“Candles lifted when we come around”
Art:Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage
by Daarken
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Wow, all I have to say is that I feel bad for our opponents for this one! This deck is mean, there is no way to step around it or avoid it, this deck can feel quite rough to play against and will certainly not make your opponents happy, my playgroup and I joked that this deck had the “anti-everyone” gameplan as our core gameplan is to stop and remove our opponent’s entire gameplan. There is a crazy amount of support for discarding at common, and while this discard also affects us, we have a madness package within the deck that gives the advantage of getting free or discounted creatures/spells when we have to discard, which is also quite a bit. Gavriel is the perfect commander for a deck like this, and when all of your opponents have no cards in hand and are struggling, Davriel can whittle them down. I’m not sure I should share this one with the world; it might have a negative effect on Pauper EDH tables everywhere! Well, without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage Discard Madness!
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Why Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage?
Davriel is a huge part of our deck, since we discard a ton opponents almost always have a very low card count, so the damage of Davriel can really hurt opponents while we wait to find one of our finisher threats like Eldrazi Devastator
or Troll of Khazad-dûm
. Gavriel is a card that absolutely isn’t necessary, and if opponents want to use counters or removal to get rid of them, it doesn’t really matter for the overall gameplan; while they are a great piece of utility, we don’t need them for the deck to function well.
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 their 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:
Displaced Dinosaurs
Record against Displaced Dinosaurs 4-0
We have a great matchup against this deck. They heavily rely on-ramp in the beginning/ mid game, and since we are able to make them discard a lot of their ramp, we can easily ruin their hand and force them to rely on their commander, and we are able to typically instantly kill them at that point.
Artisan of Kozilek
Record against Artisan of Kozilek 3-0
I like this matchup a lot, just like Displaced Dino’s being able to discard their rocks and mana ramp puts them at a huge disadvantage, and we can often get them to discard some of their best creatures, I’m a big fan of this matchup and with a well-placed Tormod's Crypt
they can’t do much against us.
Tatyova, Benthic Druid
Record against Tatyova, Benthic Druid 3-1
This is a very strong commander and one of the most popular within the format, but I think we have a pretty strong matchup against them; as long as we continuously kill their commander and make them discard a large majority of our hands, this matchup is pretty favorable for us. Tatyova is strong, and we should never turn our back on her, but this is a favorable matchup overall.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Murmuring Mystic
Record against Murmuring Mystic 0-4
Too many counterspells make it so we have a lot of trouble executing our game plan and often can’t get anything going; if our opponents help us gang up on the Murmuring Mystic player, we can have some success, but overall, it’s quite tough.
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
Record against Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker 0-3
This is an awful matchup for us; they actually love our discard and want us to help them fill up our graveyard. Some of our graveyard hate can be effective against them, but unless we have it in our opening hand, it can be really rough. This is a terrible matchup for us.
Valgavoth's Faithful
Record against Valgavoth’s Faithful 0-5
Another horrible matchup, this deck can put huge creatures on the field very easily, and continue to do it. We don’t have much recourse against a deck like this; this is an absolutely horrible matchup and pretty much unwinnable during my testing.
Strategy Overview:
Consistent Discard:
Always making our opponents discard is a great way to keep them low on resources and unable to execute their overall game plan; doing this consistently allows our opponents to have a weak and ineffective game.
Keep our Big Guys on the Field:
We have a few big finishers like Troll of Khazad-dûm and Ulamog's Crusher
keeping those on the field is key to us ending the game, we have quite a bit of graveyard recursion so even if they die to removal that’s typically ok.
Hold Up Removal:
Holding up removal is a key way to keep our gameplan going, we have a decent amount of removal, and proper threat assessment is key to win the game, I typically like to not sweat the small creatures and focus on the big threats for our removal, we have big guys to finish up the game so stopping our opponents when they have the end game creatures out is key.
