“Rites of passage, trail walkin’ through the county.“
Art:Bladestitched Skaab
by Dave Kendall
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Bladestitched Skaab is a very fun option for a zombies commander, let’s get the elephant out of the room out of the way, no Skaab is not better than Diregraf Captain
, that’s a fact, but hey we are all about alternative commanders and good old casual fun here, so we want the Skaab! Skaab is a very strong and cheap commander that makes us pretty strong in combat. Combine that with a Dimir shell that allows us to pack both removal and countermagic, and we have a true recipe for an aggressive zombie-focused deck that can pack a true punch. This is absolutely a casual deck, but in testing, it was a ton of fun to play, and it was some good old-fashioned zombies fun! Without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Bladestitched Skaab Zombies!
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Why Bladestitched Skaab?
Bladestitched Skaab is a very strong commander for our deck. They have decent power and toughness, especially for turn two, and the buff they provide can help us to put a ton of additional pressure on our opponents, which is always very nice. While they don’t do anything super fancy, they are a decent turn-two play in pretty much every game. Skaab is a great asset for us to have available in the command zone, and whether we cast them early or hold them until late, they are a great way to up our damage and whittle down our opponents.
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:
Baron Bertram Graywater
Record against Baron Bertram Graywater 3-1
Our deck’s controlling aspects shine really strong in this matchup. Being able to kill their commander and ruin their sac/draw outlet can really slow their deck down. They can get pretty nasty in late-game combat, but that is when our more evasive flying zombies come in. This is a good matchup for the deck.
Tyrox, Saurid Tyrant
Record against Tyrox, Saurid Tyrant 5-0
They can do a decent amount of early-game damage, but between our more controlling aspects and our board being pretty decent by mid-game, they can’t do much to stop us. Their commander can be aggressive, and they have a ton of pump spells, so a commander damage kill is possible. So definitely watch out for that.
Jasmine Boreal of the Seven
Record against Jasmine Boreal of the Seven 3-0
This is a very good matchup for our deck we don’t really care about their commander because even if we kill them they still have a decent amount of mana ramp, because of that i save our removal and our counters for when they play out some of their bigger creatures that they ramp into like the legendary Colossal Dreadmaw
. Overall, this is a very favorable matchup for us.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Diregraf Captain Record against Diregraf Captain 2-2
Here we are our biggest and most comparable opponent, our commanders mana difference doesn’t really make any difference in this matchup, we are a little heavier on removal and counters than captain and that is our biggest advantage in this matchup, they are a little faster than us damage wise but if we are a little quicker and more aggressive in combat its fine, this matchup is truly a race and a 50/50 whoever has the better start usually wins in my experience, I’m not sure if I would call this good or bad but it is winnable as well as it is loseable.
Slimefoot, the Stowaway
Record against Slimefoot, the Stowaway 0-3
A ton of amazing chump blockers and a decent amount of removal in their deck makes this one quite tough, our best course of action is keeping Slimefoot off of the board but with cards like Snakeskin Veil
it can be pretty tough, I found this matchup to be pretty rough.
Arabella, Abandoned Doll
Record against Arabella, Abandoned Doll 0-3
The format’s boogeyman aggro deck beats up on it again and again. This is a very rough matchup. We can’t compete with their speed or the drain and gain they have. They smoked me every time we played this matchup.
Strategy Overview:
Be aggressive:
Since we have a decent amount of early-game creatures and our commander we can be pretty aggressive in the early-game and being aggressive and setting up some early damage allows us to be considerably stronger in the mid-late game.
Be a little bit reckless within reason:
We have a decent number of ways to recur our creatures from the graveyard, so sometimes, being extremely aggressive in not-that-advantageous combat situations is correct. Of course, this is entirely dependent on the situation of the game, but overall, it can be the right choice in many cases.
