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Whither Blooms the Darkness? pEDH

Pauper EDH Attrition BG (Golgari) Buyback Flashback Retrace

legendofa

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Sorcery (26)

Artifact (4)

Enchantment (2)

Land (35)

Creature (10)

Commander (1)

Commander: Witherbloom Apprentice

Instant (22)

Maybeboard

Sorcery (10)

Creature (6)

Enchantment (1)

Instant (3)

Land (2)

I'm always up for a deckbuilding challenge, self-imposed or otherwise, and I wanted to make a more budget deck. So, I ended up in Pauper EDH and thought I would give it a try. It appears to be getting more popular, so now's the time to step in.

I knew as soon as I saw Witherbloom Apprentice that I was going to make a deck around it. It's not every day that a spellslinger card comes out, after all. This is the current result: a bunch of ramp, draw, and control spells that shore up (and use) my life total while draining everyone else's, many of them able to be cast more than once. Buyback, storm, retrace, flashback, and escape all show up.

The main win condition is to basically sit behind a wall of Sprout Swarm and Night Soil Saproling tokens and ping everyone to death. There's a possible infinite mana combo using Pili-Pala, Presence of Gond, and Ashnod's Altar, but I chose not to include it. None of those cards have any particular utility individually outside the combo in this deck iteration. Without all three cards active at the same time, they're dead draws.

The secondary win condition is still in testing, and probably will be until the exact perfect card is printed. There were never quite enough tokens and mana to fully support Myrkul's Invoker, which would need a more dedicated deck. Feral Deathgorger is an interesting option.

It can mitigate damage quickly and easily.

It has access to and takes advantage of many resources.

It has a low average mana value, allowing speed and flexibility.

is objectively the best color combination, and anyone who disagrees probably eats pizza with a fork.

It tends to be reactive, rather than proactive.

It's weak and uninteractive in direct combat.

It doesn't have any "bomb" finishers and is very reliant on the commander.

I have to give credit to pastafarion and Witherbloom Apprentice (PDH Multiplayer) for ideas and inspiration; adding the storm cards and Fruit of Tizerus came directly from there.

Here's the deck breakdown:

Black Dragon Gate: Dual land that can be found by Open the Gates

Bojuka Bog: Anti-graveyard tech

Command Tower: Dual land that enters untapped

Darkmoss Bridge: Indestructible dual land

Forest: Basic

Forge of Heroes: Color fixing and a small pump to Witherbloom Apprentice

Golgari Guildgate: Dual land that can be found by Open the Gates

Golgari Rot Farm: Double land

Haunted Mire: Dual land with basic land types

Jungle Hollow: Dual land seasoned with lifegain

Manor Gate: Dual land that can be found by Open the Gates

Mortuary Mire: Creature recursion

Opal Palace: Color fixing and a small pump to Witherbloom Apprentice

Radiant Fountain: Light lifegain

Riveteers Overlook: Basic land search with just a touch of lifegain

Study Hall: Color and card fixing

Swamp: Basic

Terramorphic Expanse: Search for the basic land you need

Thriving Grove: Dual land

Thriving Moor: Dual land

Witch's Cottage: Creature recursion

Witherbloom Campus: Dual land with card filtering

Woodland Chasm: Dual land with basic land types

Arcane Signet: Colorless mana rock, pretty standard stuff

Crop Rotation: Can turn a basic land into a dual land, or find a utility land

Cultivate: Sets up a land drop, or adds a land for retracing Syphon Life or Raven's Crime

Edge of Autumn: Early game ramp, late game draw

Elves of Deep Shadow: One-drop mana dork, and the life loss is all but irrelevant

Explore: Play lands, draw cards. Everything this deck needs to get rolling.

