[Pauper]Song Cycling (Pauper)

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 and Monstrous Carabid: Other B cycling creatures.

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 graveyard.
  (Note: There comes a point in the game wherein self-mill becomes detrimental to our plan, this is when we don't want to mill our keycards like Songs of the Damned or Consume Spirit.)

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.
• Bitter Reunion: Rummage dead cards in hand, this are Gnaw to the Bone, lands or other self-mill cards. Greatly supports Plan B.

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. Consider to board in when on the play against mull to Nihil Spellbomb/Relic of Progenitus strategy.
• Weather the Storm: Extra life gain for Burn and hyper aggressive matchups, always give respect to this archetype.
• Overwhelming Remorse: Gets the nod over Snuff Out as it can handle Gurmag Angler and animated land of Kenku Artificer.
• 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: Primarily for 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. Consider to board in when on the draw if expecting a mull to sideboard strategy from opponent.
• 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 X/1 like Faeries, Kuldotha Burn and Cawgates.
• Writhing Necromass: For matchups that requires us to have a better clock. (Ex. Tron, Flicker and etc.)

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 / (-1) against small go wide decks.
• Street Wraith (-2): against burn, need to preserve life.
• Gnaw to the Bone (-1): Against slow decks or decks wherein immediate life gain is not needed.
• Consume Spirit: Against Counterspell.
• Death Denied: Against aggressive match-ups.

Sideboarding Guide (DMU)

Kuldotha Burn
+2 Duress
+2 Wilt
+1 Weather the Storm
+1 Shenanigans
-2 Street Wraith
-1 Bitter Reunion
-1 Death Denied
-1 Songs of the Damned
-1 Crypt Rats

• Board in Suffocating Fumes if you see Goblin Bushwhacker in G1.

UB Terror
+2 Overwhelming Remorse
+2 Duress
+2 Faerie Macabre
+1 Shenanigans
-2 Satyr Wayfinder
-2 Grapple with the Past
-1 Gnaw to the Bone
-1 Consume Spirit
-1 Songs of the Damned

Affinity
+2 Overwhelming Remorse
+2 Duress
+1 Shenanigans
+1 Faerie Macabre
-2 Deadshot Minotaur
-1 Satyr Wayfinder
-1 Grapple with the Past
-1 Consume Spirit
-1 Death Denied

• Be cautious for Metallic Rebuke (Pay 3).

U/UR Faeries
+3 Writhing Necromass
+2 Duress
+1 Suffocating Fumes
+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.

Boros Syntheziser / (Bully)
+2 Overwhelming Remorse(vs. Seeker of the Way) // +1 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, we have multi-color creatures as blockers so only be concerned if opponent has Basilisk Gate.

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).
• Be mindful about the number of cyclers when boarding out cards.
• Consume Spirit will still gain you life even if the damage is prevented (ex. Prismatic Strand).
• 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.
• Watch out for mull to Nihil Spellbomb/Relic of Progenitus strategy.