Deck Choice: Caw Gates
The Midrange/Control Deck (even “Midrange Killer”) of past days. The Deck shows the development of Pauper over the last two years: Lorien Revealed, Braintsorm + Squadron Hawk and Modern Age + Sacred Cat + Prismatic Strands used to be the peek of Card Advantage in Pauper. Given enough time, you outvalue the other strategy with Heap Gate and Basilisk Gate. Two years ago, Pauper seemed much more like a constant grind-fest. Nowadays efficent cards like Writhing Chrysalis, Refurbished Familiar or the various Dispute-effects can make the Gates engine look kind of cute. But nevertheless we have got tools!
Mainboard is adjusted to beat Burn- and Terror-variants: 4 Strands, 4 Medics, 2 Journey, 2 Thraben Charm, 2 Spell Pierce. No Deep Analysis, no Guardian of the Guildpact. Sideboard is all bangers: 4 Dust to Dust, 2 Breath Weapon, 4 Pyroblast and 5 Hydroblast. I see Gruul, Jund and High Tide as the most problematic Matchups.
Deck Tech:
A lot has been written and theorized about this Deck. I suggest the following ressources for a deep dive:
Lovely and comprehensive Guide by Selkcahs:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Pauper/comments/wxzd8e/uw_cawgate_primer/
In Depth Video by Gn42:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqMPSZRvtCc&t=5280s
Round 1 Six Land Spy 2-0
Game 1 they mulligan to 5 and get stuck on two Forests. I run out my cats and dogs and clock them 1-0
Game 2 I have not boarded anything. In hindsight 2 Breath Weapon should have been good vs Green in the dark. They Landgrant reveal a solid Spy hand to me and threaten to combo me on their turn 5. I have no interaction, throw a last Brainstorm and find Thraben Charm. Nice, now I can kill their third creature, I think. It takes me until they put Spy on the stack to realize, I could also exile their grave 2-0
Round 2 Gruul Party 1-2
A very enjoyable match. My opponent did not only stamp like half of the prizes with the golden LPL - no, she also lended her competences to today’s Awareness Team. Shout Outs!
The Gruul matchup is a challenge for sure. They put out a lot of early board pressure. It can get very messy to answer the board, survive and set up my own engine at the same time. Chrysalis itself is a Caw Gates hoser as it blanks half the cards in my deck (Strands, Spell Pierce, Lifelink attack, Flying attack).
Game 1 is a beauty: early Altisaur (I even have a Counterspell, but lets see what they cascade…) into Boarding Party (oh okay let’s see what’s next…) into Chrysalis. Okay, at least no Ponza and not too many of the 3-drops. Seems like I can board 2 Hydros vs Party. On to the next one 0-1
Game 2 I have to swing it. They mulligan to 5. This time I am not behind on turn 3, so I can establish my game and keep interacting with their pieces. By turn 5 I have three Hawks and a Glider vs their one card in hand. I close the game 1-1
Game 3 Is an epic one. Their opener is Elf. Turn 2: Utopia, Elf, Utopia. Turn 3: Hunter and Chrysalis. Ouch. I am 3 turns away from attacking their initiative with a 1/1 flier (after putting enough defense to survive their tempo). But that’s what I love about Caw Gates. You can sculpt Outs out of any position and play towards them. I go Journey the Hunter. Modern Age, Embalm Cat, chumpblock Chrysalis. Get Squadron Hawk + Brainstorm online, find Basilisk Gate. By turn 6 they are almost through the dungeon, I am at 5 life, but I can force them to chump-block a pumped Vector Glider with Chrysalis. Achievement unlocked. In exchange they untap, get the last dungeon-room and put a 9/8 Altisaur on the board.
We enter the late game. My prime option would be to tap-out and double-pump the Glider to make them chump with that Altisaur. But I would be dead on the back swing, if they don’t block the Glider. I have Strands in hand, to save me from the backswing - but to make this play, i need to get it into my graveyard first to cast it for zero mana. On their turn I have to counter something, no time to hard-cast Strands. They sit back on Initiative defense. On the following turn I have to pass again, still trying to get Strands in the Grave to then back up my tap-out-counterattack.
With 1 minute one the clock, they untap and finish me in great style: Deglamer on Journey to Nowhere, get back Avenging Hunter, ETB, Dungeon-Trap, put me to zero life 1-2
Round 3 U Fae 2-1
Alrighty! Finally what I signed up for - a nice littly mono colored combat deck. Muhaha. In all three games they have turn 1 Faerie Seer into turn 2 Ninja of the Deep Hour. That is the tough start on tempo, but also on stats! With the 2/1 Ninja I can just put anything in front of it and trade up. The 2/2 Ninja I have to kind of jump through hoops to answer. Spellstutter is a very scarry card in this matchup. I need to fully “Ancestrall Recall” my Brainstorms, to fight back their early Ninja-Monarch, but good luck resolving that! Resolving Squadron Hawks, Cats and Medics also goes a long way against their attacks.
Game 1 I stabilize by surviving to a Lifelink + Basilisk Board 1-0
Game 2 They fully weenie their board and push through 1-1
Game 3 They fully commit again but tap out and eat a Breath Weapon. They concede in overtime to a dominant board of mine, although they could have stalled for a draw. Thanks and Shout Outs <3 2-1
Round 4 Walls Combo 2-1
I get scarred when I see turn 1 Forest. But I got a helping hand or two in this match.
Game 1 they stumble on lands early and I get to keep their enablers in check. I clock them with Flying + Basilisk 1-0
Game 2 on turn 3 they vomit out Quirion Ranger, multiple Walls-Lords and a Haste-Enabler. They have 20 mana but no cards in hand. I have lots of lands in hand and just enough interaction to prevent their card draw and exile an attacking Ent. We are top decking each other for 3 turns, but eventually I scoop, because I would need to out-top-deck them a lot to swing this back, and I rather save time for game 3. 1-1
Game 3 they concede when they saw themselves forced to mull to three. 2-1
Round 5 Altar Tron 0-2
Well, I know that this opponent knows what they are doing with this deck. Shout Outs to lots of clean and fast sequencing, and piloting in general with a “pile” like that! I am supposed to be the beat down here, which is usually asking for trouble.
Game 1 they stumble a bit on mana, I put up a clock, start swinging, but I only have enough card selection and mana to squeeze in two or three interactions over the course of the game. With little and forseeable pressure and almost no counterplay, they fully humm off and see 50 cards of their deck. With an uncontested Munitions they fully stabilize and combo me in fashion 0-1
Game 2 I get Dust to Dust (finally) and can cut some cute cards like Strands and Outlaw Medic. I actually get to exile two early Golem Foundry with Dust to DUst (yey) - but then we play out the almost exact same game as before. I have a clock that absorbs 3/6 of my mana every turn - and that clock gets absorbed by their Weather the Storm, that absorbs only 2/20 of their mana. Kind of tells the story. I try to put up fights here and there, but they play around everything correctly, and combo me when the dust settles 0-2
Take Away:
Meta-wise Caw Gates turned out to be a poor choice of mine. I was aiming at midrange and aggro decks. What I saw in matches and around me were a majority of combo- and big value decks. Caw Gates is still peek at consistent game-play, executing its strategy and beating decks that rely on combat-damage. The deck just delivers if you treat it correctly - not only results I mean, but play patterns. I had to mull to 5 like once and by turn 4 you are always back on track with Squadron Hawk. It’s like a clockwork. And most of all - it just fills me with joy playing it. Ripping two Squadron Hawks from top of your deck blindly, or discarding Cats and Strands to Modern Age is just pleasure.
Would I play it again? You be sure of that!