RG Monsters

A new season of Monday Pauper Deck Challenge is well underway, and so far Magic Origins doesn't seem to have made a major impact in the format. In fact, the winning decklist from the most recent event captured the trophy without a single card from the new set. While many people expected token strategies to continue to dominate, so far it's been pretty diverse, with MonoRed and  MonoGreen taking the first two events, and a Dimir Control list winning last week. And then yesterday, the winning list was RG Monsters, piloted by Mrozik1141 to victory. Let's take a look at his list:

RG Monsters

1st place in MPDC 30.04 by Mrozik1141

Creatures 4 Alpine Grizzly 4 Elvish Mystic 4 Hardened Berserker 4 Sabertooth Outrider 3 Hooting Mandrills 2 Stampeding Elk Herd 21 cards Other Spells 4 Magma Spray 3 Lightning Strike 3 Titan's Strength 2 Barrage of Boulders 2 Fall of the Hammer 2 Temur Battle Rage 2 Tormenting Voice 18 cards

Lands 9 Forest 8 Mountain 4 Evolving Wilds 21 cards Sideboard 3 Sedge Scorpion 3 Ranger's Guile 2 Twin Bolt 2 Temur Battle Rage 2 Fall of the Hammer 2 Invasive Species 1 Barrage of Boulders 15 cards

This list is somewhat of a variation of the MonoGreen Stompy list, sharing with it the general strategy of ramping out big creatures and using combat tricks to guarantee your bigger creatures always come out on top. In this case, Hardened Berserker serves as both a beater and as a secondary source of ramp mana, giving you multiple ways of getting out your giant creatures. And with Temur Battle Rage, these massive creatures can win out of nowhere, turning an already massive hit into an alpha strike. And should the board stall out, there's always Lightning Strike to deal those last few points of damage.

Personally, this looks like a very fun deck, and one that I will certainly have to try. If you've played with it or against it, I'd love for you to share your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

Turn Three Kill in Standard Pauper

Double strike has always been dangerous in Standard Pauper. Temur Battle Rage nicely illustrates why. With the perfect hand, we now have a Turn 3 kill in Standard Pauper, assuming your opponent doesn't interact with you during those three turns.

Turn 1: cast Akroan Crusader.
Turn 2: cast Rouse the Mob targeting the Crusader; cast Titan's Strength, again targeting the Crusader. This buffs the Crusader up to 6 power and creates 2 1/1 tokens with Haste. They deal 8 damage total.
Turn 3: cast Titan's Strength, targeting the Crusader; cast Temur Battle Rage, targeting the Crusader. This buffs the Crusader up to 4 power and creates 2 more 1/1 tokens with Haste. With the tokens from the previous round, they deal 12 damage total (4 first strike, 4 regular strike, 4 total from the tokens). For those playing along at home, 12 + 8 = 20, or the starting Life total of your opponent.

The same trick also works with Satyr Hoplite. But in this case, it's a 3/3 before buffs on Turn 2, and a 5/5 before buffs on Turn 3. You still deal 8 damage on Turn 2, but on Turn 3 you now deal a whopping 16 damage, bringing your total up to 24 damage.

Granted, either way this takes the perfect hand. You have to draw two copies of Titan's Strength, a copy each of Rouse the Mob and Temur Battle Rage, and three Lands, all of which must come into play untapped and two of which must be Mountains. You also need the Akroan Crusader or Satyr Hoplite in your opening hand, and for your opponent to be unable to interact with you during those three turns. You also get two Scry activations from Titan's Strength, for whatever that's worth.

Unlikely, yes. But certainly not outside the realm of possibility. And even with a slightly less ideal hand, a Turn 4 or 5 kill is even easier, particularly if you can pull off multiple buffs before casting Temur Battle Rage.

I suspect that this card alone will cause more rage than any other in the Standard Pauper cardpool once Fate Reforged is released.