I was thinking about making a [scryfall]Species Gorger[/scryfall] deck and I probably eventually will, but I felt I would be trying to play EDH in Pauper. Granted, that’s the idea, but I would rather use wholly different approaches. With Pauper, I have a chance to rethink stuff, so I decided to go to another direction, again trying to use the resources I have readily available, namely mana.

So, where to dump the mana? There was a shade back in alpha and there’s been a shade in the core set and most blocks ever since. (I didn’t check, but I’m pretty sure.) They’ve never been for the Spikes out there, but apparently they have their fans, as they’ve survived for so long. However, they could be very good in EDH.

So, the question is, who do we get to lead this pack?

As the heading tells us, I’m going with [scryfall]Crypt Rats[/scryfall]. The reason is that they can clear the way for our shades and the shades will probably survive the pseudo-[scryfall]Pestilence[/scryfall]. Sure, we’ll need to recast it often, but that’s its job. Dying for the sake of the whole. Not a very black thing to do, but we’ll live.

Then we need the shades, but not only shades. We’ll be happy with any creature we can dump mana into to do more damage. So, we have 11 shades, who are all basically the same, except a couple have some form of evasion, which is going to make them very, very good. On top of those, I’ll use [scryfall]Wicked Akuba[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Cursed Ronin[/scryfall]. The latter is very much like a shade, except for the creature type, while the former isn’t really, but can do similar things. Won’t really survive our commander, so a bit of a nonbo, but we’ll live.

Next, I put in recursion. I feel like I used too much, but we can twiddle with the numbers later. Just good recursion at this point. Wouldn’t mind taking one out and putting in [scryfall]Cremate[/scryfall] or [scryfall]Crypt Incursion[/scryfall] instead.

I also put in removal. Not sure this is needed, because of our commander, but we’ll see in practice. These are good against cards such as [scryfall]Ulamog’s Crusher[/scryfall] and [scryfall]Nessian Asp[/scryfall] which are more or less outside of our commanders reach. I’ll probably take some out. Some of these double as lifegain, although not sure that’s needed in this format.

I’d like more card draw, but right now we have some. Only a handful of cards which can’t draw very many cards, but that is the nature of the format.

Then I just threw in some good stuff, because why not. [scryfall]Ulamog’s Crusher[/scryfall] is just that good in this format and the others will probably work as well.

Most of the deck is either ramp or lands. I have eight pieces of ramp, mostly artifacts, because even if black can ramp a little, its usually in the higher rarities (although [scryfall]Liliana’s Shade[/scryfall] can dig up a Swamp). We do have one [scryfall]Twisted Abomination[/scryfall] though, which will be good in the late game as well as its a pretty big regenerator.

I also have 44 lands. Yes, that’s quite a few, but I also expect or hope to use most of my mana on most of my turns. However, it isn’t that much. Its the equivalent of 27 lands in a 60 card deck or 18 in a 40 card deck. That’s on the upper limit of what people are willing to play, but not unthinkable. I’ll probably get flooded more often than usual, but I’ll handle those situations by sweeping the board over and over. After all, getting rid of the commander by tucking or something is pretty hard in Pauper. (Not impossible, mind you.)

[cardlist]
[commander]
Crypt Rats
[/commander]
[shades and their ilk]
Crypt Ripper
Cursed Ronin
Darkling Stalker
Drifting Shade
Dungeon Shade
Fetid Horror
Frozen Shade
Hoar Shade
Liliana’s Shade
Looming Shade
Nightwing Shade
Whispering Shade
Wicked Akuba
[/shades and their ilk]
[recursion]
Morbid Plunder
Recover
Disturbed Burial
Death Denied
Gravepurge
Necromantic Thirst
Cadaver Imp
Gravedigger
[/recursion]
[critter control]
Consume Spirit
Corrupt
Drain Life
Evincar’s Justice
Pestilence
Doom Blade
Eyeblight’s Ending
Rend Flesh
Tendrils of Corruption
Terror
Grasp of Darkness
Victim of Night
Wail of the Nim
Festercreep
[/critter control]
[card draw]
Read the Bones
Sign in Blood
Syphon Mind
Moriok Replica
Phyrexian Rager
[/card draw]
[misc]
Lab Rats
Syphon Soul
Unhallowed Pact
Undying Evil
Cinderhaze Wretch
Ulamog’s Crusher
Urborg Syphon-Mage
[/misc]
[ramp]
Armillary Sphere
Explorer’s Scope
Mind Stone
Nihil Spellbomb
Pristine Talisman
Wayfarer’s Bauble
Pilgrim’s Eye
Twisted Abomination
[/ramp]
[land]
Bojuka Bog
Haunted Fengraf
42 Swamp
[/land]
[/cardlist]