Magic: The Gathering Pauper: Giant's Boulder Spreads to Tron, Affinity, Bogles
A Magic: The Gathering Pauper column reportedly says Giant's Boulder is seeing play in Tron, Affinity and Bogles, and recaps five MTGO Pauper Challenges held from 10/14/2026 to 10/18/2026. All details come from a single community column, not an official source.
Everything below is reported by one source, MTGGoldfish columnist Joe Dyer, and none of it is confirmed by an official publisher. According to Dyer, Giant's Boulder is now appearing in Pauper Tron builds, Affinity and Bogles in Magic: The Gathering's Pauper format. His column also recaps a week of Magic Online Pauper Challenges.
How each deck uses the Boulder
In Tron, the column says the Boulder can often switch on its permanent destruction mode as early as turn 3. One or more copies can be put into play across the first two turns. The deck reportedly relies on the scry ability to dig for Tron lands, and on the mana filtering to cast cards such as Cryogen Relic and Ancient Stirrings.
Affinity treats the permanent destruction mode as a bonus, since that deck needs 7 lands to activate it. There the card mostly filters mana and scries. Per the column, a Glint Hawk can bounce it so it can be replayed for scry 2, it can stay on the table for affinity, or it can be sacrificed to Reckoner's Bargain.
Bogles uses it mainly for card selection and mana filtering. The deck generally runs no tap lands, and the Boulder lets a deck built on Forests alone filter into white for some Auras. Bouncing it for scry 2 is described as unlikely in that deck.
Answers to it, and the ban question
For Tron matchups, the column proposes land destruction or artifact removal. Countering the Boulder is called harder, because it costs one mana and a single copy is enough to filter mana.
The author thinks many more decks should probably play Giant's Boulder. He adds that, in his view, a wide spread of the card would be the point where it would need to be banned.
The week's Pauper Challenges
The column covers five MTGO Pauper Challenges: Challenge 32 on 10/14/2026 (44 players), Challenge 32 on 10/15/2026 (48), Challenge 32 on 10/16/2026 (54), Challenge 16 on 10/17/2026 (31) and Challenge 32 on 10/18/2026 (64). The data set held around 241 decklist entries.
Madness was the most played deck with 41 copies and a non-mirror win rate of about 49.7%. Mono Blue Terror followed with 24 copies (53.9%), Dimir Control with 22 (54.2%), Dimir Faeries with 20 (55.4%, best of the Top 5) and Grixis Affinity with 16 (45.2%).
In the 10/16/2026 Challenge 32, Grixis Affinity (LuffyDoChapeuDePalha) took first, with Dimir Faeries (outZEROo) second and Mono Red Madness (taravangian_) third. The remaining Top 8 spots went to Mono Blue Terror, Dimir Control, Ruby Storm, Mono White Aggro and a second Dimir Faeries list.
The 10/18/2026 Challenge 32 went to Ruby Storm (Kampo). Monster Tron (A_AdeptoTerra) finished second and Food Gardens (True-Name-Nemesis) third. Bogles (Ixidor29) placed 4th, followed by Spy Combo, Grixis Affinity, Dimir Control and Turbo Fog.
The author also flags Plunder the Trollshaws as a new card appearing in many Dimir lists. He calls Twinned Vision a new card from Reality Fracture, and describes Grapple with Death as a removal spell reminiscent of Putrefy that could realistically be downshifted.
What it means for players
- Tron players can often use the Boulder's destruction mode as early as turn 3, with the scry ability helping find Tron lands.
- In Affinity and Bogles, the card is mainly a mana filter and scry effect.
- Players facing Tron have land destruction or artifact removal as the column's suggested answers.
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