“You guys all think I’m a hero, and I’ll accept that responsibility.”
Art:Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier
by Borja Pindado
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Vial Smasher is back from causing trouble at CEDH tables and is ready to cause a ton of trouble at the Pauper EDH table. Vial Smasher has brought a ton of outlaws to help! Since the definition of outlaws is quite loose, we can play the best of the best out of Assassins, Mercenaries, Pirates, Rogues, and Warlocks. This opens us up to a ton of options and opportunities to draw cards, kill opponents’ creatures, and whittle down our opponents through combat and through our commander and supplemental damage effects. This deck is a blast and this has got to be one of the best Pauper EDH commanders out of Thunder Junction. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier Outlaws !
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Why Vial Smasher, Gleeful Grenadier?
Vial Smasher is the perfect commander for this deck. They are a damage outlet for basically every creature in the deck, and they can come down early; another big benefit of them being on the board early is that they are quite well-stated and can be amazing at attacking or blocking in the early-game while that does fall off in the mid-late game having that early can matter a lot in certain matchups. Vial Smasher is just a home run of a commander and is a great card to have access to in the command zone.
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:
This may come as a big surprise, but since we are an outlaws-focused deck, we have a ton of outlaws within the deck; we are running heavy on creatures, and since nearly every single one of them triggers our commander, we have consistent sources of additional damage. Many of the outlaws in the deck are not that impressive, but what they lack in stats and abilities, they make up for in cost, and we can easily flood the board with smaller creatures. Don’t be fooled. We have a ton of great attackers within this deck. Even though our creatures are not the greatest attackers we don’t really care if they are blocked because we have a whole host of cards that allow us to destroy creatures that were dealt damage like Hooded Assassin
and Lurking Deadeye
. Audacious Thief
is one of my favorites as they are a consistent source of card draw for the deck and are decently stat-ed. Boneyard Desecrator
is an amazing sac outlet to kill some of our smaller creatures and being able to buff Desecrator up and create a treasure token can help us get ahead on mana. The same is true for Rodeo Pyromancers
, which can be a great way to get ahead on mana, and while it is double red, we can use it for a good majority of our deck even if we are just paying a colorless cost. Our commander does not only help with using Spectacle on spells but also our creatures we have Blade Juggler
and Spikewheel Acrobat
these cards are both not very impressive for their normal costs, but since we can consistently and easily cast them for their spectacle costs we are able to have some pretty aggressive creatures on the board early.
Instants:
Our entire instant package pretty much revolves around removal. Rakdos has access to a ton of amazing removal, and we take advantage of it with amazing cheap removal like Terminate
. Having access to all of this removal positions us quite well against a lot of the creature decks within the format, and there are very few things that we can’t remove with our suite of removal.
Sorceries:
Mourner's Surprise
is an amazing card to have within our deck and is just a great piece of recursion; creating an extra outlaw that pings our opponent with Vial Smasher and getting a key creature back is absolutely insane for only two mana. We also have Dead Revels
and Skewer the Critics
, which are not that great at face value; because of our commander and the way our deck is built, we are able to deal damage consistently on pretty much every turn and can almost always cast these for their spectacle cost, these cards are much better when only paying their spectacle cost. Since we tend to dump our hand quite often we have great and decently cheap ways to refill it with Read the Bones
and Sign in Blood
.
Artifacts:
A large majority of our artifact package is mana rocks; the reason we are heavy on mana rocks is because, in the mid-game, we absolutely love dumping our hand, and having more and more mana early allows us to easily fill up our board. Beamtown Beatstick
is a very cheap piece of equipment that makes our equipped creature harder to block, bigger, and gives us some extra mana production, which is awesome.
Enchantments:
I love Shade's Form
within the deck, not only because it protects our creatures from single-target removal, but the buff can be an amazing way to deal more damage and win in combat. Dogged Pursuit
and Ill-Gotten Inheritance
help us deal additional damage and, more importantly, gain us some life back, which can be great because we swing out a lot and typically leave ourselves unprotected. Sticky Fingers
is kind of like a ramp spell within the deck and the menace helps a ton, if we have this one early it should absolutely go on Vial Smasher because a 3/2 with menace and creating some treasure is quite the thing to have on the third turn. I love having Impact Tremors
because we are running thirty-three creatures; being able to do damage on ETB with even a fraction of them can be a great way to put pressure on our opponents.
Land Base:
Hidden Necropolis
and Hidden Volcano
are both great cards for the late-game when we have extra mana and being able to discover 4 allows us to grab pretty much anything we reveal within the deck and can be a great ability to activate if we don’t have a ton going on. Since we have a lot of small creatures within the deck, we absolutely had to include Escape Tunnel
, which is a great way to get both of our colors established and, in the mid-late game being able to make a creature unblockable can be strong, especially for creatures that have on hits. We also have a ton of supplemental card draw within our landbase as always, which is always amazing if we draw a land late and cycle a Polluted Mire
and Smoldering Crater
. I like this landbase a lot and believe it to be quite strong. I believe that thirty-five lands is the perfect number for this deck.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Our commander is very cheap, and since almost every creature in our deck triggers them, we can deal damage consistently to our opponents.
- We have quite a bit of supplemental card draw within the deck, which allows us to constantly cast outlaws and keep on dealing with more and more damage.
- Being in Rakdos allows us to have an amazing suite of removal, which allows us to take out the biggest and baddest within the format.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Generally weak to creature hate.
- Our creatures are all quite small and not great in combat, we are not the greatest at blocking.
- We don’t have a ton of ways to deal with artifacts and enchantments and can struggle against decks that focus on these archetypes.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We win the game through combat and are greatly aided by our commander, who provides a nice source of passive damage; while many of our creatures are not the most impressive in combat, being able to chip in damage from our commander and attack with our smaller evasive creatures allows us to output a decent amount of damage on any given turn. We also have a strong trifecta of chipping in damage in Impact Tremors, Witty Roastmaster
, and Ill-Gotten Inheritance which are all amazing ways to increase our damage output and whittle down our opponent’s life total.
Conclusion:
Vial Smasher is just plain awesome and a very fun and flavorful deck; ever since spoiler season, I have been quite excited to showcase this one, and I have been adding this deck to our weekly rotation, allowing us to have more fun and diversity within our table, if you like the playstyle of a creature-type focused deck or just simply love Rakdos this is certainly an amazing deck to try out. Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support!