October 3-5 Pauper Weekend Recap

Want to learn more about the metrics I use in tracking the metagame? You can find an explainer here.

Two weeks into the Spider-Man/Through the Omenpaths season and things are starting to take shape. Of course the shape of the format bears more than a passing resemblance to the end of Edge of Eternities, which in turn looked awfully similar to the final days of FINAL FANTASY. Considering Pauper is a non-rotating format with a massive card pool this phenomena isn’t that much of an outlier, but it still warrants some discussion.

A table showcasing the performance of different archetypes in the Magic Online weekend Pauper Challenges.

Like many other non-rotating formats, Pauper has been at the whim of sets that have bypassed standard. The Modern Horizons trio have had an outsized influence on the makeup of the metagame and the basic land cyclers from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth continue to hold manabases together with duct tape and a dream. These sets were printed directly into Modern, which means they could have a higher power level. It would make sense that these cards would have a wider impact. Universes Beyond – the sets that take place outside the Magic multiverse were supposed to skip Standard which in turn gave a faint glimmer of hope that Pauper could experience some more regular churn.

Pauper is almost always in a tenuous balance between a stable and a stagnant metagame. Once a card file becomes fully integrated into the format, things settle until the next release. Occasionally a Standard level release would inject life into an archetype or bring something entirely new to the table, but more often than not such shifts came with sets designed with larger formats in mind. Universes Beyond, initially, was a boon in that it promised regular infusions of stronger options. Regardless of the realm which the cards came from, the hope was for game play that could would be novel more often.

But now Universes Beyond passes through Standard. And there are more Standard legal releases than ever. While this means more potential options to shake up Pauper that is not the likely outcome. Pauper is more likely to get additional role players than cards that spawn new archetypes or change the nature of existing decks. As a result things are largely going to feel the same from cycle to cycle, even if there is new art for a given effect.

It feels like, these days, if you are critiquing some element of the 2026 release schedule you’re not really speaking to the Magic audience. The folks I feel most for are people who enjoy and engage with Standard as their format is set to develop at a pace that has not yet been seen. For me, I just wish we had more time with each set and world. Iterating on mechanical themes gave chance for one or two to slip through and while we still see cross set synergy, things don’t often fit together nearly as well.

As for the Pauper of today, Blue Terror remains a terror. It was far and away the best performing deck on the weekend. Jund Wildfire, despite a pair of Top 8 finishes, actually performed worse than the average Top 32 deck with an Adjusted Meta Score Above Replacement of -0.27. Don’t worry – other format staples such as High Tide (-0.34) also found themselves in the red. I never place too much stock in a single week, especially in a cycle when not much has changed. If anything I would be working towards trying to have a good matchup against Blue Terror and figuring out the rest from there. I would also be keen on having a strong defensive game considering the rise in both Aristocrats and Madness Burn over the past week.

Power Rankings

10. Spy Walls
9. Faeries (Not Ranked)
8. High Tide (-5)
7. Elves (-3)
6. Rally Red
5. Madness Burn (+4)
4. Grixis Affinity (+1)
3. Aristocrats (+4)
2. Jund Wildfire (-1)
1. Blue Terror (+1)

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Commander Dad: Some Cards That I Like

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September 26-29 Pauper Weekend Recap

Want to learn more about the metrics I use in tracking the metagame? You can find an explainer here.

Technically we have entered a new Pauper cycle. The release of Spider-Man/Through the Omenpaths has added a number of cards to the format. None of these have had a massive impact at the time of writing and as a result the top of the format looks largely unchanged from where it was just a week ago.

A screen cap of Google Sheets displaying the archetypes from the past weekend's Pauper challenges and their performance.

Stability is not a foreign concept in Pauper, but one has to go back several years to find a time when a year would go by without a high power release injecting new life into the format. This year this phenomena was replace with the trial unban of High Tide which shook things up. While Tarkir Dragonstorm, FINAL FANTASY, and Edge of Eternities brought new cards to the table, none of these had the impact of a single Modern Horizons set. Would the current crop of Spy Combo decks exist without Sagu Wildling? Probably not. Would Pauper have any resemblance to the current format if Sneak Snacker had never been printed? Highly unlikely.

Back to the topic at hand. Pauper is stable to some and stagnant to others. Whether the status quo will remain long term remains to be seen. Instead the current moment asks for innovation on current lists to try and find the small edges which can lead more wins.

