Dimir Control
https://moxfield.com/decks/VbBFbaZwQEG948VTHUhGUQ
Playing Spellstutter Sprite, Modern Age, Sneaky Snacker alongside all the blue-black control staples of Pauper. Currently running 2 Thorn and 2 Gurmag as the top end plus a bunch of one ofs and 2 Bojuka Bog. The list losened up a bit after the ban of Kuldotha and Broodscale. You can now get away with some Gurmag tempo and more flex slots.
I see Affinity, Jund Wildfire and Gruul as the toughest matchups. But you have got a lot of fighting chances against all of these unless they draw the nuts.
Looking forward to the biggest ever Pauper Tournament in Leipzig and in Germany!
And what a tournament it was! A spacious venue, the tables scattered, daylight from two glassfronts, refill-coffee-flatrate – and a smashing 115 attendents from all over the country, all appreciative of the multi-background orga-crew <3 and the rising Pauper scene!
Round 1 Grixis Affinity 1-1
Shout Outs to my round 1 opponent! Very communicative and benevolent. Before the game they reveal themselves as a multi-format competitive grinder for years, tipping their toes into Pauper. They even start the game with Drossforge Bridge, yikes! We both have a blast fighting it out.
Game 1 on the play, I see them stumbling on mana. My hand lends itself to a tempo start/punish so I tap out to slam turn 4 Gurmag and turn 5 Lorien. The tempo-lead and card-equalize sticks and I push it home 1-0
Game 2 between games they already remark that this matchup must be rough for me. Very benevolent opponent as I said. I board in the usual Dispel/Annul/Hydro/Spellbomb/Mystic. Again, I just try to rely on tempo, presenting a flying clock, try to keep them off of exploding their hand. It even kind of works. I put them to 6 life with 4 damage in the air, with barely anything left in hand myself. In hindsight, here I could have Brainstorm’ed Main Phase (but who does such thing?!), would have found another Snacker, cast it to present lethal next turn – instead I let them survive at 2 life and then stabilize by drowning me in value 1-1
Game 3 I am a bit bugged that I missed this shot at a clean match win, but now I believe that I can win on the play. This time I don’t have the early tempo though, and I can’t keep them away from setting up their draw-engine. We grind it all the way and I barely escape a loss in overtime. Draw.
Round 2 Six Land Spy 2-1
A pretty good matchup for Dimir. You counter Spy and Stampedes, kill their Reachers, attack with Fliers. Simple Magic. I am warned about the “draw-bracket” so I want to get it over with quickly.
Game 1 I have a Spellstutter and a timely Gurmag (actually tempo’ed out by Snuff Out on my own Spellstutter). I counter their Spy 1-0
Game 2 they have a good land development, present me early Chrysalis and Ent. My Fliers and the Gurmag start looking odd quickly. I can’t find removal 1-1
Game 3 I stumble on my hand, but manage to vomit out some Snackers. With 3 Cast Down in hand/top deck I cross my fingers and pray I don’t lose to an early Spy on 4 lands (which an earlier Land Grant already revealed) – I am beeing spared! 2-1
Round 3 Mirror 2-0
Game 1 I mull to 5 on the play. When I realize the matchup, I know I need to pull off quite the comeback on cards. There is literally no possible Win on tempo in this matchup! I find Thorn, manage to create a window to resolve it and defend it 1-0
Game 2 we start equal on cards and I just sculpt my hand turn after turn. I try to trade up on value in any possible interaction. When the dust settles, I remember looking at Thorn/Mystic/Counter/Counter/Cast Down/Snuff Out in hand. This converts 2-0
Round 4 U Terror 2-0
Against Jakub Pierożyński! Oh my Dear! I think this guy co-organized the tourney and he even drew all the art for playmats and stuff. I see him wearing his own pauper-related T-Shirts all the time! I think you can literally watch his naked butt and buy his products, if you go to “Merchandise”. Apparently he decided to use Islands to cast his Dispels today, not Birchlore Rangers…
Game 1 & 2 based on my notes, my life total was only reduced in chunks of 3 (his Delver, my Deep Analysis) or 4 (my Snuff Out). This kinda tells the story: He never got to a Clock of Serpentines. Without that or some crazy Lorien/Deep Analysis value plays, there is little chance of Mono U to overthrow Dimir. Hardcasting Sneaky Snacker never felt better 2-0
Round 5 Jund Wildfire 2-1
Now on to the heated rounds! I played my way up to table 4. Both me and my opponent remark that with two more match wins, either of us would be playing it out for the tourney win on table 1. I am a sucker for this kind of incentive.
