Introduction
'The Pebble' is an aggressive deck for the Pauper format with a subtheme of sacrifice synergy. It is capable of explosive starts comparable to some of the format's top tier archetypes, but can also grind out a longer game both before and after sideboarding. On the downside, the mana is less good than that of premier format aggro decks like Affinity or Stompy. The Pebble is also a bit less redundant of a synergy deck than those lists too, so it tends to be a little less consistent. It is, however, much more resilient to sideboard hate than either Affinity.
One of the unique appeals of this deck is the flexibility of its aggression, as it is possible to go wide or tall depending on the dynamics of the game. Generally, the Pebble wants to be the beatdown, but against some decks like RDW or Goblins, it can simply outlast their fast starts. The Pebble is also quite strong against controlling decks, as it features both natural and virtual card advantage, enabling it to rebuild after its initial onslaught is picked apart. Although in its very early days the deck drew some inspiration from various Pauper aristocrats lists, it is very much my own creation.
Much as the blue and to a lesser extent red decks of Pauper are able to enjoy powerful and efficient cards that see Legacy play, this deck in some respects is able to mimic Legacy and Modern staples. Carrion Feeder and Mortician Beetle do a reasonable Death's Shadow/Gurmag Angler impression, as they can get to be 6/6 or bigger fairly consistently. That's my main draw to playing this deck; it may not be quite as well oiled or explosive of a mechanism as Stompy, Izzet Delver or Affinity, but it is powerful and versatile. Probably my next favourite thing about this deck is how it matches some old school classics (Carrion Feeder, Unearth, Duress, Rancor and so on) with recently printed cards like Blisterpod, Costly Plunder and Dusk Legion Zealot.
Without further ado, I'll get on to explaining the card choices, starting with the main deck before moving on to the sideboard. So far the deck has been strong and capable of hanging with the tier 1 archetypes of Pauper, although it is not a tier 1 deck itself (leaving aside representation and just in terms of other assessment factors).
Creatures
One Drops
The one drops we run are very much the core of the deck, and the most explosive starts will normally involve dropping two or three creatures (excluding tokens) onto the board over the first two turns. The best sequences will involve a Carrion Feeder, a Mortician Beetle, and then one of the one or two mana green creatures. The synergy here can be pretty gross, and I won't go on for too long about it, but basically the plan is to beat down whilst pumping your Feeders and Beetles. Young Wolf and Blisterpod make ideal sac fodder, as a Wolf will come back as a 2/2 whereas the 'Pods leave a 1/1 token behind them. It's also notable that the Eldrazi tokens we produce can sac themselves, which not only can help us cast more expensive spells using the colourless mana generated, but also will grow a Mortician Beetle. In an ideal world, the deck has 6 power in play on turn 2.
Two Drops
In addition to the sixteen one mana creatures in the main deck, we also run twelve two mana creatures. Nest Invader works a lot like Blisterpod for the purposes of sacrifice synergy, although it's better in a couple of ways: it has a more respectable body to attack with, and it gives you the token up front without needing to sac it (and, as mentioned, the token can sac itself if you have a Beetle but no Feeder). The token is only a 0/1 though, which makes it mostly useless in combat outside of chump blocking.
We also run four Elvish Visionary and four Dusk Legion Zealot. 3 mana for Phyrexian Rager (a former 4 of) was a bit high for what the deck sets out to do, and the 2/2 body on Rager never mattered much anyway. The two mana equivalents lower the curve nicely, helping smooth things out and allowing for faster draws. It also helps the deck operate with a slightly lower land count.
Non-Creature Spells
Springleaf Drum
Drum is the newest innovation to the deck. Ever since I moved away from the fairer earlier versions of the list (featuring the likes of Putrid Leech and Vault Skirge) and started running the full eight two mana cantrip creatures, I found myself wanting mana acceleration to help dump our hand and draw cards as quickly as possible. Springleaf Drum is ideal as it helps us take advantage of all the bodies the deck spews, particularly the Eldrazi tokens, which can generate two mana apiece with an untapped Drum.
