“Ugh, I can’t even taste the air up here, bleugh.”
Art:Ichor Rats
by Matt Stewart
Big shoutout to @scoobydrew0 on twitter for the suggestion
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Ichor Rats is a super sweet commander who will not earn us any friends at the Pauper EDH table, I would prepare for some audible groans as people see the infect deck coming down! Being able to protect our key creatures and commander as well as snap-back at our opponents with a bunch of removal is a really strong place to be! Since all of our games are basically 10 “life” we can afford to be more aggressive in nearly every aspect which helps us speed through games and if not stopped, we can steamroll really quickly! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Ichor Rats Infect Pauper EDH!
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Why Ichor Rats?
Ichor Rats is a key part of our deck, not only is it super helpful to have an infect creature in the command zone and ready to go but being able to “start” our third turn off with a counter we are able to really get a lot of our core gameplan started. Ichor Rats is really strong but we do have a weakness against a deck with a similar strategy since everyone gets a counter we are very weak against proliferate strategies!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! As well as highlighting some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
Not a whole lot to say about our creatures there are various flavors and forms of infect within our deck. One of my favorite cards is Swamp Mosquito
is an old and really cool card that will have your opponents wondering what that is! Blightbelly Rat
is a really cool card that we can throw into the fire and get some proliferation going on! Corpse Cur
is a really good way to recur a creature from the graveyard! Plague Stinger
and Pestilent Syphoner
are both naturally evasive infect creatures that can be great ways to get those last poison counters on our opponent!
Instants:
Feign Death
, Supernatural Stamina
and Undying Evil
are just a few examples of an effect we have in the deck an absolute ton and is a powerful way to buff or protect! Sugar Rush
and Breach
are both buffs with upside! We also have a bunch of removal like Cast Down
, Murder
and Snuff Out
are all strong examples of single target removal! Virulent Wound
is a great way to kill a tiny creature and get a poison counter on that opponent! Vraska's Fall
is a great way to take out each opponents creature and give them all a poison counter!
Sorceries:
Arms of Hadar
is a really good card to target a specific player who gets too far ahead or just has a huge amount of small creatures. Infectious Inquiry
is a great card draw spell and we can give all of our opponents a poison counter! Read the Bones
and Sign in Blood
are Pauper EDH classics that are just really strong draw spells! Spread the Sickness
is an expensive piece of removal but since we get to proliferate it can make up for the cost.
Artifacts:
Even though we are in Mono-Black we can still effectively utilize a bunch of mana rocks like Charcoal Diamond
, Arcane Signet
and Bonder's Ornament
which are all strong mana rocks and in the case of Bonders Ornament has some card draw upside! We have a bunch of ways to help with combat like Whispersilk Cloak
, Brass Knuckles
, Haunted Cloak
. All of these are really strong and decently cheap equipment! Wedding Invitation
is a really strong card to make a buffed or huge creature unblockable and we get the card upside as well.
Enchantments:
Our enchantment package is full of super aggressive cards like Spinal Graft
and Sinister Strength
both of which are great buffs for any infect creature! Demonic Vigor
is a cheap buff and a way to protect and possibly re-ETB Ichor rats. Gruesome Deformity
is a really great way to make a creature nearly unblockable! Relic Putrescence
is a great card to put on a key artifact of an opponent! Shade's Form
is another really strong buff and a piece of protection for our commander or any infect creature!
Land Base:
Mono-Black is just like any mono-color landbase in that it is overall pretty simple but has some important lands that can help us close out games! Forge of Heroes
is a really strong way to buff up Ichor Rats and make them an even more threatening attacker the same is true for Cave of Temptation
. Desert of the Glorified
and The Dross Pits
are both strong ways to get some extra cards especially if we draw some late land drops! Besides that our land base mostly consists of basics and a few other draw / cycling lands!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Quick kills through infect
- Being able to protect commander / key creatures with a bunch of spells to bring them back
- Decent amount of interaction
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Commander is one of the most important cards / parts of the deck!
- Not a ton of card draw
- Weak to other decks who proliferate / infect at all since each player gets a poison counter from Ichor Rats
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
Our main win condition is casting Ichor Rats and then using buffs like Sugar Rush and Shade's Form which are both really strong ways to get some damage and thusly some poison counters! We also have a bunch of ways to protect Ichor Rats and bring them back and re-ETB them! Cards like Supernatural Stamina and Feign Death are both really strong examples of the many effects that we have like this!
Conclusion:
Ichor rats is a really cool commander that will likely not earn you many friends at the Pauper EDH table! But hey who needs friends when you can attack with a pretty cool rat! Ichor Rats has all of the strengths and weaknesses that come with being in mono-black! This deck is an absolute ton of fun and big shoutout to @scoobydrew0 on twitter for the suggestion. Thanks for the support and thanks for reading to the end!