Sideboard


Mono-Black control in Pauper

Deck named after Gary himself.

Some pretty good stuff here. Plenty of Removal, enough of everything else.
Bojuka Bog is as it is. Just a basic necessity for black decks in pauper at the moment. Apart from one of these, there's also sideboard options for yard hate. Never board this out, since it reduces your land count and it is almost perfectly balanced as is.

The only turn 1 play in the entire mainboard is a land, Barren Moor. These are in the deck not really to be played, but you can play them under emergency. The cycle. Lands are just generally great because you can play them if you need to, or if you have about 4-5 lands at this stage you can just cycle it and maybe cycle into a swamp, which is better to have out. (For Removal purposes) or into some action. If not action, then just. Think of. It as one card closer to some.

Cuombajj Witches are great to have, since they're double devotion, don't die to Evincar's Justice and also have the essential effect of paying a life to kill a creature. It's also possible to pay 2 life to kill a creature, which kind of sounds steep on paper, but in practice is totally worth.

The worst of the creatures is probably Phyrexian Rager, but still has a powerful enough effect to be played in a playset. Once out, is ust a 2/2 body. It's best to have a Chittering Rats or Witch out instead for the effect of Gary. The 'draw' effect is powerful because of what else is in the deck - there are plenty of pieces that are proficient in various areas. It digs you one card closer to a land (if you need one), it digs you one card closer to a Victim of Night or Tendrils of Corruption, to Gary himself.

Lastly, there's some Chittering Rats for a little bit of annoyance. Nothing broken is being done with them. Just annoyance. The best part abouut it is its double devotion. Apart from this, it's just disruption.

Spells

There's penty of removal in the deck.

Only two Doom Blades because black is one of the most powerful colours and thus one of the most played colours, in my opinion. Can only target nonblack creatures, so it's just there as a speedy removal for some matchups.

Echoing Decay is only a two-of for somewhat similar reasons to Doom Blade. It's oftentimes a symbol: Disfigure, but is still an unconditional removal spell, proviiided the target doesn't have hexproof (or has toughness greater than 2).

Evincar's Justice is the single greatest wrath in the format (arguably. On par with Pestilence). There are only two copies in the deck because it's a cancer - symmetrical damage, like lots of old cards (Priest of Titania, turntimber elves, spirit of the labrynth).

Tendrils is just insane removal. This card is almost always a catch-all removal card, and is the best removal in the deck. It's quite expensive, but totally worth every drop of mana it costs. So is Victim of Night, but that's just a catch-most. It often is just a Murder in effect, but sometimes Vampires and zombies are used. This isn't the end of the world but is annoying.

Geth's Verdict and Chainer's Edict are sacrifice effects, so they're great against Hexproof and can essentially be "destroy target creature. It may not be regenerated. If it has indestructible, it loses indestructible until end of turn" in mirror matchups or combo decks. As explained in the Sideboard section, there's another Verdict for hexproof decks.

Read the Bones is the greatest draw spell in the deck. This is just due to its scry effect before the "draw two" effect. You can dig up to 4 cards down if you need, and find that removal spell you so desperately desire. Sign in Blood is the better-but-worse version, letting you play it a turn before, but excluding the scry effect. There is also the option to force the opponent to draw, as this could win you the game if they happen to reach two or less life.

Wrench Mind is. Juust general discard. Could be replaced with Raven's Crime as it can be replayed and chip down 3-4 cards over one match, rather than just two. And it's not even a guaranteed two. I am putting the value of the card down more than it should. It's a generally reasonable card, except against affinity or some other sort of Atog deck.

A bit of Yard Hate. This is pretty important to me because I find that graveyard decks are very prolific in the format. Decks like Tortured Existence or exhume||Reanimator seem really common, so 3-4 slots should be devoted to dealing with those decks.

A bit of land hate for Tron. This deck reasonably easily stifles the archetype in my experiences, I also don't see it very often, so why devote more than I need to hating the archetype?

Duress is in the sideboard because a lot of decks in pauper are either creature-heavy (i.e. Goblins, GW Slivers) or alternate contral decks (i.e. UB teachings, B LD). This is obviously really unlikely to do much in aggressive deck matchups, but in matchups vs. control, it is far more powerful, taking a removal spell to get down a threat. As Duress is for combo/control matches, there is an additional copy of Cuombajj Witches, which slows aggro decks. It almost guarantees a win if you manage to get 2 down (most aggressive goblins only have 2 toughness).

Lastly, there is some extra miscellaneous removal that could be boarded in under almost any match, but are intended for specific matchups, like Hexproof (i.e. Bogles, Striped Riverwinder reaniator), Tokens (i.e. Midnight Gond, Best Wrath in Pauper for... Well, being the best wrath in pauper. Last of the side removal is Unmake. This is just generally good unconditional removal.

Finally, there's another copy of Death Denied in the sideboard for against other controlmatches, where you can refill your hand with a potentially game-winning combination of miscellaneous Devoters and Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

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Date added 6 years
Last updated 5 years
Exclude colors WURG
Legality

This deck is not Pauper legal.

Cards 61
Avg. CMC 2.74
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