Mazelord

I love the budget decks; some friends and I are playing Pauper decks, feel free to lookup my profile for a few ideas.

I know the feeling; I built a whole deck around Quirion Dryad and ended up removing them entirely ate the end. :) if you are playing this amongst friends it´ll work just fine.

Thank you, I have done that for the Voice, now I need to get them!

I prefer Krosan Grip because it can manage a Batterskull or a Sword and also if I cast it to destroy a Birthing Pod or a Vial it cannot be activated in response.

Thank you for commenting!

I feel compelled to tell how the name came to be: My Legacy Zoo Deck is called Animal Crackers, and I originally had Blood Moon in this Modern version; the card left but the name stayed. Even though I am Canadian I can't resist saying it with a British accent : Bloody Crackers!

Yes, I did think about Kird Ape of course, but it seemed like a lot of red 1-drops so I opted for Loam Lion to balance my colors.

I admit I didn't think about voice of Resurgence; I would see it more as a Sideboard for this deck, do you agree? What would you move out to make room for it?

I love Rakdos, it is my favourite Guild, and I like what you are doing here.

However, I find your mana curve a bit high and some of yor mechanics appear overly complex for my taste.
For instance instead of playing One With Nothing, I would focus on having cards that actually have an effect and also make you discard. You could use Raven's Crime as a 1-drop instead, the Retrace ability will help you keep everyone's hands empty in the mid-game.

I would replace Sire of Insanity and Gibbering Descent, that are too costly and too slow, with 3 x Gathan Raiders, that are Hellbent and allow you to discard.

Slithering Shade seems very weak to me; just compare it to Nantuko Shade. I don't think it is really helpful here, Tormented Soul would be better, especially once enchanted with Taste for Mayhem.

You need to lose the Flame Waves, with no ramp or card advantage, you will hardly ever get to play that. Use Liliana of the Veil instead if you have/can afford them. A much cheaper replacement that can synergize with your build would be Fiery Temper.

Also I would suggest Blackcleave Cliffs over Dragonskull Summit

Hope some of this is helpful!

I am glad I could help! I drafted inspiration from my own Bant deck, here is the link if you want to take a look:
http://www.mtgvault.com/mazelord/decks/many-geists/

I think your deck already has enough creatures and what it needs is stabilization. Inquisition gives you perfect info about your opponent's hand on the very first turn and rids you of an early threath, like a counter or a bolt that would nullify your next play, or a creature or combo piece your opponent was relying on. It become especially devastating if your opponent had to mulligan.

That being said if you are bent on adding creatures I would favor the good old Hypno over the Simian, one turn earlier does all the difference in the world and everyone hates dicarding at random.

Also for your SIdeboard seriously consider Rakdos Charm, it kills several decks in the metagame.

I will take you up on your comment offer, just pick one you would like to comment on:
http://www.mtgvault.com/mazelord/

With Bloodstained Mire returning to Modern the change is now more obvious; a long needed buff for Rakdos guild in this format!

This deck has undeniable potential for winning games and losing friends! ;)

First I would make an adjustment to your mana base: including 3 x Hallowed Fountain instead of Wooded Bastion and 2x Horizon Canopy; when Khans of Tharkir is released you can switchout Verdant Catacombs for Flooded Strand to make this more fluid (pun intended).
I would then cut Dryad Arbor, 1x Keen Sense and 1x Spider Umbra to replace with 3x Geist of Saint Traft.
This would also allow you to play some counters, like Negate or Mana Drain.

Suggestions for your Sideboard:
Hubris
Rest in Peace
Stony Silence
Krosan Grip
Supreme Verdict

Hope this is helpful.

I love the Rakdos Guild, it is easily my favourite 2 color combination!

One of the things I enjoy about Black/Red is the speed; your deck has a mana curve that I would qualify as prohibitive, and almost no instants. A few suggestions:
- Move Dreadbore and Slaughter Games to the sideboard, run Terminate and Inquisition of Kozzilek instead.
- Use Blackcleave Cliffs and Graven Cairn to mana fix, especially in early game
- Move Mogis and one Avatar to sideboard and run 3x Browbeat for card advantage, or easy 5 damage

Have fun!

Thank you for commenting!

The counterspells combinations to be considered are one of the major knots for me in this. I opted for Negate as opposed to Mana Drain because it is more stable in the mid and late game, what is your take on that?

I used to run Vapor Snag, both as spot removal and safegard for GoST; I switched it for Hubris because it also saves my Steel of the Godhead, but this may be greedy on my part.

I am favoring diversity of spells over playsets becaus the Snapcaster Mages allow recursion, especially combined with Vial; is that something you factored in when commenting?

Thanks again for your input

Thank you!

Yes, all cards need to have been printed as commons in any given set, even if the rarity later changed, like Doom Blade. This includes cards that were only printed as commons for Magic Online, such as Battle Screech or Claws of Wirewood.

Revisiting the rules I realized I am not supposed to play Hymn to Tourach in there because it was never released Online and Pauper is only an official format online; I'll have to look into a replacement...

There is also a short banlist:
Cloudpost
•Cranial Plating
•Empty the Warrens
•Frantic Search
•Grapeshot
•Invigorate
•Temporal Fissure

See the complete rules here:
http://archive.wizards.com/Magic/tcg/resources.aspx?x=magic/rules/pauper

Very fun-looking casual deck, would certainly take your opponent by surprise!

Thank you!

I didn't finish the sideboard yet, wanted to discuss with the friend this deck is intended for first.
Maybe I should include Blinkmoth in there as you suggest.

Feel free to check my other Modern and Pauper decks, all comments are highly appreciated!

Not my type of deck, but I appreciate your originality and the fact you are building around cards that are not seen very often.

Have fun!

Thank you for your comment!
I now added$6 Challenge to the deck name , it was only in the description before.

These are good suggestions for a cheap evasion deck, but on the $6 budget would require to rotate out the Bonesplitters that are very important in this deck.

i would be interested to hear what you would suggest for my actual Pauper Shadow deck:
http://www.mtgvault.com/mazelord/decks/brethren-of-dagon/

Made some changes and value is now $ 6,01 and actually better!

Ah yes, good one! Actually brought the value down to $ 6,01. Thanks

Thank you!

That is what I had at first, but the Looter is woth $ 0,23 and was bringing me over budget (the goal is to stay as close to $6 as possible) so I had to chose between switching him or the Bonesplitters out, and that was a very easy choice.

I like this idea; some of my friends and I are just starting a Pauper league, decks average $15 to $20. Here is my modest contribution, value of $6.09:
http://www.mtgvault.com/mazelord/decks/cheap-shadows/

When building for this challenge make sure you select your basic lands from M14 so they don't add to the deck's value.