The Pauper Decks I Took to Shuffle Up and Play

Posted on October 8, 2025

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of traveling out to visit with the Professor at Tolarian Community College and join for an episode of Shuffle Up and Play! This fantastic video focused on outstanding Pauper gameplay with myself, Andrea Mengucci, Gavin Verhey, and of course, The Professor. The episode went live last week so be sure to check it out in the post below.

The Ultimate Pauper Showdown!

It's Andrea Mengucci vs @gavinverhey.bsky.social vs @themaverickgirl.bsky.social!

Check out Shuffle Up & Play 88 right here, right now: youtu.be/SCWMs8JdoAM

#MagicTheGathering

[image or embed]
— Tolarian Community College (@tolariancommunitycollege.com) September 29, 2025 at 12:25 PM

In this video, we showed off several different decks to show the different things that you can do in this cool Eternal format. While Gavin opted to bring one of his own decks (which you can find in the video's description), every other deck was my own personal build. I brought a full twelve decks with me and although we didn't get to show all of them, eight got some airtime. As such, I figured it would be a fun opportunity to talk about each of my paper Pauper decks and talk abou them a little bit.

For veteran Pauper players, many of this will probably be stuff you're already familiar with. I also wouldn't call it a full picture of how the metagame looks in broad strokes as I only own a chunk of decks rather than all of them. Some lists may also be a bit out of date as with so many decks as well as the fact that I play multiple formats, it's hard to find time to keep them fully updated. Despite this, each is a fully competent list that can still provide tons of fun if you take them to a local Pauper event.

With that, let's get into it. We'll start with a look at each of the eight lists that showed up in the video in the order they were used and then look at the four other decks not shown off. There's a lot of ground to cover so let's not waste any time!

Caw Gates

Caw Gates | Pauper | Paige Smith

Sorceries (6)
2 Lorien Revealed
4 Preordain

Buy This Deck Export text

Gates decks have become fairly fun build-around archetypes across several formats ever since the subtype's introduction in Return to Ravnica. When Maze's End arrived at the end of the block, it provided players with a fun way to do something with the archetype in Standard. This inspired Wizards to take a new approach in building around gates with the Guilds of Ravnica "block," which allowed for another deck in that era.

With all of the gates legal in Pauper, many players wondered for some time as to whether or not they could possibly have applications in the format. Then came Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate which changed everything. The set not only brought with it a new host of malleable gates - a la Thriving Isle and friends - but also some sweet utility ones like Basilisk Gate and Heap Gate.

Thanks to these - particularly Basilisk Gate - it became possible to play several small creatures with lifelink or evasion and pump them tremendously. In addition to this core package, you can use counter magic, hand filtration, removal, and Fog effects (in the form of Prismatic Strands) to play a control game. The deck even took down a Paupergeddon event last year despite being seen as unfavored in the meta. Sometimes all it takes is an underdog to take it down!

Grixis Affinity

Grixis Affinity | Pauper | Paige Smith

Sorceries (4)
4 Thoughtcast

Enchantments (1)
1 Makeshift Munitions

Buy This Deck Export text

Affinity has changed a lot from the early days. Once upon a time, it was a volatile aggro deck that leaned on cheap, efficient threats combined with the surprise lethal one-shots Atog could provide to get easy kills. It was hated out remarkably well for a time, but then the bridges came out with Modern Horizons 2.

Thanks to various bans coupled with the introduction of other powerful cards like Blood Fountain, Reckoner's Bargain, and Refurbished Familiar, the deck looks quite different now. These days it's far less of an aggro deck and is instead more of a midrange deck. This means you'll often find yourself controlling the board with the likes of Krark-Clan Shaman and Galvanic Blasts as you churn through your deck for card advantage. After a while, you can slam a strong threat like Myr Enforcer or Refurbished Familiar and close down the game.

