“Nothing left, but the hum crawlin’ out the hills“
Art:Corrosive Mentor
by Daarken
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
I love finding decks that don’t get really any love or attention from the community, and I totally understand with the amount of amazing options for Pauper EDH it is hard to find everything. My search led me to Corrosive Mentor, who, according to PDHREC, only has one other deck out there, and honestly, that’s a little surprising to me because this commander is very strong and fun and has quite a bit of support within the format. Giving our entire board wither makes us pretty hard to stop in combat, and with a bunch of ways to make our creatures indestructible, we can block or attack into the best of the best with relative ease. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Corrosive Mentor Wither!
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Why Corrosive Mentor?
Corrosive Mentor is a huge part of our deck and a big reason why our deck works; while we certainly don’t need them and can attack and block as any deck would, having it helps an absolute ton and allows us to weaken our opponent’s boards significantly while we stay strong is extremely important. Corrosive Mentor is a bit of a removal magnet because opponents realize pretty early on that our commander is a big part of our deck but we do have quite a few sources of protection for the deck. Corrosive Mentor is quite important, and I 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:
An important thing to keep in mind with our creature package is that since our commander provides wither, many of our opponents are naturally apprehensive to blocking, which works to our advantage, especially with cards like Audacious Thief
, which is a consistent source of supplemental card draw. Creeping Bloodsucker
is one of the few creatures in the deck we don’t like to attack with because the drain and gain every turn is quite strong for us. Dreadwurm
is an absolute beast within this deck; it is almost always indestructible, and most importantly, it is well-stated, so opponents don’t want to ever block this; this is perfectly ok for us, and dealing five damage a turn is amazing. Since we commit quite a few creatures to the board and we are in mono-black we absolutely had to include Gray Merchant of Asphodel
, which is one of the best sources of damage we have in the deck and can also be a huge life-swing, in testing I have had games where I was able to deal twenty damage and gain twenty life absolutely devastating a high-life opponent and killing the other. This is also one of my favorite targets for Dread Return
. Moodmark Painter
is super sweet and the menace is of course, amazing in a deck full of creatures that get wither, but this card is primarily a damage dealer for the deck and can enable us to hit hard especially if we have a full graveyard we can hit like an absolute train.
Instants:
While we are pretty strong in combat, we absolutely do have games where we face decks that are faster than us, and we can fall behind in situations like that, Darkness
is a great way to fight back against some of the quickest decks in the format. We are in mono-black so we have access to a sweet of removal like Cast Down
, Murder
which are both strong and decently cheap pieces of removal. Some of my favorite cards in the deck are Tragic Slip
and Tragic Fall
they almost always have their secondary conditions met and can take out pretty much anything in the format, and most importantly, stuff that has indestructible, these are both great and even without their secondary condition can be great to put an extra -1/-1 on a creature. Since we love to get a bunch of -1/-1’s on our opponent’s creatures through wither, we can get a ton of value out of Splendid Agony
, which can be a great way to kill opponents’ creatures or start the -1/-1 train.
Sorceries:
Arms of Hadar
is probably one of my favorite cards in the format, and a card that doesn’t get enough love, in my experience, absolutely devastating tokens or really any more aggressive small creatures strategies with this card can put us very far ahead and devastate an opponents board state, its always great to clear the way for a big hit. Since we have a graveyard subtheme within the deck being able to reanimate key creatures through Dread Return and Unearth
is quite strong and great at pretty much any stage of the game. If we already have done some wither damage to the opponent’s creatures, we can get a ton of value out of Spread the Sickness
; while expensive it is still a removal spell and being able to proliferate the -1/-1 counters we put on through wither it can be an absolute bomb, while this card feels bad in a lot of decks it feels very good in this deck because of the prevalence of wither. We, of course, had to have some supplemental card draw in Sign in Blood
and Night's Whisper
. Card draw is pretty much never bad, and card draw at this cheap of a rate is great as well.
Artifacts:
Since we are in mono-black, we don’t have a ton of ramp, so we have to rely on artifacts like Arcane Signet
and Charcoal Diamond
, which can be great ways to get ahead in the early game. Tithing Blade // Consuming Sepulcher
can really hurt opponents in the late-game but shines in the early-game. It can devastate opponents; while crafting, it is not the most important thing to us. If we can do it, we often do it because the drain and gain we get from it can be great. Bladed Battle-Fan
is great if we get into a situation where an opponents big creature is blocking one of our smaller creatures, being able to protect our creature is great, it also works great in situations where we are being targeted with removal. Dredging Claw
is a small buff but, most importantly, gives us menace, which we love when we have our commander out, and our board has withered.
Enchantments:
Ill-Gotten Inheritance
is one of my favorite enchantments within the deck, and being able to continuously whittle down our opponents and gain life is quite strong, especially against more aggressive or creature-focused strategies. We also have a pretty strong pair of enchantments in Kaya's Ghostform
and Fungal Fortitude
. Both of these are quite cheap and are able to recur our commander or one of our other important creatures is quite strong. Untamed Hunger
is quite strong as well because it has a menace. If an opponent wants to block the enchanted creature, they have to block two creatures, and both of them get weakened because of the wither. Oubliette
is a Pauper EDH classic for a reason and is an extremely strong way to remove some of our opponents best creatures.
Land Base:
Our landbase is pretty simple and doesn’t really have a ton of interesting things going on. Beyond a ton of swamps we have some pretty alright non-basics, which are mostly sources of supplemental card draw like The Dross Pits
and Desert of the True
, while we certainly don’t need this extra card draw there is no reason to not have it and these are naturally much better than swamps. We also have Terramorphic Expanse
and Evolving Wilds
, which do nothing but get swamps, but being able to shuffle the deck can be great if you’ve had a few turns of poor draws.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are strong in combat with most of our creatures, and our commander makes our opponents not happy if they have to block, and often time, if it’s a low amount of damage, they will just allow it through; because of this, we can whittle down our opponents.
- We have quite a bit of card draw within the deck, allowing us to refill our hand, this is important because in the early game with some of our smaller creatures, we are able to dump our hand quite quickly.
- Our late-game creatures are quite hard to stop, and once we get a decent board established, usually by the mid-late game.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We do have a graveyard subtheme within the deck, so we are quite weak to graveyard hate.
- Our commander is a pretty big removal magnet and while we do have quite a few ways to protect them, it certainly sucks to have to protect them this much.
- We can be pretty weak to creature hate overall; while we are strong in combat, it can be tough to maintain a board when the best of the best keep getting targeted with removal, which is certainly one of the weaker parts of our deck.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We are a combat deck through and through, and because of our commander, we are able to be quite strong in combat because many of our opponents don’t want to block because of wither on all of our creatures; in addition to that, we have quite a few ways to protect and give our creatures indestructible so we can just weaken our opponents’ creatures without ours dying. We also have some pretty big late-game creatures like Lotleth Giant
and Writhing Necromass
, which can allow us to do a decent amount of damage and put some strong pressure on our opponents.
Conclusion:
I have been enjoying this deck a lot, and it is one that has gone into my playgroups weekly rotation of decks we play, it is certainly not the best deck in the format, but it is a ton of fun to play, and in my opinion captures the spirit of mono-black very well. I have been having a ton of fun with this deck, and I hope you all enjoyed it as well. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!