That sideboard looks very tight against all the bad matches we've found so far! I had been scouring commons online trying to find any sort of anti-black or anti-lifegain for commons, but no luck.
@YavimayaWurm: I run Rituals in my MBC list but that's mainly because I use Crypt Rats over Gary, but I probably would board out Rats and Ritual if I was facing anything resembling Burn now that I think about it.
I don't know how tight it is exactly. Chances are we'll still be a bit slower than Burn and that MBC will still be able to stabilize before we kill them. It's a step in the right direction, though, as it gives us a fighting chance. I'll be testing a bit with the deck this weekend to see how effective the sideboard is against these strategies.
Okay, I did some post-board testing with the new sideboard, and the results are not good.
After playing 4 matches against Burn, I quickly realized that the extra burn spells still weren't enough to match the opponents' speed. I think we just have to accept that this is a bad matchup.
More importantly, I faced MBC in more matchups, and am currently even. I get the feeling, however, that this is mostly due to luck on my part. In a few of the games I played, the opponent missed their important land drops to get to Merchant and Corrupt in time and succumbed to my slightly faster clock. this is an improvement, but not much of one.
So, mixed feelings about all this. Burn is not such a common matchup that I think accepting defeat against it is not so huge. MBC, however, is pretty problematic, even if the matchup improves noticeably post-board.
Maybe the Pyroblasts should come out completely in favor of more burn spells. Delver is a decent matchup regardless, so maybe they aren't as necessary. It would become a completely tranformational sideboard.
I was afraid the changes wouldn't be enough to overcome Burn. I looked for Artifacts that would gain us life, but nothing does enough to negate the burn It would just prolong us for a turn, maybe two if we're lucky.
Yeah, MBC doesn't surprise me. That's a deck that can stabilize easily and take over a match. It's only worse since it's a popular archetype, like you said. I'm really at a loss at how to handle it, we just don't have the tools to handle MBC's plan with what Mono Red has. Maybe splashing a color could help, but once we get into that territory we'll just be branching into a whole different deck.
It seems the sideboard is highly dependent on the meta you're playing in. I'll do some testing/searching for options...
The reason the deck loses is because it doesn't do lethal damage quickly enough. This is a stupid thing to say, since we aren't aiming for speed unless we're playing against Burn or MBC. But the big difference between Burn and this deck is that its draws aren't as good, because it runs many more lands and more burn spells that only targets creatures. This means that our top decks are worse against non-creature decks. So, instead of using cheap spells that Burn normally plays, what if we made each individual card matter more? Since mana isn't an issue like in a normal Burn deck, we can afford to pay for more expensive spells that just plain do more damage.
So I played 4 post-board matches versus burn with these cards, and actually won 1, tied 1, and lost 2. A significant improvement! I won that first game on the back of 3 Frostburn Weirds, which are amazing against Burn. The game I tied I was about to win, but played Flame Rift as the killing spell and the opponent replied with Incinerate+ Fireblast. The other two games I was one turn away from killing them.
The only problem in the sideboard is Flame Rift, which is pretty much unplayable. I can't afford to deal myself 4 damage, so it sits in my hand doing nothing.
So my choices are to either put another 1-mana, 3-damage spell in instead, play a more expensive 4-damage spell like Lightning Blast, or play spells that deal 4 damage for less mana, but have a drawback, like Sonic Burst, Rhystic Lightning, or Firebolt/ Burst Lightning.
It's actually pretty good to see results like that!
I was thinking about Burst Lightning the other day for the sideboard. Sure it costs more to hit for 4 than Lightning Blast but it's pretty versatile.
I'd leave out Firebolt since it's expensive to get the 4 damage and it's a sorcery.
I've never seen Rhystic Lightning before... Maybe it could be the most efficient choice especially since Burn has less land drops and wants to tap out as much as possible.
It looks like my "go big" idea panned out. The matchup is positive against MBC, and by a good margin (7/10)! I'm really happy about this! With the bigger burn spells, we can actually sustain a Corrupt or Merchant coming into play and go beyond the life gain (especially if we're using Flame Slash or Skred to wipe out creatures and slow them down). They are constantly on the backfoot; playing spells just to survive.
Fireslinger wouldn't be a bad idea, actually. I remember them giving me such a hard time when playing Turbo Fog.
To replace Sandstorm, I was actually thinking of maindecking Staggershock, just because it's so versatile. 4 damage to an opponent, kill 2 creatures, kill a creature and shock an opponent. It's an instant, too. I do like that Sandstorm is pretty much a wrath of god in this format, though.
