Aggro in Pauper

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Over the next few weeks, I will be starting a little mini-series that goes into detail about the different archetypes played in Pauper—aggro, control, and combo, based off of Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s definitions of each of the three. This week, I am going to start with my personal favorite, Aggro.

Aggro Decks with Reach

Before we talk about the different decks that are considered aggro decks with reach, we first need to know the answer to a certain question—what is reach?

Reach is defined as a way to close the game after your opponent has dealt with your early threats. In most cases, those early threats are creatures and the reach is some sort assortment of burn spells that can go to the dome.

There are a lot of positives with this type of aggro deck. One of the big ones is that it has more than it’s fair share of “free wins”, meaning that you top deck the Lightning Bolt when they are at three. Another cool advantage these decks have is the fact that not only can the burn spells go to the dome, but they can be creature removal as well.

In pauper, there are a few decks that are like this and they represent a fair amount of the metagame. According to MTGGoldfish, Burn has about nine percent share of the metagame and Affinity has almost seven percent.

Burn

Creatures (8) 4 Goblin Fireslinger 4 Keldon Marauders Spells (34) 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt 4 Fireblast 4 Incinerate 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Needle Drop 3 Searing Blaze 1 Shard Volley 4 Curse of the Pierced Heart

Lands (18) 2 Forgotten Cave 16 Mountain Sideboard (15) 1 Searing Blaze 4 Electrickery 2 Flaring Pain 1 Golden Urn 2 Molten Rain 1 Relic of Progenitus 4 Smash to Smithereens

Affinity

Creatures (15) 4 Atog 3 Carapace Forger 4 Frogmite 4 Myr Enforcer Spells (27) 4 Thoughtcast 1 Apostle’s Blessing 2 Fling 4 Galvanic Blast 1 Temur Battle Rage 1 Chromatic Sphere 4 Chromatic Star 1 Glasses of Urza 2 Ichor Wellspring 3 Prophetic Prism 4 Springleaf Drum

Lands (18) 4 Ancient Den 4 Great Furnace 4 Seat of the Synod 4 Tree of Tales 2 Vault of Whispers Sideboard (15) 1 Fling 1 Temur Battle Rage 1 Circle of Protection: Red 1 Electrickery 3 Hydroblast 2 Journey to Nowhere 1 Mana Leak 3 Pyroblast 2 Sundering Growth

Obviously, both the Affinity deck and the Burn deck have different amounts of reach. The Burn deck is almost all in on, well, burn spells while Affinity only has a few like Galvanic Blast and Fling. On average, you will want at least six to eight burn spells in an aggro deck like these so you can be able to reach for the dome.

Aggro Decks without Reach

The next group of aggro decks seen in pauper is the aggro decks without reach. These decks don’t have the ability to go to the dome with burn spells because they are usually based in other colors, namely green and white. While they can’t initiate the burn plan, they have other ways to kill their opponents as fast as possible.

Most of the white decks take to the skies with cards like Squadron Hawk and Battle Screech while the green decks go big or go wide. A deck like Elves tends to create an overwhelming board state with creatures like Lys Alana Huntmaster and making them huge with Ivy Lane Denizen. GW Hexproof, on the other hand, goes big. They get one creature like Slippery Bogle and suit it up with cards like Rancor and Armadillo Cloak.

Mono White Tokens

Creatures (13) 4 Icatian Javelineers 4 Squadron Hawk 4 Suture Priest 1 Veteran Armorer Spells (26) 4 Battle Screech 3 Gather the Townsfolk 2 Triplicate Spirits 4 Guardians’ Pledge 4 Raise the Alarm 4 Ramosian Rally 3 Journey to Nowhere 2 Lumithread Field

Lands (21) 19 Plains 2 Quicksand Sideboard (15) 3 Dust to Dust 2 Holy Light 2 Obsidian Acolyte 2 Patrician’s Scorn 3 Prismatic Strands 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Standard Bearer

Elves

Creatures (41) 4 Birchlore Rangers 3 Elvish Mystic 4 Elvish Visionary 2 Fyndhorn Elves 1 Ivy Lane Denizen 2 Llanowar Elves 4 Lys Alana Huntmaster 4 Nettle Sentinel 4 Priest of Titania 4 Quirion Ranger 2 Sylvan Ranger 4 Timberwatch Elf 3 Wellwisher Spells (6) 4 Distant Melody 1 Viridian Longbow 1 Spidersilk Armor

Lands (13) 12 Forest 1 Island Sideboard (15) 1 Wellwisher 1 Spidersilk Armor 3 Essence Warden 2 Gleeful Sabotage 2 Lys Alana Bowmaster 1 Naturalize 1 Nourish 2 Scattershot Archer 2 Tangle

GW Hexproof

Creatures (15) 3 Aura Gnarlid 4 Gladecover Scout 4 Silhana Ledgewalker 4 Slippery Bogle Spells (28) 2 Commune with Nature 2 Kruphix’s Insight 4 Abundant Growth 4 Ancestral Mask 4 Armadillo Cloak 4 Ethereal Armor 4 Rancor 4 Utopia Sprawl

Lands (17) 2 Blossoming Sands 14 Forest 1 Khalni Garden Sideboard (15) 2 Gleeful Sabotage 3 Prey Upon 4 Scattershot Archer 4 Standard Bearer 2 Young Wolf

Aggro Decks with Disruption

The last type of aggro decks we are going to talk about are the aggro decks with disruption. What is disruption, you ask? Well, disruption is a form of answers to have for your opponent. Mostly, these answers are counterspells in blue, and discard/removal in black. In pauper, we can see this a lot in the Delver style decks.

These decks utilize cheap, aggressive threats like Delver of Secrets or delve creatures like Gurmag Angler to close out the game while they disrupt whatever you do by using cards like Counterspell, Duress, and Disfigure.

Mono Blue Delver

Creatures (20) 4 Cloud of Faeries 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 4 Spellstutter Sprite 4 Spire Golem Spells (24) 4 Ponder 4 Preordain 4 Counterspell 3 Daze 1 Dispel 2 Gush 1 Mana Leak 4 Snap 1 Bonesplitter

Lands (16) 16 Island Sideboard (15) 1 Bonesplitter 4 Curse of Chains 4 Hydroblast 2 Piracy Charm 2 Relic of Progenitus 2 Stormbound Geist

UB Angler Delver

Creatures (11) 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Gurmag Angler 1 Stormbound Geist 2 Sultai Scavenger Spells (31) 4 Ponder 2 Agony Warp 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 3 Deprive 2 Disfigure 4 Ghastly Demise 4 Mental Note 4 Thought Scour

Lands (18) 4 Dismal Backwater 4 Evolving Wilds 8 Island 2 Swamp Sideboard (15) 2 Stormbound Geist 2 Annul 2 Chainer’s Edict 2 Dispel 2 Duress 1 Nihil Spellbomb 4 Shrivel

Conclusion

The aggro archetype is very broad and has a lot of different ways to play. Hopefully, this article helps you decide if an aggro deck is for you, and if it does hopefully you find a deck you’d like to try in Pauper leagues on MTGO!

TL;DR:

• Red is Aggro with Reach,
• White and Green are Aggro without Reach,
• Blue and Black are Aggro with Disruption.

To read more about aggro macro-archetype, you can check out Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s article.

If you ever have any questions or comments, go ahead and throw a tweet my way, @kintreesprit!

Thanks for reading!

Lexie Mettler is a Level 2 judge from Fort Wayne, Indiana. By day she is a student, by night she streams MTGO and practices for tournaments all over the Midwest.