Hello everyone! I'm trying to get some help putting together a sideboard for my WW Pauper deck. I feel like I do pretty well against almost many decks. The decks I have problems with are Cloudpost and the hexproof auras deck that just dominates me now, pestilence control is a bit rough as well. I'm a returning player so I need some help putting a SB together as I'm not sure what works well these days. Here is my deck list:
IMO move Standard Bearers to the sideboard. They're a 1/1 for 2, which isn't impressive in a swarm deck. Running 4 Prismatic Strands in your 75 should help both matchups you cited. If you move the 4 Standard Bearers to the side, bring them in against hexproof, along with a few Disenchant effects, and you should be much better off. You can also tempo them out with fliers, using Journeys on the Aura Gnarlids and leaving your ground dudes to chump their Bogles and Gladecover dudes.
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Just got into pauper and put this together. So far it has been doing really well in practice matches (Just for fun and tournament practice rooms). Anyone have suggestions for improvement?
I used to run 4 of the Cathars, but after a few games I felt like the Guardian was just too good to not include. The protection makes it pretty much unstoppable unless theyre running unmake. I haven't tested much with this newest version so I'm not sure if the Guardian stays or even gets increased to 2 copies.
I find that the only decks I have really lost to so far are the 8 post decks and their variations. Is there any way we can deal with those? They just start piling up glimmerposts and live long enough to either bounce my board or eldrazi me to death.
I've been running Judge Unworthy recently with some success. Anybody else tried it? Impressions?
how often is that actually going to be better than sunlance? You can't hit anything outside of combat with that, which is relevant a lot of the time (eg. you don't want to be trying to do damage to any stompy creatures on their turn and you want to hit stuff that doesn't attack like disciple of the vault or wellwisher) and most of the time sunlance is going to do more damage.
imho bearer is way too good to not play now. soaking up removal and stoping the encahnt decks are a major plus. also it stops the about face decks cold. also stops gigadrowse your team
Just got this deck, and I love it, I've only played 3 matches so far, but I won those. I beat Mono blue faeries, mono black, and green stompy. Which is more than I can say for my green stompy deck.
Anyway I have 2 questions.
Why don't you guys run veteran swordsmith? Do you guys just not run enough soldiers, or is there another reason that I'm just not understanding yet?
What do you guys think about Selfless Cathar? A one drop that can be a glorius charge seems pretty good.
I'm also unsure how to sideboard with this. I know that I need the other three standard bearers against green, but what should be taken out? I took out 2 bodyguards for 2 bearers. I'm pretty sure I also need sunlance in this matchup, should I take out 2 Squadron Hawks for them?
I'd also love to fit more strands in here, it's proven to be one of the stronger cards in here. Any advice on what I should take out, or is two enough and three would be too much?
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
The only soldiers I run are Icatian Javelineers and Kor Skyfisher, and I run them just to ping off certain things since they work so well together and it also procs my Suture Priest.
As for Selfless Cathar, I think his ability is sort of mediocre. White Weenie in my experience isn't really about the mass pump that something like a soldier deck is. I would have a very hard time trying to find a place for him in my deck because everything really has a much better ability or purpose.
Also if you would wonder what Inviolability is in the sideboard for, equip one of those to your Standard Bearer and Burn decks are 100% shut down, (at least in paper Pauper). I am not sure if it is a viable option in the online version of the game.
Why don't you guys run veteran swordsmith? Do you guys just not run enough soldiers, or is there another reason that I'm just not understanding yet?
What do you guys think about Selfless Cathar? A one drop that can be a glorius charge seems pretty good.
From my experience playing against WW:
Veteran Swordsmith costs :3mana:, which would be two creatures in most other circumstances.
Veteran Armorsmith stops all the widely-played removal that only works on X/1's, and you can stack them deep enough to have an army that can safely block Myr Enforcer.
A 1-drop that can be a Glorious Charge would be good if Glorious Charge were good. "Win by Swarm" isn't really what WW does, because swarms in pauper tend to hardcore die against Electrickery and similar effects.
Instead, you're trying to maintain card advantage and dudes-on-board against removal and trade-blocks. This is true of most pauper aggro decks - Goblins and Stompy and Affinity are all full of ways to keep creatures on the board against removal, moreso than they're full of group buffs.
imho bearer is way too good to not play now. soaking up removal and stoping the encahnt decks are a major plus. also it stops the about face decks cold. also stops gigadrowse your team
Standard Bearer doesn't stop Gigadrowse any more than it stops Grapeshot or Astral Steel. According to the rules, and in defiance of all common sense, choosing new targets for the copies does NOT happen while casting a spell or activating an ability, so the Standard Bearer can't affect it; this is similar to Doubling Season not granting extra counters to planeswalker + abilities.
Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
To answer your question as to why not everyone uses Veteran Swordsmith it is going to depend on what type of creatures you run (obviously).
The only soldiers I run are Icatian Javelineers and Kor Skyfisher, and I run them just to ping off certain things since they work so well together and it also procs my Suture Priest.
As for Selfless Cathar, I think his ability is sort of mediocre. White Weenie in my experience isn't really about the mass pump that something like a soldier deck is. I would have a very hard time trying to find a place for him in my deck because everything really has a much better ability or purpose.
Also if you would wonder what Inviolability is in the sideboard for, equip one of those to your Standard Bearer and Burn decks are 100% shut down, (at least in paper Pauper). I am not sure if it is a viable option in the online version of the game.
I see what you are saying about the swordsmith. He does seem to be one of the weaker cards in the deck. I also completly forgot that protection allows guardian to get through most threats. I'll probably play him over the swordsmith. Do you keep him in against blue faeries? I'm asking since they play Spire Golem, he could just get blocked all day long.
I was on the fence about selfless cathar I won't try him out.
As for inviobility with standard bearer, that's an awsome combo that i've never seen before. I don't see alot of mono red burn lists in the posted dailies, but izzet post is a thing, and that would shut off their removal. Might be worth trying it against them.
As for suture priest, I don't understand why he's played in these lists. The lifegain doesn't really matter against alot of decks since this gums up the board pretty easily, and most decks aren't burning you out. I could see playing him if we had something like serra ascendant but it just seems like an easily removed creature. Isn't legionnaire a better choice, since it stops most creature decks cold, and forces opponents to make bad blocks? I mean if you hook him up with a bonesplitter, he can get through anything without dying except for ulamog's crusher.
I also like razor golem but, I really feel that this deck needs onedrops so I couldn't get rid of doomed traveller. He basically requires your opponent to two for one themselves to get rid of it, and he makes edicts alot worse. And legionnaire just seems like a better card than the golem because he has first strike. Sure he only has one toughness, but with an armorer down, it's a hard card to remove. However the golem does have 4 toughness so it can't get bolted.
I might try out 3 travelers, 3 legionnaires, 3 golems, and 3 guardians, taking out all of the swordsmiths. Just to see how i like the golems and guardians.
I think that the armorers are extremely important to stop things like electrickery and hornet sting as well as letting you get through things like faeries and even bigger creatures if you have multiples out.
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If MTG is a part of your life, the formats are like relationships:
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I see what you are saying about the swordsmith. He does seem to be one of the weaker cards in the deck. I also completly forgot that protection allows guardian to get through most threats. I'll probably play him over the swordsmith. Do you keep him in against blue faeries? I'm asking since they play Spire Golem, he could just get blocked all day long.
I was on the fence about selfless cathar I won't try him out.
As for inviobility with standard bearer, that's an awsome combo that i've never seen before. I don't see alot of mono red burn lists in the posted dailies, but izzet post is a thing, and that would shut off their removal. Might be worth trying it against them.
As for suture priest, I don't understand why he's played in these lists. The lifegain doesn't really matter against alot of decks since this gums up the board pretty easily, and most decks aren't burning you out. I could see playing him if we had something like serra ascendant but it just seems like an easily removed creature. Isn't legionnaire a better choice, since it stops most creature decks cold, and forces opponents to make bad blocks? I mean if you hook him up with a bonesplitter, he can get through anything without dying except for ulamog's crusher.
I also like razor golem but, I really feel that this deck needs onedrops so I couldn't get rid of doomed traveller. He basically requires your opponent to two for one themselves to get rid of it, and he makes edicts alot worse. And legionnaire just seems like a better card than the golem because he has first strike. Sure he only has one toughness, but with an armorer down, it's a hard card to remove. However the golem does have 4 toughness so it can't get bolted.
I might try out 3 travelers, 3 legionnaires, 3 golems, and 3 guardians, taking out all of the swordsmiths. Just to see how i like the golems and guardians.
I think that the armorers are extremely important to stop things like electrickery and hornet sting as well as letting you get through things like faeries and even bigger creatures if you have multiples out.
I keep my Guardian of the Guildpact in mainboard no matter what, I love that guy and I just can't part with him.
Concerning Suture Priest, I find him invaluable because the lifegain and lifeloss can start hurting if left unchecked. As you said he is easily removed which I find great, GREAT value in. It forces your opponent to one, think about what to drop and when to drop it and two; they either use a removal to get rid of it which saves another creature from the removal or they leave it sit which I'm fine with as-well.
