Pauper EDH Deck Time: Wood Sage

Someone had found his or her way into this blog by using the words “wood sage mtg pauper commander”. That got me thinking. First thought was “is that really uncommon”? I would’ve thought such an old card would be rare with its awkward build-around abilities, but apparently it was reprinted in Conspiracy, so now it’s uncommon.

Second thought: It does really have potential, so why not?

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Disciple of Deceit

This one is kind of obvious EDH Pauper material. Still, probably a fun deck to build.

The only time I’ve played with [scryfall]Disciple of Deceit[/scryfall] was in the prerelease of Journey Into Nyx. Sometimes it was very good, other times it was just a smallish wall. Still, that was sealed and I didn’t have many tools to work with. In EDH this guy will probably shine, especially if I can use him as the commander.

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Species Gorger

I mentioned this possibility before in my article on my Crypt Rats deck. There I was thinking that this deck might be a little too much EDH and not enough Pauper. However, despite this, [scryfall]Species Gorger[/scryfall] definitely has an appeal to me as a commander. Its just a matter of finding enough creatures with ETB and LTB abilities at common.

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Crypt Rats

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?

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Vizkopa Guildmage

Last time we played Pauper, there was a [scryfall]Vizkopa Guildmage[/scryfall] on the field. I had thought about using her as well, but didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes, so I didn’t. Still, this could be a truly repressive deck, so I thought I’d just design one, since this seems like an interesting choice for a general. However, this is Pauper and that means we don’t have that much room to maneuver.

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Centaur Battlemaster Voltron

So, I couldn’t leave this topic to yesterday’s [scryfall]Bloodbraid Elf[/scryfall] as I felt I could do more with a [scryfall]Centaur Battlemaster[/scryfall], a card I’ve grown very fond of in Theros limited, although our relationship is sometimes strained as I’ve [scryfall]Spark Jolt[/scryfall]ed and even [scryfall]Shredding Winds[/scryfall]’d my own battlemaster to grow it. But hey, its won me quite a few games, sometimes basically oneshotting an opponent.

So, what can I do with one in EDH?

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Bloodbraid Elf

To keep our EDH games fresh, we decided to take a break from the normal games and go for Pauper next week, maybe for longer, you never know (as we don’t really plan these out). Some of the players are very excited about this and I find it hard to contain myself with my deck ideas.

The rules are simple: You can choose any uncommon creature to be your general and the deck is the normal EDH singleton deck, except that each card has to a common (or has been printed as common at some point, such as [scryfall]Doom Blade[/scryfall], which used to be common, but was moved into uncommon in M14). The number of potential generals is huge compared to the number of legendary creatures, so this is going to bring some diversity, but on the other hand, most uncommon creatures are still pretty simple and don’t necessarily have that flashy abilities or stats.

After contemplating most of the guildmages (from both Ravnicas), [scryfall]Centaur Battlemaster[/scryfall], [scryfall]Shipwreck Singer[/scryfall], [scryfall]Krosan Warchief[/scryfall] and many others, I went with [scryfall]Bloodbraid Elf[/scryfall].

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