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Paper Pauper Mono-Black Budget "Pay-to-Play"
Carnophage + Eternal Thirst = As they say, "the only point of life that matters is the last one."

Merged with another, similar deck ("Asphodel After Dark, with Host Gary A. Sphodel") of mine that also went for devotion-based strategy.


A mono-black experiment in lifegain/life-loss balancing. This deck requires a lot of preparation, planning ahead and good Magic-math (arithMagic) skills. I recommend using a separate die to keep track of your "Pay Life" requirements.

  • Start with Vampire Lacerator or Carnophage. With Carnophage, you have the option to _not_ pay any life at your upkeep, at the expense of tapping this creature. With Vampire Lacerator you _have_ to pay the life at your upkeep, but only if your opponent has 11 or more life. Early game this barely matters, late game you will want to be aware of this.
  • Next are Foul Imp and Fog of Gnats. Foul Imp is a flying 2/2 that you only have to pay life for _once_. Fog of Gnats doesn't cost any life, but adds to your devotion and can be regenerated.
  • In the meantime, Pharika's Chosen (or any black-1-drop-with-deathtouch of your choice) is intended to deter attackers, stall the board-state and give you more control of the pacing of the game.
  • The last two creatures make use of your heavy devotion to . Gray Merchant of Asphodel is an obvious finisher, while Marshmist Titan is big body you can cast for cheap and then give lifelink for even more large life-point swings.
  • As just mention, the next--and most important--step is to give your big dummies lifelink with Rush of Vitality and Cartouche of Ambition to mitigate all that life-loss you're experiencing. Sometimes you may want to delay casting another creature until you can start consistently gaining life first.
  • As an additional hedge against excessive life-loss, Radiant Fountain is included for free lifegain.
  • Use Dark Ritual to power out threats ahead-of-curve.
  • Finally, Sign in Blood and Barren Moor help you draw into your threats faster.

Thanks for checking out my deck, and if you like pauper, check out my collection of over 30 Paper Pauper decks here, at The Pauper Project.

Also, check out my profile, where you'll find some articles on Pauper, a collection of user-made resources for ALL FORMATS, and... songs. =D

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Top Ranked
  • Achieved #66 position overall 6 years ago
Date added 6 years
Last updated 2 years
Legality

This deck is Pauper legal.

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.23
Folders Interesting Builds, The Pauper Project, MAx, Pauper lists I like, Awesome Decks (Pauper), Pauper Selection, Pauper, pauper builds, pauper decks, PAU
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