Funny enough, while we definitely wanted to showcase this deck given The Professor's history with it, it has fallen out of favor as of late. This is because another notable midrange deck that we didn't feature has taken over as the better midrange archetype. Still, Affinity is an outstanding deck to build to this day. Just know that it may look a little different than it did if you played with the deck five or so years ago.

Slivers

Slivers | Pauper | Paige Smith

Sorceries (8)
4 Lead the Stampede
4 Winding Way

Buy This Deck Export text

While The Professor's favorite Affinity may look like a different beast, there's one deck in the format that is as consistent as ever: Slivers. Prof picked this deck given how it seemed to play similarly to his favorite Modern Merfolk deck, utilizing multiple lords to pump the board. If you're familiar with Slivers, that's kind of their whole deal! After all, the likes of Muscle Sliver, Sinew Sliver, and Predatory Sliver each provide +1/+1 to your whole board.

You can also grant neat abilities from your other slivers as well. Sentinel Sliver gives them all vigilance, Winged Sliver gives them flying, and Gemhide Sliver turns them all into mana dorks. You even get to utilize some lesser known effects from cards like Hunter Sliver (Provoke), Sidewinder Sliver (Flanking), and Virulent Sliver (Poisonous 1). It's worth noting that the abilities from Sidewinder Sliver and Virulent Sliver stack, meaning you can absolutely decimate opponents with multiples.

With cards like Lead the Stampede and Winding Way, you can ensure that your hand and your board stay full of creatures. Despite the prominence here, it is worth noting that this isn't a major meta deck. If you show up to a serious tournament with this deck, odds are you'll be taken out in short order. For a lower stakes FNM-style event, though? It's a lot of fun...provided you don't run into the mirror, that is.

Elves

Elves | Pauper | Paige Smith

Lands (13)
13 Forest

Buy This Deck Export text

I've spilled so much ink over Pauper Elves that it isn't funny. No, seriously, I wrote a whole five article series about it in late 2019/early 2020. You can check out the last one here and find the earlier pieces at the top of the page if you're interested.

What's interesting is how relevant a lot of the discussion remains for how old the articles are. Card choices are different, but you're still trying to essentially ramp up to a big threat to win the game with. In the past, that threat was something like Lys Alana Huntmaster with numerous tokens, a big Elvish Vanguard, or a Nettle Sentinel equipped with a Viridian Longbow. Nowadays, you're basically doing the same thing, only your big threats are cards like Generous Ent, Nyxborn Hydra, and in some builds Avenging Hunter.

While I'm known for playing Rainbow Elves with Birchlore Rangers and Jaspera Sentinel to allow for varying options in flex slots, I've been trying out the recent Mono-Green builds instead. These drop cards like Distant Melody and sideboard countermagic to focus on getting your threats down fast and taking out your opponent. What's notable is that I've previously denounced Winding Way as a viable option because of how it can make sideboard cards inaccessible. With the likes of Masked Vandal, Nylea's Disciple, Faerie Macabre, and - for Rainbow builds - Mesmeric Fiend becoming more and more common, it's starting to look more like a good, solid option.

Madness Burn

(card pics: Kessig Flamebreather, Fiery Temper, Grab the Prize)

Madness Burn | Pauper | Paige Smith

Lands (18)
18 Mountain

Buy This Deck Export text

Pauper Burn has evolved a ton over the years. For a long time, it really was just cast as many Lightning Bolt variants as possible to kill your opponents while using cards like Thermo-Alchemist and Firebrand Archer. It wasn't particularly good, but it was a cheap deck that was extremely fun for players of all skill levels to play. As time has gone on, though, we've seen lots of variation, which has led us to decks like Kuldotha Red, Pinger Burn, Rally Red, and this deck: Madness Burn.

This deck takes a fair bit of the pinger aspect and uses it to dish out massive damage as you cast spells like Faithless Looting and Grab the Prize. When you discard, you discard away excess lands and copies of Fiery Temper which you can simply cast as a Lightning Bolt with its madness cost. Pitching copies of Lava Dart is totally reasonable too as you can recast them from your graveyard. The real appeal, though, is to discard copies of Sneaky Snacker and get them back when you draw a third card off your various rummaging spells.

