Double Masters 2022 Downshifts Land in Pauper

Posted on July 22, 2022

Double Masters 2022 is out and we're now a couple weeks removed from the set's release. Everyone's been chomping at the bit to see just how a set like this would impact the Pauper metagame, and make no mistake, it has been shaking things up quite a bit despite many of the format's classic decks packing just as much of a wallop as ever. Today I want to take a look at several of the cards showing up in these early weeks and showcase a few of the lists they're appearing in. There's a lot of ground to cover today so let's dive in, starting off with a big one!

Without a doubt, the first card that needs to be discussed is Monastery Swiftspear. Simply put, if there was one card that every single Pauper player expected to make an impact on the format from Double Masters 2022, it was this one. It shows up in just about every non-rotating format as a high-performing card so it only makes sense that it would do the same here. Pauper's already got several analogues to the various archetypes Swiftspear appears in with regards to other formats, so it makes the most sense that it would find a home.

And it certainly has, albeit in a slightly smaller capacity than I think people expected. There was a lot of buzz about this showing up in Izzet Delver lists and different kinds of Prowess lists, which hasn't exactly happened - at least not yet. I imagine we'll see this pop up eventually and it may just take a little time to do so. It took Seeker of the Way a while to find the right home, after all, but we got there eventually. Thankfully, though, there are still a few decks where Swiftspear did find its analogous home. Let's start with Burn first.

Burn | Pauper | Abbadon55, MTGO Pauper Challenge 16th Place

Lands (17)
16 Mountain
1 Forgotten Cave

Burn is, well, Burn. How can you count to twenty in the shortest amount of time possible? If you can play Magic in any sort of capacity, you probably have access to a Burn deck. It's actually not good enough in Vintage and only sometimes shows up in Standard, but Legacy, Modern, Pioneer, and Pauper all have some sort of Burn deck. Each one utilizes a different set of cards to achieve its goals based on what the format allows access to, but at the end of the day the core idea is the same: the face is the place.

Every single one of these non-rotating formats' versions of Burn has had access to Monastery Swiftspear. Every one, that is, except Pauper. Now Swiftspear is in Pauper's arsenal and as a hyper aggressive creature, it quickly and easily gets the job done. This list by Abbadon55 was the highest Challenge performer I could find as I was gathering lists together, but make no mistake: players are trying Burn, are still putting up some numbers with it, and doing so in part on the back of the new downshift. Some players are running it instead of Thermo-Alchemist, some are running it with Thermo-Alchemist, some are trying it with Ghitu Lavarunner. They're still trying to figure out the arguably optimal build, but nonetheless, this was probably the easiest and most obvious home for Monastery Swiftspear.

It wasn't the only one, and in fact it was far from the best one. The actual best choice seems to be the various Red-based Blitz lists. Here's a list for a Mono-Red variation and an Izzet variation:

Mono-Red Blitz | Pauper | Matheusponciano, MTGO Pauper Challenge 3rd Place

Sorceries (7)
3 Crash Through
4 Ancestral Anger

Lands (19)
19 Mountain

Izzet Blitz | Pauper | Stampeding_Gnomes, MTGO Pauper League 5-0

Creatures (12)
4 Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration
4 Kiln Fiend
4 Monastery Swiftspear

Sorceries (8)
4 Ponder
4 Preordain

I know what some of you are probably saying. "But Paige, you said there weren't any Prowess lists!" And, frankly, you'd be right, yet I still stand by that. These decks are almost like an all-in brute force onslaught meant to overtake your opponent before they have a chance to stabilize the game. They can be easily disrupted and taken down but if played correctly can be a dominating force. But I think of them as different from the Prowess decks of other formats which run the likes of Soul-Scar Mage, Tenth District Legionnaire, and sometimes Seeker of the Way. It's similar enough, though, and is putting up some serious numbers in the last couple weeks with the Mono-Red version being particularly dominant.

