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B/R Hollow One in a Format Without Hollow One

Pauper Aggro BR (Rakdos) Discard

Underoath709


Sideboard


Maybeboard


Why make a Hollow One deck in a format without Hollow One?

B/R Hollow One was the best deck at Pro Tour RIX by far. I don't give a shit if Lantern won, Hollow One was by far the best one to watch every single time through that PT. So naturally considering I love everything to do with Pauper and saving roughly $750 on cards, I figured we'd try this in pauper. So what were the biggest challenges with doing a Hollow One deck in a format without Hollow One/Flameblade Adpet and how did we answer them?

So how did we answer the problem of there being no Hollow One in pauper? Well we didn't really, we just substituted it out for Gurmag Angler. Nothing too special, but it works incredibly well in pauper for a couple reasons:
  • The graveyard doesn't have nearly as much use in Pauper as it does in any other format, meaning that aside from out Faithless Lootings we're totally free to just delve right through our graveyard and drop this beast for
  • While a 5/5 early on in modern is great, it's a whole different beast in pauper, not to mention how hard it is for black (IMO the best color in pauper, I'm probably wrong but I digress) to remove this son of a bitch.
  • This is the absolute closest we could get to the idea of discarding to cheapen a creature. While we may not be able to drop it for free like Hollow One can, dropping it for is pretty rad too.

With that said we're running 4 of Angler.

This one was a bit harder to deal with than the lack of Hollow One since there wasn't anything nearly as good for the cost, so I just ended up going with Grisly Survivor for this one. Here comes the bullet point list of how this works:
  • Is it slower than Flameblade Adept? Definitely. Are we playing a format with Dark Ritual? Of course we are. So with the right opening hand we can play Swamp->Dark Ritual->Grisly Survivor and essentially run the same thing as a turn 1 Flameblade.
  • It's got a butt. Being at a 2/3, while it's not quite out of bolt range it does protect us from Disfigure, one of pauper's most prolific removal spells, as well as Echoing Decay, Dead Weight, a non-morbid Tragic Slip, and definitely some more that I'm not thinking of.
  • While Flameblade only pumps +1 for every card discarded, Grisly Survivor pumps for 2, which in the long run makes the difference and helps make up for the lack of some key cards in the modern version, particularly Goblin Lore.

Just like Angler, we're running 4 of Survivor. In addition though, we're also running 2 of Horror of the Broken Lands. Why the inclusion of a slower Survivor? Well here we go.

  • Totally whiffed on the whole deck so far and missed all 4 of our Grisly Survivors? Boom, you've got yourself a bigger version of our other big beater.
  • Cycle this bastard for . Even if you already have a Survivor on the field, this card can still do some work searching for more cards we need and pumping up our main creature.
  • It's a 4/4, meaning this thing is juuuuuust out of Bolt range. Not much in the format outside of straight up removal is going to work on it. Plus its effect adds 1 toughness every time we discard, so in case of emergency we can quickly discard some garbage and keep him alive.
  • Pauper's a relatively slow format, usually just slow enough to allow us to pull out a 5-drop in almost any deck as our finisher, meaning something like Horror isn't out of the question for being hard cast, especially with the help of Dark Ritual.
Sure there's no Goblin Lore or Collective Brutality, but pauper overall has a pretty good selection of discard spells.
  • Putrid Imp - A great 1 drop that we can use to go through as many cards in our hand as we want, usually being dumped into Grisly Survivor or Horror of the Broken Lands to close out the game. Plus it's a cheap flyer that gets stronger the more we discard, so overall it's a perfect fit.
  • Faithless Looting - It's the best draw spell in red, and one of the best in pauper. Dump 2 cards for 1 mana, get 2 more off of it.
  • Cathartic Reunion - Dump 2, draw 3. Only downside is the discard comes before the draw, but with this kind of deck it's not a huge deal
  • Tormenting Voice - It's Cathartic Reunion but with a discard 1/draw 2 split instead.
  • Burning Inquiry - The fun one, and why this deck has always been so fun to watch/play. Draw 3/discard 3 and mess with your opponent's hand all in one. Just don't look at what you drew until after the discarding is over and it's great
  • Street Wraith - Pump our Grisly Survivor/Horror of the Broken Lands and draw a card for . Value.
  • Ash Barrens - Find that land we need and pump our main creatures, or just drop it for colorless mana
  • Tortured Existence - Consistent discard, lets us grab our Street Wraiths that we've cycled for even more value.
This deck's biggest issue is creature based decks that clog up the field and provide blockers, so our sideboard is here to answer that.

If you like it, give it a +1. If not, let me know what's wrong/how I can improve in the comments.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 6 years
Legality

This deck is Pauper legal.

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 2.52
Folders Pauper, Modern (Hollow One), Pauper (Net Deck), decks to buy
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