Hey everyone! We are back again for the final installment in our macrotype in pauper series. This week will be talking about combo. Now, combo in pauper is a tricky archetype because of the banning of Cloud of Faeries—it was a key piece in the most played combo deck, Esper Familiars. So, now what happens to this archetype? This article is going to talk about how that affects the metagame and what other types of combo decks are out there for you to play.

The Banning of Cloud of Faeries and how it affects the Combo archetype.

The banning of Cloud of Faeries was a result of Wizards of the Coast believing there is a color imbalance in Pauper:

The format currently has poor color balance. Of the ten most played nonland cards, nine are blue; the tenth is Lightning Bolt. We looked into the cause of this.

In the interest of color diversity, Cloud of Faeries is banned from Pauper.

This was the official statement made by Wizards of the Coast. So, where does that leave us now?

Well, first thing is first—Esper Familiars is still a deck, just like Eggs is still a deck in Modern. There is only one question to ask: is the deck good enough to be played in the current metagame? Hopefully over the next few weeks, we will see how the metagame shapes up post-Cloud of Faeries.

First, lets talk about the Esper Familars deck and how it operates.

Esper Familars

Creatures (22)
Archaeomancer
Cloud of Faeries
Lone Missionary
Mnemonic Wall
Mulldrifter
Nightscape Familiar
Sunscape Familiar
Sage’s Row Denizen
Sea Gate Oracle

Spells (16)
Compulsive Research
Dispel
Foresee
Ghostly Flicker
Preordain
Reaping the Graves
Snap
Lands (22)
Azorius Chancery
Plains
Barren Moor
Swamp
Island
Seat of the Synod
Secluded Steppe
Dimir Aqueduct
Evolving Wilds
Terramorphic Expanse

Sideboard (15)
Capsize
Deep Analysis
Echoing Decay
Fade Away
Hoodwink
Lone Missionary
Prismatic Strands
Reaping the Graves

The Esper Familiars deck uses Sunscape Familiar and Nightscape Familiar to reduce the cost of blue spells, which include “free spells” such as Cloud of Faeries and Snap. Combined with the bounce lands, this means the “free spells” effectively produce mana. Here is a typical winning position: One casts Ghostly Flicker targeting Cloud of Faeries and a Mnemonic Wall, netting mana and getting back the Ghostly Flicker. Once enough mana is produced, the Ghostly Flicker can target a Sea Gate Oracle instead of the Cloud of Faeries, repeatedly looking for Sage’s Row Denizen. From there, the flickering mills the opponent’s deck.

Esper Familiars would be a considered a storm-type of combo deck. Instead of one or two cards to kill their opponent, there is a methodical system to the deck where you have to do a lot of things to get to the result you want—killing your opponent.

The above quote is another excerpt taken from Wizards of the Coast’s ban and restricted announcement and it summarizes how Esper Familiars works and why they didn’t like Cloud of Faeries in the Pauper meta. So, how does Esper Familiars still work?

Snap is the other card that can enable the combo for Esper Familiars. I think we will still see Esper Familiars floating around, and I am excited to see how the new shell of the deck takes shape.

But, Esper Familiars isn’t the only combo deck out there! Let’s talk about some of the other options we have when it comes to this archetype in Pauper.

Aggro-Combo in Pauper.

In pauper, this type of combo deck takes an aggro-combo roll. Decks like Infect, Tireless Tribe, and Delver Fiend.

Tireless Tribe Combo

Creatures (15)
Benevolent Bodyguard
Delver of Secrets
Squadron Hawk
Tireless Tribe

Spells (26)
Apostle’s Blessing
Brainstorm
Deep Analysis
Dispel
Gitaxian Probe
Gush
Inside Out
Journey to Nowhere
Preordain
Shadow Rift
Lands (19)
Evolving Wilds
Island
Plains
Tranquil Cove

Sideboard (15)
Circle of Protection: Red
Dispel
Prismatic Strands
Rest for the Weary
Stormbound Geist
Sunlance

Infect

Creatures (18)
Blight Mamba
Blighted Agent
Glistener Elf
Ichorclaw Myr
Slaughterhorn

Spells (25)
Apostle’s Blessing
Vines of Vastwood
Bonesplitter
Distortion Strike
Groundswell
Mutagenic Growth
Ponder
Preordain
Rancor
Lands (17)
Island
Thornwood Falls
Forest

Sideboard (15)
Apostle’s Blessing
Bonesplitter
Gut Shot
Nature’s Claim
Negate
Scattershot Archer

Delver Fiend

Creatures (12)
Delver of Secrets
Kiln Fiend
Nivix Cyclops

Spells (31)
Apostle’s Blessing
Dispel
Gitaxian Probe
Gush
Gut Shot
Impulse
Lightning Bolt
Mutagenic Growth
Piracy Charm
Ponder
Preordain
Temur Battle Rage
Lands (17)
Evolving Wilds
Island
Mountain

Sideboard (15)
Counterspell
Eldrazi Skyspawner
Electrickery
Flame Slash
Flaring Pain
Gut Shot
Hydroblast
Pyroblast
Stormbound Geist

All of these decks play generally the same. Their combo is to make one big guy during combat and killing their opponent whenever they feel it is safe. The all do it a little differently, but they are all effective ways to kill your opponent.

Conclusion.

So, as we can see, Esper Familiars was weakened, but it is still alive. On top of that, the aggro-combo side of pauper is alive and kicking with all different types of options out there.

If you want to read more about the combo archetype, check out Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa’s article.

If you want to read more about the Tireless Tribe combo deck, check out my article I previously wrote.

If you have any questions or comments, you can always catch me on Twitter, @kintreespirit.

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.

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