Izzet Blitz is great because it gets access to spells like Ponder and Preordain to set up your draws better, but we're long past the need for Nivix Cyclops at this point. Just as well, we no longer have the likes of Gush, Gitaxian Probe, or Daze. As such at this point, while it's still perfectly reasonable to run an Izzet build, most players have eschewed it in favor of rocking the Mono-Red variation instead. It's a lot more streamlined, has more creatures than ever thanks to Swiftspear and Festival Crasher, and can even manage turn two kills if your draw is just right. Monastery Swiftspear gives the deck just enough oomph that it's becoming a top tier deck as of late and will no doubt continue to put up numbers, so if you're looking to play Pauper over the next few weeks, be prepared to take it on.

I still think we aren't done with seeing Swiftspear finding homes in Pauper just yet as we're only a few weeks into the new format. Even then, however, it's making quite a splash exactly as expected. If you're not playing it, you definitely need to be ready for it. And even if you're ready for the lists out there now, I'd still expect to see new brews as the days go on.

The next one I want to talk about should come to the surprise of exactly no one: Dark-Dweller Oracle. Of all the latest downshifts, this was the one with arguably the easiest home. Yes, I think most people expected Swiftspear to show up in Burn and Blitz decks as well but it wasn't a guarantee that's where they would ultimately land. Dark-Dweller Oracle, on the other hand, was an absolute shoe-in for Goblin Combo.

Goblin Combo | Pauper | Hamuda, MTGO Pauper Challenge 1st Place

Sorceries (7)
1 Duress
2 Kuldotha Rebirth
4 Unearth

Enchantments (2)
2 Makeshift Munitions

Now, I've talked about Goblin Combo a lot over the last couple months. Ever since the release of Strixhaven: School of Mages last year, it's been one of the format's premier breakout decks. It's arguably one of the best things you could be doing in the format, and Dark-Dweller Oracle essentially offers you a way to play the deck the same way and just shuffle a few cards around. Some lists already played Skirk Drill Sergeant and even if they didn't, there's too much value to be had here by simply paying one mana and sacrificing a creature - one you likely were going to sacrifice already.

One mana compared to Skirk Drill Sergeant's three plus being its own sacrifice outlet give the Oracle far more play in this archetype. What's more, the Drill Sergeant could only find you creatures, thereby limiting your options. On the other hand, Dark-Dweller Oracle lets you draw into virtually any kind of card. That means you can actually draw into the likes of Makeshift Munitions, for example, as a way to kill off your opponent in no time flat. If this all sounds familiar, that's because it's exactly what I predicted would happen in my review of the new downshifts, and should come as no surprise to veteran players. If you just recently built Goblin Combo, make sure you pick up some copies of this new downshift and give them a home in your deck.

Now let's talk about another card that was expected to make a showing in Pauper: Militia Bugler. I love this card a lot and have played it a ton thanks to Modern Humans so I'm extremely glad to see it here. The most obvious and apparent choice for this card was in the various Flicker decks of the format.

Bugler Flicker | Pauper | Tarkanmag, MTGO Pauper Challenge 9th Place

Sorceries (5)
1 Late to Dinner
4 Preordain

Enchantments (8)
4 Angelic Renewal
4 Journey to Nowhere

The reason this was the perfect home for the Bugler is, well, just look at the creatures. Virtually everything can be found by Militia Bugler's ability, and even if you whiff, a simple Ghostly Flicker or Ephemerate will almost certainly get you something in the end. This means you have a constant means of finding just about anything that you might be looking for, allowing for a most consistent deck and gameplay. It's not exactly breaking the mold, but what it does here, it does efficiently and it does it well.

Flicker decks surprisingly weren't the only kind of deck that would make use of Militia Bugler, though. It also made a showing in good old White Weenies!

Bugler Weenies | Pauper | Hornythopter, MTGO Pauper League 5-0

Sorceries (4)
4 Battle Screech

Enchantments (4)
4 Journey to Nowhere

This list 5-0'd a Magic Online Pauper League and it's not terribly surprising that it was able to do so. White Weenies has been getting no shortage of tools. There's quite a number of cards from the last year of Magic in here, all lending some much needed power to the archetype. The addition of Militia Bugler once more adds some extra consistency, giving you a solid creature on its own and getting another body at the same time - one that will likely bring card advantage of its own. Much like Monastery Swiftspear, I think there's still more places we may see this yet, so keep your eyes peeled as more brews make their mark!

