Paupergeddon is the Magic event I look forward the most throughout the year. Getting tested every 4 months, training to get better every time, having a group trip
with friends and preparing together is such a bliss when you are 30 and have a full time job,
I cannot describe it entirely with words.
This time, this was merged with the legendary Eternal weekend (EW), from which I didn’t know
what to expect before going there. Will it be less community-oriented? Is it gonna feel like I am just playing a side
event of the actual cool thing (Legacy, Vintage)?
It was a blast.
It was not just upsides. The mixed informal (LPI) and formal (EW) levels of
communication not always mixed perfectly and often we as a group ended up wondering where stuff was taking place or even if the shuttle service was taking place. Nonetheless, I feel that the Paupergeddon organizers did an outstanding job at keeping the community feeling as up as possible, and it worked. The judges and staff density at the main event and RCQs is top tier, and somehow there was even a shared feeling of identity running through the players of all the eternal formats of our favorite game.
Part of me misses the smaller Paupergeddons, but seeing the sea of playing tables when entering the door, with a circle of vendors and stands all around was breathtaking, and most of all unique. Also, they will be back to some degree.
I will start the report from much before this happened, i.e. since when I needed to chose the deck for the competition.
Deck Choice
Before Paupergeddon I set myself a deadline on the 26th of October to lock the decklist. My calculations were that a month was necessary to throw in some MTGO leagues, plus 2 competitive events in Leipzig all with the deck that I would be playing in order to get some experience.
At Paupergeddon Summer Edition I played 6-Lands Spy and went horribly. It was honestly
a lot due to unreal unluck, and I didn’t feel like bringing it again. I didn’t want to face such a cluster of
weird decisions that you need to make with the deck, and bets that when they do not pay off you just lose. (You wouldn’t believe what I ended up playing)
Apropo, I promised a report on this to many nice and curious people and never delivered.
I feel like my PhD life is blending over my MtG life rather then
vice versa (as I was instead hoping). It will not come, I think.
First choices were
therefore Red, Gruul Ramp (my pet deck) and Jund Midrange. I have a feeling for the
three of them, and I thought that all of them had a shot at doing
well at the event.
First, testing Red.
I tested mostly the Maxite version, with Melded Moxite and Madness cards but
no pingers, overall more value-oriented than the classical monoR
Madness. After few days of testing I decided to rule that one out –
somehow I was not vibing.
Gruul, I didn’treally need to test/learn the chore mechanics as I am maining it since two years now. My
fear at that point (before Tide ban) was that Geddon would have been a Gardens, Tide and Madness party – not the best spot where to be.
Jund instead was standing in my fan of choices until very close to the deadline. I got a grip for the deck.
Somehow having had to understand play patterns from Jund while
playing against it made me aware of the most important lines. To
no-ones surprise the problem came with the first actual Liga game day
I tried the deck, where I got to time several time. I couldn’t
imagine 3 more rounds of this durdle tribal after the 5 from the Lega
day. I believe with one month more I could have streamlined my plays
to a decent spot, but I looked at my schedule and I had basically
space for only 4 more MTGO leagues and one IRL event.
Gruul Ramp then it is. But how?
One thing I was
sure of, the Cascade-less list was the one to chose, and the one I was
the most comfortable with since months. Also, the Gruul hive mind
kinda converged towards not to do anything too fancy main deck, as the
44444444444 list is the most solid against the wider fan of decks,
and just doing your thing is enough before the heavy artillery comes
after you in G2.
There is still a couple of flex slots: the number of Bannerhide Krushok and Ram
Throughs can vary depending on the meta. Some people also create
spots cutting Repurposer, but I do not want to lose consistency in my
1-3 punches at all, as it is the real power play of the deck when
followed up by an additional threat.
A couple of meta
facts to keep in mind from the 45 days preceding geddon:
MonoR Madness and Rally got more popular over pingers, including in Italy
MonoU terror got into an arms race since months to consistently beat Jund. The
unfortunate victim here is Gruul. The upside for gruul here is that
you get to use funny items to mark the stun counters (and you still
end up untapping the stunned creature).
