Pauper: Rakdos Glaze Affinity - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

As Affinity players seek new ways to restructure the deck after the banning of Deadly Dispute, variants of it flood the Pauper Metagame and create different versions and game plans for each list.

One of them guarantees more explosive turns with Glaze Fiend with a dozen low-cost artifacts and creatures with Affinity to attack for eight or more damage with just one creature, referring at certain levels to the famous Atog plan that eventually led to the card being banned, but without the same life-draining potential of Disciple of the Vault — a function that this variant tries to reproduce with Pactdoll Terror.

This version is more aggressive than the traditional variants with eight to ten Deadly Dispute (may it rest in peace) effects between Fanatical Offering, Reckoner’s Bargain and Eviscerator’s Insight. Instead, this list goes for a more aggressive line, using Glaze Fiend to close out a lot of damage in the early turns and complements it with Pactdoll Terror to finish the game.

Depending on the Metagame, cards like Reckless Fireweaver are preferable to Glaze Fiend if they have a lot of Fog effects, Stonehorn Dignitary or cards that prevent a single creature from attacking per turn, but if we reduce the clock, it will be necessary to include more draws to keep our momentum in longer games.

Maindeck

The main win conditions on our list. Both are very conditional and depend on always having artifacts to put into play, but considering that 49 of the 60 cards on the list are artifacts or create artifact tokens, we have no trouble triggering them every turn.

Glaze Fiend is the early game bomb, and with the right sequencing, can total eight or more damage in one attack on the third turn. Two copies of it that are not answered can guarantee lethal damage, and since we have several ways to put artifacts into play and/or resort to our Affinity cards, we can extract the most out of them in longer games.

But Pactdoll Terror is the creature that really stands out in the longest games. Decent body, life gain and accidental clock with each artifact we play, it ends games outside of combat and provides extra gas against Aggro as well.

Voldaren Epicure guarantees the first artifact for one mana on the list and another body on the board that deals damage the moment it enters. This slot can be replaced by Clockwork Percussionist or Experimental Synthesizer to extract more value from Fanatical Offering or Makeshift Munitions, but with less interaction on the board when we need more reach and/or without the possibility of removing bad topdecks with the Blood token.

Blood Fountain puts two artifacts on the board for one mana, becomes a pump as strong as a Groundswell for Glaze Fiend and allows reusing creatures in the graveyard in longer games, where it preferably returns two Myr Enforcer or any other card that increases the pressure on the board.

Implement of Combustion costs less than Ichor Wellspring, it also does an extra point of damage in longer games, and we can sacrifice it with Fanatical Offering to draw an extra card, making it versatile while its reduced mana value allows for more explosive lines with Glaze Fiend.

Creatures with Affinity.

Frogmite is another important glue on this list for the same explosive potential that Blood Fountain offers with Glaze Fiend, and it is often the bridge between third turn plays and Myr Enforcer for the lowest possible cost.

Myr Enforcer remains as relevant as ever. A 4/4 that can be played for free, backed up with Blood Fountain and in a list with more one-mana artifacts, it becomes our main win condition and bridges the gap between the explosive early game with Glaze Fiend and the constant damage attrition of Pactdoll Terror.

Refurbished Familiar, one of the best creatures in Pauper today, tends to drain the opponent's resources as early as turn two and is one of Blood Fountain's favorite targets in longer games.

Galvanic Blast and Lightning Bolt make up the best interaction package in the format today. In addition to dealing with most of the format's threats, they extend the reach of this version to end games early.

We have Makeshift Munitions to finish long games with Pactdoll Terror, but the enchantment also controls the board in games with many creatures with one toughness, such as Faeries or Elves.

In addition to the set of all artifact lands in colors, we've added Darksteel Citadel to increase the consistency of playing them without sacrificing speed, and we've supplemented it with one basic land of each to deal with Cleansing Wildfire.

Having eighteen lands in a list with Pactdoll Terror can be a bit risky, and there's the possibility of reducing the number of Terrors to two and including a fourth Implement of Combustion or the second Makeshift Munitions.

Sideboard

Pyroblast and Duress are two of the most important cards in Pauper's post-ban sideboards, so we have four copies of each.

Duress is mainly used in games where we need to remove key pieces from the opponent, be it enchantments from Bogles, sources of card advantage from Affinity, or even a Counterspell in games against Tolarian Terror.

Pyroblast answers Counterspells and is the best removal against Tolarian Terror and other blue creatures available in Pauper. It also plays against Tron and has occasional function against Caw-Gates and Jeskai Ephemerate.

Krark-Clan Shaman controls the board against Elves and other archetypes with many small creatures, such as Synthesizer Burn, Goblins, RDW, White Weenie, among others. In this list, we don't run its interaction with Hunter’s Blowgun, since it could also reset our board.

Accursed Marauder is a relevant side-in against Bogles, and if the opponent is running Tolarian Terror lists that only use eight threats, it is a great complementary removal, since Galvanic Blast and Lightning Bolt don't work well against them.

Nihil Spellbomb is the most efficient graveyard hate choice for Affinity today, since we can use it to increase the artifact count, to draw cards and also to exile the opponent's cards without disrupting Blood Fountain's interactions with the list.

Gorilla Shaman guarantees interaction in the Affinity mirrors. More copies will be needed if the archetype grows again in the Metagame — in this case, trading a copy of Duress for the second Shaman seems like the most appropriate choice.

Mono Blue Terror

IN

OUT

Faeries

IN

OUT

Affinity

IN

OUT

Synthesizer burn

IN

OUT

Bogles

IN

OUT

Elves

IN

OUT

High Tide

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!