As for Porcelain Legionnaire I find him very good, but since I don't run Veteran Armorsmith I find him not useful in my list. Yes first strike is very good, but Razor Golem can block bigger, he has vigilance and is just the same an artifact so protection against colors doesn't effect him just as it would with Porcelain Legionnaire. I just find vigilance more valuable then first strike because in my meta, (which is on paper) it is a better ability.
EDIT: On the subject of Standard Bearer + Inviolability, as I said I don't know how viable it is in Magic Online, but in my meta it was a hilarious shut down on two Burn decks. These two brothers came in with cream of the crop Pauper Burn decks and swore up and down they would wax the tournament, short story even shorter they scooped against my White Weenie as soon as I got that combo out, they couldn't do anything at all, ever. I just had to make sure I had a Benevolent Bodyguard out to protect my Standard Bearer so it wouldn't get removed before I could slap on Inviolability and boom, game.
I just bought this deck and played several games with it and loved it, it performed very well. But when i took it to a daily, i got absolutely wrecked by ur post and faeries. What is our game plan against those decks?
I just bought this deck and played several games with it and loved it, it performed very well. But when i took it to a daily, i got absolutely wrecked by ur post and faeries. What is our game plan against those decks?
Against UR Post you are greatly disadvantaged since you're not as fast as other aggro decks such as Stompy and Goblins and you also lack in reach. Your best way to win is to get an early Bonesplitter and leverage that for some quick beats. Squadron Hawk also helps ensure you have enough bodies to fight through their removal, though Electrickery from their deck is often going to be very bad for you. Resilient creatures like Doomed Traveler and Loyal Cathar are pretty useful as well as they make UR Post's plan of trying to 1-for-1 you with removal and gain card advantage with Mulldrifter a bit less effective. Guardian of the Guildpact can be good since they generally can't kill it outside of Serrated Arrows but if they get their Ghostly Flicker engine going they can gain too much life for it to matter. It's just a really bad matchup overall and there's not a lot you can do to make it better.
Against Faeries/Delver, Icatian Javelineers is one of your best cards being able to often stop a turn 1 Delver (unless you're on the draw and it flips right away) and also giving you some protection from Spellstutter Sprite which you don't really have any other effective ways to prevent from 2-for-1ing you. Squadron Hawk is key here so always do your best to resolve it as getting 3 free cards will let you attrition out their faeries. Spire Golem can present a roadblock but Bonesplitter will often remedy this. Generally you don't want the game to drag on too long meaning you have to get aggressive. The longer the game goes, the more likely they are to draw something like Serrated Arrows (post-board anyways) that is very tough for a White Weenie deck to beat. Also be careful when casting Journey to Nowhere as if they have only one creature in play they can easily Snap it back to their hand and then you will be forced to exile one of your own guys. Another thing to keep in mind is if they are attacking you they might have a Ninja of the Deep Hours they're trying to get in play, in which case you really need to be blocking their Spellstutter Sprites, otherwise they will get to use them on you again. I always found this matchup pretty close when I played White Weenie. White Weenie generally has a better air force, but Delver has more card advantage and Spellstutter Sprite is a problem card for WW since like I said before only Javelineers can really deal with it without you getting 2-for-1ed.
I really wish WW was still a viable deck in Pauper since it's a solid fair deck that is a sign of a balanced meta. Unfortunately the Post matchups seem so brutal and I'm not really sure there's anyway to fix that. I think the Delver match up is better but I still don't think you're favored especially on the draw where WW is probably a little too slow. It is possible if you tuned the WW you could be more favored vs. Delver.
I really hope someone does make the effort to do it and we start to see classic decks like Goblins and WW in Pauper. I feel it is best when people have viable winning options in all colors and archetypes.
I really wish WW was still a viable deck in Pauper since it's a solid fair deck that is a sign of a balanced meta. Unfortunately the Post matchups seem so brutal and I'm not really sure there's anyway to fix that. I think the Delver match up is better but I still don't think you're favored especially on the draw where WW is probably a little too slow. It is possible if you tuned the WW you could be more favored vs. Delver.
I really hope someone does make the effort to do it and we start to see classic decks like Goblins and WW in Pauper. I feel it is best when people have viable winning options in all colors and archetypes.
Where have you been? I've had a lot of success with Goblins in Pauper, the deck is very playable! I agree though, it is pretty disheartening that white for the most part doesn't really exist at all in Pauper in any competitive form. Any deck running white cards is pretty well relegated to tier 2 status or worse in the current metagame.
