MY THOUGHTS ON DECK BUILDING RESTRICTIONS
As deck builders, I think we're all drawn to continually optimize our decks. We find satisfaction in the iterative process of replacing a card with another better card, knowing that as a direct consequence of that change our deck is more likely to win a game of magic. This is all predicated on the (somewhat flawed, IMO) premise that more winning = more fun.
At some point in my evolution as a deck builder I came to the realization that EDH is such a wide open format that optimizing decks for competitiveness, given enough time, actually tends to lead to degenerate and un-fun games for my playgroup. At the end of the aforementioned iterative optimization process is things like infinite combos and overwhelmingly powerful effects (e.g. Time Stretch, Armageddon, Myojin of Night's Reach, etc.) which seem like they would be fun in theory, but in practice tend to lead to short, uninteractive games where most players' gameplay decisions don't matter. (e.g. That extra card you worked hard to draw by carefully sequencing your plays and maximizing mana efficiency was completely invalidated when someone else combo'd off and killed the entire table out of nowhere on turn 4.) I suppose if everyone is playing at this level (cEDH) things could be different, but personally I'm not interested in going down that path. (No disrespect intended for cEDH or players who enjoy this style of play.)
For me personally, what I enjoy about magic is the simple things like player interaction, synergy, getting value, and being rewarded for making good decisions. An interesting observation I made was that formats with more limited card pools (like booster draft) are naturally protected from the degeneracy I described because even the most powerful things you can do in those formats are still pretty weak by comparison to what you can do in EDH, and tend to revolve around fundamental magic principles (combat, removal, card advantage, mana efficiency, etc). This means that you can safely optimize your booster decks into oblivion without compromising the fun that you or your opponent will have when you play those decks.
With all that in mind, I've decided to impose restrictions on myself when building EDH decks. That way I still get the satisfaction of optimizing within those (somewhat arbitrary) restrictions, but wind up with a deck that is both fun to play and not miserable to play against. My restrictions for this Alesha deck:
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Only commons in the 99. To be clear this is a pretty severe restriction and lowers the ceiling for my deck considerably. (Note this is slightly different from true pauper EDH because I'm allowing my commander to be a rare instead of an uncommon.)
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M15+ card frame only. Entirely for OCD reasons I want all my cards to have the same card frame, and that means that unless I want to be stuck with a static card pool, it's going to be the newest card frame. I'm not considering any old frame (pre-8ED) cards. I'm reluctantly using a few new-but-not-newest frame (is there a better term for this? 8ED-M15) cards at the moment, but will probably take them out in the future. My OCD is severe, I am aware.
DECK BUILDING CONSIDERATIONS
CARD ADVANTAGE
The biggest obstacle to overcome in pauper in my opinion is the lack of card advantage. There are very few ways to get ahead on cards through only commons and even the ones that are available are mostly in blue. Basically if there's a common that has the word 'draw a card' on it, and it's attached to a remotely relevant body or effect, I'm strongly considering its inclusion.
DECK COLORS
Mana fixing in pauper is pretty sketchy. Building a robust three-color manabase is basically impossible outside of green, so I made the decision to 'collapse' the Mardu color identity into (mostly) Rakdos. I obviously need red to cast Alesha, but I only need either white or black to use her ability. White has some nice creatures with ETB effects, but black gives access to a decent amount of card advantage which I thought was more important.
I still have two cards with white mana symbols because they were just too good not to include. Ponyback Brigade is +3 bodies per reanimation which is the best rate in the deck (and possibly in all of pauper?). Rally the Peasants is probably the best win condition in the deck and you don't technically even need white to cast it if a discard outlet is available. In a pinch, I still have the small possibility to generate white mana via Command Tower and Path of Ancestry (both technically common).
MANA CURVE
Assuming we hit our first four land drops, and given a three-drop commander who has a two-mana ability the ideal curve probably looks something like this:
- play tap land or 1-drop
- 2-drop
- Alesha
- attack with Alesha, pay 2 to renimate, cast another 2-drop
In this curve, 3-drops are sub-optimal because I'm probably actually playing them on turn 4. More importantly, there are two spots (turns 2/4) where I want 2-drops to maximize mana efficiency. This makes me want to pay more attention to 2-drops than I would in other decks.
DISCARD OUTLETS
One reason I chose Alesha as my commander is because she lets me turn looting into positive card advantage (which as I said is rare in pauper). This means cards like Thrill of Possibility, Tormenting Voice, and Cathartic Reunion are excellent. Faithless Looting and Merchant of the Vale // Haggle put me down a card so they're technically card-advantage-neutral in combination with Alesha, but they can put me ahead on tempo by saving a lot of mana so I think they're still quite good. Similarly, being able to discard cards without looting (Olivia's Dragoon, Lightning Axe) can still be situationally good if I have expensive creatures to discard and reanimate for only 2 mana.
