Lady Orca's Tarry, Tarry Night

Pauper EDH BR (Rakdos) Control Discard Pauper Reanimator

DuneEcho manaman22

Creature (28)

• 1x Blood Seeker
• 1x Burglar Rat
• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x Ghitu Chronicler
• 1x Miasmic Mummy
• 1x Pit Keeper
• 1x Cadaver Imp
• 1x Crypt Rats
• 1x Gangrenous Zombies
• 1x Keldon Vandals
• 1x Liliana's Specter
• 1x Phyrexian Rager
• 1x Warteye Witch
• 1x Cackling Fiend
• 1x Dimir House Guard
• 1x Faceless Butcher
• 1x Gravedigger
• 1x Rafter Demon
• 1x Slum Reaper
• 1x Thorn of the Black Rose
• 1x Anarchist
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Ingot Chewer
• 1x Prowling Pangolin
• 1x Thermopod
• 1x Warren Pilferers
• 1x First-Sphere Gargantua
• 1x Tithebearer Giant

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Pestilence

Land (35)

• 1x Ash Barrens
• 1x Barren Moor
• 1x Bloodfell Caves
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cinder Barrens
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Desert
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Polluted Mire
• 1x Quicksand
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Rakdos Guildgate
• 1x Smoldering Crater
• 4x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 16x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse

Instant (11)

• 1x Death Denied
• 1x Shred Memory
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Victim of Night
• 1x Crypt Incursion
• 1x Murder
• 1x Ob Nixilis's Cruelty
• 1x Agonizing Demise
• 1x Dark Bargain
• 1x Wrecking Ball
• 1x Mob

Commander (1)

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Rolling Thunder
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Wander in Death
• 1x Aftershock
• 1x Swirling Sandstorm
• 1x Syphon Mind
• 1x Unnerve
• 1x Brainspoil
• 1x Skull Rend
• 1x Urborg Uprising
• 1x Tasigur's Cruelty

Artifact (11)

• 1x Nihil Spellbomb
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Guardian Idol
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Rakdos Signet
• 1x Star Compass
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Pristine Talisman

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Maybeboard

Creature (19)

• 1x Grim Initiate
• 1x Sanitarium Skeleton
• 1x Viscera Seer
• 1x Caligo Skin-Witch
• 1x Crashing Drawbridge
• 1x Lazotep Reaver
• 1x Putrid Goblin
• 1x Vampire Opportunist
• 1x Audacious Thief
• 1x Lost Legion
• 1x Moriok Replica
• 1x Pilgrim's Eye
• 1x Spark Reaper
• 1x Falkenrath Noble
• 1x Midnight Scavengers  ^Meld
• 1x Chartooth Cougar
• 1x Invading Manticore
• 1x Sun-Crowned Hunters
• 1x Twisted Abomination

Sorcery (12)

• 1x Disintegrate
• 1x Spark Harvest
• 1x Consume Spirit
• 1x Disturbed Burial
• 1x Shenanigans
• 1x Ashes to Ashes
• 1x Barrage of Boulders
• 1x Delirium Skeins
• 1x Fortuitous Find
• 1x Painful Lesson
• 1x Bitter Revelation
• 1x Mana Geyser

Instant (5)

• 1x Doom Blade
• 1x Cower in Fear
• 1x Rend Flesh
• 1x Unmake the Graves
• 1x Scour from Existence

Land (4)

• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 1x Haunted Fengraf
• 1x Jund Panorama
• 1x Warped Landscape

Artifact (12)

• 1x Darksteel Axe
• 1x Executioner's Capsule
• 1x Crystal Slipper
• 1x Darksteel Pendant
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Mana Geode
• 1x Orazca Relic
• 1x Seer's Lantern
• 1x Vessel of Endless Rest
• 1x Sisay's Ring
• 1x Ur-Golem's Eye

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Tortured Existence
• 1x Eternal Thirst
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Trespasser's Curse
• 1x Oubliette

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In the past, my shop was building Pauper Commander decks based on the deck building constraints posted in Adam Styborski's article "Cheap Date". So unlike other Pauper metas, we were narrowed down to purely the ten MTGO allied generals. (This changed when the format got stale and Dominaria introduced a wealth of uncommon commanders. Also, Ethan Fleischer has confirmed that Chandler and Joven are probably listed rarity mistakes in Gatherer.) This is my tuned Rakdos build using Lady Orca .

