Hey everyone! We are back again for the final installment in our macrotype in pauper series. This week will be talking about combo. Now, combo in pauper is a tricky archetype because of the banning of Cloud of Faeries—it was a key piece in the most played combo deck, Esper Familiars. So, now what happens to this archetype? This article is going to talk about how that affects the metagame and what other types of combo decks are out there for you to play.
The Banning of Cloud of Faeries and how it affects the Combo archetype.
The banning of Cloud of Faeries was a result of Wizards of the Coast believing there is a color imbalance in Pauper:
The format currently has poor color balance. Of the ten most played nonland cards, nine are blue; the tenth is Lightning Bolt. We looked into the cause of this.
In the interest of color diversity, Cloud of Faeries is banned from Pauper.
This was the official statement made by Wizards of the Coast. So, where does that leave us now?
Well, first thing is first—Esper Familiars is still a deck, just like Eggs is still a deck in Modern. There is only one question to ask: is the deck good enough to be played in the current metagame? Hopefully over the next few weeks, we will see how the metagame shapes up post-Cloud of Faeries.
First, lets talk about the Esper Familars deck and how it operates.
Esper Familars
| Creatures (22) 1 Archaeomancer 4 Cloud of Faeries 1 Lone Missionary 1 Mnemonic Wall 4 Mulldrifter 3 Nightscape Familiar 4 Sunscape Familiar 1 Sage’s Row Denizen 3 Sea Gate Oracle Spells (16) 4 Compulsive Research 1 Dispel 2 Foresee 2 Ghostly Flicker 2 Preordain 1 Reaping the Graves 4 Snap | Lands (22) 3 Azorius Chancery 1 Plains 1 Barren Moor 1 Swamp 5 Island 2 Seat of the Synod 1 Secluded Steppe 3 Dimir Aqueduct 3 Evolving Wilds 2 Terramorphic Expanse Sideboard (15) 1 Capsize 1 Deep Analysis 2 Echoing Decay 2 Fade Away 3 Hoodwink 2 Lone Missionary 3 Prismatic Strands 1 Reaping the Graves |
The Esper Familiars deck uses Sunscape Familiar and Nightscape Familiar to reduce the cost of blue spells, which include “free spells” such as Cloud of Faeries and Snap. Combined with the bounce lands, this means the “free spells” effectively produce mana. Here is a typical winning position: One casts Ghostly Flicker targeting Cloud of Faeries and a Mnemonic Wall, netting mana and getting back the Ghostly Flicker. Once enough mana is produced, the Ghostly Flicker can target a Sea Gate Oracle instead of the Cloud of Faeries, repeatedly looking for Sage’s Row Denizen. From there, the flickering mills the opponent’s deck.
Esper Familiars would be a considered a storm-type of combo deck. Instead of one or two cards to kill their opponent, there is a methodical system to the deck where you have to do a lot of things to get to the result you want—killing your opponent.
The above quote is another excerpt taken from Wizards of the Coast’s ban and restricted announcement and it summarizes how Esper Familiars works and why they didn’t like Cloud of Faeries in the Pauper meta. So, how does Esper Familiars still work?
Snap is the other card that can enable the combo for Esper Familiars. I think we will still see Esper Familiars floating around, and I am excited to see how the new shell of the deck takes shape.
But, Esper Familiars isn’t the only combo deck out there! Let’s talk about some of the other options we have when it comes to this archetype in Pauper.
Aggro-Combo in Pauper.
In pauper, this type of combo deck takes an aggro-combo roll. Decks like Infect, Tireless Tribe, and Delver Fiend.
Tireless Tribe Combo
| Creatures (15) 3 Benevolent Bodyguard 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Tireless Tribe Spells (26) 1 Apostle’s Blessing 4 Brainstorm 2 Deep Analysis 1 Dispel 2 Gitaxian Probe 2 Gush 4 Inside Out 4 Journey to Nowhere 3 Preordain 3 Shadow Rift | Lands (19) 4 Evolving Wilds 5 Island 6 Plains 4 Tranquil Cove Sideboard (15) 3 Circle of Protection: Red 2 Dispel 2 Prismatic Strands 2 Rest for the Weary 2 Stormbound Geist 4 Sunlance |
Infect
| Creatures (18) 4 Blight Mamba 4 Blighted Agent 4 Glistener Elf 4 Ichorclaw Myr 2 Slaughterhorn Spells (25) 2 Apostle’s Blessing 4 Vines of Vastwood 1 Bonesplitter 3 Distortion Strike 4 Groundswell 1 Mutagenic Growth 2 Ponder 4 Preordain 4 Rancor | Lands (17) 4 Island 4 Thornwood Falls 9 Forest Sideboard (15) 2 Apostle’s Blessing 1 Bonesplitter 3 Gut Shot 4 Nature’s Claim 3 Negate 2 Scattershot Archer |
Delver Fiend
| Creatures (12) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Kiln Fiend 4 Nivix Cyclops Spells (31) 3 Apostle’s Blessing 2 Dispel 4 Gitaxian Probe 3 Gush 1 Gut Shot 1 Impulse 4 Lightning Bolt 1 Mutagenic Growth 1 Piracy Charm 4 Ponder 4 Preordain 3 Temur Battle Rage | Lands (17) 3 Evolving Wilds 9 Island 5 Mountain Sideboard (15) 1 Counterspell 1 Eldrazi Skyspawner 2 Electrickery 2 Flame Slash 1 Flaring Pain 1 Gut Shot 3 Hydroblast 3 Pyroblast 1 Stormbound Geist |
All of these decks play generally the same. Their combo is to make one big guy during combat and killing their opponent whenever they feel it is safe. The all do it a little differently, but they are all effective ways to kill your opponent.
Conclusion.
So, as we can see, Esper Familiars was weakened, but it is still alive. On top of that, the aggro-combo side of pauper is alive and kicking with all different types of options out there.
If you want to read more about the combo archetype, check out Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s article.
If you want to read more about the Tireless Tribe combo deck, check out my article I previously wrote.
If you have any questions or comments, you can always catch me on Twitter, @kintreespirit.
Thanks for reading!
Lexie Mettler is a Level 2 judge from Fort Wayne, Indiana. By day she is a student, by night she streams MTGO and practices for tournaments all over the Midwest.