Pestilence

Enchantment

At the beginning of the end step, if no creatures are on the battlefield, sacrifice Pestilence.

{B}: Pestilence deals 1 damage to each creature and each player.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (49)

Fuzzy003 on Pestilence of the dinosaurs

2 weeks ago

Have a similar {G}{R} deck. If you're having trouble finding a Pestilence to combo on, Thrashing Wumpus could add more of the same effect.

DreadKhan on Rakdos

2 weeks ago

It's not really a great card, but Shivan Gorge can deal some damage to each opponent, which can let you shave mana off of spells for a turn. There is also stuff like Spear Spewer that pings each player, that's a much better way to achieve that goal I suppose. There are also Kessig Flamebreather and Firebrand Archer that can turn any non-creature spell into damage, not sure you have enough stuff to justify them, but felt they were worth a mention. There is also good old Pyrohemia/Pestilence, which can ping each opponent (and it clears out x/1s if tokens are an issue in your area). Not sure if you will be able to get in for damage consistently, but Rite of the Raging Storm tokens usually suck to block, so you might get 5 damage per turn in some metas.

I feel like it's worth throwing in something like Carrion Feeder or Viscera Seer if you want a sac outlet that can clear out lots of bodies and derive value from it, Feeder even works with Pitiless Plunderer (or another 'mana from dead creature' card, Pawn of Ulamog and Bog Initiate will work on a budget) and Gravecrawler to go infinite.

Final point, maybe a few Annihilator creatures that have high MV as their drawback, they tend to be colourless anyways, so can give a full discount and be free sometimes. Artisan of Kozilek and Pathrazer of Ulamog are good examples that aren't too pricey, but Titans are obviously more expensive/powerful, it's worth noting you'll always get cast triggers, even if you're casting them for nothing/very little. Some of these can also let you run cards that care about high MV, like Protection Racket and Timesifter, both are very strong in some metas. Heck, I think I'd just run Protection Racket either way now that I think about it, I'm not sure there is a drawback to that card in this deck, it's big drawback is that it's bad in combo decks because people won't give you combo pieces, but in a deck that isn't attached to any one card you can run it safely. There is also Meteor Golem, Platinum Emperion and even Platinum Angel to offer some value if stuff like Darksteel Colossus or Blightsteel Colossus are over the budget, and there are big old utility beaters like Tsabo Tavoc that are worth a look, you can shave 5 mana off still.

Rakdos is a pretty nifty Commander, hope you're having fun with him!

skibulk on It's My Rite to Poke the Dinos

2 months ago

When using cards cards like Pestilence, I find the filter lands come in handy: Twilight Mire.

Now you have a few options to upgrade Llanowar Dead: Ornithopter of Paradise, Llanowar Loamspeaker, Sanctum Weaver, Sylvan Caryatid, and Biophagus.

TheOfficialCreator on Sygg

2 months ago

In all honesty, if you run a couple of quick board-splashes, or something like Pestilence which could wipe the board consistently at some cost, then your board presence wouldn't necessarily improve, but everyone else's would be weaker.

I might consider, especially with such a low-cost commander, shifting your mana curve slightly to the left to make the entire deck a bit quicker.

I've also seen a lot of Sygg decks that use unblockable creatures to great advantage, combined with effects like Bident of Thassa.

Also, I'm not really sure what Repay in Kind is supposed to do here. Would you mind explaining to me what your reasoning is?

TheEvilWizard on Zur, Eternal Schemer

3 months ago

The Pestilence + Samite Elder combo seems like a good idea, because pestilence alone could boardwipe (at the cost of creatures) if I don't have samite out. Drumbellower is also a fun idea so I can block with deathtouch stuff as well. However, Energy Flux doesn't seem like the best idea unless i'm facing off against an artifacts list, because even though it would work as stax, I don't want to lose my artifacts. thanks for the ideas nonetheless.

DreadKhan on Zur, Eternal Schemer

3 months ago

It's a lot to set up, but Pestilence (or any analogue of it), Samite Elder and your Commander can wipe the board of opponent's creatures each turn for B, and you gain a ton of life potentially since it'll also have Lifelink, any excess Black mana can be dumped into Pestilence, and Pestilence can swing for 4 on an open board, and you can do the actual wipe at instant speed. Also good with a Drumbellower I suppose, then you can wipe on each player's turn for B.

