“There is no antidote for me.”
Art:Rattleback Apothecary
by Loïc Canavaggia
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Rattleback Apothecary is a very cool card that leans itself perfectly to a mono-black midrange deck, while there is a high density of very sweet Pauper EDH commanders within Thunder Junction, I am quite surprised that the deck I built is the only one present on moxfield, while this is certainly not the best new commander within the format it is still quite strong and is just an absolute blast to play, I love the art as well as the flavor of this card and giving a creature menace and lifelink nearly every turn positions us quite well against some of the more aggressive decks within the format. If you like mono-black and the overall playstyle with a little bit of menace and lifelink sprinkled on top, I think you will love this one; without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Rattleback Apothecary Crimes!
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Why Rattleback Apothecary?
Rattleback Apothecary makes a big impact at quite a low cost. A three-mana three/two with deathtouch is a pretty strong rate, and the ability to give itself or other creatures on our board menace and lifelink allows us to hit our opponents with more consistency and play through aggressive and creature-based strategies. Committing a crime is shockingly easy, and it’s something we can reliably trigger every turn, and oftentimes multiple times within a turn. Rattleback Apothecary is awesome, and we will cast a card 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:
Fume Spitter
and Plagued Rusalka
are great ways to kill early-game creatures or tokens, and they commit crimes when targeting opponents thing so they work absolutely perfectly with our commander. We also have quite a few ways to punish our opponents for playing creatures like Blood Seeker
and Falkenrath Noble
, which are both amazing ways to punish creature decks but also are pretty good against basically any strategy within the format. We, of course, have a bunch of ways to commit a crime against our opponent, like Cuombajj Witches
and Deathspore Thallid
. These also help us commit crimes on nearly every turn, allowing us to always give a creature menace and lifelink, which gets out of hand very quickly. Since we can commit crimes pretty consistently and get a lot of life gain throughout the game, we have both Epicure of Blood
and Marauding Blight-Priest
, which are both amazing ways to turn our consistent life gain into some extra damage. We are in mono-black, so we absolutely had to include the best damage dealer and life-gain card within the format in Gray Merchant of Asphodel
, which is a great swing card and can easily end the game by itself. Since we are a mid-range deck we have quite a few strong late-game creatures with some of my favorites being Gurmag Angler
,Rot-Tide Gargantua
and Troll of Khazad-dûm
which are all pretty hard to stop and get even better when we give them menace and lifelink.
Instants:
Our instant package is full of ways to commit crimes as almost all of our instant package consists of removal, not too much to say about almost any of these; we have access to an absolute ton of removal some with extra benefits like Bake into a Pie
and Blood Curdle
while these are a little more expensive than some of our removal we are easily able to pay these costs and typically have some mana leftover after a typical turn.
Sorceries:
Many of the cards we are running at sorcery speed provide great benefits but are mostly included because they trigger our commander; because of that, we are running some unconventional cards like Duress
and Chainer's Edict
which are both great cards but not something you typically see within Pauper EDH. I love having cheap supplemental card draw, and Sign in Blood
and Night's Whisper
are both great ways to refill our hand and continue to fill up our board and have more and more opportunities to commit crimes. While we aren’t directly focused on them, we do have quite a few zombies within the deck, so we can get quite a bit of value out of Cemetery Recruitment
.
Artifacts:
Nihil Spellbomb
is not only a source of supplemental card draw but, against graveyard-based strategies, can absolutely devastate them and ruin their entire game plan. Necrogen Spellbomb
is another great way to commit a crime and disrupt our opponents and, if needed, just a cheap and easy way to draw a card, which is always pretty strong. Executioner's Capsule
is a very strong card, and just having the threat of activating it can make our opponents more cautious; while I normally wouldn’t run this in the deck, it is an on-demand crime for us, so being able to activate that at any time is great and the main reason why it is included in the deck. While we do have a lot of cool artifacts that help us further the overall gameplan, we, of course, have some mana-rocks that help us get ahead and accelerate the gameplan like Bonder's Ornament
and Arcane Signet
.
Enchantments:
We have a strong mix of offensive and defensive enchantments, and all of them help further gameplan and, more importantly, trigger our commander, allowing us to be much stronger in combat. Eternal Thirst
is a great payoff and allows the enchanted creature to get out of hand super quickly, and giving that creature menace and lifelink is great. Another amazing offensive enchantment is Shade's Form
, which is a great mid-late game mana dump and can allow us to get in a lot of damage or win a combat situation we would normally lose. Clawing Torment
is a super-cheap way for us to commit a crime and trigger our commander, and it can remove our opponent’s best blocker, which helps an absolute ton when we have a full board and want to go to combat. The same is true for Parasitic Impetus
, which can be a great political piece at the table and help our opponent’s lives go down, which is always great for us. Quag Sickness
is another great way to commit a crime and can kill pretty much anything. Another huge benefit of Quag Sickness is being able to kill any indestructible, and against Voltron-style strategies; this can be a great way to kill their biggest creature no matter how buffed up they are.
Land Base:
Our landbase is like many land bases in Pauper EDH with a ton of supplemental card draw, this is very strong because being able to turn a dead land draw into card draw can really transform a turn and take a turn where we would not do much into something that is actually worthwhile. Some of the best examples of this are Desert of the Glorified
and Barren Moor
/Polluted Mire
. Being in mono-black lends us to having a very simple landbase, and that’s ok; when we do get some extra card draw, and some extra work out of our creature package, it’s amazing. I have tested this deck over thirty-five games and have not had any issues with flooding or mana screw. I think this landbase works well, and thirty-five is the perfect land count for this deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our commander enables us to be very strong in combat and attack pretty freely.
- We are pretty strong in the early game with some of our smaller creatures and transition nicely to the late game with our bigger creatures like Ghastly Death Tyrant
.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We have a tough matchup against control decks since we typically struggle to commit creatures to the board.
- Our commander is a big part of our deck, and if we can’t resolve them or keep them on the board, we can have rough games, especially against creature-based strategies.
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 that spends a good amount of the early game establishing small creatures and cards in hand that help us commit crimes, and once we get bigger and badder creatures out, we can use our commander and our on-demand crimes to hit with menace and lifelink allowing us to survive attacks from creature decks and deal quite a bit of damage since we have menace on nearly all of our attacks. We are a midrange deck through and through and absolutely don’t need to be swinging every turn, but when a strong opportunity to chip in some damage arises, it is key to do that. We can dish out quite a bit of damage in just a few swings.
Conclusion:
Rattleback Apothecary is so much fun and just a tried and true mono-black deck if you are a fan of any kind of midrange strategy or mono-black in general, I think you will get quite a bit of enjoyment out of this one, Rattleback Apothecary is a card that I think will get more and more love as time goes on and its something I would recommend to players new and old as it is an absolute blast to pilot. If you have been thinking about brewing this one, I highly recommend it, and if you have a list of your own, send it to us on our socials; we’d love to see it. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!