“And silence was the answer that I got.”
Art:Phantom Train
by Gal Or
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Phantom Train is here to run over all of your opponents and sacrifice all of the artifacts and creatures we possibly can to do it! Phantom Train is certainly a very different and interesting vehicle mostly because it has no crew cost, while we can “animate” it by sacrificing an artifact and a creature we cant crew it like a traditional vehicle, this ability is a positive and a negative because with a full board we can pump it huge and hit like a train, but if we fall behind and arent able to animate our commander it can be pretty rough for us. We have a ton of effects that trigger on death for both our artifacts and our creatures, which does allow us to be pretty strong and get a lot of extra value out of reanimating our stuff. This deck is really cool and I had a blast testing it, it’s a glass-cannon or more of a glass train, but it really is fun! Without further ado, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Phantom Train Big Swing Sacrifice!
Why Phantom Train?
Phantom Train is a huge part of our deck and the main way that we end the game, since we are able to activate Phantom Train’s aiblty as many times as we want and they have built in trample we are easily able to run over opponents and hit like a truck, being able to protect our commander is key as well but it is worth noting that we do need an artifact or creature to sacrifice so we can activate it and protect them with something like Offer Immortality
or Feign Death
and Supernatural Stamina
. Phantom Train should always be cast as soon as we possibly can.
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:
Apocalypse Runner
Record against Apocalypse Runner 5-2
A vehicle vs vehicle matchup! I tested these two decks together and shockingly I found that the Pain Train did a lot better than i thought, the key to this matchup is having a cheap hand so we can get the phantom train out quickly and buff them up quickly, commander damage kills are really easy to achieve in this deck so as long as we can be quick we should be good. This is a good matchup for our deck.
Grunn, the Lonely King
Record against Grunn, the Lonely King 3-0
If they don’t have an amazing hand that allows them to ramp out Grunn really quickly, this is a very easy matchup for our deck, we are often quicker, and if they don’t immediately have a way to give Grunn trample, we typically just run them over and commander damage them out of the game. This is a great matchup for our deck.
Gorex, the Tombshell
Record against Gorex, the Tombshell 4-1
This is a really good matchup for our deck, their commander can be scary but typically by the time they get him out we usually have our train pretty big, they do have a lot of sacrifice effects so having cheap creatures that we can easily sacrifice is key for this matchup, overall i didn’t have a lot of trouble with this matchup.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker
Record against Shirei, Shizo’s Caretaker 1-3
This is a very rough matchup for our deck, while we have a very similar game plan to Shirei. This matchup can be tough because they are really good at reanimating creatures, and if they are able to consistently reanimate a sacrifice effect, we can lose our board and our commander, which is horrible for us. I struggled with this matchup; if we are fast and focus them and have a cheap and big board, we can hit really hard.
Phyrexian Censor
Record against Phyrexian Censor 0-3
This is essentially a Pauper EDH Stax deck and that is not great for us, we have a pretty cheap cost throughout our entire deck and being able to fill our board with cheap artifacts and cheap creatures to sacrifice to the Phantom Train is key to our gameplan, Phyrexian Censor pretty much completely stops that and slows our gameplan to a true halt, our only recourse against this deck is being able to kill their commander but if they are able to stick them on the board for a long period of time we will struggle against this deck.
Cactusfolk Sureshot
Record against Cactusfolk Sureshot 2-3
This is a tough matchup, their commander giving their board trample and haste is really tough for us to deal with, while we can commander damage kill them with our commander, it often leaves us really vulnerable to their board, and they can hit really hard as well. Their commander is also quite hard for us to kill; this is a winnable but tough matchup for us.
Strategy Overview:
Quick, Quick, Quick:
One of the most important aspects of this deck is being as quick as we possibly can, we have a lot of cheap creatures that do stuff for us when they die like Nested Shambler
, Clockwork Fox
, and Filigree Familiar
, which allow us to get a lot of support and utility, and more importantly, buff up the train.
The train is the name of the game:
The train is a huge part of our deck and is our primary damage dealer. Because of this, keeping them on the board, pumping them up, and attacking with them is key to our game plan. They are a true VIP in this deck and need to be treated as such.
Proper Threat Assessment:
We do have some removal in this deck but not an absolute ton, because of that the only things i like to remove besides immediate threats is creatures that could actually block our commander, they are typically pretty big but if there are bigger creatures out there we need to get them out of the way, we are very much a “selfish” deck and focus on our gameplan for the most part.
