Competitive Pauper Commander Cube Introduction

Pauper Commander (PDH) and Competitive PDH (cPDH) are gaining in popularity, largely due to the format's accessibility, diversity, and "fairness". If you're unfamiliar, PDH decks have an uncommon creature as their commander (does not have to be legendary) and common cards in their 99. The only banned cards are Mystic Remora and Rhystic Study. As it turns out, the distance between a PDH and cPDH deck isn't that far, and optimization of even the best performing decks is still hotly debated in the cPDH community. cPDH is my most recent fascination in Magic, so to preserve that love I'm creating the cPDH cube.

Drafting the Cube

8 players receive 3 packs of 20 cards. 18 of those cards will be common and 2 will be uncommon. Players will open their first pack, draft two cards, then pass left. They will continue drafting two cards from each pack until there are no packs to pick from, at which point they'll move onto the second pack and repeat the process, only passing right.

Deckbuilding

Players will create a 60 card deck from cards in their pools. This 60 cards includes 1 or 2 (via partner or background) commanders, and 59 or 58 common or basic land cards. Here are some important rules to keep in mind:

• You may play any creature (common or uncommon) as your commander. At least one of your commanders must be a creature (the other may be a background).
• You may play any card you draft in the main deck.
• You may only put basics of your commander's color identity in your deck.
• All single-color and colorless creatures cards have your choice of Partner and Choose a Background.
• If Slime Against Humanity or Rat Colony are in your pool, you may put up to 8 of them into your deck.

Commanders & Archetypes

Each of the 5 colors has 5 commanders, each two-color pair has 3 commanders, each of the shards has a commander, and there is one five-color commander (Composite Golem, my beloved). Below are the two-color and three-color archetypes.

Two-Color Pairs

• - Instants and Sorceries - Kraum, Sprite Dragon, and TPI; supported by partner pairings that include Malcolm, Breeches, or Scholar.
• - Aggressive Sacrifice - Mayhem Devil, Stormclaw, and Lanius; supported by partner pairings that include Gut, Dargo, Street Urchin, AIT, Syr Konrad, or Keskit.
• - Combo Control - Disciple of Deceit, Marsh Croc, and Rilsa Rael; supported by partner pairings that include Scholar, Esior, Keskit, or Loyal Sub.
• - Blink - Olka, Soulherder, and Oji; supported by partner pairings that include Abdel, Lulu, Far Traveler, or Scholar.
• - Aggressive Tokens - Liara, Craig Boone, and Cappy; supported by partner pairings that include Bass Pro, Inspiring Leader, Gut, or Dargo.
• - Stompy / Ramp - Targ Nar, Svella, and Bbelf; supported by partner pairings that include Kediss, Dargo, Wilson, or Dinors.
• - Scam (Sacrifice + Recursion) - Dina, Honest Rutstein, and Goth Girl; supported by partner pairings that include Hermit Druid, Syr Konrad, or Keskit.
• - Aristocrats (Sacrifice + Tokens) - Bart, Denny, and Fleshtaker; supported by partner pairings that include Bad-del, Lulu, Keskit, AIT, or Syr Konrad
• - Big Dumb Beaters - Kutzil, Satyr Enchanter, and Sumala Rumblers; supported by partner pairings that include Bass Pro, Lulu, Wilson, or Rishkar
• - Landfall - Gretchen, USPS, and Tatyova; supported by partner pairings that include Spectral Sailor, Rishkar, or No Cheating (Ley Weaver)

Three-Color Pairs

• - Bant Control - Lagrella is a neat controlling blink card that lets you lock down key pieces from everyone's board.
• - Jund Sacrifice - Thrinax is a sacrifice outlet in the scamiest colors.
• - Naya Flex Rocco is a flexible tutor for your ramp and wincons.
• - Esper Control - Queza grinds slower decks down.
• - Grixis Combo - Cormela plays well with spellslingers and combos with some scam effects and sac outlets.

Commander Picking Strategy

Some partner pairings are extremely powerful (Malcolm & Breeches, Abdel and Street Urchin, Gut and Inspiring Leader). Since those are more rare, the dedicated two-color commanders are meant to be more powerful than a random mix of two partners in those colors.
By contrast, the three-color commanders are often not as strong as the dedicated two-color commanders, but their benefit is that 3rd color. If you messed up on colors, you can always be cool and run Composite Golem, or take two Prismatic Pipers.

Combo Reference

Below are as many of the combos as I can think of.

• Abdel + Archaeomancer effect + Flicker effect + Mana Rocks
• Abdel + O-Ring effect + Whitemane Lion effect
• Malcolm + Reckless Fireweaver effect + Changeling effect
• Cormela + Fake Your Own Death + Sac Outlet
• Cormela + Scam effect + Ashnod's Altar
• Land Untapper + Land that taps for more than one + Freed From the Real
• Archaeomancer effect + Peregrine Drake effect + Ghostly Flicker or Displace
• Dargo + Thermopod
• Dargo + Filter effect + Ashnod's Altar