“I’ve seen it rain; I’ve seen it flood”
Art:Reckless Pyrosurfer
by LA Draws
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Reckless Pyrosurfer is a very interesting commander, and there is a shocking amount of landfall support at common; while we do have some awesome landfall creatures within the deck we focus mostly on being an aggro deck and leveraging our commander’s battle-cry ability combined with a large number of tokens to hit hard and take our opponents out. This deck is very straightforward but is a lot of fun, and the addition of a consistent battle cry allows us to maximize our damage and put a lot of pressure on our opponents. This deck is nothing more than some good old-fashioned mono-red fun! Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Reckless Pyrosurfer Aggro!
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Why Reckless Pyrosurfer?
Reckless Pyrosurfer is a huge part of our deck and can be consistently triggered on pretty much every turn which allows us to output consistent damage, being able to trigger it multiple times with cards like Evolving Wilds
and Terramorphic Expanse
can help our damage go crazy, we do have a minor landfall theme but mostly focus on being aggressive which our commander is perfect since they cater to both! Even with a small board presence I almost always cast Pyrosurfer on turn two because they are just pure value throughout the game!
Gameplan:
For a starting hand, I like to keep some early creatures, mostly one or two drops, as well as a couple lands and some utility pieces; I do value lands like Evolving Wilds and Terramorphic Expanse higher than a basic mountain because the double-trigger on our commander can be very strong. I typically don’t mulligan very aggressively unless we have no lands or just a very bad hand; most hands in this deck are pretty acceptable. Once we have decided on a starting hand, the game plan is extremely simple: swing, swing, and swing are the main points of the deck. We do have some sequencing, especially with double lands like Maestros Theater
, to maximize our damage. Overall, the game plan for the deck is extremely simple, and as long as you are triggering our commander and attacking on nearly every turn, you will typically have a decent amount of success.
Deck Matchups:
Since this is Pauper EDH, there are an absolute ton of things that can tip a game in your favor or out of it. While an archetype may seem favorable, there are absolutely good and bad commanders for our deck to go up against; I have included both these, which were all played among my testing groups using various decks, and I have included the sample size for clarity purposes. This is just meant to be a guide after testing a bunch of games with this deck!
The information below is notes about specific decks that were featured in our testing pods and how we fared against them. Naturally, Pauper EDH is a multiplayer game, so these are just a summary of my notes against different commanders and strategies. When we test these decks we try to test to its strengths and weaknesses to give a full spectrum of what the deck has to offer. Various commanders and archetypes/strategies are used to get the most accurate information.
Commanders, we have a good matchup against:
Crackling Drake
Record against Crackling Drake 3-0
I like this matchup a lot; they are considerably slower than us, so we are easily able to whittle themed own and deal a ton of damage to them; this matchup is just as winnable as it is possible, so never take Crackling Drake lightly as they can easily one-shot you if you aren’t careful. Overall, I like this matchup a lot.
Stalking Vengeance
Record against Stalking Vengeance 4-1
Stalking Vengeance is a true aggro v aggro for us. We just need to swing quickly and swing very hard; this is a good matchup for us as the battle cry can put a ton of additional pressure on our opponents, but we do need to be careful because once they get stalking vengeance out, they can dish out a ton of damage so taking them out by turn five or six is usually wise. In one game, their commander came out, and well, there was one loss in the column for a reason.
Heartfire Hero
Record against Heartfire Hero 3-2
This matchup comes down to nothing more than a race, and typically, we are a little bit faster, and with the overwhelming creatures we typically have, we can usually jam them down. They don’t like to block very much, but we don’t like to block very much either, so as long as we have a strong start we can usually win the race. This matchup is losable so be very mindful of their commander, and if you can kill them while they are pretty small, you can stump them quite a bit.
Commanders, we have a tough matchup against:
Crypt Rats
record against Crypt Rats 0-3
Crypt Rats is a very tough matchup for our deck; their commander is perfectly aligned to consistently and constantly ruin our board and never let us get a board established. This matchup is pretty much unwinnable unless you have a player at the table who is on heavy control and can consistently counter their commander, and we don’t have much of a chance.
Syr Konrad, the Grim
Record against Syr Konrad, the Grim 0-4
Mono-Black is just tough for us; they constantly keep our commander off of the field and have a ton of ways to destroy our board while benefitting from ours and from their commander. This is another matchup that is extremely hard, and we once again have to rely on our control friend but overall this is another very tough one.
