Finally! A finished list, it was a long time in the making due to school and work. The other problem of course, was getting the deck to perform. After playtesting and such, I'm finally happy with the deck and how it performs. The deck can shut down people who rely heavily on creatures, and trying to kill me with Fireball effects is nigh impossible with my life gaining abilities. This deck's weakness is large amounts of control. The two most problematic decks for me were 5 Color Control, and Mistmeadow Blink, but with the right plays, these decks can be taken down.
The wonderful thing about this list is its resilience. It gains life, it lays down creatures, recurs them if need be, and punishes attackers. It takes a lot of resources and commitment to target this deck in a game, which often deters players from taking any action against me. They don't want to overextend only to get poked by an ignored player at the table.
After seeing Armament Corps, I was most interested in building a PDH deck in these colors, opposed to the other four wedge generals. I'm not building for the commander, but for the color combination, however, the commander does makes for a great play if my hand is lacking later in the game. My biggest problem making this deck is that B/W/G offers many different themes and strategies, making a strategy to hone in on for the deck a little more difficult.
My initial inspiration for the deck was seeing the Abzan card Siegecraft. It immediately made me want to build a deck that "besieges" my opponents with a mobile fortress. Build an impenetrable citadel of a board state, then siege the opponents with taxing effects. Being that there are no true board wipes in Pauper, relying heavily on the boardstate isn't such a dangerous path to take.
The deck runs a strategy similar to that of a Vizkopa Guildmage deck. The only difference is that it has green to support it with ramp and some creatures. With multiple extorters out, extorting can get dangerous for your opponents, but expensive for you, where a W/B deck would have trouble, this deck has access to a lot of mana. A W/B deck is typically very flimsy due to small creatures as well, this is where green offers us Oakgnarl Warrior and such.
A couple of MVP's in the deck:
Soul Link- Plopped on a Ruination Wurm with a Runes of the Deus makes for fun times. I gain lots of life, and the controller is often forced to kill his own creature if he lacks enchantment removal.
Stab Wound- A card I was afraid would under perform ended up doing serious damage. The damage adds up real quick in addition to extortion and such.
Selesnya Evangel, a 1/1 token is just as good as an Oakgnarl Warrior when you're chump blocking, and she drops one just about every turn. She has saved me quite a few times with the amount of tokens I put out. People are less likely to target her because they're more concerned with the extort creatures.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with deck. I was afraid it wouldn't stack up, and it's certainly not on par with a 5c control or a Mistmeadow Witch blink deck, but it still wins games, and every once and a while it steals a game on the brink with a clutch play. Let me know what you think, and please offer adds/cuts. It's far from perfect.
Alright, due to being busy with college and work, I haven't done much for the list, but I do have a better compiling of cards. This is an awkward color combination for pauper which is why I love it. I noticed no one has offered any advice, so maybe people will be more inclined to offer help if I give a closer to finished list for people to suggest cuts from.
This list is over by 27 cards. Picking a theme, and deciding what to drop is difficult, these colors offer such different strategies that it's difficult to find which have better synergy with each other.
While I only have four attackers listed, obviously other creatures can enter the fray if the board state allows it.
I'd like to add Inviolability. It offers a pretty crazy interaction with Wall of Glare, and can be tutored with Totem-Guide Hartebeest, or recurred with Auramancer. I don't know if it deserves a spot though, is that interaction just cute? Or does it have a standing to be in the deck?
Cutting cards from this pile is hard to do, because, as I said before, these colors have so much to offer to each other. There is just too much going on in there though. Token generation, discard, recursion, walls, ramp, removal, etc.
A friend of mine runs a Vizkopa Guildmage deck that has serious damage output potential, but the problem is his durability. I'm trying to run a Vizkopa Guildmage-esque deck with removal and creatures to protect myself while the taxers go to work. This is the most difficult time I've ever had creating a deck.
Shield of the oversoul and maybegift of the deity - shield can convert your general into a voltron, in a pinch, and the gift could come in handy if you need to battering ram through a defensive opponent.
I really dig your extort sub-theme. I've heard about some really mean vizkopa guildmage decks, and with the addition of green ramp, I can see this being an effective strategy in this deck. I'll be interested in reading how this deck goes!
-Dolono
Late addition: that you mention evincar's justice in the OP, were I in charge of your list, I would absolutely include this card, probably cutting back on 1/1 mana dorks (in favor of more spell ramp) except for those dorks that I would otherwise want dead anyway (sakura and yavimaya elders).
