MTG Salvation

Since seeing the new Inspired mechanic in Theros block I've been trying to find ways to manipulate it but its such a build around mechanic that its extremely weak in normal EDH. So I thought that it might be decent in pauper. Since I've been looking into building a pauper deck for a long time I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.

The basic idea of this deck is that its a control deck that takes advantage of the inspired mechanic to generate me card advantage. I run a lot of counter spells that are pauper legal, a decent amount of bounce and a ton of cards that can tap down my stuff and opponents stuff. I also run things that can untap my own cards. When choosing cards I tried to find ones that served multiple functions. For instance, they either tapped down multiple cards or were a cantrip as well.

Right now this is a completely a deck in theory. I haven't played a single game with the deck yet but I wanted to get it down on paper.



Running a bunch of common fetch lands to thin my deck. Cycle lands to draw cards and thin the deck. Two transmute cards as psuedo tutors (are there any decent common tutors?). And of course a fair amount of cantrips. So hopefully I should be able to generate some sweet card advantage between all that and forcing discard with my commander.


I don't really have a win condition other then eventually killing through combat damage. I put a couple enchantments in to maybe help speed things up with my commander but...

Might I interest you in a Freed from the Real

Quote from Arpol

Might I interest you in a Freed from the Real

Wow. I can't believe I missed that. Seems like a thing I need.

I'm probably going to put Feldon's Cane (common in Chronicles) in to recycle my yard since my only win con seems to be control (and slowly wipe hands and boards) until they quit.

First, welcome to Pauper EDH!

I have played tons of drawn out Control games in Pauper EDH and have yet to deck myself, even while casting Rush of Knowledge numerous times. Feldon Cane will not be necessary.

The problem with Inspired is that you have to jump through hoops to make it work. If you take a look at how many solid Dimir control cards I run in my Baleful Strix list (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/07-05-14-baleful-strix-pauper-edh-1/), then see that you run 20 suboptimal cards that are only designed to work with the Commander, you'll see what I mean about jumping through hoops. And even if you get the siren going, opponents will realize what a threat it can be and will target it.

Quote from Comicalflop

First, welcome to Pauper EDH!

I have played tons of drawn out Control games in Pauper EDH and have yet to deck myself, even while casting Rush of Knowledge numerous times. Feldon Cane will not be necessary.

The problem with Inspired is that you have to jump through hoops to make it work. If you take a look at how many solid Dimir control cards I run in my Baleful Strix list (http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/07-05-14-baleful-strix-pauper-edh-1/), then see that you run 20 suboptimal cards that are only designed to work with the Commander, you'll see what I mean about jumping through hoops. And even if you get the siren going, opponents will realize what a threat it can be and will target it.

The Cane isn't so much to keep me from decking myself as it is to just recycle my spells.

I haven't tested yet, waiting on most of the cards, but you are probably going to be correct. The inspired stuff probably won't work properly or will be extremely slow. So I might end up going full bore control and dump the sub optimal gimmick stuff. In which case I might change commanders. Strix was actually a card I've considered for a long time.

But I want to try the inspired stuff first.

I understand that your creature tapping effects are there to get inspired going, but many of them are just so bad. For instance, best case scenario for Twiddle is "U: Target opponent discards a card and mills one next turn." That type of effect is too weak for 100 card pauper highlander, which is really saying something.

All that being said I'm not suggesting that you scrap your whole deck and copy one from this forum. There could be some merit to running Siren of the Silent Song as your commander; I just don't think it's worth breaking any dams to get your inspired trigger.

It does say each opponent. The effect is theoretically powerful once you get it going, but there are so many hoops to jump through first. And once you have Freed From the Real on it you become Enemy #1.

The idea, which I fully acknowledge probably won't work or be that powerful, is to force them into top deck mode. I don't care about the mill. Mostly I care more about getting Sphinx's Disciple and tapping him down for card draw after that. But that still basically leaves me without a win condition.

I think I'll be getting the cards I needed today and I might be going out to play tonight (depends on some family stuff). If I can find anyone to play pauper (which could be hard) I'll see what happens.

Odds are I'll switch the deck to one of the Disciple of Deceit I cracked (or Strix). Get rid of all the cute tap cards and go a more traditional control route with a beater or 3.

After some test games against my brother's Feral Animist deck I got a little use out of the tap cards but not much.

I think I'm going to keep Rhystic Deluge, Tidal Bore and play Freed from the Real when I get the card.

All the rest are getting cut in favor of enchantments that buff and protect my commander.

So it will basically be control voltron.