MTG Salvation

I've been playing around with Orzhov Devotion and came up with a deck somewhat similar to this one. It's probably more Devotion than Pestilence, but there are enough overlapping cards and it was mentioned in above comments so I thought it could be useful to post my list.

I just started testing the current list so I'll update later if I stick with it and it evolves. Critique welcome!

Great list! I'd say you could probably just go Mono-Black, replacing Pillory of the Sleepless with more Oubliette and Wall of Hope with just about any good black card, maybe something else that gains you life? Something as simple as Corrupt or Drain Life (I don't remember the name of the version from Mirrodin now) would be really cool. You would probably still have enough creatures as it is.

Wizards should go and print a common man-land already!

If I wanted to build this as a monoblack deck, is the list in the primer still a good starting point?

I'd say so. If you want to go with something with more power, I guess going with mono-black staples like Cuombajj Witches and Gray Merchant of Asphodel as well as Disowned Ancestor might be a stronger choice than walls. I haven't thought about a mono-black list in a while, to be honest.

Maybe something like this for the creature package:



Maybe something like 2 Cemetery Gates might not be bad as well.

I'm also no longer a fan of Dark Ritual. It's definitely a playable card in this deck, as it will give you an advantage against tempo decks in the right circumstances. I think I'd run more removal or something instead at this point.

Hope this helps!

The Night's Whisper downgrade also helps the BW deck quite a bit, so that's good news!

Maybe Dark Rit until I can afford Oubliette. It's a great card, but less so without access to 3-drop monstrosities like Gloom.

...though, now that I think about it, Chittering rats and Oubliette are incentives to run Dark Rit.

Oubliette is good if you're going the Gray Merchant route. Chittering Rats is perhaps not the best card for this style of play, as it will simply die to your own cards too often. Try out the DR for now, they're definitely playable in the archetype.

If you're looking to play Chittering rats, Oubliette and Gray Merchants, you might as well look into MBC, which is a powerful Tier 1 deck in Pauper. They sometimes use Pestilence in some number in the sideboard and occasionally the mainboard, so there is obviously a lot of overlap between the two strategies.

I'm sorry for my extremely poor English (correct me if I write something awful) and for exhuming back this thread, but I'm pretty intersted in this Deck.

Actually I'm testing this List:



I'm quite sure about the chosen creatures, they're tough and very smart. I've red that merchant doesn't fit this deck but after a bunch of match I assure that it's perfect even without Oubliette, card that I consider inappropriate for both the costs (I mean mana and money, this is called Pauper ). I don't play Dimir House Guard because it's too much slow, if I'd want more Pestilence I'd play 1x/2x Crypt Rats/Evincar's Justice

Removals are troubling me instead: I don't want to overdo because combo and controll decks are still played, thus 7 1x1 removals I think are enough. How to choose'em?
Diabolic edict is fine but sometimes not such useful: if oppo has 2 creatures on the field often we'd like to choose the biggest (extremely common situations are Gurmag angler and phyrexian Rager or Delver and Sea gate oracle). Unmake is fine too whether it costs 3 (Stormbound Geist is an ass pain usually). Drain Life is both removal and finisher, I really like it because it boost the Race and is a very good removal in the late game; easily sided out against controll.

Sideboard is set against Controll, Combo and Aura decks: my biggest problem is what side out and what side in. This section is Work In Progress!
(Hymn to tourach is for paper, Wrench mind is for MTGO rules)

Hi Polac94,

Welcome to MTGS and the Pauper forums! I hope to see you around more often!

The list seems decent. After lots of testing and practice, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to lock the opponents out of the game is by denying the early their early game or aggression with cheap removal, following it up with Pestilence to stop the game entirely.

My only issue with your creature selection is your full set of Guardian of the Guildpact. While it's the perfect creature for resisting Pestilence, the 4 mana is often getting in the way of other things you could be doing, namely getting a Pestilence in play as soon as possible. You should consider splitting those numbers with another creature. I really like Aven Riftwatcher, personally.

I really like having all four Diabolic Edicts somewhere between the main and sideboard. Think about having more of them in the mainboard. They work very well with Pestilence, which often kills the weaker creatures and leaves the creatures you need to Edict. Worst case scenario, it's still relieving pressure for you. Drain life is certainly interesting.

The Aura deck should not really be your main concern, as this should be a naturally pretty good matchup. Having more than 4 edicts might help your cause more than enchantment removal. Discard will be good against both Control and Combo. You can try and transition into more of a MBC style in those matchups.

The sideboard definitely needs some work. I really don't get Sign in Blood. The way you split your mana is also pretty important, so it would be nice to see how you do it.

Probably you're right: mana curve is very important in this format and we cannot afford to have 4 pestilence, 4 guildpact, 4 Gurmag, 4 merchant and 2 drain life, even though we play 3 dark ritual, card which deserves a question apart (is this corect in English?? ).

