Mono Red Axe

Mono Red Axe is a swarm of cheap red attackers that hit the opponent before they have finished setting up. Reckless Lackey, Clockwork Percussionist, Gingerbrute, and Goblin Tomb Raider (as long as you control an artifact) attack the turn they land, Great Furnace and the artifact creatures put Galvanic Blast into its bigger mode, Inventor's Axe and a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker make the small bodies hit hard, and Lightning Bolt and Fireblast finish from range.

The deck is a small part of the Pauper field at 0.2% of the metagame, so most opponents will see it only occasionally over a tournament. It is a mono-colored deck whose mana never fails to make red, and nearly every spell in it costs a single mana, which makes it one of the cheapest and most direct decks in the format to pick up.

What separates it from a plain pile of red one-drops is the artifact count. The land itself, the artifact creatures, the equipment, and the Blood token from Voldaren Epicure all count, and that count is what turns Galvanic Blast into the best burn spell in the deck and gives Goblin Tomb Raider its haste. Keeping that count up while emptying the hand onto the board is the whole game.

Mono Red Axe wants to put a hasty creature on the battlefield off its first land and attack every turn after that, adding bodies faster than the opponent can block or kill them, then pointing burn at the face once combat has done most of the work. Every card is cheap and almost every card deals damage, so the priority is simple: convert each card in hand into damage as quickly as possible, and never let a turn go by without adding to the board or the burn total. Great Furnace, the artifact creatures, and Inventor's Axe keep enough artifacts in play that Galvanic Blast deals its full damage and Goblin Tomb Raider swings the turn it arrives, which is the one piece of bookkeeping the deck asks of you.

The artifact count is the engine. Great Furnace is an artifact that costs nothing, Clockwork Percussionist and Gingerbrute are artifact creatures, Inventor's Axe is an artifact that doubles as a pump, and Voldaren Epicure leaves a Blood token behind, so three artifacts are on the battlefield within the first couple of turns in most games. That count does two jobs: the first artifact alone gives Goblin Tomb Raider haste and an extra point of power, and it upgrades Galvanic Blast from two damage to four. Meanwhile Experimental Synthesizer flips an extra card when it enters and again when it leaves, and Clockwork Percussionist flips one when it dies, so the hand keeps refilling while the board grows.

A typical game has three phases. The setup is Great Furnace into a hasty one-drop (Goblin Tomb Raider, Reckless Lackey, Clockwork Percussionist, or Gingerbrute) attacking immediately, then one or two more bodies every turn with Inventor's Axe flashed onto whichever attacker gets through. The payoff is the turn the whole board swings together: the last creatures come down, a kicked gives everything haste and an extra point of power, and the attack takes the opponent into burn range. The close is and from range, with cast for free off two basic Mountains as the final burst.

Great Furnace

The only artifact in the deck that costs no mana, and it counts toward Galvanic Blast's Metalcraft. Play it as your first land whenever you hold Goblin Tomb Raider, since it is what lets the Raider attack for two on the first turn instead of sitting as a 1/2. It is also the artifact opponents can hit with land destruction and artifact removal alike, so keep adding other artifacts rather than treating it as the whole count.

Goblin Tomb Raider

With an artifact on your side of the battlefield it is a 2-power hasty attacker for one mana, the best rate in the deck; without one it is a 1/2 that waits a turn to attack. Nearly every opening hand puts an artifact down by the time it is cast, so treat it as a two-power haster and plan the artifact count around keeping it that way. Like Reckless Lackey, its two toughness lets it survive the one-damage effects that clear the rest of the team.

Galvanic Blast

Two damage for one mana on its own and four once you control three artifacts, which the deck reaches early in most games, so it is usually the best burn spell in hand. The artifact count is checked as it resolves, not as you cast it, so cash in a Treasure, a Blood token, or Experimental Synthesizer only after it has resolved. It goes at the opponent's face by default and is the removal spell to spend when a four-toughness blocker or a lifegain creature is costing more than four damage.

Inventor's Axe

Mono Red Axe is a linear, tempo-positive aggro deck with low inevitability: its clock is around the fourth turn, its only interaction is burn (Lightning Bolt, Galvanic Blast, and Fireblast, all of which would rather hit the face), and it has no way to win a long game. That fixes its role in nearly every matchup class as the beatdown. The question in each class is not whether to attack but what is most likely to stop the attack, and the five things that decide a game against this deck are blockers with three or more toughness or first strike, one-damage sweepers and repeatable one-damage effects, lifegain, artifact removal aimed at the count, and whether the opponent's own plan comes online before the fourth turn.

Vs. Aggro. Against another aggressive deck you are still the beatdown, because the deck cannot switch to a controlling posture with burn as its only answers and only thin card advantage, from Reckless Lackey's sacrifice and Experimental Synthesizer's exiled cards, to fall back on. The game is a race decided by who deploys faster and by whether the opponent's creatures outsize the one-power team; when they do, stop attacking into them and let Gingerbrute's evasion and the burn finish instead. The one place burn goes at a creature here is a first striker or a lifelink blocker that turns every attack into a loss: Lightning Bolt on that creature keeps the race on your terms, and Gingerbrute's three-life sacrifice is the buffer that wins a race decided by a single attack.

Vs. Midrange. You are the beatdown, and the axis is three-toughness blockers. A midrange deck stabilizes by putting a body in front of the one-power attackers and then trading its removal one for one with your threats, so the plan is to make each attack cost them something before the board stalls. The play that defines the role is Inventor's Axe flashed in after blockers are declared onto the creature they let through, and Clockwork Percussionist attacking into the big blocker every turn so a block hands you a card. Keep three artifacts around through this phase, because a four-damage is the spell that finishes a midrange opponent sitting just outside range.

1. Cast Galvanic Blast while you still control three artifacts, and if you are one short, flash Inventor's Axe in response to your own Blast. The artifact count is read when the Blast resolves, not when you cast it, so anything that removes an artifact in between drops it to two damage: cracking a Treasure for mana or a Blood token for a card, sacrificing Experimental Synthesizer or Gingerbrute, or the opponent killing an artifact in response. The same timing works in your favor with Inventor's Axe: cast on top of the Blast, it resolves first, enters as the third artifact, and the Blast then sees the full count.

2. Cast every other creature first and a kicked Goblin Bushwhacker last. The kicked trigger affects only the creatures you control as it resolves, so a creature cast after the Bushwhacker gets neither the extra power nor haste. A body without haste of its own, such as Voldaren Epicure, cast after the trigger sits out the attack entirely, and the alpha strike comes up a point or two short of where it needed to be.

3. Hold Inventor's Axe until blockers are declared, then flash it onto the attacker that got through. The Axe's enters trigger attaches it to a creature you control, and flash lets that happen after the opponent has committed their blocks, so the two extra power land on an unblocked creature and go straight to the life total. Cast it before combat and the opponent simply puts their best blocker in front of the equipped creature, and the pump is spent on a chump block instead.

4. Cast Experimental Synthesizer before your land drop and while you still have mana left to spend after it. The flipped card is playable only this turn, so a land turned over after you have already played one is lost, and a spell turned over with no mana left is lost too. Casting it first off one land with a second still in hand means a flipped land can be played and a flipped one-drop can be cast. The same order applies when you sacrifice it later for the Samurai: do it with the land drop unused and mana to spare for the second flip.