Faes also got very streamlined and many people ended up agreeing with Skura’s approach
– again to beat jund. This makes the match from good to 60/40 OTP
and 50/50 OTD.
Elves is on the rise, so you have to be ready the deck that GiorgioCombo (correctly) described as:
Rally is a favourable matchup, but horrible. I say horrible because when you win
you are utterly dominating and when you lose it feels unfair. Still, this one emerging deck shouldn’t be a problem.
Faes, also “not a
problem” in the sense that you cannot do too much against the deck
without sleeving in weird stuff like multiple copies of shinen or
Sandstorm, and Breath Weapon is good but does not Entirely solve the game in Gruul.
Terror, Madness and Elves are a bit more scary, so one should prepare for it properly. Spy is also a daunting matchup since this deck lacks card selection for the answers pre-board while not pushing as fast as monoR.
Deck Building
Card considerations for the main deck flex slots
Sagu Wildling Gains you life against red, avoids Krark-Clan Shaman (KCS), it blocks flyers, wears +1+1 counters and Hydras nicely for extra evasion, and lets you keep more hands thanks to the land search ability. To consider in an expected meta with lots of Red decks vs Midrange.
Bushwack/Horrific assault Removal is stellar to solve many of the current problems: kills the pingers, Overgrown Battlements and key Elves. Also, the one mana selection allows to more easily do Initiative + Removal turns. Bushwack also lets you keep more hands with the first mode. For sure, this would be in addition to 4x Ram Through and not instead of them.
Spinewoods Paladin One of my favourite pauper cards OAT. Good against any red (especially Rally) by gaining life while speeding up the clock. He also provides a completely opposite edge vs interaction on the stack and additional trampling damage when needed. Additional points for the feeling when an opponent needs to read the card before getting absolutely smashed.
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Sideboards choices
Cards to beat:
The tools:
This is the pool of
cards that I was considering for the sideboard. The target matchups
are always on two criteria: the expected presence of the deck, the
effect of the card on the match wins. In this case, all considered, I
wanted to target Red decks, Jund, MonoU terror and Spy. Gruul has
no card selection for Instants and Sorceries, so either something is
a permanent or should come at least in 3x to have a shot at seeing it. Additionally, I recently saw several people playing Feed the Clan and Life Goes on in the life gain slots, but I have no experience with it. REB/Fireblast is a trap, and it’s been long since I stopped considering pure artifact hate for this deck’s SB: you either run a critical mass of it or it’s underwhelming, and the meta has been too open to afford 6 slots just for that.
At previous events I
went for 3 Faerie Macabre (FM) and 4 Vines of Vastwood (VoV). FM is hyper
targeted towards Spy (Dredge and Altar Tron in tier 2/3), while Vines
naturally covers midrange and control (removal, toxin) and surprisingly Blue decks
(Snap, Bind the Monster, Sleep of the Dead). It’s a nice card, but only if you
have an already good hand and terror/faes is completely relying on
Snap/Sleep/BtM to turn the tide. The rest would have been a split
between Breath Weapons and life gain.
Another option is to fight shaman with Skyshaper (another absolute pet card of mine), but that would be only for Jund and Grixis basically, and wouldn’t do anything for anything else than Toxin Analysis (not even Grixis’ blowgun really)
Quite a pickle.
Then, I interrupt my doom scrolling to distract myself from my uncomfortable sideboard choices
to check on my Discord channel to distract myself from my uncomfortable sideboard choices and I find the ultimate solution: Makeshift Munition.
Got the suggestion from GiorgioCombo, and I liked it in every possible way when testing. I needed to keep a clear trace from the origin of the suggestion directly on the card, so this happened at Geddon too:
The final list aimed between sideboard and mainboard at the possibility of 8 removal and/or 6 life
gain for the madness matchup post board, five removal pre-board
4 Relics to impair
MonoU and stop Spy, 2 cards that solve all the midrange problems, and
some board wipes to supply.
Also, this side allows to assume the tempo role against Elves, taking out the core
elf engines and hitting with some beefy creatures.
I am still happy with this configuration. I dislike pure life gain with no added pressure, since pressure is the only source of card advantage for Gruul, and this makes it possible.
