NO LOTUS PETAL? Cycle Storm on a Budget! $78 Mono-Black Pauper Combo Deck | Magic: The Gathering MTG

Bryant Cook plays Mono-Black Cycle Storm in a Pauper League on Magic: The Gathering Online! These matches were played on: 01/15/25

Cycle Storm gets a budget makeover with this $78 Mono-Black Pauper Combo deck! This version eliminates Lotus Petal, traditionally a costly staple, and replaces it with efficient alternatives like Unearth and Exhume. These cards allow you to reanimate key cycling creatures such as Troll of Khazad-dûm, Horror of the Broken Lands, and Drannith Healer, keeping the engine running without breaking the bank.

The deck’s game plan remains explosive: cycle creatures to fill your graveyard, cast Songs of the Damned for a massive mana boost, and then use Reaping the Graves to bring everything back for continued cycling. Finishing the game with Drannith Stinger, dealing incremental damage each time you cycle. With a lean mana base and powerful rituals like Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual, this list ensures you can execute your combo turns efficiently while staying accessible for budget players.

This streamlined list sacrifices none of the power of traditional Cycle Storm while making it more affordable. If you’re looking to dive into Pauper with a competitive and accessible deck, this Mono-Black iteration of Cycle Storm is an excellent choice!

We hope you enjoy this exciting gameplay! If you do, please don't forget to subscribe, like, and comment!

//———— Video Breakdown ————//
00:00 — Intro
00:18 — Deck Tech
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04:33 — Round 1 vs. Fremil with Jund Broodscale Combo
16:43 — Round 2 vs. Raketa with Elves
23:34 — Round 3 vs. Crestomanci with Mono-White Heroic
34:10 — Round 4 vs. Stazer14 with Mono-Red Dredge
45:57 — Round 5 vs. barff with Mono-Blue Faeries
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55:10 — Wrap-up

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[TheEPICStorm]

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[andrewpalella]

"people on the internet are weird" allow me to offer an alternative "people are weird"

[IttoRyu]

Cycle Storm is love! Cycle Storm is life!!!

[AceMathias]

Really appreciate your efforts to make cycling a budget deck even in pauper. As a pauper player I'm used to paying at most a few £ at most for a card. Therefore I haven't got petal. Unfortunately don't have cabal ritual either 😂, so hoping it gets a reprint at some point.

[kalikaiz]

I think heart of the cards is actually Yu-Gi-Oh haha

GG nice vid!

[Myyraman]

I think I might end up building this and playing it until I’m comfortable with buying lotus petals🧐

[waaaaaaah]

Great gameplay! I think that Exhume would be better off as a sideboard card, 4/5 games it was practically useless, but absolutely SLAPPED against Faeries. Not sure what could replace it in maindeck though...only other reanimator cards are Stir the Grave and Revoke Demise (not great)...is Chromatic Sphere or Chromatic Star playable?

[CloudBorne]

I'm on the Internet! I'm gonna get weird! XD

[kylemitchell]

It looks like the lag issues are more pervasive on the servers for MTGO. They did say they were addressing and investigating it a couple days ago.

[jbs]

ah yes a budget deck for a budget format XD

[gavintomchick]

I don't think any version of cycle storm is budget friendly if you go for Japanese foils