The big three remain the same – Jund Wildfire, Blue Terror, and High Tide. While not dissimilar from the antiquated Aggro-Combo-Control triumvirate the current dynamic has a midrange deck and an aggro-control archetype. This amounts to splitting hairs as these three have been well known entities for months at this point and have already started to adapt and adjust to each other. Even beneath the surface things are largely the same, with various aggressive red decks trying to find their footing around a field of Dread Return combo, Elves, and Faeries.

And herein resides the rub. Things are stable, but without an infusion of sufficiently powerful cards the texture of the format is not likely to change dramatically in the immediate future. Now would be a perfect time to try and hone one’s skills with a particular deck in an effort to gain expertise. Beyond that, just about everything I wrote about last week here remains true. If anything there’s a chance for Darval/Spider-Man to make waves but they are best suited to winning white midrange mirrors, which do not seem to be a popular matchup these days. We’ll just have to see if anything evolves in the coming weeks or if we can expect more of the same.

Power Rankings

10. Spy Walls (-3)
9. Madness Burn (-4)
8. Gruul Ponza (Not Ranked)
7. Aristocrats (+1)
6. Rally Red (NR)
5. Grixis Affinity (+1)
4. Elves (+5)
3. High Tide (-1)
2. Blue Terror (-1)
1. Jund Wildfire (+2)

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Commander Dad: Lurrus Zombies

I want to take a moment to thank all my Patrons. I am going to do my level best to keep providing you with the kind of content that brought you here in the first place. If you are interested in supporting my work, you can sign up for my Patreon starting at just $1.

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Throw Wide the Gates

If you are reading this then you either regularly follow my work or you were brought here by a teaser I wrote. Regardless, welcome to my corner of the internet. This piece will serve as a way to organize my thoughts about the September 27 announcement of the 2026 Magic: The Gathering release schedule. The sheer volume of product: seven Standard legal releases, including four from the Universes Beyond line, is a lot. Couple this with some Secret Lairs that make no sense to me (and apparently many others) and there was a lot of discourse floating around the pockets of the internet I inhabit. So what’s a writer to do but write, so here I go. I’m not going to try and extrapolate my feelings to the wider audience here – this is how I feel. If any of that resonates with you then I’m grateful to have helped given workd to your emotions.

The Soul of the Game

I found Magic in grade school. I was already a voracious reader of fantasy novels by the time I saw the cards and the idea of being part of a story drew me to the game. Part of this, I’m sure, was power fantasy. I was (and am) short and was not athletically inclined until college. The idea of being a powerful wizard summoning monsters to do battle on my behalf was enticing. As my friends started to drift away I dug deeper, scouring the internet and reading magazines (remember those?) to find places to play. That led me to Neutral Ground – my first Local Game Store – and a community I returned to through graduate school.

Time and time again Magic served as an escape. When I was struggling with my assistantship supervisor in my Master’s Program, there was Magic to give me a sense of comfort. When my first job kept me in the suburbs I was able to find another game store for Friday Night Magic and Prerelease events. Returning to Brooklyn for my second job led me to yet another store and a new community. Throughout these points in my life I was writing – whether for articles or forum posts – I was engaged with other people about the game. Time and time again what kept me engaged with Magic was not just the experience of sitting down and shuffling cardboard or clicking my screen but rather the opportunity to share those moments with other people.

In the fallout from yesterday’s announcement I have seen some decry to loss of the game’s soul. That somehow this shift away from original settings somehow lessens the totality. On some level I agree. I was (and still am) enamored with the worlds of Magic and while I did enjoy comic books as a kid I never found the same thrill in the Marvel Universe. Even though I devoured fantasy novels I never completed reading The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I fell in love with Magic because of Magic and though I wish we spent more time with those original worlds I still enjoy every visit.

Over time I came to realize the soul of the game was not these worlds or the characters, but the people. The gorgeous and full settings pulled me in but it was the draw of connection that kept me coming back. If it were not for the community I would have lost interest long ago. They say it truly is about the gathering but the game is nothing without the people.

Indifference

There’s been a lot of discussion over the years about the emotional reaction and resonance of Magic. The idea that at some point there is going to be something distinctly For You. These are the things that you hold dear; that you love. It follows that there are going to be somethings that are not for you. Maybe these are things you despise but I would argue that the worst thing one can feel towards Magic is indifference. If I love a set and hate the next, I can look at the upcoming one for something else I love. It can keep me engaged. What happens if that hate is replaced with nothing – a middle of the scale emotion? If there are too many sets where I am completely indifferent then perhaps I look for that community elsewhere.