Farseek: Another ubiquitous land search card, and this one can grab the duals Woodland Chasm and Haunted Mire

Golgari Signet: Another mana rock, pretty standard stuff

Harrow: Lands entering untapped are always good

Open the Gates: One-drop land search, and can set up a retraced spell

Rampant Growth: Straightforward land acceleration, essentially an extra land drop

Sakura-Tribe Elder: A land drop on a body, so "block and sac" for another land

Yavimaya Elder: Ramp and draw with a body, or set up a couple of retraces

Blood Pact: A more expensive "draw two" card, and the life loss can be recovered

Night's Whisper: Efficient "draw two", life loss can be recovered

Read the Bones: Scry and draw, life loss can be recovered

Sign in Blood: Efficient draw two, life loss can be recovered

Starlit Soothsayer: Card filtering

Syphon Mind: Group discard and mass draw

Ashes to Ashes: Exile two creatures, and the life loss is recoverable

Cast Down: Cheap, broad spectrum removal

Crypt Incursion: Anti-graveyard tech with a lifegain bonus

Darkness: Damage prevention to cover for a low creature count

Feed the Swarm: Kills creatures, destroys enchantments, minor life payment

Heritage Reclamation: Noncreature permanent removal with a card draw option

Nature's Claim: Takes care of any problematic noncreature permanents

Not Dead After All: Keeps the commander and other creatures alive and active

Oblivion Strike: Exiles a creature, no questions asked

Pestilence: Solid imitation of a boardwipe

Rancid Earth: Land destruction with a chance of mass damage

Relic of Progenitus: Flexible anti-graveyard tech with a side of card draw

Respite: Damage prevention to cover for a low creature count with a side of lifegain

Rushwood Herbalist: Mostly protects the commander, can protect other creatures

Sinkhole: Very cheap land destruction

Snuff Out: Creature removal for a life payment instead of mana

Tamiyo's Safekeeping: Keeps a permanent alive with a shot of lifegain

Tangle: Effectively a double fog and prevents tap effects

Thermokarst: Land destruction

Tragic Slip: Even more cheap creature removal that can kill indestructible creatures

Whispersilk Cloak: Protects the commander or allows a lethal attack

Wrap in Vigor: Keep all your creatures alive

Acorn Harvest: Create two 1/1 tokens, cheap flashback

Chainer's Edict: Opponent sacrifices a creature, flashback

Crippling Fatigue: Small creature removal, cheap flashback

Disturbed Burial Creature recursion, buyback

Evincar's Justice: Mini board wipe, flashback

Feral Deathgorger: Pump and draw attached to a decent body, omen

Fruit of Tizerus: Damage an opponent, escape

Groundskeeper: Gives retrace spells an easy recursion method

Moan of the Unhallowed Create two 2/2 tokens, flashback

Moment's Peace: Prevent combat damage for a turn, flashback

Raven's Crime: Force an opponent to discard, retrace

Reclaim: General-use card recursion

Salvage: More general-use card recursion

Sprouting Vines: Storm spell that feeds retrace and vice versa

Sprout Swarm: Create a 1/1 token, flashback

Syphon Life: Life drain to supplement the commander, retrace

Weather the Storm: Potentially big shot of lifegain, storm

Witherbloom Apprentice: Every time you cast or copy an instant or sorcery, you're one step closer to winning

Creeping Bloodsucker: Life drain as an upkeep trigger

Epicure of Blood: Speed up your life drain

Marauding Blight-Priest: Can't have too much life drain

Night Soil: Steady supply of cheap tokens

Almost half of this deck is instants and sorceries, so Magecraft triggers should be happening regularly during each turn cycle. As soon as you can reliably cast at least 2-3 spells each turn cycle, you should be thinking about getting Witherbloom Apprentice out. In a fast hand with good ramp and draw, this can be as early as turn 2. If you have a way to protect it, that's even better.

As a final note, I don't own all the fancy high-end arts. Those are just to make it more interesting to playtest here.

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96% Casual

Competitive

Revision 2 See all

(5 months ago)

+1 Blessing of Leeches maybe