Pledge

4 Soul Warden
4 Soul's Attendant
4 Squadron Hawk
4 Veteran Armorer
4 Icatian Crier
4 Raise the Alarm
3 Mana Tithe
2 Journey to Nowhere
4 Guardians' Pledge
4 Righteous Charge
2 Fortify
21 Plains






This pauper deck's goal is twofold: First, generate as many creatures as possible. Second, boost those creatures for maximum damage. My original version of this deck started out as red-white and sported the very interesting Raid Bombardment. Raid Bomb can be very effective, but since your small creatures don't get any boosts they often end up dying during battle. Raid Bomb also only provides you with one damage per attacker per turn while something like Guardians' Pledge gives you two extra damage per attacker instantly. With the M12 printing of Guardian's Pledge I decided to cut the red and focus on mono white. I prefer Pledge over Raid Bomb and cutting Raid Bomb let me switch to one color which results in smoother, faster games (don't have to worry about being stuck with the wrong color lands or tripping over a Terramorphic Expanse.

The "Soul Sisters" can result in some insane life gain, but also double as 1/1s. I like 1/1s in this deck. In fact, I think I won a game just by swinging with 3 or 4 Soul Wardens a few times.

Veteran Armorer plays a very important role. While the generic +0/+1 to all my creatures is nice, this guy's main role is to get my 1/1 army out of board sweep range. Most of the multi-creature kill spells in pauper can only reach 1/1s. Running into a Tremor,Krark Clan Shaman, or Shrivel can wipe out all you've worked to set up but the Armorer prevents this while providing an efficient, speedy attacker.


The star of the deck is Icatian Crier. Give her a few turns and you will have a huge army. What to discard? For starters, this deck is fully operational on 3 lands. This means I can trade lands 4, 5, and beyond for 2 1/1s. She also combos very nicely with Squadron Hawk. After the initial hawk fetches up 3 of his friends, I can then chose whether I want 3 more 1/1 fliers or (given some time) 6 1/1 non-fliers. She also plays nicely with Mana Tithe.

In order of importance, Guardians' Pledge, Righteous Charge, and Fortify provide a way to make that 1/1 army deadly. Get 4 or 5 creatures out, cast one or two of these and your opponent will often be dead.

The original version of the deck was slightly different than the list above. I had Inspired Charge instead of Righteous Charge and ran a few copies of Gaze of Justice. Mana Tithe and Journey to Nowhere weren't in the original build.

I played ten games in the casual room. Here's a brief walk-through.

Game 1. T1 soul attendant, T2 armorer, T3 crier. He Castigates a pledge. After I swing a few times vs an empty board (he's playing some kind of dredge) he's at 14. Then 9. He removes a soul attendant and my armorer. I cast Raise the Alarm during his end step then pledge for the win.

Game 2. All he does is play lands and suspend an Errant Ephemeron. I play t1 warden, t2 armorer, t3 warden, squadron hawk then he concedes. A pledge would have killed him next turn.

Game 3. My opponent had some land trouble. He played one creature with infect, an aura, and an equipment. I played armorer, armorer, crier, used her ability then pledge for the game. It's like the poor man's Overrun.

After game 3 decide I don't like Gaze of Justice because I usually need removal when I don't have creatures on the board. Plus with a deck this fast I'll never get enough mana to cast the flashback. I look to Journey to Nowhere but then Mana Tithe catches my eye. I also discovered the high quality Righteous Charge. After some deliberation the final modifications after game 3 were swap the charges (better to be Righteous than Inspired apparently) and swap mana tithe in for gaze. Countering a t2 Grizzly Bear would actually be a really good idea for this deck.

Game 4. Lost vs land destruction/Cloudpost. Died with a ton of boosts in my hand. Are there too many? -2 Fortify (I was running 4) +2 journeys since that would have be great vs that Ulamog's Crusher that just annihilated me.

Game 5. I had the crier + squadron hawk hookup. He quit after he tried to counter an ability.


Game 6. His early 2/2 puts on my brakes... and his essence warden is really a pain. I can tell his deck is built for a longer game and mine isn't. He has two Mulldrifters. Now he was two essence wardens... he's gaining too much life for me to finish him with boosts. Three mulldrifters... He's got some kind of Pit Keeper loop going. That's not good. Fourth mulldrifter. He digs another out of the graveyard to make five mulldrifters. Rule of thumb: concede after the fifth mulldrifter.

By now I've realized how much better Righteous Charge is than Fortify. That two extra toughness makes a big difference. Especially when you have to play the attrition game.

Game 7. He staggershocks two of my dudes. I'm drawing too many lands, but he's getting even more. This is the game I attacked only with sisters and boosts and won.

Game 8. Raise the Alarm and one activation of the crier gets me 4 creatures. He shocks the crier and Mind Rots me. I swing the 4 1/1s, he doesn't block, and I don't use my boost. Next turn I do use the boost for the final 12 damage.

Game 9. Four creatures and two Guardians' Pledge. This is the first game I really put the Mana Tithe to work. I think a snagged a mana producing signet when he was behind on land drops. I had two more mana tithes in my hand, but with crier on the table I could save mana for a potential counter then use the mana for her ability even pitching the tithes if I felt I wouldn't need them.

I've noticed a pattern by this point: Get four creatures out and a boost or two should do it. It's pretty brutal.

Game 10. Lose vs cloudpost. Got him down to 6 with the usual suspects but he drops a turn five crusher and a turn 6 crusher... gg.

7-3 in casual room. I don't know if the severe weakness vs Crypt Rats and Pestilence would keep it from doing well in a more competitive environment, but it seems pretty effective.