NEW Undefeated decks to try Post Aetherdrift in MTG Pauper

Aetherdrift, the new set of Magic: The Gathering, brought some new toys for Pauper, and while I was a little skeptical about which cards would make the cut on our beloved format, is a pleasant surprise to see new decks that have been performing good in the MTGO environment, and today, I will go over the deck lists that went undefeated on leagues as they had the potential to win against pauper top tier decks.

Are you intrigued by which decks these are? Let’s dive right into it.

Table of Contents

Post Aetherdrift Pauper Decks

While some of these decks are new, others have started to incorporate some new tools to win conditions, but without a doubt, the biggest winner of the set is [card]Pactdoll Terror[/card].

[cards]{{Pactdoll Terror}}[/cards]

This card, while expensive, has the potential to shine in artifact themed decks as both a support and a win condition itself.

It's also a repeatable drain effect that stabilizes you against aggressive decks that don’t die to [card]lightning bolt[/card], which is a plus, but more importantly, it can switch on the offensive once you’ve already stabilized due to the inherent drain that these decks provoke thanks to the high density of artifacts then pack or generate.

Aetherdrift Golgari Gardens

Finally, a Golgari Gardens deck I like. Previous Golgai Garden decks had a different texture where the main win condition was by first, boring you, and second, recurring [card]Crypt Rats[/card] to kill you with its activated ability.

While this remains true in this deck, at least now we have [card]Pactdoll Terror[/card] as a second win condition. Aside from that, the deck does what the deck excels at: Killing your opponent’s creatures left and right.

It’s interesting to see [card]Grim Bauble[/card] as a removal spell here, as it goes along with the pseudo-artifact theme and one of the best cards in the format: Refurbished Familiars.

I’ve seen a couple of undefeated deck variants already, so it seems like a consistent deck to start using to venture into the pauper meta.

That said, there is an even crazier version of the deck.

Aetherdrift Seize the Storm

Essentially, this deck is Jund Gardens, following the same recipe that our previous deck: Kill all the creatures it can and stabilize the rest.

That said, it’s win condition is a bit different, and while it’s not one from Aetherdrift, is one that got recently downshifted: [card]Seize the Storm[/card]

[cards]{{Seize the Storm}}[/cards]

While expensive, [card]Seize the Storm[/card] is a fantastic card in a deck that runs a high density of instants and sorceries. Unlike other tokens like [card]Serpentine Curve[/card], this one has trample, making it harder to block, and that can keep growing the more cards you start putting into the graveyard.

Another clever addition to the deck is the inclusion of [card]Heaped Harvest[/card] as a way to ramp you into the Storm that can be cashed in for another land when paired with the likes of [card]Deadly Dispute[/card].

Aetherdrift Glaze Fiend

While this deck shares many similarities to the one I just shared at the beginning, it changes the texture of the match entirely as now this one uses [card]Glaze Fiend[/card] as its main win condition.

[cards]{{Glaze Fiend}}[/card]

While we keep the same idea of Golgari Gardens, this one ships away the whole gardens concept and trades it for more of an artifact-themed approach by adding [card]Darksteel Citadel[/card] as part of its mana base and adding other cards that generates tokens like [card]Fanatical Offering[/card] onto the mix.

This is all to maximize the damage potential that Glaze Fiend can cause, and trust me, it does pack a punch when left unchecked.

If you want to see another Glaze Fiend brew, I have a gift for you!

Other weird decks

I have to be honest: In my years of brewing, I was not expecting to see these decks, especially ones with cards I’ve never seen. But that’s what I like about Pauper: It doesn't have to be meta to compete against the top dogs!

Rakdos Kiln Fiend

While we’ve seen [card]Kiln Fiend[/card] decks before, this is the first time I’ve seen one that managed to get a 5-0 win with a non-blue splash. By adding [card]Snuff Out[/card] and [card]Gurmag Angler[/card] you get both a solid answer against Broodscale Combo and a creature that can pressure your opponent’s life total when the rest of the plan fails.

Dimir Madness

This is essentially a Dimir Madness deck featuring old cards like [card]Circular Logic[/card] and [card]Obsessive Search[/card] to get value from the opponent.

At first glance, it looks like it would struggle against mono red and other aggressive decks, but in a meta where other black-based control decks start to rise little by little, it seems like a good addition to experiment with.

Here’s another version of the deck that also got undefeated a couple of months ago if you are interested in trying!

Dimir Affinity

This is essentially a Dimir Affinity control deck with an alternate win condition that can push infinite damage.

[cards]{{Retraction Helix}}{{Steelfin Whale}}[/cards]

The key is to pair both [card]Steelfin Whale[/card] and [card]Retraction Helix[/card] to return a [card]Frogmite[/card] to your hand and recast it for free. This will untap the whale and you can repeat the sequence endlessly.

With Pactdoll Terror, you can now drain your opponent out, and to protect the combo, the deck runs four copies of [card]Metallic Rebuke[/card] and a single [card]Duress[/card] to help on the matter.

Here’s a mono blue version if you like the concept!

Altar Tron

Lastly, while not new, I wanted to highlight the inclusion of [card]Pactdoll Terror[/card] onto the eggs tron shell as a reliable win condition.

Wrap Up

I wanted to keep this short because of time constraints but I hope you enjoyed looking at these undefeated MTGO lists.

Kudos to these awesome players that made it happen: Montij, orbuletto, Gaffiere1903, 3vildr4k3, Antillectual, JustGens and PR0boszcz

Until next time, take care, and we will meet again in my next article!