That a huge improvement! I'm glad the SB change made a big change.
Fireslinger looks pretty good too, I'll keep that in mind if I feel I need more ping in the future. Staggershock does sound like a great replacement, so I think I'll make that change also. The main problem I had with Sandstorm was that it wouldn't hit flyers so it fell short in a lot of match ups.
The MUC I play against uses flyers and just occasional creatures in other decks. Most times I can use spot removal but sometimes I'd just have a Sandstorm in hand.
Yeah, the only time Sandstorm was a big deal was against a Threshold deck I play against, and hitting those Springing Tigers was really hard. Not really worth it, even if the pilot is excellent. I can learn to deal with it somehow.
A lot has happened since the last post here! so many sets, so many more options, so much growing as a magic player.
Decidedly, I'm not too happy with the creature package of this deck. They both fall too easily to all sorts of removal that we can do nothing about. Strangely, I've been thinking that Avarax might be the card we need to keep up the card advantage and the finishers coming in this deck. A 3/3 haste for 5 is not great and the expensive firebreathing is kinda crap, but it replaces itself with another copy when it comes into play! And even if it's 1R to activate, the firebreathing will still make this card a good mana sink to finish the game on a clear board.
Speaking of card advantage, Crown-Hunter Hireling also seems great for this deck! We tend to keep the board clear of creatures, which means that he will continue to draw us cards well beyond his presence on the board. He's also pretty burly.
Finally, I'd really like to make room for the brand new Magma Jet. This card should give us the card selection we need to keep things under control.
I've been building Skred Red lately, and it suddenly came to me that this deck could also benefit from the ramp and card advantage from Mind Stones, maybe even maindeck Relic of Progenitus. Any thoughts on this?
Wow! It has been a loooong time since I've even thought about this deck and you're right about a lot happening since then.
Avarax might be a good addition for this deck! It has a lot of advantages for this deck.
Magma Jet is definitely a must! I need to pull out my playsets for some of my Pauper decks.
Crown-Hunter Hireling looks pretty good too. Monarch is pretty awesome card advantage, plus if the crown is taken from you you have a good threat! I would definitely test Mind Stone as well since mana is important for this list.
I believe the creatures I run will be the base, but of course with tweaking and varying numbers as long as we test. We also have a metric ton of removal, and most of it also doubles as reach when aimed to the face. Now we just need all the card advantage we can muster, and to experiment with what limited mana denial we have in Pauper in order to not be slower burn.dec
I'm glad we have more people on board this time around! This should be even more interesting.
Zephyr Scarlet, don't forget about Desert. This card wins games and fits very well into the strategy.
I don't think we should be trying to copy Skred Red to a tee, as the decks they're facing and the quality of cards they get to play with/against is too different. I think a robust removal/burn package will be enough to make the deck work, especially with the new creatures.
In this new age of Pauper, we absolutely need a way to deal with 5/5s. I was thinking about using Lightning Axe, as paying either cost is doable and instant speed is very helpful. Thunderous Wrath seems fine, but a bit clunky. I can see scenarios where you wouldn't want to pay the Miracle cost because there's nothing to hit yet except their face, which is not always the right call. The extra reach is nice, though.
I was also interested in Beetleback Chief, but his lack of common tag in paper makes it a no-go for me. If I ever build this online, it'll definitely go in.
I think the 23-land mana base makes a lot of sense for this deck, seeing as how we'll be casting 5-cc creatures and bigger burn spells. I also allows us to explore more non-basics while keeping snow-covered count high for Skred.
I like Martyr of Ashes, but not as a 4-of. With flyers taking up a large portion of Pauper creatures, this can end up not doing all that much for us. I can definitely see it as a 1-2 of, but not more than that. It also competes with Electrickery slots, which I think is also worth including.
What do you think of Mind Stone? I've yet to try it out for myself, but it seems to make sense if we're planning on "going big". It makes casting stuff like Magma Jet and Staggershock a lot better, and gives us some card draw in the late game when we really need it.
Here's where I've started. The very first version of the remake. I just played a test game versus Stompy an won 2-1. Both games I won were because of the card advantage from the creatures in the mid-game that pulled me ahead. Testing against Delver also yielded a 2-0. The massive amount of removal is just too much. Only being able to attack with Avarax kind of makes the deck weak to spot removal, however. It can be hard to finish the game. I think I'll end up cutting a Hireling and add another attacking creature.
