“Perfection is not a prize, only an end to a pursuit.“
Art:Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor
by Magali Villeneuve
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Today, I present a very interesting deck; as someone who brews a ton of decks and a decent amount of control decks, I was sick of the same old, same old gameplay style that most control decks have, and because of this, I decided to go a little different today. While we are absolutely still a control deck we have a subtheme Voltron package that helps us put additional pressure on our opponents and end games quickly. The main reason why we decided on Voltron as a subtheme is that Kasmina lends itself very nicely to protecting our creatures and being able to keep them on the board. Combining that with our control package we have a recipe to keep our permanents around for a long time and deal a ton of damage. This is definitely an interesting brew and certainly can take opponents by surprise since we are in mono blue! Without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
Click here to copy full decklist to your clipboard!
Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor Voltron Control!
Buy This Deck!
Buy this deck using our TCGPlayer Affiliate Link: Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor Voltron Control Pauper EDH
Why Kasmina, Enigmatic Mentor?
Kasmina is an amazing piece of utility and support for our deck. We absolutely don’t need them, but they do make the overall gameplan easier. They are quite hard to kill outside of combat, so if an opponent has some planeswalker removal handy, it can be quite difficult to kill. That is the overall of strength of Kasmina in the deck she makes herself and our creatures quite hard to kill, allowing us to be quite well-positioned against a lot of the removal-heavy decks in the format, and with quite a few counterspells present in the deck we have a very good matchup against some of the most controlling and removal filled decks within the format. While the deck can work independently without Kasmina, her support is unmatched, and we would prefer to keep her on the field for as long as we can.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Dragon's Rage Channeler
Record against Dragon’s Rage Channeler 3-0
We can definitely take some early damage against this deck, but once we are able to start countering a lot of their spells, there isn’t a ton they can do against us; countering their key buffs and spells allows us to dominate this game overall. I am a big fan of this matchup.
Narset, Parter of Veils
Record against Narset, Parter of Veils 5-0
This is a great matchup for our deck; we typically just dominate against them. Most Narset decks operate as a traditional Control deck, and since we output considerably more damage than them, we have a great matchup against them; in my testing, we just beat up on this deck and had no troubles.
Rakdos Cackler
Record against Rakdos Cackler 3-0
This deck is heavy on removal, which we are great against, and beyond that, they don’t do too much; some lists are kinda heavy on sacrifice, but the list I was testing against was more about attacking and buffing up the Cackler, which is great for our deck.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Fynn, the Fangbearer
Record against Fynn, the Fangbearer 1-4
This is a winnable but rough matchup. The only real way to win this game is to continuously bounce and keep their commander off of the field, which is certainly easier said than done. This deck is a powerhouse, and the infect effectively reduces our health to ten is just too quick.
Hollow Marauder
Record against Hollow Marauder 0-3
This is a tough matchup mostly because they have a decent amount of sacrifice effects not only to fill their graveyard but also to clear the way for their attackers. We can almost always deal with their removal, but the sacrifice effects are too much for our deck as we have a decently low creature count.
Khenra Spellspear // Gitaxian Spellstalker
Record against Khenra Spellspear 0-4
This is a very tough matchup, if they decide to target us, they can kill us on turn three or four and even with some counterspells, there is no coming back against that, it’s especially tough because they get the Prowess triggers on cast so even if we can counter a big buff they still get the double prowess from Khenra, avoid at all costs, or at least hope they don’t come after you first!
Strategy Overview:
Stick to our gameplan:
While we do have a pretty strong Voltron subtheme, its important to stick to the core gameplan and make sure we have proper threat assessment and counter important and strong spells, since we don’t care about going slow its often worth it to hold up a counter instead of developing our board, this is of course game-to-game and may differ in situations.
Choose your Battles:
While we have a decent amount of Control unless an opponent is doing something super crazy, I typically don’t mess with opponents; there are a ton of decks that cast a ton of stuff, and waiting for the most important stuff is key to winning the game.
Protect our Voltron Creatures:
Our Voltron creatures are almost always the way we end the game, so holding up protection for them is key to dishing out a ton of damage and winning the game.
