Exploring Pauper Commander: Ash, Party Crasher

Posted on September 13, 2023

If you've been following me on social media, you may have noticed that yesterday was my birthday! I had some family in town as well over the weekend which meant a large amount of celebrating and parties. After all, what's a birthday without some good times with family and friends supplemented by good food and drink? As such, it seems fairly fitting that this week I'm covering another Pauper Commander list featuring a commander who loves partying herself: Ash, Party Crasher!

Ash is the set's Cinderella equivalent; a human playing the role of a knight to gain access to an extravagant bash. She encounters the dashing Goddric, Cloaked Reveler, gets into a fight during a redcap raid (per the flavor text of Expel the Interlopers and the art of Cut In), and escapes at Stroke of Midnight, leaving her helmet instead of a glass slipper. Also, rather than appearing in elegance and sweeping prince charming off his feet with a glamorous dance, Ash is here to live it up. She's drinking, she's fighting, and she's not merely a weak damsel in distress.

All this - plus her awesome ability that reads like an outstanding aggressive creature - made me want to build a deck with her. Are there enough ways in the realm of commons to make her truly pay off though? Let's jump in and check out the party for ourselves!

Ash, Party Crasher | Pauper Commander | Paige Smith

Commander (1)
1 Ash, Party Crasher

Building this deck started out from a simple idea. There are two kinds of decks in Pauper that have a tendency to spit out tons of permanents and lend themselves well to a Celebration style of deck. Those are Boros Synth variations (formerly Monarch, Kitty, etc.) and the various Flicker lists, particularly of the Jeskai variety. My thought was to use these draw engine cards, some stuff that makes multiple permanents, and utilize a couple of flickers as well. This would give Ash some decent relative potency and I could then flesh the rest of it out with other cards.

Instead, what I found is that none of those strategies are totally viable on the whole. Kor Skyfisher is great, but there isn't quite the density to make it work in a 100 card deck - even with redundancy pieces like Whitemane Lion and Stockpiling Celebrant in the mix. Glint Hawk isn't even as good, since there's not quite enough artifacts to bounce and therefore there's also not enough to warrant attempting to synergize with cards like Kuldotha Rebirth or Galvanic Blast. Furthermore, while there's certainly no shortage of great flicker targets, it's extremely difficult in a deck with no Blue to utilize this strategy both effectively and consistently.

Because of this, each of these strategies is still somewhat reflected in the actual decklist itself. However, rather than being the bulk of the deck with the rest of it being fleshed out with other cards like removal and mana rocks, they instead make up a small portion of the deck. Instead, what ends up making the bulk of the list are cards which make multiple nonland permanents. In truth, going through the greater pool of commons available, I was concerned I wouldn't be able to find enough of these to make Ash relevant. What I found was actually so much that it proved difficult to cut down on!

Think of it like this: there are tons of three-mana creatures that come into play and make another creature. Which ones of those provide the greatest value and then which ones are best left on the sidelines? You might also think of multiple token generators in the form of Raise the Alarm, Battle Screech, and Dragon Fodder, only to realize that you also have ones like Gather the Townsfolk, Rally at the Hornburg, Hordeling Outburst, and Triplicate Spirits. With only so many slots to fill, which ones do you keep and which get cut? Finally, there's ones that are comparable but have odd edge cases. Consider Call the Cavalry and Gallant Cavalry. Both net you the same thing: two 2/2 knights with vigilance for 4 mana. The difference is that one is a spell making two creatures while the other comes in the form of a creature making another creature. The latter is almost always going to be better, though both are fairly reasonable all the same.

Another critical aspect in figuring out what works and what doesn't is to remember particularly that Ash's ability only triggers at the start of combat. That means you can't do something like attack someone with a creature that's equipped with a Beamtown Beatstick, make a treasure, and then get a buff onto Ash. Similarly, while it is technically possible to get multiple creatures in one turn with cards like Hunted Witness and Doomed Traveler, this isn't a deck that provides much by way of easy means to sacrifice them. This makes them far less useful and makes slightly more expensive options a better value, even if they cost more to get you there.

