Table of Contents
Pauper Commander (or PDH) is a variant of traditional EDH. Instead of any legendary creature being used as your commander, you can use any uncommon creature (legendary or not). As for your main deck, those can only contain cards that have a common rarity printing. Thanks to the unique restrictions, there are a ton of Pauper Commander decks you can play (even more than regular commander). Here, we’ll go over six different Pauper Commander decks in three different flavors of archetypes.
A Brief Intro to Pauper Commander
If you’re not familiar with Pauper Commander, there are a few notable differences. Life totals only start at 30, so creature decks are stronger, and combat is much more important, as Burn decks are a lot harder to play.
For commander damage, you only need to deal 16 damage, making Voltron decks especially stronger. All of these factors contribute to combat being a much larger factor in all games. There are fewer interaction spells and much less useful board wipes, so creatures have a much higher likelihood of sticking around on the battlefield. Games are usually slower, allowing for more Midrange and Control strategies to shine in the format, thanks to a much lower number of Combo decks viable in the format.
Creature Type Decks
There are various names for decks focused on just one creature type (Typal, Kindred, etc). These two decks are ones that are built around a singular creature type. These kinds of decks are more narrow in options, but that doesn’t mean they’re not playable! They both have commanders that don’t directly support the archetype, but do provide useful colors to make the most out of various support cards. While there are plenty of great creature decks for archetypes like Elves or Dragons, these ones will be a bit less common and a little more unique than the “usual” creature type-centric deck.
Nimble Larcenist
This deck is built around Birds. It’s led by Nimble Larcenist, giving you access to three different colors (something that isn’t super common in PDH). Its effect isn’t going to help your Birds, but you do get to get rid of a potentially problematic card from an opponent. As with many creature decks, it uses stats boosters like Angel of the Dawn and Dawnfeather Eagle to help close out games.
Since most of your Birds have flying, they have built-in evasion to make them great attackers. On top of that, Warden of Evos Isle discounts them all, and Lofty Denial gives a solid counterspell that’ll counter most opponents, especially if used earlier in the game. While your creatures are in the air, you can utilize Summon: Choco/Mog to give them an attack boost for extra damage until the Saga goes away.
Thanks to nearly all of your creatures having flying, you can easily take the initiative or the monarch from any opponents that have it. As such, cards like Aarakocra Sneak, Underdark Explorer, and Palace Sentinels are all great includes in the deck. This gets the engine going, and even if you lose it, you can take it back with little to no issues.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck is mostly made up of Birds, as you might expect, with a little support here and there to help close out games.
Commander
Creatures (42)
Instants (15)
Artifacts (5)
Lands (35)
100 Cards
$45.02
Fusion Elemental (Slivers)
There are only three legal WUBRG commanders in Pauper Commander. Of them all, Fusion Elemental is the easiest one to cast that has a rather impactful statline. It doesn’t really matter which of the three you use for Slivers, as none of them support the archetype directly (and don’t do much at all). You play this commander solely so you can play all the best Sliver cards. While this build uses Fusion Elemental, you can use Sphinx of the Guildpact or Transguild Courier and nothing changes.
The main gimmick of Sliver decks is that every Sliver provides some kind of ability or stat boost to all other Slivers. Gemhide Sliver is one of the best, as it turns them all into mana dorks. Pauper Commander doesn’t have very good fixing for a WUBRG deck, so being able to generate any color of mana is great. Blur Sliver gives them all haste, so if they have tap effects, you can take advantage of that. Homing Sliver turns every Sliver creature in your hand into a Sliver tutor, letting you dig for your best ones easily.
Slivers are surprisingly great at closing out games. Shadow Sliver makes them essentially unblockable at the cost of not being able to block themselves. This, combined with Virulent Sliver, can take everyone out of the game with poisonous (which is basically just toxic). Combine this with Cleaving Sliver and Bonesplitter Sliver with stat boosts and you have a very threatening battlefield.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. The deck really only struggles with colors as you might expect from a WUBRG Pauper Commander deck. However, once you’re fully online, you can snowball your way to victory easily.
Commander
Creatures (36)
Instants (16)
Sorceries (7)
Artifacts (6)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$90.82
Weak Creatures Turn Strong
Every non-commander creature is a common rarity card. So, as you probably expect, they usually aren’t particularly powerful. However, with certain commanders, you can turn these weak cards into powerhouses. It makes them extra budget-friendly since the weak creatures are cheap, so you won’t have to break the bank.
Jasmine Boreal of the Seven
Think creatures have too much text these days? With Jasmine Boreal of the Seven, you won’t have to worry about that, since you’re only playing vanilla cards. The majority of the deck consists of cards with no abilities. Your commander helps you ramp into your expensive cards on top of making them unblockable. Technically, they’re not fully unblockable, but outside of tokens, nearly every deck you’ll play against only has creatures with abilities.
You want to play creatures with big stats and no abilities. Cards like Nyxborn Colossus, Ancient Brontodon, and Vorstclaw go from unproblematic to massive problems with your commander. You can easily take someone out of the game with just a few creatures. Since they can’t be blocked, those high stats add up quickly.
