Tuesday Night Takeover

Tallowisp Spirit Aura Control Pauper EDH

“Redemption in the light.”

Art:Tallowisp by Ron Spears

Tallowisp is a very strong commander who is essentially Pauper EDH’s version of Light-Paws, Emperor's Voice, which is a great thing to emulate. I did not find this commander through my research but actually through the Pauper EDH subreddit. So a big shoutout to everyone over there. This card is a ton of fun and absolutely perfect for a control-style enchantress deck. If you like mono-white, enchantments, and locking down and controlling our creatures in combat, then this is certainly the deck for you. We have a ton of spirits and arcane spells that allow us to tutor all of our sweet enchantments from our deck, and we are also able to get a ton of buffs and benefits from the arcane and spirit spells themselves, as many of them have strong abilities. My playgroup and I have been having a ton of fun, and we have been quite successful with this one against some of the best decks in the format. Without further adieu, let’s get it!

The Deck:

Click here to copy full decklist to your clipboard!

Tallowisp Spirit Aura Control!

Commander (1)
Tallowisp

Creatures (25)
Hopeful Eidolon
Kami of False Hope
Lantern Kami
Slumbering Keepguard
Angelic Page
Drogskol Infantry
Ghost Warden
Kami of Ancient Law
Keening Apparition
Transcendent Envoy
Auramancer
Harvestguard Alseids
Heliod’s Pilgrim
Ironclad Slayer
Martyr’s Soul
Pilgrim of the Ages
Starnheim Courser
Waxmane Baku
Guardian of the Guildpact
Moonlit Strider
Soldier of the Grey Host
Captivating Unicorn
Kami of the Painted Road
Soul-Guide Gryff
Torii Watchward

Instants (10)
Blessed Breath
Crib Swap
Dawn Charm
Ethereal Haze
Generous Gift
Hundred-Talon Strike
Otherworldly Journey
Quiet Purity
Reprisal
Spiritual Visit

Sorceries (4)
Recommission
Sunlance
Terashi’s Cry
Terashi’s Grasp

Artifacts (3)
Marble Diamond
Wedding Invitation
Bonder’s Ornament

Enchantments (22)
Ethereal Armor
Glaring Aegis
Hyena Umbra
Spirit Link
Angelic Gift
Conviction
Cooped Up
Eland Umbra
Journey to Nowhere
Pacifism
Petrify
Reprobation
Arrest
Bound in Silence
Cage of Hands
Chains of Custody
Empyrial Armor
Guardian’s Magemark
Hobble
Minimus Containment
Oblivion Ring
Faith’s Fetters
Lands (35)
Desert
Desert of the True
Drifting Meadow
Evolving Wilds
Hidden Courtyard
26 Plains
Secluded Steppe
Sejiri Steppe
Terramorphic Expanse
The Fair Basilica

Buy This Deck!

Buy this deck using our TCGPlayer Affiliate Link: Tallowisp Spirit Aura Control Pauper EDH

Why Tallowisp?

Tallowisp is a huge part of our deck and is the key card; they are a huge tutor for the deck and allow us to grab all of our offensive and defensive enchantments. While we don’t play every single arcane and spirit in the format, we have more than enough to grab nearly all of the enchantments in our deck. We don’t have a ton of ways to protect Tallowisp, but they are cheap and can come down quite early, which allows us to get the gameplan going early and not have to pay too much if Tallowisp dies to removal a few times. They are quite cheap, so it is not hard to do, but we do want to cast them as soon as we possibly can.

Deck Overview:

This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!

Creatures:

Starnheim Courser and Starnheim Courser reduce the cost of a good majority of the cards in the deck, and that is a great way for us to get ahead and keep on controlling the board and grabbing more and more enchantments. Auramancer and Ironclad Slayer are both great ways to recur enchantments that opponents remove, which does happen, but luckily, we have enough to keep the controlling elements down. Harvestguard Alseids is pretty sweet and can make one of our more aggressive creatures attack with next to no consequences. We have a ton of spirits that allow us to tutor through the deck and grab more enchantments. Some of my personal favorites include Kami of Ancient Law, which can be a great way to take out opponents’ enchantments if they have any. Kami of False Hope is an additional Fog effect for the deck. Slumbering Keepguard is a great card for the deck and is essentially an activated version of Ethereal Armor which allows us to do a ton of damage. Waxmane Baku is an awesome card, and with just a few turns, we can get the counters up pretty high any creatures that aren’t locked down can get tapped, and we can swing in for some huge damage.

