"When Walls Attack: The Defender Pauper Project 2013"

"When Walls Attack: The Defender Pauper Project"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

When I was writing about my article about the Prowler's helm I came to realize just how many Defenders were actually floating around in standard and how so many of those walls would not be able to see any play in any format. EDH players normally do not play them neither will standard players take a chance on them when there are so much at stake. So the walls end up in some experimental casual deck. Usually they are standard , usually they are included in modern. I try to have at least one wall deck when I am into a set and here I have come up with one. A pauper standard wall deck putting all those wonderful Defenders to good use. 

Here is the deck list:

3 X Simic Guildgate

3 X Rakdos Guildgate

6 X Forest

5 X Mountain

5 X Island

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22 lands

4 X Axebane Guardian

4 X Gatecreeper

4 X Elvish Mystic 

4 X Nivix Cyclops

4 X Returned Phalanx

4 X Dragon Hatchling

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24 creatures

4 X Lightning Strike

4 X Shock

4 X Voyage's End

2 X Divination

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14 Spells

"Ridiculous amounts of mana in pauper? Check..."

Now the first thing that you would notice about this deck is that it is tricolored. Red/Black/Blue. Grixis colors. Now the ideal turn would be to drop an Elvish Mystique on turn one so that you could drop an Axebane Guardian on turn 3. Now here is where it gets really interesting. There is a potentially here to generate a lot of mana and you even have the gatecreeper there to fetch you a Guildgate or two to fix that mana. Axebane Guardian gives you Mana of any color combination for the number of creatures that you have that are defenders. In this deck you have a total of 16 Defenders. Now that we have established that you could generate insane amounts of mana what exactly is it that you want to do with it?

1) To cast more creatures to get more mana....

2) Pump Hatchling Dragon all the way for the win....

"Dracarys...."

I was looking for a Fireball or Consume Spirit effect but sadly there are none of that in the common slot for this standard set. So I had to settle for the Dragon that flies and burns your opponent away. Say Dracarys when it attacks. Feel the Dragon fire consume your enemies.

And in the case that the Dragon Hatchling is nowhere in sight or gets taken cared off there is always the stable Nivix Cyclops that becomes alive after a sorcery or instant has been cast or the Returned Phalanx that becomes a 3/3 Attacker for the measly cost of 1 colorless and 1 Blue Mana.

When was the last time that you beat someone with walls? Now is your chance to do it all over again. So animate those walls or fly with your dragon with the kill. Your choice. I bet your opponents won't know what hit them. Tell them it was wall.