elconquistador: lovely work, thanks for all of that beautiful data. I remember greedy 4 color burn lists being pretty popular at my lgs a few years ago when atarka's command was new. Haven't seen much of bump in the night since then, but I'm still in love.
Creevy: I really like your mardu list and your thoughts behind gonti's. It's a card I've been very skeptical of and haven't tested yet with how limited my time is. I'm going to be trying -4 shard volley, +4 gonti's machinations from my previous rakdos list and see how that plays along with 4 arid mesa's for the cliffs. I'm still attached to being a two color deck maindeck, especially with only 18 lands and I like revelry too much to give up the green splash just yet. I'm excited to test gonti's, the card makes me nervous but I love the idea of a one mana helix in a deck with 20 bolts.
I've been thinking about tombstalker as anti eldrazi tron tech. Post board they should be going down dismember, karn and all is dust which leaves them cold to a tombstalker. It can brick wall reshapers and tks and flies right over everything for huge chunks of damage. The idea came from wanting a card to help fight chalice of the void that was still good when the e tron player doesn't draw chalice. It's probably too narrow and clunky and only applies to burn decks running black but I just wanted to throw it out there.
Is snapcaster mage too slow for burn? Is that a thing that has been tested and dumped? I'm liking the idea of snapcaster burn with the possibility to run saheeli rai as a repeatable source of damage and card filtering. She combines well with snapcasters already on the field, or when you want to double up on swiftspear prowess triggers. I can't think of a deck that makes her +1 more relevant than burn.
I've been thinking about tombstalker as anti eldrazi tron tech. Post board they should be going down dismember, karn and all is dust which leaves them cold to a tombstalker. It can brick wall reshapers and tks and flies right over everything for huge chunks of damage. The idea came from wanting a card to help fight chalice of the void that was still good when the e tron player doesn't draw chalice. It's probably too narrow and clunky and only applies to burn decks running black but I just wanted to throw it out there.
Why not just run Ensnaring Bridge? It hits all the creature MUs as well and is slightly harder to deal with.
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Yeah I bumped into a few dudes the other day at a PPTQ that had bridge in their board. Makes sense, its common tech for legacy burn. In today's Death Shadow and Etron meta; bridge is looking very reasonable.
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Standard // nRG Aggro
Modern // Burn (main) and Living End (secondary) now Jund.
For fun check out my janky combo primer: Turn 3 Grixis Combo
"Can't beat em' Jund em'!"
Ensnaring Bridge is another one of those cards that will pop in and out of sides for various decks depending on the whats dominating/influencing the meta. I have used it on and off in Modern and Legacy. Damn thing is handy to have. I would say Id rather not have to need it at 3 mana but it can be a necessary evil at times. Although, I havent seen it used as much as I would think in my metas during this GS Shadow and Tron run. Im seeing a good amount of decks run Blood Moon maybe cause it cant be hit by Kolaghan's Command and limits Tron's ability to pump out those high mana high impact (depending on the Tron variant) Planeswalkers.
On another note so far we havent received any help from Ixalan. Im not expecting a straight up Burn card thats playable in Modern but maybe we'd get another creature possibility with all the tribal stuff popping out.
I'm delighted to report that thanks to the valuable help received via this forum I was finally able to 5-0 a friendly Modern league on MTGO!
The matches were as follows:
Bant Eldrazi: 2-0
Affinity: 2-1
UW Smallpox 2-0
Jeskai Tempo 2-1
UR Gifts Storm 2-0
In the Affinity match the decider was extremely close when my opponent made a misclick, clicking on the wrong Inkmoth Nexus (which had summoning sickness). Had he not done this I may not have won it; it was really on a knife edge. Overall, I won this match by following the hints provided here.
The other games went extremely well. I recall one game where I had the opponent down to three life after just three turns via a turn one Monastery Swiftspear.
Against the Jeskai control deck I made good use of the excellent article on Burn versus Control.
It doesn't matter for us, but Lightning Strike is finally back in Standard. I just like seeing "3 damage to target creature or player" for an acceptable mana cost.
It doesn't matter for us, but Lightning Strike is finally back in Standard. I just like seeing "3 damage to target creature or player" for an acceptable mana cost.
I gather that Lightning Bolt was regarded as overpowered for a long time and I suppose they took a large step back from Bolt to Incinerate, Volcanic Hammer, and massive downside Bolts like Sonic Seizure. Maybe it's embarrassing, but I have a growing collection of burn spells, even if they're terrible.
I want to believe that 3 damage + cantrip would cost less than 7 these days: Ember Shot, but 3 damage + scry 1 went from 4 (Lightning Javelin) to 3 (Bolt of Keranos), so I kind of doubt it.
I want to believe that 3 damage + cantrip would cost less than 7 these days: Ember Shot, but 3 damage + scry 1 went from 4 (Lightning Javelin) to 3 (Bolt of Keranos), so I kind of doubt it.
Javelin came after Theros was printed. Frequently when they are shifting a card between more heavily colored mana and less colored, 2 generic is seen as about the same as 1 of color. So 1RR is equivalent to 3R in that way. Strike being back in standard has me unreasonably excited.
I want to believe that 3 damage + cantrip would cost less than 7 these days: Ember Shot, but 3 damage + scry 1 went from 4 (Lightning Javelin) to 3 (Bolt of Keranos), so I kind of doubt it.
Javelin came after Theros was printed. Frequently when they are shifting a card between more heavily colored mana and less colored, 2 generic is seen as about the same as 1 of color. So 1RR is equivalent to 3R in that way. Strike being back in standard has me unreasonably excited.
Whoops, I guess I assumed that Javelin was a reprint in Origins. I don't play standard, but I would play RDW if I did, so I'm glad Strike is back there.
No biggie. Duress, Opt, Spell Pierce, Lightning Strike. Lots of interesting reprints in this set so far.
I have a dream of a Goblin Guide reprint. Goblin standing on a ship's prow in a downpour. Holding a lantern, pointing off the ship and shouting excitedly. Birds of Paradise would also fit very well w/the setting.
Opt is interesting because of what it could do to the rest of the Modern meta that would have implications for our mainboards/sideboards and how our games work. A deck that swaps Opt in for Serum Visions means that they won't be spending T1 on Serum Visions but could hold up Fatal Push/Bolt/Path/Spell Pierce to see what we do on T1.
I picked up the cards for storm recently because it's fairly cheap outside of Scalding Tarns, and I have Tarns. Reading the forum, most of the storm players aren't impressed with it because it doesn't dig as deeply. I can see a lot of blue based decks agreeing with that mind-set.
Burn feels like it's in an amazing place right now.
Looking at the Tier decks per salvation
UW Control--This is probably the tougest of the tier 1 decks, but beatable. Instant Speed life gain in Sphinx's rev and Spreading seas=cry. Keep your life-gain cards up, time your spells, etc.
Storm: LOL.
DS:I go on spells where I dominate the matchup, and then find stretches where I can't beat it. I struggle with patience lol, but definitely something I'm comfortable against.
Titanshift: Pre-board we do really well. Post-board--gotta play around the life gain. Winnable.
Affinity: Since switching to Boros, I find myself winning a ton of these. Thinking about going back to RG, but this is another matchup where I like our chances.
Eldrazi Tron: Their nut draws are unbeatable. Their other draws are often slow and clunky. I used to think I couldn't beat it, but I've beat it a lot.
T2:
Tron: another good matchup for us.
Jeskai Cop-Cat: Haven't played against it, but most lists aren't running Helix, which is what has historically made these Jeskai decks so back breaking.
Jeskai Control: Lots of Helix, Sphinx's Rev. I've always struggled vs this deck.
