A few weeks ago, I wrote about my Pauper Mill deck experiment. That blue deck was only the start, and there are four more colors in the traditional Magic color pie. My goal is to build several simple decks to introduce people to the game, new deck archetypes, and card mechanics.

After some playtesting thanks to @generikat and our mutual friends R & T, I've also been updating and balancing them. This post is about my mono-red entry, but I'll also cover some changes I made to the mill deck at the end of this post.

Aggro Pauper Burn

Creature Discomforts

Creature cards can be played during a main phase on your turn. They enter with what is colloquially called summoning sickness, meaning they cannot attack immediately when played. I built this deck with the plan to be a bit less aggressive in combat than can be typical in red, so I deliberately avoided playing haste abilities.

The cornerstone of this deck is Firebrand Archer, a creature with the interesting special rule, "Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature deals 1 damage to each opponent." Therefore, most of the nonland cards in this deck are also non-creature spells designed to exploit this rule for extra bonus ping damage. One odd thing about this card is its lack of reach. Archers can often block creatures with flying, but not this one. Then again, that's more commonly a green keyword anyway.

I also included Goblin Arsonist because cheap blockers and attackers are good, plus he pings someone or something when he dies.

The last creature is an oddity. Nyxborn Rollicker is an Enchantment Creature, and its Bestow ability means it can enter as an enchantment aura on another creature instead when the alternate cost is paid. This would trigger Firebrand Archer, because at that point it is an enchantment aura, not a creature spell. If that enchanted creature is destroyed or exiled, the aura becomes a creature card again and remains on the battlefield as an extra body to attack or block. This kind of card is a niche option that sees little play in my experience, but is a great fit for this specific deck.

Instant Gratification

This is a pun about red's stereotypical play style and the card type, in case you need niche jokes to be explained.

Orcish Cannonade is a weird card, but it perfectly reflects red tactics. "No ready! No aim! Just fire!" Hurt my opponents, hurt myself, draw a card. It's impulsive and reckless. I might even consider it a bad card, but with just one Firebrand Archer on the field, the life loss becomes symmetrical, and with more than one, my opponent hurts more than I do. Plus, card draw is valuable. I only own two copies, and I ran both.

Lightning Bolt is one of the most iconic cards in Magic, and has been printed from time to time since the very first alpha release of the game. Zap any problem creature with 3 or less toughness, or zap an opponent in the face. It's a very good card, and probably belongs in every red deck. That's why it's also one of the few common-rarity cards with several reprints which still commands a bit of a premium price. Some printings are at uncommon rarity, but all paper versions are legal in Pauper anyway.

Chandra's Fury has the highest mana cost in the deck, but it's a powerful spell which deals four damage to my opponent and one damage to every single creature they control. This is over-costed if it were just a slightly-better Lightning Bolt, but by the time it can be played, it might also sweep away a lot of an opponent's creatures to make an opening for an attack, and of course trigger bonus damage from each Firebrand Archer in play.

Last, but not least, in this list is Weapon Surge, a card with two options. For one red mana, it buffs one dude with an extra point to its attack power and first strike until end of turn. However, for the low, low cost of just one more mana of any color, it gives that buff to all creatures you control! This ability to choose which mode to play depending on the situation makes this a solid option.

Apprentice Sorceries

The final set of non-creature spells in this deck are the sorceries. These can only be played during a main phase of your turn, unlike the instants above which can be cast in any phase and on any turn.

Wild Guess also shows red impulsiveness by requiring a card be discarded as an extra cost. This means you need this card and at least one other card in your hand to play it, but you get two fresh cards back. It's a gamble, but it fits the reckless red attitude.

The final card draw option is Renegade Tactics, which only costs one red mana, draws a card, and taps a creature. This not only triggers Firebrand Archers in play, but also creates an opening for an attack by removing a problematic blocking creature your opponent has in play. Red can use tactics aside from "just light everything on fire," see?

Finally, Krenko's Command generates two goblin creature tokens for offense and defense. It puts bodies on the board, triggers Firebrand Archer again, and adds to the targets available for Weapon Surge.

The Game Plan

Rounding out the deck, I have 22 basic lands. Mountains generate red mana, and a good starting hand should have at least two ready to play.

If I can drop a Goblin Arsonist on turn 1, we have a great start, but more importantly, I want a Firebrand Archer to play right away on turn 2. If I don't have one in my opening hand, I'd consider taking a mulligan. However, this isn't essential to the game plan. If I can play a Krenko's Command instead and start flooding the board with goblins I can boost with a Weapon Surge, that's also OK.

By turn 3, either I want to start playing non-creature spells to trigger Firebrand Archer, or to boost the goblins and start attacking. Red wants the initiative, so the game needs to either focus on combat or burn at this point, while retaining the option to change tactics depending on the cards in hand.

• If I have a Firebrand Archer, I would start playing any card draw spells I have in hand to improve my options in future turns while pinging my opponent.

• If I have a few goblins in play, I probably want to attack with an overloaded Weapon Surge after using Lightning Bolt or Renegade Tactics to remove blockers.

Ideally, turn 4 sees a fourth land drop and more of the same play pattern. By turn 5 or 6, I want to be in a position to finish off the opponent with Chandra's Fury or other burn spells.

I'm pretty happy with this deck overall. It's relatively fast, but it might burn itself out. I wouldn't call it a combo deck per se, but the synergy seems to work well. The mana curve is low, so missing a land drop isn't catastrophic, and the card draw options help keep this from happening.

If you want to buy the cards online to build a deck like this, it should be in the neighborhood of only $20 or so at the time of this post. If you want to keep costs even lower, you could substitute another burn spell like Shock for slightly lower damage or Forked Bolt for wider targeting options instead of the Lightning Bolts. Online shopping options abound, of course, but I always recommend supporting your local game shop if at all possible. They may even have an online shop through sites like TCGplayer with in-store pickup, but if Pauper sounds like fun, it's hard to beat browsing through boxes of cards in person just to get ideas.

Feeling Blue

My first post was less comprehensive than this because I was still going through the deckbuilding process when I wrote it. You can see the current form of the deck here on Moxfield

I've ditched the playset of Frost Breath in favor of filling out my playsets with the full four copies each of Archeomancer and Jace's Phantasm.

I also replaced Mizzium Skin with a newer card: Merfolk Secretkeeper. This is a creature spell from the Throne of Eldraine set with its adventure alternative casting mode. The card can be played as the Venture Deeper sorcery with a mill effect, but instead of going to the graveyard, the creature is "on an adventure" and placed in exile, from whence it can be cast later.

In light of the cards in the red deck above and decks I've built for future posts, the Mizzium Skin might need to return. We'll see. Keep an eye out for them, and let me know what you think!