Commander Overview
Wickerfolk Indomitable certainly isn’t the strongest pauper commander for a Voltron-style deck, nor is it in the best colors. But, black offers a lot of cool effects for artifacts/creatures dying, and recursion make it so your opponents are forced to exile your stuff to keep you down.
How to Play the Deck
The main goal of the deck is to use Wickerfolk Indomitable as a beat-face type of creature. His ability lets you sacrifice an artifact and pay 2 life to cast him from your graveyard, so you can skirt around commander tax quite easily. But paying life and sacrificing a creature is bad, right? Surely just pay 2 more mana? Well, many of our artifacts have effects when they die, so not only is Wickerfolk Indomitable a recurring problem, he’s also a sac outlet for stuff like Clockwork Fox or Greedy Freebooter.
The goal of the deck is to whittle down your opponent with classic black pingers like Cabal Paladin or Pactdoll Terror while building up a massive scarecrow guy on a motorcycle.
Synergy’s in the deck
The deck doesn’t have any infinite combos, but there’s a lot of value with recursion loops. Myr Retriever is an important piece, pulling out some of our other pesky artifacts when it dies, just like Workshop Assistant. These two together make sure that you can pull out one or the other. Cathodian is good because you can sacrifice him as part of the cost to cast Wickerfolk Indomitable from your graveyard, adding 3 of the 4 mana required to cast him.
This deck runs a lot of low-mana cost stuff, but it’s a pretty grindy deck. You’re not trying to combo out or win quickly, though, the right combination of equipment and enchantments can make Wickerfolk a massive threat. You’re looking to drag the game out, ping down opponents over time and eventually swing for lethal.
Phases of the Game
Early-Game – In the early game, you want to make sure you have at least 2 swamps in hand, as well as a cheap artifact or creature to play. Sac outlets early are awesome, and creatures that create artifacts when they die at a lot of value. Callous Inspector, Hullcarver or Greedy Freebooter are all great turn 1 plays.
Mid-Game – Ideally, you want to get out Wickerfolk Indomitable as fast as possible. There are a few mana dorks and ramp spells that help us do this. Once he’s out, start attaching equipment and auras to him and build him into a threat. He himself isn’t scary, but when you keep bringing him back, he can become a problem.
Late-Game – By this point you should have some value artifacts in play, like Cranial Plating or Whispersilk Cloak, which should allow you to get in some damage on your opponents. Playing it safe and waiting for an opening to strike is usually how you can find a win.
Card Breakdowns
Ramp
This mono-black artifact build has surprisingly more ramp than a lot of other decks. Thankfully, we have access to the best rituals in pauper, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Culling the Weak, which are all turn 2 casts for our commander.
We also run Bonder's Ornament, Automated Artificer, and Leaden Myr for some extra mana.
Dune Mover is the only card that searches for a land, so it’s also an ideal turn 2 play.
Card Draw/Card Advantage
There’s not a huge amount of card draw in this deck. Most of our methods are cheap bursts of cards. Night's Whisper, Deadly Dispute, and Costly Plunder draw us a few cards in exchange for life or artifacts. Clockwork Fox also gives us 2 cards when it dies.
Removal
We love removal, but not nearly as much as other black decks. This build has Cast Down and Deadly Precision to destroy creatures, but it also has a few tricks up its sleeve for disabling creatures, too.
Crippling Blight helps us get in combat damage by making one of your opponent’s creatures unable to block. Paralyze is similar, making them pay 4 to untap their creature.
It’s worth noting that the sparse removal is intentional, as we benefit from having our creatures die most times, and have plenty of ways to get them back. In a pickle, it’s best to use your removal to help get in for damage or kill a player instead of using it as a political piece.
Protection
Because it’s so easy for us to get Wickerfolk Indomitable back from the yard, we don’t typically need a lot of protection. However, there are a few pieces that are helpful to have anyways. Soul Channelling lets you just pay the 2 life to keep Wickerfolk around. This is great for late-game, where you don’t want to worry about summoning sickness or paying equip costs again.
Additionally, Whispersilk Cloak grants shroud, and Bladed Battle-Fan gives our guy indestructible for a turn, saving us from board wipes or targeted removal.
And finally, no black pauper deck would be complete without Darkness.
Utility / Support
Wickerfolk Indomitable’s ability is nice to have for the early-game, when you might not have enough mana to cast him more than once or twice. But, once the game progresses, you might not want to sacrifice artifacts to bring him back, which is why I’ve included a few evasion techniques.
Demonic Vigor, Ashnod's Intervention, and Fake Your Own Death help you avoid recasting Wickerfolk with commander tax, while also using him to get in for damage. There’s a bit of classic black recursion, as well, in Blood Beckoning, Disentomb, and Disturbed Burial.
If you do have to recast Wickerfolk, Crashing Drawbridge and Strider's Harness can grant him haste, ensuring you can swing out again.
Mana Base
Not much of note here. Thirty-one swamps and Barren Moor as a cycler.
Win Conditions
As mentioned, we want to capitalize on our recursion by having pingers like Cabal Paladin and Pactdoll Terror chip away at our opponents. But when the time comes to start taking people out, we have a couple of tricks in our back pockets.
Ragged Veins can drastically turn the tides. If you have a big Wickerfolk and an opponent decides to block with a small creature, Ragged Veins can ensure you’re still smacking for a lot of damage.
Similarly, Rite of Consumption flings your massive Wickerfolk at an opponent, giving you a nice boost in life as well.
Strengths of the Deck
Very resilient to removal and “destroy” effects.
Low cost creatures/artifacts means you can always have something to play.
Weaknesses of the Deck
Limited interaction outside of removal makes it hard to deal with combo-related threats.
After a game or two, opponents usually catch on to the shenanigans this deck has, making it hard to win out of nowhere.
Conclusion
Is Wickerfolk Indomitable broken? No. Is it funny and cool to use a scarecrow to beat down your opponents? Yes, yes it is.
This deck is a resilient and fun build meant to thrive in the long game. Against faster tempo decks, it’s not as strong, but we can certainly try to keep up with cheap recursion and the best rituals in the format.