Merfolk: Historically tough, but I feel like the deck is at an all-time high in clunkiness. Merfolk is my 2nd Modern deck, and it just seems like the recent changes to adjust to the meta have hurt it a lot against us. I have a hard time beating Burn if I'm playing Merfolk, and losing when I'm the burn pilot. One thing that has gone a long way, I stopped boarding in Revelry. Going after vial/Spreading seas seems great. Just make the mana base that much more critical, and makes a spreading seas a back breaker.
Counters company: This is another BAD one, but beatable in spots. I always hope to avoid it.
Death and Taxes: Another tough one.
DS Jund: Winnable.
Abzan: Grindy, winnable.
Lantern: Always feels winnable for us.
Dredge: Winnable
Living End: Winnable
Bant Eldrazi: Pretty tough overall. Mana dorks, Eldrazi Temples--You're looking at frequent T3 TKS, T2 often enough to suck. They often get around Eidolon Triggers late. ]
More for fun and to better understand Burn than anything concrete, I decided to test out Gonti's Machinations in my Mardu burn list. I gotta say, I've been pleasantly surprised by it. I initially thought it would be far too slow for Burn, but it's surprisingly easy to hit two energy counters. I've found that one of two things are happening--either the opponent is hitting me, or they aren't. If they are, I'm getting energy. If they aren't, It's doing a Shrine of Burning Rage impression that costs no mana to pop, while I'm drawing cards that don't need energy, or drawing fetches that can be cracked to give me energy. In addition, I've been waiting to pop the card until I need it, to gain more energy in case I ever draw a second one. Of course, they're great in multiples, each instance of damage giving the energy needed to pop one of the cards. My guess is that Gonti's is about a turn slower than Rift Bolt on average. The one major downside is that it's an awful topdeck if you and your opponent are both staring at lethal, and yes that's a very real negative. I've played perhaps 40 or so games with it and it hasn't happened to me yet, but I can see why that would be brutal.
The deck has some deckbuilding considerations. I play fetch heavy, both to help ensure I get my colors when I need them, and also to help trigger Gonti. I moved Blaze to the side, because sometimes I want to fetch on my turn for Gonti, and because the format has slowed down so much I don't believe it's the auto-kill spell it used to be (and also because I needed room to pack everything in here). Also, you have to accept you'll be starting every game at 14. You just will. My hope is that my eight sources of maindeck lifegain will help mitigate that.
Here's the list I've been running. It runs 22 different versions of Lightning Bolt, to my knowledge the most of any deck in Modern.
The deck is designed to be as efficient at goldfishing as possible, and needs about 8.3 mana to drop someone from 20.
I've tested this last night in our regular wed night modern LGS:
- DnT: very very tough. 0-2. 18 lands hurt a lot against thalia
- Storm: Easy to outrace. 2-0 However, I only had 3 wear//tear so for the missing one I put a rakdos charm, and had it in starting hand so when past in flames got cast I responded by clearing the graveyard
- Boros burn (drev in s/b): 2-0. 2x gonti's mechanitions and threats on hand. 8 lifegain versus their 4 lifegain plus 4 antilifegain. Found it interesting that I could sit back and play control pretty well when gonnti's deployeyd, with or without counters
- friendly round: eldrazitron. touch matchups and close races but impossible againsnt chalices
- RG ponza land destruction prison: 0-2. turn 2 blood moon was tough. 2nd game I mull to 4 (no lands). Friendly game with s/b still in deck games were still close but once lifegain comes in (e.g. primal command) it's gg.
More for fun and to better understand Burn than anything concrete, I decided to test out Gonti's Machinations in my Mardu burn list. I gotta say, I've been pleasantly surprised by it. I initially thought it would be far too slow for Burn, but it's surprisingly easy to hit two energy counters. I've found that one of two things are happening--either the opponent is hitting me, or they aren't. If they are, I'm getting energy. If they aren't, It's doing a Shrine of Burning Rage impression that costs no mana to pop, while I'm drawing cards that don't need energy, or drawing fetches that can be cracked to give me energy. In addition, I've been waiting to pop the card until I need it, to gain more energy in case I ever draw a second one. Of course, they're great in multiples, each instance of damage giving the energy needed to pop one of the cards. My guess is that Gonti's is about a turn slower than Rift Bolt on average. The one major downside is that it's an awful topdeck if you and your opponent are both staring at lethal, and yes that's a very real negative. I've played perhaps 40 or so games with it and it hasn't happened to me yet, but I can see why that would be brutal.
