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Hello!

This is the first of I hope many Pauper related articles from me on PureMTGO. I'll be focusing mainly on the popular Pauper decks out there - how to play them, what your good and bad matchups are and sideboarding decisions. I hope that you enjoy reading this article, and I'll be glad to add to my collection of them.

So firstly, what is BW Pestilence? How does it work? What does it prey on? What are the core cards?

 

BW Pestilence

Your opponents will feel like this too.

BW Pestilence Trans, 2nd Place Pauper Challenge 06/11/2010 Creatures: 13 4 Aven Riftwatcher 1 Dimir House Guard 4 Guardian of the Guildpact 4 Wall of Hope Other Spells: 23 4 Castigate 3 Disfigure 2 Duress 4 Pestilence 4 Renewed Faith 2 Serrated Arrows 4 Sign in Blood

Lands: 24 2 Barren Moor 4 Kabira Crossroads 3 Orzhov Basilica 4 Plains 7 Swamp 4 Terramorphic Expanse Sideboard: 15 4 Benevolent Unicorn 2 Circle of Protection: White 2 Disenchant 2 Duress 3 Prismatic Strands 2 Unmake

 

BW Pestilence is a powerful anti-aggro deck focusing around its namesake: Pestilence. It tries to abuse Pestilence with early game lifegain, and synergistic creatures to create a 'Pestilence-Lock', namely Guardian of the Guildpact and Wall of Hope. Few aggro decks have answers to a Pestilence-Lock in place, due to having no multicoloured removal or enchantment removal, meaning the deck can often simply 'win' against an opponent with creatures on board, and gas in hand.

The deck struggles against slow, heavy card-advantage decks such as UB Teachings. You are unable to put on pressure, and Pestilence isn't the game winner it is in other matchups. MUC is another problem matchup for similar reasons, however, they do not possess Agony Warp, so an Echoing Truth counterspell combo is their only answer to a resolved Pestilence-Lock.

While at first combo decks such as Storm might seem an auto-lose matchup for a deck built on an anti-aggro engine, you put up a very strong fight against them, thanks to a disruption package featuring Castigate and Duress, alongside other hate-cards.

Lets look at specific matchups against popular decks in the meta, with pre and postboard analysis, and sideboarding tips.

MUC Fae

A popular deck recently, and that's not good for you. Luckily, its worst matchups are heavy aggro strategies, so we can assume there will be more Goblins and Affinity to prey on it, which is just what you want to be paired against!

Anyway, as I mentioned above, slow card-advantage decks with many counterspells will cause issues for you. Your opponent's knowledge of this matchup will be an important factor, as experienced MUC players will ignore everything you do unless it's Pestilence or Guardian of the Guildpact, which are sure to be insta-countered. Basically, you need to fire as many Duresses and Castigates you can at them to pull out the counters, then resolve the lock.

Often, you can draw out counterspells with your removal, which is something you always want to strive for. I've also managed to win a few games where my opponent taps out for a Spellstutter Sprite on my Pestilence, then blow them out with a Disfigure on a Pestermite or other Faerie. Good times.

Note, try to not play Orzhov Basilica until as late as possible (meaning any other land-drops take priority over it), as Pestermite gets really annoying when it taps down two mana instead of one.

Game 1, you have to play control and try to resolve Pestilence lategame, unless they do something foolish and tap-out early, or you think they don't have the counterspell (note, 8 MD counterspells that hit Pestilence, 10 that hit Guildpact, and 4 Sprites on top of that). Keep cycling, killing their dudes and Signing in Blood (or is that Sign in Blooding?), while stripping away the counters (hopefully with some of those spells also) via Duress-effects. As I mentioned, there are no outs to a resolved Guardian, and no real outs to a resolved Pestilence, so getting the lock down should be GG.

Sideboarding:
+2 Duress
+2 Unmake

Duress is self explanatory - it's what you really need to resolve the Pestilence-Lock. Unmake comes in because it's better than. . .

-4 Wall of Hope

Only blocks Ninja post-Ninjutsu. Like every other creature in the deck. Killing it before the card is drawn seems better.

Games 2 and 3 are more of the same, with you trying to force through countermagic with added Duress, while still dude-killing.

