MTG Salvation

Quote from Akroma Angel of Death »

I try to keep up with this thread, and I haven't seen this question asked, but I probably missed it along the way somewhere.

Is a T2 Eidolon ever the WRONG play?

I'd hit a 1/2 (or 2/3 with an instant already in the graveyard) Tarmogoyf with a Searing Blaze rather than cast a T2 Eidolon. Having a hard time thinking of many other examples.

I'd also Searing Blaze a mana dork on T2 if I can. I've found that this can often set back my opponent if they kept a 1 land plus Hierarch opening hand. If you don't kill the dork, you can expect something like Kitchen Finks on T3 if they've got another land.

I also find myself holding an Eidolon against Affinity.

If my opponent has a blue mana up, I'll only run out Eidolon if I can't do much else. It's not necessarily good to run out a 2 mana spell into Spell Snare to "see if they have it". Instead, I'd rather either drop Swifty and a Lava Spike or wait until the end of their turn and play a 2 mana instant to try to eat the counter for a T3 Eidolon.

Quote from khaosknight69 »

@MH Thanks for updating the primer! Although I did notice a couple mentions of banned spells like treasure cruise

Also, any chance of expanding the matchups section? The Jund T1 primer has like dozens of matchups, along with analysis of each deck and what it does and how to fight it. I realize burn doesn't try to interact as much as Jund does, but there are definitely helpful things that could be added that most new burn players won't know. (Like how when you're playing against infect, you want to cast any removal spells you are using during your turn even though they have instant speed, because otherwise they can just pump in response and get full benefit from the card. Or like how when playing twin and you're on the draw you should try to save a fetch and hold whatever you're using to disrupt the combo so that you can't be tapped down by an end of turn Deceiver Exarch)

sure I can do that if you guys wish, I also want to tell you I will be updating tournament analysis every friday from now on. also updated******** Please keep me guys informed on stuff you would like in it and ill mull it over if its competitive.
-MH

Yea, Searing Blaze a dork or goyf(if possible) seems like a no brainer play.

Is anyone else having problems with Junk Company? I tested with a friend the other day, and it was kinda wrecking me.

It was my 1st time playing against Company so maybe I was keeping suboptimal hands for that matchup...

Junk Company is a boogeyman... It's like Melira Pod being back for a second tour of duty. It's an awful matchup. The rise of Junk Company means the fall in metagame shares of aggro decks such as Burn and Affinity.

I feel torpor were just have 1 more path to exile in side and 1-2 torpor orb. meta's change. the matchup game 1 is terrible against us but game 2 is fine, volcanic fallout is another option to wipe field.
-MH

If you are expecting junk company, would Anger of the gods not be a better sideboard than Volcanic Fallout?

I know there very few 3 toughness creature commonly played in modern. And Volcanic fallout would pump any monastery swiftspears on our board, preventing it from being killed. Maybe this is why we prefer fallout?

Volcanic is mostly better since it deals damage to the player. The uncounterable makes it pretty good vs Merfolk and URx's Pyromancers. Bonus that it leaves our Swiftspears alive,

I suppose Anger is better vs Finks, but that matchup is bad not because of their beatdown but because of their lifegain. Extra Skullcracks in the side is likely the best we can do there.

Thanks for the insight on fallout. I picked 2 of the full art promos for my sideboard today at the lgs.

Burn is no good in my meta currently. I'm putting the deck down for a bit. So many Dragon's Claws, Kitchen Finks, Thragtusk and much more. I've switched to Big Skred Red currently and so far I'm doing work at my current LGS.

As Junk company rises in popularity and is picked up by a number of players, how can we respond to this? Simply adding more anti life gain hate cards? What could give us an advantange against them?, or at least make it so the matchup is close to a 50/50 either preboard or post-

For the Naya version running command in main, has anyone tried out more than 12 fetches in the main? I currently run 11,is there someone willing to go up to 14? Does the consistency improve? or is it overdone?

12 is enough i think and if company gets bigger id just hold mana up for engine.
-MH

@QhapaqSaqra: Its the flavor of the month. We'll see if it sticks around. However, this is modern and the meta is so spread out that most decks don't have more than 1-2% share. Currently, even Tier 1 decks are only about 10% each. I wouldn't worry too much unless it becomes a significant portion of the meta (e.g. +15% like the Pod decks used to be). Certainly we should respect it and understand how it works, but Soul Sisters, Bogles, and Siege Rhino infested Abzan decks haven't stopped us yet.

