Magic the Gathering - Pauper Commander / EDH (PDH) - Baleful Strix

by  ElspethFTW,   Old School Duelist

Pauper Commander, also known as PDH, is a variant of the extremely popular Commander (EDH) format. Like Commander, you choose a creature to be your Commander, then play 99 cards that share a color with that creature (including the colors of casting costs required to use its abilities.) Except instead of using a Legendary Creature, you instead use an uncommon (or even common) creature as your Commander. The rest of your deck must be commons, or have been printed at common at one time or another. (For example, Doom Blade was printed at uncommon in one expansion, but has been printed at common before, so it is legal.)

Today, we look at one of the most powerful Pauper Commanders, a powerful Legacy-playable card called Baleful Strix.

Baleful Strix is a very strong creature first printed in the Planechase 2012 deck: Night of the Ninja. It was most recently re-printed in the Commander 2013 deck, Mind Seize. It’s a 1/1 flyer with deathtouch for one Black and one Blue (BU) and draws you a card when it enters. It also happens to be an artifact, which is quite relevant in the two formats that it’s mostly played in, Legacy and Commander.

As a Pauper Commander, Baleful Strix is repeatable card advantage on a stick. The deck that is typically built around it usually cares about tempo, playing many of permission spells, counterspells that still allow players to cast their spells for a cost. There is also a suite of black removal and discard cards. Here’s a fantastic list from Vitriol on Tappedout.net.

Creature (22)

    1x Archaeomancer
    1x Basilica Screecher
    1x Cavern Harpy
    1x Chittering Rats
    1x Crypt Rats
    1x Dimir House Guard
    1x Drift of Phantasms
    1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
    1x Man-o'-War
    1x Mnemonic Wall
    1x Mulldrifter
    1x Nightscape Familiar
    1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
    1x Ravenous Rats
    1x Scrivener
    1x Sea Gate Oracle
    1x Spire Golem
    1x Stinkweed Imp
    1x Stormscape Familiar
    1x Trinket Mage
    1x Twisted Abomination
    1x Ulamog's Crusher

Artifact (7)

    1x Aether Spellbomb
    1x Bonesplitter
    1x Dimir Signet
    1x Executioner's Capsule
    1x Flayer Husk
    1x Nihil Spellbomb
    1x Viridian Longbow

Enchantment (2)

    1x Pestilence
    1x Tortured Existence

Instant (22)

    1x Agony Warp
    1x Capsize
    1x Condescend
    1x Counterspell
    1x Deprive
    1x Diabolic Edict
    1x Echoing Truth
    1x Exclude
    1x Ghostly Flicker
    1x Grim Harvest
    1x Gush
    1x Impulse
    1x Last Gasp
    1x Memory Lapse
    1x Miscalculation
    1x Muddle the Mixture
    1x Mystical Teachings
    1x Peel from Reality
    1x Recoil
    1x Repeal
    1x Soul Manipulation
    1x Think Twice

Sorcery (9)

    1x Compulsive Research
    1x Deep Analysis
    1x Disturbed Burial
    1x Evincar's Justice
    1x Hymn to Tourach
    1x Merchant Scroll
    1x Ponder
    1x Preordain
    1x Treasure Cruise

Land (37)

    1x Barren Moor
    1x Bojuka Bog
    1x Command Tower
    1x Dimir Aqueduct
    1x Dimir Guildgate
    1x Dismal Backwater
    1x Evolving Wilds
    1x Halimar Depths
    1x Haunted Fengraf
    13x Island
    1x Lonely Sandbar
    1x Polluted Mire
    1x Remote Isle
    1x Seat of the Synod
    9x Swamp
    1x Terramorphic Expanse
    1x Vault of Whispers

This particular list plays many “value” creatures that provide some sort of card advantage, either by netting you a card, retrieving a card from your graveyard, or forcing your opponent to discard. You could choose to play more instants and sorceries over creatures, but this list is quite balanced and allows for a wide range of plays.

Blue and Black are powerhouse colors in regular Pauper (which is a Legacy format) because of the power level of many of their commons. So it’s not really a surprise to see a Blue/Black deck that has a Commander which provides a free card along with it be potentially one of the top decks in the Pauper Commander format. Also, with each passing set, there are more cards that become eligible to be played in this deck, meaning more options to tweak your list.

How would you build a Pauper Commander deck led by Baleful Strix?

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