This Cube has been Retired as of 10/11/2024

This is my iteration of my pauper cube which is started curating back in 2018. Initially I wanted to showcase a bunch of all-star cards in the pauper format but it ended up being what were some of the better commons in the draft format's I've played.

There is also one condition. These cards must be available in Foil. So stuff in pauper like Pestilence and Evincar's Justice are not in the cube. I also wanted to include as many promo's as possible for most cards. I love the FMN promos from the early to mid 2000's, and I wanted to get as many of them in the cube as possible.

Some cards were excluded due to cost. a lot of the elves cards were excluded as the only foil printings for them were astronomically expensive. Eventually I'll add them, but for now they are a pipedream.

The cube has gone through multiple iterations. I've made mistakes by adding way to many cards when a new set drops, instead of much more selective. I have settled on these archetypes for now, with more to be explored.

The following are a brief summary of the archetypes:

Flicker effects:

Utilizes the various flicker effects like Ghostly Flicker and Displace to gain advantage through multiple ETB Effects with various creatures. Gaining more tokens, cards, or life to eventually take over the game. Some Key cards for this archetype are the 2 mentioned above, Archaeomancer, Mulldrifter, Kor Skyfisher, and Lone Missionary.

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Control:

UB Control can go multiple ways in this cube. The general game plan is to keep the board stable with 1 for 1 removal, and then finish the game with a big creature or a powerful spell like Capsize to take over the game. This Deck also uses the Ghostly Flicker Loop to good effect as well. Generally prioritizes good removal and counterspells and cards like Frost Trickster and Sea Gate Oracle to gain advantage and stay alive. Mystical Teachings is a key card in that archetype.

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Spells:

Ah yes, Classic UR. At first glance, Izzet spells deck that appears to be insane. And you'd be right. A lot of signpost cards for this archetype that make it particularly aggressive. Cards like Kiln Fiend, Festival Crasher, Nivix Cyclops are all pointing that you want to cast a lot of spells early and often. This deck is often best when it's attacking on the play and combined with burn spells such as Lighting Bolt and Rift Bolt.

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Tokens:

There are two decks that can make use of tokens. RW being the best one to do so. Various mass pump effects like Dynacharge and War Flare, plus good token makers like Mogg War Marshal, Battle Screech, and Hordeling Outburst can kill your opponent in really short order. With a lot of quality one drops in both red and white there's not much else to say here.

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Aggro:

Not Gruul? Then you get smashed to bits. GR was in a very awkward spot for the last couple of years. it doesn't really have a lot in any direction besides being a worse version of both RW and GW. However, the Release of MH2 brought Goblin Anarchomancer and with it, an identity. GR is the aggro deck that uses pump spells like Giant growth, Colossal Might, and Rancor very well to finish with Temur Battle Rage to great effect.

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Counters:

This archetype is still being flushed out. That being said the pieces are still there to draft an effective deck. Ainok Bond-Kin, Duskshell Crawler, and other things give your creatures extra abilities whilst being decent bodies on their own. Travel Preparations is very powerful in this deck, as it was back in the Innistrad draft format.

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Graveyard Midrange:

BG is a hard colour pair to get right. There are a lot of directions it can go, but it's very tough to pin something down for me. I decided that BG would be more midrangey, with a focus on the graveyard and grinding your opponent down with "Raise Dead" effects, in addition to graveyard mechanics such as threshold and dredge. I would love to include Tortured Existence in the cube however it is not foil and proved to be a bit too powerful when it was in the cube initially.

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Rakdos Sacrifice:

Rakdos is another aggro colour pair that uses sacrifice elements to give it extra reach. Red gives access to creatures such as Hissing Iguanar and Falkenrath Noble as well as Silumgar Scavenger gives version of the deck reach and the ability to ping the opponent. Black gives amazing sacrifice outlets such as Village rites, Reckoner's Bargin, and Plagued Rusalka to gas up and remove your opponent's blockers.

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Orzhov Sacrifice:

2 Sacrifice decks in one cube are kinda weird, but they're 2 very different playstyles. Orzhov can grind a lot more than its brother, Rakdos. The loss of Red and the addition of the White cards gives the archetype much more staying power. Threats that hang around such as Sacred Cat and Lunarch Veteran gives Orzhov extra grinding power. Creatures that leave behind a creature when they die such as Hunted Witness and Doomed Traveler make other sacrifice effects even better.

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Simic Ramp:

The only ramp colour pair in the cube, as this is what Simic tends to do anyway. It's rare that the deck ever comes up as straight Simic, as this deck is in the spot to splash an off-colour card quite often as the fixing is quite good. This deck is often creature light, only playing about 10 - 12 creatures such as Coiling Oracle and Rift Sower. This deck can often be 3 or more colours without too much trouble.

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Pauper is a format with a flat power level due to the nature of the format being comprised of mostly commons. Due to this, there are some sub-archetypes in the cube that can come together that add to the replay value of the cube.

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I also took the liberty of adding some banned cards on the Pauper banned list into the cube. Treasure cruise is one of the best blue commons ever printed, and is banned in almost every single format it is legal in, and restricted in Vintage. In a singleton format the impact of powerful cards are lessened as its unlikely to see it more often than you would if it was a 4. For that reason, I added treasure cruise to the cube. I may add more banned cards into the cube like the storm cards, or Cloud of Faeries and Gitaxian Probe. I will keep an up-to-date list of all the banned pauper cards in the cube, and my reasoning with their inclusion.

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Banned Cards:

Treasure Cruise

Adding Treasure Cruise to the Cube allows blue decks to have a cheap source of card draw towards the later part of the game. It being a singleton reduces the power level of the card, as well as the kind of decks it can go into. It can help decks rebuild after the initial exchange of resources or to pull ahead to a point it does not threaten to unbalance the power level of blue decks. I feel it is an acceptable risk.

Prophetic Prism

Prophetic Prism due to the fact it provided colour fixing, a cantrip, and an artifact to sacrifice to Atog and the affinity archetype in pauper. in cube, this is not a problem. It is acceptable at its current power level as a one of.

Galvanic Relay

Galvanic relay was banned on march 7th, 2022 due to the power it gave storm decks in pauper revolving around song of the damned and cycling creatures. In this cube, the card is not overpowered, however is quite underwhelming unless built around. Without an abundance of ritual effects, I feel that Galvanic Relay is safe and a fine draw engine in some all-in aggro or spells decks.

The Initiative Cards.

These cards are being tested. However, I suspect I will be taking them out of the cube. they do unbalance games immediately when played and have been banned in the pauper format already (at least a good chunk of them). The rare ones have warped legacy around them so I do not hold out hope for these in the cube.