At its heart, it's still a fairly simple deck to pick up and play. However, there's enough nuance and depth that there's plenty to discover the more you play it.

Bogles

Bogles | Pauper | Paige Smith

Instants (1)
1 Ram Through

Sorceries (4)
4 Malevolent Rumble

Buy This Deck Export text

Bogles is probably the most straightforward deck of all of these, maybe second only to Slivers. This deck involves playing a Bogle (not Boggle) - as in a cheap creature with hexproof - and putting a ton of auras onto it. Utilizing Ethereal Armor, Ancestral Mask, Rancor, and Armadillo Cloak turn them into massive threats. Thanks to being hexproof, they're extremely difficult to kill as a result.

The big issue with the deck has long been variance. Finding the right set of cards to make your deck function can be tricky and a well-timed piece of countermagic can ruin your whole day. Thankfully, Malevolent Rumble from last year's Modern Horizons 3 has proven to be perfect for this kind of deck. It finds you exactly what you need and gives you another mana or creature to eat an edict spell. In a pinch, you can even use the token as a creature to suit up.

It can take a bit of practice to get the sequencing down well, but it's easy to pick up and play which is great for players of all skill levels. It may not be the most interactive or "big-brained" deck, but who cares about how smart you look when you walk away with the win?

If you'd like to learn a bit about sequencing with the deck, you can check out this article I wrote last year talking about some intricacies of playing Bogles.

Mono-Blue Terror

Mono-Blue Terror | Pauper | Paige Smith

Creatures (13)
1 Murmuring Mystic
4 Cryptic Serpent
4 Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration
4 Tolarian Terror

Lands (16)
16 Island

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Do you like to cast instants and sorceries over and over again to stop your opponents from doing anything only to have those spells fuel a massive threat later? Mono-Blue Terror does this well, allowing you to use cantrips, countermagic, and bounce spells to stop your opponents and let you cast cheap copies of Tolarian Terror and Cryptic Serpent. Additionally, copies of Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration allow you to land a threat early to give you modest flexibility in your pace of play.

If you've played Standard over the past few years, this might seem familiar to you. Mono-Blue Tempo utilizing Haughty Djinn, Tolarian Terror, Delver, and Eddymurk Crab was a popular budget deck for many players. While that deck was hit or miss in that format, Mono-Blue Terror is a very real threat in Pauper, taking advantage of far more efficient card draw and countermagic for better performance.

All of this makes for an excellent deck that's easy to pick up and has tremendous depth. Pick it up, cast a bunch of cantrips and Counterspells, and play your Tolarian Terrors. It's simple enough, but the more you play with it, the more you learn all kinds of nuances of interactive play to improve yourself not just as a Pauper player but a Magic player overall.

High Tide

High Tide | Pauper | Paige Smith

Lands (15)
1 Remote Isle
14 Island

Buy This Deck Export text

The last of the decks shown in the Shuffle Up and Play video is perhaps the most difficult to describe. In short, you cast copies of High Tide to generate tons of mana. You then cast various Arcane spells and splice copies of Psychic Puppetry to untap your lands over and over again. With time and a good setup, you can generate absurd amounts of mana to go for a lethal kill shot using the card Stream of Thought.

It's a very intense and honestly convoluted deck to play and to understand. This made it such a great bit to end the episode with and act as a credit reel with Gavin himself solitairing it - much to the chagrin of everyone else in the room. If you really want to understand how the deck plays, just watch the video to see how Gavin goes through the motions. With practice, you can get pretty good with it, but it can still take a long time to enact if you have a rough set of draws.

This has made the deck very contentious among the playerbase. While its actual power level is heavily debated, going from very strong one week to being a poor performer the next. The Pauper Format Panel - which myself and Gavin are part of - are continually discussing whether or not High Tide should return to the ban list. Should you look into picking this one up, just know you might not get the best reception from your local playgroup without extensive testing ahead of time.