In fact, I can't see Melira & Co being much worse than Wilt-Leaf Liege Abzan, which has been floating around since the Wilson piloted it at the PT. The Wilt Liege version actually have at least as much if not more maindeck lifegain than the Company deck, with 4x Seige Rhinos to backup their own set of Kitchen Finks, and its a more aggressive/faster deck to beatdown. It hasn't really ruined our day, I don't expect Melira to either.

The main difference between it and Melira Co is obviously is the combo aspect. But I don't necessarily think its fast enough without a lucky draw/hit. Depends on how much life they are able to gain early with Finks/Spike Feeder to extend the game. However, with their 3-color manabase with color intensive spells like T1 G/B, T2 WW, T3 GG, and the sudo GGG needed for Chord, they are likely to take a fair chip of damage from their lands trying to speed up the process.

I think most of it is just how we approach their matchup. Mostly its to do with timing. Some tips:

• Keep your Commands/Skullcracks handy Finks in the early game.
• Searing Blaze on site the other combo pieces like Anafenza/Melira/Visera Seer.
• Keep in mind Cartel Aristocrat can gain protection and that Varolz can regenerate.
• Also note Archangel of Thune can enable the Finks loop just as easily as the 2-drops.
• Don't Path their Finks if they have a Sac outlet on board.
• Best to respond before resolution of collective company if they have a combo piece on board. You won't know what they've hit, but once its resolved the creatures will be on board.
• If they establish the combo, generally waiting for the persist trigger to be on the stack is the best time to remove a combo piece.
• The same timing is true if you are intending to remove their graveyard. When persist is on the stack, Finks is in the graveyard.
• You can also Crack in response to this trigger to prevent the infinite Finks life-gain for that turn. Albeit it won't help unless you have a second crack for untap or have the kill during that turn.
• You can also Crack to stop the Spike Feeder/Archangel combo by responding to the first counter removal.

Probably more tips but I'll leave it at that.

Best tools for the match-up:

• Atarka's Command
  
• Skullcrack
  
• Searing Blaze
  
• Path to Exile
  
• Lightning Bolt
  
• Destructive Revelry
  
• Molten Rain
  

The last one on the play probably.

Other options that I'm not necessarily a fan of because it stops the combo but doesn't help at all vs the beatdown plan.

• Relic of Progenitus
  
• Torpor Orb
  
• Rakdos Charm

Pod was beatable with Burn if you played your cards right and ran a little hot. We are very fast. This deck isn't as consistent as Pod.

nevel is on key.

thanks mate.
-MH

This is what I've been running for a while. I feel like lifegain is increasing in frequency and 6 maindeck Skullcracks helps a lot. I had been running 10 fetches, but I was having color fixing problems so I added another Heath. I fully expect Mesas to get printed in 6 months, so naturally these will become red fetches some day. I love Deflecting Palm! It's still a card that people don't expect, and they don't know quite how it works. I've had Infect players think it gives them 7 infect counters and I've had people think it makes Wurmcoil a net zero effect because of lifegain, only to tell them "nope, Palm deals the damage, not your creature".

The biggest issues I'm having, I think, are when to mulligan and how to sideboard.

I'll keep any 2 or 3 land hands. I think we can operate on a 1 land opener if the second land comes soon and we can get in a Guide on T1 and a Spike/Rift on T2 and T3. I'm more willing to keep 1 land on the draw. Does this sound reasonable?

Post board, I often find that the first cards out are Shard Volley, Skullcrack/Helix if I don't need their effects, and some number of Lava Spikes and Rift Bolts. This does increase the number of 2 drops in the deck, though, when I remove 2-4 LS/RB. In the mirror, I drop green and on the draw I drop Eidolon. Is it right to remove 1 drops for 2 drops, even if it gets a little slower? I do swap out some 2 drops when I can, though.

I'd been wanting to build Burn for about a year and finally built it about 2 months ago, and I started keeping stats from playing online. I'm at a 61.5% game win percentage after about 850 games.

There are 7 decks I've played more than 10 matches against and my game records:

• Jund - 25-22
• Junk - 18-20
• Affinity - 18-21
• UWR - 14-21
• Merfolk - 15-14
• CoCo Abzan - 19-9
• Grixis Delver - 22-7

Next most common (more than 6 matches):

• Esper Control - 14-4
• WUBx Gifts - 11-11
• Temur Twin - 9-10
• UW Control - 10-5
• BW Tokens - 8-6
• Elves - 10-2
• Stompy - 12-3
• Naya Burn - 10-9
• UR Twin - 9-8
• Infect - 11-3
• Mono-U Tron - 5-10
• Pyro Storm - 11-4
• UB Mill - 11-0

Are there any of these matchups that look like I'm astonishingly bad in?