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:
Let’s start out strong with Delver of Secrets // Insectile Aberration
, which is super easy to flip and one of my favorite early-attackers/early Voltron creatures; they can also be a strong blockers against aggressive strategies which can help save some of our health for the mid-late game. Since we have a Voltron sub-theme, we have quite a bit of artifact synergy like Renowned Weaponsmith
, which is a super strong mana dork for the deck and can allow us to put a lot of our Voltron artifacts on the field early. I also like Filigree Attendant
and Aeronaut Tinkerer
which are also really awesome options for our Voltron attackers, in just a few turns we can have pretty formidable attackers with both of these. We are sticking to the Control finisher as well with both Cryptic Serpent
, Gearseeker Serpent
, and Tolarian Terror
, which can all come down decently early and be great attackers/blockers. Our creature package helps to hold this deck together and allow us to dish out a ton of damage for a control deck.
Instants:
Our creatures are not super prevalent, so when they do come out, opponents tend to try and kill them as they get nervous about what we are doing and planning, because of that we are running both Keep Safe
, which is a cheap and easy cantrip that also allows us to protect our creatures. Since we are quite heavy on artifacts, we have both Metallic Rebuke
and Stoic Rebuttal
which are almost always discounted in our deck and can allow us to counter spells when we have limited mana and can often take our opponents by surprise. Beyond that, our instant package mostly consists of a ton more counterspells.
Sorceries:
Fade Away
is a true control staple, since we often don’t commit creatures in the first few turns being able to force aggressive or creature-based strategies to pay all of their mana or lose their board is a great way to control the early-game where we typically don’t have a foothold. While it isn’t truly effective until the late-game, we can get a lot of value out of Serpentine Curve
in the late-game, and the added Ward two from Kasmina and all of our counterspells it can be quite tough for our opponents to remove this big creature.
Artifacts:
We are totally ok with being slow in the early game, and since we have counters to back that up, we aren’t really running any mana rocks. Pretty much all of our artifacts are for the Voltron package, which is the best way for us to deal damage in the deck; some of our best equipment in the deck includes Amorphous Axe
, which is nice and cheap, and provides a great buff. We also have Golem-Skin Gauntlets
, which is more of an end-game card but is a great way to end the game, this is one of the best damage sources in our deck, and if an opponent has artifact removal, this is a card I always like to have some protection for when I drop it on the field. We pretty much only have buffs for our creatures, and we have a ton of awesome Voltron creatures that help us beat down our opponents with ease.
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package has a bunch of really awesome ways to deal with both creatures and commanders, being able to hit an opponent’s huge creature with Utter Insignificance
or taking out a commander with Witness Protection
is a great way to disrupt their gameplan and make their huge bombs absolutely useless. Even if we don’t have the mana to hold up a counterspell, we can protect our creatures with Alexi's Cloak
at a moment’s notice, which is a very good asset to have, especially when we have a limited number of creatures, we can buff up with Voltron. Our enchantment package isn’t all that interesting to talk about as it mostly consists of similar effects on different cards, but we have an absolute ton of ways to take their commanders and creatures and reduce them down to nothing.
Strengths of the Deck:
- It’s pretty hard to remove any of our creatures; between Kasmina’s passive and our counterspells, it can be quite tough to get past us.
- We have a great matchup against a lot of creature-based decks; we have quite a bit of bounce, and once we get our Voltron creature going, we can hit pretty hard.
- We have a ton of card draw in our deck allowing us to always have protection/support and utility spells.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Decks heavy on sacrifice effects are a very tough matchup for us.
- We don’t have a lot of straight-up removal; if something resolves, it typically sticks around for quite a while.
- We are often a target by many decks because of how controlling we can be; they tend to take early shots at us and attack us whenever possible.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks for reading to the end! I was initially nervous about this deck as I wasn’t sure how strong it would be, but after exhaustive testing, this deck is honestly really good, it has good matchups against some of the strongest decks in the format and is truly resilient, here’s to going outside of the box and evolving a simple control strategy! Stay Tuned and Tap IN!