Goblins

Goblins is such a powerhouse, it's always nice to have the bye against them. There is hardly any way you can lose this matchup. You have it all, lifegain (that doesn't lose CA), removal, pro-red guys, recursive boardsweeper - with postboard fogs also!

Pretty simple matchup to play also. Killing their 3-Power fellows (you can't profitably block) is tricky, but a Disfigure and well-placed block should 'get there'. Those pumper Goblins, Mogg Raider and Goblin Sledder will be their main way of killing you, so aim to deal with those first. Serrated Arrows is great in this matchup, as it kills so many of their dudes, and renders their (Mogg Flunkes) useless against Wall of Hope. Speaking of which, Wall of Hope often gives the Goblins player 0-profit attacks, so you can timewalk them as the clock ticks up to Pestilence, at which point it's game over - lock in place or not.

Also, obvious tip - don't get blown out by Goblin Bushwhacker, use Pestilence in their combat step.

Game 1 you sit there and survive until Pestilence, throwing blockers in the way of their dudes and hardcasting Renewed Faith whenever necessary. They have no outs to a resolved Guardian, so drop him on turn 4 unless you have to gain life to not die. This is definately in your favour, it's pretty hard to lose unless you keep a slow grip and they nut-draw you out.

Sideboarding:

+3 Prismatic Strands, +2 Unmake

Strands is so nuts against Goblins - two turns of 0 damage for one card is just ridiculous. Unmake comes in to deal with the larger Goblins, and prevents pumping nonsense.

-2 Duress, -3 Sign in Blood

Duress has very few targets, it's simply not worthwhile. The lifeloss from Sign in Blood isn't awful, but it definately isn't great. It does get better post-board however, with the ability to take zero damage over and over.

Games 2 and 3 are ridiculously simple. Same as before, except you have a recursive fog that counters removal spells! Not much to say really - BW Pestilence crushes aggro decks.

Storm

Ah, the dreaded Storm. It's a tricky matchup to play, but most definately favourable due to two reasons.

1. Targeted hand disruption. 6 maindeck, 2 extra in the board. Storm has issues winning with less-than-maximum cards in the grip, which is why it mulligans poorly. Targeted hand disruption is like making Storm mulligan twice.
2. Maindeck answers to both combos (well, kinda). Lifegain can be an effective answer to Grapeshot if your opponent can only muster a low Storm count, which is rather likely if you've managed to Duress them a bunch. A simple Renewed Faith means that six additional spells have to be cast, which is a ton considering 20 have to be cast in the first place. Pestilence is a great answer against Empty the Warrens, as 1 black mana says goodbye to all that hard work. Most Storm decks don't run Bushwhacker in the maindeck, giving you that extra turn to Pestilence, and most don't run Echoing Truth either, so Pestilence is really gonna get them. Add in the bonus post board hate in Benevolent Unicorn and Prismatic Strands and you should have a strong chance.

The main issue with this matchup for you is the lack of pressure you put on the Storm player. This allows him to draw into extra cards to counteract your discard, and store up his Saclands ready to 'go off'. Most of the time your win condition is your opponent scooping, but that doesn't happen so fast against non-creature decks. You can, however, reach a point where you have gained too much life for Grapeshot to kill you, and Pestilence is down to stop Goblin Token shenanigans - meaning your opponent cannot actually kill you.

So Game 1, the main question is what to take with Duress and Castigate. I generally take the card-draw out of their hands, because that's what will give them the advantage over the course of the game; only taking ritual effects out when they are ready to combo out on you next turn. Make sure you keep note of your opponents hand, so you can work out roughly when he will 'go off', so you can prepare with lifegain in response to a 'lethal' Grapeshot, or Pestilence for the Warren Emptying.

Sideboarding:

+2 Duress, +4 Benevolent Unicorn, +3 Prismatic Strands

Duress is great against Storm, as mentioned earlier. Benevolent Unicorn completely nullifies Grapeshot, while Prismatic Strands is a strong reactive answer to either combo.

-4 Wall of Hope, -3 Disfigure, -2 Serrated Arrows

These cards basically do nothing in the matchup, so out they come.

