Pay up, Pauper (PDH) (EDH / Commander)

Pauper EDH is an alternative format that uses any uncommon creature as the commander, and the 99 are commons.

This deck is built around the mechanic Extort which we have on cards like Tithe Drinker, Basilica Screecher and more. To double the damage extort does, we run our commander Cliffhaven Vampire and his buddies, Marauding Blight-Priest and Epicure of Blood. Vizkopa Confessor is a fine alternative commander.

So with an extort creature on the board we can add one mana to any spell we cast in order to deal damage and gain a fair amount of life. With multiple extort creatures, we get multiple opportunities to extort per spell cast.
Finding a balance between extort creatures, damage "doublers", card draw and not overextending can be tricky!

In order to maximize our extorts we run a lot of cheap cantrips like Arcum's Astrolabe, Revitalize, Dusk Legion Zealot & more. One notable mention is Conviction, which can bounce itself to be recast for more extort triggers. We have some alternatives to our extort creatures to sink our mana into: Scholar of Athreos, Crypt Rats, Pestilence and Evincar's Justice, though most of these are more importantly board wipes. There's also punishing minions like Suture Priest and Blood Seeker.

Since we have so many mana sinks we run just about as much ramp as Orzhov allows. We also run a lot of card advantage as we need cards in order to extort.

We also run a ton of removal since our creatures aren't made for blocking & we mostly want to grind our opponents out.

Weaknesses of the deck would be voltron commanders with hexproof, our only answer is clearing the board and playing Diabolic Edict. We're also vulnerable to combo decks that don't require minions in order to win. We have no deterministic otk combo, which means if our opponents can outheal us or attain critical mass, we lose.

If you have any ideas or questions, please let me know!