The beginning
My testing group
consists of a nice selection of 9 Lega Pauper Lipsia people with a
diverse selection of decks, plus two really sweet additions in-loco. The
group is absolutely amazing and we really got the group experience of
friends sharing an interest going for a trip, and it was amazing.
26.10.25, 7pm: We jump on out train to Lucca and we comfortably surf through train
delays for 21 hours. We get half of the testing house we expected.
28.10.25, early morning: We figure out how to get to the event through the lack of
the communication in those regards from the organization, somehow we
get there.
The venue is really
nice as spacious as we saw in July. Now on double the floors
with triple the people, triple the vendors, quadruple the artists and
hundred folds the black lotuses on the playing tables.
We do the usual round meeting our friends from other leagues and proceed to our tables.
Most of the opponents
were sweet and stuff, but I got some steam to let out regarding the later Pauper Challenge (trigger warning).
Main event
Round 1: Jund
Midrange
I sit down and see
Boose apparel and no player – “nice, we start uphill” I say to
myself. My opponent eventually arrives comfortably before the timer,
we do the ritual Paupergeddon “prayer before lunch” (“PAUPER
PLAYERS …..”). We are in Italy afterall. Start.
Game 1, OTP: I see
their first land drop and understand it’s Jund. I tested this
matchup a lot and I feel decently confident I can play it out. I keep
the mull to 6 of the gods and trample them to death in G1.
Sideboard: IN: 2
Munitions OUT: 2 Repurposer
Game 2: I mull to
another good 6 but die to removal
Sideboard changes:
IN: 1 Repurposer OUT: 1 Bushwack
I like to keep at
least 7 3-drops OTP and I got the hint that my opponent was keeping
Refurbished Familiars in hand to have them coming in clutch, so
Bushwack becomes less relevant as the rts will tend to come after a
t3 hunter
Game 3: I keep a
questionable 7 with one land, elf, sprawl, rumble and some late
beaters. My development works and I find lands and early creatures,
while theirs is a bit slower (thankfully) – they hit all the land
drops but they need to look for them. My hand now contains several
threats and the MVP Makeshift munitions. Unfortunately they drop a
naked KCS, but instead of playing the munitions (which would see the
toxin before resolution probably, slowing me down) I draw the good
ol’ Ram Through and they have only 2 mana up. I drop some threats
and keep 2 mana up, they fall for it and throw a toxin before combat,
blanked by the literal GOAT (got it? :::::::) ) of the deck.
2-1
Score 1-0-0
Round 2: Jund Midrange
Yes, another one.
Sideboard plan is
the same as before, I am thinking about Makeshift Munitions since turn 1 of game 1.
Game 1: OTD,
mull to an ugly 5 and get depleted of resources as it usually goes.
Somehow they draw shit for ages and I manage to steal the game. 1-0
Game 2: On the play
I mull to a nice 6. This time, Makeshift Munitions allow me not to
lose immediately. Unfortunately, I miscount mana and damage, miss lethal and get
immediately punished by the top decks of my opponent. After all, I am
not a Munitions expert yet and I don’t have the mental shortcuts to
make these calculations fast. I get bonked by a KCS+Gixian situation,
which I couldn’t answer being tight on mana (after a couple
wildfires). 1-1
Game 3: We go into
game 3 with 10 minutes on the clock. This time the game gets stalled
as our mental energies do. We get to topdeck mode and we topdeck
sewage system spoiled garbage and we end up in a draw. 1-1
Which is not an ok choice at an event like this, where the cut is at 18 points after 8 rounds.
