Strongest Decks for Pauper Rumble?

[☩ Minsc ☩]

This weekend will be the Pauper Rumble, where only decks with common cards are allowed. What do you all think will be the strongest decks?

I'm guessing there will be a lot of prophecy battlemage decks and also a lot of green decks running curse/ lethal cards.

I've experimented with a few decks in casual but it's hard to say what really works well.

[Arcturus Asriv]

I expect...
Oh, I can't say or it will tip my hand... ;-)

[Ori13]

haha maybe this would be a better question for after the pauper rumble?

[googleman81]

Looking at the available selection, I would say, for sure, Swindlers Market and/or ramp scout decks are out of the running.

[Arcturus Asriv]

I got one deck ready...
Gonna work on a few more and then test them out in a pre-tournament.

Btw... Swindler's Market is Rare, so it won't be available.

[The Infamous Cloaker]

Curse is not common though

[happy]

strongest deck?

mine!
it surprisingly beats top 500 legend guys.

I'll give it to you if it wins the gauntlet, or at least performs really well, for now it's just wishfull thinking.

[Zsrai]

There are going to be a lot of aggro decks I'm sure, and probably quite a few prophecy based Assassin/BM/Archer too. Most control cards are out of the running, but I'm sure there will be a few decent ones kicking around. I'll have to sit down with a deck builder and take a deeper look.

[ArdentSlacker]

I'm trying out a red/purple "mostly fat" deck. The combo I *want*, but will never get is to have the "if it's got 5 power, +1/+1 +breakthrough" and "if it's got 5 health, +1/+1 +guard" and throw down some happy li'l stormcloaks into 7/7s.

I'm pretty sure it won't do *great*. But when your combo du jour relies on "drop large things"... it's not as bit a fall from 7/7 to 5/5 as it is from 1/1 Lethal to 0/1.

After seeing how it rolls, I figure, maybe I try again with green instead of red. Lethals and a bit better card draw and a side of beef.

The weird thing to consider with this format is what you're *not* playing against. No dual color at all. Half the dragons aren't there. I'm not needing to worry about the 8/8 ramp-pire of doom (It doubles the per-turn max mana if they get it out before turn 12, and I have to spend beefy removal on it. That b- should either cost more, have lower stats, or not trigger off the per-turn. I have LEGENDARIES that aren't that efficient. /rant) So, there's a lot less "Oh, that's gotta die NOW."

I thought about not sharing my thoughts on this, but then I remembered... I'm a little bit ♥♥♥♥ at deckbuilding. I have never been able to pare down to the minimum in anything ever. (Granted, a chunk of my "I really don't want to do without this" is always draw. I'm not *hopeless*. ;) And the odds of actually running into anybody in this thread are miniscule. So there's WAY more to gain from talking than there is to lose. :)

[ArdentSlacker]

Got 5 wins. Several were kinda nail-bite-y. One win from actually getting the combo to work, so I threw down what became a 9/9 guard/breakthrough/regenerate dragon. And had enough mana leftover to throw a stone to destroy a swamp leviathan. We were both at 25 health and the other guy conceded... rather prematurely.

Also had a guy really tick me off trying to get me to concede. Sure, he had a full army. I had 4 runes left. And he barely gets his attacks in under the clock because he was so sure I'd concede. Like, nope, eat your veggies. All four could prophecy. You could go link-dead. Nope. If he'd just *played* instead of wasting both our time, I'd probably have conceded after my lousy draws and 1 health remaining. But at that point? I'm too insulted. (And I have a not-totally rational HATE of that refusal to attack play. And slow plays. If you have 3 cards and two creatures, and you need a minute... I do not want to play with you. Play faster. Fail faster. It's how you learn. WTF are you going to do if you get into a situation where the board is full and you have to figure out if you can wipe my side without losing everything?)

But the weirdest were the guys who played items on critters they were about to sacrifice... that would have traded without the item. like... they could have buffed something else and hit me in a turn. Or made like this one guy who bided his time and played 5 items in a turn and punched my face for 15. That's a good play. Clearly almost didn't work out, because if I'd worked a bit harder at crushing that unit... ah well. Would have required sacrificing my buffing unit, which was giving me all the guards. Shield breaker in that combo wrecked me... but I wasn't far enough ahead to feel comfortable sacrificing my guard-maker. (Did in other games, with clearer incentives.)

How's everyone else finding it?

[Tomowatt]

Done with my four Pauper Gauntlet runs. I managed to reach rank 5 - although I suspect someone will overtake me soon enough.

It was great fun. I didn't have that many rare cards, so it was nice to duel with just common cards for a change. And now I do have more rare cards and soul shards, thanks to the victories in Pauper Rumble. :)

[Kajdi]

From what I have seen during my runs the most common constistent deck seems to be the S(h)cout deck that utilizes Imperial Artisan + fatties and runs the shout package (Wall of Words + Greybeard Mentor).
Crusader aggro seems like it would be good against it - you have Executes for Artisan and Shieldbreakers to plough the damage through.

[ArdentSlacker]

I freely admit, a big part of my strategy involves including cards that make me groan when someone else plays them. Like mr "Death comes to us all" silence effect. But I DID get to use him on the blue +1/+1 for each spell in discard pile guy. Went from 8/8 on a clear lane to 1/1 vs 2/2.

Is... it wrong to take a bit of glee at the death of your opponent's spirit? Just... trying to check if/when I turn evil here.

[meglobob1]

Currently rank 383 after 2 runs, a 4/3 and then a 7/1.

Playing a battlemage aggro prophecy deck because i like quick games!

Had misgivings after the 1st run with the 4/3, thought I had no chance but now after the 2nd run full of hope!

But scared of taking my 3rd / 4th runs in case I drop down the leaderboard...

Originally posted by DannyboyO1:

Just... trying to check if/when I turn evil here.

Just to confirm, you are evil!

[meglobob1]

Just done my 3rd run 7/0...now rank 118...can I break into top 100?

[☩ Minsc ☩]

Ok so i went 6-3 in my first run with a shout monk deck, Only lost to Purple Scout/ Warrior Decks running east empire crafter and lethal, It is pretty hard to deal with and i'll probably change to that now.