[Pauper]Song Cycling (Pauper) [Révision 25]

Deck Reference:

• https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/aztec-death-whistle-songs-of-the-damned-combo/
• https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles/instant-deck-tech-songs-of-the-damned-pauper

Description: My go to pauper fun deck. A graveyard based deck powered by cycling strategy that aims to win with

• Plan A: Big Songs of the Damned + Consume Spirit / Crypt Rats activation or
• Plan B: Boardwipe then hardcast Big Cycle creatures.
• Plan C: Ping with Drannith Stinger.

I know tier storm cycling deck exist but I prefer to play this version. (cough cough, lotus petal is so expensive in paper)

Gameplay

Early game is about building graveyard resources thru cycling and self-mill while presenting cheap board presence as blockers.

Cyclers

• Deadshot Minotaur: Utility against flying creatures like Faeries, Mulldrifter and Kor Skyfisher.
• Horror of the Broken Lands / Street Wraith: Good beaters for Plan B.
• Drannith Stinger: Plan C, provides early board presence against aggro decks and attracts removal to clear Plan B.
• Lurching Rotbeast, Ash Barrens: Synergy with Horror of the Broken Lands and Drannith Stinger

Self-Mill
This set of cards are used to fill the graveyard and also to get Gnaw to the Bone asap.

• Satyr Wayfinder: Early board presence and ensures land drop.
• Grapple with the Past: Acts as extra copies of any creature card in the deck. (Note: 4th copy can be played in a slower meta.)

Midgame is about stabilizing our board thru small Crypt Rats activation for boardwipe and Gnaw to the Bone for life gain.

• Death Denied: Good for grindy match, the only form of card advantage in this deck.
• Faithless Looting: Loot dead cards in hand this are Gnaw to the Bone and extra copy of Faithless Looting (Flashback), Lands, or other Self-mill cards*.
  Note: There comes a point in the game wherein self-mill cards becomes detrimental to our plan, this is when we don't want to mill our keycards like Songs of the Damned or Consume Spirit.

Endgame

• Plan A: Big Songs of the Damned + Consume Spirit / Crypt Rats activation or
• Plan B: Boardwipe then hardcast Big Cycle creatures.
• Plan C: Ping with Drannith Stinger, cast a big Death Denied and return cycling cards to hand.

Sideboard

• Shenanigans: Always board-in against grindy matchups in anticipation for Relic of Progenitus. Dredge makes this card safe to self-mill or looting.
• Faerie Macabre: Against graveyard shenanigans
• Duress: Against combo and counterspells.
• Weather the Storm: Extra life gain for Burn and hyper aggressive matchups, always give respect to this archetype.
• Snuff Out: Removal for (1) Big beaters like Ulamog's Crusher, a creature this big requires huge mana investment that may not come on time and (2) Hyper aggressive decks that threaten to kill as early as T3. (Hotdogs and Infect.)
• Terminate: Removal for things that can't be hit by Snuff Out like Gurmag Angler and Guardian of the Guildpact. (Be conscious about Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast when boarding this.)
• Wilt: Board-in against Bogles Aura, Pestilence, Affinity and artifact based graveyard hate.
• Arms of Hadar: For aggro matchups like Boros and Stompy that has a lot of X/2 creatures.
  Note: Use Suffocating Fumes for metas with lots of Mono U Faeries and use Arms of Hadar for other Faerie variant.

What and When to Board Out

• Satyr Wayfinder and Grapple with the Past : Don't want to self-mill the side-boarded cards.
• Deadshot Minotaur: If utility is not needed.
• Songs of the Damned: (-4) against faeries.
• Street Wraith (-2): against burn, need to preserve life.
• Gnaw to the Bone (-1): Against slow decks or decks wherein life gain is not needed.
• Consume Spirit: Against Prismatic Strands and Counterspell, it's bad to spend X mana for a sorcery speed spell.
• Death Denied (-1): Against aggressive match-ups.
• Faithless Looting (-2): Against discard strategies.

