One thing that was pretty popular last standard was to drop Gray Merchant of Asphodel, use him as a chump blocker (or possibly even target your own removal on him), and then recur him with Whip of Erebos. Two instances of Gary's ETB was usually enough to win the game on a somewhat populated board. I had experimented with bouncing Gary with gimmicks like Conjurer's Closet, but it never really worked out. The format was too fast and the combo was too inconsistent because we had neither enough ETB/LTB abuse nor enough enablers.
More recently, I've been experimenting with various Azorius/Boros Kitty decks as well as the Acid Trip deck. Looks like pauper has a lot more bounce enablers and bounce targets. Usually, I see people perform combo with relatively inexpensive enablers like Glint Hawk and relatively inexpensive triggers like Prophetic Prism. I'd like to add Gary to the mix, if possible.
The core of the deck is similar to mono black control/devotion, with an added focus on ETB triggers. Something like the following, most likely. Lots of small to mid size creatures who both have good ETB triggers and provide devotion. Then, Gary to actually take advantage of the devotion count.
Since our primary color is black anyway, we should include some control cards. Removal, card advantage, tutoring, and the like are all good. Some combination of the following. Some may be more matchup-specific and go to the sideboard. There's a lot of choices. We'll probably want some amount of disruption for our opponents and some amount of help finding Gary.
Is there a specific tutor that's format-legal that we can use as Gary copies 5-6?
What about our secondary color? The main thing we need it to supply is bounce. Blue and white are both potential choices here.
White gives us a bunch of bounce enabling creatures in addition to a blink. Note that Momentary Blink is especially great because we don't have to pay to recast Gary.
Blue gives us a bounce enabler creature as well as lots of bounce spells. Normally, you'd aim these bounce spells at your opponent, but here we get extra synergy aiming them at ourselves. Some examples include.
I'm not sure which secondary color to pick. It would probably be too finicky of a mana base to play 3 colors with no fixing, and there's not that much relevant fixing other than Prophetic Prism and maybe Chromatic Sphere/Chromatic Star.
What do you guys think? I really like the concept, but I'm not sure how to make it a strong deck.
The tutor you're looking for is Brainspoil. You could also go mono black with some kind of sacrifice outlet and Tortured Existence to multiply recast Gary.
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More recently, I've been experimenting with various Azorius/Boros Kitty decks as well as the Acid Trip deck. Looks like pauper has a lot more bounce enablers and bounce targets. Usually, I see people perform combo with relatively inexpensive enablers like Glint Hawk and relatively inexpensive triggers like Prophetic Prism. I'd like to add Gary to the mix, if possible.
The core of the deck is similar to mono black control/devotion, with an added focus on ETB triggers. Something like the following, most likely. Lots of small to mid size creatures who both have good ETB triggers and provide devotion. Then, Gary to actually take advantage of the devotion count.
Since our primary color is black anyway, we should include some control cards. Removal, card advantage, tutoring, and the like are all good. Some combination of the following. Some may be more matchup-specific and go to the sideboard. There's a lot of choices. We'll probably want some amount of disruption for our opponents and some amount of help finding Gary.
Is there a specific tutor that's format-legal that we can use as Gary copies 5-6?
What about our secondary color? The main thing we need it to supply is bounce. Blue and white are both potential choices here.
White gives us a bunch of bounce enabling creatures in addition to a blink. Note that Momentary Blink is especially great because we don't have to pay to recast Gary.
White also gives us a bit in terms of ETB.
Blue gives us a bounce enabler creature as well as lots of bounce spells. Normally, you'd aim these bounce spells at your opponent, but here we get extra synergy aiming them at ourselves. Some examples include.
Blue also gives us the usual blue-based control goodies.
I'm not sure which secondary color to pick. It would probably be too finicky of a mana base to play 3 colors with no fixing, and there's not that much relevant fixing other than Prophetic Prism and maybe Chromatic Sphere/Chromatic Star.
What do you guys think? I really like the concept, but I'm not sure how to make it a strong deck.