R Lock (Pauper)

My take on R Stax. Still tinkering.

What it looks like when you're winning:

• Opponent has very few permanents in play (including lands) and you have at least 1 creature hitting them.

Why Hooting Mandrills and Gurmag Angler?

• Red doesn't have any delve creatures nor a good enough permanent payoff for denying resources (honestly, Kuldotha Rebirth could get cut entirely at some point). You have to win pretty quick or you'll run out of value. The deck goes super fast and doesn't lock for a long time, but the lock is pretty challenging to avoid if asymmetries are pulled off
• You often end up with the ability to have green or black anyway so you might as well take advantage of it.

Why no Lightning Bolt?

• When I tried it with Lightning Bolt, I found the deck too starved for other plays (such as artifacts to sacrifice, fixing, or fast mana). Yes, I could kill a creature or get a little reach but I found having a big creature was good enough in those situations.

Notable plays:

• 2 of any combination of borderposts in play/Simian Spirit Guides in hand and Tremble, as well as having no lands in play (borderposts pick them up) -> asymmetrical Tremble using the borderposts/spirit guide
• turn 1 going second with Simian Spirit Guide and Crack the Earth in hand -> asymmetrical Crack the Earth using Simian Spirit Guide exile ability

Good matchups:

• Anything at all slow

Real bad matchups:

• Affinity (good luck lol)
• Elves