Madness Burn Matchups - MTG Pauper Matchup Guide

Introduction

Madness Burn is a black-red deck that gets paid for discarding its own cards. Cheap draw spells such as Faithless Looting and Grab the Prize pitch Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, and Kitchen Imp, which come right back as spells, and Sneaky Snacker climbs out of the graveyard to attack in the air, until burn, life drain, and small fliers close the game. It is a narrow slice of the field at 1.4%, but it is a live choice right now: ScreenwriterNY took second place with a 10-2 record at the September 20 Pauper RC Super Qualifier, AlessandroPiraccini took second place at the September 17 Pauper Challenge with this same core, and 5-0 league runs have kept coming through September.

The deck beats creature decks that race on the board with small bodies, where its burn doubles as removal and its life drain flips the race, the slower control and value decks that give burn and drain time to add up before their card advantage matters. It is favored against Mono Red Madness, Jeskai Ephemerate, and Black Sacrifice, and slightly favored against Jund Wildfire, Dimir Terror, and Flicker Tron.

It struggles against ramp decks that go over the top with creatures too large to burn and life totals too high to drain in time, against combo decks that ignore the board and win before the damage adds up, against grindy value decks whose incidental lifegain outpaces the drain, and against the aggro and tempo decks that either go wider than a few fliers can hold off or interact cheaply with small fliers and the graveyard they come back from. It is slightly unfavored against Blue Terror and White Aggro, and unfavored against Monster Tron, Mono Blue Faeries, Gruul Ponza, Mono Red Rally, Familiars, Dimir Faeries, Golgari Gardens, Gruul Ramp, and Spy Combo.

General Strategy

The best discards in this deck are spells in disguise. Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery keep fresh cards flowing, and the cards you throw away to them are the ones you actually want to cast: Fiery Temper burns, Alms of the Vein drains, and Kitchen Imp arrives with haste, all for a fraction of their printed costs, while Sneaky Snacker goes to the graveyard so it can come back to the battlefield. The single most important thing you do as the pilot is keep an outlet in hand with the right mana still untapped when it resolves, so that nothing you discard is wasted, and keep the burn pointed at the opponent's face unless a creature genuinely stands in the way.

The engine is the cheap draw spells plus Blood tokens. Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery each draw two while asking for a discard, and Voldaren Epicure and Vampire's Kiss leave behind Blood tokens that discard at instant speed for one mana. Each discard is where the profit lives: Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, and Kitchen Imp resolve for a single mana off their madness triggers, and Sneaky Snacker returns from the graveyard tapped whenever you draw your third card in a turn. One outlet is really two or three spells' worth of action.

A typical game opens with Voldaren Epicure pinging on entry and a Jagged Barrens doing the same, so the life-total math starts before the engine does. The middle turns are the outlets firing: draw spells pitch madness cards, Kitchen Imp and take to the air, and a three-point burn or drain can land a turn earlier than its printed cost would allow. The close is a matter of counting: and win in combat, while , , , and finish from range once the opponent is low.

The Cards

Voldaren Epicure

The turn-one play the deck wants most. A 1/1 for one mana that deals 1 damage to each opponent on entry and leaves behind a Blood token, which costs one mana, a tap, a discard, and its own sacrifice to draw a card. The body chips in for a point or two before it trades, but the token is the real prize: it is a discard outlet that works at instant speed, on either player's turn, which is exactly what a hand full of madness cards needs.

Faithless Looting

The best outlet in the deck: one mana to draw two and discard two, which means two madness triggers in one resolution if you have the mana to pay for them, or one madness cast plus binning a Sneaky Snacker. It also counts as two of the three draws that bring a buried Snacker back. Late in the game the flashback from the graveyard is the deck's main mana sink, turning a flooded board into another round of pitched spells, though it is the first thing graveyard exile takes away.

Grab the Prize

The discard here is part of the cost, so it happens as you cast the spell and a pitched madness card resolves before Grab the Prize itself does. On resolution you draw two, and if the discarded card was not a land the spell deals 2 damage to each opponent. Pitching Fiery Temper is the signature play: Temper's 3 damage plus Grab's own 2 is 5 damage for three mana in total, with two fresh cards in hand. Grab is also the cleanest way to return Sneaky Snacker, since your draw step plus its two draws reaches the third draw of the turn.

Highway Robbery

Role Assignment

Madness Burn is a linear, tempo-positive aggro deck with low inevitability and only burn as interaction: every spell is a threat or an outlet that turns discards into one, the engine is built to convert mana into damage faster than the opponent converts it into board, and if the game goes long the burn simply runs out. That fixes the default. In nearly every matchup class you are the beatdown, and the question is only which axis the race is fought on: the raw speed of the two clocks, whether the graveyard survives, how cheaply the opponent handles small fliers, and whether their interaction feeds the madness plan or attacks it.

Vs. Aggro. The role is decided by whose clock is faster, and it is the one class where you sometimes have to be the control. Against a deck that curves out faster than yours, point Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper at the creatures that matter, and lean on Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss to swing the life totals until your fliers take over. Against a slower creature deck, ignore the ground entirely: Sneaky Snacker and Kitchen Imp attack over a board of small blockers, and the burn stays aimed at the face.

