“I don’t care if my conscience is clear if the view is”
Art:Blightcaster
by Winona Nelson
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Blightcaster is here to make all of the creature decks suffer, and since they are a large majority of the format, they are definitely going to suffer,, we are a control deck with a large focus on encahntemnts we are really good against Voltron strategies as well as creature strategies since we can use our enchantments nad our commander to give opponents creatures minus toughness and power quite a bit, combine that with cards that lock down their creatures and force them to pay life or mana and we can really take over a game, while this is deck is quite slow it is quite strong. I am really excited to showcase this one as I think it’s criminally underplayed, without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Blightcaster Enchantments!
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Why Blightcaster?
Blightcaster is a huge part of our deck and one of the reasons we are really strong against creature decks. Being able to play our enchantments and get an additional -2/-2 on top allows us to be good against pretty much any creature deck, no matter if they have indestructible or not. I try to keep Blightcaster on the field for as long as I can. Blightcaster is a huge part of our deck and should be on the field pretty much every turn they can be.
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:
Hollow Marauder
Recprd against Hollow Marauder 3-0
This is a pretty good matchup for our deck. At the same time, we do feed their graveyard they can take a lot of damage off of cards like Trespasser's Curse
and Blood Seeker
and since they recur so often these trigger quite a bit, I had not trouble with this matchup in testing.
Arabella, Abandoned Doll
Record against Arabella, Abandoned Doll 5-0
Once we get our commander down and are able to kill their board pretty consistently, there really isn’t anything that they can do against us, this is an awesome matchup for our deck, which feels really weird to say for Arabella since this deck is strong against a good majority of the format. I love this matchup and while on Blightcaster hope there is an Arabella in every game.
Shadowfax, Lord of Horses
Record against Shadowfax, Lord of Horses 3-1
This is another creature deck that we beat up on pretty well, Shadowfax can be a problem, but if we are on the play and take care of them soon after they come out, it’s really not a problem, Boros really can’t handle our minus power/toughness or the removal we have. Another great matchup for the deck.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Murmuring Mystic
Record against Murmuring Mystic 0-2
The biggest problem with this matchup is that they just don’t care what we are doing, they counter our commander quite often and besides there commander they really don’t care if their birds die, they can outlast us in the long-game as well which makes this matchup quite tough, Control is really rough for us.
Lazotep Chancellor
Record against Lazotep Chancellor 2-2
Even though we won two games here, it is still quite a tough matchup, one of the worst parts is that if they amass their army quickly, it can be very hard for us to kill them without a few specific enchantments, this is a winnable matchup but in my experience is not favorable.
Disciple of Deceit
Record against Disciple of Deceit 1-3
It can be very hard to keep our commander on the board in this matchup, the only match I won against Disciple was when they stumbled in the early-game and fell behind, if they come out hot and swinging it can be quite tough. This is another matchup that is winnable but quite tough.
Strategy Overview:
Lock it Down and keep them away:
With or without our commander, we have so many ways to remove and give minus power and toughness to our opponents, so keeping early-game creatures away is key to the strategy overall.
Take it to the long game:
Our deck is good against early-game decks, but we don’t start gaining steam until much later in the game, prolonging games with our enchantments is really good for our deck and key to us winning.
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:
The hate we have for creature decks is strong and even extends into our creature package with cards like Blood Seeker punishing creature decks, while this isn’t super fast, being able to whittle opponents down is always good. Since we kill so many of our opponent’s creatures, I really like Bone Picker
since it almost always costs only one mana, which is quite good. Our creature package has quite a few ways to interact with our enchantment package directly, like Dreadbringer Lampads
, which is really strong, while it doesn’t allow us to deal an absolute ton of damage, we can consistently deal damage, which really helps our games go quicker. Grim Guardian
is by far the best one of the bunch, allowing us to essentially have a copy of Impact Tremors
for our enchantments, which is extremely strong. Shrine Steward
is a little pricey but is a tutor for our enchantments, which is pretty strong. Tutors don’t come easy within Pauper EDH, and being able to get one pretty easily for our main card type within the deck is pretty good.
Instants:
We have quite a bit of removal at instant speed, this is kind of the trend of the format and being able to have removal for the best of the best that our opponents present is key to staying the game, Pauper EDH is growing as a format and with that more and more decks are getting more and more cards and thusly getting more and more powerful so the need for additional removal is greater, cards like Breathe Your Last
have gotten considerably better and can gain a decent amount of life, we also have classics like Murder
and Cast Down
while these cards are reactive having them is key to staying in a game. We have some really proactive cards in Not Dead After All
, Feign Death
and Supernatural Stamina
not only are these great ways to protect our creatures but being able to re-ETB something really strong like a Gray Merchant of Asphodel
which can be an amazing way to end the game.
Sorceries:
Our sorcery package is really not interesting, we do have two cards which are both good, we have both Call to the Netherworld
and Disentomb
which are no more than creature recursion for our deck, we are limited on creatures and being able to get back some of our best is key to keeping our gameplan strong.
Artifacts:
All ramp here, with cards like Mind Stone
and Commander's Sphere
providing some nice supplemental card draw for the deck which is something we can always use, we don’t have a heavy focus on artifacts at all but being able to ramp out our permanents is really strong. It can help us get our commander and our game plan going early.
Enchantments:
Here it is, the big one! We are an enchantment deck through and through, and have a ton of awesome enchantments, some offensive like Endless Scream
and some defensive like Despondency
. Now let’s go over some of my favorites in the deck! Artifact Possession
is such a cool card and can really punish artifact heavy decks but is also decently strong against most decks since most decks within the format run artifacts, even if it’s just a mana rock, it can be very strong. This is a very strong card against multiple strategies within the format. Death Watch
is another card I really like and is perfect for a huge creature that an opponent has, hitting that creature with a removal and hitting their life total while bolstering ours is very strong for only one-mana. Its also important to remember that we have our commander out for a lot of the game so being able to lock down and give opponents creatures -2/-2 is really strong. Paralyze
is another super cool enchantment for our deck and taxing an opponent four to use their creature is awesome, perfect against Voltron decks. Seizures
is another really cool card for the deck and can tax our opponent’s mana or make them take damage, we are cool with either most turns.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are very strong against creature decks, and being able to constantly remove their creatures with our commander’s ability is key to winning those matchups.
- We are really good against Voltron decks as well. They often make their Voltron creature indestructible, and since we can get around that, we can control those games.
- We have a ton of ways to deal damage outside of combat and control our opponent’s creatures.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We can have a really bad matchup against control strategies, since they are rarely affected by our mostly creature-based enchantments.
- We struggle against decks that keep our commander off of the field, while our enchantments our nice, our commander allows us to get a ton of additional value.
- It can be very grindy to kill our opponents, which can be tough against decks that are very strong in the long game.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end, Blightcaster is a very cool card and criminally underplayed in my opinion, there is an absolute ton of really strong enchantments and this truly feels like a control deck, because of our commander we can destroy creature decks and be well-positoned against a large majority of the format, I hope all you enjoyed this one! Stay tuned and TAP IN!