MTG Salvation

Currently my shop is building Pauper Commander decks based on the deck building constraints posted in Adam Styborski's article "Cheap Date". So unlike other Pauper metas, we're narrowed down to purely the ten MTGO allied generals. (Later this may change when the format gets stale.) This is my tuned Selesnya tokens build.



The deck seeks to win by token swarm while pumping creatures with Overrun-type effects (Sigil Blessing, Bold Defense, Kytheon's Tactics, Marshaling Cry, Leonin Armorguard) and supplements with the best aggressive common equipment and Rancor. Evasive Spirit tokens and tokens that are 2/4, 3/3, or 4/4 are the focus for populate effects. Creatures and auras that leave a token behind when dying are also high inclusions in order to grind further value out of combat steps.

Card advantage in Pauper Selesnya is fairly sparse, so the usual suspects are automatically included (Krosan Tusker, Yavimaya Elder, Horizon Spellbomb). Pygmy Kavu might be considered a weak inclusion, but the meta is heavily skewed towards Pestilence and Grey Merchant of Asphodel recursion making Pygmy Kavu a risk worth running. Because of the Grey Merchant of Asphodel recursion decks, all creature removal is exile-based when possible. Spidersilk Armor also helps fight Stench of Decay/Shrivel/Barrage of Boulders-type sweepers.

Possible card alternatives would include:
Lace with Moonglove -> Faith's Fetters
Sylvok Replica -> Caustic Caterpillars, Qasali Pridemage (Sylvok Replica blocks a lot of 2/x creatures though)
Kytheon's Tactics -> Ampryn Tactician
Horizon Spellbomb, Forest -> Expedition Map, Cloudpost (cuts the potential card advantage out of Horizon Spellbomb, but enables searching for the other half of the Locus cards when the first half is found to speed up mana)

Change Log:
Conclave Phalanx -> Suture Priest (increases the deck's aggro reach)
Skyshroud Claim -> Ondu Giant (gives another body, but less land, helps thaw out Plains for all the double-W spells)

Sporemound is the perfect pauper token generator. Seriously, the thing is a monster. Find room for Bant Panorama if you end up playing it. Night Soil is the other classic pauper token generator, and it's graveyard hate which will be effective against your Bx opponents' inevitable Grim Harvest shenanigans. Also, Presence of Gond, which goes infinite with Midnight Guard if you're into that sort of thing. Pallid Mycoderm can make saprolings and then pump a Sprout Swarm/Sporoloth Ancient/Selesnya Evangel/Sporemound/Night Soil-created army when you swing out. Nest Invader and Kozilek's Predator are mana ramp of sorts and the tokens can swing when pumped. Breath of Life should probably just be in every white PDH deck that isn't WB.

I had started with Presence of Gond in the deck, but it's hard to get it and Midnight Guard into play at the same time. I ended up cutting it to ensure I had a cards that weren't entirely relying on a second card to do real work.

Thanks for suggesting Sporemound, I've been mentally confusing it with Bramble Elemental for some reason. A common version of Zendikar's Roil is the type of value this deck can utilize.

Pallid Mycoderm is something I had missed entirely. I may have to rework the deck to maximize Pallid Mycoderm's impact. Since I'm mostly focused on generating larger token threats off of stronger populate effects or Bird/Spirit tokens with natural evasion, I feel like I don't have enough Saprolings in Selesnya Evangel, Sprout Swarm, and Sporoloth Ancient. I did also forget about the relevance of Night Soil against Tortured Existence/Grim Harvest/Disturbed Burial engines. Good reminder and I've been looking for better card advantage to replace Lace with Moonglove.

The Eldrazi Spawn generators were originally in the deck, but never quite felt that they did enough. I believe I cut them for Leonin Armorguard and Suppression Bonds.

I know this deck is also sorely missing Darksteel Pendant. That will be rectified.

Breath of Life, huh? I knew it was a common, but never felt like was an auto-include. I can see it in Orzhov decks to enable reanimator strategies, but I'm not seeing anything that I'm needing to recur in this deck (at the moment). Wouldn't Elven Cache be more flexible?

If you are interrested in trying something else, I got a quite optimized deck list for BU:
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/variant-commander-decklists/218508-ramirez-depietro-strict-mtgo-pauper-control