Yeah I see goblins every now and then it does okay. But nothing like before where it was one of the definitive strategies. People underestimate that the deck has a lot of play to it for an aggro deck.
The irony is the bans actually impacted WW the worst. Decks like Infect and Storm were a reason to play WW because WW could get free wins with a properly constructed sideboard or main deck hate. When those went away, the appeal of playing WW went down to the point of unplayable. And that is really really disappointing.
Yeah I see goblins every now and then it does okay. But nothing like before where it was one of the definitive strategies. People underestimate that the deck has a lot of play to it for an aggro deck.
The irony is the bans actually impacted WW the worst. Decks like Infect and Storm were a reason to play WW because WW could get free wins with a properly constructed sideboard or main deck hate. When those went away, the appeal of playing WW went down to the point of unplayable. And that is really really disappointing.
Yeah Goblins has a lot of play to it which contributes to it being my favorite deck in the format. I don't really see why more people don't want to play it though, it's pretty reasonable in the current meta. Though perhaps it comes back to that the deck does have a lot of play to it and even seemingly minute decisions are often the difference between winning and losing. I had to play the deck a lot in the TP room before I felt comfortable enough with it to run it through DEs.
It's true WW filled an interesting niche pre-bans since it was one of the few decks that actually had cards to beat a Grapeshot Storm deck, and Infect was fairly good too with Javelineers and things like Holy Light and Prismatic Strands Kind of funny that bans aimed to make the format more fair essentially killed off what was one of the fairest decks in the format. U/R Post was even more prominent back then than it is now though so it was still kept mostly on the outskirts of competitiveness because of that awful matchup but it was at least semi-playable at the time.
Yeah Goblins has a lot of play to it which contributes to it being my favorite deck in the format. I don't really see why more people don't want to play it though, it's pretty reasonable in the current meta. Though perhaps it comes back to that the deck does have a lot of play to it and even seemingly minute decisions are often the difference between winning and losing. I had to play the deck a lot in the TP room before I felt comfortable enough with it to run it through DEs.
It's true WW filled an interesting niche pre-bans since it was one of the few decks that actually had cards to beat a Grapeshot Storm deck, and Infect was fairly good too with Javelineers and things like Holy Light and Prismatic Strands Kind of funny that bans aimed to make the format more fair essentially killed off what was one of the fairest decks in the format. U/R Post was even more prominent back then than it is now though so it was still kept mostly on the outskirts of competitiveness because of that awful matchup but it was at least semi-playable at the time.
Even though people complained about them, Infect and Storm did help keep a balanced meta game for awhile. They helped keep post decks in check, Delver helped keep Infect/Storm in check while aggro decks such as Stompy were around to help fight Delver. Your sideboard had to balance out against all these different angles. On the surface yeah it does suck when you lose to a T2 deck but looking at the bigger picture it actually meant more strategies were playable in the meta and this would fluctuate from week to week depending on what's popular.
Even though people complained about them, Infect and Storm did help keep a balanced meta game for awhile. They helped keep post decks in check, Delver helped keep Infect/Storm in check while aggro decks such as Stompy were around to help fight Delver. Your sideboard had to balance out against all these different angles. On the surface yeah it does suck when you lose to a T2 deck but looking at the bigger picture it actually meant more strategies were playable in the meta and this would fluctuate from week to week depending on what's popular.
I completely agree with you. Format now is very stale and with little variance on decks and archetypes. As much as I hated both decks, their effect on the meta was somewhat positive.
Sup, now that Post is dead and buried, White Weenie can reborn from ashes. It's a pretty resilient midrange aggro, and sideboard options can be tuned to reach every matchup.
This list has a lower curve (lacks Guardian of Guildpact), and no fancy stuff like Suture Priest & co. It's dropping creatures consistently and punching. Sideboard covers a lot of matchups: Crimson Acolytes to deal with Goblins and UR Nivix/Delver, Standard Bearer and Runes for Mono Green Stompy and Elves, Holy Light for Delver. The rest is to deal with Affinity. If MBC is raining on your parade, you can switch Crimson Acolyte with Obsidian Acolyte.
Not sure I love rune of protection green in a list that also runs golems and bonesplitters and journeys; your opponent is pretty likely to be running gleeful sabotage or something similar game 2 anyway.
Also, with the golems, I would probably go a straight 20 plains.
They're more likely to bring Scattershot Archers than Gleeful Sabotage, as we have a lot of Flying critters. But that Rune of Protection is there to buy you some time to fly over his blockers, while he's digging for that Sabotage (with no cantrips). Standard Bearer also steals many pump-spells, so between Hornet Sting, Gleeful Sabotage and Scattershot Archer, there are many cards for them to find.