Finally! A finished list, it was a long time in the making due to school and work. The other problem of course, was getting the deck to perform. After playtesting and such, I'm finally happy with the deck and how it performs. The deck can shut down people who rely heavily on creatures, and trying to kill me with Fireball effects is nigh impossible with my life gaining abilities. This deck's weakness is large amounts of control. The two most problematic decks for me were 5 Color Control, and Mistmeadow Blink, but with the right plays, these decks can be taken down.
The wonderful thing about this list is its resilience. It gains life, it lays down creatures, recurs them if need be, and punishes attackers. It takes a lot of resources and commitment to target this deck in a game, which often deters players from taking any action against me. They don't want to overextend only to get poked by an ignored player at the table.
After seeing Armament Corps, I was most interested in building a PDH deck in these colors, opposed to the other four wedge generals. I'm not building for the commander, but for the color combination, however, the commander does makes for a great play if my hand is lacking later in the game. My biggest problem making this deck is that B/W/G offers many different themes and strategies, making a strategy to hone in on for the deck a little more difficult.
My initial inspiration for the deck was seeing the Abzan card Siegecraft. It immediately made me want to build a deck that "besieges" my opponents with a mobile fortress. Build an impenetrable citadel of a board state, then siege the opponents with taxing effects. Being that there are no true board wipes in Pauper, relying heavily on the boardstate isn't such a dangerous path to take.
1 Archer's Parapet
1 Basilica Guards
1 Basilica Screecher
1 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
1 Kingpin's Pet
1 Scholar of Athreos
1 Suture Priest
1 Syndic of Tithes
1 Syndicate Enforcer
1 Tithe Drinker
1 Urborg Syphon-Mage
Defending the Walls
1 Dawnglare Invoker
1 Longshot Squad
1 Pale Recluse
1 Selesnya Evangel
1 Smokespew Invoker
1 Totem-Guide Hartebeest (Also Tutor)
1 Wall of Distortion
1 Wall of Glare
1 Wall of Tanglecord
Aggressive Creatures
1 Krosan Tusker
1 Oakgnarl Warrior
1 Twisted Abomination
1 Ulamog's Crusher
1 Auramancer
1 Driver of the Dead
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Wickerbough Elder
1 Yavimaya Elder
Instants
1 Celestial Flare
1 Doom Blade
1 Erase
1 Grim Harvest
1 Murder
1 Kill Shot
1 Reprisal
1 Sprout Swarm
1 Unmake
Artifacts
1 Abzan Banner
1 Armillary Sphere
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Expedition Map
Sorceries
1 Ashes to Ashes
1 Cultivate
1 Disturbed Burial
1 Evincar's Justice
1 Explore
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Rampant Growth
1 Ranger's Path
1 Skyshroud Claim
1 Syphon Mind
1 Unearth
1 Arrest
1 Casting of Bones
1 Journey to Nowhere
1 Night Soil
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Pestilence
1 Pillory of the Sleepless
1 Recumbent Bliss
1 Sigil of the Nayan Gods
1 Soul Link
1 Stab Wound
The deck runs a strategy similar to that of a Vizkopa Guildmage deck. The only difference is that it has green to support it with ramp and some creatures. With multiple extorters out, extorting can get dangerous for your opponents, but expensive for you, where a W/B deck would have trouble, this deck has access to a lot of mana. A W/B deck is typically very flimsy due to small creatures as well, this is where green offers us Oakgnarl Warrior and such.
A couple of MVP's in the deck:
Soul Link- Plopped on a Ruination Wurm with a Runes of the Deus makes for fun times. I gain lots of life, and the controller is often forced to kill his own creature if he lacks enchantment removal.
Stab Wound- A card I was afraid would under perform ended up doing serious damage. The damage adds up real quick in addition to extortion and such.
Selesnya Evangel, a 1/1 token is just as good as an Oakgnarl Warrior when you're chump blocking, and she drops one just about every turn. She has saved me quite a few times with the amount of tokens I put out. People are less likely to target her because they're more concerned with the extort creatures.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with deck. I was afraid it wouldn't stack up, and it's certainly not on par with a 5c control or a Mistmeadow Witch blink deck, but it still wins games, and every once and a while it steals a game on the brink with a clutch play. Let me know what you think, and please offer adds/cuts. It's far from perfect.
