Rakdos Monarch Control

Pauper BR (Rakdos) Control Monarch Pauper

BluemanMTG

Land (22)

• 4x Ash Barrens
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 3x Mountain
• 2x Radiant Fountain
• 4x Rakdos Carnarium
• 8x Swamp

Instant (11)

• 2x Abrade
• 3x Cast Down
• 2x Fiery Cannonade
• 4x Lightning Bolt

Sorcery (12)

• 4x Chainer's Edict
• 4x Duress
• 4x Night's Whisper

Creature (15)

• 4x Crypt Rats
• 3x Fume Spitter
• 4x Gurmag Angler
• 4x Thorn of the Black Rose

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Sideboard

Instant (8)

• 2x Abrade
• 2x Pharika's Libation
• 4x Pyroblast

Artifact (5)

• 3x Nihil Spellbomb
• 2x Sylvok Lifestaff

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Cleansing Wildfire

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Maybeboard

Artifact (5)

• 3x Tormod's Crypt
• 2x Viridian Longbow

Creature (3)

• 3x Banehound

Instant (2)

• 2x Red Elemental Blast

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Feed the Swarm

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Rakdos Monarch Control deck, version 5. Updated mostly after the Pauper additions brought upon by Commander Legends.

Straightforward control deck - remove opponent's creatures, draw cards, obtain and retain Monarch as much as possible, win by swinging with Gurmag Angler, one of black's strongest common creatures. SB against the matchup aggressively if needed.

Originally a poor man's BR version of UR Skred with snow lands, this listing has been through multiple revisions to accommodate for the top tier listings in the ever-changing meta while shoring up it's weaknesses to graveyard decks, Burn and Tron. Burn remains this deck's hardest matchup as it can win if this deck is too slow off the start, which is very much possible.

Recent additions/changes:

• Cast Down being made legal for Pauper is baffling as all the common Legendary creatures are garbage. Replaced Terminate as Terminate was a bit harder to cast as it required red mana. Drawback of not preventing regeneration is not a problem.
• Cleansing Wildfire is the land destruction card for Tron we didn't know we needed. The fact that it draws us a card while slowing Tron down is simply nuts for 2 mana.
• Abrade means RIP Chain Lightning (one of the original namesakes of the deck) and Gorilla Shaman, especially with the new Artifact duals introduced in MH2 potentially making Gorilla Shaman a whole lot less useful. Likely better to stick to the spells and destroy the pertinent artifact creatures instead. Plus it's damage on regular creatures still makes it similar to Lightning Bolt.
• Fiery Cannonade is a crazy red sweeper that's too good to not include mainboard. This takes care of about 70% of the entire Pauper meta, with the rest of the removal spells in the deck taking care of the rest. Much faster then Crypt Rats, making their inclusion now questionable as they require 6 mana (4 of it black) to replicate what Cannonade does at instant speed for half the cost. Perhaps a future revision might look like -4 Crypt Rats, +2 Cannonade and +2 Okiba-Gang Shinobi? Who knows...

Maybeboard is meant to represent interchangeable cards in the main and side boards once I get the experience testing them:

• Banehound = Fume Spitter (lifegain and haste for monarch takeback and help with Burn)
• Tormod's Crypt = Nihil Spellbomb (trying to decide if free gy removal > 2 mana with a card draw attached)
• Red Elemental Blast = Pyroblast OR addition to SB over Abrade (depends on how prevalent blue is in the top tiers - 4x pyro seems to be enough for now)
• Feed the Swarm = Pharika's Libation (1 less mana to destroy the enchantment of our choice vs 1 more mana for modal choice though we may not get the enchantment we want removed, and edict effect which can help greatly against Bogles)
• Viridian Longbow = Sylvok Lifestaff (Longbow on Thorn of the Black Rose is lol and sniping faeries out of the air with anything is a tried and true tactic. The deck is generally less interested in the +1/+0 boost and more interested in the conditional lifegain for Burn. Synergy with Banehound may exist as well...)

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Pauper legal.
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.61
Tokens	Monarch Emblem
Folders	Pauper Decks I Did Not Make