Here are some WotS Chronicles Pauper strategies and the best MTG Arena metagame archetypes

The best Common cards in Standard clash to see who’s dominant in Pauper.
MTG War of the Spark patch notes on MTG Arena
Image via Wizards of the Coast Magic: The Gathering

You can unleash the Commons over the next seven days in MTG Arena with War of the Spark Chronicles free-to-play tournament, featuring the Pauper format.

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Chronicles part two: No Escape, is a Pauper event running from May 31 to June 7 on MTG Arena. After the chaos of Momir in Chronicles part one: Ravnica at War, players are looking forward to Pauper for a change of strategy and pace. Pauper is one of the most popular formats in Magic: The Gathering, where players build a deck around the best Common cards in Standard.

In putting together a Pauper deck, there are a couple of misconceptions—like only putting low-cost mana cards into your deck. The War of the Spark expansion had plenty of powerful Common cards, ranging in mana costs from one to six. And so do many of the other MTG expansions in Standard.

Related: Persistent Petitioners card banned from MTG Arena Pauper event

When putting together a Pauper deck for the WotS Chronicles event, build it like a Draft deck. Find the bombs, then the removal, followed by evasion while paying attention to your mana curve. Another misconception is that combos don’t exist in Pauper. Combos definitely exist and work in Pauper, but so do cheap combat tricks.

And because combos work in Pauper, expect Mono-Red Aggro to be the most-played archetype in this week’s Wots Chronicles Pauper event on MTG Arena. There are a bunch of Common Burn cards and cards like Skewer the Critics with the mechanic “Spectacle.”

Another popular archetype to watch out for is Mono-Green Stompy. Using mana ramp, the Stompy decks capitalize on larger common creatures in conjunction with plus one/plus one counters and abilities with proliferate. G/W Proliferate will be new to the scene in the Pauper War of the Spark Chronicles tournament, too.

On the control end, Dimir still rules the playground and will likely be the second most-played archetype over the course of Chronicles part two: No Escape.

Tips for Pauper deckbuilding

The most important tip in building a Pauper deck is to remove the assumption that Common cards aren’t good. Every expansion contains dozens of strong Common cards specifically for drafting in the Limited Draft format. Other tips to remember include:

  • Pay attention to mana curve.
  • Put together combos.
  • Build a Mono-Colored deck first, then expand to Duel-Colored.
  • Use mechanics to sync the deck, especially with Mid-Range and Aggro.

Related: Best common MTG War of the Spark cards for pre-release and Pauper

Part two of War of the Spark Chronicles: No Escape begins on MTG Arena Friday, May 31 and will run until June 7. There’s no cost to play the tournament and no record of losses, either. Rewards include gold and stained-glass planeswalker card styles.


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Danny Forster
Lead Magic: The Gathering/Teamfight Tactics scribe and staff writer for Dot Esports. Danny is a gamer beach bum residing in Spacecoast Florida and has been a journalist for seven years, of which five have been at Dot Esports. Prior media outllets Danny wrote for were Screen Rant and TheGamer. You can typically catch Danny playing TCGs and a variety of strategic games. He also hangs out on Twitter @Dannyspacecoast.