Hi all

Previously been working hard on Standard and got myself a PT invitation via RPTQ. Now setting my sights on Modern which Burn will be my weapon of choice for my upcoming Grand Prix.

I'm actually playing similar to Anthony Lowry's list published today with some minor tweaks:


After 2 weeks of testing and around 60+ MTGO matches (am not as hardcore as elconquistador1985 ), its win % is around 80% overall which is pretty amazing.I've played a bunch vs most of the meta - Twin, Tron, Infect, Elves, Delver, Abzan, Soul Sisters, Amulet, Jund, Mirror, Company. Even survived a t1 Firewalker when my opponent (on Living Twin), used 2 Simian Spirit Guide to Cascade a Firewalker on t1. Also survived double Leylines in play, when i had to Lava Spike myself and Boros Charm my Swiftspear (for double strike) to push the last 6 points.

Toughest match ups are Soul Sisters (i'm like 1-3) and Jund (0-2) which is also attributed to the mix of burn you draw vs those match ups. Other losses were attributed to the variance mana floods/screws. But aside from Soul Sisters and Jund, i felt the deck didnt get blown out by any matchup at all (although there were some close and tough games).

I find the trick to the Burn deck is actually side boarding - not a matter of what cards to add to your sideboard, but the process itself.

Examples -

1. Do you bring in Revelry vs Grixis Delver (for Dragon's claw)? If they don't run it, you basically lock dead 2-3 cards in your deck which is crucial.
2. Do you side out Boros Charms vs Abzan (as it doesn't hit their threats) but you get punished by Liliana. Similarly do you keep in Searing Blazes (when perhaps the only efficient target post board is Scavenging Ooze) or would you have Molten Rain to slow their development.
3. Is Molten Rain good vs Esper Control (or any deck that runs Remand) as you can effectively out-tempo yourself.
4. Path or Revelry vs Tron? Or Both? If both, do you cut threats or burn?

I will be running a slew of PPTQ starting in June with Burn leading up to the Grand prix. So if you want to know more of my matches, do follow my blog:
vmtgstore.blogspot.com

Quote from elconquistador1985 »

I'll keep any 2 or 3 land hands. I think we can operate on a 1 land opener if the second land comes soon and we can get in a Guide on T1 and a Spike/Rift on T2 and T3. I'm more willing to keep 1 land on the draw. Does this sound reasonable?

Post board, I often find that the first cards out are Shard Volley, Skullcrack/Helix if I don't need their effects, and some number of Lava Spikes and Rift Bolts. This does increase the number of 2 drops in the deck, though, when I remove 2-4 LS/RB. In the mirror, I drop green and on the draw I drop Eidolon. Is it right to remove 1 drops for 2 drops, even if it gets a little slower? I do swap out some 2 drops when I can, though.

Keeping 1 land is part of price of playing a 19-20 land deck with no cantrips or card selection. I think it's a very reasonable keep if you have a Spear/Guide and a 1cmc spell especially in the draw. Those situations you just need to hope to draw out. The deck doesn't mulligan well, so it's rough going down a card.

Regarding sideboarding. I rarely side out Lava Spikes or Rift Bolts. It throws your curve out of wack pretty bad to side a bunch of 2-3cmc spells and cut 1cmc stuff. Most matchups, I'm cutting some combination of 2cmc spells. Helix, Skullcrack, Command, Boros Charm, Searing Blaze, etc. They all have certain purposes which may or may not be useful.

Sometimes it's a consideration of siding much of one of the splashes out if its practical to do so. It's not generally feasible to be hardline about this, as most of the time post board you will have some number of both, but I find having a definite main splash is good, as it helps with sequencing of lands.

The exception to this rule of keeping all 1-drops is cutting Shard Volley if I'm siding in 3cmc spells, or Grim Lavamancer if he's way too slow for the matchup.

The only type of matchup I'd consider cutting 1cmc spells like Lava Spike (not Rift Bolt though) is against super aggressive decks like Affinity and Infect, where we become the control deck. In that situation I just want all my removal, even molten rain (kill Inkmoth). Sometimes you need to cut a noninteractive card or two to make room.

Quote from Powzhaai1 »

Even survived a t1 Firewalker when my opponent (on Living Twin), used 2 Simian Spirit Guide to Cascade a Firewalker on t1. Also survived double Leylines in play, when i had to Lava Spike myself and Boros Charm my Swiftspear (for double strike) to push the last 6 points.

Those are the best games.

Played an Bloom Titan deck where they mulligan'd to 5 to find their Leyline and I kept a 1 lander. Never drew the 2nd land but managed to aggro them with a couple Swiftspears while bolting myself. Good times.