Over the past year or so, I've been giving a bit less attention to Pauper in my content barring the occasional set review and the like. This has largely been a result of me playing a wider array of formats than just Pauper and wanting to discuss formats like Standard, Pioneer, and Modern as they're relevant for their respective Regional Championship season. That said, I've been wanting to do a little more to showcase the best budget competitive Magic format around and what better way to do that than by showcasing what the format looks like right now?

Today I'm going to be looking at ten of the top decks in the current Pauper metagame and seeing how things are looking nowadays. This can provide a broad overview for players looking to get into the format so they can see if anything appeals to them. It is worth noting that this run down won't be entirely comprehensive, and as such several decks like Familiars, Bogles, Walls Combo, Tron, and various Glint Hawk/Kor Skyfisher decks are left out. I encourage you to look around because while this article is covering some of the top archetypes, there's still plenty of great stuff to find out there for you to enjoy! Additionally, in covering so many lists, it's hard to go too in-depth explaining them, so I'll mostly be providing brief overviews on each of these decks.

There's tons of powerful decks to cover so let's dive right in and get started on discussing them!

Broodscale Combo

Jund Broodscale Combo | Pauper | Terminus0, 1st Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Evolution Witness
• 1 Krark-Clan Shaman
• 4 Basking Broodscale
• 4 Writhing Chrysalis

• Instants (9)
• 2 Eviscerator's Insight
• 3 Tamiyo's Safekeeping
• 4 Deadly Dispute

• Sorceries (10)
• 3 Duress
• 3 Malevolent Rumble
• 4 Cleansing Wildfire

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Makeshift Munitions
• 4 Sadistic Glee

• Artifacts (5)
• 2 Chromatic Star
• 3 Ichor Wellspring

• Lands (20)
• 1 Mountain
• 4 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 3 Twisted Landscape
• 4 Drossforge Bridge
• 4 Slagwoods Bridge

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Pyroblast
• 2 Troublemaker Ouphe
• 3 Breath Weapon
• 4 Snuff Out
• 4 Weather the Storm

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Basking Broodscale is easily the biggest addition to the Pauper format thanks to Modern Horizons 3. Several other cards have proven to be quite strong in a variety of decks, but the combination of Basking Broodscale with Sadistic Glee has not only enabled an entirely new deck, but also one that frequently crushes the competition. The reason for this is that the pair of cards goes infinite, as you make an eldrazi spawn token by adapting Broodscale, then sacrifice it to put a counter on Broodscale, which makes an eldrazi spawn token, and you loop it from there.

Thanks to this interaction, it enables you to create an infinitely large creature that you can attack with and win the game. Even if your opponent has a blocker, though, you can also make infinite mana then start sacrificing the tokens to Makeshift Munitions to win the game. If all else fails, you can make multiple massive creatures with the other powerful Modern Horizons 3 addition in Writhing Chrysalis or utilize Evolution Witness with Sadistic Glee to repeatedly return permanents to your hand. All of this is to say that this deck has plenty of versatility that gives it lasting power at all points in the game, making it one of the best things you can be doing in the format right now.

Grixis Affinity

Grixis Affinity | Pauper | PedraStone, 1st Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (12)
• 1 Kenku Artificer
• 3 Krark-Clan Shaman
• 4 Myr Enforcer
• 4 Refurbished Familiar

• Instants (16)
• 2 Cast Down
• 2 Toxin Analysis
• 4 Deadly Dispute
• 4 Galvanic Blast
• 4 Reckoner's Bargain

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Thoughtcast

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Makeshift Munitions

• Artifacts (9)
• 2 Nihil Spellbomb
• 3 Blood Fountain
• 4 Ichor Wellspring

• Lands (19)
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Great Furnace
• 2 Seat of the Synod
• 3 Silverbluff Bridge
• 3 Vault of Whispers
• 4 Drossforge Bridge
• 4 Mistvault Bridge

