Hello!

This is my first article for PureMTGO. I'm 17 years old and I'm from Salzburg,Austria. I've been playing Magic competitively for about 2 years. My biggest accomplishment was going to PT Paris 2012. I've been playing Pauper on Magic Online for quite some time and I'm very interested in sharing my experiences.

This article is going to be about Dimir Post, a Blue Black Control Deck built around the powerful Cloudpost engine.

First of all, the decklist:

Dimir Post

Pauper

Creatures 4 Mulldrifter 1 Mnemonic Wall 4 Sea Gate Oracle 1 Ulamog's Crusher 10 cards Other Spells 1 Compulsive Research 3 Innocent Blood 4 Preordain 1 Capsize 2 Mystical Teachings 1 Forbidden Alchemy 3 Doom Blade 1 Ghostly Flicker 1 Dispel 1 Disfigure 2 Counterspell 1 Grim Harvest 1 Diabolic Edict 2 Echoing Decay 4 Prophetic Prism 28 cards

Lands 8 Island 6 Swamp 1 Terramorphic Expanse 4 Glimmerpost 4 Cloudpost 23 cards Sideboard 1 Disfigure 2 Dead Weight 1 Echoing Decay 1 Doom Blade 2 Dispel 4 Duress 4 Rancid Earth 15 cards

The card choices:

4 Mulldrifter

Pretty self-explanatory. One of the better cards in the format, even better in this deck because of the mana you get from your Cloudposts and the synergies with Ghostly Flicker and Grim Harvest.

1 Mnemonic Wall

Also a way to use some of the colorless mana this deck generates. Additionally a combo with Ghostly Flicker (you can repeatedly target your Wall and another permanent and return the Flicker with your wall)

4 Sea Gate Oracle

A good early drop to block all kinds of creatures in this format and also helps us cycle through the deck and not run out of gas.

1 Ulamog's Crusher

A must-have in this deck in my opinion. You win a lot of games just by stalling and waiting for Ulamog's Crusher. It is important to break stalemates, because most decks can't handle it, and even if they can, you can usually return it with Grim Harvest to get some inevitability.

3 Innocent Blood

An excellent way to kill early creatures. Also one of the best outs to the creatures of Aura and Infect decks that tend to protect their creatures with Hexproof or Protection/Pump spells.

4 Preordain

Very important to hold the deck together in terms of flooding or screwing. Also helps a lot to draw more of the cards you want in a specific matchup.

1 Capsize

An all-star in most Cloudpost strategies. Very good in the late game to generate life or cards with Glimmerposts and all the comes-into-play triggers if bouncing your opponent's permanents every turn isn't good enough already.

1 Compulsive Research

I had Chittering Rats in this slot for a long time, but I wasn't too happy with it. It is difficult to cast and doesn't have enough impact if you're not disrupting your opponent's hand another way. I decided to play Compulsive Research, because I wanted more card draw and it's much easier to cast.

2 Mystical Teachings

Teachings is a good way to find the right spells for the specific matchup. It also uses a lot of the mana this deck produces with the Cloudposts

1 Forbidden Alchemy

A good Teachings-target if you're not under a lot of pressure or want to search for an Ulamog's Crusher for example

2 Doom Blade

Very important removal spell against most decks. Also gives the deck a permanent out to Ulamog's Crusher, which is important in the mirror.

1 Ghostly Flicker

Great versatility spell to protect your creatures and get even more value out of them. Also works very well with Prism and Glimmerpost.

1 Dispel

Important counter for one mana to search with Teachings. Almost every deck in the format plays a lot of important instants you want to counter. 

1 Disfigure

It's nice to have an instant removal spell for 1 mana to get with Teachings. Disfigure usually has targets against almost every deck. 

2 Counterspell

Just. Counterspell. The only disadvantage in this deck is the double blue manacost, which can be a problem sometimes with only 13 blue sources.

1 Grim Harvest

Awesome late game spell to grind out your opponents. If your opponents don't kill your creatures, you can always evoke a Mulldrifter and return the Harvest then. Be careful to keep open 3 mana at all times if you don't want to get it exiled.

1 Diabolic Edict

Another good Teachings target for problematic creatures out of Infect and Aura decks.

2 Echoing Decay

Originally, the list had 1 Echoing Decay and 1 Echoing Truth, but I'm currently playing 2 Decays, because bounce is rarely better than -2/-2 in the metagame.

4 Prophetic Prism

A must-have in Cloudpost-strategies to use all the colorless mana.

23 Lands

23 seems like a low number in a control deck, but the many card draw effects eliminate that problem.

Sideboard:

1 Disfigure

Good cheap removal versus most of the creature decks. I started with 4, but cut them more and more, because Dead Weight is better versus the pump spells from Infect and 1 Disfigure moved to the mainboard. 

2 Dead Weight

Like I mentioned before, Dead Weight works as Disfigure 3-4, with the addition of being better versus Infect. 

1 Echoing Decay

I wanted to have a little diversity in my removal package. Decay gets also boarded in versus Storm to stop Empty the Warrens.  Of course since Empty the Warrens is no longer a thing in Pauper this may change!   

1 Doom Blade

Doom Blade gets boarded versus all the aggro decks. It's more expensive then Disfigure, but you also need more ways to kill bigger creatures. 

2 Dispel

Very good cheap counter versus other control decks

4 Duress

Mostly for Storm decks, but can also be boarded in versus various control decks

4 Rancid Earth

Good in the Cloudpost mirror and versus Storm. Remember, it also kills Empty the Warrens tokens with Threshold!

Matchups:

I'm only going to cover the most important matchups with a sideboard guide:

Mono Blue Delver

Out:

In:

This Matchup is a very close one. If you manage to deal with his first swarm of creatures, you should be able to win because you have a way better late game than they have. They can't really deal with a recurring Mulldrifter in the late game. Be careful not to run into Spellstutter Sprite and Ninja of the Deep Hours, because either of these can easily turn the game in their favour.

Storm

Out:

In:

You are behind in the first game because of the loads of removal you have mainboard. After boarding all these go out and you can disrupt them long enough for you to win. I'm not entirely certain if I want more Dispels or Echoing Decay, because they seem to win with Grapeshot after boarding every time. Also keep in mind that Rancid Earth can be used to kill his goblin tokens after he has gone off.

Green Stompy/Infect

Out:

In:

This matchup should be positive before and after boarding, you have lots of good removal and card advantage. Innocent Blood and Diabolic Edict really shine against Vines of the Vastwood. Also keep in mind that both decks have free or almost free pumpspells (Mutagenic Growth, Invigorate/Gather Courage) to counter your -2/-2 effects.

Cloudpost Mirror

Out:

In:

You are the favourite against blue-red Cloudpost, mostly because you have Grim Harvest, Doom Blade for their Crusher and enough counters against Rolling Thunder, which is basically their only win option against you. Of course they can always Capsize-Lock your Cloudpost every turn, but you have the same option. After sideboarding the game becomes even more focused on Cloudposts, Do whatever you can to stay ahead in this race.

I hope I've given you a good insight on this deck. If you enjoyed the article or have critique, please let me know!

!!Pauper Bannings!!

As I've written this article, the Pauper bannings weren't announced yet. Now the format will get shaken up, with Storm completely dead and Infect weakened heavily. I think this works well for this deck, because you had to form your deck a lot to beat those decks. Now you can just focus on the Mirror and the other Aggro decks, and you're good to go. My suggestions are more Land Destruction in the form of Icequake and maybe Evincar's Justice to beat the fair Aggro decks. I will keep you updated with my progress on the deck.

leitluk