u/TheComebackKid717

I've been working on this brew for a minute and would love some thoughts. The idea is to combine the arbor elf package with Sunscape Familiar to enable ramp and cast some cool big stuff pretty early.

I've tried to include a few cards that can be cast early if needed, but are great as top end bombs (Boulderbranch and Mirrorshell).

I know this won't rise to a truly competitive deck, but I'd love if I could optimize the mana and early game to at least be capable of playing fun 40% WR style matchups against my friends more meta decks. Any input or suggestions greatly appreciated, though obviously I'll want to stick within the main deck theme.

The one card I want to include, but need to figure out what to cut is Snap. It feels like a must include if I'm running ramped lands and Sunscape. Plus the early interaction should be helpful.

https://moxfield.com/decks/F3yjzfJFeUqGG99a7XHTYQ

1 more mana is a big downside.

Are the artifact and enchantment hate modes enough to justify it? Or the ability to pump non-white creatures? Maybe in the sideboard?

This guy had only a single root on it a few weeks ago. I cut it back slightly, rescraped the wound area and applied hormone again and here we are. Tons of roots coming out everywhere. Very excited since this is my first successful air layer.

https://www.reddit.com/r/bonsaicommunity/s/9QuiLjvwcH

Saw this card coming in the Hobbit set and it's definitely up my alley. My guess is that at 3 mana, it will be too slow for Pauper, but I'm a greedy player who likes to play a lot of colors and ramp.

Has Fairhaven Elf ever seen Pauper play? This is a minor upgrade because the land can enter untapped or you can fetch a fixing land which sounds pretty awesome to me.

Since the last B&R where they stated they were explicitly looking at Sneaky Snacker's performance in Paupergeddon, I've been really curious to get a look at the data. I took some time today to look at the premade analysis, and perhaps later this week I'll try to do more fancy analysis myself instead of the basic stuff I wanted to share here.

1. I don't think Snacker necessarily needs a ban. Maybe I'm biased, but the buddies I play with don't really run it, so it doesn't bother me as much as other people. I don't think it would be crazy to ban, but I have cards I hate way more which I would rather get the ban hammer (Refurbished Fam, I'm looking at you).

2. I think that the lack of Sneaky Snacker in the top spots at the event is important, but I think we need to take a deeper look at the rest of the event to understand why that might be.

Top Cards Played:

Despite its lack of overall performance, it's being played like crazy. Even though it wasn't in top 8, it appeared in 3 decks in the top 16 and is the second most played card overall. Right after Pyroblast, but above Hydroblast.

Also of note, Nihil Spellbomb and Relic of Prog are also in the top 10. These are the best answers to Snacker in my opinion and they are well represented right now.

How well represented? Among the top 8 decks, 3 decks played 3 copies of Nihil in the mainboard. In fact, Jund Wildfire, the deck which won played 3 copies mainboard.

Why was Nihil played so often? Well, artifacts are really strong right now. Though I did find it interesting that the best performing Tron deck also played 3 copies of Nihil. Also note that White Weenie (#2) plays 4 copies of Thraben Charm which is also excellent into Snacker.

Let's look at the matchups for the most common decks in the event. Together, they made up 29% of decks Round 1 with Mono R and Grixis with 12 and 11% each and Jund with the remaining 6%.

https://preview.redd.it/llz3x4x5f9dh1.png?width=338&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f94c8187ee66af229d59be2c4868e4ff93a52af

The Grixis has a very strong matchup into Madness and as the biggest decks by far, seems to have kept Madness in its place. While Jund has an even stronger matchup into Grixis which seems to have kept it on top. Jund is pretty weak into Madness, but that matchup happened the fewest of the combinations between these 3 decks, so affected the results the least.

So, what am I getting at? Sneaky Snacker may have not performed incredibly well, but it isn't difficult to see why. Artifacts are really strong, and I think that is partly due to their ability to play Nihil in the mainboard. Despite the strength of artifacts, how many copies of Dust to Dust or Cast into the Fire did we see in mainboards?

Snacker may not be dominating the format, but I think the evidence is strong to suggest that it is warping the format.

Should Sneaker be banned? Nah, it's probably fine. But get Refurbished Familiar tf out of here.

I've got my Trident Maple pictured here. I took a look at how the roots looked 2 weeks ago (pictured right) and it had just a single thick root coming down. I cleaned it up and re-wrapped it to see how it goes the rest of the season.

I'm curious about people's experience here. I noticed that all the leaves above the layer are much lighter green. I'm curious if perhaps I did the air layer a little too early before the leaves were ready for it.

Anyone experience something similar or have advice to maximize chance of success? Should I leave it over the winter and try to separate next spring?

I'm building some new Temur decks and ran into this one. Looks like a lot of fun.

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https://mtgdecks.net/Pauper/temur-aggro-decklist-by-damonte-2977219

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Ome thing that stood out to me was 4 copies of Cleansing Wildfire in the sideboard. Anyone know why they would do this or if there is something I'm missing? Only thing I can think of is maybe Gates is really big in their local meta or something. Doesn't seem worth 4 pieces just for gates though I feel.

I ran across this card today and had never seen it before. I've got a buddy who always plays decks with Tolerian Terror and the fact that this kills it and bypasses ward seems super appealing.

Curious if anyone knows if this card has ever seen competitive play? I did some searching for current decks and it feels like no one plays it. It's obviously very vulnerable to graveyard hate, which is not ideal given everyone already sideboards in tons of graveyard hate. But with Pursue the Past additing some excitement to discard decks again, I wonder if it could find viability.

About 5 weeks ago I wired two new propogated elm roots together. Wire bite was setting in on the branches and apparently on the trunks as well. Took off the raffia and wire and reapplied it. Planning to keep an eye on it now that it is actively growing and perhaps unwiring and rewiring again in a couple months.