Strategy Show

This deck holds off aggressors with damage-based sweepers Pestilence , Gangrenous Zombies , and Crypt Rats while eventually recouping life loss via sacrificing and recurring Gray Merchant of Asphodel repeatedly.

To combat the better card advantage of blue-based Pauper Commander decks, the deck uses mass discard and creature recursion spells. The main engine is transmute Brainspoil into Anarchist and then transmute Brainspoil into Urborg Uprising . Additionally, Discarding Sanitarium Skeleton to Tortured Existence allows for a loop to return a creature from your graveyard to your hand for . It's loops like this that the deck seeks in order to gain card advantage.

With the deck's creature removal suite, Lady Orca is the only common legendary creature that is a built-in natural three turn clock and has the potential to kill an opponent via commander damage. Unfortunately, Lady Orca is very fragile with only 4 toughness, so many blockers will be able to stall a commander kill and Crypt Rats , Pestilence , and Swirling Sandstorm are very likely to kill Lady Orca .

Why Lady Orca over Garna, the Bloodflame who grants mass haste and can potentially Raise Dead your entire army at instant speed? Lady Orca is a seven-turn clock and the deck is incredibly mana hungry. Very rarely is there enough mana to play a threat during a main step or hold up mana for an answer off-turn and additionally cast Garna, the Bloodflame at the right time. Most often, Garna, the Bloodflame was simply a dead card. Instead, casting Lady Orca in the late-game when opponents have run out of answers and doming an opponent 7 commander damage has been perfectly viable and frequently successful.

Tutor Chains Show

In order to attempt to find engines like Dimir Pauper decks, this deck features some excellent tutors via the transmute mechanic that it seeks to abuse repeatedly.

Shred Memory tutors for card draw/sifting ( Darksteel Pendant , Dusk Legion Zealot , Sign in Blood ), creature recursion ( Death Denied ), creature removal ( Terminate ), mass discard ( Burglar Rat , Miasmic Mummy ), and mana acceleration ( Fellwar Stone , Guardian Idol , Mind Stone , Rakdos Signet , Star Compass , and Thought Vessel ).

Dimir House Guard is an extremely key card in the deck that tutors for card draw ( Bitter Revelation , Syphon Mind ), creature recursion ( Gravedigger ), creature removal ( Aftershock , Agonizing Demise , Wrecking Ball ), damage-based sweepers ( Pestilence , Swirling Sandstorm ), mana acceleration ( Sisay's Ring , Ur-Golem's Eye ), and mass discard ( Cackling Fiend , Unnerve ). It can also be recurred for repeatable tutoring. One of my most memorable game reversals involved having Lady Orca under Faceless Butcher along with the rest of an overwhelming board state of a Shirei, Shizo's Caretaker deck, top-decking Dimir House Guard , transmuting it for and casting Swirling Sandstorm , and getting back my Lady Orca . With the board clear, Lady Orca quickly killed my opponent.

Brainspoil most importantly chains for sorcery recursion ( Anarchist ), creature recursion ( Urborg Uprising ), and the kill condition of the deck: Gray Merchant of Asphodel .

Despite the key tutors, the deck can be easily disrupted. The deck's pilot needs to be patient and look for incremental gains every turn to arrive at the end game.

Alternative Cards Show

Highway Robber and Kalastria Healer could find spots in the deck, but do not really do enough damage fast enough.

It's possible that Sisay's Ring and Ur-Golem's Eye need to be a threat with card advantage like Midnight Scavengers or Sibsig Icebreakers . However, the deck has most recently heavily veered into 2 CMC mana acceleration to smooth out opening turns and accelerate into later-game threats and answers.

Date added	8 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Pauper EDH legal.
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.37
Tokens	The Monarch
Folders	Pauper Commander, Retired