#pdh tech

-emerges from the grave- HELLO AGAIN, ANYONE WHO READS PDH TECH!

That’s Right! Magic Origins! I don’t know about all of you, but I had a blast at the pre-release, and although I didn't have the chance to do anything for game day, I think this set has a bunch of really neat additions to PDH as a format, specifically, a cycle of uncommon dual-coloured creatures. Today I’ll be going over all the uncommon creatures from this set that I can see making good commanders, as well as a brief (2-3 sentences) review of the deck I can see them at the helm of. The creatures highlighted here are usually more of the build-around uncommons rather than the efficient creatures, because while it’s very possible to make a voltron deck out of a French-vanilla creature, those decks do sort of build and pilot themselves.

Creatures under the cut!

Duskmantle guildmage might be a little dodgy, I'm not sure how viable a mill strategy is in pauper, but then I haven't tried to build one yet, so who knows. Could be an interesting challenge!

PDH tech week 5: Oona's blackguard.

Or, you can take the pox deck out of the format, but you can't take the pox deck out of the player.

Full list here.

This is a deck that relies fairly heavily on your commander being on the table, and part of the reason for that is being able to repeatedly and reliably strip your opponents hands is a very, very powerful ability. Your goal with this deck is to deprive the other players at the table of their resources, and then go to town with your (hopefully large and evasive!) rogues. The parts of this deck I'm going to highlight are the rogues themselves, the discard effects, the removal and the +1/+1 enablers and synergies. 

Rogues:

Rogues was a supported creature type in morningtide, but frogtosser banneret is by far the best of that at common. There's only one common prowl card at common (morsel theft, if you were wondering), and lords are always uncommon or above. That said, there are a fair number of utility rogues, like warren pilferers, corpse hauler or merrow bonegnawer are good examples of this, but many of the rogues in this deck are extra copies of the creature type and not a whole lot else. That's just the nature of the format, but as always keep an eye open for repeatable effects or extra utility, which is what makes the format tick.

Discard:

Discard strategies are notoriously weak in multiplayer, because in order for it to make a difference to someone's gameplan you have to focus on one person specifically, which leaves at least one, up to three or four other players at the table free to do whatever they want. So in this category you're really looking for cards that will make everyone else discard together, (like delirium skeins or liliana's specter) or effects that are repeatable, (like raven's crime or wall of distortion). Also, if you're actually going to build this deck, make sure to include Tasigur's cruelty, which is a very very powerful effect and a must include in this deck. It just wasn't spoiled when I put the full list together. Whoops.

Removal:

What can be said about removal that hasn't been said already. Not a ton. I would advise you to be sure to pack cards like diabolic edict and cruel edict to deal with hexproof creatures in voltron strategies. Worth noting that victim of night is almost always going to be easy to cast and two mana kill anything. 

Counters:

Do you know how many black, common outlast creatures there are? One. All there is at common is disowned ancestor, and that's not really what this deck wants to be doing, which is a shame because outlast creatures would be great in this deck. We are packing both the common black scavenge creatures and one of the (only two!) black common undying creatures. Don't let terrus wurm deceive you by the way, if you pile all 5 of those counters onto an evasive creature (like your commander, for instance) it is a very real win condition. Keep your eye on the rest of Tarkir block, by the way. Black doesn't often get a +1/+1 counter mechanic, but both outlast and bolster are just that.

This week on "I can't believe they printed this at common":

Pestilence is one of the very, very few ways to get a true boardwipe in pauper, and there's a good reason for that. Namely, that you shouldn't be able to get a boardwipe at common. Yes, you have to be heavy black for it to work, and yes, it damages you too,  but if this card was printed today I would be shocked to see it below rare. 

Next week, we're finially moving into two-colour decks, starting off with allied colours. First up is mistmeadow witch and an azorius flicker list.

Now, Pauper EDH takes up kind of a unique space in terms of set reviews, because most set reviews are either aimed at limited so focus on the commons and uncommon through the lens of a 40-card deck and a limited card pool, or focus on constructed, in which the commons and uncommons usually get passed by completely. Once in a blue moon there will be an interesting or extremely efficient creature at common that becomes a standard mainstay, but by and large, constructed is the realm of the rare and mythic.

That's why I decided to do a pauper review of the new set. My picks for the generals coming out of FRF can be found here, and in this post I'll be talking about the commons I can see making an impact in Pauper EDH as a format. All this under the cut.

Now, Pauper EDH takes up kind of a unique space in terms of set reviews, because most set reviews are either aimed at limited so focus on the commons and uncommon through the lens of a 40-card deck and a limited pool, or focus on constructed, in which the commons and uncommons usually get passed by completely. Once in a blue moon there will be an interesting or extremely efficient creature at common that becomes a standard mainstay, but by and large, constructed is the realm of the rare and mythic.

We're going to start off today looking at some potential generals from FRF, and a brief discussion of what makes them good commanders..

There will be another post shortly taking a look at the commons that I can see making an impact in PDH decks.

PDH tech week 3: Invisible stalker

Full list is here.

Mono blue voltron, natch.

This one's a day early, on account of it being Christmas tomorrow.

Invisible Stalker has been on the should-we-ban-this-commander list from the start of pauper as a format, and it's very easy to see why. Even though there are very few blue enchantments that boost power, especially at common, unblockable and hexproof is a hell of a combination in a format where commander damage exists. Plus blue has countermagic and draw power, making it nearly impossible to deal with Invisible stalker outside of sacrifice effects on creatures, of which there are very, very few at common. Protect your commander until you can load it up with equipment and swing for lethal in a couple of quick turns. This deck is composed of draw power, utility creatures, countermagic, and buffs for our main dude Invisible Stalker.