Vs. Midrange. You are the beatdown. Their plan is to trade removal for your threats one for one, and that is a trade you win because Sneaky Snacker returns from the graveyard on any turn you draw your third card and the madness cards resolve at a discount their answers never match. The demonstrating play is pitching Fiery Temper to Grab the Prize and sending both at the opponent's face while their removal has nothing worth hitting. Cheap answers to small fliers are the axis to watch; if they have plenty, the fliers become bait and the burn becomes the plan.

Vs. Control. Unambiguously the beatdown, and the clock is on you: with low inevitability, every turn a control deck gets to draw cards is a turn closer to the point where their answers outnumber your threats. Opposing discard is a gift here because a discarded Fiery Temper or Alms of the Vein can still be cast for its madness cost if you have the mana open, so the play is to deploy threats every turn and hold Blood tokens to cast at the end of their turn, where sorcery-speed answers and lifegain arrive too late. Counterspells hurt most on the outlets, so bait them with the least valuable one.

Play Patterns

Hold Blood tokens to crack on the opponent's turn, pitching madness cards for surprise casts. The Blood draw is an instant-speed outlet, and a card cast off its madness trigger ignores sorcery timing, so even Alms of the Vein becomes an end-of-turn play. That leaves your own turn's mana free for threats and outlets, and it lets you pass with Lightning Bolt mana up without wasting it. With Voldaren Epicure on turn one and a Swamp on turn two, pass with both lands untapped and Bolt in hand; if nothing needs a Bolt during their turn, crack the Blood at their end step with the Mountain, pitch Alms, and pay the black from the Swamp for a three-point drain that was never exposed to a sorcery-speed answer. Vampire's Kiss tokens do the same job for Fiery Temper in response to an attack.
Discard Sneaky Snacker to the first outlet you see; it only ever enters play from the graveyard. The deck has no blue source, so a copy in hand is the worst card you can hold and a copy in the graveyard is one of the best. The draw step is already the first draw of the turn, so any draw-two spell on your own turn reaches the third draw and brings it back tapped for free. When an outlet asks for a discard and Snacker is in hand, it is the pitch before any madness card, since the madness card costs mana to cast and the Snacker costs nothing.
Sequence lands and spells so the madness cost is still payable at the moment the outlet resolves. Madness gives you one window: the card is cast as it is discarded or it goes to the graveyard for nothing. Tapping out for the outlet first turns Fiery Temper, Alms of the Vein, and Kitchen Imp into dead discards, which is why the deck needs red and black together by turn two. A hand of Jagged Barrens, Mountain, Swamp, Grab the Prize, Kitchen Imp, and Vampire's Kiss shows the order. The Barrens takes the empty first turn and pings for 1, Mountain into Kiss drains 2 on turn two, and on turn three the Swamp comes down but Grab the Prize is paid with the Mountain and the Barrens, so the Swamp's black mana is still open when the pitched Imp's trigger resolves and the Imp attacks in the air at once. Paying for Grab with the Swamp and the Barrens instead would have buried the Imp.

Black Sacrifice

Carrion Feeder - emblematic card for this matchup — Read the Black Sacrifice full guide →

Matchup - Favored

This is a straight race with both decks attacking, and it leans our way. Nothing in their main deck stops a spell, so every Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper and Alms of the Vein that goes at their face is damage or life loss they cannot answer, while their removal only touches our creatures: Snuff Out, in the lists that run it, can hit nothing of ours but Voldaren Epicure, and Shambling Ghast, Tragic Slip and Accursed Marauder only ever take a creature. Our burn, on the other hand, can kill a lone Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle before it banks a single counter. We are the harder clock to stop, so they have to race us and lean on a big Bloodthrone Vampire turn and Rite of Consumption's life swing to stay out of burn range. Late draws favor us too: a topdecked burn spell is two or three points at their face, while a topdecked one-drop does little for them on its own.

Burn goes at their face, never at Nested Shambler, Infestation Sage, Nezumi Linkbreaker or Shambling Ghast, whose deaths only feed their engine. The one exception is a Carrion Feeder, Mortician Beetle or Bloodthrone Vampire with no other creature beside it: kill it right away, because once they have spare creatures and an outlet they sacrifice in response to grow it out of 3-damage range, and two sacrifices are already enough to save Bloodthrone Vampire. The same timing applies to Sadistic Glee: kill the creature it targets while the Aura is on the stack, with Lightning Bolt or a Fiery Temper pitched to a Blood token, and the Aura fizzles along with the creature even if they sacrifice it first.

Race in the air. The Insect token from Infestation Sage is the only creature they have that can block a flier, and Snuff Out can't target Kitchen Imp or Sneaky Snacker because both are black. When Accursed Marauder's edict comes, give up Voldaren Epicure or a Sneaky Snacker we can bring back, and keep Kitchen Imp. Count Rite of Consumption in every race: after combat they can sacrifice their biggest attacker to drain its power and gain as much, so a grown Carrion Feeder or pumped Bloodthrone Vampire hits us for its power twice in one turn. It is the only lifegain in their main deck, and Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss are how we stay ahead of that swing while still hitting their life total.

Key Threats

Carrion Feeder is their main clock against us. Every creature they feed it becomes a permanent +1/+1 counter, so a Feeder that survives the early turns climbs out of Lightning Bolt range and turns Rite of Consumption into a large drain that also gains them that much life. Burn it the moment it is alone; once spare creatures arrive, any burn aimed at it just gets a creature sacrificed in response, growing it out of range while the death triggers hand them tokens back.

Rite of Consumption is their finisher and their only main-deck lifegain. If we let Carrion Feeder bank counters or ignore a big Bloodthrone Vampire turn, the post-combat Rite hits us for that creature's power a second time and pushes their life back out of burn range just as our burn closes in.

Bloodthrone Vampire is both their answer to our burn and their burst turn. Each sacrifice gives it +2/+2 at instant speed, so a whole board of 1/1s fed to it in combat makes one huge attacker to sacrifice to Rite of Consumption afterward. Never burn it while they have two other creatures: they sacrifice both in response, the spell is wasted, and a Nested Shambler, Infestation Sage or Nezumi Linkbreaker sacrificed that way still leaves its token.

Accursed Marauder, in the many lists that run it main, is their cleanest answer to our fliers: unlike Snuff Out it doesn't care that they are black, and our sacrifice also triggers Mortician Beetle. We choose what to give up, though, so it only takes Kitchen Imp when Imp is our only creature. Don't run Imp out alone onto an empty board of ours, and expect Unearth to bring the Marauder back for a second edict.

Sideboard Plan

In:

3 Electrickery

Out:

3 Highway Robbery

Electrickery comes in because every creature card in their deck has 1 toughness. For one mana it kills a lone Carrion Feeder, Mortician Beetle or Bloodthrone Vampire, so Lightning Bolt and Fiery Temper stay pointed at their face. The instant-speed overload sweeps their side, including the Insect tokens that are their only blockers for our fliers, and leaves Voldaren Epicure and Sneaky Snacker alive.

Highway Robbery goes out because against their one-drop starts it is our only two-mana discard outlet that does nothing to their life total: unlike Grab the Prize it adds nothing to the race, and unlike Faithless Looting it leaves no mana for a madness cost on two lands. The fourth copy stays because nothing else in our sideboard earns a slot here, and it still discards Sneaky Snacker and madness cards.

Sideboarding shifts this matchup moderately toward them. Electrickery is our one strong addition, while their side brings lifegain and graveyard exile aimed squarely at our burn count and at Sneaky Snacker, so the race gets closer even though it still favors us.

Post-board Strategy

Electrickery gives us a one-mana kill for a lone Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle and an instant one-sided sweep of their 1-toughness creatures, while they bring in lifegain and graveyard exile. The overload is cleanest against Squirrel, Insect and Mercenary tokens, which leave nothing behind, while killing Nested Shambler, Infestation Sage or Nezumi Linkbreaker hands them a fresh token after the damage. They can sacrifice in response to put counters on Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle and keep them alive, but any token those sacrifices create is already on the battlefield when the sweep resolves, so it dies with the rest. If a creature wearing Sadistic Glee would survive the overload, kill it first, since every creature the sweep kills puts a counter on it. Clearing the Insect tokens also removes the only creatures that can block our fliers.

Expect lifegain and graveyard exile from their side, and adjust the race for each piece:

Spinning Darkness, in the lists that run it, is a free 3 life once three black cards sit in their graveyard. Voldaren Epicure is its only legal target among our creatures, but they can aim it at one of their own Squirrel or Mercenary tokens just for the life, so count those 3 points into the burn math.
Vampiric Link gains them life for every point the enchanted creature deals. Kill their creature wearing it before it deals damage; if they put it on one of our fliers instead, that flier is now feeding them life with every attack.
Sylvok Lifestaff pays them 3 life every time the equipped creature dies, cashed in at will through their free sacrifice outlets and re-equipped cheaply. Nothing in our post-board 60 removes it, so leave the creature carrying it alone unless it is Carrion Feeder, Mortician Beetle or Bloodthrone Vampire, since its death gains them 3 life whoever causes it.
Rotten Reunion and Nihil Spellbomb can exile Sneaky Snacker in response to its return trigger, and the Spellbomb takes a Faithless Looting waiting for flashback with it. Treat Snacker as a bonus rather than the plan, and look for the draw-three turn when they have no black mana up for Rotten Reunion. The Zombie it makes is one more body for them to sacrifice.
Extra copies of Tragic Slip make Kitchen Imp easy for them to kill, since any free sacrifice switches on the morbid mode, and more Accursed Marauder edicts come in alongside it. More of the race sits on burn and drain after boarding, so hold Alms of the Vein and Vampire's Kiss for the turns their lifegain lands rather than firing them off early.