4x
Ice Tunnel - A dual land that is both a swamp and an island, fixes our mana and allows us to cast
Snuff Out
4x Dismal Backwater - Duals 5-8, these do not count as both land types but they do allow us to gain some incidental life which can become very relevant into Blastoderm, Atog, or burn decks as we can ruin some of our opponent's damage breakpoints.
3x Ash Barrens - Some light mana fixing that can be cycled on our opponent's end step to get around tapping our own lands on our turn. Very powerful.
9x Island - The best card in Magic :)
3x Swamp - A high swamp count is very crucial in this deck as we do play 3 copies of Snuff Out.
4x Spellstutter Sprite - A counterspell on a stick is a very underrated card. What started out as a creature counterspell that could be found with Mystical Teachings turned into an all star of the deck. Spellstutter can trade with x/1's, steal monarchs, counter spells without getting dispel'd or negated, and can also close out the game for us.
1x Drudge Reavers - This unassuming 2/1 skeleton is near unkillable in pauper, and if it is somehow killed it will just be shuffled back in with Devious Cover-Up and dug back out with Mystical Teachings. Reaver's Flash makes it able to be found with a teachings whenever we'd like it, and it's regenerate ability makes it resilient to removal as well as a great blocker. Reavers is our primary way of winning the game in this deck and with 2 power it can do so in 9 to 11 turns.
4x Think Twice - The "cantrip" of choice for the deck, allows us to cycle in the early game and flash it back for card advantage in the late game.
4x Mystical Teachings - The namesake card of the deck is also its most powerful. Teachings allows us find whatever instant or card with flash we need at any given moment and its flashback allows us to get card advantage over our opponents. Teachings allows this deck to run a toolbox of answers, both in the main and side boards of this deck, and find those answers on demand at any time. Teachings is a must for this deck. Under no circumstances would I register less than 4 copies of this card if I were keeping the rest of the deck the same.
4x Counterspell - A classic and still the best and most efficient piece of counter magic in pauper. Our 8 duals plus 3 mana fixers make it easy for us to cast CS on turn 2, or any turn for that matter.
3x Exclude - These 3 slots are relatively flexible, although I'd urge you not to run less than 1 creature counter, whether that be exclude or Soul Manipulation. I choose to run 3 exclude as much of my local meta is creature based decks and because I have access to more counter magic in my board if exclude is dead in any given matchup.
1x Negate - Similar to why I run 3 copies of Exclude, I run only the singleton negate because my local meta doesn't have many targets for it. That being said, similar to how I don't leave home without at least one creature counter, I also don't leave home without a negate effect.
4x Devious Cover-Up - A most devious counterspell appears to be a overcosted Dissipate with minimal upside, but in actuality is one of the most important cards in the deck. Cover-up allows us to recycle pieces of control magic back into our deck for future use, effectively never running out of removal or counters. Additionally, cover-up gives us a secondary win-con, preventing ourselves from milling out. 4 copies might seem a bit steep but I assure you it is necessary as 2 or 3 copies leaves us vulnerable to having our shuffle loop ruined.
4x Cast Down - In pauper this card reads 1B destroy target creature. It is broken, it is efficient, it is powerful. I would never run less than 4 of this card.
3x Snuff Out - Free spells are very powerful, especially in a teachings list. Snuff out allows us to use teachings on turn 4 and kill something. Snuff out allows us to maintain tempo against the delvers and faeries of the world before we bury them in card advantage in the late game.
2x Chainer's Edict - Edict effects are very important in pauper and this is the best one. Chainer's not only forces our opponent to sacrifice a creature but can do it again from the graveyard in the late game. This deck easily hits 15 plus lands and tapping 7 of them to kill something is just fine. Being able to answer two threats with one card is what this deck is all about.
1x Agony Warp - Our answer for Guardian of the Guildpact is also surprisingly good against Ninja of the Deep Hours decks. Agony warp can be used to kill one creature and blank the combat damage of another, or can just do -3/-3 to one creature. It's flexible and good enough to run despite it's lack of certainty when it comes to removing larger creatures.
1x Diabolic Edict - A wise man once said edict effects are very important in pauper, so important I want to run a bad one just because it's an instant and I can find it whenever I need it with Mystical Teachings.
1x Suffocating Fumes - Our answer for the faeries matchup, can often get us 2 or 3 x/1 creatures, or can just be cycled away in matchups where it isn't relevant. This card has a very low opportunity cost due to it's cycling and can be a back breaker against certain decks.