It's a bit weird, but New Zur can do some shenanigans with Parallax Wave, since it can then exile itself, which brings everything back, including itself, so you can keep it around if you want, locking down a few problem creatures that don't have important ETBs (or you can flicker your own that have important ones, even a Spirited Companion drawing a card isn't bad technically), which is pretty good value for the 1W needed to turn it into a creature.

With so few artifacts, you could maybe look at Energy Flux, that really hurts decks that use artifacts.

FolkOccult on Sheoldred, Rising Dead v2

3 months ago

Boxfish It was a wonderful weekend, thank you!

I love all of these changes, they look quite well-decided. Viscera Seer is a monstrous card when you can use them. They've the ability to just help you dig for answers, like your Crypt Rats or Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

It's a touch rude for a solution, but for token producers like Scute Swarm, Krenko, Mob Boss, Myr Battlesphere, Thopter Assembly, or even Blade of Selves; Pestilence, Withering Wisps, Toxic Deluge; Cheap solutions that can get expensive, that can wipe your own dudes (but it's not like you're unable to bring them back).

If you're ever looking for ways to wipe the board without playing Mass Removal which Indestructable can dodge. Dictate of Erebos, Grave Pact, Urborg Justice, Killing Wave, Torment of Hailfire can access more than one target in a turn, and remove them without the need for targeting and benefit you in the ability to just bring a dude back with your commander or any other spell. Though I can't deny that this is a rather rude option, especially with cards like Tergrid, God of Fright  ^Flip, who would just give you control of all creatures your opponent's could sac. You'll gain control of most any board with just Tergrid alone. Then you've got little dudes like Fleshbag Marauder, Demon's Disciple, Plaguecrafter, Merciless Executioner, Gravelighter, Slum Reaper, which all had triggered abilities that react to the formerly listed removal, your commander, Ayara, First of Locthwain, and is prone to getting your targeted even harder, but does result in a powerful and satisfying resolve once you carry the reputation of dishing out a challenge. Depending on overall deck-composition. I don't necessarily recommend all of these; but... just saying Pestilence will get your table's attention every time, draw every bit of removal, and can you activated in response to any cast that isn't a counter. With a single Dark Ritual or Cabal Coffers cast/activation... your table will weep. Sorta.

I don't know if you can directly link decks, but my Halana and Alena, Totally Just Roommates, and my Atla Palani deck's all feature cards printed in their respective planes if not, cards printed in extra supplementary sets like how Odric, Master Tactician was first printed in (M13) but is unable to planeswalk to other planes, and resides on Innistrad; technically the coresets were the base and all else added to their printings and materials, but in reality it felt like the other way around (in my experience), the story blocks made the "core" sets feel like additional content to add to your lore; this being a factor I consider when building some decks. Sacrificial Splicer is a similar case (Except I kept my favorite artifacts from other planes in the deck, I have Ich-Tekik, Salvage Splicer as a partner to Rebbec, Architect of Ascension who are respective enemies in a sense to the Phyrexian cause, one directly influencing the Praetors while the other for a time was using Powerstones to make a barrier strong enough to keep Phyrexia out, and have constructed the deck around ''Compleating'' Rebbec, which locks the board down.

The Lore in magic, is an entire rabbit hole I highly recommend exploring. Pick a plane and start from there. Find a character from that plane and follow their journey. If not by card, by flavor text. If you're into it enough, there are a series of comics out there printed by ARMADA. The Shadow Mage and Dakkon Blackblade are some of my favorite printed stories in magic, which just recently received cards. Likewise was true a couple of years ago for Yawgmoth and Urza who didn't really see their official name's on legendary cards until 2020 (despite having story presence since the beginning). The Weatherlight Crew, new and old, feel like a group of avengers, using their ship to planeswalk because they don't have a spark, and are simply putting together this weapon to stop the ultimate evil, and you can almost feel the stakes mounting as you scroll through the sets they were released in. From Urza's Sage to Invasion, to Time Spiral, to Dominaria. Now Dominaria United. I believe the story of the cards makes the deck that much more meaningful, but there's something to be said about finding the most fun cards and constructing something nuts out of them.

Balaam__ on Monoblack Pauper - Entry level!

4 months ago

A few thoughts:

The premise is solid and also a great gateway deck for entering Pauper. I would recommend either leaning more heavily into Pestilence or else cutting it entirely, as one copy isn’t effective. Also, your creature selection isn’t really set up to profit much from Echoing Return; that card is usually part of a combo or engine and doesn’t see a lot of value here.