Sideboarding Guide (Rev.25)

U / UR Faeries
========================
+3 Duress
+2 Snuff Out
+1 Arms of Hadar
+1 Shenanigans
-4 Songs of the Damned
-1 Consume Spirit
-1 Gnaw to the Bone
-1 Satyr Wayfinder

• Overload opponent's counterspell by hardcasting creatures.

UB Faeries
========================
+3 Duress
+3 Faerie Macabre
+2 Snuff Out
+1 Arms of Hadar
+1 Shenanigans
-4 Songs of the Damned
-2 Gnaw to the Bone
-1 Consume Spirit
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Horror of the Broken Lands

• Overload opponent's counterspell by hardcasting creatures.
• No Terminate as Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast are likely to go-in from opponent side.
• Arms of Hadar is less effective due to lesser X/2 creatures (10).
• Snuff Out is less effective due to black creatures.
• Street Wraith will be the key to this match-up.
• Faerie Macabre is an addiitional attacker to take Monarch and to tech against a possible Reaping the Grave.

Boros Syntheziser / (Bully)
========================
+2 Snuff Out (vs. Seeker of the Way) // +2 Terminate (vs. Guardian of the Guildpact)
+1 Weather the Storm
+1 Arms of Hadar
+1 Shenanigans
(+2 Faerie Macabre) -> For Boros Bully
-2 Songs of the Damned
-1 Consume Spirit
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
(-1 Street Wraith)
(-1 Lurching Rotbeast)

• Synthesizer have Glint Hawk while Bully have Squadron Hawk.
• Synthesizer builds only have 0~2 copies of Prismatic Strands because of Experimental Synthesizer.
• Only plays 1~2 copies of Guardian of the Guildpact, be concerned if opponent has Basilisk Gate.

Kiln Fiend
========================
+2 Snuff Out
+2 Terminate
+1 Weather the Storm
-1 Songs of the Damned
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Street Wraith
-1 Deadshot Minotaur
-1 Death Denied

• Consider x2 Faerie Macabre if opponent has Faithless Looting and Underworld Rage-Hound.
• Should I board-in Duress here?

Affinity
========================
+2 Snuff Out
+2 Wilt
+1 Shenanigans
-2 Deadshot Minotaur
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Gnaw to the Bone

• Be conscious about Metallic Rebuke (Pay 3).
• 2 Copies of Gurmag Angler atmost.

Burn
========================
+3 Duress
+2 Terminate
+1 Weather the Storm
-2 Crypt Rats
-1 Songs of the Damned
-1 Street Wraith
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Death Denied

Rakdos Madness
========================
+3 Duress
+2 Faerie Macabre
+1 Weather the Storm
+1 Shenanigans
-4 Songs of the Damned
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Lurching Rotbeast

• Beware of Bojuka Bog bounce land combination.
• 1 copy of Gurmag Angler atmost.

Stompy / Elves / Slivers
========================
+2 Snuff Out
+1 Weather the Storm
+1 Arms of Hadar
-1 Songs of the Damned
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Deadshot Minotaur
-1 Death Denied

• Try to play around a possible Wrap in Vigor.

Notes

• (Rev.22) Removed the 1-drop creatures, the current list has 11 2-drops for early board presence.
• Always have 4 Crypt Rats main when tweaking the mainboard.
• I used to board-out all Songs of the Damned against small go-wide decks like Elves but this move is wrong. Only board-out all copies of Songs of the Damned against counterspells.
• Respond / Hold priority with Crypt Rats activation with another activation to kill Undying/Persist creatures.
• Against aggro, try to have double Green source before Red this is for that instance when we need to double cast green spells (Satyr Wayfinder > Gnaw to the Bone).
• Deck is unplayable if Crypt Incursion is present in the meta.
• Typical grave hate pieces:
  • Faerie Macabre (2~3)
  • Nihil Spellbomb (2)
  • Relic of Progenitus (2)
  • Bojuka Bog (1)
• Other hate piece: Prismatic Strands (4), Dawnbringer Cleric (1~2)
• Deck is also weak against discard due to lack of card advantage in the deck.