EDIT: answering the need for more pressure, I think 2x Haunted Fengraf will help a lot. I also remembered that Scuzzback Marauders might make an excellent choice of creature, being able to trade with 5/5s and survive.
I was going with the online legality, which is why I included Beetleback Chief and not Desert. I thought it had a paper printing at Common. Which is a shame, because turn 4 Chief into turn 5 Hireling makes practically impossible for your opponent to steal the crown in his next turn unless he has fliers.
Speaking of which, totally missed the Martyr of Ashes non-flying clause. Still, I think it's worth to run 2-of as she will single handedly take down Burning-Tree Stompy's newfound degenerate openings, whereas Electrickery would not suffice. This is specially true if you're running Desert, since those will be able to take out the flying X/1's you want to be killing anyways.
Thunderous Wrath vs Lightning Axe: I really think there's no argument here. If you need to pay 5R for Axe, then you surely can afford 4RR for Wrath. On the paying just R scenario, Axe is card disadvantage, and since we're running so few card advantage I wouldn't drop two cards just to kill a 5/5, which you can do with two damage spells anyways if it ever comes to 2-for-1'ing yourself. Meanwhile, all Wrath asks is that you topdeck it, and even if there are no targets, blowing up 1/4 of your opponent's life total goes a long way towards victory.
Finally, I would run some number of Forgotten Cave. As I said, we need all the card draw we can muster in the color. Radiant Fountain is also a colorless land option if the Burn MU is too uphill.
So I was working on this after playing against it online and I thought it looked fun. This is my current list: https://deckbox.org/sets/1919265 and it's fun. UB Control is a rough matchup, and I feel like Tron will be worse (although I haven't played against it yet) and obviously burn is bad. I was wondering if you guys could maybe give some sideboard advice?
Right now it looks you have a decent SB against Tron. Gorilla Shaman will help keep them off some colored mana if you take out Prophetic Prism. Molten Rain can take out some of their important lands, while Pyroblast can fight against their counter spells/Capsize.
Against control you want to put on the pressure. You can take out some spot removal for direct damage. Thunderous Wrath is legal in Pauper now so that can probably take the place of Tanglebloom in the side.
A note on the main deck: Control needs card advantage and this deck desperately need it since it's red. Our main source of true, repeatable CA is Crown-Hunter Hireling. MAybe use this instead of Beetleback Chief?
I was trying to accrue card advantage using spells, but that would certainly help a lot! I'm amazed at how much natural card advantage the deck has with Magma Jet, Arc Lightning, Firebolt, Staggershock, and even the Beetleback Chief (although I realized this is in the Paper Pauper forum, so this list isn't 100%). -4 Chief +3 Crown-Hunter Hireling +1 Staggershock is the easier fix for that. If they'd actually just put the card on MTGO I'd have probably done that ages ago...
Also, the Tanglebloom was for Burn because there isn't much good lifegain in colorless (hence the Talismans maindeck) and you've already mentioned that going aggressive doesn't seem to help the matchup.
Edit to avoid double post: Pristine Talisman is being surprisingly awesome for me. I'm thinking about playing more.
I figured Tanglebloom was there for Burn. How has it helped against it? One life a turn doesn't seem too great against so much burn spells, but multiples can get some work done. I wish something like Dragon's Claw would get downgraded for us!
With the amount of creature removal I suggest maybe dropping your Quicksands for Radiant Fountain and maybe drop a forgotten cave for an extra copy. This coupled with Pristine Talisman will give you some main deck life gain against Burn and Aggro. Maybe those will give you the same amount of life a Tangle Bloom would (unless your experience is different than what I imagine) and that would leave some more room in the SB.
I noticed fountain as an option and is definitely worth considering. I'm up to 3 Talisman currently as well.
As far as Quicksand goes, it's been very good and is the only reason I can beat Inside Out, while still being relevant in basically every matchup (that runs creatures). I could see playing a Fountain in the list, it's just annoying to flood on colorless sources that also don't count towards skred, which has thus far been probably the most disappointing card. I've played against burn once and only really won because of rough mulls on their part.
I think fountain for the early burst life would help couple up with the slower stuff to actually get me in the late game. I'll get some more games in and see where it takes me.
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@YavimayaWurm: I run Rituals in my MBC list but that's mainly because I use Crypt Rats over Gary, but I probably would board out Rats and Ritual if I was facing anything resembling Burn now that I think about it.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
After playing 4 matches against Burn, I quickly realized that the extra burn spells still weren't enough to match the opponents' speed. I think we just have to accept that this is a bad matchup.