Instants:

We do have some instant speed removal in Generous Gift and Crib Swap, which can take out commanders or really any threats that our opponents have. If we are dealing with an aggressive strategy, we have Terashi's Grasp, which is a Fog and Enlightened Tutor if we have our commander out. Otherworldly Journey not only triggers our commander but is a great way to protect them from removal as well and even gives them a little buff, which doesn’t help a ton, but we will never say no to that. We also have Blessed Breath which is another great way to protect our commander from single-target removal. Reprisal is a great way to destroy a huge threat, and I can’t believe how many Pauper EDH decks don’t play this absolute bomb.

Sorceries:

Recommission is a great piece of recursion for the deck and can grab us one of our key enchantments back or a key creature. Sunlance is one of the few ways we can interact in combat if our opponents can even attack or block. Terashi's Cry and Terashi's Grasp are both great control spells for the deck and further the overall gameplan, and since they are both arcane spells. They also trigger our commander and allow us to tutor for enchantments.

Artifacts:

We are all mana rocks in our artifact package; There is nothing really to say about anything besides Bonder's Ornament, which is a great supplemental card draw for the deck.

Enchantments:

We have a ton of offensive enchantments, with the two best being All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor. These are also our primary ways to win the game and are directly complimented by all of the defensive enchantments that we have. Some of the best are Pacifism, Reprobation, and Chains of Custody, which are all great ways to lock down opponents’ creatures and threats and making both attacking and blocking a nightmare for our opponents. We have a ton of redundant can’t attack or block effects, so we won’t go over all of them, but they are a huge part of the deck and where the controlling elements come from. Empyrial Armor is another enchantment I love that allows us to put a huge buff on our creatures and swing and hit quite hard.

Land Base:

Being in Mono-White allows us to have a pretty simple landbase consisting of mostly basics, but because we are in Mono-White, we do lean on our landbase for some strong pieces of supplemental card draw like The Fair Basilica and Desert of the True. We also have the cycling lands like Secluded Steppe and Drifting Meadow, which are also strong pieces of supplemental card draw. Since we are a control-heavy deck, I love Desert within the deck because it can hurt aggressive strategies early and allows us to take out creatures who just survived combat. Not too much to say about the rest of our deck. Many of the creatures in our deck are a little on the expensive side, and if we draw and have to hard-cast our enchantments, they can get a little pricy, so I really like thirty-five lands in the deck.

Strengths of the Deck:

  • We have a lot of ways to lock down our opponent’s creatures, which makes combat quite easy for us.
  • Many of our creatures are naturally quite evasive and can allow us to chip in some strong damage.
  • We tend to draw a lot of removal from our opponents, but we have quite a few ways to recur our enchantments.

Weaknesses of the Deck:

  • We have some recursion but can be quite weak to constant enchantment removal.
  • There is a lack of card draw within the deck. We do have some, but since we are in mono-white, we don’t have a ton.
  • We can be slow in the early game and take some additional damage in the early game.

Deck Stats:

Sample Hands:

Main Win Conditions:

There are no infinite combos or loops in the deck. The two main huge damage dealers in the deck are Ethereal Armor and All That Glitters. Both of these are huge damage enchantments for the deck, and because of the high amount of control enchantments we have in the deck, we are able to get those numbers super high. We also have a good amount of recursion in case our two big damage enchantments get destroyed.

Conclusion:

Tallowisp is a very sweet commander! I found out about them from the Pauper EDH subreddit, and then through Moxfield, and man, this card is sweet; who doesn’t love what is essentially light-paws in Pauper EDH? I have been having a blast with this one, and Pauper EDH having another amazing commander is great. I really enjoyed this one and hope you all did as well. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!