Your creatures are expensive, and Jasmine Boreal of the Seven can only help you ramp so much. So, you want some extra help from a traditional ramp package including cards such as Rampant Growth and Cultivate. If you have a big graveyard, Far Wanderings is especially great at getting lands onto the battlefield.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. With a ton of vanilla creatures and ramp cards, you can create a terrifying battlefield for anyone to go up against, all while having no abilities.
Commander
Creatures (43)
Instants (6)
Sorceries (10)
Artifacts (6)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$53.14
Sigil Captain
Sigil Captain is a unique commander in that it turns all your 1/1 creatures into 3/3s. This lets you turn your weak, low-cost creatures into ones with a solid statline. Since Sigil Captain triggers when creatures enter, not when they’re cast, you can play token generators to get extra value out of certain creatures.
Your creatures usually enter with counters, so you can take advantage of cards that support +1/+1 counters. Ainok Bond-Kin gives them all first strike, Crowned Ceratok gives them trample, and Longshot Squad provides them with reach. All of this makes your creatures more of a threat, giving them extra boosts to help out in combat.
You want ways to create more 1/1 creatures to make a bigger battlefield. Thraben Standard Bearer lets you discard a card to create a 1/1 token, giving use to dead cards in your hand. Selesnya Evangel only requires you to tap an untapped creature and paid a bit of mana to generate 1/1 tokens. Overgrown Armasaur becomes a great blocker as it turns any damage into a 1/1 token.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. Most of the deck consists of either 1/1 creatures or ways to make 1/1 creatures.
Commander
Creatures (47)
Instants (4)
Sorceries (10)
Artifacts (4)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (34)
100 Cards
$56.16
Variety Decks
The last two decks for this deck showcase don’t fit into any specific archetype. They’re still very fun to play, though, and offer some very unique playstyles to explore. Both of them are moderately unamusing at first, but can snowball quickly when left unchecked. The strength of these decks comes from their commanders, and are more focused on the commanders themselves, taking advantage of their effects while still having a game plan without them. These are slightly more higher-powered and focused than some of the other decks in this article, with fewer weak cards in favor of consistency.
Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant / Cloakwood Hermit
A partner pairing, Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant and Cloakwood Hermit makes a great pair of commanders. Your deck is filled with ways to put creatures into the graveyard, which will trigger Cloakwood Hermit to make tapped Squirrels. Then, you trigger Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant to give those creatures (and all other tapped ones) counters and untap them. This makes all your creatures rapidly grow in statlines just by playing your deck.
Your best mana dorks are ones that require you tap both itself in a creature so they can both get counters. Examples of this include Citanul Stalwart, Jaspera Sentinel, and Loam Dryad. So long as you have a way to put a permanent in the graveyard (and you usually do), Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant will get counters on all creatures involved.
On top of creatures that tap, you want creatures that sacrifice themselves to trigger Cloakwood Hermit. It’s good for cards that can act as removal, such as Undergrowth Leopard, Caustic Caterpillar, and Nettle Guard. Eldrazi Spawn are especially useful since they ramp you, generated with cards like Blisterpod and Eyeless Watcher.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. If you like Aristocrat decks and sacrificing permanents, then Cloakwood Hermit and Lulu, Loyal Hollyphant are the perfect commanders for you.
Creatures (44)
Instants (1)
Sorceries (7)
Artifacts (8)
Enchantments (5)
Lands (35)
100 Cards
$66.88
Mahadi, Emporium Master
Mahadi, Emporium Master is a full control deck. You’re forcing all your opponents to sacrifice creatures as you slowly build up Treasure tokens for explosive finishes. With how easy it is to cast, you can start taking advantage of it quite early. Rakdos normally struggles hard with ramp, something Mahadi, Emporium Master does for you.
Mahadi, Emporium Master cares about the number of creatures that died on a turn. So, cards that make all players sacrifice creatures are amazing, as you usually get 3-4 Treasures out of just one card. Some of the best ones for this are Innocent Blood, Fleshbag Marauder, and Demon's Disciple.
To help close out games, you have a few different options. Disciple of the Vault which turns your Treasures tokens into burn damage when you sacrifice them. Assuming you have more life than your opponents, you can dump all the mana generated from your Treasure tokens into Crypt Rats to burn out life totals. Reckless Fireweaver turns all the Treasures that enter into burn damage to make it that much easier to end games. You can also take advantage of Falkenrath Noble and Hissing Iguanar to deal burn damage when creatures start dying.
A sample decklist can be viewed below. This deck can be used at higher power level PDH tables, and can create a ton of mana in just a few turn cycles, thanks to the lower amount of interaction Pauper Commander tends to have.
Commander
Creatures (30)
Instants (15)
Sorceries (10)
Artifacts (12)
Enchantments (1)
Lands (32)
100 Cards
$75.58
In Conclusion
There are so many Pauper Commander decks to explore. The Pauper Commander decks gone over in this article are just a small taste of what the format has to offer. Pauper Commander evolves so frequently that there is always something new to try and build.
Every set has new uncommon and common cards, so every set Pauper Commander decks gets all sorts of new toys to play with. Whether it’s a new commander or just new cards to put in the 99, Pauper Commander never gets stale with how frequently it gets updated with new cards every set.