More importantly, I faced MBC in more matchups, and am currently even. I get the feeling, however, that this is mostly due to luck on my part. In a few of the games I played, the opponent missed their important land drops to get to Merchant and Corrupt in time and succumbed to my slightly faster clock. this is an improvement, but not much of one.
So, mixed feelings about all this. Burn is not such a common matchup that I think accepting defeat against it is not so huge. MBC, however, is pretty problematic, even if the matchup improves noticeably post-board.
Maybe the Pyroblasts should come out completely in favor of more burn spells. Delver is a decent matchup regardless, so maybe they aren't as necessary. It would become a completely tranformational sideboard.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I was afraid the changes wouldn't be enough to overcome Burn. I looked for Artifacts that would gain us life, but nothing does enough to negate the burn It would just prolong us for a turn, maybe two if we're lucky.
Yeah, MBC doesn't surprise me. That's a deck that can stabilize easily and take over a match. It's only worse since it's a popular archetype, like you said. I'm really at a loss at how to handle it, we just don't have the tools to handle MBC's plan with what Mono Red has. Maybe splashing a color could help, but once we get into that territory we'll just be branching into a whole different deck.
It seems the sideboard is highly dependent on the meta you're playing in. I'll do some testing/searching for options...
The reason the deck loses is because it doesn't do lethal damage quickly enough. This is a stupid thing to say, since we aren't aiming for speed unless we're playing against Burn or MBC. But the big difference between Burn and this deck is that its draws aren't as good, because it runs many more lands and more burn spells that only targets creatures. This means that our top decks are worse against non-creature decks. So, instead of using cheap spells that Burn normally plays, what if we made each individual card matter more? Since mana isn't an issue like in a normal Burn deck, we can afford to pay for more expensive spells that just plain do more damage.
So what if, instead of playing Lava Spike and Chain Lightning, we instead played Flame Rift, Staggershock or Keldon Marauders? Since it's impossible for us to close out a game in three turns anyways, we might as well invest in bigger burn spells.
How about this:
4 Staggershock
4 Keldon Marauders
3 Fireblast
All these cards can potentially do 4 or more damage, which saves us a bit of damage later on.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
This actually look like a good idea. It's definitely worth testing!
The only problem in the sideboard is Flame Rift, which is pretty much unplayable. I can't afford to deal myself 4 damage, so it sits in my hand doing nothing.
So my choices are to either put another 1-mana, 3-damage spell in instead, play a more expensive 4-damage spell like Lightning Blast, or play spells that deal 4 damage for less mana, but have a drawback, like Sonic Burst, Rhystic Lightning, or Firebolt/ Burst Lightning.
What do you think?
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
I was thinking about Burst Lightning the other day for the sideboard. Sure it costs more to hit for 4 than Lightning Blast but it's pretty versatile.
I'd leave out Firebolt since it's expensive to get the 4 damage and it's a sorcery.
I've never seen Rhystic Lightning before... Maybe it could be the most efficient choice especially since Burn has less land drops and wants to tap out as much as possible.
I discovered that I win approximately 1/5 games, which isn't very good, but a significant improvement nonetheless.
I imagine MBC will improve as well, but I have yet to test against it with this current setup.
This is what it's looking like:
4 Frostburn Weird
3 Ill-Tempered Cyclops
Burn (19)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
4 Flame Slash
2 Flame Jab
2 Searing Blaze
3 Arc Lightning
3 Electrickery
2 Swirling Sandstorm
Other (6)
4 Curse of the Pierced Heart
2 Faithless Looting
Lands (23)
17 Snow-covered Mountain
2 Forgotten Cave
4 Desert
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Staggershock
4 Rhystic Lightning
3 Fireblast
Versus Burn: -3 Electrickery, -2 Swirling Sandstorm, -4 Skred, -2 Flame Slash, -3 Ill-Tempered Cyclops, -1 Desert, +15 sideboard cards.
Versus MBC: -3 Electrickery, -1 Swirling Sandstorm, -3 Ill-Tempered Cyclops, -4 Frostburn Weird, +4 Staggershock, +4 Rhystic Lightning (usability pending), +3 Fireblast.
I'm kind of wondering if the Swirling Sandstorm is worth keeping in the maindeck, as it's not overly useful anywhere.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
So, what should you use in place of Sandstorm? What do you feel is lacking in your deck?
Razortip Whip will add an extra Curse effect if you feel you need it. You could try Goblin Fireslinger but it's easier to kill than an artifact.
