I’m very blessed to work with a group of talented writers and contributors here at StarCityGames.com, and I’d like to take a moment to thank them for all their hard work and dedication to bringing awesome varied content to the site every week.

Now I’ll steal from them.

Over the years I’ve been inspired by the musings of fellow writers. Their creativity spurs a new idea, and before long I’m walking down my own path. Over the past two weeks two writers have conjured two concepts inside me, and I’d like to take a bit to bring each one to you.

Inspiration #1: John Dale Beety

Yes, everyone’s favorite flavor junkie/scholar inspired the first chunk. Last week he discussed all fifteen gods of the Theros world, including the minor gods slated for release with Journey into Nyx. Putting names to faces helps create the world; it helps to know who Phenax, God of Deception when making flavor sense out of Disciple of Phenax. Gods are fun and iconic representations of their colors, and we’re planning to see the next five in May.

What might they look like?

I really enjoy making cards from scratch, but here we have a template. What could each God from the next set look like? From a flavor and development perspective, what can we assume and what can extrapolate?

Let’s look at each of the five Gods, and I’ll give you a mockup of what I think they might look like in paper. Chances are we’ll know the truth in a week or two, so let’s get our guesses in now and start speculating!

Iroas, God of Victory

1RW

Legendary Enchantment Creature – God

As long as your devotion to red and white is less than seven, Iroas, God of Victory isn’t a creature.

Other attacking creatures you control get +1/+0. Other blocking creatures you control get +0/+1.

6/4

I feel like Iroas will be aggressively costed to slide into weenie strategies, which both white and red thoroughly support. He feels a little like Agrus Kos, Wojek General, but he’s a little more relevant and harder to answer. I could also see something like dealing a damage per creature attacking and gaining a life for every blocker. The former might be too good, but it’s a thought. I could also see giving creatures a bushido-like ability, perhaps just bushido 1. In my opinion, the two-color Gods are particularly difficult to activate, so I feel like that size body on a "three-drop" isn’t too bad.

Atheros, God of the Tithe

3BW

Legendary Enchantment Creature – God

As long as your devotion to black and white is less than seven, Atheros, God of the Tithe isn’t a creature.

Whenever another creature you control dies, each opponent loses 1 life. You gain life equal to the life lost this way.

6/5

This is Blood Artist as an enchantment for a lot more mana. This kind of affect is very powerful, as we saw during the Vampire’s tenure. It allows B/W color-appropriate value against removal, tithing them to death. This could see play in an extort deck as a free activation of the ability upon death.

Pharika, God of Mending

3BG

Legendary Enchantment Creature – God

As long as your devotion to black and green is less than seven, Pharika, God of Mending isn’t a creature.

At the beginning of your upkeep, you may have target player sacrifice a creature. If he or she does, you may put X +1/+1 counters on target creature you control, where X is the sacrificed creature’s power.

7/5

This ability is strong without being too strong; notice it says "target player," so you can point the trigger at yourself if you have a useless creature that can propel another to scarier heights. If your devotion is high enough, you can even choose to sacrifice Pharika herself.

Kruphix, God of Mystery

4UG

Legendary Enchantment Creature – God

As long as your devotion to blue and green is less than seven, Kruphix, God of Mystery isn’t a creature.

Creatures you control have "{UG},{T}: Tap or untap target creature, artifact, or land."

5/6

Kruphix gives a lot of combo potential. Requiring a hefty payment for each activation seems fair, but you can lock down a critical creature; rebuy another Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx activation; or pin your opponent’s mana down at the end of his or her turn. There is a lot of potential for a design like this, and I think it’d be fun to see it.

Keranos, God of Storms

2UR

Legendary Enchantment Creature – God

As long as your devotion to blue and red is less than seven, Keranos, God of Storms isn’t a creature.

Instant spells you cast cost U less to cast. Sorcery spells you cast cost R less to cast. This effect reduces only the amount of colored mana you pay.

4/6

Keranos could be really exciting. The ability to reduce the colored mana cost might open up whole new deck concepts without busting a deck open. Dissolve becomes 1U, and Mizzium Mortars overloaded becomes 3RR. This kind of effect could make combo decks more powerful, potentially even dangerously so. The fact that Keranos’ design here focuses so much on spells means he will be an enchantment most of the time, lacking enough permanents to contribute to his devotion, which makes me feel better.

These are just guesses obviously, but I wanted to think of mainstream and niche effects that match the colors that we could see with the new set.

What do you think the next Gods are going to look like? Do you have an existing Commander deck that’s just waiting for the appropriate God to fill its senior position?

Inspiration #2: Jason Moore

Jason is one of our resident Pauper experts and is the defending champion of our bi-annual "Most Attractive SCG Writer Headshot." ~~I came in fourteenth.~~ A couple weeks ago he gave us a quick snapshot of what Standard Pauper looks like. If you didn’t get a chance to read it, the strongest all-common decks in Standard contain either Ethereal Armor or Gray Merchant of Asphodel, both of which are easily sanctioned Constructed-playable spells. This low-cost format is dominated by these two spells in the monocolored decks behind them.

I’ve never built a Standard Pauper deck in my life. My tiny bit of Pauper experience is almost entirely derived from occasionally perusing the Pauper articles that appear here. Several years ago I built a Pauper deck, thinking, "Hey, it’s only commons. What am I afraid of?"

