Introduction
I like to think that I have a lot of experience building balanced, well-thought-out, and thematic EDH (non-pauper) decks. I heard about Pauper EDH recently from a forum post and thought that it'd be a great challenge to build an EDH deck using only common cards. I had to throw out all of my EDH card knowledge and rely on scryfall and magic.info for this task. Want a Damnation? Too bad, you'll have to make do with Evincar's Justice. Need reliable graveyard recursion? The only cards you'll get are Necromantic Thirst & Disturbed Burial. If you like building decks, I implore you to try Pauper EDH! It's also pretty damn cheap...
The Deck Itself
I tried very hard to ensure that every creature had a purpose; that each one has an effect that synergizes with graveyard recursion. Cards like Ghoulraise + Gravedigger for recursion, and Mulldrifter + Terrus Wurm
for that extra value. Yes, I know. Mulldrifter isn't a zombie... But it's sooo good. Most of the creatures are zombies, to accompany the infamous Diregraf Captain who boosts our zombies power and toughness and offers a nifty effect whenever your zombies die. The latter half isn't as important but still kind of plays into the whole zombie recursion theme.
Card Draw
I spend a lot of time meticulously crafting a proper card draw:ramp:removal ratio. There are a shit ton of card draw commons to choose from in UB, and plenty of can trips I could sneak in. I actually had a lot of trouble cutting out cards such as Consult the Necrosages + Pilfered Plans
. While good, they don't offer much thematically and I'd much rather take a Costly Plunder + Night's Whisper
, or even a Read the Bones (which I didn't include). A lot of the important card draw in this deck involves discarding as well, such as: Compulsive Research + Forbidden Alchemy + Tolarian Winds
. Although not prominent, there is also a single dredge card: Stinkweed Imp. I included these cards so that I could take advantage of the new Amonkhet keywords: embalm and eternalize: Aven Initiate + Proven Combatant
. With these cards, discarding doesn't necessarily have to be drawback (haha). I also included cards with flashback for the same purpose. If you haven't noticed, Forbidden Alchemy is literally a triple entendre in this deck - it has scry + card draw, discard, and flashback!!! Of course there are cards like Deep Analysis + Grim Harvest
too.
Mana Ramp
There isn't much to say about mana ramp here. The lack of green makes this rather two-dimensional. I've included the standard Mind Stone, as well as the dual-coloured Dimir Cluestone + Dimir Signet
. Actually, if anyone has any recommendations for the mana ramp portion of the deck feel free to let me know! It feels pretty bad including so many 3cmc mana rocks but I suppose that's the nature of pauper EDH.
Removal
Black has sooo much removal I spent over an hour just going through removal spells and comparing them to each other. First of all, I included what I thought were the better "mass removal" spells in the game, Evincar's Justice + Pestilence
. I only included 2 instead of 4-5 because: this deck relies heavily on getting creatures out and our commander only has 2 toughness, and mass removal in pauper EDH seems kind of underwhelming... For single target removal I included the basic Doom Blade + Murder + Victim of Night
instant-speed combo as well as other instant-speed non-destroy removal (-1/-1, exile, etc.). I decided to cut out Terror because this deck already has a lot of removal, and there are already a few "destroy non-black, non-artifact creature" cards.
Recursion
I tried to include as many "reliable" sources of recursion as possible but only found 2 sources: Disturbed Burial + Necromantic Thirst
. The rest are pretty standard. I always try to incorporate cards with more than one use like Soul Manipulation.
Support Cards
Like Soul Manipulation, I included Perplex as a multi-functional tool. It can be used to tutor many important 3cmc cards (draw, ramp, potent creatures, Soul Manipulation). I included Bojuka Bog + Nihil Spellbomb
specifically for my meta, as one of my group members tends to play graveyard recursion (that's not me).
Win Conditions
Now I have a category called "WinCon", but in reality the whole deck kind of speaks for itself. Accrue value through recursion and beat face. However, for splashy finishers, I did include Dirge of Dread + Ulamog's Crusher
and various zombie drake flyers for games bordering a stale-mate. Not included in the category is Infernal Caretake which seriously does work. Specifically because of this card, I made sure to include two other morph cards Haunted Cadaver + Skinthinner
to prevent opponents from knowing which card is morphed. The two cards are also pretty useful in their own right.
Lands
Yeeahhh I do have many ETB tapped lands in this deck. But that's because my meta is pretty casual. If you feel like it's too many (which it is) then feel free to remove the Guildgates for basics!
Closing Remarks
I'm pretty glad I stumbled across Pauper EDH. My group seemed to take to the format when I told them about it too. Especially for me, as I love deck building, but find that sometimes EDH is a bit too expensive. Seriously, zombie tribal EDH for <$25? Sign me up!
