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Many of us enjoy playing Magic: The Gathering in Magic Arena. We want to keep tackling articles, spoilers, and Paper Magic info for you, but having Arena events in our schedule has to be part of the equation.
Midweek Magic is a weekly event from Tuesdays to Thursdays in MTG Arena where players can enjoy casual games of online Magic in many formats with no entry cost. Players can earn individual card rewards (ICRs) and in-game cosmetics for wins. This week is time for Pauper Standard!
Event Information
Bring a 60-card Standard deck that contains only commons and basic lands. Look for common ground with all those cards you've drafted and build something new!
- Start: February 25, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. PST
- End: February 27, 2025, at 2:00 p.m. PST.
- Format: BO1 Standard Pauper
- Entry Fee: Free
Rewards
- 1 Win: Rare Individual Card Reward
- 2 Wins: Rare Individual Card Reward
- 3 Wins: One Random Cosmetic Item
Banned Cards
- Hare Apparent
- Slime Against Humanity
Decks
I will share some of the lists I will play during this event. There are many great commons in Standard right now; this opens many different paths for this format. From Aggro to Control, passing by some tribes like rabbits and even affinity!
Let's dig into it!
Azorius Affinity
Gearseeker Serpent was a staple in Paper Pauper for a long time. I think it's powerful enough to be a threat in Standard Pauper.
Having Tinker's Tote in the format is fantastic for our game plan. Three artifacts for three mana do wonders for playing Gearseeker Serpent fast and gives Mandible Justiciar +3/+3 at once.
Imagine playing Tinker's Tote or any of our other artifacts with Voyager Quickwelder in play. Let's make Guidelight Voyagers from Aetherdrift part of the fun!
Burn
I don't remember when Mono-Red had this many good common burn spells in Standard in recent Standard rotations.
Even if your opponent plays some removal spells, dealing 20 damage by aiming your burn spell directly at your opponent's face can close the game on turn 4. That's not bad at all.
With Flame Lash at the top of our curve, dealing with bigger-than-average creatures is not that hard, which makes this deck have answers for pesky blockers.
Selesnya Rabbits
After the event started, we realized Hare Apparent and Slime Against Humanity are banned. We decided to make a new Rabbit decklist, and it is good enough even without Hare Apparent, so here it is! 🐰
Having a full set of Hinterland Sanctifier may save our life against Mono-Red, an archetype that should be flooding the events queue.
Carrot Cake works in a similar way. Two rabbits and 3 lives are enough to buy us a lot of time for grinding the game against more aggressive strategies.
With Druid of the Spade + Treeguard Duo, we can attack with a big trample creature to pass over any small defenses.
Mono Black Sacrifice
This is a very low-to-the-ground deck. With 24 one-mana spells, you can start building your board fast and have answers for problematic creatures as soon as the game begins.
It is mandatory to take care of your Voracious Vermin with Not Dead After All. If this rat sticks, you can beat down your opponent and surpass their defenses without many problems.
Gixian Infiltrator can also go big, and transforming one Tithing Blade may be enough for grinding against aggressive decks.
Rakdos Sacrifice
If you want to try a more grinding variation of sacrifice, Escapement's decklist works great! They shared this decklist via Reddit with us, and let me tell you, it can make any game an attrition war that you are more suited to win than any opponent.
Clockwork Percussionist is an amazing target for sacrifice spells, and Grabby Giant seems to work better than Thraxodemon.
Finally, In Thrall to the Pit can let us push more damage, removing any opponent's creature at once.
Great deck!
Golgari Self Mill
This strategy has been here and there in Standard with good results.
Since Murders at Karlov Manor, Snarling Gorehound and Rubblebelt Maverick became the bread and butter of this archetype.
Playing big creatures like Writhing Necromass is easy if our graveyard is filled with creatures. Now, thanks to Aetherdrift, we got Chitin Gravestalker, another big creature that can be played for one black mana or cycled, helping us with the lands in case it's needed.
It plays similarly to Affinity because we want to play big discounted creatures; nevertheless, here we use our graveyard as a resource thanks to Cache Grab and get cheap creatures that also payoff for having our graveyard filled like Echo of Dusk that can grind any race being a 3/3 with Lifelink if we got Descend 4.
This decklist was shared on Reddit by ChopTheHead.
Mono White Aggro
Another decklist from Reddit by Neokarasu.
Following the Hinterland Sanctifier idea in our Rabbits deck, playing with more cards that gain life like Healer's Hawk and Lifecreed Duo makes dealing with aggressive decks a piece of cake.
Helpful Hunter and Inspiring Overseer help us make the gas flow and find what we need when we need it.
Orzhov Bounce Blink
Here is another very interesting decklist from our Reddit post by HomicidalHeffalump.
I haven't realized we got many White bouncers and blinkers in this format. Stockpiling Celebrant and Indoctrination Attendant help us get tons of value from our other creatures.
Combining those cards with Scrollshift gives us removal, card draw, and even disruption in discarding cards in our opponent's hand in not-so-legal amounts.
Dimir Poison
One of the archetypes that struggle the most is Dimir Poison. It is a deck I like to play, and many other Poison-Toxic iterations deserve a revisit to make some upgrades like Selesnya, Azorius, or Orzhov.
However, I think this deck deserves another chance. If I share it here, maybe many of you may try it, and we may find the final build during the next Standard Pauper Event.
This iteration was shared in our Reddit post by CountChoculah. Amazing cereal! 🤤
-> Ah! Mellamosatan shared a 7-1 list via pm! Let me share that with you, dear readers:
Dimir Artifacts
Let's end this entry of Standard Pauper with another Dimir deck.
We can't deny how amazing Gearseeker Serpent is in the format. Calaeno0824 shared this Dimir Affinity deck that plays a different rhythm than the Azorius list.
Instead of trying to play our big 5/6 serpet asap, this iteration aims for a longer game where Pactdoll Terror can grind and win attrition games.
With big creatures like Goring Warplow that can also enter fast as a good blocker and many ways of drawing cards and ramping, trying this list instead of the Azorius one or even building an Esper deck seems interesting.
End Step
After our Reddit post got some responses, many of you shared incredible ideas; the format feels like something I want to play as a regular queue. Thank you for sharing your decklists!
Pauper is a great way to enjoy playing Magic without spending a lot of resources. Even if Paper Pauper lets you build your decks with cards from every Magic set, playing Pauper Standard helps you tiptoe your feet into Standard, the flagship format of competitive Magic.
Who knows? Maybe this could be the beginning of a new queue for MTG Arena. We would love that!
I hope you got those free rares easily, and remember:
Coaching Note
If you don't know my previous work for other DotGG sites or my content on Twitch or Youtube, I would like to tell you that I'm offering coaching services for MTG and Marvel Snap at $15/hour. If you want to contact me, look for me at:
- My Discord
- My Twitter
- Via email: [email protected]
- Twitch or YouTube
Thank you so much for reaching this last paragraph. We are happy to continue our efforts and make playingmtg an amazing source for MTG fans worldwide.
Lastly, and as I always say, don't forget to smile daily; it makes a difference.
