Top 8 decklists from past two weeks.

I still haven't decided what to write, but today I finally find time to prepare the decklists for the next article at ww.PureMTGO.com . I hope that you will find them helpfull enough :)

MBCu:

HungryHungryHomer, 1st Place

Pauper Event #603415 on 10/04/2009

Creatures 4 Chittering Rats 3 Crypt Rats 4 Mulldrifter 11 cards Other Spells 2 Corrupt 3 Deep Analysis 4 Diabolic Edict 4 Distress 1 Grim Harvest 4 Innocent Blood 4 Probe 3 Tendrils of Corruption 25 cards

Lands 3 Dimir Aqueduct 2 Esper Panorama 2 Island 14 Swamp 3 Terramorphic Expanse 24 cards Sideboard 1 Corrupt 2 Doom Blade 4 Duress 1 Echoing Decay 4 Hydroblast 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tendrils of Corruption 15 cards

G/W Gloack:

Gosu., 2nd PlaceGosu., 2nd Place

Pauper Event #603415 on 10/04/2009

Creatures 3 Bant Sureblade 4 Benevolent Bodyguard 4 Icatian Javelineers 2 Llanowar Knight 4 Qasali Pridemage 4 Steward of Valeron 4 Valeron Outlander 25 cards Other Spells 4 Armadillo Cloak 4 Oblivion Ring 4 Shield of the Oversoul 4 Wildfield Borderpost 16 cards

Lands 7 Forest 8 Plains 4 Terramorphic Expanse 19 cards Sideboard 1 Disenchant 4 Gleeful Sabotage 3 Hallow 3 Holy Light 4 Prismatic Strands 15 cards

Teachings (MBCu Variation):

BishCoddler, 3rd Place

Pauper Event #603415 on 10/04/2009

Creatures 4 Chittering Rats 4 Mulldrifter 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 4 Ravenous Rats 16 cards Other Spells 4 Agony Warp 4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 3 Diabolic Edict 1 Doom Blade 1 Exclude 4 Mystical Teachings 21 cards

Lands 4 Dimir Aqueduct 8 Island 7 Swamp 4 Terramorphic Expanse 23 cards Sideboard 3 Crypt Rats 1 Diabolic Edict 1 Doom Blade 4 Duress 1 Faerie Trickery 4 Hydroblast 1 Piracy Charm 15 cards

Goblins:

Numdiar, 4th Place

Pauper Event #603415 on 10/04/2009

Creatures 4 Goblin Cohort 4 Goblin Sledder 2 Hissing Iguanar 4 Intimidator Initiate 3 Jackal Familiar 3 Mogg Conscripts 4 Mogg Flunkies 4 Mogg Raider 4 Mogg War Marshal 4 Sparksmith 36 cards Other Spells 4 Dragon Fodder 3 Lightning Bolt 7 cards

Lands 17 Snow-Covered Mountain 17 cards Sideboard 4 Electrostatic Bolt 1 Flame Jab 3 Gorilla Shaman 4 Pyroblast 3 Rites of Initiation 15 cards

Slivers:

umeboshijiisan, 6th Place

Pauper Event #603415 on 10/04/2009

Creatures 4 Muscle Sliver 4 Plated Sliver 4 Sidewinder Sliver 4 Sinew Sliver 4 Spinneret Sliver 4 Virulent Sliver 24 cards Other Spells 4 Commune with Nature 3 Last Breath 3 Prismatic Strands 4 Thrill of the Hunt 14 cards

Lands 7 Forest 8 Plains 1 Secluded Steppe 4 Terramorphic Expanse 2 Tranquil Thicket 22 cards Sideboard 2 Circle of Protection: Red 4 Holy Light 4 Obsidian Acolyte 2 Relic of Progenitus 3 Sprout Swarm 15 cards

R/G aggro:

TheWitcher, 7th Place

Pauper Event #603415 on 10/04/2009

Creatures 4 Basking Rootwalla 3 Gathan Raiders 3 Nantuko Vigilante 1 Tin Street Hooligan 4 Wild Mongrel 4 Wild Nacatl 19 cards Other Spells 4 Firebolt 4 Incinerate 2 Kaervek's Torch 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Molten Rain 2 Snakeform 19 cards

Lands 7 Forest 3 Gruul Turf 7 Mountain 1 Plains 4 Terramorphic Expanse 22 cards Sideboard 3 Ancient Grudge 4 Bloodfire Dwarf 4 Nourish 4 Pyroblast 15 cards

Pauper Storm:

