This deck was partially inspired by a UB Creatureless control deck my friend Basedx runs. The idea behind the deck is similar to any creatureless control deck: win by controlling the board until their deck slows down and you are either still going via buyback/mill/etc.
The premise of this deck is that the sacrificial/sweeping abilities and life cost abilities of black cards complement the board stalling and life-gain of white cards, and the whole Orzhov ideology. I had cards like
Basilica Guards
to provide defense, offer extortion for a constant early lifegain/offense, as well as to combo with Scarscale Ritual. However, the current pauper meta supports a lot of creature hate, so I thought that it was just more worth it to not include them after several dozen games. I'm open to more ideas about how to make extort and creatures work though, I'm just not sure it can.The current win-conditions for this deck are:
Evincar's Justice
, lots of Pillory of the Sleepless on their threats.
Dark Ritual speeds up the deck a lot (turn 2
Serrated Arrows
or turn 1 Pristine Talisman /
Read the Bones
for example), which really help it establish and stabilize against decks like Delver and Hexproof.
The biggest problems I'm having with it are what I should cut out to streamline it. I know I definitely want more card drawing or scrying -- or at least have more smaller things (maybe
Beckon Apparition
or
Blood Pet
for example) to give it a better chance. I think the first place I might make cuts is on the 2x
Icatian Javelineers
.
Interested what people think though. Haven't seen any deck ideas like this, but I think it has a lot of potential (it's already won quite a few surprising matchups).
Anyway, comment if you have any tips or message me in-game on MTGO if you want to talk strategy or if you want to see the deck in action!! username: emoboy
Also if you have a variety of decks I'd love to stress-test this some more, so come at me with matches!