If you need more defense maybe go back to trying a Wall. Ætherflame Wall might be a good option.
Or if you need some more sweeper action try Scouring Sands to filter your draws a bit.
It looks like my "go big" idea panned out. The matchup is positive against MBC, and by a good margin (7/10)! I'm really happy about this! With the bigger burn spells, we can actually sustain a Corrupt or Merchant coming into play and go beyond the life gain (especially if we're using Flame Slash or Skred to wipe out creatures and slow them down). They are constantly on the backfoot; playing spells just to survive.
Fireslinger wouldn't be a bad idea, actually. I remember them giving me such a hard time when playing Turbo Fog.
To replace Sandstorm, I was actually thinking of maindecking Staggershock, just because it's so versatile. 4 damage to an opponent, kill 2 creatures, kill a creature and shock an opponent. It's an instant, too. I do like that Sandstorm is pretty much a wrath of god in this format, though.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Fireslinger looks pretty good too, I'll keep that in mind if I feel I need more ping in the future. Staggershock does sound like a great replacement, so I think I'll make that change also. The main problem I had with Sandstorm was that it wouldn't hit flyers so it fell short in a lot of match ups.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
A lot has happened since the last post here! so many sets, so many more options, so much growing as a magic player.
Decidedly, I'm not too happy with the creature package of this deck. They both fall too easily to all sorts of removal that we can do nothing about. Strangely, I've been thinking that Avarax might be the card we need to keep up the card advantage and the finishers coming in this deck. A 3/3 haste for 5 is not great and the expensive firebreathing is kinda crap, but it replaces itself with another copy when it comes into play! And even if it's 1R to activate, the firebreathing will still make this card a good mana sink to finish the game on a clear board.
Speaking of card advantage, Crown-Hunter Hireling also seems great for this deck! We tend to keep the board clear of creatures, which means that he will continue to draw us cards well beyond his presence on the board. He's also pretty burly.
Finally, I'd really like to make room for the brand new Magma Jet. This card should give us the card selection we need to keep things under control.
I've been building Skred Red lately, and it suddenly came to me that this deck could also benefit from the ramp and card advantage from Mind Stones, maybe even maindeck Relic of Progenitus. Any thoughts on this?
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Avarax might be a good addition for this deck! It has a lot of advantages for this deck.
Magma Jet is definitely a must! I need to pull out my playsets for some of my Pauper decks.
Crown-Hunter Hireling looks pretty good too. Monarch is pretty awesome card advantage, plus if the crown is taken from you you have a good threat! I would definitely test Mind Stone as well since mana is important for this list.
4 Avarax
4 Beetleback Chief
4 Martyr of Ashes
3 Crown-Hunter Hireling
4 Skred
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Magma Jet
2 Staggershock
2 Thunderous Wrath
17 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Forgotten Cave
Sorcery (8)
4 Firebolt
4 Flame Slash
The deck is partly inspired in the Modern Skred Red deck, with Avarax taking the role of Stormbreath Dragon and Beetleback Chief being Pauper's Pia and Kiran Nalaar. We lack the heavy disruption tag team that is Chalice of the Void + Blood Moon though, so we could experiment with Raze / Crack the Earth. It's also hard to not run the full four Martyr of Ashes when it's pretty much a Red Crypt Rats of sorts.
Right now every card that replaces itself, does a 2-for-1 or outright gives us incremental advantage is pretty much a staple IMO.
I believe the creatures I run will be the base, but of course with tweaking and varying numbers as long as we test. We also have a metric ton of removal, and most of it also doubles as reach when aimed to the face. Now we just need all the card advantage we can muster, and to experiment with what limited mana denial we have in Pauper in order to not be slower burn.dec
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Zephyr Scarlet, don't forget about Desert. This card wins games and fits very well into the strategy.
I don't think we should be trying to copy Skred Red to a tee, as the decks they're facing and the quality of cards they get to play with/against is too different. I think a robust removal/burn package will be enough to make the deck work, especially with the new creatures.
In this new age of Pauper, we absolutely need a way to deal with 5/5s. I was thinking about using Lightning Axe, as paying either cost is doable and instant speed is very helpful. Thunderous Wrath seems fine, but a bit clunky. I can see scenarios where you wouldn't want to pay the Miracle cost because there's nothing to hit yet except their face, which is not always the right call. The extra reach is nice, though.
I was also interested in Beetleback Chief, but his lack of common tag in paper makes it a no-go for me. If I ever build this online, it'll definitely go in.
