CJB: Cheapo decks
Greetings! This week's article is a little something different. Sometimes I like to make silly theme articles. Sometimes I make genuine Johnny combo-imbued fun decks. Sometimes I make spikey decks or Timmy decks. But every now and then, like with my Rainbow Stairwell article, I talk about fringe formats.
Legends was the first set to introduce Gold/Multicolored cards. Back then, spells were overpowered and creatures were weak as heck. For some reason, WOTC, at the time, felt making something gold (and special) meant these things cost a ton and did very little. I'm not sure the reasoning behind making something harder to cast so lukewarm, but thankfully those days are long past (I'm looking at you Spiritmonger. *high fives Spiritmonger*).
When MTGO started releasing Masters Editions, some of these legends of old popped up as potential includes, and WOTC included 'em in the ME sets. This lead to MTGO having 10 common-rarity Legendary creatures. Broken down, there are actually two common-level Legends, which can be used as Commanders for each of the ally-aligned guilds.
That means we have the option, online, to make either an Azorius, Selesnya, Rakdos, Dimir or Gruul Pauper style Commander deck.
You can buy this whole lot for ten cents.
So how do we Pauper up commander? Well we take the Commander and Pauper Banned lists and combine 'em. It essentially means we add Treasure Cruise to Commander's banned list.
From there, we just set the V4's collection screen to the format pauper, and build a Commander deck, and then we cajole one of our friends into doing the same, and we have a fairly unique experience. It ensures a Commander deck with the limitations of Pauper, which means you are not investing heavily, fiscally speaking, to make one of these decks. Pauper players! This is how to get your Commander friends into Pauper. Commander Players! This is how you get your Pauper friends into Commander! Everyone! Raise the Roof! I mean, uh, this is fun for you too!
Let's check out some decks!
So we are gonna start out with Gruul.
You can choose either of the aforementioned Gruul Pauper Commanders for this one. I went with (Lady of the Mountain), but, legit, it doesn't really matter who you pick here. There's no theme around the Commander. This deck is just good red and green commons.
It's probably the most Timmy of the three Pauper Commander decks showcased in this article, but it has its merits, and themes. Red, in this deck, is all about dat burn doe. I packed as much Lightning Bolt and Bolt-esque cards I could. Green handles what it does best: namely, ramping. There's everything from Farhaven Elf to Yavimaya Elder to Explorer's Scope & Gruul Signet.
I like my creatures in Pauper Commander to be Two-for-ones, in that they usually have an EtB or leaves-the-battlefield trigger, netting me a body and a spell effect. For example, the already-been-mentioned Yavimaya Elder is a 2/1 body, a potential card draw, and fishes out two basics. Beetleback Chief drops two extra gobbos. Eyeless Watcher drops Eldrazi Scions. Sporemound has landfall for Saprolings, and Citanul Woodreaders can be kicked for some card draw. You get the idea.
Since so many of the creatures in this deck drop tokens, I figured we'd be doing a lot of swarming, and hence, attacking. This led me to include things like Brute ForceGiant Growth/Reckless Charge/Titanic Growth/Rancor to pump my attacking pile of weenies. I've also got some big floppy vanillas, like Hooting Mandrills, Kindercatch and Thundering Tanadon.
This deck is all about ramping, burn/removal/burn, tokens, and attacking. This is very much a creature-heavy deck that wants to win by attacking and combat tricks.
How could I not go with (Ramirez de Pietro)? His Foglio flair, his pirate subtype, and his infamy (he was just represented in the Community Cup) all called to me.
Since this deck is blue, you'll notice a lot of card draw, but specifically, card draw with a lot of added Scry or Scry-like stuff added in. This whole deck is based around sifting through it to find the thing you need at that precise moment to control the board state. Read the Bones, draw into a Preordain, draw into an Omenspeaker, and fish out that Murder you need to hose an opposing threat.
You'll also note that a lot of the blue creatures are also bounce spells so as to, again, control the board state.
This deck makes it fairly possible to win with Commander damage. Equipping a Whispersilk Cloak may mean the end for your opponent, as there are very narrow board sweepers in Pauper.
This deck has some of the best black and blue commons in the game, with Mulldrifter and Crypt Rats leading the way, with some fliers for backup: Killer Whale, Deathgaze Cockatrice, Impaler Shrike.
So this time, we got ourselves a theme! Torsten is a soldier, and his machiavellian flavor text notwithstanding, we can exploit all the common green and white soldier themed cards. I'm looking at you (Veteran Armosmith), Piety Charm, and Frontline Strategist (and also the rest).
Soldiers are meant for warfare. So, we've got even more pump spells in this deck than we did in the first deck.
White also has a lot of common removal too, like Faith's Fetters, Arrest, and its ilk. Plus Green has common Fight spells.
In this deck, Moment of Heroism is an MVP, and has turned the tides for me many times.
None of these spells are overly expensive. Serrated Arrows, a Pauper staple, is a little over two bucks. Rhystic Study is a buck or two, and so is Crypt Rats. But, really, all the rest are cheap.
In a world dominated by Mana Crypts, Gaea's Cradles and more. Sometimes it's nice to eschew the money cards and try something different.
I hope you'll give it a shot.
1 Comments
I built a de Pietro deck a few years ago to compete in the sunday Edh chaos tourney. It was pretty meh but I think I still did OK with it. As I remember one pod was me with the pirate, vs Scion of Justice, the TO (whose name escapes me now) +1. It was a fairly hairy contest full of blunders on my part. I just remember Scion's deck was full of Shadowmage Infiltrator type of cards and combos. Attack and draw and the TO's deck had a Naya theme full of cheap powerful creatures.