Murasa Tron (Pauper)

Writeup by u/-Xto2-

The Gameplan

You are a control deck that cheats on mana to provide a super strong lategame. In order to get there you run quite some interaction in form of the red removal, some counters and Moment's Peace against linear aggressive strategies. You don't plan on assembling Tron as fast as other Tron iterations. Yet two Expedition Map help to eventually hit it, since you need to get ahead on Mana at some point. Your winconditions are either Mulldrifter beatdown or a big Rolling Thunder or locking out your opponent with Capsize. Decking also happens sometimes though because of Wall plus Capsize you can usually end the game before that. Which plan you should go for depends on the matchup and will be explained later. So the three main steps that are always the same are:

Slow down your opponent (this step is skipped when you play vs very controlling decks, that don't put up early pressure)
Assemble Tron
Outcard them while Protecting something like Wall+Capsize with Pulses and Counters
Some tips on basic routine

Land-Sequencing is very important: Usually it's best to start with the Taplands. Don't be too greedy in leading with Tronlands because you might hit it off the top. That's just gonna be awkward if you don't and your Taplands suddenly slow you down in the midgame. That being said if you don't have Taplands it's almost always correct to lead with Tronland into Grotto or two Tronlands into Prism. If you have two Tronlands plus Map plus Prism just lead with Map, crack on turn two, then complete Tron and start doing the fun stuff. Also hitting land every turn is crucial. Most of the time it's correct to dig for land instead of holding up counter if you didn't have a landdrop for the turn. This also means evoking Mulldrifter is nothing you should shy away from. One last thing about completing Tron. Say you have Power Plant and two Maps. Always search for Mine first, then for Tower second. If you have to complete Tron on your turn that gives you the most Mana possible.

Tap your mana correctly: Once you hit Tron it's important to have a plan for the turn before you execute everything. Make sure you have the right amount of coloured mana for all of your actions. Sometimes you start with carddraw like Mulldrifter. Usually it's correct to use up two Tronlands and a Prism for that to give you the most flexibility with your other lands for future actions. If you know you will cast a couple of big things like Wall plus Drifter add 8 generic and 2 Blue in a way that uses a lot of your Tronlands.

Play fast: This is super important. I have both lost and won Matches because of the clock. But usually you are on the receiving end. Guess my winrate could be like 1-2 percent higher without timelosses. Some games are very complex so make sure you give yourself enough time to think through the crucial decisions by playing fast in the "easy turns". In a controlling matchup it is totally reasonable to have blocker step and end step as only stops in your opponents turn. If you are scared of missing steps I suggest just stopping in opponents combat and end step per default but remove all the other stops until they become important.

Play to your odds, but don't take risks: With this deck knowing what's left in your library and what you could draw or should draw percentagewise gives you an edge. Often you have to play towards some cards that are not in your hand yet. BUT If you face lethal and have a defending line instead of digging for your longterm outs it is usually correct to delay the digging. Just keep in mind that in some matchups flashbacking your last Moment's Peace might be to costly so you rather dig for Wall than buy one more turn.

Matchups:

Affinity
Record: 45-11 (preboard 33-23, postboard 46-11)

Very favorable matchup that has a lot of play to it though. Preserve your life total as good as possible even if that includes chumping with Mulldrifters or Sea Gates. Staying above 4 or 8 life is important once the board is stabilized so we can ignore Galvanic Blasts and keep a counter for Fling instead. The goal is to set up a position where they don't have strong attacks and you have one Counter for Fling. Use Flame Slash on Forger not on Enforcer since you run Ebolt in the deck. Using Flame Slashes on early Atogs even if you don't kill them can be a strong play. Preboard your win with Mulldrifter beatdown plus Thunder. Postboard we get to attack their resources with Shaman which can also prompt some wins by itself. Most dangerous card is Atog respectiely Fling. Honorable mentions fo to Gearseeker which can be annyoing if dropped early.

You bring in more answers to the combo kill and the strong artifact hate while cutting on the more situational spells of your deck. On the play keeping one False Summoning or Prohibit instead of Pyroblast is reasonable. If possible play Shaman when you can blow up a couple of things and protect it or get it back with Pulse.

UR Delver:
Record: 21-13 (preboard 26-8, postboard 25-23)

In this Matchup we profit from the fact that they slow themselves a bit down compared to Mono Blue Delver in order to attack the meta. Still you can easily get out-tempoed. The losses usually stem from an unanswered Ninja of the Deep Hours. Your point removal and the Sea Gate Oracles help fighting that. Use your one mana spells when they don't have mana for Spellstutter and work towards resolving Mulldrifter. Using your mana at the right times and making them waste it sometimes is important. Play conservitavely since Ninja into Gush can get them back even from unfavored positions. But don't counter the Gushes unless you basically know their hand and Gush is the only way for them to crawl back.

