highway Robbery, this deck has ample ways to discard and resurrect Sneaky Snacker. With the help of Lava Dart, Lightning Bolt, and Fiery Temper to remove opposing creatures, you can easily win long games versus Jund Wildfire.
As you continue to churn through your deck, though, the threat of Guttersnipe looms for the opponent. Thanks to free spells like Fireblast and Lava Dart, you’ll often be able to cast Guttersnipe and kill your opponent without ever exposing the three-drop to removal. Beating life gain cards like Weather the Storm also gets a lot easier with Guttersnipe’s ability in the mix.
Still, this doesn’t mean Mono-Red Snacker is foolproof. Fighting through Prismatic Strands and Thraben Charm out of Naya Gates, for example, can be a pain. Regardless, there’s no denying that this deck’s power level is sky high. While it dodged a Sneaky Snacker ban this past Monday, if this deck continues its reign of terror, a ban may be inevitable.
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