We continue to explore The Lost Caverns of Ixalan. Does this artifact herald the return of one former bogeyman of the format? It looks like it does! One of the most prolific Tron players made the Top 8 of a recent event and is vouching for the card. It's time to bring Fog Tron back onto the map!
In Pauper there are three different flavors of Tron: Fog Tron, Altar Tron, and Monster Tron. These last two want to assemble , , and as soon as possible and then combo off or cast big creature after big creature. Fog Tron is different. The deck is control based with a loop that soft-locks the opponent until the game is won by or beats.
During the first turns the goal is to get colored mana to answer the early threats coming from the opponent. Despite running the twelve Tron lands, most of the deck is Bant based and the colors absolutely need to be fixed or no spell will be cast. The most important card in that regard is . At first glance it does look rather clunky to jump through all these hoops just to filter, but that's the beauty of .
sits at the center of a toolbox. It can tutor any of the answers, and because it can also find cards with flash, the recently printed joins that toolbox. Need to deal with a big board? Search for or . Is Burn being too fast? Tutor . Need to bring back one of your creatures? . Need a counterspell? There are plenty. And if nothing in particular needs to be found, one can do the classic Teachings for Teachings to generate the most value. With all the mana coming from the Tron lands, one can easily cast two Teachings in a single turn.
By turns four and five the deck should be looking to assemble the interactions of with either or . The latter is a loop in itself and will net an instant or sorcery every turn. Flicker requires an extra Mnemonic Wall to loop but then yields so many spells per turn. As the whole deck is a toolbox with broad answers, everything from the opposing deck will be either countered, or just . You can also Flicker a Wall and to bounce every single permanent from your opponent, like a whose buyback is paid through the Mnemonic Wall.
is an intriguing addition and seems to check every box of what the deck needs for this new era of Pauper. Cycling means it won't ever be a dead card. It can kill all the relevant creatures of the format, including . And it can be to serve as a recurring removal, relevant against decks. The cost is high but it appears to be the improvement to bring the deck back to the meta.
Heisen01 tweeted about his results and about the card in particular. Considering the deck saw little play for a while, its return with two Boulders is quite exciting, especially when played by one of the top Fog Tron players. I'm ready to sleeve it up again!
| Fog Tron by Heisen01, 5th at Pauper Challenge, November 18
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.
