Pauper Commander

Top 5 Midnight Hunt Commanders for PDH

Chev Eldrid

Julian Leal

08 Oct 2021 - 5 min read

Pauper Friday is BACK and this time, we’re covering the top 5 new commanders for PDH in Innistrad: Midnight Hunt.

Fleshtaker

Before diving into what makes Fleshtaker so good, let’s take a minute to appreciate some of the most horrifying art on an MTG card in the past couple years, props to Kev Walker for making me legitimately afraid of cornfields this Halloween season. Anyway, Fleshtaker. A solid stat-ed body with a powerful sac ability, Fleshtaker is probably most comparable to Dina, Soul Steeper . Where I think Fleshtaker goes above and beyond Dina is giving us access to white’s ability to generate a ton of creature tokens, the perfect ammunition to feed this child of the corn before going in for a killing blow. Fleshtaker also plays wonderfully with white lifegain synergies providing that little bump with every creature sacrificed, and as Trelasarra, Moon Dancer showed us in AFR, scry triggers are nothing to take for granted - especially when they’re providing card advantage from the zone.

Check out what we’ve done with Fleshtaker already: American Horror Story - Fleshtaker

Bladestitched Skaab

Y’all like zombies? Y’all like the two best colors in pauper? Sick, play Bladestitched Skaab . This commander is all upside. You can play an incredibly aggressive zombie tribal deck supported by plenty of excellent includes from Midnight Hunt (see Diregraf Horde , etc), and still have all the great removal, card draw, and overall the most powerful cards from blue and black. Or you can play a deck that plays normal combos (especially if you’re rolling in the cPDH crowd) that also has a way to start going wide and attacking when your plans are foiled. A very versatile commander propped up by one of the best tribes in the game and arguably the best color combo in the format.

Rootcoil Creeper

In my opinion, Rootcoil Creeper is one of the most interesting simic designs we’ve seen for a PDH commander we’ve seen all year. Less generic goodstuff like Gretchen Titchwillow or Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy , Rootcoil Creeper really lets you sink your teeth into a cool strategy with a consistent piece of support in the zone that will do wonders in the early game, while also being able to recur a Shadowbeast Sighting or Deep Analysis for extra activations when things stall. And, while Rootcoil can only bring back something with Flashback from exile, that two mana to cast something in your yard can apply to annnything so line up your Fin-Clade Fugitives or Kitesail Skirmisher s, we’re gonna get freaky. I don’t expect the creeper to be topping any power charts, but it’s fun to see more specific build-arounds down at this level.

Devoted Grafkeeper

Similar to the skaab, Devoted Grafkeeper has a bunch of tasty includes from Midnight Hunt to prop it up. But, there’s also plenty of flashback cards, retrace cards, etc., that you can cast for from your graveyard to tap down blockers. Hello Battle Screech and Marshaling Cry , let’s beat face uncontested cause all our opponents creatures are tapped. And then, when your Grafkeeper dies, you can let him go to the graveyard, dodge some commander tax and turn him into a potent threat; 3/1 flyer is no joke, especially when you’re already doing evasive and aggressive things. Not the most powerful or broken pauper commander, but certainly one that rewards deck construction exploration.

Flame Channeler

Flame Channeler embodies everything that red does well, all in one package. A 2/2 for two mana isn’t anything special but you can immediately get the combat train-a-rolling. Then, utilizing the numerous burn spells that red has (y’all remember that Lightning Bolt is legal in PDH??), you upgrade your channeler to Embodiment of Flame . Now, whenever you bolt anything, you can start cashing that in for cards off the top. Mono red struggles with card draw, but you can easily chain through your deck just by burning peoples’ faces or controlling the board, aka everything you want to do. This is an excellent and versatile mono-red commander in PDH, especially if you’re tired of blue having all the fun of spell-slinging and tearing through their library.

Honorable Mention: Delver of Secrets

This might not be the most exciting, since Delver has been a known quantity in many formats for years now… but this time, it’s been printed at uncommon. That’s right! You can have Delver of Secrets in your command zone. You probably know this, but just to clarify 100%, there are a LOT of good blue cards in PDH. A LOT of those are instants and sorceries. Having a flying 3/2 attacking on turn two is no joke and with the amount of draw, counters, etc, Delver can put opponents on a clock ASAP. If you’ve always been wanting to make a mono-blue deck, Delver is a great place to start.

Are there any commanders you think we missed that you’re jonesing to put together? Let us know below!

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