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:
We have a lot of creatures in this deck that are nothing more than some good old sacrifice fodder! Being able to sacrifice cards like Filigree Familiar and Clockwork Fox and get some additional card draw while buffing up our commander is very nice, I also really like being able to sacrifice creatures like Etched Familiar
, Nocturnal Feeder
and Serrated Scorpion
, which give us some nice and easy drain and gain which can help us a ton against more aggressive strategies. I really like cards like Nested Shambler, Infestation Sage
, and Nezumi Linkbreaker
, which all provide additional tokens that we can easily sacrifice to our commander! We do have some cards that work really well with all of the stuff we sacrifice, like Falkenrath Noble
, which is an amazing and cheap way to drain and gain our opponents and put just a little bit of additional pressure on them. We also have cards like Chitin Gravestalker
, which is a great additional attacker/blocker and can be really helpful, especially when opponents start attacking us hard. It being nearly free is also really great for our deck. Since we play so many artifacts we have some good artifact synergy as well through cards like Sojourner's Companion
and Refurbished Familiar
which are not only great attackers/blockers for the deck but provide a lot of utility and more importantly can be sacrificed to our commander.
Instants:
If our commander is a creature we can use Feign Death, Supernatural Stamina and Offer Immortality as great ways to protect them from single-target removal and combat damage, while it does suck they have to be animated for us to bring them back it is pretty easy for us to bring them back and we can do it at instant speed. Beyond that, it’s all removal here! With options like Grasp of Darkness
, Breathe Your Last
, and Murder
, there really aren’t many creatures that we can’t kill. We typically use these removal spells to take our opponents’ best blockers out of combat so we can get “free” hits on our opponents with the phantom train.
Sorceries:
Since we do have a pretty high creature count in the deck I’m a really big fan of Gruesome Fate
which is a really nice way to damage all of our opponents and put a ton of additional pressure on them, while i will admit this card doesn’t always feel great it can be a great late-game way to whittle down our opponents, anytime we have a big board this card is pretty amazing. We also have Unearth
, which I love using to reanimate one of our cheap creatures who has a nice on-death effect like Nested Shambler or Greedy Freebooter
. Unearth just helps us buff up our commander even more, which is perfect for our deck. We finish out our sorcery package with some great draw spells in Read the Bones
, Sign in Blood
, and Day // Night
. Not a ton to say about these, just great cards for our deck, and we can certainly never say no to card draw.
Artifacts:
Since most of our artifacts are nothing more than sacrifice fodder for our commander, we have a lot of things that have an inherent benefit if we sacrifice them, like Mycosynth Wellspring
, Ichor Wellspring
, and Prized Statue
, which all provide nice pieces of utility and support when we sacrifice them to our commander. You know I had to include Wedding Invitation
, which is a very strong card in this deck, making our commander unblockable is really nice and can guarantee a one-shot. The card draw is nice as well. We do have some equipment that can help us output a ton of damage like Cranial Plating
, which can allow us to do a crazy amount of damage and works very well with our commander and their built-in trample. We do have some mana rocks to help speed out our commander like Arcane Signet
, Charcoal Diamond
, and Mind Stone
, and once they outlive their usefulness, we can easily sacrifice them to our commander to increase our damage.
Enchantments:
Endless Scream
as a way to push extra damage on the later turns and can be great for a quick burst of damage if we throw it onto our commander, sadly it will fall off when our commander stops being a creature but that burst of damage is really helpful and valuable for the deck, since we have a lot of other creatures that can deal damage using Endless Scream and Shade's Form
on either our commander or any of our creatures is pretty good for the deck. We round out our enchantment package with Oubliette
and Pestilence
which are both awesome defensive cards for the deck, if our board gets destroyed for any reason having pestilence to slow the games pace down is really strong and key to staying alive, I also love using Oubliette on combo creatures or just important creatures our opponents have.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are pretty resilient to removal if we have our commander out, since we can sacrifice artifacts and creatures as many times as we want to buff up our commander and animate them.
- Phantom Train having trample allows us to get commander damage kills pretty easily.
- We can output a ton of damage with cards like Cranial Plating
and Endless Scream, which can put a ton of additional pressure on our opponents.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- If we fall really behind and don’t have any creatures or artifacts, there is no way for us to animate our commander.
- Beyond a little bit of removal, we don’t interact with our opponents a lot.
- We are weak to graveyard hate; we have quite a few cards that want a filled-up graveyard.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks so much for reading to the end! Phantom Train is a very weird vehicle but one that I had a ton of fun with, being able to build up a big board filled to the brim with artifacts and creatures and then just sacrifice the whole thing was an absolute blast, i love the flavor aspect of hitting hard with the phantom train, being in mono-black also leans itself so well to this deck. This deck was an absolute blast to play and a really fun time. Rule break month two is shaping up to be truly amazing! Stay tuned and tap in for more!