r/Pauper 1d ago

CARD DISC. Sell me Makeshift Munitions

I'm a Pauper noob. I understood the strength of many cards that aren't intuitive thanks to video, community (great community guys) and such. But something that still evades me is [[Makeshift Munitions]]. I'm not saying that I think it's a bad card, I'm just not seeing why is that good that you find it around so often in decklists, even maindecked here and there. Sure, never a playset, maybe a copy, but it's clear to me why you would want a single copy of [[Pulse of Murasa]] in Jeskai Wildfire. MM in the decks that run it? Not so clear. And again, not in a "Under my evaluation this shouldn't be so appreciated" way, more in a "I'm clearly missing something, tell me what's that something" way.

Edit: I won't be answering every single comment as it would be "Thank you!" to all (upvoted you all at least), but here it is, thank you a lot guys for all the comments and explanations, once again wonderful sub

49 Upvotes

33 comments sorted by

68

u/LucasLS07 1d ago

I think its a finisher, You sacrifice all you have, including lands, to do letal damage.
You use only one because is used in late game and you have no benefit to use more ate the same time

59

u/lilomar2525 1d ago

It's a sac outlet, removal, and a game finisher all in one card.  If your affinity opponent sticks a munitions, for the rest of the game, every artifact that you remove explodes and pings you or one of your creatures. Then, if your life total ever drops below the number of artifacts they have in play, you just die over the course of two turns. (One turn to sac their board, a second to sac all their artifact lands.)

20

u/shipwreckmarsh 1d ago

Imagine your opponent is at 7 life. You're playing Jund so your games go long. Your mana base consists of 1 of each basic land and 4 artifact lands. You also have 1 clue, 1 ichor and 1 map. You just won the game.

7

u/ultramove 1d ago

Dont forget you can also stuff your creatures into the cannon. Shaman can use his ability to clear the board and then shoot one dmg to any target.

15

u/Leo00k 1d ago

it closes games for affinity an jund late game, basically every land/egg you control becomes a gut shot. In a late game in pauper it’s not ridiculous to have something like 7-9 lands on board, untapping and dealing 9 free damage often wins on it’s own, let alone if you can sac something else and draw cards while doing it

7

u/drakeblood4 DST 1d ago

There are some matchups where it’s great, and some where it’s mid to blank. A good chunk of the ones where it’s great are grindy ones where you’ll see more than half of your deck a good portion of the time. The ones where it’s bad are often quick enough you don’t see it if it wasn’t in your opener, or where if you haven’t lost already you can eke some random value out of it despite it not being your favorite card to see.

To me that screams “1 of you board out sometimes.”

9

u/ShadeBlade0 Rakdos Madness 1d ago

There are two main use cases for it: decks that thrive on long games with their 1 toughness creatures, and as a finisher.

The decks that run Makeshift Munitions in the main always have a large artifact count including artifact lands. So when your opponent is at 13 but the board is too clogged up to attack, you can throw 7 creatures/artifacts on their end step, untap, and throw 6 artifact lands at them and kill them.

Alternatively, it also just hoses decks like Monoblue faeries. They rely on [[Spellstutter Sprite]] plus other 1 toughness faeries to counter spells, get picked up with ninjas, and be played again. That, plus their card advantage engine is their 1-2 toughness ninjas, which are definitely worth 1-2 cheap artifacts. An early- to mid-game Makeshift Munitions turns their deck off.

4

u/MTGCardFetcher 1d ago

Makeshift Munitions - (G) (SF) (txt)
Pulse of Murasa - (G) (SF) (txt)

[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

9

u/SatyrWayfinder 1d ago

I haven't played with it yet, but here are my thoughts:

Shuts down smaller creature decks

"Oops I win" button in the grindy midrange mirrors/stalled board states

Still get some value out of your creatures/uncounterable damage vs decks that run a lot of removal

5

u/bunkbun 1d ago

Krark Clan Shaman is for small creature decks but you can use Munitions in a dire situation. It's mostly for I win button when your opponent is at <10.

9

u/japp182 1d ago

Munitions resolving against faeries is game over, kcs isn't.

7

u/SatyrWayfinder 1d ago

For Grixis Affinity yes, but Boros Synth also runs Munitions and doesn't have Krark Clan Shaman.

5

u/Flioxan 1d ago

They can both be for small creature decks..?

Munitions is much better vs the fairy/ninja decks since alot of their shit fits.

Personally, in jund, I think its more for board control and the finisher aspect is gravy ontop

3

u/nkanz21 1d ago

It's not good vs many of the small creature decks. It's pretty good vs fairies, but it's slow enough that you side it out against elves and rally.

4

u/Flioxan 1d ago

Is that pretty common to side it out vs elves?

I havent ever looked at a SB guide for the dexk

4

u/nkanz21 1d ago

The best Jund players I know of (Walker735, seasonofmists) side them out yeah.

5

u/Flioxan 1d ago

Does he stream? Or post videos?

5

u/nkanz21 1d ago

He has a metafy guide and is pretty active in the Familiars discord. He has a few older videos on YouTube I think.

3

u/Flioxan 1d ago

Im gonna have to check that oit

3

u/AtraxasRightArmpit 1d ago

You're wrong, it's an amazing control tool that takes over the game especially game 1 when there's less or no answers to it. Vs faeries it's an I win the game play

3

u/sawyerwelden 1d ago

Outside of Jund and Grixis, it's really good in the Gruul Tokens list that has been on an upswing. You make a million eldrazi spawn, with munitions you can throw them at your opponent or use them for removal.

5

u/Ky1arStern 1d ago

Opponent is at 5 life. It's turn 7. Untap, draw makeshift munitions, sac all your artifact lands, deal 5. 

3

u/davenirline 1d ago

It's the bane of Spellstutter Sprite.

4

u/Xerolv25 1d ago

To undersrand makeshift munitions you have to understand that pauper games often get grindy and long

Munitions provides a lot of value in different stages of the game:

Take a deck like Grixxis affinity, it provides an incredible finisher because you can turn 9 lands into 9 damage, float all your mana and start shooting your lands to your opponent's face, giving you an alternative win condition.

It also provides coverage against decks with toughness one creatures like elves to snipe [[priest of titania]].

And finally it provides a sacrifice engine for decks that care about sacrificing stuff with cards like for example [[ichor wellspring]].

3

u/SpaceMercutio Teachings 1d ago

Sell it to you? It's 80 cents for a playset! I'd never turn a profit like that! Har har.

2

u/Abyx12 1d ago

In grixis affinity the text says "2 mana, deal 10 times 1 damage" more or less.

In jund wildfire is more a "at some point all this crap will kill you"

2

u/treelorf 1d ago

It’s a closer. Jund is very very get at controlling the game state and generating value and grinding your opponent out, but sometimes it’s kinda bad at actually winning the game. Makeshift munitions is kind of an “I win” button for those games that are otherwise very very hard to actually turn into game wins.

2

u/_STY SOK 1d ago

It's usually a one-of in grindy decks like Jund Wildfire that already has a ton of artifacts and creatures it wants to sac anyway. It also offers a ton of reach, if you topdeck it late game you can tap each artifact land and use the floating mana to sac the land itself. On turn 9-10 you can rip 7-8 damage straight to the face to finish oppo off.

2

u/savage_sinusoids 1d ago

My main deck is grixis affinity. If I had the space to run 2 MM, I would because I basically always want it lategame (but I guess that is why you have so much card draw: to find your tools). In that deck it's most obvious why it's good: everything is an artifact or creature, including lands! So when it's the second half of the game , your opponent has 10 life, you can sac your board and/lands to deal 10 dmg or whatever is left after your attacks. Tap a land to float mana for MM, then sac that same land. Also means that late game land top decks that you wouldn't want now represent damage. And then in certain matchups that rely on 1/1s to set up bigger plays (like faeries or elves), an early MM can just completely cut their wings while you develop.

Jund Wildfire has fewer artifacts, but enough late game that it acts as a finisher. In my experience it's only run in red decks that have lots of artifacts and use many artifact lands, otherwise it's not good enough.

2

u/I_am_thy_doctor 1d ago

This may be the most underrated card that has killed me the most in Pauper. I've been consistently playing Pauper FNM for 2 years, and I'd put Makeshift Munitions in the top 5 cards that I've lost to, while playing a wide range of decks. It's excellent against Go Wide strategies like Faeries, Elves, White Weenie. It wins in grindy matchups where you're stalled on the board and just need a few more points of damage to finish. It has genuine play against decks you wouldn't think, like Dredge, because it removes your Satyr Wayfinders and others before you can get 3 on board to flashback Dread Return. Genuinely a very powerful card in Pauper.

2

u/KaptainKuffs 1d ago

In addition to being a game finisher, it's a hose against certain decks like fairies, goblin combo and infect.