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Cast Down
• 2 Gorilla Shaman
• 2 Red Elemental Blast
• 3 Breath Weapon
• 3 Pyroblast
• 4 Blue Elemental Blast

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One of the most classic Pauper decks around, Affinity has gained tremendous amounts of power over the past few years. This not only has stemmed from the printing of bridges, Deadly Dispute, and Blood Fountain, but also the recent Modern Horizons 3 addition of Refurbished Familiar replacing long time classic Frogmite. One other particularly notable inclusion from the last year is Toxin Analysis, a card that doesn't seem like very much at first glance. However, when paired with the powerful Krark-Clan Shaman, it spells certain doom for the entire board and gives you tons of life in the process.

As a result of all these awesome cards, Affinity has proven to be packed with powerful threats. While the deck often feels a bit less explosive than the Atog days, it's still quite possible to get some wild draws that spit out rapid fire Myr Enforcers. Many games tend to lean slower and grinder, turning current builds of Affinity into more of a midrange deck than the aggro decks of old. If you'd like to play a strong and resilient deck that plays off a classic archetype, this is one for you!

Kuldotha Red

Kuldotha Red | Pauper | DaMuGa-Murcia, 3rd Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (21)
• 1 Reckless Lackey
• 4 Clockwork Percussionist
• 4 Goblin Blast-Runner
• 4 Goblin Bushwhacker
• 4 Goblin Tomb Raider
• 4 Voldaren Epicure

• Instants (8)
• 4 Lightning Bolt
• 4 Galvanic Blast

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Goblin Grenade
• 4 Kuldotha Rebirth

• Artifacts (9)
• 1 Inventor's Axe
• 4 Experimental Synthesizer
• 4 Implement of Combustion

• Lands (17)
• 13 Mountain
• 4 Great Furnace

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Pyroblast
• 2 Red Elemental Blast
• 4 Electrickery
• 4 Gorilla Shaman
• 4 Relic of Progenitus

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Speaking of classic archetypes, few things are as classic to Constructed Magic as aggressive Red decks. They're extremely prevalent in almost every format the game has to offer, providing cheap and easy to play decks with respectable power levels. For a long time, this was represented by Burn in Pauper. While many people continue to refer to the current brand of the deck as Burn thanks to its multiple Lightning Bolt-esque spells, it's a bit different than your typical Burn deck.

Most Burn decks in the past were just play as many Bolt effects as possible while also playing creatures that made your damage dealing spells go further. This was done by utilizing cards such as Thermo-Alchemist, Firebrand Archer, and Kessig Flamebreather. These days, these cards are far less relied upon (though you sometimes run into them in lists) with the focus pushing through fast creature damage. This is achieved by playing lots of cheap, early artifacts to make optimal use of Goblin Tomb Raider and Kuldotha Rebirth to then fire off a Goblin Bushwhacker for a massive killing blow. If you want a super aggressive deck to get into the format, particularly if you've been piloting Red Aggro decks on MTG Arena or the like, this is a great starting point for the format.

Tolarian Terror Builds

Mono-Blue Terror | Pauper | Beicodegeia, 2nd Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Murmuring Mystic
• 4 Cryptic Serpent
• 4 Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration
• 4 Tolarian Terror

• Instants (22)
• 2 Consider
• 2 Dispel
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Mental Note
• 4 Thought Scour

• Sorceries (9)
• 2 Deep Analysis
• 3 Deem Inferior
• 4 Lorien Revealed

• Lands (16)
• 16 Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Echoing Truth
• 1 Murmuring Mystic
• 1 Sleep of the Dead
• 2 Blue Elemental Blast
• 2 Steel Sabotage
• 4 Annul
• 4 Hydroblast

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For many years, one of the best things you could be doing in the format was various Delver of Secrets builds. One such build that was quite popular was Angler Delver, a deck that functioned by utilizing self-mill draw spells alongside removal and countermagic to control the game long enough that you could cast a large Gurmag Angler thanks to delve. This was frequently seen as one of the worse builds of Delver of the time, though thanks to the printing of Tolarian Terror in Dominaria United a few years ago, the archetype has seen a significant resurgence.

