Currently the #1 Izzet Pauper deck on deckstats.net!

This pauper deck runs around 4th turn infinite damage combo

The combo can be made using Firebrand Archer/Reckless Fireweaver and Nettle Drone/Zephyr Scribe on the battlefield, casting Banishing Knack/Retraction Helix on Nettle Drone/Zephyr Scribe, then playing a 0 cost artifact like Bone Saw/Herbal Poultice/Tormod's Crypt: this way, you can tap Nettle Drone/Zephyr Scribe thanks to Banishing Knack/Retraction Helix in order to put Bone Saw/Herbal Poultice/Tormod's Crypt back to your hand, then casting it again, untap Nettle Drone/Zephyr Scribe, dealing 1 damage with Firebrand Archer/Reckless Fireweaver, repeating this process again and again, untill your opponent is dead.

> Why should I play this deck?

• You like combo decks
• You are on a budget
• You want to play a deck that's not the usual affinity/tron/burn/ponza/whatever meta is running now
• You like Izzet colors

> Why shouldn't I play this deck?

• You don't want only one plan in your deck
• You want to be the current meta pro player
• You don't like when people try to screw your plans
• You don't like Izzet colors

> Single card discussion

> Rock on!!

• Bone Saw: it's just a 0 CMC artifact that can be used for the combo. If you're running a sideboard, you will start switching cards replacing those.
• Herbal Poultice: another part of the combo that may be great when other player are running spot removal. You can use them to regenerate your creatures.
• Tormod's Crypt: not only a 0 CMC artifact for the combo, but also a nice graveyard hate card for decks that are cheating with it.

> Damage dealer

• Firebrand Archer: part of our combo, since it's a 2/1 can be used aggressively against opponent that doesn't have a defense.
• Reckless Fireweaver: great body as a 1/3, can block small creatures and it's part of our combo.

> Untap me, please

• Nettle Drone: this card can also be used aggressively, since it's a 3/1, and after we attacked we can always use it's ability and untap him playing one of our 0 CMC artifact. It's ability is part of the combo.
• Zephyr Scribe: not just a part of our combo, it's ability can let us dig into our library a little bit by filtering the top card. Its triggered ability can let us use multiple time its activated ability, in order to filter more.

> Come back, Geodude!

• Banishing Knack: the only targets for this card are Nettle Drone and Zephyr Scribe, so they can tap and untap a lot of times.
• Retraction Helix: just like Banishing Knack but with a better artwork.

> Utilities

• Dispel: it can protect our combo or our pieces from counterspells and spot removal.
• Taigam's Scheming: really great card used for digging deep into our top. It will help us finding missing combo pieces if our starting hand is not that good.

> Starting hand

In the following sections you can find the ideal starting hand that you want to keep in order to win T4 with the combo and the instructions on how to perform it.
Sometimes we will not be so lucky to have an ideal opening hand: about (B), try to keep hands with Zephyr Scribe due to its filtering ability. Also remember to look for Taigam's Scheming in order to filter the top of your library.

> Ideal hand

• (A) Firebrand Archer/Reckless Fireweaver
• (B) Nettle Drone/Zephyr Scribe
• (C) Banishing Knack/Retraction Helix
• (D) Bone Saw/Herbal Poultice/Tormod's Crypt
• (E) Land (whatever)
• (F) Mountain
• (G) Island

> How to win with an ideal hand

• Turn 1: play (E)
• Turn 2: play (F), cast (A)
• Turn 3: play (G), cast (B)
• Turn 4: cast (C) targetting (B), (-) cast (D) and deal 1 damage to opponent with (A), use (B) ability to return (D) to your hand, loop from this (-) until your opponent is dead.

> Matchups

The decks works great with decks that are not interacting a lot. For example aggro decks, mono G, auras.
Control decks are really strong against our strategy, since we win through a combo. In this case having a sideboard helps a lot.

> Why aren't you running ...?

Disclaimer: this deck idea was meant to be a budget list. There are probably more efficient cards out there that would break the ~10$ role that I applied.

• Negate: I'm running Dispel over it since it's more mana efficient. Mizzium Skin with the same mana cost will provide hexproof to all our creatures, so they can be protected from multiple spot removal.
• Brainstorm/Ponder/Preordain: I thought I could run a playset of Brainstorm or Ponder against a playset of Bone Saw, but this was effecting the deck budget.

> Sideboard

Generally we're running 4 rocks more then the "average" of 8 per type, so we can remove those in order to add some cards from this sideboard:

• 2 Dispel, in order to have more protection from counterspells;
• 3 Electrickery, if opponent is playing a swarm of little creatures (like tokens, 1/1);
• 3 Flaring Pain, if someone can prevent damage somehow, this will help us on winning our game;
• 4 Mizzium Skin, good if we need to protect our combo creature from some abilities/auras that will kill/block them somehow;
• 3 Smash to Smithereens, great for taking down key artifact to our opponents and lowering down their life.