Pauper: Madness Burn - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Madness Burn has become one of Pauper's main competitors after the latest wave of bans. The archetype was one of the decks least affected by the interventions and has maintained a solid role in the Metagame, serving as one of the main means of dictating the format's speed while, by having access to Looting effects and a second color, it can have more flexibility and resilience in games when compared to the monocolored versions.

Rakdos Madness

Pauper, Humberto

75 commons

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Land19

2

Razortrap Gorge

0.18

4

Jagged Barrens

0.92

1

Rakdos Carnarium

0.28

3

Swamp

1.05

8

Mountain

2.8

1

Bojuka Bog

0.58

Creature13

4

Voldaren Epicure

0.35

4

Sneaky Snacker

0.4

4

Kitchen Imp

0.32

1

Stormshriek Feral

0.03

Sorcery20

4

Faithless Looting

0.47

3

Chain Lightning

0.57

4

Grab the Prize

0.56

2

Highway Robbery

0.02

3

Vampire's Kiss

2.37

4

Alms of the Vein

0.52

Instant8

4

Lightning Bolt

2.16

4

Fiery Temper

0.4

60 cards maindeck

Sideboard 15

2

Gorilla Shaman

0.72

3

Nihil Spellbomb

0.9

2

Contaminated Ground

0.7

3

Duress

0.08

2

Extract a Confession

0.02

3

Pyroblast

15.15

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This list follows the same pattern as the most recent versions of Madness Burn after the March bans, with the inclusion of Stormshriek Feral from Tarkir: Dragonstorm as another discard outlet that also functions as an extra threat in longer games.

The Madness plan doesn't differ much from the traditional Burn, but instead of relying on Experimental Synthesizer and Kessig Flamebreather to keep our breath, we use a looting and draw package combined with cards with Madness to generate virtual card advantage when discarding cards that we cast with their alternative cost.

Another powerful resilience tool is Sneaky Snacker, which benefits from all the extra draw effects we have in the list and becomes a recurring threat that bypasses traditional interactions by always returning from the graveyard.

Maindeck

Our Madness cards or those that interact with our discard plan.

Kitchen Imp and Sneaky Snacker are cheap creatures with high power that set the permanent aggressive clock. The fact that Imp has Haste and Flying makes it as efficient as a Shock on the turn it enters, and turns into Galvanic Blast if it attacks the following turn.

Despite the lack of Islands or sources of blue mana, Snacker is the main payoff for playing Madness today. Whether with Faithless Looting or Grab the Prize, having the bonus of always returning them from the graveyard, in addition to the benefits we get from other spells, guarantees resilience in keeping the clock active every turn.

Fiery Temper and Alms of the Vein function as extra Lightning Bolts and Lava Spikes in the list, with Alms of the Vein providing a necessary life gain in Aggro mirrors.

The discard effects.

Faithless Looting is the most classic and efficient of its category. In addition to guaranteeing two Madness triggers for just one mana, it can be reused from the graveyard to remove useless cards from the hand in longer games, or to enable more copies of Sneaky Snacker from the graveyard.

Voldaren Epicure does a bit of everything we need: it deals damage to the opponent, puts a body on the board, creates a token that allows you to discard a card to draw another and consequently also enables all the Madness effects that we have on the list.

Grab the Prize and Vampire’s Kiss function as damage spells in addition to their discard effects, while Highway Robbery and Stormshriek Feral have other properties that make them more flexible — Robbery can be plotted for play on a later turn, while Stormshriek Feral is an immediate-impact creature for longer games.

We rounded out the package with traditional Burn spells: Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning are staples in Pauper and have more flexibility than other spells in interacting with the board when necessary, or dealing damage for the lowest possible cost.

Despite being a land, Jagged Barrens can also be treated as a damage card, since its ETB pulls some extra damage.

Razortrap Gorge has a good chance of entering this list untapped by turn 3 or 4 if we sequence our spells correctly in the early game, while also helping to fix mana in an aggressive two-color deck.

Bojuka Bog is an efficient way to deal with graveyards in the maindeck without spending slots. Entering tapped can be an occasional problem, but we are a slower Burn variant than Mono Red and aim to make up for that with resilience and flexibility.

Rakdos Carnarium allows us to reuse the ETB from Jagged Barrens or Bojuka Bog while also fixing our mana.

Sideboard

Pyroblast remains the best tool against Blue Terror and Faeries, two of the best decks in the format today. It also plays against High Tide and tends to be a common side-in against Tron.

Duress is the standard answer against Bogles, Affinity, and other archetypes with a lot of non-creature spells, like High Tide and Turbo Fog, and also plays into games against lists that require removing key cards from the opponent's hand.

Gorilla Shaman is the standard answer against Affinity. Personally, I'm not sure if I'd prefer it over Smash to Smithereens, since we don't like having too many cards that don't actively contribute to our game plan, but since we're slower than Synthesizer Burn, it makes sense to add a tool to delay the opponent's turns.

Contaminated Ground plays mainly against Tron. You can consider it to deny the opponent access to a specific color, or even against High Tide, but in both cases, it feels more like a win more card than a necessity.

Extract a Confession works against Bogles and can be used in Tolarian Terror games if we want more ways to deal with the opponent's threats without relying exclusively on Pyroblast.

Nihil Spellbomb fits into any game that relies too much on the graveyard, like Mono Blue Terror and Dredge.

Synthesizer Burn

IN

OUT

Mono Blue Terror

IN

OUT

Mono Blue Faeries

IN

OUT

Grixis Affinity

IN

OUT

Bogles

IN

OUT

That’s all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!