Paper Pauper GU+R Cascade
Temur +() Ramp + Cascade = Oops! All Five Colors!
So... I was organizing some Magic stuff and I... just kinda found this deck laying around. I mean like, literally this complete, sleeved and boxed deck was just hanging out on my Magic table, surrounded by other decks I intended to work on later, totally forgotten. I vaguely remember my playgroup doing a pauper deck-building challenge where we only used Commander Legends cards when that set came out, now that you mention it.
Anyway, it looked cool, so I updated it and entered into TappedOut and my collection officially. This deck is actually a year older than it looks, but it stays out of the sun.
This is intended to be a fun, toolbox-style, random grab-bag of cool stuff. The plan is to ramp, cascade, and see what you get. There are SO many things I could include in this deck for fun, if anybody has any wild and crazy ideas, comment below!
- You want ramp in your opening hand and enough mana to cast it. You'll probably eat a bit of damage as you set up.
- The only one-drop here is Brainstorm, but Brainstorm is better the longer you wait to use it, so I often don't have a T1 play with this deck beyond using an Evolving Wilds.
- The ramp that will get you going is Ilysian Caryatid (which is incredibly hard to spell), Cultivate and Simic Signet. I've got an Ur-Golem's Eyes in there for now, but it's probably coming out soon for something more fun. You want to get to mana in your pool ASAP, because that's how much Annoyed Altisaur costs. Getting to is still decent though because you can at least cast Pondering Mage or Natural Reclamation.
- Brainstorm and Pondering Mage will help you dig through your deck, but will also help you arrange your cascade triggers. I'll discuss them individually below.
- Pondering Mage allows you to look at the top three cards of your library, rearrange them however you want, and then you can ultimately decide to just draw one of the cards you just saw, or shuffle it all away and draw a new card. Remember that when you rearrange the cards and put them back, that you will draw one (provided you didn't shuffle), and then the SECOND/MIDDLE card you put back can be cascaded into, getting you a "free" spell.
- The main intention of Brainstorm in this deck is actually to put off-color cards in your hand back on top of your deck so you can cascade into them. I intentionally did not put a WUBRG mana base in this deck because Oops-5C decks are cool. I may change my mind in the future, but until then, that's my plan. Otherwise, Brainstorm is awesome because it actually DRAWS you THREE new cards, and then you can put ANY two cards from your hand back on top of your deck. Beyond setting up cascades, you can use this method to empty your hand of chaff, and then crack an Evolving Wilds or cast a Pondering Mage to shuffle your deck and randomize your next draw. At which point you simply just hope for the best.
- Now for the Cascade cards. So far there are ten. I would like more, but this is pauper, so options are limited. I also play in paper, so my collection is also limited, meaning I don't have any of those nifty old Alara cascade cards (except for Violent Outburst, but I don't see any reason to only cascade into ramp). It starts with Annoyed Altisaur, and then Maelstrom Colossus, the latter of which can cascade into literally anything thing else in the deck. There's also one each of Boarding Party and Natural Reclamation, just for fun and additional cascading. I would really like to get one each of Stormcaller's Boon and Deny Reality and squeeze them in here, too.
- This is the fun part. Instead of finding playsets of efficient stuff to cascade into, I decided to find a bunch of interesting, individual cards and include one of each. Starting at the top, there's Wretched Gryff, which flies, cantrips when it enters and can be hard-cast for a discount at cost that this deck can often meet. Next is one of my favorites, Riverwheel Aerialists, with flying AND prowess. I love targeting this card with Soul's Might and having a 10/11 flyer for a turn. Rush of Knowledge is a bit expensive to hard-cast, but still can often fill your hand to overflowing.
- Goblin War Party and Goblin Assault Team both seem dangerous and fun, and both be potentially cast from your hand, but now we're veering away from our mostly Simic mana base. I splashed in the deck because Boarding Party has cascade and i want to be able to theoretically be able to cast it from hand if necessary. As a result, I feel okay adding a couple more red cards to the deck.
- The actual off-color cards mentioned above are Candlelight Vigil and Midnight Recovery. The -drop slots seem to be the flexible ones, where you can just kind of put whatever you want, within reason. Thus I looked through almost all the 4-drops and settled on these two. Candlelight Vigil can turn literally anything in this deck into a threat, but it can also give vigilance to something that is already ruining your opponent's life. Midnight Recovery is recursion that you can attach to a creature, hopefully a flier, for a repeatable effect.
Thanks for checking out my deck, and if you like pauper, check out my collection of over 50 Paper Pauper decks here, at The Pauper Project.
Also, check out my profile, where you'll find some articles on Pauper, a collection of user-made resources for ALL FORMATS, and... songs. =D