A Magic set used to be a rarer thing. There was more time to sit with and digest a world. They were surgical and had to hit as many player types as possible. Now Magic releases seem to never stop with the goal being “like what you like”. I am not sure if this is better or worse in aggregate. I find cards I enjoy everywhere and some sets that definitely resonate with me. I cannot speak for everyone but then again my relationship with the game has changed. I may be indifferent to entire settings but there is always at least a card or ten that pique my interest and make me smile.

The Constant

The world is uncertain. Speaking nothing about the state of global affairs and the current state of my country of residence, things that I once believed to be stable no longer appear that way. And that is scary. I am also a parent and nothing prepares you for the challenges of raising a human who is constantly changing. Personally, surgery and chronic illness have altered the course of my life. But Magic has been a constant.

Magic has become a touchstone for me. A way to find a piece of calm in the chaos of existence. Yet Magic has continued to change, albeit in different ways. The game today is not the same as the only I played on the school yard black top as a ten year old. Part of me misses that, but I think what I miss more is the stability that Magic represented. A world for three sets, then two, then one. Worlds I didn’t know being introduced to me over the course of three acts before being condensed into snapshots, and then some of them replaced with worlds that I did know and yet felt entirely alien. Magic is still a constant in my life but the motion sickness pill it provided doesn’t hit the same way.

Bandwagoning

Part of who I am is defined by Magic. I have written about the game for over a decade. I have worked with Wizards of the Coast in some capacity for several years, whether through coverage or the Pauper Format Panel. There are people I have met along they way who are not nearly as engaged but they still feel a strong affinity towards Magic. They are not people who play but rather they are Magic players. Developing an identity is not an easy thing to do and having part of who you believe to be changed by external forces can be jarring. Yet for much of the time the thing that brought the community together was Magic.

What happens when someone finds this community through other means? Whether it’s Doctor Who or Spider-Man or the next entry in Universes Beyond, are they any less of a Magic player? A driving force behind the production of cards for years has been acquisition – getting new players into the game. I have seen first hand people brought in by Universes Beyond become Magic players. Is their experience any less valid?

I am a die hard Mets fan and while, as I write this, they are not making the postseason they are still a team set up for success. I have been a fan of the Mets for almost 30 years, through many lean times. I have seen their home stadium empty and full. Fans who engage during the boom times sometimes get chastised as “jumping on the bandwagon”. and maybe they fall off. But when they stick around and engage more deeply with the fandom, then the highs and lows they experience are not that different from my own.

I can’t speak for everyone but I remember feeling like I was an outsider for playing Magic. I have to imagine others felt the same way. Now that the game is popular I don’t want to make others feel unwelcome because of how they found their way to this space. The soul of the game is the people.

We Live in a Society

I cannot write about this moment without acknowledging that currently, for worse, we live in a capitalist system. Profit drives so much of what is served to the world on a daily basis and that is something that leaves me, personally, feeling uneasy. But this is the system in which we currently operate, and that means that for some the line must always go up. This is not new to Magic and one could argue has been part of the game since it was impossible to find packs of Alpha. The difference is that today it is much more in our face and we are constantly bombarded with the siren song of spending. Can there still be art to the game? Has art always existed under capitalism? I want to say yes but I can fully understand and appreciate folks who disagree. Even me writing these words is, in a sense, done so with the intent to generate views: a non-monetary commodity.

Magic is bigger than it has ever been. Players, like me, have other things that pull at their attention. I don’t buy as much product as I used to and instead I target my purchases for maximum enjoyment. I want to visit conventions and engage there, as I am sure many others do. I play Commander at my local game store and at the homes of my friends. I am not rushing out to buy boxes. But there are people who do that and I would argue that as more people age into my bracket that the game needs people who are eager to grow their collection by leaps and bounds not to make sure that the line goes up but rather to make sure there is a line at all.

I don’t know. It hurts me to see people in my community unhappy. I hope people are able to find the joy and the soul again, in whatever way they so choose.

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The Edge of Eternities Pauper Season Recap

Want to learn more about the metrics I use in tracking the metagame? You can find an explainer here.

Six weeks is a long time to go between Pauper recaps. So what happened? In a word, life. Not that this is the most riveting content in the world but I figured that you, reader, might want a tiny bit of insight as to what’s been going on.

