A Work In Progress for a pauper monoblack deck.
After being destroyed at FNM with a nearly-pauper GW hexproof-aura deck, my opponent talked me into building for fun a monoblack pauper, as according to him it is very easy to make a very powerful deck, seeing for example how Dark Ritual and Hymn to Tourach (and at present day Gray Merchant of Asphodel) were common!!
I know Hymn to Tourach is banned for Pauper online, but I am making the list mostly for kitchen or store pauper play, not online play. You can replace the 4x Hymn to Tourach with Unearth, for example, or maybe even with Bone Harvest if you have a Sign in Blood in hand, eg after wiping the board with a non-definitive Crypt Rats (see further down). Edit 16/08/2014: I am replacing Hymn to Tourach with Wrench Mind, weaker but pretty much the same.
So, not much to think for the preliminary build, pretty much beginner's deckbuilding: pick one third mana base, one third creatures, and one third protecting/complementary spells, among the best available in black commons:
Manabase:
- 4x Dark Ritual (the greatest card in the deck, period) for mana base, and 20 swamps.
Creatures:
4x Dauthi Slayer, unblockable 2-drop 2/2
4x Gray Merchant of Asphodel, a walking Drain Life of arguably 3-6 (please remember lands do not count for your devotion to a colour; I've seen some websites stating the opposite!).
4x Crypt Rats: board swiper and fireball all-in-one; forces a draw if everything looks hopeless... (but you have the Merchant and the Corrupts, see further down, to maybe using the crypt rats as a devastating blow to the opponent without killing you, ie you can win at 1 life...).
Now, there are acceptable things like Order of the Ebon Hand (I can't understand why some articles on the net about black pauper suggest Phyrexian Rager and not the Order...), but I think the deck heavily needs some 1-drops. Luckily there are many 1-drops (1/1 critters for B) which also have an extra ability: flying (albeit with the non-blocking drawback), first strike, lifelink, deathtouch, regenerate... A quick Gatherer search yields the following: Stone-Throwing Devils, Typhoid Rats (= Pharika's Chosen), Carrion Rats, Merrow Bonegnawer, Nightshade Stinger, Nip Gwyllion, and also Pulse Tracker and Vampire Lacerator. The latter is not a good card, as the loss of life can become a burden if the opponent manages to block it without killing it. I'll choose flying, because we want to pound the opponent with the most evasive critters: Nightshade Stinger.
For the last critter slot, rather than having snow-covered swamps for Rimebound Dead (possible pauper cousin of good old Will-o'-the-Wisp), seeing that in the 2010s exiling rules, I'd rather have a 1-drop with deathtouch than a regenerating chump blocker; there are two 1-drops with deathtouch, which are identical in terms of gameplay: Typhoid Rats and Pharika's Chosen.
Other spells:
Hymn to Tourach and Duress because they are really efficient. The earlier the better. I know about Hymn to Tourach banned for pauper, so as I said in the beginning, another possibility is another black specialty: bring critters back from the graveyard; best pauper options for me are Unearth, which puts back into play anything except the Merchant, or Bone Harvest, classical end-of-opponent's-turn cantrip. It comboes well with Sign in Blood to bring back to hand 4 critters for 3 mana... (cast it at end of opponent's turn and put on top of your library 4 critters from the graveyard; you draw the first of them in upkeep, the 2nd in the draw phase, and the last two at main phase via Sign in Blood).
Sign in Blood, to draw 2 cards (again, the Merchant and Corrupt can compensate for the loss of life, or even a lifelink 1-drop critter, like Nip Gwyllion, instead of the deathtouch 1-drop).
The last slot is for now assigned to Corrupt, hopefully a 6 Drain Life for 2 swamps less, but it could be some extra removal, like Geth's Verdict, which runs over pesky critters with hexproof and shroud. Tragic Slip could also be considered for removal, albeit its conditional makes it in my experience far less consistent (but it is still an 1-CMC instant common). (And no, we have no Dismember, Ultimate Price, Go for the Throat, Doom Blade, Hero's Downfall, etc.).
There are 24 sources of damage (20 critters+4 Corrupt), and fully consistent (only 4x playsets of everything). If removing the Tourachs, you can replace them by Geth's Verdict, which can be suboptimally used if opponent has chump blockers, but which is also a source of damage. Or you could also add Choking Sands for extra disruption and damage, but even without research I am pretty sure there are very few common non basic lands (artifact lands, guildgates, panoramas, and little more?)...This is it. Having never played Pauper, I really don't know how to make a SB.
Thoughts and suggestions on SB and any othe thing are very welcome!!