Unearth
Unearth is definitely one of the more powerful spells in the format, and in my humble opinion this list is one of the best Unearth decks out there. Almost all our creatures either provide value on entering play or are dangerous/resilient threats, and all of them can be returned to play for just a single black mana. Unearthing a Blisterpod or Nest Invader can be particularly sick if we have some number of Feeders and/or Beetles out, and it's entirely possible to fuel 4/4 or larger Beetles and Feeders by turn three with just a Blisterpod (or Young Wolf) and an Unearth. Needless to say, the option to cycle Unearth can be helpful in a pinch. The more I play this deck, the more I realise that Unearth is both the most powerful card in the deck and also the most difficult to play correctly. Generally, there will be two types of decision to make: whether to cycle when digging for a land or threat or to hold it, and whether to use it for card draw (i.e. return a Zealot or Visionary) or for additional bodies (Wolf, Nest Invader or Blisterpod) to sacrifice. In general I think it's correct to use Unearth as a way to keep churning through our deck, but it depends on the board and our hand, as well as on the matchup. The possibility of drawing into Unearth also influences sacrifice decisions, particularly with the sacrifice instants.
Costly Plunder
The printing of Costly Plunder helped pave the way for the Springleaf Drum build I'm currently on. Although I far prefer the artwork on the various printings of Altar's Reap (which is what I was using previously), the flexibility of being able to sacrifice surplus Drums is very nice. Plunder can be a little rough against opponents with permission, but the instant speed helps play around that (or, deliciously, in response to removal). It's basically there to keep the cards flowing as well as offer additional ways to sacrifice our dudes. Against removal, it's best to sacrifice either a 1/1 Young Wolf or Blisterpod (with a Beetle out too ideally) to get some value even if it's countered, but with Unearth in hand it's best to sacrifice a value creature like Elvish Visionary.
Rancor
Previously I ran Supernatural Stamina as a way to have my cake and eat it: I got both a solid combat trick and a way to grind some advantage. However, I've gradually realised that Rancor is straight up better. It gives us a source of evasion in the main deck, which is really important given how big our Feeders and Beetles can get, and is itself essentially an ongoing source of card advantage. I'm only running two as there isn't really space for more, and one copy is pretty much all we're ever going to need in a game.
Removal
I used to run five removal spells: three Disfigure and two Tragic Slip. Disfigure is quite mediocre however, and I wanted to increase the proactivity of the deck. For a while I tried a couple of Bone Splinters (essentially as another sac outlet), but what's really brought me back to this deck after some time playing other lists was the spoiling of Vicious offering (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/feature/dominaria-mechanics-2018-03-21). 2 mana disfigure is fine if unexciting (although it's nice that, unlike Bone Splinters, we don't HAVE to have a creature to sac), but the ability to kick it into a Dismember AND get a sacrifice trigger makes it a slam dunk four of. In fact, there are going to be a lot of instances where we kick the spell even though the creature being targeted has toughness 2 or less - that's part of the beauty of the spell. I'm very excited to play with the card.
The Lands
This being Pauper, the mana is not fantastic. We run a load of one drops, so the colour demands can be difficult. This is a deck that wants to cast spells as much as possible, so I've had to accept running a certain amount of taplands, hence the playset of Jungle Hollow. I'm not running delve or blue cantrips so there's no real reason to be playing Ash Barrens or Evolving Wilds. I used to run between 18 and 20 lands, but since moving over to the Springleaf Drums 16 is plenty.
Tips and Tricks
The Scion and Spawn tokens from Blisterpod and Nest Invader play very nicely with Springleaf Drum, as they can be tapped for mana and then sacrificed for even more mana. This obviously works particularly well with a Mortician Beetle out. A particularly sick sequence is casting Nest Invader, tapping the token for mana with Drum, sacrificing the token (triggering Beetle) for more mana and then casting Costly Plunder or Vicious Offering, sacrificing the Nest Invader (or another value creature). This is why the printing of Vicious Offering is so good for the deck, as it helps enable the Beetles (which previously could be lacklustre unless a Carrion Feeder was out) whilst also being a playable removal spell in its own right.
Related to the above, it's worth trying to use Eldrazi tokens for mana as much as possible with a Beetle out, and otherwise save them as additional bodies in case we draw a Beetle. Obviously, having a Carrion Feeder on the board changes things a bit, particularly if we have Unearth in hand.
This is pretty obvious, but using a Zealot/Visionary/Wolf etc for mana from a drum prior to sacrificing it is wise. Ditto using Drum for mana to cast Costly Plunder sacrificing itself.
Patience is important. Although the deck can play out in a slightly degenerate way, it's for the most part not super fast. Turn 4-6 is normally around the point it starts to spiral out of control.
The deck mulligans relatively well due to all the card draw. Some draws without payoff cards (Feeder or Beetle + sacrifice spells) don't really do that much, and it's worth mulliganing relatively aggressively towards either a functioning hand with a payoff creature or a hand with cantrip creatures (+ ideally acceleration) that can dig fairly quickly.