Initial builds of Tolarian Terror decks were far more Dimir leaning, owing to the fact that you could reliably cast both the Terror and Gurmag Angler. 2023 proved to be a serious boon for the archetype, however, thanks to the printing of Cryptic Serpent in Commander Masters. This allowed the deck to eschew the second color and lean into the Mono-Blue angle instead. Other cards printed in close proximity, such as Murmuring Mystic and Lorien Revealed, helped make this a top deck in the format with one being a potent payoff and the other allowing powerful versatility in play.

Speaking of versatility, it should be noted that while the Mono-Blue Terror builds tend to be considered the most powerful right now, they're far from the only builds. Just because many lists dropped Black to go Mono-Blue doesn't mean that the Dimir lists don't continue to exist. They're just as powerful and are in close proximity in terms of raw strength. Additionally, Izzet Terror builds also exist, taking advantage of powerful Red spells like Skred, Breath Weapon, and Cast into the Fire to deal with opposing threats. All this is to say that there are many ways to play with this core, providing players who like the idea of playing massive threats for cheap to go nuts.

Mono-Blue Faeries

Mono-Blue Faeries | Pauper | BuddyTheFrog, 1st Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (24)
• 4 Brinebarrow Intruder
• 4 Faerie Miscreant
• 4 Faerie Seer
• 4 Moon-Circuit Hacker
• 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours
• 4 Spellstutter Sprite

• Instants (18)
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 4 Counterspell
• 4 Mutagenic Growth
• 4 Of One Mind
• 4 Snap

• Lands (18)
• 18 Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Blue Elemental Blast
• 3 Annul
• 3 Relic of Progenitus
• 3 Steel Sabotage
• 4 Hydroblast

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Alternatively, you can always take up the classic approach at a more tempo-oriented gameplan. Tolarian Terror may be powerful, but it's not always the best Mono-Blue deck out there. Mono-Blue Faeries has proven to be one of the highest win percentage archetypes of late, allowing it to shine as an underdog against the top three decks of the meta.

There's far less to say about this deck compared to most of the others on this list, as it's changed the least with recent new cards. This was originally the classic Mono-Blue Delver list, utilizing cheap faeries like Faerie Miscreant and Faerie Seer alongside Spellstutter Sprite to draw the cards you need and counter your opponents. You then return these faeries to your hand with the help of Ninja of the Deep Hours and Moon-Circuit Hacker to generate even more value while utilizing bounce spells (Snap), Counterspells, and pumps (Mutagenic Growth) to stop your opponent's gameplan. Sometimes the oldies don't change much because they're just that potent, and even without the old namesake of Delver of Secrets, this deck is still as excellent as it ever was!

White Weenies

White Weenies | Pauper | Bong0411, 7th Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (27)
• 1 Steadfast Unicorn
• 1 Suture Priest
• 2 Eagles of the North
• 3 Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom
• 4 Kor Skyfisher
• 4 Militia Bugler
• 4 Novice Inspector
• 4 Raffine's Informant
• 4 Thraben Inspector

• Instants (10)
• 3 Guardians' Pledge
• 3 Prismatic Strands
• 4 Thraben Charm

• Sorceries (4)
• 4 Battle Screech

• Lands (19)
• 17 Plains
• 2 Idyllic Grange

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Prismatic Strands
• 3 Coalition Honor Guard
• 3 Destroy Evil
• 4 Dust to Dust
• 4 Revoke Existence

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Players have tried for years to make White Weenies a thing in Pauper, and it seems we've finally hit the point where it's good gain. This past year has been a real renaissance for the archetype, seeing quite a bit of play with tons of new cards like Raffine's Informant and Eagles of the North benefitting its core strategy. Perhaps the biggest pushes for it, however, were the printing of Novice Inspector - a functional reprint of the mighty Thraben Inspector - and the incredibly versatile Thraben Charm. There isn't a whole ton to say about this one, as the core game plan largely amounts to playing lots of small aggressive creatures and then casting a Guardians' Pledge to blow your opponents out and demolish their life totals.

