The Power of Pauper: Less Data, More Problems
Howdy folks! It's time yet again for another edition of The Power of Pauper! I'm your host, Joe Dyer, and this week we're going to be talking about a major MTGO decklist change and how it relates to Pauper. In addition, we're covering last week's Challenges.
Without further ado, let's dive right in!
Major MTGO Decklist Data Change - This is BAD for Pauper!
This past Tuesday there was an update on the MTGO blog surrounding a new change in how decklists would be published via the MTGO website. I'm just going to be perfectly blunt about this one: this is bad news for Pauper.
In general, most Pauper events range anywhere from 40-ish to 60ish players, with only a scant few events cracking 65 players or more. What really exacerbates this attendance is that many of these events dip in attendance when Pauper is no longer one of the Premier Play formats for a season (right now that third format is Vintage, but Pauper will be the third format in Season 2). What this means is that generally on average, most Pauper Challenge events will from now on only be posting the Top 8 of the event.
This is absolutely incredibly bad for Pauper from a deck diversity standpoint from the outside looking in, but for people looking for decks to play or to possibly brew within the format, this makes it even more difficult to get a read on the overall metagame to even begin thinking about how to brew something for the format. It also heavily disadvantages players who don't have a testing resource of some sort or access to a ton of inside knowledge of the format. When it comes to formats like Pauper that are functionally Eternal formats (I consider Pauper an Eternal format because while it is only commons, it is literally every common printed in the game outside of what's on the banned list and that makes it Eternal) more data is better than limited data. It allows folks to watch for trends in the metagame and allows players to pick their shot to poke a hole where there might not be one before, and more data overall levels the playing field across all players. If all players have access to the same information, then the baseline level for everyone is a lot more equal, and then player skill accounts for those players who maybe understand the data little better or have raw skills to manage gameplay.
Since I published this in both my Legacy and Vintage articles this week, there was a response on this given by Daybreak Games stating that this was a joint decision come to by them and Studio X (modern day Wizards R&D) over the function of solved metagames and metagames as puzzles. I don't think this is a very good explanation personally, as doing this especially for formats like Pauper will only have the completely opposite effect. This is worse, not more interesting or challenging, or even more fun. It's just straight up bad.
If you think this is bad, I highly recommend you not only join the MTGO Discord and provide clear and concise thoughts (and be respectful!) on the subject, but also make sure you are talking to others via social media and posting about this issue. This affects way more than just Pauper, this affects literally everyone using the platform. I have seen plenty instances of players coming to the MTGO Discord stating that this change will actively make them not play MTGO going forward, and while that may seem extreme to some, it makes sense and is one way of showing discomfort or displeasure with this kind of change. I did a video on the subject on Tuesday after the change was announced. I'm embedding it below so that people can watch and share and tag.
Pauper Challenge 32 2/12/2026
The first Challenge event of the week was the Thursday event. This event had 44 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Dredge | 1st | seasonofmists |
| Mono Red Madness | 2nd | MisterTwin |
| Grixis Affinity | 3rd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Izzet Faeries | 4th | LoveCrayons |
| Elves | 5th | jessy_samek |
| Mono Blue Terror | 6th | Luminati |
| Jund Wildfire | 7th | Walker735 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 8th | Bawer |
Not a hateful Top 8 at least. At the end of the event it was Dredge that won.
Pretty solid looking list overall here. Rubblebelt Maverick is a sweet card that lets you not only surveil, but also can be a boost to a creature later on in the game.
In Second Place we had Mono Red Madness.
Very clean and incredibly aggressive list here. I especially enjoy how much sideboard space is devoted to your blue matchups. Seven blast effects is quite a lot.
Further down the event, and a list we would not see under the new change for the final time is Tron.
Unfathomable Truths is kind of a sweet card, especially if you're like... Mnemonic Wall'ing it back and you get to just keep drawing cards and making Eldrazi. Mysidian Elder is also pretty clever as a way to win the game without having to turn creatures sideways. I really kinda wanna build Tron in paper, and this looks like a sweet version to try.
