Pauper EDH



Strike the Colors



Gloryscale Viashino Primer





Let’s take a moment to look backwards through time, back to those heady days when I wrote Pauper EDH Primers for Sludge Strider and Gilder Bairn. Those certainly were the days, weren’t they? Or at least days. They certainly were days, if nothing else.

One commonality that I note between these two Commanders: they both like to sit back and build up. Gilder Bairn enjoys doubling counters on a creature until it can swing for excessively lethal damage, while Sludge Strider prefers to spend its afternoons slowly sucking your opponent dry with pseudo-Extort.

Let’s mix things up a bit. Let’s get aggressive. Introducing: Gloryscale Viashino.











There’s a new Commander on the block, and by “new”, I mean “circa 2009’s Alara Reborn”. What’s more, we’ve a very interesting theme: Gloryscale Viashino rewards the increased difficulty of casting multicolor spells by growing itself ever larger.

Now, we could just address our deck through the usual lenses of mana base / removal / win conditions / et cetera, but I want more from him. Without ramp, Gloryscale Viashino comes down on turn 4. I want to be able to swing for lethal on turn 5. Let’s see just how possible that is.





Nothing Up My Sleeve







Colossal Might art by Justin Sweet

As a general rule in Magic, if you want an effect that sticks around, you’re going to have to pay more mana for it. We need to strike a balance between powerful long-term effects, like Auras, and explosive effects, like combat tricks. “Combat trick” is a fairly broad term, and encompasses any Instant-speed effect that can be used to gain an edge during the combat step.

When discussing cards in my Gilder Bairn article, I provided a list of possibilities, but this time around, with so many options to look at, I’m going to elaborate on some of my favorites, and link a Gatherer list of all the rest.

I predict that one of the biggest obstructions to getting damage through with Gloryscale will be the difficultly of making him unblockable in Red / Green / White. On the bright side, these colors provide access to other forms of evasion, like flying, and forms of beating faces in, like trample. Colossal Might is an Instant that should allow a great deal of additional damage to trample through after your opponent has declared a puny blocker.

Our friend Gloryscale allows us to include three of my favorite Auras: the appropriately-colored spells from the [blank] of the [blank] cycle in Shadowmoor / Eventide. There are ten Enchantments in all, each named after the Spirit Avatar Creatures, that confer certain power / toughness bonuses and keywords based upon the colors of the Creature they enchant. In Red / Green, we have Runes of the Deus for double strike and trample (!!!). In Green / White, we have Shield of the Oversoul for indestructible and flying (!!!). And in White / Red, we have Scourge of the Nobilis for firebreathing and lifelink (!!!). Any one of these will make our Commander significantly harder to deal with, and I would support putting all three in the deck.







Manamorphose art by Adam Paquette

While we’re on the subject of Enchantments, I would be remiss not to mention Armadillo Cloak: +2/+2, trample, and something resembling lifelink. Here’s the kicker: the ability described on Armadillo Cloak actually stacks with lifelink.

I like multicolor. I also like free spells. So I really like free multicolored spells, and we can add a few. Firstly, there’s the world’s best cantrip: Manamorphose, which amounts to a costless +3/+3 for our Commander. Then, there are two Cascade spells: Violent Outburst and Captured Sunlight, which might have underwhelming effects, but will likely cast a second multicolored spell for free.

And we’ve saved the best combat trick for last: Double Cleave, a multicolored Instant that gives double strike. In our quest for turn five lethal damage, I think Double Cleave will be our very best friend.

For further options, here are a few Gatherer links:

1. White-Red Noncreature Spells

2. Red-Green Noncreature Spells

3. Green-White Noncreature Spells







The Color of Destruction







Shattering Blow art by Steve Prescott

As single-minded as Gloryscale could be, we probably should be good little deck-builders and pack some removal alongside our power-up spells. Of course, with appropriately-colored removal spells (read: multicolored), we can make everyone happy! Well, not our opponents. We can’t make them happy as easily. Anyway, here are a few options:

That provides us a reasonable collection of Enchantment and Artifact removal, but only one or two methods of dealing with Creatures. This being Pauper, a very creature-heavy format, I’m not comfortable with that. Since our Commander will (hopefully) regularly get huge, I think it’s safe to introduce a few green fight spells. If your personal preferences are for yet more removal, I suggest perusing the vast array of red burn and white combat tricks.





Post No Kills







Wildfield Borderpost art by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

Coming off of building Sludge Strider, I don’t think Gloryscale will need as complex of a mana base. Personally, I would run the gamut of Guildgates / Guild Karoos / Transguild Promenade / Rupture Spire at least. If you find that isn’t enough fixing for you, there are always Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, and Naya Panorama, to name a few.

Two noteworthy suggestions: Wildfield Borderpost and Firewild Borderpost. The Borderposts are generally regarded as inferior mana rocks: after all, they require colored mana to cast, enter the battlefield tapped, and can only tap for two colors. For these reasons, I would generally prefer Darksteel Ingot or Manalith. In this situation though, I’m adding the Borderposts due to their alternate casting cost: one mana and a bounced land will give Gloryscale Viashino +3/+3.





Glory Days







Naya art by Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai

As far as I can tell, that covers the range of multicolored spells useful to Gloryscale. In the world of monocolor, we’ve already suggested the idea of removal; on top of that, perhaps take a look at green “Mulch"effects that hit Creatures, such as Commune with the Gods.

This article may have been a while in coming, but in the near future, you can expect a new wave of Pauper and non-Pauper articles headed your way. In the mean time, though, happy planeswalking everyone.