Pauper Staples - Black
- Finn M
- May 16, 2017
- 5 min read
Black is best known for its excellent and efficient creature removal, graveyard interactions, life drain and utilisation of life as a resource.
Creatures
This efficient creature combines black's card draw method with an efficient body to block and attack. It aids in the attrition games as it replaces itself.
This unique and evasive creature is frequently found in a variety of decks predominantly with ways to pump creatures. The lifelink and evasive ability is often enough to swing a damage race in your favour particularly when combined with a few +1/+1 counters or a Rancor.
A decent blocker and repeatable removal for small or damaged creatures. This is an extremely versatile ability that can affect attacks and blocks making a chump into a trade.
This is one of the creatures that defines pauper. It is big and can be cast cheaply due to the delve mechanic. Make sure your deck can deal with this threat.
A threat often appearing as a 1-2 of. Being black it dodges some removal and the evasion helps in getting in damage when needed. The greatest downside is that it dies to Lightning Bolt.
This helps fuel graveyards and also provides a relevant blocker that can deal with ground creatures and fliers if cast.
One of the most powerful hand disruption effects available to black. This can functionally buy you a whole extra turn in many situations.
This card is best utilised alongside other black creatures. It provides a powerful stabilisation effect which can turn the tide of a game or even end it.
Removal
Cheap 1 mana removal is often essential to keep pace with the pace that threats can be cast by an opponent. Both of these have their own pros and cons. Disfigure has the benefit of being instant speed while Dead Weight can permanently downsize a creature that it doesn't immediately kill.
This is a rather prevalent removal spell even though it doesn't hit everything. It is efficient and generally, when paired with other removal and edict effects, this tends to be sufficient to keep an opponent's board in check.
The casting cost of BB makes this rather more difficult to cast than a card such as Doom Blade. It does however tend to hit a wider array of threats an opponent can present. A notable creatures it does not hit however is Gurmag Angler which also avoids Doom Blade.
While conditional, in the right deck this is the best removal spell black has to offer.
Another cheap conditional removal spell that is best suited to graveyard matters decks.
Edict effects are at the core of black's removal suite. When combined with other spot removal or sweepers they can be the optimal form of removal or, when facing a full board state, they can be awkward and ineffective. As such, edict effects are best used in tandem with targeted removal in order to be able to remove the intended creature.
A removal spell which is often seen as a 1-2 of. It is ideal at dealing with tokens or small creatures. This is definitely a card to consider if tokens are a problem.
The lifegain from these spells can often be enough to turn a game around. These spells are only at their best mid to late game so it is rare to see more than 1-2 in a decklist.
Sweepers
While white tends to be known for its ability to wrath a board in other formats, in Pauper black holds this identity. Such powerful effects at a common rarity do however come at a cost which frequently involves damage to all players in addition to creatures.
This is a frequently seen sweeper which requires a strong dedication to black mana. Being a creature aids in recursion in some instances but also has the downside that it removes itself.
This is Crypt Rats's ability on an enchantment. Once in play, this is frequently more powerful than Crypt Rats can be, but the more expensive cost and difficulty in recurring it should it be countered or sacrificed can often make it less favourable. Do note however that the card has been errataed to "At the beginning of the end step..." which allows for end step sweeping while retaining the enchantment through to the next main phase in order to cast a creature.
This frequently appears as a control deck finisher. While expensive to cast with buyback, it can lock many creature decks out from ever keeping a creature in play for more than a turn.
Card Draw
Each of these have their own pros and cons. Sign in Blood is frequently used over Night's Whisper when casting cost isn't a concern as Sign in Blood has the incremental advantage of working as a shock to finish off an opponent. Read the Bones offers superior card selection at the cost of 1 additional mana.
Recursion and Reanimation
Black is known for its interaction with the graveyard to generate value.
This is often found in low curve decks as a way to recur a recently killed creature often with a powerful enter the battlefield effect such as Chittering Rats or Phyrexian Rager.
This is generally found in decks that are intending to reanimate a large game ending creature early and protect it such as Ulamog's Crusher. While not common, it is worth noting as the archetype can be extremely powerful if a player does not understand how to play against it.
These all do similar things and have their own place based on deck style and player preference. This is one of the primary ways black generates card advantage without the need to pay life.
Sideboard Cards
1 toughness is a lot more common in Pauper than other formats. These aid in dealing with all manner of decks from elves to tokens.
Each of these have their own place and are better suited to certain styles of deck. They all tend to be used to run primarily control opponents out of resources with a view to then taking over the game. Raven's Crime is optimal for a long game especially when lands can be recurred through means such as Tilling Treefolk. Duress is ideal for both information and to remove a key card such as a counterspell. Wrench Mind and Augur of Skulls are both aimed to 2 for 1 an opponent. Wrench Mind has the benefit of cheaper mana cost while Augur of Skulls tends to be used when it can be recurred.
These all do similar things with the important aspect being land destruction. With Tron being a fairly prevalent archetype in pauper, many decks like to pack some form of answer to delay the assembly of the 3 land 7 mana combo.
That's all for this time on Particularly Pauper. Catch our next article coming soon on White staples!
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