Pauper Commander

Neon Dynasty Pauper Commander Precons

Julian Leal

03 Mar 2022 - 5 min read

Hello, fellow residents of the multiverse! It’s your friendly neighborhood Jules back bearing new gifts! Avid listeners of our podcast who also enjoy the PDH content we put out will probably wonder why we haven’t done this sooner, but better late than never. Inspired by our Custom Precons series, I’ve taken the lovely Commander Precons from Kamigawa Neon Dynasty and fully converted them into our favorite common-only format! PDH NEO Precons fresh off the press.

Now bear in mind that the original EDH decks are built to sell flashy commander staples so we do miss out on many of the new synergistic cards, but I think we’ve managed to maintain the spirit of the WOTC Precons in our more budget-friendly PDH alternatives. These lists are designed for casual PDH games, and are the perfect way to introduce friends to the wonders of Pauper Commander.

Gruul Counters - Getting Generous

First up, we have the Chishiro, the Shattered Blade “Upgrades Unleashed” deck. Chishiro is all about modified - using auras and equipment to generate an army of tokens while continuously buffing the team with +1/+1 counters. So when it comes to finding Chishiro’s counterpart in PDH, these are the abilities we’re keeping in mind. While I looked far and wide for the perfect replacement, it turns out I had already mentioned him in our Top PDH Cards for Neon Dynasty article! The only rightful analogue for a modified commander is everyone’s favorite goblin shaman, Grumgully, the Generous . With no other humans in the deck, Grumgully makes sure that all of our creatures enter modified right off the bat. Now, like I said, we’re losing all of the new flashy modified synergy found at higher rarities, so the only card that truly cares about modified is Akki Ember-Keeper (who I also featured in the above article).

After that the deck turns to a simple, but fun, Gruul counters/midrange/stompy strategy. Our creatures will usually be among the biggest on the field and with support from cards like Deepwood Denizen and Crowned Ceratok , we can run right over our opponents. And just for you all, I even put in some tasty auras that can return to hand to move around as necessary for modified, a la Rancor and Mark of Fury .

Finally, for my pick of “Quality Find That I Didn’t Know Existed”, may I introduce Stingmoggie ? Obviously, Fertilid has excellent synergy in any counters deck, but can I interest you in its better looking and certainly more destructive brethren? Hell yes I can. Check out the full list on Moxfield below!

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/vH7NYlUX6EWOeWWRa-NOzQ

Azorius Vehicles - Speed Racers

Next we have the Kotori, Pilot Prodigy helmed “Buckle Up” Precon. Lucky for us, Vehicles have shown up in a few more sets at common rarity before now so we can make a much more straightforward transition of Kotori into PDH and really step on the gas with some heater rides.

But first, a slight caveat… The commander I’ve chosen for this is Prodigy’s Prototype . Does this “follow the rules” of deck construction for the format? No. But it’s the perfect f$%#ing card to helm this deck. And if WotC has been printing the rules text “This card can be your commander” on all manner of Planeswalkers and most recently Shorikai, Genesis Engine , a Vehicle, then you bet your butt we’re rule zeroing Shorikai’s little brother.

Back to the deck, we’re playing sexy vehicle beats with only the finest Azorius artifact and a temp shell. Classics like Stoic Rebuttal are fueled by all the artifacts we’ll be casting for cheap off Etherium Sculptor and Foundry Inspector . Caught in the Brights is a synergistic version of a Bound in Gold effect that is UW’s bread and butter in pauper. Aradara Express , Brute Suit , and Thundersteel Colossus all hit like literal trucks and can easily be crewed thanks to all the utility creatures we’ll have laying around (see Kitsune Ace , Archaeomancer , etc). God forbid anything gets totaled, we have Archaeomender and Argivian Restoration for some nice recursion. Top everything off with a nice suite of removal and counters and you should be leaving your opponents in the dust. Check out the full list on Moxfield below!

https://www.moxfield.com/decks/iszHxsvYCkuDPhf15kyqig

And that’s that! Let me know what you thought of these lists, which cards I missed, and if you want to see more of these in the future. If they pick up enough traction maybe WotC will hire us to help bring the PDH phenomenon to the masses.

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