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Deck Guide

Pauper: Golgari Pestilence - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

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After years away from competitive tournaments, Pestilence returns to Pauper... with a cat!

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تمت الترجمة بواسطة Romeu

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تمت مراجعته من قبل Tabata Marques

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Golgari Pestilence, or Golgari Food, is a new variant of the Pestilence decks that have been absent from Pauper in recent years. Unlike the older versions, which used the protection of Guardian of the Guildpact to keep the enchantment in play, this version leverages the interaction of Cauldron Familiar with the various Food cards that have come out lately to return it to the battlefield and thus keep Pestilence always active.

The Decklist

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This is an average decklist of what players have been running in Magic Online Leagues recently. Unlike Golgari Gardens, I consider this a pure Control deck focused entirely on the late game.

Its game plan is the classic "interact with the opponent early in the game, set up with artifacts, and then drop the bomb." In this case, the bomb is Pestilence, which maintains the board's control while also acting as a win condition. If the game drags on, we can always use Campfire to reshuffle the deck and start a new sequence, even avoiding a loss to High Tide from Game 1.

The difficulty in closing games is my biggest criticism of the archetype, since our only win condition besides the key card is Cauldron Familiar, the equivalent of killing the opponent with a spoon. Click-intensiveness is another issue with this version, as Pestilence needs to activate its ability one damage at a time, instead of paying Magic Symbol X like Crypt Rats, which requires more patience from the player and more spare time to maintain focus during a round of Leagues or Challenges—not unlike the mini-click hell of playing Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven in Pioneer.

Maindeck

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The win condition.

As mentioned above, Pestilence serves a dual role as a sweeper and primary means of winning the game. Ideally, we want to extend the game to the point where we have more life than our opponent, then activate the enchantment repeatedly for lethal damage.

We can't wait for our opponent to stop attacking us, so we use Cauldron Familiar for several roles in this archetype.

First, it ensures that Pestilence always stays in play, as we have several Food-type cards to return it from the graveyard. Second, its ETB effect makes it easier to drain the opponent's life and keep ours at a sustainable level to activate Pestilence. Finally, it also holds the opponent's clock with chump block for many turns, punishing them with one more damage each time it returns from the graveyard.

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Food.

Nutrient Block was the driving force behind this deck. Besides its low cost, we can use it similarly to Ichor Wellspring alongside Eviscerator's Insight, while also guaranteeing an extra draw whenever we sacrifice it to Cauldron Familiar.

Lembas is one of the best two-mana ETB artifacts in the format today. It improves our draws and returns to the deck when sacrificed, making it another way to bypass High Tide and the possibility of losing due to a lack of cards to draw.

A copy of Heaped Harvest guarantees the ninth source of Food, which can also accelerate our victory as a two-land ramp for three mana. It's worth remembering that all food can be sacrificed to gain life as well, which is essential in the math for activating Pestilence against Burn.

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Ichor Wellspring has been a classic staple since Deadly Dispute effects became more popular in Pauper.

Nihil Spellbomb in the maindeck guarantees more artifacts to sacrifice with Eviscerator's Insight while also functioning as extra insurance against Tolarian Terror, High Tide, and Balustrade Spy.

Campfire also serves several functions in this list: it grants recurring life gain to make winning with Pestilence easier, it provides protection against High Tide, and we can also use it in longer games to reshuffle our interactions and key cards back into the deck.

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The eight "draw 2" effects are key to maintaining our resources. Eviscerator's Insight and Fanatical Offering complement each other, as Offering guarantees an additional artifact token on the board, while Insight can be used twice in longer games.

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One advantage of Pestilence is having a constant means of dealing with opponent's creatures, so we can forgo some spot removal slots to include a full set of Duress for games where hand interaction is needed so we can monitor certain key cards, such as against Bogles, High Tide, and others.

Cast Down is still Pauper's best unconditional removal and should remain so even after the release of Spider-Man, being our main answer against Writhing Chrysalis and Cryptic Serpent. We complement this slot with Extract a Confession, which we can also use to deal with Bogles' creatures, and with a copy of Go for the Throat, but this slot can be any other card of your choice.

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Khalni Garden provides more food for Eviscerator's Insight and a first-turn blocker against Aggro, while Bojuka Bog serves as another graveyard hate in the maindeck against Mono Blue Terror, Spy Combo, Dredge, High Tide, and archetypes with Blood Fountain.

Both can be reused with Golgari Rot Farm, and it's worth noting: saving a Khalni Garden to play after activating Pestilence is another way to keep the enchantment in play for a few turns if you haven't found Cauldron Familiar.

Since this is a late-game deck, Witherbloom Campus is a viable dual land, as Scry 1 helps filter the top deck and find key pieces more easily, while Vault of Whispers is another artifact to feed the Dispute effects.

Sideboard

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With so many artifacts and tokens, feeding Troublemaker Ouphe and still generating card advantage requires little to no effort, and it also functions as a way to keep Pestilence in play if cast after activating the enchantment while resolving any troublesome artifacts from Affinity/Wildfire matches.

Weather the Storm has a clear target: Burn, the main matchup where activating Pestilence repeatedly poses considerable risk, especially in Madness lists.

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Despite its high life cost, Snuff Out is a great answer against large creatures in attrition games, especially if we want to dodge or play around Spell Pierce and the like.

Drown in Sorrow is the best sweeper in black for a list that doesn't mind having creatures in play frequently and sometimes needs a cheap answer to multiple threats. It's a common side-in against Mono Red Rally, Elves, Bogles, Faeries, and potential go-wide decks with Kor Skyfisher.

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Faerie Macabre works as a free counter with little room for answer against graveyard-based archetypes. It can also be used against High Tide to remove a Deep Analysis or respond to a Flood of Recollection or similar effect to disrupt your opponent's math or deny them resources.

Extract a Confession works against Bogles, but we can also use it against Tolarian Terror decks or even against Jund Wildfire if we pay the evidence cost.

Sideboard Guide

Mono Blue Terror

IN

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OUT

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Jund Wildfire

IN

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OUT

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Mono Red Rally

IN

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OUT

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Madness Burn

IN

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OUT

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Mono Blue Faeries

IN

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OUT

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High Tide

IN

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OUT

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NOTE: The only reason I included Troublemaker Ouphe is because we have a lot of Side-out slots and few Side-in cards in this list, unless the opponent uses cards like Murmuring Mystic in the Sideboard, and even then we'll have Pestilence to deal with the tokens. This list already seems well-positioned against this deck, but if you want, consider adding Last Rites in place of another card in the Sideboard for more answers.

Spy Walls

IN

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OUT

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Elves

IN

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OUT

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Altar Tron

IN

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OUT

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Bogles

IN

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OUT

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Wrapping Up

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!