Pauper's rebellion

Don't start that talking
I could talk all night
My mind goes sleepwalking
While I'm putting the world to right
Call careers information
Have you got yourself an occupation?

Oliver's army is here to stay
Oliver's army are on their way
And I would rather be anywhere else
But here today

"Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello, 1979

I often find my deck inspiration from very strange sources and this is one of them.  A cracking song from the late 70's which is a protest against the exploitation of working class men/boys as  part of the armed forces occupying several places around the world at the time (Ireland, Palestine, Germany).

I heard the song on something about 3 weeks ago (could even have been my iPod) and it gave me the idea for a pauper deck - soldiers.

There are some great common cards with the soldier sub type and combining these together into a classic white weenie deck seemed like a cool idea.  Hordes of soldiers that buff one another can also develop into a serious threat very quickly.

It does feel like there are just too many common soldiers you want to play, some of them even have ETB effects which are pretty good...

There is also the "Hey, lets just make a bunch of token guys" that get buffed by your other troops.  Of course you need some guys that finish well and that leads us to these guys:

Seems like a plan.  I also understand that there is some good common removal in white too, not to mention the occasional combat trick or two...

One soldier who will not be joining us is the Kor Skyfisher.  The reason being that we have a new banned list!  Having scoured the Wizards forums I finally found the "official" modern pauper banned list and here it is in all it's glory!

The following cards are BANNED in Modern Pauper:

Ancient Den

Cloudpost

Cranial Plating

Empty the Warrens

Great Furnace

Kor Skyfisher

Mystical Teachings

Seat of the Synod

Vault of Whispers

Tree of Tales

Ponder

Preordain

Rite of Flame

Wild Nacatl

Of course Modern Pauper at FNM is kind of overshadowed by the fact that the first ever Sheffield PTQ is this Saturday at the Mercure St Paul's in the centre of Sheffield.  Pre-registration is available through the Patriot games website (link at the top of this page).  You can also pay on the door, with loads of side events, 2 GPTs and an expected 170 players for the main event this promises to be the biggest Magic event Sheffield has ever seen outside of last years National Championships!  If you play Magic in Sheffield you need to be there.

The picture above hangs over the stairs to the City Suite which is where the PTQ is taking place.  To give you an idea of the type of accommodation when I went there with Jim last week they were getting it ready for an Ambassador's dinner!  I will be back on Friday with a PTQ survival guide and a look at the sealed cards on choice in return to Ravnica, see you there...