 Note that these are not necessarily disparate categories, there is some overlap, but I'll highlight some of each of these.

Draw Power:

Nothing better than repeatable draw power. There are a couple of effects like this at common, and if you van manage to land multiple on invisible stalker in a single game, you're thoroughly in charge from that point on. There are some one-off draw spells in here, but effects like rhystic study, Last Thoughts and even Deep Analysis are the better parts of this category.

Utility Creatures:

Arcaeomancer is the poster child for blue utility creatures, and rightly so. Grab back whatever you absolutely need at the moment. Pair with waterfront bouncer to make everyone hate you. Other notables include waterfront bouncer, sigiled starfish, and the two common mono blue creatures with exalted, outrider of jhess and frontline sage, who also brings looting to the table.  Nice.

Countermagic:

There's enough countermagic in blue that a fair selection of it has been printed at common over the years, making this section pretty easy to put together. This includes such gems as rewind, daze, statute of denial and condescend.

Buffs:

Bonesplitter makes the cut in non pauper voltron builds, and as equipment goes, this one is a powerhouse. As a rule, you don't care much about toughness buffs, since Invisible Stalker isn't actually going to be tussling with much in combat. Be sure to include all the bestow creatures, eel umbra and spectral flight, along with all the common equipment you can get your hands on.

This week on "I can't believe they printed this at common:"

there were a couple of options for this slot this week, including mulldrifter,among others, but capsize takes the prize this week. This card might as well read "reach six mana, ruin target player's day".

PDH tech week 2: Phantom General

Full list is here.

Mono white, let's go! 

This is, as you may have guessed from the commander, a token deck. A majority of the token producers at common in white are only two or three at a time, and almost always 1/1s. With that in mind, not only are we going to have to be making these tokens, but we're going to have to provide buffs outside of Phantom General too, ideally you'll be able to fire off two or three in a single turn and close out the game with one decisive swing. In addition to those, there are some removal and utility cards. I'll be highlighting a key card in each sector here.

You can build pretty much the same deck with this commander, or Accorder Paladin, Kabria Vindicator or Seraph of the Masses in charge too.

Token Producers:

Retrace is a super, super powerful mechanic. With a curve that basically ends at four anyway, why not discard lands to be able to cast this again? Cenn's enlistment is one of the very, very few repeatable sources of token generation at common, don't overlook it. Other notables captain's call, triplicate spirits and eyes in the skies. 

Buffs:

If giving your whole team +2/+1 and first strike doesn't sound like a good time to you, I don't know what to tell you. You're missing out. Sanctified charge is arguably the best of these one-off whole-team buffs, which is why you're also running cards like veteran armorer, veteran swordsmith and veteran armor smith, which hit a good percentage of your tokens and your commander, and loxodon partisan, which makes me wish there was more battle cry at common.

Removal:

Journey to Nowhere, and it's ilk are good here. Heck, these cards are good in regular commander, let alone pauper. Faith's Fetters, pacifism and Guilty Conscience are good additions to white's 'knock that off' enchantment package. Plus don't forget disenchants and revoke existences for artifacts and enchantments.

Utility:

  White counterspell says what up. I guarantee right now, no-one will ever play around this card until you get them with it the first time. Other cards you want to pack in here for value are suture priest, court street denizen and soul warden. If you're making all these damn creatures, you might as well get some additional use off of em.

This week on "I can't believe they printed this at common:"

Oblivion ring, I guess? Nothing in this deck otherwise really seems to break the mold of common, and this has always seemed more at home at uncommon than at common anyway. 

PDH Tech,Week 1: Mono green, Yavimaya Enchantress

Full list is Here.

So, mono green!

This deck focuses mainly on forcing through commander damage with Yavimaya Enchantress. Most of the enchantments in the deck are going to be protecting her, buffing her or giving her evasion, but there are also a handful of utility enchantments in here, as she still gets the +1/+1 if the enchantment isn’t on her. Another solid option to helm this same build is gatherer of graces. There are only a few moving parts here, so I’ll run through them quickly here. There’s the enchantments for the Enchantress herself to make her big and scary, protection, ramp and removal. I’ll be highlighting a couple of key parts of each here.

Buffs:

Ancestral mask is an overperformer, this can and will end games if you land it.

Other notables include Snake Umbra, Spider Umbra, Forced Adaptation and Mouldervine Cloak.

Protection:

Yes, you have to watch out for sorceries spells with this one, but avoid fate is very much worth running.

Other notables include snake umbra and spider umbra (umbras are just really really good folks, that’s all there is to it), Carapace, trollhide and vines of vastwood.

Ramp:

The ramp in this deck falls mostly into one of two categories: the first is enchantments, such as the one above, that make your lands tap for more than one mana at a time. The other half are creatures such as arbor elf and satyr wayfinder that can untap lands to let you wring 4-6 mana out of a single land a turn. slightly clunkier than creatures that read ‘tap to add g” but these synergise better in the deck.

Removal:

Lignify, dude! This card is sweet! Get rid of someone else’s keystone/voltron commander and go to town, get rid of something with a ‘leaves the battlefield’ trigger, the possibilities are endless. Really shines in multiplayer. Pretty mush all the rest of green’s creature removal is fight cards, prey upon and friends. At least we’re not hurting for artifact/enchantment removal.

This week on “I can’t believe they printed this at common”:

Whispersilk cloak, for real. Darksteel was a different time, I guess. I wouldn’t use that art though, but that’s just me.