Games 2 and 3 are very difficult to play, as your opponent now has answers to your answers, and has the fancy Transmute package to fetch them up. You need to play hate as soon as possible, so you make things difficult for them. While your opponent can now kill you with Goblins on his turn, Pestilence is still important, as dropping it with 1 mana up will mean Empty the Warrens is useless, and not all Storm decks have the bounce to deal with it (some run Temporal Fissure, but that's tricky to play and still combo if you've diluted a lot of your deck to deal with other hate). Dropping multiple hate cards fast will put pressure on Storm - if you force them into a control position then you'll have won the game.

In general, now you want to grab removal with Duress, and exile Flaring Pain with Castigate if possible, which is a singleton generally - leaving no outs to Prismatic Strands.

UB Teachings

Uh-oh. Your worst, near unwinnable matchup, as Teachings decks are teeming with card-advantage. Teachings for card draw? Draw some cards, flashback Teachings for a cantrip counterspell? Yeah. Pretty lame.

Guardian of the Guildpact, your one savior against control decks, isn't so great here. They run Agony Warp to deal with him, and can tutor it up with Mystical Teachings. Castigate is pretty saucy however, killing off the many flashback cards they have. Your best hope to kill them is trying to survive until lategame, dropping Pestilence and hitting both of you over and over again. Hopefully.

Game 1 you want to Castigate Teachings preferably, and take out any Agony Warps you see. Store up mana and try to get Pestilence down to burn through, and throw some Aven Riftwatcher beats in now and then. This plays out similarly to the MUC matchup, except it's a lot tougher for you.

Sideboarding:

+2 Duress, +2 Unmake

Sideboarding is awkward, because they only run Errant Ephemeron to kill you, so you have to take out your maindecked removal, which is deader than Wall of Hope.

-3 Disfigure, -1 Serrated Arrows

The worst cards in the matchup. I keep in Wall of Hope because you need something to stick around for Pestilence, as Guardian of the Guildpact is likely to die.
Note: if they have a lot of Signets and such, take out another Serrated Arrows for a Disenchant.

Game 2 and 3 are more of the first, except they may have more answers for Pestilence, and even more card advantage. Fingers crossed to not play this deck, but it has been less popular recently as MUC Fae has become the more played control deck.

Affinity

Affinity is another good matchup, but they have big dudes which makes Pestilence slightly less effective. You lack the Prismatic Strands that makes Goblins such a great matchup, but instead you get Vindicate for 1W. Yippee!

Quicksilver Behemoth is their best dude, and your main Castigate target. He's very tricky to deal with once down, especially in Game 1, as Pestilence for 5 doesn't come down particularly fast. Serrated Arrows can assist you with that and also knocks Myr Enforcer down to a more manageable level too. Affinity is quite powerful due to the large amount of card draw they run, but they don't have a ton of creatures to kill you with, and Reaping the Graves only goes so far.

You need to take care to not get blown out by Scale of Chiss-Goria when you Disfigure their Somber Hoverguards or Frogmites. If you've had a good look at your opponents hand in previous turns you can be pretty comfortable casting it.

Game 1, take out their big dudes with Castigate and hit their card-advantage and recursion with Duress. Frogmite is pretty terrible against you, as it can hardly ever profitably attack, and Somber Hoverguard is strong against you unless Aven Riftwatcher makes an appearance. Serrated Arrows should be used whenever possible to keep enemies at a Goblin scale, ready for Pestilence.

The best Pestilence-Lock you actually want to make in this matchup is actually a multiple Wall of Hope lock, to get some lifegain going, as they have no real removal. However, Guardian of the Guildpact is fine for keeping it down, even though he isn't a good blocker in this matchup.

Sideboarding:
+2 Unmake +2 Disenchant

We need ways to kill their big guys, and these do the job fine.

-1 Dimir House Guard, -3 Sign in Blood

These card aren't super relevant in the matchup (lifeloss isn't great, and Pestilence and Guardian aren't insane here), so out they come.

Game 2 and 3 get easier for you now - you have multiple strong answers to their larger fellows alongside your tried and tested anti-aggro setup. Their postboard isn't great against you, so you don't have a ton of stuff to worry about.

Well, that's it from me. Good luck in the queues, PDCs and PEs. I would greatly appreciate any feedback you could leave to help me improve my future articles, what deck you want to be featured, any decks you feel I should cover playing against and so on. I'm hoping to get some videos put in of matchups in the future - let me know if that would be something you'd like to see.

Thanks,
Daesik.