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:
This is a zombie deck, so it may shock you, but we do have a ton of amazing zombies! Since we are in Dimir we have access to a lot of good zombies Aven Eternal
is one of my favorite zombies in the deck since they are flying and amassing a token can be very strong, this is a great card especially for the ealry-game and when we have Skaab out and it has +1/+0 it feels so good on turn three. One of my other favorite zombies in the deck is Cackling Fiend
, which not only comes with really creepy art but also comes with a nice tempo play and forces our opponents to discard. This card is not the greatest attacker/blocker, but its ability is absolutely worth it. Since we have a decent amount of token production in the deck with cards like Falcon Abomination
and Hobbling Zombie
we can get a lot of value out of Carrion Feeder
which can get very big very quicky. This is Pauper EDH and a deck playing black so we had to include arguably the best zombie in the whole format in Gray Merchant of Asphodel
I don’t think I can state just how impactful this card is, since our deck is over 70% black this card can absolutely end games, and if it doesn’t end the game will most certainly put a ton of pressure on our opponents. One of my favorite creatures in the deck is actually not a zombie in Brine Shaman
. Not only is it a sac outlet and a buff, but we can also use it as a counterspell- just an amazing piece of utility for the deck. Anotehr non-zombie that can be extremely impactful is Infernal Caretaker
, which can easily recur nearly our entire board back to our hand and can be very strong after a bad combat. It’s a very nice card to have in the deck.
Instants:
Dimir opens up a lot of doors for us especially since we are able to run counterspells like Arcane Denial
, Dissolve
and Counterspell
while we arent super heavy on the control elements of our deck, having these can stop opponetns from going too crazy or protect us if they try to mess with our board or commander. We are especially good at countering creatures since we have both Essence Scatter
and Remove Soul
, which are both very strong, especially in a format with so many creature decks. We also have some removal at instant speed, which is another strength of Dimir.
Sorceries:
Distant Melody
is one of my favorite spells in the deck, it so often draws a ton of cards and even at its worse having some decent card draw is pretty good, just an all around great card for the deck and refilling our hand is something we are always looking to do. We have a ton of recursion at sorcery speed, since there is quite a bit of removal within the format we have to be ready and in order to be ready we need to be prepared for our creatures to die, being able to recur them for cheap with cards like Cemetery Recruitment
, Ghoulcaller's Chant
and Return from Extinction
as all cheap and amazing ways for us to get back into the game.
Artifacts:
outside of one of my favorite artifacts in Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher
which provides a nice free edict effect, our artifact package is wholly uninteresting and mostly full of ramp, being able to ramp in this deck is quite important since the faster we can dump our hand and fill up our board the faster we can start putting pressure on our opponents. I do especially like Dimir Locket
since once its outlived its usefulness, we can easily use it for some supplemental card draw.
Enchantments:
Our controlling elements within our deck are not just exclusive to our spell packages! As we also have Fall from Favor
and Witness Protection
which are both amazing ways to take care of problematic opponents or commanders that our opponents may bring to the table, these both contribute to our controlling elements present in the deck a lot. Clutch of Undeath
is a decently pricey card but since we are on zombies we absolutely have to play it, whether we use it to buff our creature or remove our opponents creature it is a great option to have, in testing I often used it to reduce the power of a huge creature an opponent had, that reduction can help you live considerably longer.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our commander allows us to be decently aggressive in combat and dish out quite a bit of damage.
- Being in Dimir is a huge advantage for us, not only do we get access to counterspells and premier draw like Distant Melody
we get some strong blue zombies like Aven Eternal. - We have a pretty strong control package within the deck, allowing us to stop opponents from beating us down or threatening our board. This can often take opponents by surprise since we are a creature deck at heart.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We can have tough matchups against decks that don’t care about combat, we do have some counterspells but not a ton to counter all of their huge spells.
- Zombie mirrors can be a little tough since a lot of zombies in the format have a lot of health and Skaab only buffs power.
- We can be a little slow in the early game. Until we have Skaab out, we don’t typically want to attack or block.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end, as someone who has covered a large majority of the zombies focused commanders in the format this one really is a blast to play, while its certainly no diregraf captain it is a realy fun option for zombies and at our table we decided to do a game of all zombies decks and this was a really fun time. If you love casual zombie decks, I’m sure you enjoyed this one! Stay tuned as we cover more of the weird and wacky within the format.