Getting Down With the Sickness: Pestilence in Pauper  Bookmark
and Share  One of the most distinctive things about Pauper which
allows so many creature-based strategies to thrive is its lack
of board sweepers and mass removal. Sure, there are things like
Seismic Shudder, Shrivel, and maybe even Echoing Decay to some
extent. But there is nothing that comes remotely close to a
Wrath of God that can decisively shut down a would-be onslaught.
It is this feature of the format that underlies the flourishing
of the many aggressive creature-based strategies. This opens a
unique window to competitively attack the metagame.  Enter
Pestilence:  Pestilence gives us a way to Crypt Rats the board
each turn, which completely hoses any opposing creature-based
strategies, and to chip away at the opponent’s life total each
turn, which means that it also acts as a win condition to a
degree. Of course, Pestilence will require some work to do both
of these things efficiently. This article will explore the most
efficient ways of u