After the Pauper Bannings, I took a few stabs at what Affinity and Tron would look like after the bans. That morning, Grixis Affinity won the Pauper Challenge.
Of course it did.
Affinity in Pauper
My article was quickly outdated because of it, but I’m still fairly happy with my calls. I hadn’t expected Krark-Clan Grunt to be playable in Affinity, but a free sacrifice outlet has a lot of value with Disciple of the Vault and Ichor Wellspring around. Meanwhile, Gearseeker Serpent has a lot of the beef of Atog without the need to sacrifice anything.
Affinity has clearly proven to be a real force after the bans. With a whopping nine results from MTGO since the banning (including two in a Challenge Top 8 and plenty more in Top 32), Grixis seems to be the go-to option. To much sadness on my part, Metalcraft-based Affinity hasn’t made any sort of showing. Luckily, there is still a lot of diversity to explore within the Grixis and BR lists that have appeared so far. Affinity is shaping up to still be a top tier deck without Atog.
I completely overlooked this card in my previous article. Although I was aware of it at the time, I assumed it was so much worse than Atog that other options like more Makeshift Munitions would see play instead. Munitions is indeed seeing additional play—2-3 copies instead of 1-2—but having additional ways to sacrifice artifacts does make sense.
Unlike Atog, Krark-Clan Grunt can’t protect itself from red removal spells. It’s also much weaker as a combo piece, but it still works well defensively by using First Strike, and it gives the deck a good reason to keep playing Wedding Invitation for a few extra points of unblockable damage.
Grunt has only seen play in two lists out of twenty-two since the banning. However, one of those won a Challenge, and the other was the best performing Affinity deck in the second Challenge. I feel a bit justified in excluding it from my previous article though, as it saw play in no lists this past weekend, seemingly replaced by Krark-Clan Shaman.
Disciple is one of the primary payoffs for a sacrifice theme in Affinity. In decks that haven’t tried to replace the sacrifice effect lost by removing Atog, this card is much weaker. Although some lists are playing it without replacements for Atog like Krark-Clan Grunt and Krark-Clan Shaman, I think that is a poor choice.
Overall, it’s been seen in fourteen of the twenty-two lists. I expect this number to grow to nearly 100% or down to 0% in the next couple weeks. I don’t believe there is enough incentive to play the card without the extra sacrifice effects, so we will have to see if those prove to be valuable enough to the deck.
Shaman has been a 1x in Affinity lists’ main decks from time to time over the years. It’s always been one of Affinity’s best sideboard cards in Red, allowing it to sweep the board against go-wide decks like Elves. I hadn’t considered it as a replacement sacrifice effect in the main deck to replace Atog. It doesn’t synergize as well with Disciple of the Vault since it kills the Disciple once all the triggers resolve, but it gets the job done.
Overall, it saw play in ten of the twenty-two main decks. All of those played two copies of it, except for one list that played only one. Unsurprisingly, it’s usually played alongside Disciple of the Vault.
Fiend is a card I’ve seen before, but I had completely forgotten about it in my last article. It can allow for some explosive hands like Atog, but is rather fragile. In a way, it’s like a black version of Auriok Sunchaser but even more aggressive. Blood Fountain also works well with Fiend by creating two +2/+2 triggers for one card.
If a list plays Glaze Fiend, it also plays Frogmite. Frogmite allows Affinity to dump its hand faster and pump up the Fiend. It makes sense for aggressive, Zoo-ish styles of Affinity.
Eight of the twenty-two lists played Glaze Fiend in the end.
Frogmite is an aggressive Affinity card that has become less popular over the years. A free 2/2 just isn’t what it used to be, but it’s still reasonably powerful. It saw play in sixteen of the twenty-two lists, making it one of the big winners out of the Affinity cards to try.
Serpent is a powerful card—the ability to tangle with Gurmag Angler profitably is no joke. With Deadly Dispute around to sacrifice lands, I don’t think its unblockable ability will be activated often, but that shouldn’t hurt the power of the card much. It also works well with Wedding Invitation to get in five unblockable damage for additional reach.
It saw play in twelve of twenty-two Affinity decks in the last week. I expect that number to increase, at least if Grixis remains the most popular version of Affinity. It’s hard to argue with a 5/6 for two mana.
Oooo Trinket Mage! I haven’t seen these in Pauper in years! I love a good Trinket Mage. Showing up as a 1x in a handful of lists, it can fetch artifact lands, Chromatic Star, and Blood Fountain. Sideboard bullets are also an option now.
It sort of loops with Fountain by fetching another out of the deck, but I don’t think that’s worth too much notice. Mage saw play in two of the twenty-two lists, but both did quite well, coming in 6th and 9th place in their respective Challenges. We’ll see if it continues to see play.
