Many people have referred to the format of pauper as "legacy lite", and to some extent this phrase is true, but there is no equivalent to the fun (in my opinion decks)- maverick, midrange, and to some extent nic-fit... until now.
My task was to brew up a deck with a grindy valuetown feel, where you can play fair, slow magic and gain that #walue.
Much of the value in this deck revolves around bouncing your own creatures- Elvish Visionary and Coiling Oracle are good value commons in their own right, but combine them with a Kor Skyfisher or a Deputy of Acquittals for that juicy value- card after card after card!
Man-o'War is another carriage in this value train, it helps slow down your opponent with tempo whilst you can get your value wheels rolling, bounce him to your hand to really piss your opponents off!
With all this bouncing and replaying going on, why not take advantage of it- just to get that extra value. This deck runs 7 copies of the various "soul sisters", these will gain you a butload of life with all the bouncing and replaying going on. Once you draw into more you are gaining 3, 4, 5 life, it starts to get insane fast.
Wretched Gryff, Thraben Inspector, and Battle Screech are just good value commons with fit into the overall theme. 'Gryff is a good value card that pays for itself in terms of card advantage, sacing a Man-o'-War, Elvish Visionary, Coiling Oracle, the list goes on, will leave you behind a 3/4 body with flying. Thraben Inspector is a nice backup oracle/visionary if you want to bounce it, and the clue is just good value- play it for one and in the late game- crack the clue for more gas! Battle Screech is a pauper Lingering Souls for one less mana- that's insane when you think about it! It gains you a bunch of life when you have a few soul sisters out, and allows you to swing against control whilst not worrying about spot removal and allows you to chump for days vs aggro.
Oblivion Ring is a good catch all removal spell that helps vs unfair decks like tireless tribe and vs big stomp creatures, it is an important interaction in an otherwise uninteractive deck.
The mana base is super simple- and for a good reason. Evolving Wilds/Terramorphic Expanse is very handy- the only tapped land, but it finds you any colour mana, and it works better than Ash Barrens with the curve- lots of two drops over one drops. A common mistake people make is running barrens over wilds- you ned a super low to the ground curve for barrens to be better because you need to be able to go t1 one drop, t2 cycle barrens play a one drop. Whereas with the wilds your curve should be t1 wilds, t2 two drop. This means that if you are more likely to have a hand with a two drop over two one drops- which is most decks! Other than that the basics are all you need, this deck uses all it's mana every turn, so tapped lands are really detrimental unless they're absolutely necessary.
So yeah- that's the deck, hope you enjoy.
