“Hunters in the sun, can miss the beasts in the shadows”
Art:Shaman of the Pack
by Dan Scott
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Shaman of the Pack is a really sweet Golgari Elf commander who loves dealing damage, since this is on ETB and not cast we can easily retrigger Shaman and deal a ton of damage to our opponents! This deck is just like all of the other elf decks in other formats. Fast, Efficient and Big mana focused! This deck is a ton of fun to play and a little bit more fun since we have the addition of black mana to our list! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
Shaman of the Pack Elfball!
Buy this Deck!
Tcgplayer link to buy this deck: Shaman of the Pack Elfball Pauper EDH
Why Shaman of the Pack?
The main reason we chose Shaman of the Pack is that being in Golgari as opposed to mono-green gives us access to a bunch of extra removal that makes our deck a lot stronger. Additionally Shaman of the Pack is a great damage dealer and with some of our sac outlets / reanimation spells we can straight kill opponents off of Shaman ETB’s alone!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck!
Creatures:
We have so many elves so for this section we are going to focus on the highlights of our elf package, the best elf in the deck in my opinion is Priest of Titania
since it is basically a Gaea's Cradle
on a creature! Elvish Vanguard
is another great creature since it can just get absolutely huge and out of hand quickly! Timberwatch Elf
is a crazy creature that with cards like Seeker of Skybreak
we can double activate it after an attack and sometimes kill an opponent! We also have some cards to get Shaman back to our hand and retrigger with cards like Invasive Species
and Ambush Krotiq
which are both great ways to retrigger Shaman!
We also have some non-elf creatures that are great game-enders like Ulamog's Crusher
and Eldrazi Devastator
with all of our mana ramp we can get these out super early and these can be great contributors to winning games, its hard to beat that annihilation! Another great card is Wildheart Invoker
combine this with a bunch of mana from our creatures and we can often activate this 1-2 times! Wildheart is such a good card in this deck and can easily get out of hand quickly, 8 may seem like a lot but with how much mana we produce its often not a huge ask!
Instants:
Village Rites
is a really cool card that gets us a way to sacrifice and subsequently retrigger Shaman, but we also get some cards out of the deal! A lot of our removal resides within our instant package like Cast Down
, Doom Blade
and Eyeblight's Ending
all of these are great ways to deal with opponents problematic creatures! We also have Supernatural Stamina
, Feign Death
and Undying Malice
which are all great ways to retrigger Shaman and prevent her from dying!
Sorceries:
Bone Splinters
is a really cool card that allows us to sac shaman so we can retrigger and take care of an opponents creature! Broken Bond
is a great piece of removal combined with a little land ramp, great for our deck! Speaking of mana ramp we of course have Cultivate
and Kodama's Reach
which are both great pieces of mana ramp! Since we often have so many creatures Gleeful Sabotage
is basically a two for one in our deck! You Meet in a Tavern
is a great way to cycle through our deck and buff up our elfball and swing for the fences!
Artifacts:
Arcane Signet
and Bonder's Ornament
are pretty much Pauper EDH auto-includes at this point and are just great for some extra and great to draw some cards! Wedding Invitation
is a great piece of card draw combined with the fact that we can make one of our big mana beaters or a big elf that is unblockable especially when combined with sweet creatures like Timberwatch Elf!
Enchantments:
One of our best enchantments for mana production is Elvish Guidance
in testing I was able to make 10 to 15 Green mana with this which is just crazy! Kaya's Ghostform
is a really great card to put on Shaman and get the Re-ETB trigger! Tortured Existence
is a great card to get back some key elves that died and this card alone makes the black splash worth it! Presence of Gond
is a great way to get more creatures and for Shaman triggers! Spidersilk Armor
answer one of our biggest weaknesses which is flying creatures!
Land Base:
As we always do with our pauper builds we of course have our in color cycling lands just in case we flood out like Barren Moor
and Tranquil Thicket
which are great whether we play them or cycle them! Thriving Grove
and Thriving Moor
are two other dual lands that are just really cool and something I have been jamming into a bunch of decks as of lately!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Very strong in and out of combat
- Easy to fill the board quickly
- Creatures produce a crazy amount of mana
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to creature hate
- Not a ton of ways to draw cards
- Can be hard to close out games without finding our huge game-enders
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
We are an elf deck so our main win condition is either Multiple Shaman triggers to the same opponent or by turning our creatures sideways and swinging for the fences! Cards that help with getting shaman to retrigger include cards like Undying Malice and Feign Death to assist with the combat win cards like Elvish Vanguard and Timberwatch Elf!
Conclusion:
In conclusion Shaman of the pack is a really sweet general for one of magic’s oldest and coolest creatures types! This deck is very similar to a lot of Elfball decks where we storm the board with creatures and swing for the fences, Shaman of the Pack helps an absolute ton with getting that done! This deck is a ton of fun and is just a blast. Hope you enjoyed this article, dont forget you can always request a commander for PDH, CEDH, EDH and Budget EDH on our twitter or discord!