Normally the end of August into the start of September is the busiest time of year for my work. This year we are down a person in our office but have no less work to do which puts additional pressure on those who remain. Couple that with a child starting second grade, the holidays, and follow up medical visits from my procedure back in May and you have a recipe for something hitting the back burner.

And truth be told, sometimes I just need a break. I’ve still been writing on this blog and started to dabble in making some Commander videos just to flex different muscles. But every so often I need to take a step back from Pauper to gain some perspective. This time that was about six weeks. But now that I’m going to be looking at pictures of Spider-Man…I mean traversing the Omenpaths… it’s time to dive back in.

There were eight weekends of Challenges in the Edge of Eternities season. There were eight decks which cleared the 5% threshold for volume of Top 32 presence and I’ll be taking a look at some those strategies today. That being said there are two decks who did not meet that threshold that are worth mentioning.

2 Accursed Marauder 4 Bloodthrone Vampire 4 Carrion Feeder 2 Corrupted Conviction 4 Infestation Sage 4 Mortician Beetle 4 Nested Shambler 2 Nezumi Linkbreaker 4 Perigee Beckoner 2 Rite of Consumption 2 Shambling Ghast 3 Supernatural Stamina 17 Swamp 2 Unearth 4 Village Rites Sideboard 1 Accursed Marauder 2 Drown in Sorrow 4 Mesmeric Fiend 2 Reaping the Graves 2 Rotten Reunion 2 Sylvok Lifestaff 1 Tragic Slip 1 Unexpected Fangs

The first is Aristocrats or Black Sac. A strategy near and dear to my heart this deck got a boost in the form of Perigee Beckoner as two copies of the card can go infinite with a sacrifice outlet. This deck is just a pile of creatures that replace themselves and while is quite literally greater than the sum of its parts. Why talk about a deck that clocked in at under 2.75% of the Top 32 metagame over the season? Because it over performed by quite a bit in the back half of the season. Two wins in the last four weeks of Edge of Eternities season and an Adjusted Meta Score Above Replacement of 0.42 – second best over that span – means that this list should be one on your radar for the next season.

4 Axebane Guardian 4 Balustrade Spy 1 Dimir House Guard 2 Dread Return 1 Elven Farsight 4 Forest 4 Gatecreeper Vine 4 Generous Ent 4 Land Grant 4 Lead the Stampede 2 Lotleth Giant 3 Masked Vandal 2 Mesmeric Fiend 4 Overgrown Battlement 3 Quirion Ranger 4 Sagu Wildling 4 Saruli Caretaker 1 Swamp 1 Troll of Khazad-dûm 4 Winding Way Sideboard 2 Accursed Marauder 1 Acorn Harvest 4 Essence Warden 1 Masked Vandal 2 Mesmeric Fiend 2 Mirrorshell Crab 2 Scattershot Archer 1 Swamp

Spy Walls is the latest Pauper take on the infamous “Oops, All Spells!” strategy, except the Pauper version needs to run actual lands. While this deck has been around for quite some time (and previous versions ran a single land), the latest versions run between four and five lands and have also added other mana engines – whether they be Elves or Walls based. This deck got a lot of press at the start of the season as a powerful combo deck that was applying a ton of pressure to the metagame. The numbers are unclear, as the Walls version ended up as the seventh best archetype based on Winner’s Meta share and third best on AMSAR. However, in the final four weeks the strategy dropped to 16th in Winner’s Meta volume and AMSAR (with a score of -0.06, performing slightly behind an average Top 32 deck). Again, this is a deck to be on the lookout for but it appears as if the metagame has adjusted to its presence.

4 Burning-Tree Emissary 3 Chain Lightning 4 Clockwork Percussionist 2 Fireblast 4 Goblin Bushwhacker 4 Goblin Tomb Raider 4 Great Furnace 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Manamorphose 14 Mountain 4 Rally at the Hornburg 1 Reckless Abandon 2 Reckless Impulse 4 Voldaren Epicure 2 Wrenn's Resolve Sideboard 3 End the Festivities 2 Flash of Defiance 4 Pyroblast 2 Red Elemental Blast 1 Relic of Progenitus 2 Smash to Dust 1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Faithless Looting 4 Fiery Temper 3 Fireblast 4 Grab the Prize 3 Guttersnipe 4 Highway Robbery 4 Kessig Flamebreather 4 Lava Dart 4 Lightning Bolt 18 Mountain 4 Sneaky Snacker 4 Voldaren Epicure Sideboard 4 Pyroblast 3 Red Elemental Blast 4 Relic of Progenitus 4 Searing Blaze