CdC_Hierarch, 4th Place

Pauper Event #590001 on 09/27/2009

Creatures 0 cards Other Spells 4 Cabal Ritual 3 Careful Study 4 Chromatic Sphere 4 Chromatic Star 2 Compulsive Research 4 Dark Ritual 4 Grapeshot 4 Ideas Unbound 4 Lotus Petal 4 Manamorphose 4 Rite of Flame 1 Seething Song 4 Words of Wisdom 46 cards

Lands 4 Ancient Spring 2 Geothermal Crevice 4 Irrigation Ditch 4 Sulfur Vent 14 cards Sideboard 4 Duress 4 Early Frost 4 Empty the Warrens 3 Flaring Pain 15 cards

MBC:

_sprite_, 6th Place

Pauper Event #590001 on 09/27/2009

Creatures 4 Chittering Rats 4 Crypt Rats 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 4 Phyrexian Rager 3 Warren Pilferers 17 cards Other Spells 4 Corrupt 4 Diabolic Edict 4 Distress 4 Sign in Blood 3 Tendrils of Corruption 19 cards

Lands 24 Swamp 24 cards Sideboard 3 Doom Blade 4 Dross Golem 4 Duress 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tendrils of Corruption 15 cards

Fish:

987789987, 8th Place

Pauper Event #590001 on 09/27/2009

Creatures 4 Ninja of the Deep Hours 3 Pestermite 4 Spellstutter Sprite 4 Spire Golem 4 Zephyr Sprite 19 cards Other Spells 4 Counterspell 3 Faerie Trickery 4 Force Spike 3 Mana Leak 4 Think Twice 18 cards

Lands 23 Island 23 cards Sideboard 2 Echoing Truth 4 Errant Ephemeron 1 Faerie Trickery 4 Hydroblast 4 Negate 15 cards

Wondering?

I haven't decided yet what will be my next article at www.PureMTGO.com , so I'll appreciate your feedback :)

My Options are:
1.Pauper MBC
2.Pauper MBCu
3.Pauper Goblins.
4. What is Pure Skill and why you need it :)
5. Some funny rogue deck (like Mono Blue Aggro :) )

More on the subject later.

Arch-nemesis of Elves!

So here it is The ARCH-NEMESIS of the Elves deck:

MBC

SlashRus

Creatures 4 Chittering Rats 4 Crypt Rats 2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 4 Phyrexian Rager 3 Warren Pilferers 17 cards Other Spells 4 Corrupt 4 Diabolic Edict 4 Distress 4 Sign in Blood 3 Tendrils of Corruption 19 cards

Lands 24 Swamp 24 cards Sideboard 3 Doom Blade 4 Dross Golem 4 Duress 1 Okiba-Gang Shinobi 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Tendrils of Corruption 15 cards

MBC - The Worst match-up of Elves deck! Your only chance in this match is to kill your opponent before turn 4-5, because after that the Crypt Rats will singlehandedly defeat you :( Try to play Wirewood Herald and Elvish Visionary first to minimize the devastating effect of the rats. If they are careless enough to tap out for Crypt Rats you may be able to kill them with Grapeshot , but I doubt that you will find so stupid opponent in the queues and PE... All you can do post SB is to bring in Wrap in Vigor and pray for extremely fast kill with (Rites of Initiations).

If anyone can give me an advice or two on how to defeat this deck, please leave me a comment...

Pesky Elves

So this is my build of the Elf.dec. The deck is ridiculously strong and has only 1 bad-match up - Crypt Rats :( This is the variation from which I started experimenting with Rites Of Initiations, so this is not the final build. Tomorrow or later today, I'll post the worst match-ups and I hope that some of you will help me improve the deck :)

Pesky Elves

My version of Elves

Creatures 3 Lys Alana Huntmaster 4 Quirion Ranger 4 Elvish Visionary 2 Timberwatch Elf 4 Birchlore Rangers 4 Fyndhorn Elves 1 Timberwatch Elf 4 Wirewood Herald 4 Llanowar Elves 2 Essence Warden 4 Viridian Acolyte 4 Nettle Sentinel 40 cards Other Spells 2 Grapeshot 3 Distant Melody 3 Rites of Initiation 8 cards

Lands 12 Forest 12 cards Sideboard 3 Safehold Elite 3 Wellwisher 1 Woodland Changeling 4 Gleeful Sabotage 4 Wrap in Vigor 15 cards

I eagerly await your response!

Burn, Baby, Burn!

This is A Mirror For my Next Article at www.PureMTGO.com

A little bonus for everybody that have already read my article . The FINAL version of the deck :

BURN IN HELL!

BURN IN HELL!

