Pauper: Forgotten Archetypes and which Decks need more support

Content Creators, Grinders and probably even yourselves have had a deck that you've played in previously in your MTGO collection or stored away in your cards storage. This can be from crazy wild brews or archetypes that have been on the top at one point, now cease to exist.

These are the decks I would like to highlight today. The forgotten treasures and what I think it needs to be at least put back on the map.

So in today's article I would like to cover these once meta decks, that are now something you will barely find in your Local FNM or Tournament Practice. I plan to discuss each one, its game plan, its strengths and its weaknesses and what I'd like to think it needs access to, to be a contender in the metagame.

To expand on this, I will mostly be covering cards that could be downshifted from their respective rarity to common, for them to Pauper Legal, but I will also be including generic cards I think could be printed to help the archetypes along.

Manabase Exception

The Manabases in Pauper are known to be particularly weak. Any two-color aggro deck is taking a real hit being two colors as it has to be full of basics or have tapped lands. I, personally, believe a better manabase would actually hinder the Pauper metagame, so I won't be recommending any untapped generally good lands as this will impact a lot of other decks at the same time.

Slivers

About the Deck

Slivers has been a deck since the printing of slivers in Odyssey. They have always been a fan favorite. It is a two color aggro deck which struggles with its manabase. The archetype can have very strong starts if it gets its colors online early doors.

As you can see by the decklist, it sometimes splashes a third color, with one or two-ofs to help against other matchups.

What the deck needs

I believe these would be perfect downshifts for not just slivers, but will allow other tribal decks to have a fighting chance, and give them very restrictive splashable colors like we see in the Slivers deck with Winged Sliver or Hunter Sliver.

Using Unclaimed Territory or Ancient Ziggurat as a way to make better mana but for very specific decks is a great push in my opinion.

These also come with downsides, Ancient Ziggurat can leave awkward scenarios in casting your Winding Way or Lead the Stampede.

Overall, I think it would be a great way to provide support for Slivers and similar tribal decks.

Mono Black Devotion

About the Deck

The deck typically tries to play to the board as early as turn two using Dusk Legion Zealot and Cuombajj Witches and carries on going up the Curve into Phyrexian Rager and Chittering Rats.

This will then allow you to end the game with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Vampire Sovereign. Slowing the game down by powerful removal spells such as Defile, Chainer's Edict and Cast Down.

The biggest flaw with the general archetype is that its card draws are weak and outdated.

Using Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper just isn't it in 2023.

What the deck needs

This is generally a difficult one as the deck has always flickered in and out of existence. More so out with the popularity of Golgari Gardens and how outdated the draw engine is.

My initial change would be to have a draw engine that could compete in today's metagame.

Additionally, a strong one or two drop creature would help it press damage and finish the opponent with Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

These two are rares, and were powerhouses in their respective standards. However, Pauper's power level has increased tenfold since the release of Modern Horizons, and these cards wouldn't see much play outside of Mono Black Devotion.

Underworld Connections or Phyrexian Arena provides a steady card advantage engine similar to Thorn of the Black Rose, but is much harder to deal with and has a better devotion for Gray Merchant.

I think some of these options would be great to put mono black devotion back on the map, whilst also the inclusion wouldn't be too oppressive for other decks.

Mono Green Aggro

About the deck

Mono Green Aggro or Stompy is a green aggro deck that tries to put a lot of early pressure on the board and protect those or suit them up with Rancor, Elephant Guide and Hunger of the Howlpack to kill your opponent at a fast rate.

However, with the pace of recent aggro decks like Mono Red Kuldotha/Burn or even Mono Blue Faeries without an incredible draw, it is pretty difficult to outpace these decks.

In relatively recent history, Mono Green Aggro has adopted a sort of Mini-Sacrifice Package of Young Wolf to allow them to Access Bayou Groff which is a well stated creature for the cost. This allows you to go taller with Rancor and other trample effects.

The deck really struggles with keeping pace in terms of on the board and card draw.

What the deck needs

This is a difficult deck to discuss what needs, as if you give it too much early game it could be too strong.

However, I believe this needs the most support out of them all.