One of the cooler downshifts was Dreg Mangler, yet for as awesome a card as it was, it was one that didn't quite have a home. Golgari Sacrifice seemed like the best immediate fit, but people weren't sure if it would end up there or maybe find its way into a new brew. It sure didn't take long for it to end up showing up, in fact, inside of a Golgari Sacrifice list.

Golgari Sacrifice | Pauper | Cryomanc3r, MTGO Pauper League 5-0

Sorceries (1)
1 Soul Reap

Enchantments (3)
3 Rancor

Sacrifice lists have come and gone quite frequently in Pauper and rarely ever truly stick around. While it's awesome to see Dreg Mangler show up and to do so in a spot players were expecting, I should also note that it's unfortunately likely that this is not going to be a powerhouse archetype. In fact, in the first couple weeks this is the deck's only showing that I can tell. That having been said, while this is unlikely to take the world of Pauper by storm, it's still a great deck with plenty of potential. Even if it might not rock the competitive metagame on Magic Online, it's no doubt an excellent option to take to your local game store's Pauper night or even just in some pickup games with friends. I'd absolutely recommend giving it a whirl.

Now wait a minute, this isn't Double Masters 2022! And you'd be right, however Basilisk Gate (and in turn the various other gate cards from Battle For Baldur's Gate) are becoming some of the hottest breakout cards of the season. When writing my Pauper review for Baldur's Gate, I was pretty down on the card as there weren't really decks that could take advantage of a gates payoff. Turns out, I was a bit wrong, and I'm happy to admit to that because the deck we got is astounding.

GateBlade | Pauper | Zoohn, MTGO Pauper Challenge 1st Place

Sorceries (7)
3 Deep Analysis
4 Preordain

This deck works by riffing off the old CawBlade decks of the old Zendikar-Scars Standard format. You can make use of your Squadron Hawks, get all of the copies out of your deck, cast a Brainstorm to put some copies back, and then play another Hawk to draw the two you just put back. From there you control the board and with the aid of Basilisk Gate, you repeatedly supercharge your small evasive creature for massive damage bursts to finish off your opponents.

Zoohn piloted this initial version to first place in one of the first post-Double Masters 2022 Pauper Challenges on Magic Online. Since that event, there have been a variety of decks looking to work Basilisk Gate into their strategies and it's planting its stance firmly as a key player in the latest Pauper metagame. Where it will go and if it will stay that way remains to be seen as of yet, but it's definitely enabling a lot more aggressive strategies to exist in the metagame.

As a last-minute addition to this compilation of lists came an appearance of Cartel Aristocrat!

Orzhov Aristogates | Pauper | Zoohn, MTGO Pauper League 5-0

Another list by Zoohn, this deck does your typical Aristocrats shenanigans, while also having access to a Basilisk Gate finish with some of the deck's various fliers. This is an excellent display of how newer cards can shake things up and enable all kinds of fresh brews. Not only does this include the aforementioned new cards, but you get Lunarch Veteran // Luminous Phantom and Nested Shambler - both of which saw their first printings within the last year.

There have also been some showings of Izzet Charm thus far. I've largely seen it in some of the Serpentine Curve decks that exist and in one or two Izzet Faeries lists in small numbers. That's basically about what I expected, as it provides solid flexibility even though other cards might do the individual effects better. Surprisingly, though, there's still been basically no sightings of one of the most hotly anticipated cards that is Experiment One! At this point I'm hoping it's a bit more like how Seeker of the Way was when it first got downshifted and no one could find a good home, but one day it did became a mainstay.

Regardless, it's clear that Double Masters 2022 is making a big impact right out of the, well, gate. There's tons of great decks and an absolute myriad of ways to play Pauper in both a competitive and casual setting. There's lots of excellent cards, and some likely haven't even found the right home yet. Whatever the case, though, it's clear this set is a home run for the format of commons. It's an exciting time to be a Pauper player, and I hope there's something here that you'll try at your next Pauper night. Which list will you play?

Paige Smith

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TAGS articles, metagame, constructed, analysis, decklist, pauper, commons, reprints, downshifts, paige smith, double masters 2022, 07222022