Pauper Commander - Zada, Hedron Grinder
Zada, Hedron Grinder by Chris Rallis
The Cream of the Paup
Once again, we're looking at the best commander's in the entire pEDH format. In case you're unaware, we're building decks with nothing but commons and a single uncommon commander. It's quite a challenge, yet there's some incredibly powerful decks that appear at the top of the Pauper charts.
Today, we're looking at Zada, Hedron Grinder, the second most played uncommander. What is it about spellslinger shenanigans that are so incredibly powerful in Pauper? Let's find out!
A Swarm of Spells
Zada, Hedron Grinder is quite a unique card, (though it's not one of a kind!) so let me take a minute to explain what it does. Whenever you cast a spell with a target, if that spell targets exclusively Zada, you copy the spell once for each creature you control. It doesn't matter if you have two or a hundred creature, you get that many copies of the spell. It that spell happens to include other things, those things get copies as well.
I'm sure you can see how this would be quite powerful, but let me prove it. Let's say you have five creatures on board and you cast Flick a Coin. For just three mana, you get five Treasures and five cards. That's absurd! Yes, you might wipe your board, but that's a small sacrifice. There are plenty of absurd spells to be cast with Zada, but let's figure out what else we need to set up first.
Creatures
As you can see, we maximize Zada's value by having a colossal board, so let's sort that out first. Luckily, we're in red, the color of annoying little guys who come in hordes. Goblins, Devils, Elementals, and more Goblins are all available to us. We can start with some instants and sorceries that spawn tiny armies.
Dragon Fodder is the iconic one, and it's accompanied by Hordeling Outburst, Ral's Reinforcements, Forbidden Friendship, and Krenko's Command.
Some bigger spells come with even more benefits, like Goblin War Party and Empty the Warrens. Whatever that benefit is, we'll take it, because we're grabbing all we can get.
Then, there are creatures who make more creatures. Just what we want! Mogg War Marshal and Goblin Instigator are neatly packaged duos, Emrakul's Hatcher and Beetleback Chief are board states in a box, and Rapacious One, a personal favorite, is a veritable army.
They don't all have to make tokens, however. Goblin Matron is a body that finds us another body, and Ornithopter of Paradise and Iron Myr are decent ramp for us. We'll also include a number of Guttersnipes, from Firebrand Archer to Kessig Flamebreather.
Pretty soon, we're gonna be casting a ton of instants and sorceries, so these fellas will do some work.
Spells
And that takes us to the meat of the deck, the instants and sorceries we're gonna be casting. What we're looking for is pretty obvious. The cheapest instants and sorceries that do something significant while targeting a creature. Expedite is the golden standard. One mana, draws a card. The haste can be handy sometimes, but it's not what we really care about. What we do care about is drawing a card for every single creature on our board, and we can do that with plenty of spells.
Ancestral Anger, Renegade Tactics, Crimson Wisps, and Panic all do the trick. I suppose scrying 1 is also pretty good, so let's take Samut's Sprint, Titan's Strength, and Storm Strike as well.
But hey, there's more to life than card advantage. How about giving our entire team a colossal boost? Brute Force will do the trick there, along with Balduvian Rage, Brute Strength, Run Amok, Reckless Charge, and many others. If we're giving 5+ creatures +3/+3 buffs with ease, there's little that will stand in our way, and Zada makes it so ridiculously easy, our opponents aren't going to stand a chance.
There's a few more standouts that I'll highlight as well. Does doubling the size of our board sound good? Have a slice of Make Mischief. Does drawing two cards for each creature and giving a buff to the whole team sound great? Take a bite of Witch's Mark! What about giving each creature double strike and trample?
Look out for Temur Battle Rage. Or how about buffing each creature by progressively larger amounts based on the amount of cards we've drawn by the time a copy of Fists of Flame resolves? That sounds fun to me!
The Gameplan
The point is, there's an endless list of cards that become incredibly overpowered with Zada out on the board, and that means that our Goblin commander is going to become quite the target for removal. One way to combat this is by playing Whispersilk Cloak, but unfortunately, that garment is the only mono-red-compatible, Pauper-legal card that grants shroud, hexproof, indestructible, or protection.
We have basically no way to protect Zada from the wrath of the board, so we're gonna need another way to ensure we can get our value, and that strategy is to just go as fast as possible. To accomplish this, we're jamming rituals and ramp into our deck, like Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, and Mana Geyser.
Of course, the best way to avoid removal is just to plan ahead. This deck wants to have a full board, a load of mana, and a fat stack of cards in hand before even casting Zada. Once you do, the deck can absolutely go off, but it's vulnerable to any removal. So play carefully, and prepare yourself for the right time.
And that's the deck! It's clear why it's a favorite among both EDH and pEDH players. There's a ton of fun to be had here, from executing complex chains of spells, to blindly swinging in with a flood of Goblins. Whatever happens, it's sure to be spectacular.