This list is over by 27 cards. Picking a theme, and deciding what to drop is difficult, these colors offer such different strategies that it's difficult to find which have better synergy with each other.
1 Avacyn's Pilgrim
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Llanowar Elves
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
3 Farhaven Elf
3 Yavimaya Elder
5 Silverglade Elemental
Tax Creatures
2 Archer's Parapet
2 Basilica Screecher
2 Suture Priest
2 Syndic of Tithes
2 Tithe Drinker
3 Basilica Guards
3 Kingpin's Pet
3 Scholar of Athreos
3 Urborg Syphon-Mage
4 Syndicate Enforcer
5 Gray Merchant of Asphodel
Defending the Gates Creatures
1 Disowned Ancestor
1 Ezuri's Archers
1 Steel Wall
2 Selesnya Evangel
2 Wall of Glare
2 Wall of Tanglecord
3 Dawnglare Invoker
3 Smokespew Invoker
3 Sporecap Spider
4 Longshot Squad
4 Salt Road Patrol
4 Wall of Distortion
5 Rotting Mastodon
5 Totem-Guide Hartebeest (Tutor as well)
6 Twisted Abomination
7 Krosan Tusker
7 Oakgnarl Warrior
8 Ulamog's Crusher
Instant Creature Removal
2 Celestial Flare
2 Doom Blade
2 Reprisal
3 Kill Shot
3 Murder
3 Rend Flesh
3 Unmake
4 Neck Snap
Enchantment Creature Removal
2 Journey to Nowhere
2 Pacifism
3 Arrest
3 Oblivion Ring
3 Pillory of the Sleepless (Also Tax)
3 Recumbent Bliss
3 Stab Wound (Also Tax)
4 Faith's Fetters
Ramp/Fixing
1 Expedition Map
2 Armillary Sphere
2 Explore
2 Rampant Growth
3 Abzan Banner
3 Cultivate
3 Darksteel Ingot
3 Kodama's Reach
4 Ranger's Path
4 Skyshroud Claim
1 Reclaim
1 Unearth
2 Disturbed Burial
2 Grim Harvest
4 Driver of the Dead
Artifact/Enchantment Removal
1 Erase
2 Disenchant
2 Seal of Cleansing
4 Wickerbough Elder
Misc.
2 Darksteel Pendant
2 Feat of Resistance
2 Night Soil
2 Sprout Swarm
3 Ashes to Ashes
3 Auramancer
3 Casting of Bones
3 Soul Link
4 Pestilence
4 Syphon Mind
While I only have four attackers listed, obviously other creatures can enter the fray if the board state allows it.
I'd like to add Inviolability. It offers a pretty crazy interaction with Wall of Glare, and can be tutored with Totem-Guide Hartebeest, or recurred with Auramancer. I don't know if it deserves a spot though, is that interaction just cute? Or does it have a standing to be in the deck?
Cutting cards from this pile is hard to do, because, as I said before, these colors have so much to offer to each other. There is just too much going on in there though. Token generation, discard, recursion, walls, ramp, removal, etc.
A friend of mine runs a Vizkopa Guildmage deck that has serious damage output potential, but the problem is his durability. I'm trying to run a Vizkopa Guildmage-esque deck with removal and creatures to protect myself while the taxers go to work. This is the most difficult time I've ever had creating a deck.
Here are a couple of cards I'd like to recommend (while my morning coffee it taking effect)...
Pale Recluse, noble templar, elvish aberration, sigil of the nayan gods - I'm pretty obsessed with cyclers in PDH these days. Some of these match your high toughness theme, and can help you ramp, color fix, and filter.
Shield of the oversoul and maybe gift of the deity - shield can convert your general into a voltron, in a pinch, and the gift could come in handy if you need to battering ram through a defensive opponent.
I really dig your extort sub-theme. I've heard about some really mean vizkopa guildmage decks, and with the addition of green ramp, I can see this being an effective strategy in this deck. I'll be interested in reading how this deck goes!
-Dolono
Late addition: that you mention evincar's justice in the OP, were I in charge of your list, I would absolutely include this card, probably cutting back on 1/1 mana dorks (in favor of more spell ramp) except for those dorks that I would otherwise want dead anyway (sakura and yavimaya elders).
"Personally I love high-riak, low-reqars gambles. Life's best with a decent amount of riak. And f*** reqars."