Phalanx Leader
Record against Phalanx Leader 0-3
This deck is very strong, and snowballs are way too quick for us to deal with. We can put a decent amount of pressure on them when they swing out, but they get big really quick and hit like a truck; overall, this is a very tough matchup for us.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have a ton of awesome creatures, but firstly, let’s focus on some of our other landfall cards like Makindi Sliderunner
, Plated Geopede
and Valakut Predator
which are great attackers/blockers for the deck and work very well with our commander while landfall is only a minor theme within our deck it is still quite strong and allows us to increase our damage and get some extra value from not just our commander. Another common theme among our creature package is creatures that make tokens and additional creatures on entering like Mogg War Marshal
, Prickly Pair
and Goblin Instigator
these help a lot especially when combined with cards like Witty Roastmaster
and Molten Gatekeeper
with all of these we are able to fill up our board and deal an insane amount of non-combat damage and since we have cards like Molten Monstrosity
these token producers help to greatly reduce the cost and allow us to drop them early.
Instants:
We have a commander who helps us buff our entire board when its time for combat, so of course we have to give our commander a little help with a ton of different buffs like Dynacharge
and Burn Bright
and Trumpet Blast
as well as a few others that help us to buff up our board and maximize damage, our instant package helps us “go wide” an absoltue ton and in the mid-late game when we are able to cast one or two +2/+0 buffs in a turn we can easily end the game. Another great additional damage card is Hearth Charm
, which is a very strong way to buff up our board very cheaply, and the other modes on the card are pretty strong as well, like making our commander or one of our smaller creatures unblockable or destroying an artifact creature which can be quite relevant against the right deck.
Sorceries:
One of the best things our sorcery package does is stop opponents from blocking with cards like Awe for the Guilds
, which is one of our biggest assets when we are against a mono-red mirror match or against any of the other mono-colored decks in the format and there is quite a lot of them! We also have Cosmotronic Wave
, which can devastate token decks, and Coronation of Chaos
, which is cheap and just all-around effective. Another piece of tech I love using against Aggro decks is Wrangle
which is a great way to steal a commander from an aggro deck and increase our damage overall, I don’t see this card being played very much within the Format and I think its very strong in a meta full of aggressive decks. Beyond that, we have a decent amount of token production like Hordeling Outburst
, Dragon Fodder
, and Krenko's Command
, which help to fill up the board quickly and work oh so well with our commander.
Artifacts:
We are running Fire Diamond
as a little bit of additional mana; we have a decently cheap cost overall, which is why we aren’t running a ton of extra rocks, but playing this out early allows us to get a little bit of ahead and that small advantage can matter a lot as the table transitions to the mid-game. Spare Supplies
and Wedding Invitation
are both strong sources of additional card draw, and since we can dump our hand so quickly, allows us to refill and be ready to keep on casting.
Enchantments:
Impact Tremors
needs absolutely no introduction in any mono-red deck. This card is a cheap and amazing powerhouse that allows us to whittle down our opponents without going to combat; combining this with our commander’s ability allows us to have a ridiculous damage output. We also have Bitter Reunion
, which is a strong source of card draw for the deck and, more importantly, can give all of our creatures haste, which works very well with some of our token producers like Hordeling Outburst. Last but certainly not least, we have Sticky Fingers
, which I love to put on our commander as the menace can keep them alive much longer, and the extra mana can help us speed out our gameplan even quicker!
Land Base:
We don’t have a ton of interesting lands, but we do have a ton of ways to trigger our commander multiple times like Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse and Maestros Theater we have quite a few others as well. I like to keep these around for when we have a decent board, so I typically like to stray away from playing these early; these lands are more utility pieces than lands for the deck, and I typically hold them longer than I would a typical mountain. We have a very simple landbase within the deck, but it works well and supports it quite well.
Strengths of the Deck:
- We are very fast and aggressive and can whittle down opponents very quickly.
- We have quite a few ways to stop our opponents from blocking, which can be very strong against decks that are heavy on creatures.
- Our commander can be consistently and constantly triggered, allowing us to maximize damage and have a very high damage output overall.
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- We don’t ever want to block for the most part, which sadly makes us susceptible to quite a bit of damage.
- Our commander is a main damage focal point, and without them, it can be rough.
- We have very little removal within the deck.
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Conclusion:
Thanks for reading to the end and for all of your support! Scarecrow1779 suggested this deck on Reddit; if you have any suggestions, please let us know and give us a couple of weeks, and we will be happy to whip up a deck for you. I hope you all enjoyed a little bit of classic mono-red today, who doesn’t love mono-red and turning things sideways!