Game 1 starts with a delay of 20 minutes due to deck check. We grind it out, I take a good chunk of damage but try to deny all their card draw and finally stick the Monarch 1-0
Game 2 starts crazy. Turn 3 they reach out for their token pile and simultaneously merge 6 cards of their sideboard with their hand. A judge call of another 20 minutes emerges. When the dust settles, the call is: I am allowed to see all the 10 cards (4 presumed hand, 6 presumed sideboard) and can decide which 4 of them I want to turn into their new hand. This is to prevent them from any possibility to gain advantage off an accident like this. It actually provides me with the possibility now to put into their hand sth stupid like 3 Krark and 1 Toxin. It is pretty clear from the presented 4-card-hand though, that this was their real hand (Wellspring, Refurb, Hydra, Cast Down). I give back to them this playable good hand and we grind it to a very nice and close victory of theirs after a sequence of Fountain/Fountain/Chryssi/Hydra/Hydra 1-1
Game 3 we start 33 minutes after the actual end of the round. Everyone else is done and waiting for us, even watching us and we have 7 minutes on our match clock to establish a winner. I go berserk-fast-play-mode. I know, I can beat their deck on the play, and now I also really want to. They mulls to 5, get stuck on land. I just pump out threat after threat, eventually Thorn, Mystic, just slamming them down. After the game they remark that, slamming the cards like crazy, I actually forgot to go to combat in one of the turns. Lol. Well, got there in overtime 2-1
Round 6 Rakdos Madness 1-2
Rakdos is a decent matchup for me. You need to check the Imp/Epicure/Snacker board. At the same time progress your own game/cards/lands. And always have 2 mana open to counter Grab the Price, so they don’t go off. Eventually you find Lifelink and win. Simple as that, right?! Well… It’s table 2 now. If I win, I play round 7 for the tourney win.
Game 1 on the draw I am on to a slow start. I am losing the Board, they resolve Grab the Prices, I develop into a Snuff Out/Gurmag/Fumes hand. A good hand in the dark, but not vs Madness 0-1
Game 2 starts the exact same way. My life total dwindles quickly, they have a pressuring board, even my lands look terrible with only 2 blue sources. By turn 5 I am at 3 life and nothing in hand to even stop a Bolt. They have 3 cards and 2 Blood to find 3 damage. At least I have 2 Vector Glider to stop their Imps from attacking.
I go into the tank. The journey can not end here. I need quite the comeback from this position. Eventually I decide to tap out of blue mana entirely to find one of my two Unexpected Fangs. With the tournament on the line, I literally go Brainstorm, (peel Brainstorm, Landscape), fetch Landscape, play Brainstorm, find Fangs! With just two black mana up I cast it onto a Vector Glider, cross fingers and start swinging. According to my notes the Glider then connects for 5 turns in a row. We keep fighting it out to the last, with my life total dancing between 1 and 6 for the whole time, and a timely Fumes to stabilize the board.
My opponent even starts to draw on some mind game tricks in this situation. They let me check like a million micro triggers in a row with blood and madness and everything - and then in the same neutral voice offer me to check through combat and damage quickly, or even ask me: “Do you have Counterspell in hand?”. So we literally go like: Float Mana (me: yup), Crack a Blood Token, discarding a card (yup) Trigger Card Draw (yup) Madness trigger (yup) Cast Alms of the Vein (yup) drain you for 3 (yup) Resolve the Card Draw (yup) Do you have Counterspell in Hand (Ah man, com’on!!). It’s not pleasant, you know, but Patrick Chapin warned me of the “Jedi Mind Tricks” and I withstand.
Eventually I punch through with my little Lifey-Glider and a Gurmag 1-1
Game 3 They are on the play once more and I never get a foot in the game. I have 2 Blue Blasts but get stuck on lands. I hold up the Blasts religiously vs Grab the Price. But they just cast Imp after Imp off of Blood Tokens. I don’t ever dare to tap out, so my hand never changes and I keep losing to their Board. Could have mulligan’ed this one or maybe tapped out for an early Snacker to at least block the Imps. Well 1-2
Round 7 U Terror 2-0
This one anticlimatically feels like the “Spiel um den Dritten Platz” now. I just lost the match for the final top table, and now this game is the entry back to the Top 8. Its the very favourable U Terror matchup again. I have run out of mental Steam. I hardcast Snackers, punch some timely Bojuka Bogs, wait it all out and eventually outgrind the tempo deck 2-0
Final words: I loved rolling Dimir through a huge tourney to a fifth place. A bit bummed about missing the finals so closely. Atmosphere was amazing, chill and hyped! Top table atmosphere was a bit more heated though. Nice to see everyone making their way to Leipzig!