Creature (26)
Sorcery (8)
Sideboard
Instant (9)
Sorcery (2)
Creature (4)
Maybeboard
Sorcery (1)
With a $15~ ceiling for the budget, monochrome mana base for ease of play, and purposefully designed around black’s ‘Everything is a resource if you’re brave enough’ philosophy, this is a great introductory starter deck for those curious about the Pauper format.
Simplicity itself.
•Swamps provide the bulk of the mana we need. 16 is plenty considering the majority of cards are one pip spells, with our ‘bombs’ ringing in at…. No need for ramp or fancy tricks here!
•Piranha Marsh is present to help keep the pressure on, pinging for 1 on touchdown.
•Blood Pet will net you a at any time, so bear that in mind should you wish to cast an Instant in response to something. We laud your self sacrificing spirit, you cute little Thrull oo7
Odds and ends to help hold everything together and smooth out the path to a win.
•Duress is worth its weight in gold, letting us peel away spells we otherwise would have great difficulty trying to avoid. We can deal with all but the most crafty creatures, but the option to hit Enchantments/Instants/Sorceries is welcomed.
•Cast Down reigns supreme as the top removal spell in Pauper. Hits everything except the sparse few Legendary creatures in Pauper…which nobody plays anyway.
•What’s better than sacrificing one of your own creatures to pump up another? Forcing your opponent to do it instead. Enter Diabolic Edict. The only downside is your opponent retains the power of choice, so don’t expect them to willingly offer up their best beastie on a silver platter for you. Be mindful of the boardstate, and with a bit of luck you may just back them into a corner long enough to play this card to strategic effect. If you happen to have Chainer's Edict then run that instead, as Flashback gives greater value from the card. I omitted it here strictly to keep the cost as low as possible, but yes I am aware of it.
Edit: I’ve removed Diabolic Edict and replaced it with Innocent Blood. Not sure how I missed it, but it’s a more effective card for what we’re set up to do, and costs less to cast. Special thanks to ClockworkSwordfish for pointing this one out!
•Dash Hopes is one of my absolute favorite ‘bad’ cards, and I decided to run 2 copies in the main board. There are no ‘If x, you win the game’ style outside the box wincons here, so life loss from combat damage will be the path to victory for us. That said, best case scenario we quash a threatening spell with a deftly timed Dash Hopes, while worst case scenario sees us 5 points closer to a win.
Detailed below are all the creatures in the deck we can sacrifice on command, and anything extra we gain in the process.
•Blood Pet produces as necessary, as mentioned above.
•Death Cultist siphons off a life point and we soak it right up.
•Liliana's Steward forces a discard, and while the opponent will obviously always choose to toss the least beneficial card, we are still setting them back a pace. With the exception of a Dredge deck or some other build utilizing the graveyard for shenanigans, it’s nearly always a negative hassle for the opposing player.
•Augur of Skulls does some heavy lifting. It has some pseudo evasion built in with the ability to Regenerate, and its sacrifice trigger hits twice as hard as the previous card. Timing is a bit stricter, but it’s worth it to be able to slow the tempo of the game if necessary.
•Serrated Scorpion must protect John Connor at all costs, but it’s pincers are better used to block chump damage anyway. If and when it dies, our opponent goes down by 2 and we get a bump for the same amount. If, for whatever reason, you absolutely positively need that extra +1/+1 counter on our bombs to close out the game, there’s always the option to target oneself using Diabolic Edict.
•Mortician Beetle benefits from Diabolic Edict as well as our own self sacrifices, so don’t forget to stack that counter on if you play the spell.
•Gixian Infiltrator won’t see any buff from Diabolic Edict, and while I briefly contemplated adding those obscure Pauper legal lands which are ‘used up’ and sacrificed afterward, it was too clunky and unreliable. The Gixian will perform well enough digesting the remains of our creatures alone.
•Keep the board relatively clear with Cast Down, or remove threats before they materialize with Duress or the sacrifice triggers of Liliana's Steward/Augur of Skulls. Deny a spell from seeing the light of day with Dash Hopes and score one for the gipper!
•Sacrifice your way to victory, stacking piles of +1/+1’s on our counter bearers and attacking for big damage.
•Since cycling isn’t an option, a dwindling hand is perhaps the deck’s biggest weakness. Sign in Blood helps mitigate that, and it’s easy enough to recoup the 2 lost points of life.
•Aphotic Wisps will help sidestep any defensive tactics on our opponent’s part, making it more difficult to block our pumped up workhorse. It’ll also grant us a replacement draw in case we don’t land the finishing blow, helping keep our hand supplied.
•Ebony Charm can either help us stay afloat just long enough to ensure the win, or else let damage be pushed through for the more direct approach.
•Devour Flesh is behind the ‘Break Glass in Case of Emergency’ box. Should something go horribly wrong, sacrifice one of our counter-laden powerhouses to artificially inflate our life total to a safe range. It’s highly likely we’ll have multiple Beetles or Infiltrators in play, each with a plethora of counters, so consuming one to stabilize isn’t usually a concern.
•Fume Spitter helps give us a fighting chance against indestructible beasties, as counters will either remove them or render them ineffective once blocked.
•A couple more Dash Hopes because I just really like the card.
”And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.”
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90% Casual
Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 1 year |
| Last updated | 1 year |
| Legality | This deck is Pauper legal. |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.35 |
| Folders | Pauper, Awsum decks, Good budget, Pauper, .Pauper, cool pauper decks |
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