On The Zeta Set in Pauper: New format staples, Prebans, and the Controversy

The Zeta Set is a secret lair product that pays homage to the days of old. It is unlike most secret lairs in that it does not have 4 or 5 cards inside - it has a whopping 121 cards in it! The focus in this piece though is the rarity that came alongside those cards. While paying attention to the rarity symbol in a product like secret lair normally doesn't change anything, especially when cards are up-shifted to Mythics, in this particular case we've seen numerous cards printed at Common - and some for the very first time ever.

This is relevant for Pauper where the key rule of legality comes down to having been ever printed at Common. Therefore, we've got a new influx of cards into this tournament format through a secret lair.

To add spice to the mix, initially Gavin and the Pauper Format Panel declared that this set would *not* affect Pauper's legality, but they walked back that statement two-ish weeks later, having reflected on the issue and, crucially, having seen a ton of voices in the community speaking against the decision. Most crucially, Lega Pauper Italia, the leading organization for the Pauper format, has spoken out on the issue, releasing a formal statement. If you'd like to read the full new decision and all the whys and becauses, you can find it here.

Let us now get into which cards are newly entering the Pauper format, which have been prebanned, and what it means for the format at large! If you want to listen to my spontaneous Day0 thoughts, you can find them here on my YouTube channel.

Prebans

Both Narcomoeba and Price of Progress have been prebanned. 

Narcomoeba is a threatening card in a format with Balustrade Spy and Dread Return. There are also cards like Lotus Petal or Dark Ritual. so turboing it out sounds quite trivial. While one could ban Spy to let Narco in, we still end up with one card banned. While I might want to see what Narco would do, especially in more fair Dredge shells, I am not going to miss it much, since it'd never be up for anything good.

Price of Progress is a card I'd personally like to see in action, even if for a short time. There is no other format that rewards playing a single colour and that would resonate even more strongly. Decks like Gates or Affinity would indeed take a huge hit, and I am not sure whether that's the right type of punishment, as the whole gameplan of those red decks would just be to resolve two Price of Progress with Pyro back up. From the perspective of those red players, you'd have to accept that in all the matchups like Mono Blue Terror, Mono Blue Fae, Mono White, Mono Red Madness, Mono Green Elves or Golgari Spy, your burn spell would do literally nothing which is a hefty cost of including a card in your deck. I fully understand the decision even though I'd like to see it play out in practice.

The Unplayable

These cards are not good. I am very happy for you if you now can resolve your favourite Angel or Dinosaur, but they are too weak even for Pauper's standards. I am glad some people will be able to dust off their Serra Angels, though.

The Promising

All three of these cards have something going for it, but I don't think they are slot-ins into any specific deck.

Return to Dust is like Dust to Dust if played in the mainphase, but for one more mana and you get to hit enchantments. To me, this is not a good deal most of the time, since Pauper absolutely revolves around artifacts and enchantments are barely played. This might be a tool for some local metas where you need to contend with Bogles, but other than that I don't see it.

An Offer You Can't Refuse to me is a combo card. You play it in your combo deck that wants counterplay into the various cards the opponent could present. However, it is considerably more useful in formats like Modern where you don't know whether you'll need to counter High Noon or Trinisphere. Pauper works completely differently. Generic blue decks also don't want to give the opponent the mana back, especially in the form of Treasures which are very relevant being artifacts.

Soul-Guide Lantern is a twist on graveyard hate, akin to Relic of Progenitus. I believe this could be useful in decks that use the graveyard themselves such as Mono Red Madness or Mono Blue Terror. Lantern is much stronger in formats where the enter-the-battlefield exile is going to be very meaningful, such as exiling a reanimation target. However, in Pauper that's not really the case often - you'll really hope you can snipe a Sneaky Snacker, but I don't think it'll come up much, unless you combine it with a removal spell.

Now, we're getting into the meat and potatoes of it all. I don't think I'd believe you if you'd told me Baleful Strix was going to be downshifted to common, but here we are!

Strix has a couple of things going for it. It might replace Augur of Bolas in Dimir Control Fae, be combined with Kor Skyfisher for the replay value, or use the artifact type in Affinity-style decks. I am personally most excited to combine it with Ninja of the Deep Hours, putting the opponent in a bind where they block it with the big reach creature and they lose it or, when unblocked, they get Ninja'd. However, it's still a two-drop in a format with Lava Dart. It's still not a very relevant body on the offensive. It's still a format where we have Sneaky Snacker and Refurbished Familiar going rampant, so getting a clean exchange on an early creature is something we don't have already. To me, this card is going to be very much playable, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it to be banned. Below, you can find my very early draft of a list for a tempo Dimir Fae list.

Dispatch, Cut Down, and Vandalblast are a suite of interaction pieces and each has its key upsides.

• Dispatch gives a boost to otherwise pretty weak white decks, and exile is particularly relevant into Sneaky Snacker
• Cut Down is the first really playable one-mana black removal, which might finally diversify what interaction black-based decks play beyond Snuff Out and Cast Down
• Vandalblast is a knockout punch against Affinity-style decks when overloaded with the key downside that it's Hydroblast-able, and the main Affinity deck of the format already plays 4-5 copies of this simple counterplay measure.

What does it mean for the format?

Let us know aggregate everything and draw some conclusions. As far as I am concerned, overall the impact will be there, but it'll be severely smaller than people expect. The whole meta will stay the same with meta and win rates not changing much.

I do think though there will be some small effects happening which might change the texture of the format at large. These would include:

• Affinity getting a small hit due to Vandalblast
• Uptick in white artifact decks like BW Blade or Esper Affinity to take advantage of Dispatch and Baleful Strix
• Dimir Fae decks will be more prominent with Strix and Cut Down
• Gardens strategies get to play Cut Down
• Some decks will adopt Soul-Guide Lantern as their graveyard hate of choice
• Jeskai Ephemerate might go back to playing Wildfire and artifact lands to take advantage of Dispatch
• As a direct effect of the increased presence of Strix, big creatures with no enter-triggers or evasion might be played less such as Chrysalis or Terror

I am curious to see how it works and whether we will have to revisit bans durin the next window in October! Until then, let's keep on brewing!