dknight27

I am not familiar with the meta at all, but Winged Coatl seems a bit underpowered and is eating up noncreature spots that Delver and Elementalist Adept need. As is, both only have a little over 1/3 of the deck that helps them (albeit with lots of good ol cantrips), so I can't help but think replacing Coatl with a noncritter spell would only help the build.

Just a gut instinct, no experience in Pauper whatsoever.

The Lembas Bread was a nice touch.

Now you can throw in [[Mox Opal]] and really get to work

Ya, I doubt this would be able to keep up with the T1 decks that just spam turn 2/3 win conditions, especially the grave builds that are now basically made of rocket fuel thanks to Looting. I just saw some cool synergy between the Troll and Persist, as you effectively get a better turn 2 Goyf that's immune from quite a bit of removal. The sad fact that that's not enough to keep up in modern anymore isn't lost on me, but I wanted to see where it went.

I don't know about you, but I see nothing but potential for Case of the Crimson Pulse.

If you switch to [[Snow-Covered Plains]], you can run [[On Thin Ice]], which helps the build in basically every which way.

[[Sheltered By Ghosts]] is also a perfect fit. I'd personally drop Daybreak Coronet for it, as it's conditional and only has 10 other aura targets, so it's a potential dead draw. Ghosts gives you the lifelink you want, while also being removal, reliable, and coming with Ward 2 which is nothing to sneer at.

Anon threw out some good ones to consider. I'd add [[Nemesis Mask]] as one of the good options for a lure source that isn't actually Lure.

That being said, there's only 2 real ways to build a rampage deck I can see. The first is what you're going for here, throw in a bunch of rampage critters with lures and buffs and let them get to work. The problem with this build is that rampage critters are very, very slow, and deal next to no damage if they aren't blocked, and even then they need trample. More on this in a second.

The second way is to do a spawn build that gives opponent critters and then forces those critters to block your rampage critters, significantly ramping up their damage, and making sure they have trample. You've already got War-Riders which does this perfectly, but you can add to that with [[Forbidden Orchard]], which would give you 8 sources of token spawning, which should be enough to get you across the finish line. However, there's another nasty combo you can pull off with this, by playing [[Living Plane]] that would let you kill all of opponent's lands this way, but it's like $250.00 a pop, and I assume that's well outside the price range. That being said, imagine your Gorilla Berserkers swings with Lure into four 1/1's you've spawned with Forbidden Orchard over 4 turns. The Gorilla goes up +8/+8 just on the tokens (not counting what else opponent has), and you're hitting opponent for a minimum of 6 damage. If you can get it up to 8 tokens and a few other critters from opponent, you've got basically an OTK.

I'd generally suggest going for the token spawning build here, as its a guaranteed way to get damage cooking much more quickly than a build without it. Again, the problem with rampage critters is that they are very slow, and deal next to no damage on their own, giving opponent all the time in the world to find a way around/through them. This build would significantly speed up that clock. Incidentally, the token spawning works perfectly with Defense of the Heart, which will fetch your War-Riders to make tokens and your Gorilla for trample damage.

I'd advise cutting quite a few cards, as they are either too expensive or don't really fit.

Teeka's Dragon has flying, so putting Lure on it is sort of a waste of time as it can't be blocked by most critters. Plus it costs an arm and a leg. Crawlspace and Dolmen Gate are fun cards, but are unnecessary in the build as is. You are gunna kill all of opponent's critters with rampage damage, you don't need to worry about protecting your critters from attack damage (rampage does that) or opponent swarming you (your critters will protect you/out race opponent). Kusari-Gama just eats too much mana and you get the same effect from a Lure, except you can also get rampage damage with trample off the lure, which is much better. Goblin War-Drums is a nice idea, but you get a better effect with a Lure (same logic as above). The Locus lands are nice in theory, but since the producer comes in tapped and neither produces any colors, they are really a net negative. Cutting down the curve would serve the same purpose, as would adding in cards like [[Sol Ring]] (if you don't care about legality) or [[Mind Stone]].

Instead, I'd max out General Marhault, Retaliation, Primal Rage, Tempting Licid, and throw in 2 copies of Predatory Rampage.

That would do it I suppose. It's been a minute since I've played competitively at any level, but I can't remember burn being that big a threat in any format. It's always been around of course, I even played it a few times, but 20% is pretty damn good saturation.

I admittedly am not versed in standard these days, but 26 lands seems mighty high, especially for a build with so many 1-drops.

I, of course, have no experience in pauper whatsoever, but is burn really prevalent enough to warrant 4 slots in the sideboard? Seems like [[Campfire]] would be a better fit.

Oh boy, the old Rampage mechanic. Ok, give me a little bit and I'll check it out.

I've got two different sets of advice on this one, depending on which way you want to go.

First and foremost, red is kind of a bad color for snow. All the heavy hitters in snow are green, black, and blue. White and red have a few solid cards, but most of what you want you don't have access to as is. Check out:

[[Abominable Treefolk]]
[[Dead of Winter]]
[[Frost Augur]]
[[Ice-Fang Coatl]]
[[Isu the Abominable]]
[[Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff]]
Marit Lage's Slumber

I'd generally suggest going for a full green, black, blue build, or a green and blue build to take advantage of some of the absolute bomb synergy cards they allow. If you're worried about color fixing, check out Arcum's Astrolabe (it's only legal in vintage though, so if you're worried about legality you'll have to skip it).


If you want to keep it red/green, I'd suggest maxing out Icehide Golem and Spirit of the Aldergard, while adding in [[Jorn, God of Winter // Kaldring, the Rimestaff]], [[Glacial Revelation]], and Arcam's Astrolabe (if you're ok with the legality).

In general, I'd recommend cutting Sudden Spinnerets, Rimescale Dragon, and Dark Depths, as they are either too expensive or don't fit the theme/aren't justified when better versions exist.

Here's my thought process, for what it's worth. Mutavault counts as a wizard, so it trips Flame of Anor. What's more, it can turn itself into a wizard for that purpose, so you essentially don't lose any mana. It's a cheap 2/2 beater if you need it, which adds to the inevitability win with Tamiyo (which is actually a semi-problem in this build (lack of muscle)). It's also a chump blocker to help shut down fast critters if necessary. Plus, since it's just a 2 color deck, it probably won't mess with color fixing too much.

On the converse, running Otawara or another island obviously has benefits too. Otawara gets around so many nice things, and the island will help with the inevitable [[Harbinger of the Seas]] this will run in the sideboard. So many silly little decisions to consider.

Maybe I'll pull 2 Counterspells and a Spell Pierce for 3 copies.

Oh, how I detest Spell Snare as a card. The most conditional counter ever made viable. I know it shuts down [[Psychic Frog]], [[Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger]], [[Orcish Bowmasters]], etc, but god do I hate it. I don't know if it's my naivety or what, but my gut always wants to play Spell Pierce and/or [[Stern Scolding]] over Spell Snare so it doesn't sit in my hand mocking me or get topdecked into a dead field.

Obviously its limitation is somewhat subverted with Looting legal again, and [[Force of Negation]] always being hungry, so there's that.

Ultimately, I don't know what to think about it.

Drat, I must have missed that banning. Makes perfect sense though, making it an island was a bad idea. I assume they thought the 3 other island qualification would keep it in check, but either forgot about or didn't predict the interaction between all the fetch, dual, shock, surveil, and cycling lands which have reshaped magic.

In a rational world, I'd swap it out for [[Riptide Laboratory]], which allows for such delightful shenanigans. But I'm afraid it's far too slow to be viable in 'modern' modern. I'd also consider [[Mutavault]], or a third Sink into Stupor. Any other suggestions?

Light of Hope really isn't that good of a card in here, as you lose the material to only gain 4 life. You can achieve almost the same thing with [[Revitalize]] and retain the material.

I love a good self-mill deck. I've built several myself, they are quite fun to play. Here are just some general observations.

The top card to look at is [[Grist, the Hunger Tide]], which does whatever you need it to do in a deck like this, and has cheap reprints.

Devourer Memory is a good idea, but is simply too slow (doesn't trigger per milled card), and eats mana for his own mill ability (3 per turn is a lot for 1 mill), so he should be cut.

Rumblweed is a game ender, but works best with fetch lands on top of self-mill. So I'd advise cutting Archway Commons (which I would anyway) in favor of any of the cheap fetch lands like [[Evolving Wilds]] to help pump up the dead land count. I think running 1 copy of Rumbleweed probably fits in this build, as you will only topdeck it (if you see it at all), or necro it, in either case with a full grave (hoping that opponent doesn't pull any shenanigans).

Molderhulk is fun, but the dead land isn't worth running the better versions of it instead, namely [[Ghoultree]] or [[Huskburster Swarm]]. Both are cheaper, stronger, and easier to cast color wise.

Sage of Mysteries has 10 targets to get mills with. In an average match, the most you'll get on that is mill 4 with a 0/2 that doesn't otherwise help you. It is basically an imperative to run the best critter mill in the game, Stitcher's Supplier. You're guaranteed a mill 3 on the enter, and will probably catch the second mill 3 with a chump block. Supplier is the best turn 1 drop you can have in a deck like this, hands down.

Vilespawn Spider is a bit slow, but does help mill with a potential win con on the back end. I'd personally rather run Cruel Somnophage // Can't Wake Up, [[Urborg Lhurgoyf]], or [[Mire Triton]], all of which are either faster, stronger, easier to cast, or all of the above.

This one's a bit outside my wheelhouse, but a few things leapt out at me.

Day of Judgment is a bad choice, as you're running a semi-critter heavy build. Instead, run [[Pyroclasm]], [[Sweltering Suns]], and/or [[Deafening Clarion]], as each will do next to nothing to you but are effective boardwipes against most builds. If you're looking at a field that these cards can't take care of when combined with your angels, you've already lost the game anyway.

[[Exorcise]] is a better Disenchant, as are [[Forsake the Worldly]] and/or [[Rip Apart]].

[[Revitalize]] is a better version of Renewed Faith, as you basically never want to cast Faith for 6 life (you're losing material to do so), so you might as well gain an extra life for your 2-drop.

Looks good, keep me in the loop