“A Stone of ruin, From burn to chill”
Art:Bloodbraid Elf
by Raymond Swanland
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Bloodbraid Elf is back from terrorizing modern and ready to terrorize Pauper EDH, while Bloodbraid is not as explosive in Pauper EDH free spells are pretty much never bad! This deck focuses on burn as well as big and aggressive creatures for a two-fronted attack to eliminate your opponents, while this deck has a ton of strengths it has a lot of the same weaknesses that many Gruul decks have. Regardless Bloodbraid Elf is a sweet commander who can really bring the burn to our opponents, we are fast aggressive and only get better as the game goes on. Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Bloodbraid Elf Gruul Burn!
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Link to TCGPlayer to buy this deck: Bloodbraid Elf Burn Pauper EDH
Why Bloodbraid Elf?
The main reason we chose Bloodbraid Elf is because they are not only a well-stated aggressive creature we can hit nearly every card in our deck off of their cascade and free spells are never bad! Bloodbraid Elf allows us to hit a lot of our creatures or burn spells or even just mana ramp / artifacts. We are able to ramp up and only get better as the game goes on! Bloodbraid Elf is the perfect aggressive creature combined with free spells to push this deck over the edge!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck!
Creatures:
To start off our creature package we have some ramp creatures like Fyndhorn Elves
, Elvish Mystic
and Llanowar Elves
all of which are great ways to get some extra mana early. We also have some well-stated early game creatures like Brindle Shoat
which we can very easily turn into a 3/3. Frenzied Arynx
is another really strong card that we can cast early and this creature is quite the threat to our opponents. Horned Kavu
is a great way to bounce a creature and get them to ETB perfect for cards like Entourage of Trest
and Crimson Fleet Commodore
. We cannot forget about our few cascade effects besides Bloodbraid Elf like Annoyed Altisaur
, Maelstrom Colossus
and Boarding Party
all of these creatures are big and aggressive and can hit everything in our deck. The last part of our deck is our finishers like Ulamog's Crusher
and Eldrazi Devastator
combined with all of our other creatures and damage and its game over not long after either of these hit the field!
Instants:
Our instant package is where nearly all of our burn resides, there is far too much to discuss all of them but the top 3 in my opinion are the old classic in Lightning Bolt
which is a super efficient burn spell for only one R. Brimstone Volley
which is very often 5 damage for only 3 mana! As well as Thunderous Wrath
which is another big burn spell that we can occasionally miracle but we almost always have enough mana to hard cast it if needed. Burn is not the only thing we have going on, we also have some removal in the form of Nature's Claim
and Return to Nature
, as well as some card draw like Big Score
and Unexpected Windfall
! One of the best buff spells in our deck with cascade attached is Violent Outburst
this card is really the best of both worlds of our deck and is just outstanding!
Sorceries:
We have some bigger late-game permanents so we absolutely had to include format staples like Cultivate
and Kodama's Reach
both of which are great ramp spells! If we get to the late game one of my favorite mana sinks is Fireball
which depending on how much mana we have can be a game-ender on its own! Skewer the Critics
and Rift Bolt
are decent sorcery speed removal spells both with mana reducing effects! My favorite sorcery is You Meet in a Tavern
when we have an established board state buffing all of our creatures can easily end the game!
Artifacts:
All we have in our artifact package is mana, we do have a ramp subtheme after all! Not a ton to say here we had to include Arcane Signet
and Gruul Signet
which are both cheap efficient ways to get more mana. Since this is Pauper EDH we absolutely had to include Bonder's Ornament
this card is run frequently and we can often draw and build some good will with our opponents! Thought Vessel
is a great card just for extra mana, in most cases the no max hand size typically does not end up mattering!
Enchantments:
My favorite enchantment is Battle Plan
as it buffs one of our creatures on our combat step and more damage is never bad, especially since a ton of our creatures are rocking trample! Elephant Guide
can be used for a huge swing when placed on a big creature or make one of our smaller aggressive creatures even better! Last but not certainly not least we have Seal of Fire
which is basically an extra copy of Shock
great during combat or in a pinch when we need some extra damage!
Land Base:
We are only running 33 lands, in testing I found that since we have an abundance of 2 cost cards that we did not need to run the traditional 34 / 35 lands that I typically build off of. Our land base is overall pretty simple focusing per usual on cycling and being able to draw cards. Some lands have really cool effects like Smoldering Spires
which can make it so one of our opponents creatures cant block for that turn! Besides that typical Gruul Duals and R/G cycling lands!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Strong against other creature / aggressive decks
- If combat is not an option burn always is
- Cascade effects can hit large portions of our deck allowing for flexibility / free casts
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Not a ton of card draw
- Very weak to lifegain strategies
- Weak to creature hate
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are a burn deck so most of our win conditions come from a combination of attacking with big and aggressive creatures combined with spells to do some damage we have an absolute ton of burn and a ton of creatures! We can easily kill opponents with just our creatures alone so we can oftentimes use some of our burn spells on key creatures of our opponents to balance the board in our favor and make combat easier! Combine all of that with the free casts from Bloodbraid Elf and the few other cascade effects in the deck and we have a ton of ways to go offensively! There are no infinite combos or loops in the deck.
Conclusion:
In conclusion Bloodbraid Elf is a ton of fun to play, I mean who doesn’t like free spells! This deck is as Gruul as they come and features a ton of aspects of that archetype! Whether we are swinging for the fences or burning our opponents out there will be a ton of fun to be had while doing it! Hope you enjoyed this article, thanks for reading to the end!