The deck has some deckbuilding considerations. I play fetch heavy, both to help ensure I get my colors when I need them, and also to help trigger Gonti. I moved Blaze to the side, because sometimes I want to fetch on my turn for Gonti, and because the format has slowed down so much I don't believe it's the auto-kill spell it used to be (and also because I needed room to pack everything in here). Also, you have to accept you'll be starting every game at 14. You just will. My hope is that my eight sources of maindeck lifegain will help mitigate that.
Here's the list I've been running. It runs 22 different versions of Lightning Bolt, to my knowledge the most of any deck in Modern.
The deck is designed to be as efficient at goldfishing as possible, and needs about 8.3 mana to drop someone from 20.
I've tested this last night in our regular wed night modern LGS:
- DnT: very very tough. 0-2. 18 lands hurt a lot against thalia
- Storm: Easy to outrace. 2-0 However, I only had 3 wear//tear so for the missing one I put a rakdos charm, and had it in starting hand so when past in flames got cast I responded by clearing the graveyard
- Boros burn (drev in s/b): 2-0. 2x gonti's mechanitions and threats on hand. 8 lifegain versus their 4 lifegain plus 4 antilifegain. Found it interesting that I could sit back and play control pretty well when gonnti's deployeyd, with or without counters
- friendly round: eldrazitron. touch matchups and close races but impossible againsnt chalices
- RG ponza land destruction prison: 0-2. turn 2 blood moon was tough. 2nd game I mull to 4 (no lands). Friendly game with s/b still in deck games were still close but once lifegain comes in (e.g. primal command) it's gg.
Glad to hear the deck did well enough for you. If you notice, the losses came from decks that messed with your lands (DNT, Ponza). Merfolk is rough for us as well. I think this would be true regardless of which version of Burn you run. I'm especially glad to hear that you went 2-0 against Boros Burn, as that's the obvious deck I lose percentage points against with my build.
I also brought it to my LGS on Monday and went 3-1, but all of my matchups happened to be aggressive (Affinity, Jeskai Midrange, and Merfolk x2, one of which I lost to), so I boarded out the black every chance I got. Nothing to really report, although I did win every game pre-board game I played except my round one with Affinity.
Glad to hear the deck did well enough for you. If you notice, the losses came from decks that messed with your lands (DNT, Ponza). Merfolk is rough for us as well. I think this would be true regardless of which version of Burn you run. I'm especially glad to hear that you went 2-0 against Boros Burn, as that's the obvious deck I lose percentage points against with my build.
I also brought it to my LGS on Monday and went 3-1, but all of my matchups happened to be aggressive (Affinity, Jeskai Midrange, and Merfolk x2, one of which I lost to), so I boarded out the black every chance I got. Nothing to really report, although I did win every game pre-board game I played except my round one with Affinity.
I think Merfolk is 50/50 or slightly in our favor now. A creature heavy hand is very hard for them to deal with because of the slowness/clunkiness of the deck. They've gone away from cards that are good vs us, I.E. Tidebinder mage. I typically either play Merfolk or Burn, moreso burn. But as merfolk, my matchups against burn are frustrating. Burn comes out of the gate so quickly, and Merfolk is going to take 3-4 turns to set up. You spend a lot of your Turn 1 going Aether Vial, which means more free beats for Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear.
