Undercity Hustle [Pauper EDH]

[Oversoul]

I built this deck for playing Pauper EDH against other background commanders in the playgroup in September of 2026. I wanted tot see if I could make the initiative mechanic work under these conditions. The deck is built to establish the initiative and eventually loop Undercity rooms for the win.

Commander:
1 Dungeon Delver
1 Safana, Calimport Cutthroat

1 Aarakocra Sneak
1 Aqueous Form
1 Arcane Denial
1 Arcane Signet
1 Archaeomancer
1 Ashnod's Altar
1 Bar the Gate
1 Blur
1 Brainstorm
1 Capsize
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Clattering Skeletons
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Counterspell
1 Crypt Rats
1 Dark Ritual
1 Darkness
1 Dauthi Horror
1 Death Denied
1 Deep Analysis
1 Dimir House Guard
1 Displace
1 Disturbed Burial
1 Dread Return
1 Essence Flux
1 Eviscerator's Insight
1 Fates' Reversal
1 Feign Death
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Frantic Search
1 Ghostly Flicker
1 Grim Harvest
16 Island
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Lórien Revealed
1 Mind Stone
1 Mirkwood Bats
1 Mistvein Borderpost
1 Mnemonic Wall
1 Mystic Sanctuary
1 Nadier's Nightblade
1 Night's Whisper
1 Not Dead After All
1 Precipitous Drop
1 Resculpt
1 Run Away Together
1 Seal of Removal
1 Secret Door
1 Shortcut Seeker
1 Shrieking Drake
1 Snap
1 Supernatural Stamina
16 Swamp
1 Thieves' Tools
1 Trailblazer's Torch
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Underdark Explorer
1 Unearth
1 Unsummon
1 Vicious Battlerager
1 Village Rites
1 Waterfront District
1 Wayfarer's Bauble
1 Withdraw
1 Witness Protection
1 Word of Undoing
1 Yuan-Ti Fang-Blade
1 Zombie Ogre

 

[Oversoul]

Played this deck last night in a three-player pod. Last night we only had three players show up, and only two of us have decks for the "background" theme built, although hopefully we can get a full pod of that in a couple of weeks. In my first game with this deck, Casey was piloting his new Hare Apparent deck helmed by the commander/background combination of Ellyn Harbreeze, Busybody & Inspiring Leader. Bryan was piloting his Madame Hydra deck. I kept an opening hand with Trailblazer's Torch and started working on disruption, which was sorely needed because I topdecked no creatures and was stuck with Safana on the battlefield and multiple cards in my hand meant to interact with my own creatures: Feign Death, Disturbed Burial, Dread Return, and Village Rites. Fortunately, the blue disruptive spells I cast slowed the rest of the table down to match pace with me, and running through the Undercity started boosting my deck's performance. By the time I got two triggers on "Throne of the Dead Three" we were all at pretty low life totals, and my team was able to swing in for lethal damage on Casey while also giving getting me enough dungeon venturing to reach "Trap!" and reduce Bryan's life from 10 to 0. So this was another game with an awkward opening for me, but one in which my opponents didn't have much to stop me and my deck performed exactly as intended. It did what I built it to do.