You CAN give their guy protection from Assault Strobe, but I agree with this strongly - Dragonaut doesn't care about your blockers >75% of the time.
As far as Red Hate, I think Circle of Protection: Red is a much stronger choice. It's a little dicey against burn, since you need to be racing them out before they draw more spells than you have mana/life, but most Dragonaut lists are just not packing an answer to it, and will scoop when it lands - or even to a Gitaxian Probe revealing it in your hand!
They have access to answers (Spell Pierce, Flaring Pain, etc), so don't count on that being true forever, but for now at least...
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Oh, you think the losers' bracket is your ally, but you merely adopted the scrub tier. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t 4-0 an FNM until I was already a man; by then, it was nothing to me but an extra pack to sell for store credit!
Is there a reason to still run 4x Javelineers main, with Delver not being the most prevalent deck?
What about 4x Bodyguard main since there is so much targeted removal?
Is there anything better to play than the Skyhunter in the 2 CMC slot?
I have been trying out order of leitbur. In almost 10 matches so far I have yet to play against mono black though. The first strike has been very relavent though, especially with bonesplitter, but the pump is rarely used.
Edit: I noticed suture priestx 4 in one of the results from a daily
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2x Benevolent Bodyguard
3x Guardian of the Guildpact
4x Icatian Javenineers
4x Kor Skyfisher
2x Leonin Skyhunter
2x Loyal Cathar
4x Squadron Hawk
2x Standard Bearer
4x Razor Golem
3x Suture Priest
2x Prismatic Strands
2x Unmake
Spells(3):
3x Journey to Nowhere
Artifacts(4):
4x Bonesplitter
Land(20):
3x Secluded Steppe
17x Plains
2x Dust to Dust
3x Holy Light
2x Kor Sanctifiers
3x Order of Leitbur
1x Rune of Protection: Red
1x Seraph of Dawn
3x Sunlance
Is my SB well suited for the meta or do I need to make some adjustments?
Thanks!
Fires :symr:f Salvation
4x Squadron Hawk
4x Doomed Traveler
4x Icatian Javelineer
4x War Falcoln
4x Daring Skyjek
4x Kor Skyfisher
4x Veteran Armorsmith
3x Loyal Cathar
1x Guardian of the Guildpact
4x Journey to Nowhere
2x Guardian's Pledge
Artifacts:
4x Bonesplitter
Land:
2x Secluded Steppe
1x Kabira Crossroads
15x Plains
2x Dust to Dust
2x Holy Light
1x Sunlance
2x Crimson Acolyte
2x Unmake
2x Suture Priest
2x Patrician's Scorn
2x Prismatic Strands
I used to run 4 of the Cathars, but after a few games I felt like the Guardian was just too good to not include. The protection makes it pretty much unstoppable unless theyre running unmake. I haven't tested much with this newest version so I'm not sure if the Guardian stays or even gets increased to 2 copies.
I find that the only decks I have really lost to so far are the 8 post decks and their variations. Is there any way we can deal with those? They just start piling up glimmerposts and live long enough to either bounce my board or eldrazi me to death.
WUBRROBOTSRBUW
BRGLIVING ENDGRB
URSPLINTER TWINRU
LEGACY
WUBRGTESGRBUW
WUBRGDREDGEGRBUW
EDH
BRGKRESH, THE BLOODBRAIDEDGRB
WBGDORAN, THE SIEGE TOWERGBW
UBSYGG, RIVER CUTTHROATBU
PAUPER EDH
WUGRHOX WAR MONKGUW
UBRDREADWINGRBU
RGFERAL ANIMISTGR
PAUPER
WUBRGALL OF ITGRBUW
how often is that actually going to be better than sunlance? You can't hit anything outside of combat with that, which is relevant a lot of the time (eg. you don't want to be trying to do damage to any stompy creatures on their turn and you want to hit stuff that doesn't attack like disciple of the vault or wellwisher) and most of the time sunlance is going to do more damage.
2 Loyal Cathar
3 Bonesplitter
4 Kor Skyfisher
3 Suture Priest
4 Icatian Javelineers
1 Journey to Nowhere
4 Squadron Hawk
1 Doomed Traveler
3 Razor Golem
1 Journey to Nowhere
4 Benevolent Bodyguard
3 Leonin Skyhunter
3 Guardian of the Guildpact
2 Standard Bearer
2 Prismatic Strands
1 Seraph of Dawn
3 Raise the Alarm
2 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Rune of Protection: Red
2 Reprisal
1 Patrician's Scorn
3 Sunlance
2 Dust to Dust
imho bearer is way too good to not play now. soaking up removal and stoping the encahnt decks are a major plus. also it stops the about face decks cold. also stops gigadrowse your team
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Anyway I have 2 questions.
Why don't you guys run veteran swordsmith? Do you guys just not run enough soldiers, or is there another reason that I'm just not understanding yet?
What do you guys think about Selfless Cathar? A one drop that can be a glorius charge seems pretty good.
Here's my list for reference:
19 Plains
Creatures: 31
2 - Benevolent Bodyguard
4 - Doomed Traveler
4 - Icatian Javelineers
4 - Kor Skyfisher
4 - Squadron Hawk
1 - Standard Bearer
4 - Veteran Armorer
4 - Porcelain Legionnaire
4 - Veteran Swordsmith
4 - Bonesplitter
4 - Journey to Nowhere
2 - Prismatic Strands
2 - Sunlance
3 - Standard Bearer
2 - Crimson Alcolyte
3 - Holy Light
3 - Dust to Dust
2 - Patrician's Scorn
I'm also unsure how to sideboard with this. I know that I need the other three standard bearers against green, but what should be taken out? I took out 2 bodyguards for 2 bearers. I'm pretty sure I also need sunlance in this matchup, should I take out 2 Squadron Hawks for them?
I'd also love to fit more strands in here, it's proven to be one of the stronger cards in here. Any advice on what I should take out, or is two enough and three would be too much?
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
Below is my own White Weenie deck that I use in paper Pauper Magic.
4 Benevolent Bodyguard
3 Guardian of the Guildpact
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Razor Golem
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Standard Bearer
3 Suture Priest
3 Bonesplitter
3 Journey to Nowhere
2 Prismatic Strands
2 Unmake
Lands 20
17 Plains
3 Secluded Steppe
4 Inviolability
4 Kor Sanctifiers
2 Oblivion Ring
3 Sunlance
The only soldiers I run are Icatian Javelineers and Kor Skyfisher, and I run them just to ping off certain things since they work so well together and it also procs my Suture Priest.
I might run Veteran Swordsmith MAYBE if I ran more soldiers but I cannot for the life of me drop Guardian of the Guildpact, Suture Priest and Razor Golem. All three of these cards have saved a game that was almost lost and a soldier that can simply give an extra +1+0 can't really shake a stick at a Guardian of the Guildpact who can't be Arrested, Oblivion Ringed, Journey to Nowhereed or whatever, you can Unmake him but that is about it; he just walks through most creatures because you cannot block him so slapping a Bonesplitter on him is a no brainer for free damage.
As for Selfless Cathar, I think his ability is sort of mediocre. White Weenie in my experience isn't really about the mass pump that something like a soldier deck is. I would have a very hard time trying to find a place for him in my deck because everything really has a much better ability or purpose.
Also if you would wonder what Inviolability is in the sideboard for, equip one of those to your Standard Bearer and Burn decks are 100% shut down, (at least in paper Pauper). I am not sure if it is a viable option in the online version of the game.
W White Weenie
From my experience playing against WW:
Veteran Swordsmith costs :3mana:, which would be two creatures in most other circumstances.
Veteran Armorsmith stops all the widely-played removal that only works on X/1's, and you can stack them deep enough to have an army that can safely block Myr Enforcer.
A 1-drop that can be a Glorious Charge would be good if Glorious Charge were good. "Win by Swarm" isn't really what WW does, because swarms in pauper tend to hardcore die against Electrickery and similar effects.
Instead, you're trying to maintain card advantage and dudes-on-board against removal and trade-blocks. This is true of most pauper aggro decks - Goblins and Stompy and Affinity are all full of ways to keep creatures on the board against removal, moreso than they're full of group buffs.
EDIT:
Standard Bearer doesn't stop Gigadrowse any more than it stops Grapeshot or Astral Steel. According to the rules, and in defiance of all common sense, choosing new targets for the copies does NOT happen while casting a spell or activating an ability, so the Standard Bearer can't affect it; this is similar to Doubling Season not granting extra counters to planeswalker + abilities.
I see what you are saying about the swordsmith. He does seem to be one of the weaker cards in the deck. I also completly forgot that protection allows guardian to get through most threats. I'll probably play him over the swordsmith. Do you keep him in against blue faeries? I'm asking since they play Spire Golem, he could just get blocked all day long.
I was on the fence about selfless cathar I won't try him out.
As for inviobility with standard bearer, that's an awsome combo that i've never seen before. I don't see alot of mono red burn lists in the posted dailies, but izzet post is a thing, and that would shut off their removal. Might be worth trying it against them.
As for suture priest, I don't understand why he's played in these lists. The lifegain doesn't really matter against alot of decks since this gums up the board pretty easily, and most decks aren't burning you out. I could see playing him if we had something like serra ascendant but it just seems like an easily removed creature. Isn't legionnaire a better choice, since it stops most creature decks cold, and forces opponents to make bad blocks? I mean if you hook him up with a bonesplitter, he can get through anything without dying except for ulamog's crusher.
I also like razor golem but, I really feel that this deck needs onedrops so I couldn't get rid of doomed traveller. He basically requires your opponent to two for one themselves to get rid of it, and he makes edicts alot worse. And legionnaire just seems like a better card than the golem because he has first strike. Sure he only has one toughness, but with an armorer down, it's a hard card to remove. However the golem does have 4 toughness so it can't get bolted.
I might try out 3 travelers, 3 legionnaires, 3 golems, and 3 guardians, taking out all of the swordsmiths. Just to see how i like the golems and guardians.
I think that the armorers are extremely important to stop things like electrickery and hornet sting as well as letting you get through things like faeries and even bigger creatures if you have multiples out.
Standard/Block = The on-again, off-again holiday fling
Modern/Vintage/Legacy = Stable, homely. A ***** after absence/misreading
Limited/Sealed = Heart breaking free spirit
Commander/Cube = Agreeable, needy and expensive
Pauper/Peasant = Sweet, kind, practical, but shy and boring
I keep my Guardian of the Guildpact in mainboard no matter what, I love that guy and I just can't part with him.
Concerning Suture Priest, I find him invaluable because the lifegain and lifeloss can start hurting if left unchecked. As you said he is easily removed which I find great, GREAT value in. It forces your opponent to one, think about what to drop and when to drop it and two; they either use a removal to get rid of it which saves another creature from the removal or they leave it sit which I'm fine with as-well.
As for Porcelain Legionnaire I find him very good, but since I don't run Veteran Armorsmith I find him not useful in my list. Yes first strike is very good, but Razor Golem can block bigger, he has vigilance and is just the same an artifact so protection against colors doesn't effect him just as it would with Porcelain Legionnaire. I just find vigilance more valuable then first strike because in my meta, (which is on paper) it is a better ability.
As for using Veteran Armorsmith to fend off Electrickery and Hornet Sting that is good, but once again if you use soldiers. If I have some Guardian of the Guildpacts, a few Benevolent Bodyguards and some Standard Bearers out I don't really find it that big of a deal. Storm matchups are pretty bad but I can deal with them.
EDIT: On the subject of Standard Bearer + Inviolability, as I said I don't know how viable it is in Magic Online, but in my meta it was a hilarious shut down on two Burn decks. These two brothers came in with cream of the crop Pauper Burn decks and swore up and down they would wax the tournament, short story even shorter they scooped against my White Weenie as soon as I got that combo out, they couldn't do anything at all, ever. I just had to make sure I had a Benevolent Bodyguard out to protect my Standard Bearer so it wouldn't get removed before I could slap on Inviolability and boom, game.
W White Weenie
Against UR Post you are greatly disadvantaged since you're not as fast as other aggro decks such as Stompy and Goblins and you also lack in reach. Your best way to win is to get an early Bonesplitter and leverage that for some quick beats. Squadron Hawk also helps ensure you have enough bodies to fight through their removal, though Electrickery from their deck is often going to be very bad for you. Resilient creatures like Doomed Traveler and Loyal Cathar are pretty useful as well as they make UR Post's plan of trying to 1-for-1 you with removal and gain card advantage with Mulldrifter a bit less effective. Guardian of the Guildpact can be good since they generally can't kill it outside of Serrated Arrows but if they get their Ghostly Flicker engine going they can gain too much life for it to matter. It's just a really bad matchup overall and there's not a lot you can do to make it better.