Walls Combo

Walls Combo | Pauper | Paige Smith

Instants (1)
1 Reaping the Graves

Sorceries (7)
3 Lead the Stampede
4 Winding Way

Enchantments (1)
1 Freed from the Real

Lands (12)
12 Forest

Buy This Deck Export text

Now we enter the decks that were brought to Shuffle Up and Play but didn't get used. This one is a combo deck that can end games out of nowhere. Best of all is the fact that it uses walls - or more specifically creatures with defender - to do so. That sounds pretty silly, especially when you usually think of walls as useless creatures outside of something like an Arcades, the Strategist Commander deck or a Vent Sentinel draft deck.

The plan here is simple. Utilize various mana dorks to ramp up to mana like nobody's business. Eventually you'll gain access to the tremendous amounts of mana provided by both Overgrown Battlement and Axebane Guardian. You then use cards like Freed from the Real or Galvanic Alchemist to repeatedly untap them (using Orochi Leafcaller as well if you only have Battlements) and you'll generate infinite mana. You can then pour this into Valakut Invoker or Secret Door to win the game.

You can find the cards you need to enact the combo with the help of both Shield-Wall Sentinel and Drift of Phantasms. Shield-Wall Sentinel allows you to find a critical defender or if you're already set for mana, you can just find Drift of Phantasms. You then use Drift of Phantasms to transmute for your combo piece and win the game. The deck can be a bit inconsistent, but is a blast to try out at local events.

Mono-Blue Faeries

Mono-Blue Faeries | Pauper | Paige Smith

Sorceries (4)
4 Of One Mind

Lands (18)
18 Island

Buy This Deck Export text

Faeries has become a classic Pauper archetype over the years. Using cards like Faerie Seer and Faerie Miscreant, you can set up your draws well and ensure you get exactly what you need when you need it. In addition, copies of Spellstutter Sprite will counter spells easily and scale up with your other faeries already on the board. By using copies of Ninja of the Deep Hours and Moon-Circuit Hacker, you can bring these back to your hand to generate even more value while drawing even more cards thanks to your ninjas.

The rest of your deck involves tempoing out your opponents' strategies with cards like Counterspell, Snap, and Bind the Monster to slow them down. Some lists - like this one - even use Snaremaster Sprite to both fuel your faerie synergies and slow your opponents down. This makes for a classic tempo strategy that continues to be a top-level deck and is likely to remain one for quite some time.

If you're familiar with the format already, this list might look a bit unusual to you. Simply put, it's a pretty old and out of date list. I simply didn't get a chance to update it prior to traveling for the event, but had copies of cards like Harrier Strix and Illvoi Galeblade handy should we want to touch things up a little and make them look a little more current. However, as we didn't use the deck, it's still the older build. I'll update it to something more appropriate at some point in the near future.

Jund Wildfire

Jund Wildfire | Pauper | Paige Smith

Sorceries (4)
4 Cleansing Wildfire

Enchantments (1)
1 Makeshift Munitions

Buy This Deck Export text

Remember how I noted that Affinity had been pushed out by another midrange deck of late? This is the one: Jund Wildfire. If you look through the deck, you'll notice a number of the same elements that make the Affinity deck work so well are here also. Krark-Clan Shaman, Refurbished Familiar, Galvanic Blast, Fanatical Offering (replacing Reckoner's Bargain), Blood Fountain, Ichor Wellspring, Nihil Spellbomb, and Makeshift Munitions are all here again.

So, if the core of the decks look that similar, what's different? Two big cards help make up that difference: Cleansing Wildfire and Writhing Chrysalis. Wildfire allows you to ramp by targeting a bridge, as your bridges are indestructible and don't get Stone Rained as a result. However, you still Rampant Growth and draw a card. Finally, Writhing Chrysalis has made for a much more daunting threat, with multiples getting massive extremely fast.