Gruul Ramp/Ponza

Gruul Ramp | Pauper | Captain_Tsubasa, 12th Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (27)
• 3 Nyxborn Hydra
• 4 Arbor Elf
• 4 Avenging Hunter
• 4 Boarding Party
• 4 Eldrazi Repurposer
• 4 Jewel Thief
• 4 Writhing Chrysalis

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Malevolent Rumble
• 4 You Meet in a Tavern

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Utopia Sprawl
• 4 Wild Growth

• Lands (17)
• 1 Forest
• 2 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 14 Snow-Covered Forest

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Gorilla Shaman
• 2 Weather the Storm
• 3 Breath Weapon
• 4 Deglamer
• 4 Vines of Vastwood

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If you're not a fan of going small, can I interest you in going tall instead? Gruul Ramp, as the name implies, utilizes cheap ramp spells to spit out huge creatures fast. This is best achieved utilizing copies of Utopia Sprawl and Wild Growth, putting them on single Forests and untapping them with Arbor Elf. In doing so, you can generate absurd amounts of mana fast to then put out big threats like Writhing Chrysalis and Avenging Hunter.

While most current lists are sticking more to the ramp plan, there are other similar builds out there that are additionally taking advantage of the Ponza plan. This version of the deck utilizes the quick mana it generates to cast copies of spells like Thermokarst and Mwonvuli Acid-Moss to blow up opponents' lands. This slows them down enough that you can beat them down more easily in a fairly unopposed manner. This version is currently less popular, but is nevertheless something you should be prepared for if you find yourself up against a Gruul Ramp deck.

Turbo Fog

Turbo Fog | Pauper | HoldTheElle, 10th Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (2)
• 2 Crypt Rats

• Instants (22)
• 1 Darkness
• 1 Reckoner's Bargain
• 1 Respite
• 1 Toxin Analysis
• 2 Fanatical Offering
• 2 Weather the Storm
• 3 Eviscerator's Insight
• 3 Tangle
• 4 Deadly Dispute
• 4 Moment's Peace

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Stream of Thought

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Trespasser's Curse

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Heaped Harvest
• 3 Campfire
• 3 Lembas
• 4 Ichor Wellspring

• Lands (22)
• 1 Forest
• 4 Swamp
• 1 Basilisk Gate
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Golgari Rot Farm
• 3 Khalni Garden
• 3 Manor Gate
• 4 Black Dragon Gate
• 4 Heap Gate

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Snuff Out
• 1 Weather the Storm
• 2 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Troublemaker Ouphe
• 3 Coalition Honor Guard
• 3 Liquify
• 3 Pyroblast

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If you've ever found yourself facing off against a Turbo Fog deck, you know that there's only one word appropriate enough to describe it: pain. These decks aim to completely lock opponents out of the game by preventing the combat phase from being a viable win condition. Turbo Fog comes and goes depending on if the metagame is more aggro focused or not, and with several major decks being combat focused, it's a pretty good opportunity for it to make a comeback.

Past builds of Turbo Fog have been more Simic-based, winning the game by milling out their opponents with not just Fog spells but also the likes of Arcane Denial, Words of Wisdom, and Jace's Erasure. This deck foregoes that line of thinking and instead opts to have the Turbo Fog pilot draw repeatedly with Deadly Dispute variants to hit your Fog effects and then use Campfire to shuffle your graveyard back into your deck. The aforementioned Campfire - as well as Lembas - helps you keep your life total up for you to also utilize Crypt Rats to sweep opponents' boards as well as their life totals.

This deck notably won two back to back Pauper Challenges on Magic Online in the start of December last month, so this is a solid dark horse pick if you're looking for a challenging list to pilot.