In general, all the tricky stuff from instant speed sacrifice is relevant. Blocking then sacrificing, using Drum with blockers to cast instant speed sacrifice spells, etc. Edicts are terrible against this deck but sacrificing too greedily (to get in extra damage) can make them good.
The Sideboard
Generally, it's important not to overboard, particularly on the play. Our game plan is fast and powerful, and on the play we can outrace most decks. Generally, it's important not to overboard, as we need to keep a high creature count in order to actually execute our game plan. Carrion Feeder is definitely the most important card for our synergies, but some number of the green creatures and/or 2 mana spells can be cut.
Anyway, here's a card-by-card explanation of the current sideboard:
Take Down is our answer to decks with lots of fliers, like Delver builds that run the Faeries package (Izzet and mono blue). It's okay against Stompy as it answers their Vault Skirges, although it's not brilliant against them. I've tried Aerial Volley here before, and am still undecided which is better. I'm strongly considering Spidersilk Armor, however.
Duress is a versatile card to bring in when we want to hit the opponent's hand, and is particularly good against controlling decks looking to get advantage from countermagic or spells like Pulse of Murasa, Evincar's Justice, fog effects and so on. Mesmeric Fiend plays a similar role (we can sac it with the trigger on the stack to make it a permanent exile) against combo/control, but is also a body so is a more reasonable proposition against decks like Affinity.
Echoing Decay is sort of like an expensive Disfigure that can sometimes be a blowout, ruining token lists and getting two-for-ones against creature decks like Goblins or Red Deck Wins. It's also perfectly fine as additional spot removal for toughness two creatures. I don't really love it against Stompy or Affinity tbh. We also run two Nausea to round out the sweeper package. Nausea is narrower but higher impact against the likes of Elves.
Cartouche of Ambition is there for racing matchups like Burn and Izzet Blitz. Slap it on a huge dude, gain a load of life, profit.
Caustic Caterpillar is the hate card for Affinity or decks with impactful artefacts and enchantments (like Tortured Existence). It provides a sacrifice trigger for Beetle and can be brought back with Unearth.
Nihil Spellbomb is the fairly obvious option for one-sided graveyard hate. I have been very tempted to try out Faerie Macabre, however. Nihil Spellbomb is quite likely better, but I like the fact that Faerie is free and uncounterable. It's also a decent body to return with Unearth. I'm only even considering Faeries because we're an Unearth deck, but I suspect Spellbomb is enough better.
Matchups
This section is still in progress, as I need to play the list more. It's worth noting that the sideboard is primarily designed with a local paper Pauper meta in mind. My aim is to gradually flesh this part of the description out with loose guides to sideboarding, as I learn more from playing the list.
Against Stompy
What we want: Cartouche. It's very hard for them to win if we suit up a big guy.
Against Delver
Take Down and Echoing Decay are both solid, as are the hand hate cards. They have a lot of permission so Costly Plunder and Vicious Offering are slightly worse.
Against Affinity
We want Caterpillar of course, and the Cartouches to help us race. Fiend is a decent option to strip Fling/Battle Rage from their hand.
Against Control
Duress and Fiend in, some removal out. Spellbomb is a consideration too depending on how much they use the graveyard.
Against Midrange/Durdle
We mostly just race them, and tweak our removal to suit whatever they're running. If they're running problem cards like fogs, blink effects or counterspells then Duress feels good. If they're trying to gum up the board with blockers, we bring in Echoing Decay. Gleeful Sabotage is important if they're reliant on artifacts or enchantments as their engine or combo piece.
Against MBC
It's mostly the same as with generic midrange matchups, but removal is particularly important here as we want to be able to manage their devotion. We are still the beatdown, but we need to make sure we kill their stuff as much as possible so that their merchants are bad. Hand disruption is solid, and graveyard hate is alright.
Against Burn
Duress, Fiend and Cartouche on are great. Removal isn't particularly important as we just want to smash them down.
Against RDW/Goblins
Echoing Decay and Cartouche are amazing against them. We can easily outcard them and beat them down after removing the initial onslaught of attackers, we just need to stay alive until that point. I'm much less inclined to cut creatures capable of blocking (even ones that lose us life) in this matchup, and would be looking at trimming a few one ofs.
Tortured Existence
Hand hate (Fiend exiling is particularly good), graveyard hate and enchantment removal. Pretty simple.
Against Token Decks
Echoing Truth and Nausea are awesome, whilst the rest of our removal is not so good. Take Down is good against flying tokens, naturally.
Against Izzet Blitz
Hand hate and Cartouche all day. Most of our removal isn't going to kill their guys, but it's worth trying on our turn to force them to burn protection. Apostle's Blessing doesn't get through Blisterpod or tokens.