You bring in all the super cheap interaction and cut on cards that don't affect the board perminantely. Don't bring in Ancient Grudge. If they have one Relic you can usually crack it by playing a Wall. Impulse is better then Alchemy since you might need every single card and don't want to mill some spells. You can take it out for another False Summoning if they are on Stormbound Geists. Personally I think keeping Bolts is correct for the UR Delver player but I am always happy to see Skred postboard. Keeping in one Teachings is worth it since Pulse and Electrickery can be hard to recover from for our opponent sometimes.

Kuldotha-Boros:
Record: 23-4 (1-2 vs Monarch version) (preboard 21-6, postboard 25-7)

Super positive Matchup. They are just to slow getting out of the Gates. Only losses result from fast token production plus Rally or a lot of Burn. Yet for both these things we have answers in Moment's Peace and Pulse Chains. Spend your removal only on the Fliers or on the Inspector if you don't have an answer to flashbacked Battle Screech. Against the Monarch version the gameplay is different since you have to respect Palace Sentinel. Unlike the Orzhov Monarch Deck the Kuldotha version can actually convert the carddraw into a win via Burn against you. So don't let these resolve.

Sideboarding can vary a lot on their specific build. If they don't have relics you don't need Grudge. If they run Palace Sentinels bring both False Summonings to the table. I'm not a big fan of bringing in Gorilla Shaman from the Tron SB because your matchup is so favorable that you don't want to risk having the wrong line up of your cards vs theirs.

Stompy:
Record: 20-6 (preboard 15-11, postboard 26-10)

This matchup revolves around us chaining Moment's Peace before we eventually kill them. In the first turns you keep as much power as possible off their board. Once they threaten lethal we need to use our Peaces and Pulses to stay alive and build up a superior board on our own. I'm ususally willing to go down to one life unless they look like holding Viridian Longbow which is their only way to deal non-combat damage. If you don't have access to a race with Mulldrifters and try to Capsize-lock them with Wall and Peace you should make sure to have Counters for their Vines on your Wall. For Sea Gate Oracle it can be correct to not block with it for one turn when you are tapped out in order to not turn on their Hunger of the Howlpack. Then start blocking when you have mana to interact with them. Try to not play Island if possible because of River Boa. Note that sometimes an upkeep Electrickery can set back huge parts of their team for one turn even if it does not kill them (like Boa and Wolf). That is especially good if you are looking to build up enough mana to return a Peace with Wall and cast it in one turn.

We take out all the Counters that would trade downwards manawise. On the draw we don't want any of them and rather have 1 Grudge for Longbow and Vault Skirges. Some players run Relic anyways so it might be the correct plan even on the play.

Burn:
Record: 13-4 (preboard 14-3, postboard 15-9)

This opponent just cannot beat Pulses. The goal is always to build Tron early then cash in a couple of Pulses to seal the deal. Don't play out your Non-Wall creatures until you feel you have to or you are on a save lifetotal in order to strand their Searing Blaze. If you have Flame Slash let their creatures resolve and counter the Burnspells instead. Don't counter Needle Drop. Try to hold Dispel for Fireblasts. Use Prohibits if you think it saves some mana in future turns.

You take out all the cards with no effects in the Matchup and bring in the strong counters plus two situational cards. Since your whole gameplan against them is about Pulses having an answer to Relic is worth it. If they plan for a slightly longer game Serene Heart handles the red Curses while letting us hold counters for the actual Burnspells. If you are restricted on coloured mana or you think they have a couple of dead cards in hand you should hold on Prophetic Prism until you use it for Countermana or Pulsemana.

UB Flicker:
Record: 9-8 (major mistakes in three lost matches, 2 timeouts as well) (preboard 14-3, postboard 10-14)

This Matchup suffers a bit from our deckbuilding. Here some amount of Condescends would be nice. Still it is a positive one if played correctly, as you can see from my results. Try to have some Shuffle or Filtering when they go for Chittering rats so you don't draw your worst card in hand again. Besides that you win by being ahead on mana and sneaking in Mulldrifters and Capsize in the windows you get. Be aware that they can buy back huge portions of their Graveyard with Reap, so you need to pressure them in some way once you are ahead. Don't let your Capize get countered by Flicker. In general let them not utilize this card by killing of their good targets when you are save to do so. Don't trade creatures if not necessary. It opens up for Reap or Unearth. Be careful with your important spells if you see Bojuka Bog.

Since they don't put up early pressure you take out all the removal but Magma Spray which has the nice exiling effect. Postboard you need to be really careful against graveyard hate and duresses. Once the game seems to be locked Prohibit becomes your most important Counter because of Duress.

Bogles:
Record: 6-6 (preboard 8-4, postboard 9-11)

I am actually fairly confident for this Matchup yet the results suggest a coinflip. For the Matchups with lower sample size I will tell you my gut feeling and for Bogles this is quite good. I had two Serene Hearts in the SB for some time but felt that with three Moment's Peaces after sideboarding this is not necessary anymore. Your counter targets should be the creatures if they don't have any on the board. Otherwise if you have Chumpblockers you can go for the Trample Auras. Usually it is correct to just counter Etheral Armor and Mask though. That also gives you the highest probability of eventually sweeping their board with Electrickery after you capsized a bunch of their Auras. Against Bogles you can savely go down to one life so use your Moment's Peaces as late as possible and try to chump only big non-trampling threats.

If you know they don't run Flairing Pain you can cut the Dispel. Same is true for Aura Gnarlid and Flame Slash. Given that they often cannot flashback Flairing Pain, having Dispel postboard might buy the one turn you need when you are fogging them. If you have a mediocre draw sometimes it can be worth bluffing Electrikery. Some players fall for it and hold back their good Auras which gives you more time.

Teachings:
Record: 8-3 (preboard 7-4, postboard 9-6)

This matchup feels a lot worse than my record suggests but somehow I managed to win a lot. Your only real threat against them is Capsize so the plan is to build Tron and Capsize their lands with enough protection up. Given they play teachings they should have landdrops and Counterspells more frequently which makes it difficult to execute this plan. Then if you try to land other threats you run into Exclude and the likes. The blue Curse is also quite annoying since you don't have that many spells in your library that actually matter so getting them milled is painful. You should consider yourself the aggressor in this matchup and try to get ahead on mana at the same time. The Sideboardguide targets the UB versions since I only played Grixis teachings three times.

Postboard we get to remove a lot of garbage but face Duresses and graveyard hate as additional things to fight through. I guess the matchup stays about the same or turns slightly in their favor since they also get to remove a lot of useless removal spells.

Red Deck Wins:
Record: 5-5 (preboard 5-5, postboard 7-8)

This matchup also feels worse than the numbers suggest. That being said our version of Murasa Tron plays quite some early interaction so around 50-50 or slightly worse might actually be accurate. Unless against Stompy you cannot hold to your Moment's Peaces till the very last moment since they have Burn. Kill their creatures on your turn to avoid blowouts by Mutagenic Growth but hold instant removal if you think they plan to play Heelcutter. This one and Bushwhacker are the things you want to counter besides early Burning-Tree or late Burnspells. This matchup is all about preserving your life total so you better have some answers against their fast starts. On the draw I would not keep hands that cannot interact the first 2-3 turns (Sea Gate does not count) unless you have Moment's Peace.

Izzet Blitz:
Record: 6-4 (preboard 4-6, postboard 10-6)

This time my record feels about right. It's not a pretty matchup since they can just be too fast, but you have a lot to fight them. If you have Moment's Peace preboard you put them to the Dispel test though good Blitz Players will spread their damage if they sense a Fog. Play your removal on your turn and try to counter their creatures first because if they fight over it you have more mana on your turn and if they lose the Counterwar the Apostle's Blessings and the likes get stranded in their hand. If they don't act, also don't act. It will eventually lead to them discarding.

You bring in all the Blasts since they are one mana removal for their only threats. Make sure to destroy Cyclops with Pyroblast if possible since Hydroblast gets all the threats. Cutting Moment's Peace might seem counterintuitive but I expect them to bring in Flairing pain and I'd rather not play the lottery on that one. Also if they get to untap with Fiend or Cyclops the chances our Moment's Peace resolves are slim already. And like I mentioned earlier playing around it is not impossible for them. We also cut the Alchemy because the games can be super grindy and come down to using ll your counters. I could also see going full control and keeping the second Pulse instead of Thunder but that might be too risky.

Why play the deck?

To put it simple: you win a lot. I am currently at a win rate of about 69% an trend is going upwards again after I lost some percentage because of learning every important interaction and playing with the numbers. From the above Matchups there is not a single one which is clearly unfavorable. Mono Blue Delver is slightly unfavorable I think. The only really bad matchups are other Tron iterations. They assemble Tron faster, have more threats and less removal that doesn't matter. So if you think you face a lot of these maybe you should shy away from the deck. That being said Tron mirrors can be a bit random sometimes so you can always sneak a win with early Tron.

The games are super interesting: At the beginning it might be frustrating because the deck is quite hard to pilote perfectly but if you like to take challenges try this one. I do believe I have become a better magic player because of this deck. My processing of both tactical and longterm decicions has gotten a lot faster. After all the deck rewards good play very much which is a super satisfying feeling.

You get some free wins because of silly draws like Tron turn three with coloured mana. Also you get to tilt your opponents a lot which is kind of amusing. I don't want to sound mean but it's funny how often people complain Tron draws exactly the right card every time when in reality other cards would just open up other lines or you have put a lot of work in to make the top of your deck super rewarding.

It is hard to play against. Your opponents always have to consider that you might have a huge jump in mana. Also running quite some One-Ofs means they have to do a lot of scary decicions what to play around and not. Sometimes they just get screwed because of that.