There are two different varieties of red decks that saw success during Edge of Eternities season. Rally Red – a low to the ground aggressive deck that can chain Burning-Tree Emissary into Rally at the Hornburg to swing in for damage immediately. This style of deck is nothing new to Pauper as it has similar play patterns to previous Goblin Bushwhacker decks. Rally Red acquired six Top 8s and a win out of 46 trips to the Top 32. Overall Rally ended up with 4.23% of the Winner’s Metagame (down from 5.68% of the Top 32 meta) and its AMSAR score of -0.01 tells us the strategy was decidedly average over the course of eight weeks.

Compare this to Madness Burn. This deck wants to leverage Grab the Prize with Fiery Temper and Sneaky Snacker to ignore downsides while piling on the damage with Guttersnipe. Whereas Rally Red wants to turn creatures sideways, Madness Burn wants to point spells directly at the opponent’s dome. The deck holds a respectable 14 Top 8 finishes (including a win) in 61 Top 32 appearances. With 7.48% of the Winner’s Metagame (and 7.53% of the Top 32 meta), and an AMSAR of 0.29, Madness Burn looks to be the slightly better red option moving forward.

Let’s take a moment to talk about red’s position in the metagame. As we will see down the way, blue is a dominant force in the metagame. Having access to eight Blast effects gives the deck a fighting chance to win stack battles. Being well positioned against blue is important and the fact that both of these decks can go over the top of other strategies bodes well for them long term. If I had to pick one to be bullish on it would be the more direct burn version as it has slightly better counterplay to Weather the Storm and other lifegain.

2 Blood Fountain 1 Bojuka Bog 3 Cast Down 4 Cleansing Wildfire 1 Crypt Incursion 4 Drossforge Bridge 1 Eviscerator's Insight 4 Fanatical Offering 1 Forest 4 Gixian Infiltrator 4 Ichor Wellspring 3 Krark-Clan Shaman 1 Makeshift Munitions 2 Mountain 2 Nihil Spellbomb 1 Pulse of Murasa 4 Refurbished Familiar 4 Slagwoods Bridge 3 Swamp 1 Toxin Analysis 4 Twisted Landscape 2 Vault of Whispers 4 Writhing Chrysalis Sideboard 2 Breath Weapon 3 Duress 1 Krark-Clan Shaman 1 Nihil Spellbomb 3 Pyroblast 2 Toxin Analysis 3 Weather the Storm

Jund Wildfire remains a stalwart of the Pauper metagame. The deck has cemented itself as the go-to midrange strategy in the format and has the results to back up how frequently it is played. Jund racked up 21 trips to the Top 8 with three wins in 92 Top 32 finishes. At 11.36% of the Top 32 metagame and 10.04% of the Winner’s metagame, if you play in an event you are likely to run into Jund at some point. An ASMAR of 0.36 puts it on the podium for the bronze on that metric and the deck continues to evolve. This season so the widespread adoption of Gixian Infiltrator as yet another threat that get large that also happens to dodge Snuff Out.

4 Brainstorm 4 Counterspell 4 Cryptic Serpent 2 Deem Inferior 1 Deep Analysis 4 Delver of Secrets 3 Dispel 16 Island 4 Lórien Revealed 4 Mental Note 3 Ponder 2 Sleep of the Dead 1 Spell Pierce 4 Thought Scour 4 Tolarian Terror Sideboard 4 Annul 2 Blue Elemental Blast 2 Envelop 3 Gut Shot 4 Hydroblast

Blue Terror was the best deck on the season and it wasn’t even close. It was at the top of the AMSAR standings in five of the eight weekends and closed the season with a score of 1.09 – 0.63 better than second place. How many Top 8s? Three dozen. How many wins? Seven. 15.45% of the Winner’s Metagame are numbers that no other deck in the format can match. And it makes sense. Blue Terror can stick a massive threat early and protect it with countermagic, which has long been a winning strategy in Pauper. This is just one of the reasons those blasts out of the red decks are so valuable, but also why flooding the board with pesky tokens can buy the time needed to win the game.

