Pauper: Rakdos Burn Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Hello guys, I'm Tiago Fuguete, and today we're going to talk about Pauper's "new" Burn.

When we talk about Burn, everyone remembers Mono Red Burn, which is best known and most played and perhaps the only archetype present in almost every format. But recently, the guys also started playing a lot with Mono Black Burn, a cool deck idea for avoiding cards like Dispel, since almost all of its spells are sorceries, it avoids Hydroblast since they aren't red and also dodges from Prismatic Strands, since most of the effects are life loss and not damage.

After Mono Red and Mono Black, what came out? Rakdos Burn.

This deck became possible with the arrival of some cards like Vampire's Kiss, Fodder Tosser and Kitchen Imp, which came in the past year sets and gave options for Burn to interact with Madness in Pauper.

Our deck uses the Madness mechanic a lot. For those who don't know, Madness works as an alternative cost: when the card is somehow discarded, it is possible to cast it for its Madness cost.

This interaction can end up being quite advantageous, as we have spells that discard cards as part of their ability or cost, and by making use of Madness we end up taking advantage of this, often at a lower cost. A good example in the deck is the card Alms of the Vein.

In our games, we will see the most significant difference between the Mono Red Burn and Madness Burn decks. As we know, Red Burn doesn't have card draws other than Needle Drop, whereas Rakdos Burn is always drawing cards with Faithless Looting and the blood tokens of which various cards will create. This is where we're going to take advantage of it the most, as both Faithless Looting and tokens need to discard cards, and we're always going to try to discard cards with Madness, getting even more out of the deck.

Our stance, in the vast majority of games, should be to take it easy and make the most of our deck's resources. It is often necessary to save the burn that has madness to try to use it with a blood token.

Rakdos Burn is very different from traditional Mono Red, as in games you don't have to kill your opponent on turn 3 or 4. The game usually drags a bit longer, and that's no problem for our deck.

There are times when it is necessary to interact more with the opponent's creatures, to create a fair race, and others when it is necessary to target the opponent. I comment on this later in the sideboard guide.

vs. Faeries

In this category, we recall Dimir, Izzet and Mono Blue Faeries, also known as Ux Fairies, are generally good against Mono Red Burn, as it naturally has the counterspells in the main deck and post-side they will add Hydroblast. But against Rakdos Burn, the game is different because our deck has the black part and that gets in the way of Ux's plans. Against us, this matchup becomes close to even.

I want to leave a tip here: the best card in this matchup is Fodder Tosser. Once this card is in play, the game. In addition to granting 2 damage every turn, Tosser also allows us to use madness to cast spells like Alms of the Vein or Kitchen Imp at instant speed — not to mention that Kitchen Imp is a great blocker against Faeries.

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vs. Boros

This matchup is complicated for us because of Seeker of the Way, since it gains tons of life and get in our way. But apart from Seeker, the match is kind of fair, and I can even say that it's not a bad match because even though Boros is a great deck, it has a very slow clock and that gives us time to establish our clock.

Here it's worth leaving a game posture option and even a possible mulligan because we really need to deal with Seeker of the Way, so maybe it's good to have a Lightning Bolt, Searing Blaze or Fiery Temper on the starting hand.

Regarding the game's posture, it's important to take deal with blockers because it's advantageous for us on this race of whoever deals more damage.

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vs. Bogles

This is a racing match. We have to try to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, as we have no interaction in G1.

Post-sideboard we have cards for the game to get better, being able to use Duress to discard auras that can give life to our opponent. We also have creature sacrifice with Chainer's Edict.

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vs. Affinity

This game was always good for traditional Burn, but Affinity gained an important help in the last set, Reckoner's Bargain, which helps the deck gain tons of life. With Rakdos, I still consider it a favorable match.

Post-sideboard, we have a strong card against Affinity, Smash to Smithereens, which in addition to dealing damage to the opponent, will also destroy one of their permanents. However, be aware that if the opponent sacrifices the artifact in response, Smash to Smithereens will miss the target and end up not dealing damage.

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vs. Rakdos Burn

Of course, we can't avoid talking about the mirror. This is a very strange game because it depends a lot on the situation. I would say that it is practically decided by luck, whoever draws the best wins.

Try to avoid taking damage for free, making the best use of your resources.

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To finish this article, I say that this deck is excellent within its limits, and above all, very fun to play. It is possible to generate value and win numerous games with it, so I strongly recommend that you play it on leagues.

Any questions or suggestions, just leave it here in the comments, and I'll come back to talk about it!

Thank you very much, and I hope you enjoyed the reading.