I'm close to running a madness package for card advantage, but don't think there are currently enough discard outlets for this to be consistent. I'm also not sure I want to be running one-dimensional creatures like Rummaging Goblin which sort of go against the overall aggressive strategy of the deck. For three mana, I think I'd want at least two power on a body to be relevant in combat too.
GO WIDE / ARISTOCRATS
There's a decent number of efficient token producers in Rakdos at common: Mogg War Marshal, Beetleback Chief, Ponyback Brigate, Kathhari Bomber, and even stuff like Aether Poisoner/Chaser. These work well with sacrifice outlets too (e.g. Carrion Feeder, Plagued Rusalka, Bushmeat Poacher), because they can be sac-ed and immediately brought back with Alesha to rebuy the ETB effect. We're running a lots of lower power creatures to support Alesha's ability restriction so we go wide pretty naturally even without the tokens.
The going wide strategy naturally pivots into aristocrat synergies too. Pauper offers some decent creatures that count their dying friends (Falkenrath Noble, Gavony Unhallowed, Silumgar Scavenger, note: all 2 power). Mortician Beetle also plays into this, but counts opponent's creatures too so you could randomly wind up with big/big for B.
"Altar's Reap" style cards play double duty here, because they can provide card advantage and sacrifice creatures when it's advantageous to do so for the aforementioned reasons. (Ironically, Altar's Reap is not in here, but its strictly better cousins Village Rites and Costly Plunder are.)
CREATURES THAT SCALE
Since our opponents are likely running real creatures with more efficient bodies, my army of 2-power creatures is going to get outclassed pretty quick. Creatures with deathtouch/pseudo-deathtouch (Aether Poisoner, Fetid Imp, Wasteland Scorpion, Stinkweed Imp, Gorgon Recluse) are good rattlesnake effects and should hold larger creatures at bay so they scale very well against the non-pauper creatures our opponents will be running. There's also creatures that literally grow over time like the aforementioned aristocrats feeders, Spellgorger Weird, and even Gluttonous Slug. Bonesplitter and Amorphous Axe let us trade our smaller creature up as well.
GRAVEYARD MATTERS
Filling the graveyard is generally desirable because it gives Alesha more options. Not counting the looting cards, there are some cards that directly fill the graveyard in Mindwrack Harpy and Stinkweed Imp's dredging ability. Moodmark Painter is a nice late-game payoff to push Alesha commander damage through with menace.
REMOVAL
There are a few pinpoint removal spells (Doomblade, Terminate, Snuff Out) which are not significantly worse than the non-pauper standard (Path to Exile, etc). One cute interaction is deathtouch creatures + Viridian Longbow, which lets me build my own "T: destroy target creature".
For interacting with artifacts there is a single Torch Fiend. Admittedly this is an area that could be improved. Unfortunately I don't think the deck has room left for dedicated artifact/enchantment removal without diluting the other themes.
INDIVIDUAL CARD NOTES
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Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Not sure why this card was ever printed at common, but I'm happy to run this as it's probably the best card in the deck. Decent win condition that I can recur with Alesha's ability. Notably it makes me pay attention to the black pips in the rest of my cards.
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Vulturous Aven: Almost a black mulldrifter, that can keep coming back in this deck. Decent value if it eats something like a goblin token.
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Gorgon Recluse: Such a satisfying card for this deck because it ticks so many boxes: 2 power, pseudo-deathtouch, double black pips, discard synergy and card advantage.
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Generator Servant: Not busted or anything but has a cute interaction with Alesha. Cast this turn two, sac on turn three to cast Alesha and give her haste, attack with her and immediately reanimate Generator Servant back. Can add free death triggers for zero cards and zero mana every turn if something would benefit from that.
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Basilica Screecher: Extort is very good in multiplayer. It's basically a slow but steady and constant Exsanguinate until it dies, at which point Alesha can just bring it back.
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Drannith Stinger / Wasteland Scorpion / Moaning Wall / Drannith Healer: Not intended to be cast, but cycled and reanimated for card advantage.
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Okiba-Gang Shinobi: Mostly here because it lets you rebuy an ETB trigger, but it's ability is likely to make your opponents less aggressive.
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First-Sphere Gargantua: Not necessarily as synergistic as the other cards, but this is just an excellent rate for a common. A big body for a reasonable cost that will ultimately draw you two cards.
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Death Denied: Probably the closest thing to a Braingeyser in pauper. This card is underrated, especially in a strategy that quickly fills up the graveyard like this one.
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Impact Tremors: Another common that probably should have been printed at uncommon. Decent win condition, can be really solid with things like Mogg War Marshal or other token makers coming back every turn.
CLOSING
The deck probably isn't winning a lot of games, but that's okay. (Though, politics goes a long way in multiplayer to give a less optimal deck like this a fighting chance.) And even if I lose, if I got to incrementally accumulate value off of the small, cute synergies that are woven throughout the deck, I probably still had fun along the way. Figuring out how to have fun without necessarily winning is actually a ‘win’ for everybody.
