Gems in the Rough
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Gems in the Rough is a regularly updated Vintage Pauper cube which aims to push the bounds of competitive pauper cube game play.
TLDR
-Pauper Cube is primarily about Synergy, Card Value, and Card Advantage over time
-Fast go wide stragies with pump/overrun effects is the main counter play to long game value decks
-Cards with Monarch should be drafted very highly
Drafting Archetypes and Synergies that Players can attempt in this cube:
Shortcuts:
- aggro
- token go wide
- control
- card advantage tempo
- blink flicker
- monarch
- ramp
- reanimator
- spells matter
- counters
- life swap life drain
- infinate combos
aggro:
The two colors that are best suited to build an agressive deck is White and Red . The best way to acomplish this is to play as many small creatures as quick as possible, and then multi creature spells to make all your little guys hit hard. Your goal with this style of strategy should be to end the game as quickly as possible.
Examples of Early Aggro Creatues:
Examples of Mid game Aggro Creatures:
Examples of Multi Creature Pump Spells:
token go wide:
Pairing some what closely with both Aggro and Aristocrats, Ways to put multipule creatures on to the battelfield with a single spell or creature can create quite a bit of card advantage. Cards that creature two for ones can be key to winning in pauper.
Examples of creatures that make tokens:
control:
Is found primarily in the three colors of Blue, Black, and Red. Control elements are certinly weaker at the common level then in other formats, and work better as a game stragey to knock your opponets off their vaule engines then controling the whole game. One of the main ways this is felt is with board wipes. There are no total board wipes at common, so were left with some partial wipes that mostly take out weaker creatures.
Examples of Control Spells:
Examples of Pauper Level Boardwipes:
card advantage tempo:
Card advanatge and Tempo in pauper cube also works quite diffrently then in other higher power formats. In formats like pauper where alot of the cards are in the same power band it tends to be the player with the most resources who wins the game. So cards that replace themselves with draw ablities tend to be the best ways to gain resource or tempo ablities over an opponet.
Exampels of Card Advantage Cards:
Examples of Draw Replacement Spells:
blink flicker:
Blinking or flickering cards involves removing a permanent from play and then bringing it back to the battlefield from a cards effect. The primary purpose for doing so is to trigger both enter the battlefield effects or ablities of other creatures when certain card types enter the battlefield. Cards with the flicker/blink ability are found typically in White and Blue.
Examples of Spells that Flicker:
Examples of Creatures with ETB to Flicker:
monarch:
Multiplayer based mechanics like Monarch have proven in multiple formats to be incredibly powerful in one on one play. While some pauper cubes choose not play the Monarch cards for this reason, this cube does for the sole purpose that they help break up boardstalls and force players to make play choices they might not otherwise make. Cards with the Monarch ability should be given serious value and drafted early.
Cards with Monarch Ablity:
ramp:
Sometimes bigger is better and getting their faster then your opponet can be a way to win games. Ramp based stragies in pauper work similar to other cube formats but are definetly slower. The big mana rocks are not avilable in this format so most many rocks only produce one mana. This means cards like Pristine Talisman are very helpful because they add mana up, allowing youto cast higher costing creatures, and later can be sacrificed to become card draw. Still at the end of the day your looking to cast a big creature that either creates values or runs away with the game.
Examples of Mana Ramp:
Examples of Creatures to Ramp into:
reanimator:
Unlike formats with higher rarities where reanimation is typically found in Black, in pauper the more powerful reanimation spells are found in White. Because reanimation stragies typically require discard outlets in order to place creatures in the graveyard, you will most likely need to pair your White reanimation spells with Black or Red discard spells. Most of the white reanimation spells are not very cost effective mana wise for most creatures, so alot of times returning a creature to the battlefield is more for value generationg purpouses and less to play larger creatures for smaller amounts of mana.
Examples of Reanimation Spells:
Eamples of Discard Outlets:
Examples of Creatures to Reanimate for Value:
Examples of Creatures to Reanimate for Size:
spells matter:
Like spells matters style decks in other draft formats at other power levels, this is a style of deck that requires both A.) cards that require you to cast spells to get a repeatable ablity, and B.) Spells to cast to triger those ablities. The best way to build this style of deck is to make sure you have enough of both enablers and payoffs. This style of game play is found mostly in and , but there are a few cards hiding in as well.
Spells Matters Payoffs:
Other Cards that Care about Instants and Sorceries:
counters:
Who doesnt love making their creatures bigger and harder to deal with. In this cube you will find a number of cards that distribute +1/+1 counters on to your creatures, as well as creatures that give extra benifits to cards that have +1/+1 counters on them. Proliferate is another fantastic way to help creatures with counters get bigger. While cards that deal with +1/+1 counters can be found in all 5 colors, and have a high density of payoffs and role players for this style of game play.
Examples of cards that distribuate +1/+1/ counters:
Examples of Cards that Give abilties for +1/+1 Counters:
Examples of Cards that Proliferate:
life swap life drain:
In the colors of and there is some seeded cards for a life exchange style stragey. Either cards that make your opponet lose a life when ever you gain a life, or cards with Extort, which allow you to pay to have an opponet lose a life and have you gain a life. This is a stragey that works really well when blended together which just other good cards in the same colors.
Examples Life Drain cards:
Examples of Life Gain triggers:
Examples of Extort:
infinate combos:
There are a few ways to do some infinate combos in this cube. There are two ways to make infinate elf tokens. The first is with Midnight Guard and Presence of Gond. The Second way combo is Presence of Gond, Devoted Druid, and Ivy Lane Denizen.
Examples of Infinate Elves:
There is a way to infinte scry, (pesudo tutor) a card to the top of your deck with Viscera Seer, Safehold Elite, and Ivy Lane Denizen. The Combo also creatures infinte life with any ETB come into play life gain creature.
Example of Infinate Scry (Tutor)/ Infinate Life: