Category: Pauper Commander

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

1/24/2015

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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Magic the Gathering (MTG) - Pauper EDH / Commander - An Introduction

1/24/2015

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by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

As a major aficionado of the EDH/Commander format, I greatly enjoy finding Commanders and strategies that aren’t commonly employed. One time, when I was doing a little research for a Magic 2015 article, I stumbled across a new format that I was only vaguely aware of: Pauper EDH. As it turns out, one of the cards reprinted in Magic 2015, Garruk’s Packleader, is a very popular Commander in that format. Let me explain why.

The only difference between Pauper EDH and regular EDH is that instead of using a Legendary Creature to command your deck, you use any Uncommon creature (you could also use a Common creature if you’d like). Then, your other 99 cards must be all of common rarity.

In the case of Garruk’s Packleader, you would play all Green or colorless cards. He’s popular in that format because there are plenty of creatures with power 3 or greater at common, especially in green, and card draw is always awesome.

The awesome thing about Pauper EDH is that it opens up possibilities that regular EDH doesn’t offer. Think of all of those cool uncommon creatures that just never served any purpose in Constructed decks. If you can find enough commons that thematically support it in a singleton format, go for it!

One awesome thing about Pauper EDH is that many EDH staples are in fact commons: Command Tower, Darksteel Ingot, the various Signets, and many more. The power level of cards is nowhere near traditional Commander and you don’t end up with a lot of the super expensive lists that you may find in regular Commander.

In the near future I’ll be going over some popular and powerful Pauper Commanders. While you’re at it, though, take a look at your collection and see what Uncommon creatures you may want to build around. Remember that color identity rule is exactly the same in Pauper EDH as it is in regular EDH. This means that abilities that call for different colors of mana than those in the creature's mana cost will you to play cards of those colors in your deck, as well.

For the complete Pauper Commander rules, check out the PDH Homebase!

So who will be your Pauper Commander?

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Magic the Gathering - Pauper Commander / EDH (PDH) - Ascended Lawmage

1/24/2015

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by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Dragon’s Maze is known as one of the weakest overall sets in recent years, at least as far as rares were concerned. There were a couple of decent mythics: Voice of Resurgence and Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Master of Cruelties has seen play in Commander, as well. But as a draft set, Dragon’s Maze was pretty good. It had a good number of playable commons and uncommons. One of those very playable uncommons was Ascended Lawmage.

Ascended Lawmage has seen some fringe Standard play and has been a favorite among those who have played Return to Ravnica-block Limited. The Lawmage is a 3/2 flyer for 2WU that also has Hexproof. The Hexproof is what really counts here. As a Pauper Commander, you suit him up and send him in for the kill. In Pauper Commander, you don’t always have to deal 21 Commander damage as in regular Commander; some playgroups set it as low as 15-18.

In some ways, Ascended Lawmage is like the Bruna, Light of Alabaster of Pauper Commander. While he doesn’t have the ability to simply have a bunch of enchantments thrown onto him, the deck is built to out-tempo opponents while suiting the Lawmage up to be able to deal lethal damage. Dealing with Hexproof Commanders is very hard to do in Pauper, as you might imagine.

There are a couple of ways you can build an Ascended Lawmage deck. One way is to build a deck that focuses more around having multiple Hexproof flyers to complement the Lawmage. A decklist I found on MetaMox, Swift Peasant Justice, does just that. It complements the Lawmage with Hexproof creatures such as Aven Fleetwing and Benthic Giant, as well as Elguad Shieldmate, which gives both herself and whoever she Soulbonds with hexproof. Then there are tempo creatures such as AEthersnipe, Mist Raven and Voidwielder, which can bounce opponent’s creatures back to their hands. There are some Bestow creatures to power up your Hexproof creatures, including the Lawmage, and Exalted creatures to give your Lawmage an extra boost when attacking alone.

The rest of the deck includes a bevy of Auras to beef up your Commander and his escorts, as well as other Enchantments to deal with getting problem creatures out of the way. Many great Auras exist at the common rarity, some from much older sets, that you may not even know about until building Pauper EDH lists.

Here is that list that I found on MetaMox. There may be a few tweaks I would make here and there, but overall it’s a really solid list.

Swift Peasant Justice

Commander

Ascended Lawmage

Lands (37)
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Bant Panorama
1 Drifting Meadow
1 Esper Panorama
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Halimar Depths
1 Haunted Fengraf
10 Island
1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 New Benalia
1 Opal Palace
10 Plains
1 Remote Isle
1 Secluded Steppe
1 Sejiri Steppe
1 Soaring Seacliff
1 Terramorphic Expanse

Creatures (27)
1 Akroan Skyguard
1 Angelic Page
1 Auramancer
1 Aven Fleetwing
1 Aven Squire
1 Æthersnipe
1 Benthic Giant
1 Dawnglare Invoker
1 Deepwater Hypnotist
1 Elgaud Shieldmate
1 Floodtide Serpent
1 Glimmering Angel
1 Guardians of Akrasa
1 Hopeful Eidolon
1 Impaler Shrike
1 Kor Sanctifiers
1 Mist Raven
1 Mulldrifter
1 Nimbus Naiad
1 Ninja of the Deep Hours
1 Nyxborn Shieldmate
1 Nyxborn Triton
1 Observant Alseid
1 Oreskos Sun Guide
1 Sphinx’s Disciple
1 Stealer of Secrets
1 Voidwielder

Non-Creature Spells (35)
1 Aqueous Form
1 Brilliant Halo
1 Cage of Hands
1 Call to Serve
1 Capashen Standard
1 Celestial Flare
1 Divine Verdict
1 Eel Umbra
1 Empyrial Armor
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Excoriate
1 Flight of Fancy
1 Ghostly Wings
1 Hands of Binding
1 Hyena Umbra
1 Infiltrator’s Magemark
1 Into the Roil
1 Kjeldoran Pride
1 Knightly Valor
1 Last Breath
1 Last Thoughts
1 Narcolepsy
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Ocular Halo
1 Ophidian Eye
1 Pacifism
1 Ray of Dissolution
1 Revoke Existence
1 Rhystic Study
1 Spectral Flight
1 Steel of the Godhead
1 Triclopean Sight
1 Vapor Snag
1 Viscerid Armor
1 Way of the Thief

The other way to build an Ascended Lawmage deck would be to focus more on the Control element, using more card filtering such as Ponder, Preordain and Brainstorm, and more counterspells such as Logic Knot, Mana Leak, Rewind (most recently printed at Uncommon, but originally printed at Common), among others. The more creature-heavy builds are the ones I would personally favor, however, especially in a format that definitely favors board presence more than traditional Commander, as board-wipes simply don’t exist in this format.

The best part about this deck that it would probably cost between $5-10 to build, the majority of that being Hyena Umbra and Rhystic Study. Most of these cards you probably have laying around or are cards you could acquire extremely cheaply.

Would you ever consider playing this sort of deck? Or are there other Azorius (Blue/White) builds that you would prefer? Personally, I think this is one of the stronger decks in the format.

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Gorilla Shaman - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

12/1/2014

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by Phoenix Desertsong

Before the rise of the Pauper format in paper Magic the Gathering, probably not a lot of people ever heard of Gorilla Shaman. It’s an interesting common card originally printed in Alliances and later reprinted in a Coldsnap Theme Deck. The Shaman is a 1/1 creature for one red mana and has the repeatable ability: Pay X-X-1: Destroy target non-creature artifact with casting cost equal to X.

Double X costs are typically yucky. But, on a one-drop creature, it’s not a bad ability. Say you wanted to destroy a two-drop artifact: it would cost you 5 mana to destroy that artifact. While that’s quite a bit of a mana investment to destroy one card, on a one-drop creature, it’s not bad at all. Unlike a lot of artifact removal that either is one use or requires a sacrifice of itself, you can keep this guy around.

Even though there are far superior ways to destroy artifacts in Red in most formats, this guy is particularly good in Pauper. That's because in an all-common format, your options for artifact removal are much more limited. You're often only going to be destroying one or two mana artifacts anyway. While it seems a bit inefficient, it's worth playing, since this is a repeatable ability. You can also play him on turn one, and since he's a creature, he doesn't slow down aggressive decks.

Many competitive Pauper decks, such as Izzet Delver, Kuldotha Boros, and Tron play a couple copies of Gorilla Shaman in their sideboards to make certain matchups easier. Gorilla Shaman is worth a look in the right Pauper deck as a tool to destroy pesky artifacts. Reusable removal is always worth something.

For most decks, though, the Shaman one to pass on – although it wasn’t bad in Ice Age Block Constructed. Still, it's a valuable card due to its playability in Pauper. It's also especially good in Pauper Commander (PDH) if you're playing any kind of Red deck.

Have you ever played Gorilla Shaman?

Updated 3/1/2019

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

Magic the Gathering (MTG) - Pauper EDH / Commander - An Introduction

Magic the Gathering - Pauper Commander / EDH (PDH) - Ascended Lawmage

Gorilla Shaman - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

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