4 Brainstorm 1 Deep Analysis 2 Flood of Recollection 1 Gigadrowse 2 Hidden Strings 4 High Tide 4 Ideas Unbound 15 Island 4 Lórien Revealed 4 Merchant Scroll 4 Peer Through Depths 1 Petals of Insight 4 Preordain 4 Psychic Puppetry 4 Reach Through Mists 2 Stream of Thought Sideboard 1 Deep Analysis 2 Dispel 2 Envelop 1 Gigadrowse 4 Hydroblast 2 Muddle the Mixture 3 Snap

Hide Tide combo, by my estimation, is the second performing deck in the format. Based on AMSAR (0.43) and the delta between Winner’s Meta Share (8.59%) and Top 32 meta share (7.41%), it comes in behind Blue Terror and nothing else. Nineteen Top 8s and a pair of wins are no slouch either. Despite not being as popular as some of the other strategies available High Tide continues to put up rather strong numbers and continues to increase its metashare, especially as it comes to the winner’s side of things. At the same time the deck is becoming less popular. The deck has established itself as one of the best options in Pauper if your goal is to win.

What about the next release? While there are cards that have piqued my interest for niche strategies it does not seem that anything will shake up the top of the standings. Mono White midrange aggressive strategies get a new tool which can tussle in the red zone while Gruul Ramp now have access to a piece of ramp that has the potential to do some damage. Still, I do not anticipate the format to look drastically different in the coming weeks.

Power Rankings

10. Rakdos Madness (Not Ranked)
9. Elves (-6)
8. Aristocrats (NR)
7. Spy Walls (-5)
6. Grixis Affinity (+4)
5. Faeries (+1)
4. Madness Burn
3. Jund Wildfire (+4)
2. High Tide (+3)
1. Blue Terror

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Commander Dad: Sygg, River Cutthroat

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Commander Dad: Crovax the Cursed

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Commander Dad: Mavinda, Student’s Advocate

Well, let’s just say I’m trying something new…

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Untitled Commander Series 3: Navigating the Narrows

How do you build towards narrow cards? This is the question that has enamored me since I was introduced to Commander. There’s nothing wrong with picking a legendary that offers multiple paths – I’ve have more than one deck where such a card is at the helm – but I also derive joy from finding a general where I have to scour the entire history of Magic to find cards that fit and only if you squint just right. This is where love is found. There’s a fondness for the weird legends, the ones that when you take it out of the deckbox, members of the pod may be met with a card that they had no idea existed. These options do not have to be old but instead they may just not measure up to the current crop of commanders.

The (technically correct) way to build towards a narrow Commander is to find 99 other pieces of cardboard that you like and shuffle them up. Thank you for coming to my lecture, please leave a five star review. If you actually want a deck that does something you have to be more selective. You need to examine the card selected and think of everything it can do and build out from there. Given the entire legacy of Magic, the slowly shifting nature of the Color Pie, and the need to keep limited environments fresh, it feels possible to build nearly any archetype in any color identity. All it takes is the ability to see things in the context of that history instead of only the past few years.

This is easy for me to say. I am a full fledged adult who has been playing Magic since Revised (for the record my “break” came before Ice Age). I also went accomplished much of my schooling before the era of the omnipresent internet (and well before the era of the useless internet) and had to do research in libraries using microfilm and other antiquated concepts. There were times in college when I would find a book in the stacks and pore over the bibliography to check the source material on the off chance it would be applicable to my current endeavor. This is the approach one must take when looking at Commanders that play to themes not heavily supported in color identity.

Crovax the Cursed {2}{B}{B} Legendary Creature — Vampire Noble Crovax enters with four +1/+1 counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, you may sacrifice a creature. If you do, put a +1/+1 counter on Crovax. If you don’t, remove a +1/+1 counter from Crovax. {B}: Crovax gains flying until end of turn. 0/0 Illustrated by Pete Venters Part of the Reserved List

While there is no central library for Magic there are plenty of sources. Scryfall and EDHRec both facilitate research. If you are able to search terms and find key cards in the former you can then see how people are applying that knowledge in the latter. This is my preferred way to use EDHRec as it can give me clues to cards that may have escaped my notice (being old means I can’t keep up with the cadence of new cards) while letting me leverage the pieces of cardboard that get stuck in my mind (looking at you Strands of Night). I want to show putting this method into practice using Crovax the Cursed.