Actually, THIS IS A MAJOR MISTAKE THAT IMPAIRED MY TOURNAMENT SINCE ROUND 2. DO
NOT DRAW. IT IS HARD, BECAUSE AFTER 60 MINUTES OF PLAYING AGAINST
REMOVAL+DURDLE TRIBAL MASH YOU CANNOT THINK STRAIGHT, SO THIS HAS TO
BECOME A DEEP CODED HEURISTIC: CONCEDE RATHER. DISCUSS WITH YOUR
OPPONENT WHO WAS AHEAD ON BOARD AND ASK OR GIVE A CONCESSION BUT THE
DRAW BRACKET IS REAL. THIS IS PART OF KEEP HAVING FUN IN THE
TOURNAMENT AND NOT GOING IN A BRACKET OF PEOPLE THAT BELONG TO ONE OF
THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:
SLOW PLAYERS
PLAYERS IN TILT
BECAUSE OF SLOW PLAYERS
INHERENTLY
REMOVAL-INTENSE SLOW DECKS THAT YOU DEFINITELY DO NOT WANT TO SEE
WHEN PLAYING GREEN
1-1
Score 1-0-1
Round 3: Walls Spy (with blue splash for a weird blue crab counterspell that they never cast idk)
Opponent was from
category two among the previously mentioned. He was from La Suocera del Pauper – so enfranchised
pauper player (and good, as it showed in the games) and I was
thrilled as always to play a nice game of Magic.
Game 1, OTP: We both
keep a 6 or 7, my hand is decent and I setup a 4 turn clock with a
Thief+Hydra with a Krushok on the side, paired with a ram through
that busted on T3 a key Overgrown Battlement of them and kept them away from
winning with Spy. 1-0
My opponent’s
bladder couldn’t keep up with the pressure and we called a judge
for a bathroom break.
Sideboard: +4 Relic +3 Assault; -3 Chrysalis -4 Repurposer (I still haven’t figured out if this is the correct SB plan tbf)
Game 2: I mull to 5
and they keep 7. My hand is 2 Lands, Relic, Rumble, Ram Through. With
natural draws and Rumble I land a Thief and somehow take away their
Battlement+Quirion Ranger engine, with a Relic on board. Afterwards,
they see mana that slowly but steadily brings down gigantic creatures
and I cannot even remotely keep up with my garbage draws. Possibly no
draws would have saved me from the beatdown. Most of the game was
determined from having the wrong answers. 1-1
Game 3: I get a very
nice mull to 6, but they smoothly combo on 4 through the absence of a
Relic.
1-2
Score 1-1-1
Round 4: BG Gardens
I have only fuzzy
memories of this game. G1 I just pushed through their infinite
defences and got the win, including a toxin on a Rat. The combined
fact of having to spend 5 mana for the combo vs the 2 needed by KCS
made it so they couldn’t take out a 3/4 Hydra and I rebuilt from
there. From sideboard I brought Munitions instead of Bushwack and
maybe Paladin? Wouldn’t be a terrible idea to have more tramplers
or provide rebuildability after boardwipe, I hope Luca of the past
did it.
2-0
Score 2-1-1
Round 5: Faes
Game 1 OTD: I sit
down and see Island –> Faerie Miscreant. This is a weird point for Gruul
players, because 60% of the lists die miserably, but those with good
combinations of Harrier Stryxes and Snaps. It was the latter. I manage to land a Hydra
early and we get to a sort of boardstall, but I present no real
folllow up. They scavenge until their last 20 cards chaining 4 Of One
Mind and finally find 3 Snaps in a clutch (0 seen before), killing me
from there. 0-1
Game 2: The game
proceeds better and I just to the 1-3-big play (ramp on 1, 3 drop,
chrysalis or so) and get the win.
Game 3: I mull to an
uncomfortable 5 that needs additional setup vs their 6 and I hope for no Ninja to block my Hydra
on 2 and so it goes. The game goes long but a couple of slightly
sloppy plays from me snowball into complete Faes hell. One of them
was to put a Hydra on a Thief instead of a Spawn after thinking two
minutes, immediately getting punished by Bind the Monster. My read of
them not having the removal was correct, but my Gruul brain couldn’t
fathom they could actually LOOK for it, swinging in with a bunch of
faes, losing a couple in the process to draw with Ninjas, following
it up with Of One Minds and at last Bind the Monster and getting away
with the game.
1-2, and no more shots at day 2 –> drop
Well, no day 2, but at least there are nice events the other days (Pauper super qualifier, Team Trios), and I always get to visit my family in Italy when I travel for Paupergeddons. Bad, not too bad.