Somber Hoverguard and Resculpt
Resculpt saw play in a single list, while Hoverguard saw play in two. I don’t expect to see much more of either. Resculpt is a clever way to get a 4/4, but exiling doesn’t work well with Disciple of the Vault or Ichor Wellspring.
Meanwhile, Somber Hoverguard is Affinity’s version of Insectile Aberration. Without a counterspell suite to back it up, I think it is inferior to Glaze Fiend as an evasive threat. The only list to play it did play Fiend as well, but eschewed Gearseeker Serpent. Hoverguard has never been particularly popular in Affinity, and I believe Serpent to be a much more powerful card. I don’t expect it to see much play going forward.
Gurmag Angler and Costly Plunder
A well-known artifact synergy card, we have… wait, is that Gurmag Angler???
Hamuda is a well-known Pauper player who has done well in plenty of events. He’s currently championing a BR version of Affinity that sprang up this past week.
The most interesting and obvious addition to the list over Grixis is Gurmag Angler. Without Prophetic Prism, the manabase for Affinity is a little shakier, so it’s understandable why reducing the colors would be a reasonable choice. Angler provides much of the beef that losing blue for Gearseeker Serpent would provide, while Costly Plunder acts as additional copies of Deadly Dispute. That really goes to show just how powerful Dispute is.
Overall, Hamuda’s BR lists made up three of the fourteen lists from this weekend, and saw no play in the first weekend. I’m skeptical that this will be the preferred version of Affinity going forward, but if Hamuda believes in it, I think it has a chance.
Tron in Pauper
Tron appears to have been hit much harder by the bans. I wasn’t really sure where to take Tron after the bans, as losing all of their card advantage mana rocks really hurt the deck. There were only two lists published since the banning. I had been hoping for more exploration and lists for Tron to crop up this week, but it makes sense that it takes longer for lists to develop for Tron than Affinity.
Sultai Flicker Tron
This list is the closest to the old 5c Tron decks from before the bans. Simic Signet and Honored Heirloom are the mana rock replacements for Prophetic Prism and Bonder’s Ornament. From what I’ve heard from Tron players, Heirloom has been fairly reasonable. The graveyard hate as added utility is very useful in some matchups.
Despite being similar to the pre-ban lists, its differences are quite stark. Four Wretched Gryff completely caught me by surprise. A 3/4 that can be cast with natural Tron and draws a card (which can’t be countered) is perfectly reasonable. If you have a Sea Gate Oracle to sacrifice, it curves nicely without Tron on turn 4 as well.
Gone is Ephemerate; only Ghostly Flicker remains for the Mnemonic Wall loop. Black is only in the deck for 2 Dinrova Horror and a Mystical Teachings, which helps clean the manabase up significantly.
This doesn’t look nearly as terrifying to me as the old 5c lists, so I’m quite happy with where the bannings have taken Tron.
Mono Green Tron
On the less controlling end of the spectrum is this Mono Green Tron list. Four Crop Rotation and four Ancient Stirrings show that it really wants to get Tron online as fast as possible. For payoffs it runs a variety of large creatures, including Wretched Gryff again. Ulamog’s Crusher has been the default colorless Tron ramp creature for a long time, so I’m not surprised for it to make a four-of appearance here. Fangren Marauder provides an incredible amount of life if there are any Chromatic Spheres or Chromatic Stars in play. Accomplished Automaton also provides two artifacts that can trigger Fangren if they die.
Fierce Empath has seen play in this type of Tron deck occasionally. It can tutor out any other creature in the deck, including Accomplished Automaton and Ruin Processor. I think Processor is a bit odd, but a 7/8 won’t be bad, and if it can gain five life from an opponent’s Delve spell or the deck’s own Relic of Progenitus, it seems reasonable. I don’t like the idea of putting flashback cards into the graveyard, though.
I will say, I did not expect to see Scour from Existence in Tron.
Sadly (debatably), there were still no results from Tron in either Challenge this weekend. Perhaps the bannings really were enough to largely kill Tron. We will have to see.
Conclusion
Tron and Affinity will continue to improve this weekend! I’m looking forward to seeing more of both decks as they grow in the new format. I’m definitely happy with how the Prophetic Prism and Bonder’s Ornament bannings turned out to affect Tron while mostly leaving the other decks that played them intact. These new Tron lists look much more fair and reasonable. If Tron doesn’t recover, I am interested in seeing if the Pauper Format Panel opts to unban Expedition Map for the deck, though I’m afraid that a colorless mana fixer would start to bring back 5c Tron.
Affinity is looking incredibly diverse. Although everyone is sticking with BR or Grixis (at least so far), I’m loving the variety of decklists and hope we see other colors get mixed in as people explore the deck.
