Playing Pauper: Eldrazi Poultice

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Hello everyone! It's time for another week of Playing Pauper, and this week we've got a spicy combo deck to show off. Eldrazi Poultice was originally shown off by Gavin Verhey as a No Rares Modern deck, and Pauper-legal versions have been submitted to me by two different viewers.

Check out the matches, then read the discussion below. If you enjoy Playing Pauper, subscribe to the MTGGoldfish YouTube channel! It helps us draw more people to the channel, and it helps you to never miss any of our great video content.

Eldrazi Poultice Intro

Eldrazi Poultice vs Kuldotha Jeskai

Eldrazi Poultice vs Dimir Teachings

Eldrazi Poultice vs Mono Black Control

Eldrazi Poultice vs Dimir Trinket

Eldrazi Poultice vs Acid Trip

The Deck

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The basis of the combo is to have infinite casts of Herbal Poultice or Welding Jar by putting a Banishing Knack or Retraction Helix onto a Nettle Drone or Battered Golem. Once assembled, the infinite artifact recursion can be used to make infinite Golems with Golem Foundry, an infinitely large Elusive Spellfist, or infinite damage with an extra Nettle Drone.

Put what I just wrote together, and it's a four card combo deck. Thankfully, every piece of the combo has multiple cards that can fulfill its role.

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Preordain and Ponder are so good for consistency that they're banned in Modern. Our deck depends heavily upon these sorceries for finding the missing pieces of the combo.

Dispel and Apostle's Blessing prevent our opponent from removing our creatures, since the deck needs them so badly. There are a few popular cards that Apostle's Blessing answers that Dispel doesn't: Flame Slash, Journey to Nowhere, and Sparksmith. Daze is a possibility over Dispel, but it's easier to miss with Daze.

The Sideboard

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This collection of counterspells helps the deck cheaply answer opposing interaction.

The fourth Dispel provides additional protection from removal and countermagic.

Negate counters some things that Dispel and Apostle's Blessing can't, such as Chainer's Edict.

Hydroblast and Pyroblast are cheap options for countering Lightning Bolt and Counterspell.

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Some aggro decks are fast enough that we want to board in interaction of our own, so we play Smelt to combat Affinity and Electrickery against Elves and sometimes Goblins.

Kozilek's Sentinel is a fifth Elusive Spellfist against creatureless control such as Dimir Teachings.

The extra Apostle's Blessings are good against targeted removal.

The Matchups

Eldrazi Poultice does not fare well against decks with lots of removal spells or countermagic. Unfortunately, these aspects describes most of the Pauper format.

The best possible matchups are probably Elves or Bogles, which each have no main deck interaction, or Stompy which only has Vines of Vastwood. Trying to race those decks to see who can goldfish the fastest is probably the best possible scenario for Eldrazi Poultice, but they get worse after sideboarding.

Beating Eldrazi Poultice

In the unlikely event you face this deck in a league, here's some advice:

If Eldrazi Poultice doesn't go infinite, it's very unlikely they will win. Elusive Spellfist and Nettle Drone are just too slow.

If you have a choice between killing Nettle Drone and Battered Golem, always choose the Drone. Two Nettle Drones can be used to combo, but two Battered Golems cannot.

Welding Jar and Herbal Poultice both have rules text. Don't walk into on-board regeneration if you can help it.

Eldrazi Poultice is not a popular deck and likely never will be. Don't change your sideboard just because this deck exists. Normal creature removal and artifact hate should be sufficient.

Conclusion

While Eldrazi Poultice is an interesting combo deck, a better Blue-Red "combo" deck is probably Izzet Blitz. The combo is Kiln Fiend + Temur Battle Rage + any two spells. It can win quickly and more consistently as early as Turn 3. Izzet Blitz is also more streamlined at protecting its creatures and forcing through a win.

If you manage to make the Eldrazi Poultice deck or a version of it work, let me know. I'd love to see it show up more in Pauper.

Submissions

Viewer submissions are open! I'll still be playing known decks occasionally, but I'm now mostly playing: