Choir of Aristocrats (PDH) (EDH / Commander)

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

This mono-black deck is built around Banshee of the Dread Choir (BDC), a spirit with the sweet ability Myriad. It's one of my favourite keywords and was followed up with the equally sweet keyword Encore.

BDC is part of a Myriad cycle along with; Broodbirth Viper, Herald of the Host, Warchief Giant and Caller of the Pack. They all have potential as commanders.

For BDC I would have liked to make the myriad discard ability work however giving evasion to the copies is quite difficult (Shadow Alley Denizen and Cavern Whisperer being the best). So instead we treat the discard part of BDC's ability as a bonus and instead aim to sacrifice the copies in response to the exiling trigger at the end of combat. Our sac outlets are cards like Carrion Feeder, Viscera Seer, Bloodflow Connoisseur, Spark Reaper, Village Rites, Deadly Dispute and Bushmeat Poacher.

This means the rest of the deck has an aristocrats-theme that sacs fodder creatures like the myriad copies and cards like Dusk Legion Zealot, Novice Occultist, Filigree Familiar etc. There's also a slight discard sub-theme with cards like Burglar Rat, Elvish Doomsayer, Liliana's Specter which all make for fine fodder as well as Syphon Mind and Tasigur's Cruelty for additional discard.

To keep BDC alive through combat the deck runs a fair bit of evasion; Cavern Whisperer, Cliffhaven Kitesail, Bladed Pinions, Fleetfeather Sandals, Grisly Transformation, Whispersilk Cloak and the aforementioned Shadow Alley Denizen helps BDC connect damage as it's unlikely all three opponents have flying creatures that can contest a 4/4. The myriad copies are expendable — they either trade with creatures or can be sacrificed to the aristocrats. The evasion also benefits the aristocrats that grow in size to connect with their big damage.

Since the deck is mono-black it also has a truckload of removal, which has the perk of aiding in opening the way for BDC to connect combat damage.

The rest of the deck is a bit of ramp since the commander is 5cmc as well as some sources of card advantage.

The main weakness of the deck is probably a slight dearth of protection — while we have Kaya's Ghostform and Blessing of Leeches our commander is a magnet for removal as she makes enemies of each opponent, recasting her with some commander tax could be difficult and our aristocrats demand removal as well. Ideally a combination of discard, removal of value engines and a lot of "must-removes" outgrinds the opponents.

Thanks a lot for reading, if you have any thoughts or suggestions please let me know!