Against Faeries/Delver, Icatian Javelineers is one of your best cards being able to often stop a turn 1 Delver (unless you're on the draw and it flips right away) and also giving you some protection from Spellstutter Sprite which you don't really have any other effective ways to prevent from 2-for-1ing you. Squadron Hawk is key here so always do your best to resolve it as getting 3 free cards will let you attrition out their faeries. Spire Golem can present a roadblock but Bonesplitter will often remedy this. Generally you don't want the game to drag on too long meaning you have to get aggressive. The longer the game goes, the more likely they are to draw something like Serrated Arrows (post-board anyways) that is very tough for a White Weenie deck to beat. Also be careful when casting Journey to Nowhere as if they have only one creature in play they can easily Snap it back to their hand and then you will be forced to exile one of your own guys. Another thing to keep in mind is if they are attacking you they might have a Ninja of the Deep Hours they're trying to get in play, in which case you really need to be blocking their Spellstutter Sprites, otherwise they will get to use them on you again. I always found this matchup pretty close when I played White Weenie. White Weenie generally has a better air force, but Delver has more card advantage and Spellstutter Sprite is a problem card for WW since like I said before only Javelineers can really deal with it without you getting 2-for-1ed.
I really hope someone does make the effort to do it and we start to see classic decks like Goblins and WW in Pauper. I feel it is best when people have viable winning options in all colors and archetypes.
Where have you been? I've had a lot of success with Goblins in Pauper, the deck is very playable! I agree though, it is pretty disheartening that white for the most part doesn't really exist at all in Pauper in any competitive form. Any deck running white cards is pretty well relegated to tier 2 status or worse in the current metagame.
The irony is the bans actually impacted WW the worst. Decks like Infect and Storm were a reason to play WW because WW could get free wins with a properly constructed sideboard or main deck hate. When those went away, the appeal of playing WW went down to the point of unplayable. And that is really really disappointing.
Yeah Goblins has a lot of play to it which contributes to it being my favorite deck in the format. I don't really see why more people don't want to play it though, it's pretty reasonable in the current meta. Though perhaps it comes back to that the deck does have a lot of play to it and even seemingly minute decisions are often the difference between winning and losing. I had to play the deck a lot in the TP room before I felt comfortable enough with it to run it through DEs.
It's true WW filled an interesting niche pre-bans since it was one of the few decks that actually had cards to beat a Grapeshot Storm deck, and Infect was fairly good too with Javelineers and things like Holy Light and Prismatic Strands Kind of funny that bans aimed to make the format more fair essentially killed off what was one of the fairest decks in the format. U/R Post was even more prominent back then than it is now though so it was still kept mostly on the outskirts of competitiveness because of that awful matchup but it was at least semi-playable at the time.
Even though people complained about them, Infect and Storm did help keep a balanced meta game for awhile. They helped keep post decks in check, Delver helped keep Infect/Storm in check while aggro decks such as Stompy were around to help fight Delver. Your sideboard had to balance out against all these different angles. On the surface yeah it does suck when you lose to a T2 deck but looking at the bigger picture it actually meant more strategies were playable in the meta and this would fluctuate from week to week depending on what's popular.
I completely agree with you. Format now is very stale and with little variance on decks and archetypes. As much as I hated both decks, their effect on the meta was somewhat positive.
18 Plains
2 Secluded Steppe
Creatures [30]:
4 Icatian Javelineers
4 War Falcon
3 Doomed Traveler
4 Loyal Cathar
4 Leonin Skyhunter
4 Kor Skyfisher
4 Squadron Hawk
3 Razor Golem
4 Journey to Nowhere
4 Bonesplitter
2 Sunlance
3 Rune of Protection: Green
3 Crimson Acolyte
2 Holy Light
2 Standard Bearer
2 Dust to Dust
2 Divine Offering
1 Disenchant
This list has a lower curve (lacks Guardian of Guildpact), and no fancy stuff like Suture Priest & co. It's dropping creatures consistently and punching. Sideboard covers a lot of matchups: Crimson Acolytes to deal with Goblins and UR Nivix/Delver, Standard Bearer and Runes for Mono Green Stompy and Elves, Holy Light for Delver. The rest is to deal with Affinity. If MBC is raining on your parade, you can switch Crimson Acolyte with Obsidian Acolyte.
Any comments or suggestions?
Also, with the golems, I would probably go a straight 20 plains.
You CAN give their guy protection from Assault Strobe, but I agree with this strongly - Dragonaut doesn't care about your blockers >75% of the time.
As far as Red Hate, I think Circle of Protection: Red is a much stronger choice. It's a little dicey against burn, since you need to be racing them out before they draw more spells than you have mana/life, but most Dragonaut lists are just not packing an answer to it, and will scoop when it lands - or even to a Gitaxian Probe revealing it in your hand!
They have access to answers (Spell Pierce, Flaring Pain, etc), so don't count on that being true forever, but for now at least...
I have been trying out order of leitbur. In almost 10 matches so far I have yet to play against mono black though. The first strike has been very relavent though, especially with bonesplitter, but the pump is rarely used.
Edit: I noticed suture priestx 4 in one of the results from a daily