So, with that said, let's talk about some of these multiple permanent making cards that did make it and why. In the 1-drop slot we've got a pair of doozies. Thraben Inspector makes a clue, setting you up for extra card draws in turns where you don't have much going on. Then there's Recruit the Worthy, which doesn't do a ton on its own but in the late game, you'll find yourself casting it over and over again, which alone can take over games. The 2-drop slot is a bit lighter with Ancestral Blade and Barbed Batterfist both being equipment that come in with creatures, while Mogg War Marshal can make extra creatures multiple times. Rally at the Hornburg gives your creatures haste, and since there's a decent number of humans to go around, that can definitely pack a punch. There's also Ratcatcher Trainee which can make tokens, but to that end is more of a 3-drop than it is two.

At that 3-drop slot, though, you get much more options. Attended Knight is your standard creature making a smaller critter, but I like this one due to the First Strike. Grinning Ignus provides you easy access to multiple permanents a turn without much effort, as does Icatian Crier which turns unneeded lands into creatures whenever you need them. Dwarven Hammer benefits from not only granting you a creature, but giving Ash a means of trampling. Keldon Strike Team fills a very similar role to Rally at the Hornburg, though you get more power out of the deal for the higher kicker cost. Lastly, Molten Birth keeps coming back for more until you lose a flip, meaning you should hopefully get multiple uses out of it and even if you don't, it can create some really fun stories with your friends.

Beyond that are a lot of more standard cards. Gallant Cavalry and Beetleback Chief are ones you'd expect to see, as are the likes of Battle Screech and Triplicate Spirits. Cenn's Enlistment fills a role similar to Icatian Crier, though is a lot more durable by way of not being linked to a creature staying on the battlefield. Big Score also helps smooth your plays and trigger Ash at the same time, while Goblin Heelcutter does some solid work by giving you repeat trigger value via Dash. I also really like Indoctrination Attendant for the way it not only gives you two permanents, but it also sets you up to do something like that again on the following turn by replaying whatever value engine you picked up.

There are a few other cards that do this as well among the bunch. Kor Skyfisher and Whitemane Lion are the obvious standouts here, borrowing from the core gameplan of the Boros Synth strategies. These also allow you to not just replay token generators, but other value engines as well, such as Kor Sanctifiers for artifact and enchantment hate or Supply Runners to buff your board. On the topic of bouncing and replaying, I should also mention Conviction which - while expensive to make it happen twice - is a good way to trigger Ash consistently while also providing some protection in the process. There's also two flicker spells in the form of Cloudshift and Ephemerate, and while the only loop value here is with Ardent Elementalist, they're still great even if you can only get a single use out of both of them.

Card draw is weird in a deck like this. The only outright draw effects are basically on Lembas, Angelic Gift, and Inspiring Overseer, which isn't very much on their own. Wrenn's Resolve and Reckless Impulse both give you a temporary draw opportunity, or you can utilize Merchant of the Vale and Faithless Looting to try finding better options. Palace Sentinels will give you the Monarch status, but you have to find a way to defend it. It's likely that you'll be able to do so with how many tokens you'll be making, but it's something you'll have to put a decent amount of effort into holding onto just to get a couple extra cards.

Thankfully, with all the tokens being made and creatures hitting the board, there's no shortage of ways to get in for some lethal damage. The most obvious way is, naturally, to swarm the board and attack and use a Rally the Peasants or Heroic Charge to push through some serious damage. That number will go way up, though, if you have a Raid Bombardment on the board if you cast those mass pumps after the Bombardment triggers go onto the stack. If you have the mana, Dawnglare Invoker can even provide you a clear path with ease. Even outside battle, both Impact Tremors and Witty Roastmaster will chip away at life totals constantly, while Makeshift Munitions can turn your critters into fuel that can take out the final life points from your opponents.

What I love most about this deck, though, is how it's an amazing deck for someone just looking to pick up Commander. It's tight in its construction, dirt cheap (you can buy it all for about $35 and likely have some cards or alternatives in your collection already), and plays strongly. Given just how fast it can come out of the gate swinging, it might even hold up decently well in regular Commander settings, not merely Pauper Commander. We're not talking cEDH here, or anything, but it'll do a good enough job. What's more, it provides a great list to upgrade into regular Commander if you so choose, as there's pretty solid upgrade paths that you can take at whatever pace you'd like.

All of this means that you should be sending Ash into the red zone quite often and celebrating all the way to the bank. Ash loves crashing parties, and if there's one party I know I love, it's a good old fashioned Commander night. Order a pizza, get some cake, and take her for a spin with your friends and have yourself a joyous time at your next Commander night. Just make sure you revel in your opponents' demises a bit when you do.

Paige Smith

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