Whisper, Blood Liturgist

When I was writing for GatheringMagic (now CoolStuffInc.com) At that time I was writing Pauper content for another website and my friend - Adam Styborksi - had recruited me to write some articles about Cube. Eventually The Stybs got me to write a few pieces about Commander (fun fact: my first ever preview card article was Commander focused) but eventually I stopped writing words considering the century. 

I'm a big proponent of only writing when you have something interesting to say. Over time I found that I wasn't creating any Commander content that mattered. Nothing about anything I produced felt impactful.

This stems from how I view Commander. To me it is an intensely personal experience. Sure, I like winning games but I also enjoy being able to play some of my favorite cards and do strange things. Heck, one of my favorite decks is Hakim, Loreweaver Voltron. There is something absolutely primal about winning with a pile that is yours (and being blunt this is something I cannot get out of Pauper). 

Let's get back to something I just said: I like winning games. 

I'm also terrible at it.

I struggle mightily between wanting to end games of Commmander while avoiding the dreaded "unfun". Fun is so subjective but to me it comes down to this: I don't want to win a way I would hate losing. There's more to this, of course. Is Mike-Trike fun? Maybe. Is Mikeaus, the Unhallowed your Commander? Can your deck win other ways? Is this what your deck is designed to do over and over again? 

There is no hard and fast rule here; it's about emotion. And emotions are fickle so what feels fine one night can leave me packing up my cards early the next week. And as much as I hate losing to some combos there are others I absolutely admire for their audacity, like Marchesa and Jokulhaups. 

All this is a roundabout way of saying I've built a combo deck that I love and hits so many of the things I love to do in Commander. It features a card that, when it was spoiled, had me saying that this was designed just for me. It is black and has a drawback I want to desperately turn into an advantage. It's underpowered. It fosters graveyard shenanigans. 

When discussing the archetype that would come to be known as Aristocrats Sam Black - the driving force behind Tom Martell's Pro Tour Gatecrash winning deck - said that sacrificing a creature is one of the best things you can do in Magic. It makes sense. If you have played a creature that you want to sacrifice, there's a good chance you have already gotten some amount of value out of it and are about to generate more by sending it to the graveyard. Whisper, Blood Liturgist gives you two for the price of one - you bin two creatures to get one back. 

Like I said, I love underpowered cards.

But Whisper has so much potential. In blue you could pair her with Intruder Alarm and any black creature that creates tokens to generate an unbound loop. And you could do that. Or you can do what I did and pair her with Thornbite Staff. Now Whisper can get two untap triggers per iteration which gives you one in the bank if something goes wrong. 

Let's get to the list and then I can talk about some of the combos.

Creatures

Abhorrent Overlord

Apprentice Necromancer

Archfiend of Despair

Bloodghast

Blood Artist

Butcher of Malakir

Crypt Ghast

Demon of Dark Schemes

Falkenrath Noble

Grave Titan

Gray Merchant of Asphodel

Grim Haruspex

Harvester of Souls

Hell's Caretaker

Massacre Wurm

Midnight Reaper

Nether Traitor

Overseer of the Damned

Pawn of Ulamog

Pitiless Plunderer

Reassembling Skeleton

Rune-Scarred Demon

Sengir Autocrat

Sepulchral Primordial

Skeletal Vampire

Tenacious Dead

Vindictive Vampire

Zulaport Cutthroat

Sifter of Skulls

Smothering Abomination

Krav, the Unredeemed

Sidisi, Undead Vizier

Arcbound Reclaimer

Meteor Golem

My Battlesphere

Solemn Simulacrum

Workhorse

Instants

Corpse Dance

Imp's Mischief

Mausoleum Secrets

Sorceries

Buried Alive

Decree of Pain

Demonic Tutor

Exsanguinate

Life's Finale

Torment of Hailfire

Toxic Deluge

Artifacts

Ashnod's Altar

Crucible of Worlds

Expedition Map

Jet Medallion

Sol Ring

Trading Post

Illusionist's Bracers

Lightning Greaves

Nim Deathmantle

Skullclamp

Swiftfoot Boots

Thornbite Staff

Enchantments

Contamination

Dictate of Erebos

Grace Pact

Strands of Night

Lands

26 Swamp

Bojuka Bog

Buried Ruin

Cabal Coffers

Cabal Stronghold

High Market

Sequestered Stash

Winding Canyons

Inventors' Fair

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Whisper is absolutely a combo deck, but it's really multiple combo decks. You do need Whisper and Staff out for the deck to sing, which is why we have so many cards dedicated to finding and recurring artifacts. Hell's Caretaker is a bit of redundancy for Whisper but is nowhere near as powerful thanks to the timing restriction. Strands of Night provides some protection for the Commander and just so happens to work nicely with Crucible of Worlds. 

So what are the loops? Once you have Whisper equipped with Staff, you want any of your token producers in play. Then you sacrifice them to get something back, untap, and repeat. The spouts are numerous. Have Sifter, Pawn, or Plunderer in play? You just made enough mana to make everyone hate you with an X spell. Or maybe you could loop enough time to make one of your Blood Artists lethal. You can also just bring back Gary over and over, making everyone relive Theros Standard. 

Whisper is not going to become my go to deck. While it is powerful and has multiple avenues to victory, I am definitely going to reserve it for spikier pods. And that's fine. Sometimes you need a deck that can just win the freaking game.

2019 is going to be a banner year for Pauper, but I want to bring you Commander content as well! If you like the work I do, please consider becoming a Patron. Thank you!