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 with our early game, focusing on cheap and easy discard like Nezumi Informant
or Miasmic Mummy
as well as Burglar Rat
all of these are cheap and easy ways to get the discard rolling and disrupt our opponents early-game. Since we have so much discard, it’s also good to have some strong Madness creatures like Gorgon Recluse
, which is an absolute nightmare for our opponents to attack into. Grave Scrabbler
is another strong madness card, and the recursion it provides is very nice, especially when we discard on the early turns or in the mid-late game when our creatures are often getting targeted with removal. Another part of our gameplan is forcing opponents to sacrifice as well with cards like Chain Devil
and Fleshbag Marauder
, additionally, we are able to use fodder to not affect our board at all, fodder such as Persistent Specimen
and Sanitarium Skeleton
which we can easily, sacrifice, kill or do whatever we want too. Lastly, i want to focus on our endgame creatures, the three primary ones are Eldrazi Devastator, Ulamog's Crusher, and Troll of Khazad-dûm while these don’t end games super quickly, they are consistent and strong ways to put pressure on our opponents. Also want to mention Gray Merchant of Asphodel
a great way to finish up a game and since we are in mono-black a quite consistent source of damage for the deck.
Instants:
Our instant package is not all that interesting, consisting mostly of removal, but we do have a few interesting removal spells like Dark Withering
, which in this deck is almost always only one mana, we discard so much there is rarely a turn where this isn’t turned on. Grisly Spectacle
is a very expensive removal spell but absolutely worth it for our deck; while it isn’t cheap, it is instant speed, and if an opponent has a huge creature making them mill a turn of cards, helps support the overall gameplan a ton. Finishing up our instants, we have Crypt Incursion
this card is amazing so many matchups, against graveyard-focused decks, being able to remove the creatures from their graveyard allows us to stop their gameplan in its track, and against combat decks or decks that love to be aggressive the life gain we get from Crypt Incursion is key.
Sorceries:
Sorcery speed is where a ton of our discard lies, some of the strongest discard spells in our deck are here like Delirium Skeins
, Hymn to Tourach
and Mind Swords
which are all cheap and effective ways to disrupt and utterly destroy our opponents hands. I also love Syphon Mind
, which is a perfect spell for the deck; it hurts our opponent’s hands a ton and gives us a card draw; this is a true win-win situation. Since we often have to discard along with our opponents being able to reanimate cards with spells like Dread Return
and Unearth
allow us to get a huge leg up on our opponents and if we have one of our big guys in our starting hand we can take huge advantage of the game.
Artifacts:
Tormod's Crypt is one of the most important cards in the deck and the only effective recourse that we have against Graveyard or reanimation strategies, this is a very important card for the deck and should be used only at the best opportunity. Beyond mana rocks, we also have Feldon's Cane
, which is a card I just love for the deck, being able to reshuffle our deck, allowing us to have a chance to get back all of the cards we discarded away.
Enchantments:
Discard is the name of the game in our deck and in our enchantment package Hopeless Nightmare
is an amazing early-game discard and can start taking card advantage away from our opponents as early as the first turn. The life loss and scry are very strong for us as well. Cracked Skull
is a key piece for the deck and a great card to put on a commander or a big threat an opponent has; we always love more discard, and having the creature it’s attached to die with ease is super strong for only three mana. Last but certainly not least, we have Oubliette
, which is a strong piece of removal and a perfect one to use on an opponent’s commander, it also helps with devotion for Gray Merchant of Asphodel which can be an effective way to end the game.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are very effective against decks that try to keep their hands full and need a lot of support utility.
- We are very effect against most creature decks since we can discard a lot of their best cards.
- We have a lot of graveyard recursion, so we don’t really care if any of our creatures die.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Control Decks are tough matchups as they often just counter our discard spells and creatures.
- We are very bad against graveyard decks; we are essentially helping them, while we do have cards like Tormod's Crypt
, if we don’t find them, it can be quite tough. - The early game can be rough for us as we don’t have a ton of small creatures, and we also don’t have much of a damage output until the late game.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end! I can’t help but think that I’ve realized a bad deck into the world! While it is an effective and strong deck, I don’t believe that it will make your opponents have a lot of fun. Either way, this deck is very strong, and if you are the one playing it, it is quite a fun deck. Stay tuned and Tap in!