This build also plays copies of Gixian Infiltrator, but that's a newer innovation and has also been used in Affinity decks in the past. Simply put: this does everything Affinity could already do but ends up doing it better. Couple that with the fact that this sort of list has much more flexibility in its sideboard and, well, its flex slots and you have a recipe for one of the best decks in the format right now.

Flicker Tron

Flicker Tron | Pauper | Paige Smith

Buy This Deck Export text

Last but not least is Flicker Tron. This deck has been a longtime staple of the Pauper format, for better or worse. Players love getting to play it, but for everyone else it can lead to a miserable experience. This led to the deck receiving several bans in the past, as well as several unbans as the format sped up to be able to beat it. The most recent one, Prophetic Prism, gave it a bit of the edge it needed to become a contender once more.

This deck works by assembling the Urzatron pieces of Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower to generate tons of mana. If you've played with or against Modern Tron, this may sound familiar to you. What won't sound familiar is what you do from there. Unlike Modern Tron decks, Pauper doesn't have access to a heavy amount of powerful Colorless threats. Instead, it uses mana filtration effects like Prophetic Prism, Energy Refractor, Cave of Temptation, and Conduit Pylons to make colored mana.

From there, you use this mana to cast spells and control your opponents from doing anything over the course of the game. Once you have an established board presence, you can use Ghostly Flicker and Ephemerate on your copies of Mnemonic Wall to buy back spells and continue to lock your opponents out. Eventually, you'll be able to win with Mulldrifters or an army of tokens created by Murmuring Mystic.

Phew, that's a lot of ground to cover! These are all the decks I own for the format in paper - as well as an extra copy of Bogles to lend to new players - and it makes for a heck of a set of decks. As I noted on Bluesky, this set of decks totals around $1300 per CoolStuffInc pricing. That's about the equivalent of two Modern decks, meaning it's pretty easy to pick up the decks you want! That number can also be a bit high as well, since I use fancier versions for my cards and you can definitely pick up cheaper options.

I hope this inspires you to check out the Pauper format a little bit. It's an exciting way to play the game and is having a bit of a renaissance right about now given the state of most other competitive formats. Come check it out and see what interests you! I'll come back next week and talk about the other major meta decks I don't own that are great options - as well as possible lists I may seek to pick up for paper play in the near future.

A huge thanks again to The Professor and his crew for having me out as well. It was a blast to get to show off just what makes Pauper so URZAing cool.

Paige Smith

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/themaverickgirl.bsky.social

Twitch: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

YouTube: TheMaverickGal

TAGS articles, constructed, decklist, pauper, tolarian community college, paige smith, shuffle up and play, 10082025

The Pauper Decks I Took to Shuffle Up and Play

Caw Gates

Caw Gates | Pauper | Paige Smith

Grixis Affinity

Grixis Affinity | Pauper | Paige Smith

Slivers

Slivers | Pauper | Paige Smith

Elves

Elves | Pauper | Paige Smith

Madness Burn

Madness Burn | Pauper | Paige Smith

Bogles

Bogles | Pauper | Paige Smith

Mono-Blue Terror

Mono-Blue Terror | Pauper | Paige Smith

High Tide

High Tide | Pauper | Paige Smith

Walls Combo

Walls Combo | Pauper | Paige Smith

Mono-Blue Faeries

Mono-Blue Faeries | Pauper | Paige Smith

Jund Wildfire

Jund Wildfire | Pauper | Paige Smith

Flicker Tron

Flicker Tron | Pauper | Paige Smith

Recent Articles

This Week in Magic: Friday, December 5th

Top 5 "Unaffected" Monsters in Yu-Gi-Oh!

The Best Standard Control Cards from Avatar: The Last Airbender

Mechanics of Magic: Afflict

A Third Top 15 from MTG Avatar

Ten Pauper Cards That Need More Reprints!

Enjoying Tea with the Master himself, Iroh!

Commanding Avatar: Combustion Man

Three Lessons From Mark Rosewater’s Most Influential Sets

Commander Kryptonite: Jin Sakai, Ghost of Tsushima