Pauper Challenge 32 2/13/2026
The second Challenge event of the week was the Friday event. This event had 51 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Blue Terror | 1st | Tsubasa_Cat |
| Mono Red Madness | 2nd | MisterTwin |
| Azorius Gates | 3rd | AlessandroPiraccini |
| Mono Red Madness | 4th | NMT_Sco94 |
| Familiars | 5th | TSPJendrek |
| Izzet Terror | 6th | Kampo |
| Jund Wildfire | 7th | EiJunCHN |
| Mono Red Rally | 8th | boom_bust |
This is actually a pretty reasonably diverse Top 8 at least. At the end of the event it was Mono Blue Terror that won.
Exceedingly clean and simple as can be. The game plan of this deck is pretty simple. Keep your opponent off balance with counterspells and keep the cards flowing with cantrips while either protecting or deploying major threats to close the game out. Classic Tempo for sure.
In Second Place we had Mono Red Madness.
Pretty much the same list that did well in the previous event. Not much to really say here.
Further down the event we had Mono Black Sacrifice.
Ashen-Skin Zubera in the sideboard here is kind of sweet, especially when you consider effects like Supernatural Stamina and stuff that returns the creature back to play, you can get some multiple sacrifices out of this and get your opponent to discard a bunch of cards.
Pauper Challenge 32 2/14/2026
The third Challenge event of the week was the Saturday event. This event had 45 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 8 decklists for this event here. For some weird reason MTGGoldfish imported this event without any decklists, so there is that. Because of this issue I won't be directly covering any decklists for this event, but you can review the Top 8 as needed.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Golgari Gardens | 1st | __Noob__ |
| Grixis Affinity | 2nd | LuffyDoChapeuDePalha |
| Mono White Aggro | 3rd | Deodato |
| Mono Red Madness | 4th | Mahers |
| Azorius Gates | 5th | Hetara_Ane |
| Gruul Ponza | 6th | ixidor29 |
| Mono Blue Terror | 7th | FF7 |
| Mono Red Madness | 8th | SYNS |
Pauper Challenge 32 2/15/2026
The final Challenge event of the week was the Sunday event. This event had 51 players in it thanks to the MTGO website.
You can find the Top 32 decklists for this event here.
| Deck Name | Placing | MTGO Username |
|---|---|---|
| Mono Blue Terror | 1st | Luminati |
| Azorius Gates | 2nd | HelioLima |
| Mono Red Rally | 3rd | vini_torres |
| Walls Combo | 4th | Stamford |
| Jund Wildfire | 5th | _blaze66 |
| Mono Red Rally | 6th | boom_bust |
| Dredge | 7th | seasonofmists |
| Boros Moxite | 8th | viashinoperuano |
This is also a pretty reasonable looking Top 8. At the end of the event it was also Mono Blue Terror that won.
This particular list has a bit of a more flexibly designed sideboard to it. I love Murmuring Mystic as a Pauper card, so it's nice to see it there.
In Second Place we had Azorius Gates.
Pure Azorius with no red splash for sideboard cards is kind of interesting. It does give up some cards in the sideboard but I think you make up for it with other cards. Celestial Flare is sweet, and so is Standard Bearer.
Also in this Top 8 we had Walls Combo.
A pair of Sunscape Familiar is kind of an interesting treat here. I get it, because it makes everything green or blue cost less and most of the cards in the deck are predominantly green. That kind of cost reduction does do quite a bit being able to be ahead on mana.
Around the Web
- Walker735 has a video on their Pauper Challenge win with Jund. Check it out here.
- Our good friend Alex Ullman posted about the Decklist change on MTGO as well. Check it out here.
The Spice Corner
As League results are now spread out across the week, let's dig in and find something spicy!
Naya Gates is one I haven't seen in a hot minute. This deck definitely used to be a lot more present in the metagame.
Wrapping Up
That's all the time we have this week folks! Thanks for continuing to support the column and join us next week as we continue our journey into Pauper!
As always you can reach me at all my associated links via my Link Tree! In addition I'm always around the MTGGoldfish Discord Server and the MTGPauper Discord Server.
Until next time!