Spreading Seas is much less of a back breaker for a 2-color deck. Fetch Mountains early when possible. They'll often go ahead and play it on a mountain to try to mana-screw you--and they need the card draw. Common sense says to put in Destructive Revelry because they have Seas and Aether Vial That's like, 8 good targets. But the reality is, now you're dependent on 3 colors, and each Spreading Seas is that much more effective at screwing up your mana base. Make them cast it on mountains. Let them have their Aether Vial, which you know takes several turns to get going, and burn their face off in the mean time.
In addition to being able to parse Burn decks throughout the history of Modern back to August 2011, I can parse all other decks in the 61334 decks in my database. I'm only plotting things since the beginning of 2016, and I split them between white, green, and everything else. I'm also only looking at the fraction of decks that have each card in their sideboard, so a maindeck Finks doesn't count here. If anyone has any suggested cards to look for, let me know and I can put them in. These are approximately the most common cards that gain life plus Spellskite and Leyline of Sanctity.
About 25% of decks have at least one Collective Brutality in the sideboard. It appears that the combination of Fatal Push and the Gitaxian Probe ban killing Infect have pretty much eliminated Spellskite from sideboards. Feed the Clan is also pretty much gone from sideboards, and that's due to the fall of BGx decks in general. Most other cards are seen in 5-10% of decks.
I didn't check for them specifically in the script, but an MTGGoldfish search shows that both Life Goes On and Oketra's Last Mercy are seeing no play. I wouldn't be surprised if decks that want Feed the Clan played Life Goes On, but no one is playing Feed the Clan so no one is thinking about that switch. OLM sees no play, but I think most decks that would play that would rather have Finks or Blessed Alliance.
I gather that Lightning Bolt was regarded as overpowered for a long time and I suppose they took a large step back from Bolt to Incinerate, Volcanic Hammer, and massive downside Bolts like Sonic Seizure. Maybe it's embarrassing, but I have a growing collection of burn spells, even if they're terrible.
Even Incinerate was Extended-type power. The red burn gauntlet in Standard at that time (7-9 eds.) was Shock/Volcanic Hammer.
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Creevy: I really like your mardu list and your thoughts behind gonti's. It's a card I've been very skeptical of and haven't tested yet with how limited my time is. I'm going to be trying -4 shard volley, +4 gonti's machinations from my previous rakdos list and see how that plays along with 4 arid mesa's for the cliffs. I'm still attached to being a two color deck maindeck, especially with only 18 lands and I like revelry too much to give up the green splash just yet. I'm excited to test gonti's, the card makes me nervous but I love the idea of a one mana helix in a deck with 20 bolts.
I've been thinking about tombstalker as anti eldrazi tron tech. Post board they should be going down dismember, karn and all is dust which leaves them cold to a tombstalker. It can brick wall reshapers and tks and flies right over everything for huge chunks of damage. The idea came from wanting a card to help fight chalice of the void that was still good when the e tron player doesn't draw chalice. It's probably too narrow and clunky and only applies to burn decks running black but I just wanted to throw it out there.
Is snapcaster mage too slow for burn? Is that a thing that has been tested and dumped? I'm liking the idea of snapcaster burn with the possibility to run saheeli rai as a repeatable source of damage and card filtering. She combines well with snapcasters already on the field, or when you want to double up on swiftspear prowess triggers. I can't think of a deck that makes her +1 more relevant than burn.
Why not just run Ensnaring Bridge? It hits all the creature MUs as well and is slightly harder to deal with.
Enjoy Standard, Modern and Music (also some Pauper, Momir, Gaming, Animations and Legacy)? Then visit my channel:Here
Modern // Burn (main) and Living End (secondary) now Jund.
For fun check out my janky combo primer: Turn 3 Grixis Combo
"Can't beat em' Jund em'!"
On another note so far we havent received any help from Ixalan. Im not expecting a straight up Burn card thats playable in Modern but maybe we'd get another creature possibility with all the tribal stuff popping out.
The matches were as follows:
Bant Eldrazi: 2-0
Affinity: 2-1
UW Smallpox 2-0
Jeskai Tempo 2-1
UR Gifts Storm 2-0
In the Affinity match the decider was extremely close when my opponent made a misclick, clicking on the wrong Inkmoth Nexus (which had summoning sickness). Had he not done this I may not have won it; it was really on a knife edge. Overall, I won this match by following the hints provided here.