From the first time I saw Crovax I was enthralled. The Weatherlight Saga was in full force and the story was being revealed in the cards and the pages of The Duelist. This specific card depicted the moment that Crovax lost his humanity. The text says it all: he counts as a Vampire. He has to constantly feed to maintain his strength. Pete Venters’ art is striking in his signature manner. The line work is phenomenal, especially when shrunk down to card size. The lighting, the red, the feathers of the fallen angel; all of it communicates the moment. By modern standards the card is not very good but that does not matter because of the feelings it evokes.

When cards get stuck in my brain I am always looking for other options that may end up working with them. Years after I first saw and built my initial Crovax deck, Unforgiving One was spoiled. I knew I wanted to play this card in Commander. It did not matter to me that the card was not especially powerful or that its thematic hook – Modified – was not exactly supported in black. The idea of conditionally bringing creatures back from the graveyard makes me smile and attacking is still honest. A copy was added to my collection even as I took apart the first iteration of Crovax.

Unforgiving One {2}{B} Creature — Spirit Menace (This creature can’t be blocked except by two or more creatures.) Whenever this creature attacks, return target creature card with mana value X or less from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the number of modified creatures you control. (Equipment, Auras you control, and counters are modifications.) 2/3 Illustrated by Fariba Khamseh

But the idea of Mono Black Modified continued to tickled the part of my mind dedicated to deckbuilding. The release of Tarkir Dragonstorm and its focus on different counters – not just +1/+1 counters – gave me the spark of inspiration I needed to pull the Vampire Noble back out. Flipping through my collection I saw cards that added all manner of counters to my army, from Charnel Serenade to Isareth the Awakener. The hook’s hooks were in me and I started to look for auras and equipment that would fit the bill. While I have not found auras that spoke to me, it does not mean I’ll leave Chorale of the Void on the outs forever. Thankfully, for my opponents at least, I decided to leave my copies of Grafted Exoskeleton and Phyresis on the bench. Nevertheless I had the hypothesis for my research.

Narrow decks are some of my favorite ones to build and maintain. Honing in on a select suite of cards while also being able to find new and novel ways to engage with the entire history of the game keeps things entertaining. It also makes these decks easier to update as new cards are released. Looking at a card file for black cards that care about counters provides a set of parameters where it is entirely possible no cards could be added to the deck for months at a time. What a relief!

Building Crovax with an emphasis on Modified meant he needed to be a threat. Crovax needs to get large to punch players in their mouth while surviving long enough to do it again (and again, hopefully). This is part of the allure. Being able to fling him at an opponent with Rite of Consumption is a reasonable endgame (I still can’t find my copy of Essence Harvest) and Surestrike Trident doesn’t force me to sacrifice my Commander while also leaning into the Modified theme. Looking at other ways to boost Crovax’s power, Blade of the Bloodchief fits perfectly turning each piece of fodder fed to Crovax into three points of power. Tarrian’s Soulcleaver might not care about Crovax’s vampirism but can grow him all the same. Ring of Xathrid is a fantastic option that not only can protect Crovax but also keeps him alive if I am unable to feed him enough.

Animation Module {1} Artifact Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on a permanent you control, you may pay {1}. If you do, create a 1/1 colorless Servo artifact creature token. {3}, {T}: Choose a counter on target permanent or player. Give that permanent or player another counter of that kind. Design leads to progress. Illustrated by Aaron Miller

Caring about +1/+1 counters means I get to bust out one of my favorite trinkets: Animation Module. I am always trying to get this engine adjacent card to work and it shines here. When it is out on the board it turns Crovax’s upkeep cost into a scant one generic mana while also providing a pastiche of Proliferate. Animation Module cares about any +1/+1 counter being placed on a creature so actual Proliferate – Contagion Engine, Vat Emergence, and Vraska, Betrayal’s Sting – all find a home here as well. Now any of our creatures are able to grow tall.

What about going wide? As Unforgiving One cares about multiple creatures carrying enhancements, we need to look at options. Nikara, Lair Scavenger and Yathan Tombguard also want multiple creatures with counters and converts them into cards. Hagra Constrictor makes these creatures more difficult to block. Unspeakable Symbol is no Treasonous Ogre but it can convert life into damage. The three life is steep but does pay dividends in this build. Isareth and Charnel Serenade can bring these creatures back for one last rodeo as well, providing just enough of an oomph to make their finality clauses worth the cost of inclusion.