Creatures 0 cards Other Spells 4 Needle Drop 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt 4 Incinerate 4 Pyrite Spellbomb 4 Thunderbolt 4 Volcanic Hammer 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Fireblast 36 cards

Lands 3 Forgotten Cave 17 Mountain 20 cards Sideboard 4 Pyroblast 4 Smash to Smithereens 3 Martyr of Ashes 4 Flaring Pain 15 cards

This is my First Entry and is more of a test than anything Else. I hope that you will enjoy it.

The Deck:

The main reason for playing creatureless burn over more traditional builds is that many of the Tier 1 decks have large quantity of creature removal that will be rendered useless! Decks like MBCu (minimum 8 removals MB) and MBC (min 4) have bad match-up vs this deck (before SB) and are the main pray that I targeted with my build. Also as we know Burn decks have really good match-ups vs almost every slow control in general so I think that the current PE meta is the perfect place for this deck to shine. And this is my version:

Next Level Burn

My Version

Creatures 0 cards Other Spells 4 Needle Drop 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt 4 Incinerate 4 Shard Volley 4 Fire Ambush 4 Volcanic Hammer 4 Chain Lightning 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Fireblast 32 cards

Lands 2 Forgotten Cave 18 Mountain 20 cards Sideboard 4 Pyroblast 4 Smash to Smithereens 3 Martyr of Ashes 4 Flaring Pain 15 cards

Card Draw:

2 Forgotten Cave - I'm not sure if 2 is the right number but I think that this one smooths your draws really nice.
4 Needle Drop - I know that some of you think that this one sucks a$$. I know that this is dead draw when you are topdecking but I like how it helps me deal that 1-2 extra damage that I require to win some of the more tied games.

2cc(3dmg) Burn:

4 Incinerate - Does this one even need a comment? :)
4 Fire Ambush - I usually SB this one for something more relevant to the Match-up.
4 Volcanic Hammer - I usually SB this one for something more relevant to the Match-up.

Sac Burn:

4 Shard Volley - The weakest card in my build. I'll appreciate a suggestion for substitutes for this slot.
4 Fireblast - "Kill, kill, kill! Die, die, die! " - Ling Ling

1cc(3dmg) Burn:

4 Chain Lightning - Just don't forget that your enemy can copy this one.
4 Lightning Bolt - "Extra Crispy" - Blood I
4 Lava Spike - Wow, commenting on burn deck cards is really tough - THEY ARE THE SAME :)
4 Rift Bolt - I love when I have one of these and Needle Drop :) They are like best buddies.

Sideboard:

4 Pyroblast - Anti Control and Combo. Enough said.
4 Smash to Smithereens - Affinity hate. Useful in a few other matches too.
3 Martyr of Ashes - Anti aggro.
4 Flaring Pain - If your opponent has White in his deck you should side in this one.

What makes this deck tick?

First I want to point that the deck is fairly easy to pilot and even unexperienced players can achieve really good results with it. But (there is always but :) ) if you want to play perfectly with this one you should be really familiar with the deck. I'll give you a few advice but I think that 10 games with the deck will be worth 10 000 advice.

The most important thing about this deck is that you should treat it like you are playing combo!

Every burn spell is a combo with your enemy's life total so don't waste it on his creatures (unless you are dying).

Which brings us to the mulligans. You must mulligan almost every hand that has more than 3 non-cycle lands or you are may "fizzle" and die before you are able to kill your opponent.

Alternative Builds:

There are many different builds that variate by just 4-8 cards so I'll post a few cards that you should consider if you don't like my choice for the deck:

, , ,

The match-ups:

You Must Wait until my article get published at www.PureMTGO.com for this part

Conclusions:

Before everything else I want to confess something to you guys - I freaking hate this deck! The deck is sooooooo boring to play with and against that I was ready to blow my head off in the end of my testing. Maybe I'm not just a "Burn" type of guy but I won't recommend the deck to players that like different game situations and challenges. But I end my rant here and now.

As I said earlier in the article - in my opinion this deck is really good meta choice. It rapes most of the top tier control decks, has reasonable match with most of the aggro decks (except slivers) and most of the other decks that have strong match vs Burn are not exactly popular right now. The only problem is that it is really vulnerable to heavy hand disruption (as any other combo) and the last winner of PE is Storm Combo so you should expect exactly that in the future - decks that pack insane amounts of discard as opposed to insane amounts of creature removal like now.

Few Random Final Words:

I want to thank and credit my editor/friend/roommate/test partner Ste!

If you think that the builds of some of the decks are suboptimal or plain wrong just show me a link to more powerful / consistent version and I'll check it out! If you thinks that I have missed some relevant match-up just show me a link and I'll check it out :)

Everything that I wrote here is my opinion and I am open to constructive criticism.

" I'm one card short of a full deck,
I'm not quite the shilling! "