I think these sort of cards still allow the deck to be aggressive whilst also providing an amount of card draw and being on theme.

Den Protector is great as it provides some form of card draw and can just be played out early for an aggressive body.

I thought about some cards that were well statted but cost {g}{g}. Ultimately decided there would be conflict with Burning-Tree Emissary.

Additionally, for some number of these cards, I believe a powerful One Drop would be needed as the current one drops Mono Green has access to are a bit outdated and can't compete with Thraben Inspector and Monastery Swiftspear.

Mono White Heroic

About the deck

Mono White Heroic is like the Bogles Poor Cousin. A Deck that has similar play style and similar weak points. However, it gains a lot from having better statted Creatures than Bogles, like Lagonna Band-Trailblazer.

The deck can operate on typically a low land count and can amass a lot of pressure very early.

It has access to another Heroic Creature, Akroan Skyguard, which has natural Evasion.

Mono White is incredibly low to the ground and thus runs out of cards very quickly.

I believe it can still do relatively well in the current metagame, but does lose to its own deck often.

What the deck needs

So to repair the issue with losing to itself, I believe another cheap Heroic Creature would help with consistency.

Providing consistency to the deck would prevent it from losing to itself as often.

I could also see the addition of a protection spell similar to Defiant Strike that replaces itself but increases toughness to protect the creature from Lightning Bolt.

Domain Zoo

About the deck

Zoo or Domain Zoo is a similar deck to Mono Green Aggro but in a much worse position, as it is multiple colors. As shown in the Slivers section, two-color aggro decks struggle with keeping pace with Mono Colored Aggro and generally don't have the payoffs to compensate.

Using early Creatures like Wild Nacatl and Kird Ape they try to get early damage and use Tribal Flames combined with Nylea's Presence to hit the opponent for 5 to finish them off.

This, however, doesn't really work in a world where Monastery Swiftspear exists, this strategy is usually too slow.

What the deck needs

Territorial Kavu as a downshift will most likely be too powerful to be downshifted as a common. However, you have to play Nylea's Presence or tapped duals to gain value. However, a powerful Domain payoff is key to keep pace with these the powerful mono colored aggro deck.

Radha, Coalition Warlord and the Weatherseed Treaty are slower domain payoffs which the deck can easily utilize with all the taplands it can play. Allowing it to go much bigger than your typical Aggro strategy.

Another way to support the deck is to give it another One drop land type payoff similar to Wild Nacatl or Kird Ape giving it maximum consistency and allowing it to continue to be aggressive. I think Experiment One was close, but generally not good enough.

Tortured Existence

About the deck

Tortured Existence is a favorite amongst a lot of players. However, competitively it hasn't had much success for a long time.

This deck, from my experience, relies heavily on Tortured Existence. In today's meta is too slow and an enchantment is very easily dealt with for a lot of archetypes.

It is a deck that utilizes putting creatures in and out of the Graveyard/ Discarding them for Value, like Kitchen Imp and Golgari Brownscale.

Recently, it has gained new toys in the form of Urborg Repossession and Writhing Necromass. These cards are great for helping find Tortured Existence, especially when milling them over with Brownscale, and giving the deck an alternate game plan if you don't find Tortured Existence.

What the deck needs

I feel the deck's weak point is that it struggles if it doesn't find Tortured Existence reasonably. This is due to it not having an alternative strategy. I believe the deck requires access to an alternative game plan, so it is less reliant on the one mana enchantment.

Both these cards help with an alternative plan whilst filling your graveyard to help find Tortured Existence.

Molderhulk allows you to have more copies of Writhing Necromass. Nyx Weaver both allows a good body and provides recursion for anything you mill over.

Overall, I think this will provide a strong secondary plan and give you a game to keep up with other midrange decks.

To conclude, I think these are some decks that need more support to compete in today's meta. There are more archetypes that have fallen off with no new support.

However, it is difficult to picture what cards would help bolster a deck's strategy, so take these card choices with a pinch of salt.

I do think this experiment of assuming what decks need more support, helps challenge how they are currently being built and how they can change to beat or compete in this metagame.

Please let me know what you think should be downshifted to bolster older and Forgotten Archetypes!