When I read Jason’s article, I thought, "Hey, standard Pauper sounds neat." Little did I know that from the moment I read that article until the moment that I’m writing this one, I’d be mentally brewing Standard Pauper deck after Standard Pauper deck. I’ve just learned to live with it now.

It’s clear that white and black have the best players. There’s no denying how backbreaking either can be out of nowhere. Mana fixing isn’t the worst in Standard Pauper; we have budget duals in the form of Guildgates, so there’s always that possibility. What about the other monocolored options though? They can’t be all bad.

Red seemed about as good a place to start as any. Traditionally, fast cheap creatures and versatile burn can get you on the fast track to wins, especially because so many burn spells are common. In my first scrimmages, I found out that burn, especially with life gain tricks in both major decks, was utterly terrible. Lightning Strike, if not used to two for one your opponent, was awful, and that was potentially the best burn spell red had to offer. I changed course, and I’ve been playing this one rigorously since.

Red Penny

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 03-25-2014

N/A

Creatures (21)

Lands (21)

21 Mountain

Spells (18)

Sideboard

Akroan Crusader, who I thought for sure was uncommon, acts as a value engine for red-based combat tricks. Deathbellow Raider is nice and efficient, and you’re getting in the red zone all the time anyway, so what’s the worry? Two-Headed Cerberus is the only way to access double strike in Standard Pauper, and even on an ugly inefficient body, combat tricks can be devastatingly powerful in the hands of the beast. Weapon Surge is a red Overrun in a format like this. Dynacharge, which used to feature more prominently, did nothing to protect my creatures from a yucky combat. Weapon Surge provides a great window for effective offense or defense. Madcap Skills is still a winner, and with fewer cheap removal spells to destroy you, Madcap Skills is generally a safer investment in Standard Pauper.

This deck has been doing well for me, taking down the two winningest decks better than half the time, and it does fine against other brews.

Blue’s next, and well, it’s just not there.

Typically, control decks have somewhere to go on the top end, whether it’s Aetherling; Jace, Memory Adept; or even just a flood of card advantage and incremental Mutavault pings. Now, though, the most exciting win condition is like Benthic Giant? The most powerful blue creature in Standard (the only one with power five or greater in fact) is Leyline Phantom, which is not quite there. Due to the lack of closeout condition and powerful draw spells (the most powerful one is Thassa’s Bounty, a Concentrate on six), you’ll have to look to another color for a good win condition.

That just leaves green.

It's Actually Pretty Easy

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 03-25-2014

N/A

Creatures (24)

Lands (21)

21 Forest

Spells (15)

Sideboard

Here’s a fun little package that looks at the two heroic green creatures (that’s right, in Pauper you only get a couple apiece). Combined with a bunch of green-heavy permanents that lead to surprisingly powerful devotion triggers, this aggro deck is flexible enough to battle the fast decks while simultaneously overpowering the midrange decks floating around. Leafcrown Dryad is a huge boon against flying heavy decks that use Cloudfin Raptor or Akroan Skyguard as their main pressure creatures. Pit Fight is a nice piece of removal for mono-green; here, when you target a heroic creature, that creature will swell to more impressive levels before the fight resolves, letting your green Staunch-hearted Warrior the chance to smash an opposing 3/3.

Verdant Haven gives me a hint a ramp, a pinch of life, and an extra devotion to green. Despite not having any land-specific ramp (Greenside Watcher or Voyaging Satyr), I still like this as a way to get to five mana on three. Casting creatures and keeping up tricks is the name of the game!

That’s not all; the return of Slivers has made a couple blips in casual and even Constructed Magic, but in Standard Pauper the little predators form the backbone of a fun, synergetic, and math-intensive creature deck!

A Sliver of Cash

Matt Higgs

Test deck on 03-25-2014

N/A

Creatures (28)

Lands (21)

Spells (11)

Sideboard

There are only five common Slivers so they all come in, and Elvish Mystic helps you get there a turn quicker. While strange, Zhur-Taa Swine is an excellent combat trick as well as a very efficient creature in Pauper. As a 5/4, very little can stand against the Boar. In combat it can close a tight race or keep them on the defensive.

I particularly like the utilization of Lay of the Land and no Guildgates. This deck is very quick, and Lay of the Land very effectively acts as lands 22-25 because it costs only one mana. Miss your land drop? No problem—just cast this, find the right color, and voila! It is very consistent, and although heavily reliant on Predatory Sliver for its power, it has a lot of strength throughout. The first strike and vigilance can be critical players. The sideboard is meant to be brought in as needed; you’ll never want to side in the whole thing. Pick and choose what you need.

I’ve built mill decks, discard decks, instant decks, and a lot more, and you can do it with the stuff left on a table after a draft. Although this format isn’t currently supported with events on Magic Online, I feel like it could be using a slightly different system.

Normal Magic Online events require six tickets (roughly six bucks) to participate, but I feel like you could cut the cost (and prizes) in half. It’s no secret that Standard Pauper is cheap, so it shouldn’t grant the same level of prizes as a full event. Maybe even two tickets for entry or one ticket plus a pack for the prize pool? 4-2-1-1 and Magic Online keeps the tickets? I’m just trying to think of a way there could be official support for this neat little format.

I hope that one half or both halves of this article interested you, and it grants me the opportunity to leave you with two very different questions. What do you think the new Gods will look like, and what’s your favorite Pauper deck?