I've been into pauper for a while, and I just discovered pauper commander and I'm really enjoying the format. If you're not familiar with the rules, it's exactly the same as commander except as follows:
- Commander is any uncommon (doesn't have to be legendary)
- You start with 30 life
- 16 commander damage is lethal
- The rest of the cards have to be common
- Right now, there's no ban list
That being said, here's the deck:
https://deckstats.net/decks/154057/1629380-the-incredible-molderhulk-paup/en
Commander:
MolderhulkWhat a stud.
A 6/6 for GB is scary by itself, but it's function in the deck isn't necessarily straightforward. Can you just bash face with him and win? Yes, and you should try to. But the pressure he puts on also drains your opponents of resources and keeps them off of what they want to be doing, which protects you and leaves them vulnerable to your kill-switches later on. Also, you're going to be pitching a lot of cards to the graveyard, and some are going to be lands, so recurring Moldy is also often ramp. Also, it doesn't say "basic land", it's any land, so we're running some pauper fetch lands for the recursive love.
I'll be separating things out into creatures and non-creatures, because keeping a high creature count is important (for our commander and a number of other cards).
PitchTo use him, though, you need a graveyard full of creatures.
Avenging DruidBalustrade SpyCrow of Dark TidingsExcavation MoleGolgari BrownscaleGorging VultureGreater MossdogMindwrack HarpyReturned CentaurSatyr WayfinderShambling ShellStinkweed Imp--
Corpse ChurnGrapple with the PastThese were picked for their graveyard-filling efficiency and ease of use (for example, I didn't include creatures that have to die in order to pitch cards).
Avenging Druid and
Balustrade Spy are standouts, because getting them early can absolutely fill up your graveyard if you get lucky. We have all the dredge that exists in the format to dig deeper once they're already in the bin.
Mindwrack Harpy is a standout because you can make
everyone ditch 3
every turn. This is especially scary for something we'll talk about later.
Ramp and ReclaimIn part because of
Avenging Druid and
Balustrade Spy, we're running a relatively low land count. To make up for it, we have creature-based ramp. We're also going to be pitching lands into the graveyard, so we have ways to get those back. Though not technically ramp (because they put the land into our hand rather than the battlefield), it does help with mana problems, so I'm adding them here.
Dawntreader ElkDiligent FarmhandSakura-Tribe ElderScaretiller--
Far Wanderings--
CartographerGroundskeeperStoic BuilderTilling TreefolkGroundskeeper is by far the stand-out favorite. She can do some amazing work.
DigTo use our graveyard as a toolbox, we need to be able to get stuff from there. We already talked about the lands, so here's how we dig up our creatures. We've also got two that dig themselves out, so I added them here as well. (Note: I intentionally avoided creatures with escape because our graveyard is too important to be exiling willy-nilly.)
Cabal SurgeonCadaver ImpGravediggerPit KeeperUndertaker--
Corpse ChurnDeath DeniedGrapple with the PastDisturbed BurialGrim HarvestMorgue Theft--
Durable CoilbugSanitarium SkeletonStandouts:
Corpse Churn and
Grapple with the Past do double-duty of filling our graveyard and bringing back the tools we need, so they're listed in both sections here.
Morgue Theft is amazing because you can use it even if it gets pitched.
Disturbed Burial and
Grim Harvest are wonderfully recursive.
SacrificeThis format tends to be very creature-focused, with the commanders often being the scariest things out there. Because of that, there's a lot of ways built in to deal with them (Things like
Lignify,
Reprobation, or
Deep Freeze). Having our
Molderhulk turned into a coward is no fun. We could try to just run enchantment removal, but since he's so cheap to bring out, why not just sacrifice him for value?!
Corpse BlockadeDimir House Guard (cast)
Slum ReaperSoulreaper of MogisSpark ReaperThoughtpicker WitchUndercity ScavengerViscera SeerVulturous Aven--
Altar's ReapChainer's EdictInnocent BloodSpark HarvestAgain, the focus here is creatures that let us sack for value, and recursion.
ToolboxHere's our creatures that are designed to be able to handle whatever our opponent is running and set up our own win con.
Caustic CaterpillarCrypt RatsDimir House Guard (transmuted)
Lurking DeadeyeMoriok ReplicaSkinthinnerZombie Assassin--
Gnaw to the BoneShred MemoryKillswitchHere's where it gets fun! If the game runs late, you need an "off" button. Here's the scary, sneaky, and otherwise horrible nonsense that will make your opponent sweat every time you look through your graveyard
Crashing DrawbridgeDragon FangsDragon ShadowFleetfeather SandalsHorned HelmMoodmark PainterRhizome LurcherRite of ConsumptionSoulshriekStrider HarnessTalons of WildwoodTraitor's ClutchUndergrowth ScavengerVitasport
ThallidLet's parse this out a little. First, let's talk about the nightmares:
Rhizome Lurcher and our scariest baddie,
Undergrowth Scavenger. Please not the "all graveyards" portion of the text of our favorite little fungus horror. This is why
Mindwrack Harpy is so amazing in this deck. These two (along with
Molderhulk) are the beasts that make your opponents sweat.
Next we have things to give our monsters haste:
Crashing Drawbridge,
Fleetfeather Sandals,
Strider Harness, and
Vitaspore Thallid.
Then we have evasion:
Dragon Fangs,
Dragon Shadow (both of which will attach to
Molderhulk but sadly not the others),
Fleetfeather Sandals (pulling double duty!),
Horned Helm,
Talons of Wildwood, and
Traitor's Clutch. Those last two are especially nice because you can dig them from the graveyard, but clutch is a one-shot deal so use it wisely!
Lastly, we have our nastly little tricksies:
Moodmark Painter,
Rite of Consumption, and
Soulshriek. Moodmark is the least sneaky, but she's a creature so she made the cut. The other two are just gross.
PlaystyleThis deck can be oddly patient. You're really putting it on your opponents to deal with the recurrent threat of your
Molderhulk. Be aggressive, but don't pop your killswitches until you've worn down your opponents counterspells and resources. Keep pitching cards to get access to more resources. Having both Dragon enchantments in the graveyard and a charge-enabler on the board is certain to make people keep their mana up. In the meantime, keep ramping and keep the pressure on.
Other OptionsThere's a whole suite of spells in green that dig through the top of your library (things like
Grisly Salvage). I had those in my first draft, but I needed more sacrifice and dig options, and they just weren't available on bodies. Meanwhile, there was plenty of card pitching options on creatures, so I left it to my
Stinkweed Imp and
Shambling Shell to fill up the graveyard and kept the spells for other things.