My instinct was to
directly go home. I was happy because I got nice opponents, lost a
bit to bad choices, very few but key sloppy plays and quite some
unluck, which you cannot control with this deck. Provided the
day2 conversion rates, probably the main mistake was deck choice,
although I mastered this deck to almost the bottom of it.
Nonetheless, from
our group we still had 7 out of 10 players still in for day 2 and I
wanted to be there to cheer. This put me in a good mood, it is just amazing to go to these events surrounded by nice people, as they can make even losses feel much better. Also, preparing with other people make you feel the wins are shared and the weight of losses as well. Therefore I joined the Pauper challenge at
16:30 just to play some Pauper. I was still in a decent mood,
although my brain was really on the tired side.
I will not write an
extensive report of this part, as I played with the mindset of
kitchen table magic just to find some opponents and chill between
rounds.
I will just bring up one or two
highlights for each of the 3 matches:
Round 1: I play a
match against Grixis Affinity, where post board I land an early
Makeshift Munitions that completely destroys every plan of them, and
even provides me lethal (this time, I properly counted). In response
to my 2-0, my opponent shows me his mother’s card altering project
and I am completely drown in sweetness.
Humbled by unbelievably beautiful alters, still 2-0
Round 2: complete crap. I want to give a warning before reading, since this match is still changed with frustration provided what happened, so the reader can skip if not up for some nice tilt. Overall, I hope none of you encounters things like this and I want to provide an example so that other people can react in a more effective way than I did. I sit down against this opponent who’s visibly drunk, he plays sloppily and trash talks. He smokes inside of the venue while playing, mid round his friends come around in the venue and eat snacks close to our cards, speak to me everytime I am in the tank to make game decision and touch my board “to look at the cards”. Let alone just loudly speaking to me in a language I don’t speak, interrupted by sparks of English. My psyche in that moment couldn’t find the forces to react properly and I just smiled and took their stuff away from the board instead of calling a judge. I know this is a normal way of reacting to this type of harassment, but I still feel ashamed of not having done the correct thing as I am writing this down 4 days later.
I obviously loose this one, tilt, and leave the table right after the game. By far this was my worse experience at any Paupergeddon until that point, from which I
cannot recall any previous such blatantly negative experience. Lesson
learned: do not play with strangers if you are not mentally/energy-wise ready for fighting back on this type of bullying. Hope they step on a LEGO block.
If you are ever in south Eastern Spain and want to play some pauper, consider Valencia, Bilbao and Madrid as LPI affiliate leagues to visit before any other.
1-2
Round 3 I discovered
in a very long match that against Gardens can triple dunk by putting a hydra for 5
on a rat and basically boardwiping the board over and over again. Very nice and clean
opponent, extremely skilled also in seeing such lines, but this was a
terrible follow-up from Round 2. I wish I remembered the name of my opponent to make it sure my mood had nothing to do with him
My main event was nice. It’s obviously nicer to win, but my brain in the evening was entirely directed to our pal
that made it to day 2, reanalysing the mistakes and towards the
amazing pizza we got close to our place in the city. Most of the burning
regrets come from my Pauper challenge round 2 since they are more personal than game-related - although one could argue that the two things cannot really be taken apart. The other mistakes were already in the process of being internalized, and I am burning for testing myself again.
As always, it’s better make mistakes before the big tournament and not during, but it’s a thing one can fix only to a limited extent, especially when the meta changes so fast that every week you get 1-2 new decks/versions of a deck to test against.
Deck choice was overall mid,
but was the deck that gives me more satisfaction and I pilot the best
(pretty well, actually). I see that my results wouldn’t have been tragically better with other decks, since I know the ins and outs of this one. It’s also the one that gives me the most satisfaction, possibly related to the previous point, and it felt like plenty of people were piloting their pet decks at Paupergeddon, with extremely notable example just by looking at the top 64. My goal for the next events is to properly
learn a new deck and master it, and I feel really excited about the
possibilities.
Last but not least,
I am very grateful that all these experiences – for now referring
to the main event – were together with a tight group. This made the
losses hurt less and the wins feel better.
Until the next one
with the Saturday’s Pauper super-RCQ!
