This is a control deck centered on the power of Evincars Justice in the format. I think Evincars with buyback plus Talisman is the core of the deck. Along with Serrated Arrows, Evincar's can control 70% of the creatures in the format. The Arrows can be used to supplement the Evincars: one -1/-1 arrow counter to a 1/3 creature plus Evincars Justice will kill the creature without using an edict effect or more Arrow counters. With two Talisman, Evincar's also becomes a win condition, dealing two to the opponent per turn while I remain even on life.
Speaking of which, Pristine Talisman really shines in this deck. By itself, it is card advantage vs. decks that try to finish you off with burn. The extra mana Talisman provides is always welcome to help you ramp up to the seven mana this deck always wants to reach, which is Evincar's with buyback as well as the flashback cost for Chainer's Edict. Also, if the opponent has a 1 power creature and you have a decent life total, having a Pristine Talisman in play means you are not losing life, so you dont have to cast Evincar's yet if it would mean you cant buy it back. Even a 2 power creature is not so bad since being beat down for 1 a turn net is not so bad, so you may have time to build up to the seven mana you need for Evincar's with buyback.
Because of the heavy reliance on creatures as win conditions for almost all Pauper decks, this deck takes advantage of the metagame by often being able to completely lock down certain decks in the long game. Innocent blood and Chainer's edict provide early creature defense. Since I have no creatures, Innocent Blood has no downside for me. The Chainer's Edicts have taken this deck to a new level and provides yet another source of card advantage when flashed back. This deck also benefits from blanking other decks creature removal spells from having zero creatures, a source of virtual card advantage.
Probe and Deep Analysis literally provide you more cards. Deep Analysis lets you draw 4 cards at the cost of 3 life. The life can be earned back using Talisman and Drain Life / Consume Spirit. Probe forces them to discard 2 cards from their hand while improving your hand. It's ok to discard extra land to hold onto Deep Analysis since you can draw into more land, but if you have not hit 7 mana, you usually want to keep your land so you can get there. Discarding extra copies of Chainer's Edict means you get to buy it back, while extra copies of Evincar's can often be discarded since they can be redundant if you have buyback mana.
Often the key to the deck is surviving an early rush. Against aggro decks, you need to stabilize as soon as possible, even if it means "just" trading 1 for 1 like burning a Consume Spirit turn 3 to get a 1/1 goblin off the board. I have 7 Drain Life spells which gives use the luxury of spending one early to control the board. Spending an Evincar's to clear off 2 or more creatures early on is often the right play early on to slow the rush. Controlling the rush early is key, specially with decks like Goblins which can be explosive early, but run out of steam and have no card drawing. On the other hand, almost all your cards will give you card advantage in the long term. Late in the game, you just need one big Drain Life or Consume Spirit to stabilize your life and a second will usually win it or allow your Evincar's with buy back to get there.
Sideboard Plans
Generally speaking, the sideboard has Duress/Distress vs. control while it often brings in Distress / Victim of Night against aggro. Befoul is good for Tron and also let's you target big creatures.
Affinity: Against Affinity, you need to lower your curve and card advantage is not as much an issue. The above plan was against a version of Affinity that had no 1 toughness creatures, so their threats were not as vulnerable to Serrated Arrows and Evincars Justice.
-4 Probe, -2 Drain Life, -1 Evincars Justice, -1 Serrated Arrows. +4 Distress, +4 Victim of Night
Mono Blue Delver Control: Probe is too slow, so the plan here is to control their board presence with cheap removal and their hand with Distress. Distress wants to be used to keep troublesome permanents (like high-toughness Spire Golems, Curse of the Bloody Tomes) off the board or to remove counter-spells to push through your key spells (usually Serrated Arrows, Evincars Justice, or sometimes your Pristine Talisman)-4 Probe, -3 Drain Life, -1 Consume Strength. +4 Distress, +4 Victim of Night
Hexproof: You are already in good shape main board against Hexproof for the most part with 4 Chainers Edicts and 4 Innocent Blood. Also, Evincars Justice wipes almost all of the Hexproof creatures that are not enchanted with something. Serrated Arrows usually is a dead or almost dead card, so Distress for their troublesome enchantments is an improvement.
-4 Serrated Arrows. +4 Distress
Burn: The side boarding here will depend on if they are completely creature less or if they run Kiln Fiend/Keldon Marauders. Distress comes in for Serrated Arrows for sure. If they do run some creatures that have or may gain haste, the instant Victim of the Night usually works a little better than Innocent Blood. Cursed of the Pierced Heart is somewhat troublesome, but each Pristine Talisman neutralizes one Curse.
- 4 Serrated Arrows, -4 Innocent Blood. + 4 Distress, +4 Victim of Night
MBC: Distress away their Chitter Rats and Lillians Spectors to cut down their card advantage. Otherwise, take away their Grey Merchants because thats usually the only creature that will survive a Evincars Justice (unless you can throw 2 Arrows counters on it).
-4 Innocent Blood. +4 Distress
Tron: If its a version of Tron that has some number of Mulldrifter and Sea Gate Oracle, you can keep in some but probably not all of the Serrated Arrows. The Arrows are only needed to be kept in against Sea Gate Oracle to help the Evincars wipe the board of low toughness creatures so your Edict effects kill the larger threats. Befoul is obviously good to target their Tron lands, but sometimes in a pinch, you can use it against an Eldrazi or other fatty. - 3 Drain Life, -2 Evincars Justice, -2 Serrated Arrows. +3 Distress, +4 Befoul
This deck is not for everyone, but for control players like me, it is a fun deck alternative in Pauper. I have been tinkering with this deck for a while and still continue to evolve it. This version is as far as Ive been able to develop it as a black based build. I wanted to share it because I think its an innovative new deck for the format.
Jlai47 on MTGO