Noosegraf Mob is an odd duck. It comes in as a 5/5 but can provide a steady stream of bodies to block and feed to Crovax. There are plenty of ways to keep this zombie alive and spewing filth, from the equipment available to Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. It is also emblematic of cards in the deck that benefit directly from having +1/+1 counters placed directly on them – one only needs to look at Emperor of Bones or Fetid Gargantua to see what else can happen when you decide to feed your army of horrors.

The first time I played Crovax in its current rebuild it stumbled. Hard. Part of this was due to mana issues but a not so small part of the problem was the lack of relevant early drops. Bloodghast, Nether Traitor, and Reassembling Skeleton were slam dunks as they obliged the Noble. I had replaced more expensive card draw with Clattering Augur and Dusk Legion Zealot in an effort to speed up development. Still I needed more. The release of Edge of Eternities provided Timeline Culler as another persistent source of fuel. I leafed through my longboxes, found copies of Hangarback Walker and Marketback Walker as a smile spread across my face. Here were cards that could come down early. wanted to die, and worked with +1/+1 counters. It didn’t take much to convince myself of their worth

Now that I had all of these bonuses I needed to put them to good use. Retribution of the Ancients turns excess counters into creature removal and when combined with Mikaeus could help create a perpetually undying army. Retribution also enables the reactivation of an Adapt ability which can mean more cards from Fetid Gargantua or more hasted attackers from Emperor of Bones. Fain the Broker is a fiddly card that does a lot at a cost. However when there are counters to spare he can put it work.

Fetid Gargantua {4}{B} Creature — Horror {2}{B}: Adapt 2. (If this creature has no +1/+1 counters on it, put two +1/+1 counters on it.) Whenever one or more +1/+1 counters are put on this creature, you may draw two cards. If you do, you lose 2 life. When the night comes knocking —Kessig expression meaning “in dire times” 4/4 Illustrated by Michael C. Hayes

The fact that Fain can remove Finality Counters does not hurt and provides some redundancy with Nesting Grounds to help keep the creatures coming back for more. Both the land and the Broker also allow creatures to continue to Adapt (are you sensing a theme yet?).

Banshee's Blade {2} Artifact — Equipment Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each charge counter on this Equipment. Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage, put a charge counter on this Equipment. Equip {2} ({2}: Attach to target creature you control. Equip only as a sorcery. This card enters unattached and stays on the battlefield if the creature leaves.) Illustrated by Bradley Williams

Then there’s Equipment. Loxodon Warhammer is a classic and helps to offset life loss. Ghost Lantern comes with Bind Spirit, leveraging both halves of the card. Lashwrithe not only makes a creature large but is also leaves behind a piece of fodder for Crovax. Banshee’s Blade is a neat card that leaves the counters on the artifact, meaning it can move its power around the board not unlike The Ozolith. There are other equipment that add counters to the creature itself – Armory of Iroas – but having one that is not contingent on its wielder surviving adds to the deck’s resilience.

This is my exploration of a narrow card that is anything but. I am not going to say that my Crovax deck is a world beater – if I wanted it to be stronger I would add another color. Skullbriar, the Walking Grave or Reyhan, Last of the Abzan or Grismold, the Dreadsower are all better decks for a +1/+1 counter theme that also come with green’s ability to multiply counters, and I have built each of these decks in the past. However each of them leaves something to be desired. These builds are, in many ways, prescribed. You can build any of these decks but how good are they without Hardened Scales and its ilk? There is nothing wrong with running these decks and leaning into the powerful options gifted by the additional color. But intentionally limiting yourself has more benefits than just bookkeeping – it can lower your threat profile.

Sitting down in any pod requires some level of assessment. Not only do you need to consider your position in turn order but you also must survey the other Commanders. If you are sitting in a regular group you understand more about your enemies but in open play you have to make snap judgements based upon known information. A card that screams +1/+1 counters at you is more likely to play with cards you have seen before and even if there are some minor differences the main thrust will remain the same. It is understood. If you take your Commander out and it is a narrow – or more likely worse – version of something of something established that can work in your favor. Your cards work in ways that may not be as easy to parse to the opponent’s providing an advantage. Playing cards that are present in fewer decks can also lead to being underestimated, which in turn can give you a chance to strike. At the end of the game this can lead to more enjoyment since everyone loves an underdog story.

If you are looking for something new for Commander night why not focus on something outside the box? Think to what card gripped you for the first time (of the fiftieth) and build with that in mind. You never know what relic you might uncover in your efforts.

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