Last year when Modern Horizons 2 came out, Pauper found itself suddenly overrun by squirrels. The tiny critters came onto the scene in force thanks to Chatterstorm. This miniature Empty the Warrens ended up not being quite as small as expected thanks to cards like First Day of Class also having recently arrived on the scene. This made for a deck that was exceptionally powerful and took the format by, well, storm. It was so prevalent that in a few months' time - having long overstayed its welcome - Chatterstorm was banned alongside the potent Sojourner's Companion from Affinity.

When Chatterstorm first dropped onto the scene, it was almost apparent how busted it would be. Pauper has long had a rocky history with storm. Both Grapeshot and Empty the Warrens getting banned in the format in January 2013 and then Temporal Fissure was banned as well later that year. Chatterstorm decks basically took lists from the Grapeshot and Empty the Warrens era and retooled them to work with the card. With hardly any changes to the core that surrounded the storm cards themselves, it was pretty easy to port them for a modern day Pauper and that's how we got one of the most busted decks in years.

With Chatterstorm came another notable storm card as well: Galvanic Relay. Relay was a big addition that helped give the Chatterstorm deck its consistency. If for some reason you weren't able to go off with the deck's namesake, you likely were still able to go off with a Relay to continue storming on your next turn. This is what helped Squirrel Storm become such a consistent buld, and as such people hoped it would get banned alongside the squirrel maker, as they feared it would continue to become a powerhouse card due to its massive card advantage.

Wizards took a wait and see approach, believing the card to be fine. In the months since, players have continued to try making it work. Relay Tron was attempted to middling results, and different storm cards came about utilizing various ping creatures such as Thermo-Alchemist and Firebrand Archer. After roughly four or five months, players finally came up with a successful Ping Storm build taking advantage of Galvanic Relay and it's been showing up quite a bit in Challenges and Leagues over the last few weeks.

Relay Storm | Pauper | Raptor56, 1st Place Pauper Challenge

• Creatures (4)
• 4 Kessig Flamebreather

• Instants (16)
• 4 Cabal Ritual
• 4 Dark Ritual
• 4 Deadly Dispute
• 4 Manamorphose

• Sorceries (14)
• 2 Reckless Impulse
• 4 Galvanic Relay
• 4 Night's Whisper
• 4 Rite of Flame

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Feldon's Cane
• 3 Experimental Synthesizer
• 4 Chromatic Star
• 4 Lotus Petal

• Lands (14)
• 2 Snow-Covered Swamp
• 3 Snow-Covered Mountain
• 2 Great Furnace
• 2 Sandstone Needle
• 2 Vault of Whispers
• 3 Peat Bog

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Feldon's Cane
• 1 Flaring Pain
• 2 Duress
• 2 Gorilla Shaman
• 3 Fiery Cannonade
• 3 Pyroblast
• 3 Weather the Storm

Buy This Deck Export text format

The strategy here is simple: use rituals and card draw spells to rip through your deck at lightning speed. The kill? Use the newer pinger Kessig Flamebreather to deal continual damage to your opponent. If you run out of steam, you use Galvanic Relay to refill your hand and draws and keep going the following turn. If you run out of gas completely, then you use Feldon's Cane to refill your deck and keep the chain going, allowing you to eventually ping your opponent to death with the Flamebreather.

So if this deck's got roughly the same Storm shell as usual and it hasn't been putting up the strongest numbers since Chatterstorm's ban in September what happened? The simple answer lies in two newer cards - Reckless Impulse and Experimental Synthesizer - with a smaller focus on the mighty Deadly Dispute.

Reckless Impulse is sort of like Pauper's Light Up the Stage. The only difference is you can't cast it for one mana, but casting for two in the midst of spamming numerous ritual spells is huge. Similarly is Experimental Synthesizer, which gets you a card off the top of your deck for just one mana. But does it really? Turns out that when you combine it with Deadly Dispute, it enables you to draw not just the two from Deadly Dispute, but also a pseudo draw from the Synthesizer. This combined with other artifacts already in the deck is what has allowed Deadly Dispute to really find a home in Relay Storm.

What you get in the end is a wild ride of a deck that can do some really nasty things. It's a bit early at this point to see where it'll land in the grand scheme of things, with Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty having only hit the scene a few short weeks ago. However, we're already seeing some solid results and the deck flooding the leagues on Magic Online. Take this deck for a spin at your next local Pauper night or try it out in a league yourself and see how you fare!

Paige Smith

Twitter: @TheMaverickGal

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal