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Molten Onslaught

A pure mono-red burn deck that curves out with cheap goblins and wizards, then torches whatever's left standing.

Pauper · by @evilBOD · 2026-08-08

Key cards

Guttersnipe Guttersnipe Rubble Rouser Rubble Rouser Burst Lightning Burst Lightning

$13.50 total value · €8.81 · prices as of 2026-09-15

Value over the last 8 price days: $14.06 → $13.50 (-0.56)
Most expensive cards
  • Impact Tremors$3.95
  • Guttersnipe$0.35
  • Burst Lightning$0.26
  • Axgard Cavalry$0.25
  • Fanatical Firebrand$0.21
  • Ancestral Anger$0.20
  • Abrade$0.19
  • Mountain$0.18
  • Seize the Spoils$0.18
  • Goblin Glasswright // Craft with Pride$0.17
60 cards 43 spells 17 lands avg CMC 2.19 R46

Mana curve

0
0
9
1
20
2
11
3
3
4
0
5
0
6
0
7+

mana value · lands excluded

Card types

  • Creature 23
  • Instant 9
  • Sorcery 10
  • Enchantment 1
  • Land 17

Colors

  • R 100% (46)

🎴 Goldfish (test draw) 🖨 Proxy sheet

Strategy

Molten Onslaught is a classic mono-red aggro/burn shell: cheap creatures apply pressure from turn one, and a dense removal-and-reach suite clears blockers or finishes the opponent directly. Since it's single-colored there's zero mana screw risk from color mismatches — every land taps for exactly what you need, so the deck almost always executes its curve on time.

Roles

  • Threat: Rubble Rouser and Tackle Artist scale into the mid-game, while Expressive Firedancer and Goblin Glasswright // Craft with Pride punish every burn spell you cast with extra power.
  • Removal: Burst Lightning, Abrade, and Unsubtle Mockery answer almost anything on the ground, and all three can go straight to the opponent's face when there's nothing left to kill.
  • Reach: Guttersnipe and Crackling Cyclops turn a hand full of burn spells into direct damage or huge attackers, giving the deck a way to close out races other aggro decks can't.
  • Card advantage: Tome Blast (flashback) and Rubble Rouser's graveyard-exile ability mean the deck rarely runs out of gas, and Seize the Spoils / Ancestral Anger keep cards flowing early.
  • Lands: 17 Mountain — no duals needed, so the mana base is maximally consistent.

Synergies & curve

The curve is very low (average around 2.3), with 13 creatures at one or two mana and burn spells at every point along the curve to keep the pressure constant. Impact Tremors and Guttersnipe turn a flood of cheap goblins and instants into incidental extra damage, while Rubble Rouser's loot ability smooths draws and later exiles cards from the graveyard for free damage and mana.

Play Guttersnipe, then chain Burst Lightning into Tome Blast in the same turn for 6 damage to the opponent's face before combat even starts.

Weak spots

Mono red has no way to gain life or stabilize once behind, so it's vulnerable to decks that can out-race or wall it up (few evasive threats beyond the occasional trade). It also has no hard counterspells or enchantment/artifact-only removal, so resolved value engines like anthem effects or recursive threats can be hard to fully answer — the deck's plan is almost entirely "kill them before that matters."

Decklist (60 cards)

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Plain text imports into Moxfield, Archidekt, MTGGoldfish, Deckstats and ManaBox. Arena format also imports into MTG Arena and ManaBox.

📦 Find in your boxes — by set

FDN · Foundations · 31 cards

🔴 Red · 13
2× Crackling Cyclops #83
1× Axgard Cavalry #189
4× Burst Lightning #192 · also in SOA
1× Fanatical Firebrand #195
2× Dragon Fodder #535
2× Ghitu Lavarunner #623
1× Viashino Pyromancer #634
◇ Colorless · 1
1× Three Tree Mascot #682
🏞 Lands · 17
17× Mountain #279 · only 8 here · also in SOS

SOS · Secrets of Strixhaven · 24 cards

🔴 Red · 24
2× Ancestral Anger #106
3× Expressive Firedancer #114
4× Goblin Glasswright // Craft with Pride #117
4× Rubble Rouser #128
2× Seize the Spoils #129
3× Tackle Artist #133
4× Tome Blast #135
2× Unsubtle Mockery #136

SOA · Secrets of Strixhaven Mystical Archive · 3 cards

🔴 Red · 3
3× Abrade #37 · only 2 here · also in FDN

TDC · Tarkir: Dragonstorm Commander · 1 card

🔴 Red · 1
1× Guttersnipe #217

MOC · March of the Machine Commander · 1 card

🔴 Red · 1
1× Impact Tremors #285

Grouped by the set of the copies in this deck's build-pool lists, then by color the way a sorted box is — # is the collector number inside the set.

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