Brewing for Standard Pauper

[Xanatos]

Every so often my LGS will run a Standard Pauper tournament after a new set release. I think it's a great way for novice deck builders to get a chance of putting something together without necessarily having to beat the best (and usually, priciest) decks out there.

So, here's the deck I've put together for the tournament, let me know what you all think:

[deck]
Creatures: 29
4 Akroan Crusader
4 Shadow Alley Denizen
4 Nyxborn Eidolon
4 Rakdos Shred-Freak
4 Blood Bairn
3 Dead Reveler
3 Deathcult Rogue
2 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Marshmist Titan

Spells: 9
1 Devour Flesh
4 Doom Blade
4 Duress

Lands
14 Swamp
4 Rakdos Guildgate
4 Mountains

Sideboard
1 Baleful Eidolon
1 Cavern Lampad
2 Devour Flesh
3 Marshmist Titan
2 Pharika's Cure
[/deck]

The Sideboard isn't actually a sideboard but a list of other cards I was considering. The [card]Marshmist
Titan[/card] looks better with the lower removal suite that Pauper has (same argument could be made for Gray Merchant of Asphodel, although that might lead the meta to be predominantly black and reason that Doom Blade should be all Devour Flesh.

Not particularly sure about Duress, I figure if I can strip their hand of removal then I can maximize my devotion for Gray Merchant or the TItan.

Akroan Crusader is probably too greedy but I included it due to Black having the Bestow mechanic. There might be enough cards for a Hidden Strings deck with blue for permission and red for removal/burn. Maybe with Agoraphobia to slowly grind out an advantage? Again, that might be too ambitious and I should really be looking at Red Deck Wins.

Idea #3: GB Dredge list but while we have a ton of
ways to dump cards into the graveyard, I don't see anyway to really take advantage of it.

[Xanatos]

Deathcult Rogue got me thinking about a Rogue tribal deck which lead to the discovery that Scroll Thief and Stealer of Secrets are both common and Standard legal. That is an absolutely silly amount of value. So...

[deck]
Creatures: 19
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Deathcult Rogue
4 Scroll Thief
4 Stealer of Secrets
3 Voidwielder

Spells: 18
3 Disperse
4 Hidden Strings
4 Cancel
3 Stymied Hopes
4 Uncovered Clues

Lands:
23 Island
[/deck]

The 1-2 mana slots are rather weak, creature wise, though Cloudfin Raptor might not be a bad card as we have plenty of ways to evolve it. I've never been a fan of Cloudfin Raptor as I never want to draw it late in the game.

Game plan is simple: Force through Scroll Thief and [card:
1byvz5v1]Stealer of Secrets[/card] to keep our hand stocked and don't let them play anything.

Disperse lets us bounce their creatures and/or enchantments. I originally had [card]Voyage's End[/card] but realized that someone might want to make an Auras deck and this allows us to return troublesome enchantments if we can't target their creatures.

Hidden Strings is a card that has impressed me time and again in Draft. Untaps your mana, taps down blockers, let's you attack and still have blockers for your opponent's turn, etc. Deathcult Rogue is here to be paired with it so we can continue to smack our opponent in the face and draw those sweet sweet cards.

Uncovered Clues isn't Impulse or even Forbidden Alchemy but it lets us dig some more if the board is locked up.

[card]
Voidwielder[/card] is a card I'm rather unsure about. I'd be much happier if it cost 2 mana less but its toughness and ability might be applicable. I'm not really too sure. Perhaps this should be cut entirely for more bounce spells,Cloudfin Raptor, Frost Breath, or something like Hands of Binding. (Sidenote: The toughness becomes more important if Devour Flesh is prevalent)

Cipher is an impressive mechanic in a format that doesn't have too much removal so the above Black Aggro list might want Shadow Slice so we can MacGuyver our own Spiteful Returned.

[Pendulum]

Uncovered Clues seems sub-par when compared to something like Divination / Inspiration or more fitting with the theme, Last Thoughts. 18 get-able cards is, I feel, a bit low for the dig, but moreso, I think it's just that if your deck isn't firing like it should or is facing heavy resistance, you're probably gonna want to get creatures/lands just as much as more sorceries and instants.

[Xanatos]

Thanks! What are your thoughts about the rest of the deck? I am concerned that the deck wants to tap out for creatures too often early on which makes the counters weaker. .

[Pendulum]

That wasn't really much of a concern for me when I looked at the deck; yeah, stuff is going to get through in the early turns, but the deck should have the resilience to restabilize in the later game. I'd expect to end the game on 3 or less life a lot of the time. What I'm a lot less sure about is the impact of your guys on board; Frostburn is kinda your only card that deals decent damage each turn. I wouldn't be as quick to dismiss Cloudfin Raptor, because the odds are even if you are drawing him late game you've got a fistful of cards to help him evolve. Yeah, he's never gonna get teh hyooge, and you'll probably only be swinging in for 2 or on the outside 3 most games with only limited evasion and no other abilities, but that's still a relevant threat they're going to have to deal with instead of favoring your more tricksy targets.

[Xanatos]

After discussing the weird format that is Standard Pauper with friends we determined that the most popular options are going to be either Aggro (most likely White Weenie-Boros) and B/x. Particularly the latter, simply due to Black having a great removal against Little Aggro in Shrivel and spot removal with Devour Flesh and [card]Pharika's Cure[/card] (which even gives added longevity against Aggro).

An option that jumped out at me is to simply now play any creatures ala the Elixir version of UW Control built by Andrew Cuneo. While the list I originally put together looked like it fit this perfectly, I realized (rather late, while writing this post) that Azorius Keyrune is an uncommon. Since it was the lynchpin of that deck, I' decided to scrap it and try to see if an Hexproof-ish deck was possible:

[
deck=GW Auras]
Creatures (28)
4 Spire Tracer
4 Charging Badger
4 Gladecover Scout
4 Hopeful Eidolon
4 Leafcrown Dryad
4 Loyal Pegasus
4 Observant Alseid

Spells (12)
4 Ethereal Armor
4 Feral Invocation
4 Forced Adaptation

Land(20)
8 Forest
8 Plains
4 Selesnya Guildgate
[/deck]

The land count is probably waaaay too low and we may want mana dorks to make bestowing an actual possibility. 12 Auras seems too low but Ethereal Armor counts the 12 Enchantment Creatures which leaves at 24 enchantments to couple with Ethereal Armor and let's us overload removal.

Perhaps cut a set of creatures for Pacifism? Adds to the count and acts as removal, etc. Charging Badger is probably the creature that is least self-explanatory and that is because we don't have Rancor to play with and allows us to break through stalled boards. [card]
Stratus Walk[/card] was another alternative but I wanted to minimize spreading into too many colors.

[Alex]

We have a similar format here in Charlotte, called Villager League. It allows commons and uncommons, and rares under a certain dollar threshold. I played mono blue walls in the last few seasons, but I think I might try something along the lines of that Rogue deck above.

For anyone curious about villager league: http://www.betheregames.com/villager-league/