I think the 23-land mana base makes a lot of sense for this deck, seeing as how we'll be casting 5-cc creatures and bigger burn spells. I also allows us to explore more non-basics while keeping snow-covered count high for Skred.
I like Martyr of Ashes, but not as a 4-of. With flyers taking up a large portion of Pauper creatures, this can end up not doing all that much for us. I can definitely see it as a 1-2 of, but not more than that. It also competes with Electrickery slots, which I think is also worth including.
What do you think of Mind Stone? I've yet to try it out for myself, but it seems to make sense if we're planning on "going big". It makes casting stuff like Magma Jet and Staggershock a lot better, and gives us some card draw in the late game when we really need it.
Here's where I've started. The very first version of the remake. I just played a test game versus Stompy an won 2-1. Both games I won were because of the card advantage from the creatures in the mid-game that pulled me ahead. Testing against Delver also yielded a 2-0. The massive amount of removal is just too much. Only being able to attack with Avarax kind of makes the deck weak to spot removal, however. It can be hard to finish the game. I think I'll end up cutting a Hireling and add another attacking creature.
4 Avarax
3 Crown-Hunter Hireling
Burn (26)
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Skred
4 Firebolt
3 Flame Slash
1 Flame Jab
3 Lightning Axe
3 Magma Jet
2 Searing Blaze
2 Staggershock
4 Mind Stone
Lands (23)
19 Snow-Covered Mountain
4 Desert
EDIT: answering the need for more pressure, I think 2x Haunted Fengraf will help a lot. I also remembered that Scuzzback Marauders might make an excellent choice of creature, being able to trade with 5/5s and survive.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
Speaking of which, totally missed the Martyr of Ashes non-flying clause. Still, I think it's worth to run 2-of as she will single handedly take down Burning-Tree Stompy's newfound degenerate openings, whereas Electrickery would not suffice. This is specially true if you're running Desert, since those will be able to take out the flying X/1's you want to be killing anyways.
Thunderous Wrath vs Lightning Axe: I really think there's no argument here. If you need to pay 5R for Axe, then you surely can afford 4RR for Wrath. On the paying just R scenario, Axe is card disadvantage, and since we're running so few card advantage I wouldn't drop two cards just to kill a 5/5, which you can do with two damage spells anyways if it ever comes to 2-for-1'ing yourself. Meanwhile, all Wrath asks is that you topdeck it, and even if there are no targets, blowing up 1/4 of your opponent's life total goes a long way towards victory.
Finally, I would run some number of Forgotten Cave. As I said, we need all the card draw we can muster in the color. Radiant Fountain is also a colorless land option if the Burn MU is too uphill.
Thanks to DNC from Heroes of the Plane Studios for the sig
Check my Pauper Cube!
Right now it looks you have a decent SB against Tron. Gorilla Shaman will help keep them off some colored mana if you take out Prophetic Prism. Molten Rain can take out some of their important lands, while Pyroblast can fight against their counter spells/Capsize.
Against control you want to put on the pressure. You can take out some spot removal for direct damage. Thunderous Wrath is legal in Pauper now so that can probably take the place of Tanglebloom in the side.
A note on the main deck: Control needs card advantage and this deck desperately need it since it's red. Our main source of true, repeatable CA is Crown-Hunter Hireling. MAybe use this instead of Beetleback Chief?
Also, the Tanglebloom was for Burn because there isn't much good lifegain in colorless (hence the Talismans maindeck) and you've already mentioned that going aggressive doesn't seem to help the matchup.
Edit to avoid double post: Pristine Talisman is being surprisingly awesome for me. I'm thinking about playing more.
With the amount of creature removal I suggest maybe dropping your Quicksands for Radiant Fountain and maybe drop a forgotten cave for an extra copy. This coupled with Pristine Talisman will give you some main deck life gain against Burn and Aggro. Maybe those will give you the same amount of life a Tangle Bloom would (unless your experience is different than what I imagine) and that would leave some more room in the SB.
As far as Quicksand goes, it's been very good and is the only reason I can beat Inside Out, while still being relevant in basically every matchup (that runs creatures). I could see playing a Fountain in the list, it's just annoying to flood on colorless sources that also don't count towards skred, which has thus far been probably the most disappointing card. I've played against burn once and only really won because of rough mulls on their part.
I think fountain for the early burst life would help couple up with the slower stuff to actually get me in the late game. I'll get some more games in and see where it takes me.