Commander Overview
Hei Bai is a really awesome Pauper EDH commander who fits very nicely into a blink deck. We have a ton of sacrifice fodder for our commander. With cards like Cloudshift and Acrobatic Maneuver, we can keep blinking them and transferring our commander’s counters onto our other creatures. Hei Bai is a card we rarely attack with since we typically use them as an The Ozolith effect for the deck, bringing an effect that powerful to Pauper EDH is truly game-changing. While this deck certainly isn’t CPDH, it is powerful.
How to Play the Deck
This is a pretty straightforward game plan for the deck, we typically want to spend our earlier turns bringing out some of our early-game creatures like Doomed Traveler and Hunted Witness these are really good for our early-game since we can sacrifice them to Hai Bai and get another creature we can easily sac to our commander. Playing the deck is pretty easy. We don’t have a ton of removal, but we can certainly deal with problematic permanents that our opponents bring out. Other than that, we buff our stuff up and swing as much as we can.
Synergy’s in the deck
We have a lot of synergyies in the deck, especially for +1/+1 counters, for counters we have both Hagra Constrictor and Ainok Bond-kin giving all of our creatures/commander that have counters first strike and menace is really helpful and allows us to be a real threat in combat and have a leg up on decks that don’t run a lot of creatures. We also have quite a few creatures that have a similar effect to our commander, where they transfer their counters like Enduring Bondwarden and Parish-Blade Trainee. These can get pretty big quite easily, and it’s really nice to be able to fight through removal by moving those counters to another one of our creatures.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game: We typically spend our early turns committing our small creatures like Crawling Chorus or Gixian Infiltrator as well as a bunch of others, and we also try to cast our commander as soon as we can. Committing some of our mana rocks/support cards to the field, like Arcane Signet or Spare Supplies, can be helpful as well. We aren’t super aggressive, so we typically don’t worry too much during this stage of the game.
Mid-Game: Mid-game is where stuff really starts happening for us, by this point we have typically used our commanders aiblity quite a few times and our stuff is getting a lot bigger, we can aid that by using cards like Gulping Scraptrap or Spiteful Squad which can help us get quite big, than once we are bigger than the rest of the board we swing as much as we can, one nice thing is that even though we typically use our blink spells to bounce our commander if a key creature gets into a bad situation we can always use it on that too!
Late-Game: We don’t have any huge creatures or stuff that we only drop during the late-game. We are much more of a midrange deck. The only thing that changes during the late-game is typically our board is a lot bigger. Between the mid and the late-game, our core gameplan doesn’t change.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
We have a pretty low mana cost throughout the deck so we don’t ramp very hard, we do have Arcane Signet and Orzhov Signet but those are much more as mana fixing rather than ramp, Its nice to hit those rocks early but it doesn’t really change the gameplan at all if we don’t.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
We aren’t super heavy on card draw but do have some format staples like Read the Bones, Sign in Blood and Night’s Whisper all of these are pretty strong and allow us to keep our hand full, we don’t typically need a ton of card draw but these are very strong assets for the deck to have.
Removal
Our removal package is quite strong for our deck. I am a big fan of Breathe your Last. It can provide a nice bit of life gain on top of being an efficient removal spell. That few life isn’t always relevant, but can be quite helpful against aggressive decks. We also have Generous Gift, which is arguably the best piece of removal we have since we can destroy any permanent with it and are not just restricted to only creatures. Last but not least, I want to highlight Crib Swap being able to exile a creature can really hurt combo decks in the format!
Protection
We have a lot of protection in our deck, less in the form of cards like Loran’s Escape and way more in the form of blink, we typically save these for our commander but if an opponents removal targets a key creature we can easily use our blink spells to protect them, using Cloudshift, Ephemerate or Scrollshift are all excellent ways to protect our commander/creatures. I try not to be super aggressive. If removal is targeting an unimportant creature, I typically won’t use these, but having the option is very strong.
Utility / Support
We have a lot of cards in the deck that work really well within the primary game plan, especially Hagra Constrictor, which allows us to be really strong against decks that have a lot of creatures. Cards like Insatiable Skittermaw are really cool as well since they are an additional piece of payoff for us when our stuff dies, which happens very often.
Shinewend is one of my favorite pieces of removal in the deck and can be really strong against Enchantress-style decks. It’s extremely easy for us to put counters on them and blow up any problematic enchantment that our opponents may drop. Inspiring Roar and Now for Wrath, Now for Ruin! are both excellent examples of support cards and allow us to cheaply buff up our entire board, which is not only great for combat but for the litany of cards that give our other creatures counters when they die, it’s powerful.
Mana Base
Our mana base has a lot more good cards than you would initially expect. Cards like Bojuka Bog position us pretty decently against graveyard decks, and if dropped at the right time, can absolutely devastate an opponent. We also have both Hidden Necropolis and Hidden Courtyard, which, for a large majority of the game, are nothing more than simple lands. Still, if we do fall behind, the ability to Discover 4 for only five mana is a good asset to have; it’s good whether we are behind or ahead. Like with almost all Pauper EDH decks I build, we round out our landbase with the on-color cycling lands. I really like these, since card draw when they’re no longer worth playing is always very good.
Win Conditions
Our primary win condition is combat; we don’t have any other way to close out the game. Luckily, because of our commander and moving around counters a lot, it is quite easy for us to get a big creature and hit our opponents hard.
Strengths of the Deck
One of our biggest strengths is the pseudo- The Ozolith effect we have on our commander; being able to move counters instead of losing them is really strong.
We have a good matchup into a lot of midrange decks in the format.
Weaknesses of the Deck
We can struggle against really aggressive decks.
We have tough matchups against control decks as well. It can be very tough for us to compete when our commander isn’t out. We are very dependent on our commander.
Deck Testing/Matchups
I tested this deck against three different decks
Game 1: Vs Imoti, Celebrant of Bounty. Matchup Record: 1-3
This was a tough matchup. With their commander, they can get big stuff out quickly and also have some control elements to back it up. I struggled a lot with this matchup.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Breathe your Last, Settle Beyond Reality and Celebrity Fencer.
Game 2: Vs Fleshtaker. Matchup Record: 3-0
This matchup went very well, since we often have a lot of creatures on the board, a lot of their sacrifice effects, and their primary game plan really didn’t work against us. They did gain a bunch of life but that doesn’t matter much when we are swinging big
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Doomed Traveler, Icatian Crier and Pegasus Guardian.
Game 3: Vs Loyal Subordinate. Matchup Record: 4-2
This was an exciting matchup for our deck. Zombies can be pretty scary, and they oftentimes keep coming back, but we are just typically a little bigger than they are in combat. The +1/+1 counters really shine in this matchup, allowing us to dominate it.
Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Hei Bai, Spirit of Balance,Basri’s Acolyte and Gulping Scraptrap
Conclusion
I hope you all enjoyed this one. Hei Bai is a really cool commander for PDH and a great option for a +1/+1 counter deck with a bit of a twist.