Pauper Rakdos Scam
This is my favorite pauper deck. If I could only play one deck for the rest of my life, it would be this one. This is a big brain deck, and every combo feels like you are solving a different puzzle.
This deck has a lot of flexible combo lines, all based around the "scam" concept of returning creatures to the battlefied after they should've died. Rakdos Scam in modern was centered around getting a big creature into play on turn 1. This flavor of scam has big creatures too, but is mostly focused around comboing to gain large amounts of black mana. Sometimes you use that mana to play a bunch of big creatures, but sometimes you pump the mana into an X spell. I've done lost of iterations of decks that involve shenanigans with high cmc creatures and this is the one that has performed the best for me.
Number 1 rule of playing this deck. You NEED to use the #60a printing of Soldevi Adnate (NOT #60b). Soldevi Adnate is one of the best cards in this deck, and it deserves better.
Main combo:
Phyrexian Gargantua + a sacrifice card (Soldevi Adnate or Burnt Offering) + a scam instant (Not Dead After All or Undying Malice or Return to Action)
By resolving a scam instant right before sacrificing phyrexian gargantua, you will create 6 mana, and draw 2 cards, and lose 2 life. You will draw cards that will enable you to keep the combo going, and create a lot of black mana before ending with a huge board state or playing Consume Spirit to drain their life to zero. Only go for consume spirit if you are positive your opponent doesn't have a counterspell, otherwise, just try to end the turn with a bunch of big creatures. Usually you start this combo on your second main phase, after you have already attacked with the comboing creatures (before you return them with summoning sickness).
Secondary combos:
You should keep hands with Augur of Skulls + Dark Ritual + Swamp + a scam instant. On turn 1 you will play augur of skulls, and turn 2 you will make your opponent discard 4 cards.
Troll of Khazad-dum + Exhume, you know the deal. Get the scarriest attacker in the format into play on turn 2.
Exhume + Bojuka Bog is another noteable synergy.
Sideboard combos:
Crypt Rats + Return to Action can board wipe, give you lots of life, and can win you the game similar to consuming spirit since your combo involves generating large ammounts of black mana.
Ingot Chewer + a scam instants destroy 2 artifacts and make a 3/3.
Accursed Marauder + a scam instant can act as removal, and make your opponent sacrifice 2 creatures.
Faultgrinder + a scam instant is destroy 2 lands. Also this is a big CMC creature that works great with Burnt Offering.
Notes on specific cards:
Burnt Offering: When you play Burnt offering, always make sure you have one red mana floating, and the rest is black. Never make more than 1 red mana.
Not Dead After All + Undying Malice: "Do I really need 8 of these card" YES, YES YOU DO. And you can sideboard in Return to Action to get more of these cards. When you sideboard, think of how many cards you are removing that can be scammed, and how many cards that you are adding that can be scammed. If you are adding cards that sacrifice themselves (Ingot Chewer, Augur of Skulls, Accursed Marauder), you should be extra careful not to remove these 8 copies (you should probably even add more copies).
Ardent Elementalist: This card makes your combo more consistent, and more resilient to interaction. While you are comboing off with Phyrexian Gargantua, you should consider all possible instants and sorceries available in the graveyard. When you are comboing off, you might run into a problem where you only have 1 Burnt Offering left, but you have a lot of scam instants. You can use your last burnt offering on Ardent Elementalist + a scam instant to return the burnt offering to your hand. This way you can dump all of your scam instants from your hand and it'll give you 2 black mana per card. This is a good way to end a combo, and scrape together the necesary mana to consume spirit. If you are abandoning the phyrexian gargantua combo during sideboard, then you should also consider sideboarding out this card. Also this is your only red card mainboard, and there are 2 of them. So you really don't need that much red mana at all.
Phyrexian Gargantua: Remember this ETB also lowers your life, so you should abandon the combo if your life has already gotten too low. Sometimes big creatures are good enough. You can consider cutting during sideboarding against agro decks since this card is definitely one of the slowest in your deck. If you're playing against agro, you might be able to still combo, but your life total will be so low that you can't replay this card too many times.
Soldevi Adnate: This is one of your 2 key sacrifice cards along with burnt offering, But remember it only produces black mana, and it can only be used on black creatures (NOT Ardent Elementalist). Soldevi adnate can also be used to sacrifice itself, it is also a really great way to ramp out one of your two 6 mana creatures.
Troll of Khazad-dum: This is a great card, It makes your mana more consistent, It can be used with Exhume, It provides an immediate threat. Sometimes you want to save scam instants cards just so you can save this card after your opponent tries to remove it. This is also a 6 mana creature that can net you mana with a sacrifice or a scam card. If you don't have Phyrexian Gargantua (or if your life total is getting low) this is a good option. When you are swamp cycling remember Geothermal Bog is an include so you can get a red source, but also keep in mind untapped swamps are sometimes better because you only have one red card in the mainboard: Ardent Elementalist.
Consume Spirit: This is your combo finisher. You don't need to pump enough mana to win into this, because getting a bunch of life and having a board full of creatures means the game is pretty much over when you're done comboing. You can also do "mini combos" with this card to put you in a much better position, a more comfortable life total, and to remove a threat on the board. If you are sideboarding in the Crypt Rats and Return to Action this can be a cut.
Exhume: Sometimes you can keep a hand of seven on the draw with the expectation that you will discard Phyrexian Gargantua to hand size and Exhume it. Exhume has the combos mentioned above, but it is also pretty great in the main combo line. It basically acts as a worse scam instant because it costs an extra mana to retrigger an ETB.
Barren Moor: This card was included so that when you are comboing off with Phyrexian Gargantua you can get rid of these lands to draw more gas. I've tried tweaking a bit and 3 seems right. Just be really careful in the early game, and only play basics when you need the mana that turn, otherwise, play your tapped lands.
Geothermal Bog: was included so that you can tutor for a red source using Troll of Khazud-Dum
Peat Bog, Dark Ritual: Its important to ramp. Get past the early game as quickly as possible.