I think I'll test this list doing these changes:

-1 Guardian
-1 Merchant
-1 ???

+3 Creature

Where I wrote "???" I mean 1 to be selected between Unmake, Drain Life, Guardian of the guildpact and Gurmag Angler.
Creatures I'm contemplating are: Aven Riftwatcher (though he doesn't keep Pestilence on the battlefield, so if I choose this the third card to be pushed out won't be the 2nd Guildpact), Vampire Envoy (which is essentially mediocre but fullfills some important tasks such as gain life, keep pestilence on the field and block flying creatures) and wall of hope (which is fine, but only with Pestilence on the field).

For what concern sideboard I totally agree with you: I'm not used to build sideboard for this format and as I said I'm not used to choose what to side out/in too; I've a lot of work to do!
I'm considering 3x of dry spell against Goblin which is not an easy game because Pestilence without ritual is very slow.

Have you ever evaluated another color for the splash which is not white?

EDIT: I think 3x Edict effects is enough, they're wonderful with Pestilence but I think we should think about our game plan when Pestilence is not available too, in that case some spot removal would be very useful!!

I think I would cut the Drain Life as your third card.

Wall of Hope is a very good card. It's a decent wall in the early game and is incredible with Pestilence.

Another creature you could consider is Disowned Ancestor. This card has a big defense that helps in the early game and keeps Pestilence Alive, but it can also grow bigger with extra mana and is an effective finisher as either a 4/8 or a 5/9.

With a large amount of removal, Goblins will be slowed down anyways, which will likely give you enough time to lay down Pestilence and lock them out.

White generally has the most to offer for this kind of deck, but I'm of course open to suggestions.

Edict is generally good even when it only gets a 1/1. It can never be worse than 1-for-1. I think it's worth more mainboard inclusion and general use, but that's my opinion.

On Friday I had a long talk with a dear friend of mine who's playing the deck with some good results (he's second in the local Pauper league on 30 players), he's running such a kind of list:



Lands Include 2 Kabira crossroad, 2 Bojuka Bog, 2 Barren Moor and the whole deck he is playing is Foil

I don't remember the last 2 slots but I think they're life gain tools (drain life effect) or 2 Unearth or maybe some equipment (Bonesplitter).
The list firstly didn't persuade me, thus I asked why it lacks of Rituals, whispers, cuombajj, 4th pestilence and moreover why there're so many asynergyc cards with Pestilence. He answered point to point:

1-Ritual is a bad draw in the late game and we can't afford it in this kind of build, furthermore with only 2 Merchant and 3 Pestilence, it is not so fundamental

2-We don't need whispers because Skyfisher and Rager together assure some Card advantage and besides Pestilence is a Huge Card Advantage instrument. He said that sometimes he had played 2x/3x of Read the bones.

3-Cuombajj is not needed because he's already running several creatures and removals, He would play it in a different metagame of course (Delver and Mono U metagame for example)

4-He doesn't like the fourth pestilence because it is not necessary to win in this configuration and it is quite heavy without rituals, furthermore he uphold that open a game with 2 Pestilence in hand often means to lose that game

5-He think that even though x/2 cretures are not synergyc with Pestilence thay're fundamental to the Game plan: gain a little card advantage with chittering rats, rager and skyfisher in the early game in order to force opponent to use his resources and then strike hard with Pestilence (plus eventually guildpact), combined with Merchant in the mid/late game. He believe that little smart creatures are very useful in match-up where Pestilence and big toughness creatures are purely useless such as Vinestorm and Urzatron.

I viewed only few games played with the deck but I can assure the Strategy works, it is pretty similiar to MBC but is boosted by the Most powerful card in the format, in fact Pestilence is the only Sweeper (this is how in Italy we call the Damnation effect) available in Pauper, and by the Guildpact which is very similar to True-name Nemesis.

I think that this list deserves some test

Anyone here ever try BUBBLING MUCK from the Urza block?

Seems like double black Mana for a turn would be pretty broken.

Quote from Thorshammer813 »

Anyone here ever try BUBBLING MUCK from the Urza block?

Seems like double black Mana for a turn would be pretty broken.

My non-Pauper builds used to play it, but as I became a better player, the card felt less and less useful. The goal is to lock the opponent out of the game rather than combo out, though Muck certainly helps achieving a faster kill. I personally don't think it's worth playing.

Wow... Speaking of becoming a better player, this primer is wayyyyy out of date. I will be working on updating this massively over the next weeks.

EDIT: I've overhauled most of the "Building the Deck" sections and consolidated the sample decks into one category, seeing as Orzhov is the way to play this deck nowadays (and definitely always was). I've also added a video at the beginning and a pretty big video section at the end.

EDIT2: I've also erased the vast majority of what I've written in the Matchups section as it was no longer relevant with modern builds of Pestilence. I've also added many more matchups, to be filled out over the coming weeks.