Right now, it’s a very exciting time to be a Pauper player. With a huge swath of common legendaries coming in Spider-Man, there’s a good chance the format sees a significant shift come September. On top of that, Edge of Eternities has been one of the best sets the format has seen in a while. Mono-Blue Faeries got a serious upgrade, for one thing. For another, Mono-Black Sacrifice, a bit of a fringe player in MTG Pauper, received a brand-new infinite combo.
Pauper has always had a surprisingly deep suite of Aristocrats tools, but what it lacked was a real payoff. Edge of Eternities gave it just that, with a new infinite combo you can pull off surprisingly easily. Combos aren’t exactly uncommon in Magic: The Gathering these days, but in Pauper they’re considerably more so. This alone makes the deck worthy of consideration, and an exciting new development in a mostly-solved format.
Mono-Black Sacrifice In MTG Pauper
Mono-Black Sacrifice has been a part of MTG Pauper for a while now, but Edge of Eternities really takes it to the next level. The list we’ll be looking at today comes via ColaKaKAO, who piloted it to a 5-0 finish in Saturday’s MTGO Pauper League, but there are many other examples of the deck doing well in recent events.
The big addition from Edge is Perigee Beckoner. As many players noted back in preview season, two copies of this card create an easy infinite loop. You can cast one via Warp, then cast another the same way, targeting the first with the enters ability. Next, sacrifice the first to an outlet, and it’ll return, letting you target the second one. You can repeat this infinite times, which can enable all manner of shenanigans.
In this deck, said shenanigans involve building up a single huge creature. Carrion Feeder can sacrifice your Beckoners as many times as you want, growing infinitely large in the process. Bloodthrone Vampire can do the same, albeit just for a turn. Once you’ve got an infinity/infinity creature in play, you can use Rite of Consumption to cash it in and finish your opponent off in a single blow.
As infinite combos go, this is on the clunky side. At minimum you’ll be pulling this off on turn six, and that’s assuming you have an outlet already in play going into the turn. Even if you hard cast one of the Beckoners in advance, that’ll take up your entire turn five. That said, Pauper is a fairly grindy format overall, so this combo absolutely can steal you games out of nowhere.
Grinding It Out
The good news for Mono-Black Sacrifice is that it doesn’t really need to compromise at all to add the combo. Carrion Feeder, Bloodthrone Vampire, and Rite of Consumption have been part of the deck for as long as it’s been around. Adding Beckoner opens up a new win condition at essentially no deckbuilding cost. It’s also a fine card by itself, enabling some nice plays with the deck’s grindier creatures.
For example, giving Nested Shambler +2/+0 for the turn will get you three Squirrels when it dies, which can fuel Feeder and Vampire. The Mercenary token created by Nezumi Linkbreaker does something similar. You also get a second ‘use’ out of whichever creature you target, which turns the likes of Infestation Sage from two bodies to four, and gives you another edict from Accursed Marauder.
For the most part, plays like this are what keeps Mono-Black Sacrifice going. You get a sacrifice outlet down, then feed it sticky creatures to generate grindy advantage. Corrupted Conviction and Village Rites help you keep up card advantage-wise, and you aim to win by getting through with a couple of big creatures. Mortician Beetle is a fantastic redundancy piece here, passively growing huge on the side while being able to hold down the fort on defense, unlike Vampire and Feeder.
This strategy has certainly won events in the past, but it’s never really been a top-tier meta player. With the addition of Beckoner, however, the equation changes significantly. Mono-Black Sacrifice is a deck that can stall things out fairly easily, which means a turn six combo is by no means out of the question. As we’re seeing with Vivi Cauldron in Standard right now, a Midrange deck with the option to go way over the top is a dangerous thing indeed.
Truth Or Trap?
That said, there are plenty of big MTG Pauper players for Mono-Black Sacrifice to overcome before it can carve itself a truly substantial niche. Mono-Blue Terror, Jund Wildfire, and Madness Burn are the consistent top decks at the moment. All three present challenging matchups, too, for one reason or another.
Against Terror, the big issue is having your combo countered. The deck plays a ton of countermagic, including Counterspell, Dispel, and Spell Pierce. Chances are your opponent will be ready for Rite of Consumption when it arrives, especially after game one. You can still smash in with your big creatures, but Deem Inferior and Sleep of the Dead make that plan difficult. You’ll also have to deal with Delver of Secrets, which you can barely block or remove. Not a great matchup, in any event.
Jund Wildfire is a bit more manageable. This is a relatively slow deck, and one that often spends the early turns ramping instead of applying pressure. This gives you room to get chip damage in with your cheap creatures, opening the door for a non-infinite Rite of Consumption win later. The deck also relies heavily on Writhing Chrysalis as a big threat, which you can easily stonewall.
Madness Burn is possibly the worst matchup of the three. Guttersnipe and Kessig Flamebreather serve as win conditions that can also block your 1/1s, which isn’t ideal. The deck can also typically close things out before your combo comes online.
Ultimately, as cool as the new combo is, Mono-Black Sacrifice seems unlikely to dominate MTG Pauper any time soon.
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