Dredge

Dredge | Pauper | marzaboi, 9th Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (31)
• 3 Blanchwood Prowler
• 4 Circle of the Land Druid
• 4 Generous Ent
• 4 Lotleth Troll
• 4 Satyr Wayfinder
• 4 Scrapwork Mutt
• 4 Stinkweed Imp
• 4 Troll of Khazad-dum

• Instants (3)
• 3 Gnaw to the Bone

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Dread Return
• 4 Exhume
• 4 Malevolent Rumble

• Lands (14)
• 3 Swamp
• 5 Forest
• 1 Geothermal Bog
• 1 Haunted Mire
• 1 Khalni Garden
• 1 Wooded Ridgeline
• 2 Conduit Pylon

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Gnaw to the Bone
• 2 Flaring Pain
• 4 Ancient Grudge
• 4 Fang Dragon
• 4 Ray of Revelation

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One of the more interesting innovations of the past year in Pauper has been the evolution of Dredge as an archetype. Players have tried messing with Dredge in the past, but it generally lacks the payoff to make it worthwhile outside of something like Tortured Existence decks. The past year or so brought plenty of innovative additions to the Pauper format that made it that much more realistic of a deck.

The biggest ones were quite possibly Dread Return and Lotleth Giant in Commander Masters, providing two great payoffs for once your dredge effects fill the graveyard. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth also brought some choice inclusions with Generous Ent and Troll of Khazad-dum allowing players to cycle them for lands, fill the graveyard, and even act as great targets for Dread Return if Lotleth Giant isn't available. The most recent addition here is Malevolent Rumble, which has certainly played a substantial role in players spending more time and putting up fresh results with the deck over the last couple months. Give this one a shot if you want to try a good graveyard-themed deck!

Elves

Elves | Pauper | ganjadejanga, 17th Place MTGO Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (39)
• 3 Elvish Mystic
• 4 Avenging Hunter
• 4 Fyndhorn Elves
• 4 Generous Ent
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Nyxborn Hydra
• 4 Priest of Titania
• 4 Quirion Ranger
• 4 Timberwatch Elf
• 4 Wellwisher

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Lead the Stampede
• 4 Winding Way

• Lands (13)
• 13 Forest

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Sandstorm
• 4 Essence Warden
• 4 Masked Vandal
• 4 Spidersilk Armor

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Over the last couple of years, Elves has taken a very real beating in the modern day Pauper meta. In the past, you mostly just needed to worry about small board wipes like Electrickery or the annoying spot removal spells that could often be mitigated in one way or another. As the years have gone on, the removal - particularly among board wipes like Breath Weapon - has gotten far more substantial, making it that much harder to play.

The release of Modern Horizons 3 gave it a little more juice, however, thanks to the powerful Nyxborn Hydra. Elves typically goes wide by playing out lots of little mana dorks that snowball into bigger threats quickly. Given that most of these were small and easy to deal with, the deck often felt weak to the aforementioned board wipes. Nyxborn Hydra provides a go-tall threat that can dodge board wipes and provide a barrier against spot removal as well thanks to its bestow ability. This has brought Elves a bit more strongly back into the meta, making for a great option if you're a fan of the little Green dorks.

As a minor note as well regarding Elves: recent lists on Magic Online have been unable to rely so much on either Lead the Stampede or You Meet in a Tavern due to bugs with both cards. This has led to a downturn in deck performance and lists not utilizing either card in them. The list above was pulled from a bit farther back than other lists to reflect this issue.

There's tons that you can do in Pauper right now! I highly recommend picking it up and trying it out if you're looking for a great cheap way to play Constructed Magic. Buy a deck or two and try looking for some local games at our nearby card stores. If none of them support Pauper, consider getting them to try running events! All it takes is one store to support it for the format to take off locally and provide players with an outstanding gameplay experience. Try out different things and have an awesome time!

Paige Smith

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