Pauper Commander

Top 10 Midnight Hunt Cards for PDH

28 Sep 2021 - 7 min read

What’s up my fellow ghouls and goblins, we’re back on Innistrad and things are getting crazy with that whole “Long Night” nonsense. Werewolves are back in force, disturbed spirits roam the plane…but spookiest of all? How DOPE some of this set’s commons are! Here are the Hexdrinkers’ top picks for PDH in Midnight Hunt:

Celestus Sanctifier

While white has started to see some card draw goodies coming their way with the likes of Priest of Ancient Lore and one of Julian’s picks for the set - card selection is still coming up a little dry. That’s where Celestus Sanctifier comes in. Commander and its variants are ripe for “draw go” style turns in the later game, regardless what colors you’re playing and the cycles of cards in Midnight Hunt that care about the transitions between night and day are flying a little under the radar at the moment. Sanctifier does a fantastic job setting up your future draws to make sure you’re always hitting gold, AND is perfect in any deck hoping to utilize some graveyard synergies

Ardent Elementalist

Red Archaeomancer is finally here, rejoice! While we did have a few options previously ( Ghitu Chronicler , Revolutionist ) none are as reliable and cheap to cast meaning Ardent can either be replacing these options in any deck that runs them, or adding more reliability to any deck in red. Definitely something to look out for and prepare to slot in.

Cathar Commando

Probably best compared to Qasali Pridemage , Cathar Commando gives you artifact or enchantment removal at instant speed, what’s not to love. While more often than not the body won’t matter, holding Commando up to deal with a pesky threat and especially in creatures-matter decks, this is a slam dunk.

Defenestrate

Flexible Murder on non-flying creatures. Is it pretty? Meh. Does it get the job done 90% of the time? Yeah. Run it.

Eaten Alive

A strictly better Spark Harvest , allowing you the ability to exile some giant pesky threat without fear of reanimation. Even in PDH, the graveyard is becoming more and more relevant as a resource, so sometimes big threats require a little something extra to make sure they’re punted for good. While I’m not sure if I’ll always run this over Bone Shards , more often than not you’ll see them both side by side in a decklist.

Diregraf Horde

I will say I’m biased by how well this has performed for me in limited, but this is a LOT of bodies for its mana cost. Are the tokens decayed? Yeah, but are you telling me that in your black deck you don’t have ways to utilize disposable bodies or benefit from sacrifice? Exactly, take your value and get back to your evil ways you villian. Village Rites is calling. (P.S. getting to nuke two cards in graveyards is also super relevant given powerhouses like Tormod are in the format, along with graveyard mechanics - flashback, disturb, jumpstart)

Electric Revelation

Electric Revelation isn’t anything overpowered or unique, but it’s an excellent addition to any red deck. Card draw can be hard to come by in PDH in general, sometimes even when you’re playing blue. God forbid you’re playing mono-red, gruul, boros, etc. The versatility of instant speed and the redundancy of flashback for even more card draw (maybe you ditched it to a Faithless Looting earlier) means this will be an integral piece to keeping your hand full and your threats coming.

Geistwave

Now, listen for a sec… this card might not actually be great. Bounce spells have never been anything special and even though this hits any nonland permanent, it’s still a tempo play at best (which is serviceable, but nothing to write home about). But, in a format like PDH, the creatures are generally subpar (especially in blue), so everything is all about the ETBs. Here’s where things get spicy. Imagine chump blocking a fatty, bouncing your Archaeomancer , drawing a card, and then you can replay Archaeomancer (and even get back your Geistwave , now that’s a loop). Not too shabby. The possibilities are endless for the nifty plays you can make with this card.

Siege Zombie

Even if you’re slinging spells with some of the cards earlier in this list, PDH games can often devolve into grindy board stalls and stand-offs. Armies of 2/2s and 3/3s all at attention while hellbent players hope for the topdeck to bust through their opponents defenses. Enter the aptly named, Siege Zombie . In what can often feel like a siege, each player hoping their supply lines don’t run out first, this undead can steadily drain your opponents for 1, 2, maybe even 3 damage a turn cycle, all at the comfort of their end step. That damage adds up, especially after the turns of combat that brought y’all to this standstill in the first place. Invest in some Siege Zombie s today to make sure that you’re the grindiest of grinders.

Search Party Captain

Lastly, I have to give just a bit more attention to the least-loved color (Chev already discussed some real heaters for white). I love that WotC has printed white cards that straight up say “draw a card” on them. This simple fact begets my love, and this card can easily be a one mana 2/2 that cantrips. Get paid off for getting aggressive and refuel that gas tank. Pure unadulterated bliss.

Bonus: Rotten Reunion

Not a TOP top card by itself, although instant speed graveyard removal with flashback is nothing to laugh at - I wanted to take a moment to talk about just how crazy Rotten Reunion is in one particular cPDH deck: Tormod, the Desecrator and Ghost of Ramirez DePietro . The name of their game mostly focuses on controlling the game while amassing an army from Tormod by playing cards with flashback, jump-start, delve, anything that removes cards from our graveyard and makes zombies. Enter Rotten Reunion: while the token created by the card itself has decayed and therefore can’t block, casting this with Tormod on the field targeting your own graveyard still nets you a vanilla 2/2 zombie and a new 2/2 decayed for some instant speed tricks. On the flashback, Rotten Reunion could net you TWO 2/2 zombies and one decayed for TWO MANA. It’s insane, I love it, and I hope to annoy the gang with it soon.

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