We didn't get a moment to take a breath after the Commander Legends and Kaldheim releases, and already the metagame saw another shakeup because of Strixhaven. Now Modern Horizons 2 is poised to change the format in major ways yet again. All signs point to Pauper entering a new combo era.
In my three-years adventure with Pauper, I haven't seen such variety and quickly evolving meta before. And I love it.
Back in 2019, what went down in Pauper history as the infamous "Blue Monday"—the banning of , , and —had killed the most competitive combo strategy of the format: plus . Following that, the only representative of the archetype left in the field was based on . For a long time, combo players got no good replacement, until Wonder Walls entered the stage. And Wonder Walls remained largely alone—till now.
The last expansions were groundbreaking for Pauper, and a lot of new archetypes have emerged. What's most important for this article—there are new competitors for Pauper's combo team. It looks like the format is experiencing a combo renaissance.
Wonder Walls
Let's start with the most popular one. Recently, it evolved with the help of cascade cards, and most successful players have now moved the combo pieces to the sideboard. The introduction of big chonky boys in Commander Legends gave this archetype the flexibility it always needed. The deck focuses on fast acceleration, a big (or infinite) amount of mana, and spending it on or . Between cascade, , , and the combo is easy to find and relatively simple: to generate infinite mana, we need with / and a few other defenders. It's not the only way to go off, but it's probably the simplest of them.
| Wonder Walls (Ramp Version) by HouseOfManaMTG, 4-0 at Pauper Preliminary #12287841 |
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| Main Deck | Sideboard |
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| - 4
- 4
- 4
- 1
- 1
- 2
- 4
- 4
- 4
- 4
- 3
- 2
- 1
- 1
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| Wonder Walls (Combo Version) by Kirblinxy, 16th at Pauper Challenge #12282966 |
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| Main Deck | Sideboard |
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| - 4
- 4
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 4
- 4
- 2
- 1
- 1
- 2
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Moggwarts
This is the freshest addition to the format. It first emerged as a fun, rogue idea based on a new card from Strixhaven——but quickly became the hottest deck when everyone realized it can compete with the top of the meta. Again, Moggwarts is not necessarily a straightforward combo deck. Depending on the version, it can center on the combo or play as an aggro deck with an option for infinite mana/damage. The infinite loop is pretty simple. Step one is to have a sacrifice engine on board, for mana or for infinite enter the battlefield/sacrifice triggers or to make one of your Goblins as big as you want to win via combat. Then, play and . This enables you to sacrifice any number of times. You can trigger for lethal or use as a sink for your infinite mana. The aggro variant is fast enough even without the combination, and going infinite is not always necessary. The combo variant focuses mostly on gathering the combo pieces as soon as possible.
| Moggwarts (Combo Version) by Hamuda, 2nd at Pauper Challenge #12291648 |
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| Main Deck | Sideboard |
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| Moggwarts (Combo Version) by pepeisra, 6th at Pauper Challenge #12291648 |
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| Main Deck | Sideboard |
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Petal Festival
I'm not going to lie—this deck is complicated. But that's what the combo players like the most, right? I had to ask the inventor of it and a friend of mine for a quick explanation what is going on. First, make a land that generates at least four mana including three blue. Then, go through your deck with cantrips, or , and always splice onto each to keep generating mana. With enough extra mana, you can use to mill your opponent and point at them to force them to draw cards at zero. Even if it's not versatile like the examples before, Petal Festival definitely deserves a place on the list of the most interesting and strongest combo decks of the format.
| Petal Festival by saidin.rake, 3-1 at Pauper Preliminary #12287841 |
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| Main Deck | Sideboard |
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A Word on Chatterstorm
Personally, I didn't play during the era of storm dominance when and were legal in Pauper. However, stories from friends and the decklists people have already built with have me extremely worried. Depending on the build, greedy lists can kill as early as the second turn, and the consistent ones around the third and fourth. I want to present three approaches—red-green, blue-red, and black-red, all from distinguished members of the Pauper community. One of them may turn out to be close to what will emerge as the optimal build. At the very least, they should provide a good starting point to everyone who wants to join the Squirrel storm.
| R/G Squirrel Storm by PonderousCZ |
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| U/R Squirrel Storm by frucile |
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| B/R Squirrel Storm by Pascal3000 |
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To sum up, Pauper is in a great state right now, with lots of brand-new and fresh ideas from recent expansions. And the combo family is not alone in benefiting. The upcoming Modern Horizons 2 will likely be full of poweful commons. It's a great time to be a Pauper player, and even better times are in sight. Thanks for reading, and keep Paupin!
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.