The other games went extremely well. I recall one game where I had the opponent down to three life after just three turns via a turn one Monastery Swiftspear.
Against the Jeskai control deck I made good use of the excellent article on Burn versus Control.
Thanks again to all who helped me out!
Swiftspear can end the game quickly if they can't answer it. Prowess can get out of hand.
When I started playing, this type of damage also had to come at sorcery speed. Times have certainly changed.
I gather that Lightning Bolt was regarded as overpowered for a long time and I suppose they took a large step back from Bolt to Incinerate, Volcanic Hammer, and massive downside Bolts like Sonic Seizure. Maybe it's embarrassing, but I have a growing collection of burn spells, even if they're terrible.
I want to believe that 3 damage + cantrip would cost less than 7 these days: Ember Shot, but 3 damage + scry 1 went from 4 (Lightning Javelin) to 3 (Bolt of Keranos), so I kind of doubt it.
Javelin came after Theros was printed. Frequently when they are shifting a card between more heavily colored mana and less colored, 2 generic is seen as about the same as 1 of color. So 1RR is equivalent to 3R in that way. Strike being back in standard has me unreasonably excited.
Whoops, I guess I assumed that Javelin was a reprint in Origins. I don't play standard, but I would play RDW if I did, so I'm glad Strike is back there.
I have a dream of a Goblin Guide reprint. Goblin standing on a ship's prow in a downpour. Holding a lantern, pointing off the ship and shouting excitedly. Birds of Paradise would also fit very well w/the setting.
First of all: Congratulations!
Where can I read the article on Vontrol vs Burn?
I assume they mean "burn vs counters" by Patrick Sullivan. Here: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27944_Burn-vs-Counters.html
Burn feels like it's in an amazing place right now.
Looking at the Tier decks per salvation
UW Control--This is probably the tougest of the tier 1 decks, but beatable. Instant Speed life gain in Sphinx's rev and Spreading seas=cry. Keep your life-gain cards up, time your spells, etc.
Storm: LOL.
DS:I go on spells where I dominate the matchup, and then find stretches where I can't beat it. I struggle with patience lol, but definitely something I'm comfortable against.
Titanshift: Pre-board we do really well. Post-board--gotta play around the life gain. Winnable.
Affinity: Since switching to Boros, I find myself winning a ton of these. Thinking about going back to RG, but this is another matchup where I like our chances.
Eldrazi Tron: Their nut draws are unbeatable. Their other draws are often slow and clunky. I used to think I couldn't beat it, but I've beat it a lot.
T2:
Tron: another good matchup for us.
Jeskai Cop-Cat: Haven't played against it, but most lists aren't running Helix, which is what has historically made these Jeskai decks so back breaking.
Jeskai Control: Lots of Helix, Sphinx's Rev. I've always struggled vs this deck.
Merfolk: Historically tough, but I feel like the deck is at an all-time high in clunkiness. Merfolk is my 2nd Modern deck, and it just seems like the recent changes to adjust to the meta have hurt it a lot against us. I have a hard time beating Burn if I'm playing Merfolk, and losing when I'm the burn pilot. One thing that has gone a long way, I stopped boarding in Revelry. Going after vial/Spreading seas seems great. Just make the mana base that much more critical, and makes a spreading seas a back breaker.
Counters company: This is another BAD one, but beatable in spots. I always hope to avoid it.
Death and Taxes: Another tough one.
DS Jund: Winnable.
Abzan: Grindy, winnable.
Lantern: Always feels winnable for us.
Dredge: Winnable
Living End: Winnable
Bant Eldrazi: Pretty tough overall. Mana dorks, Eldrazi Temples--You're looking at frequent T3 TKS, T2 often enough to suck. They often get around Eidolon Triggers late. ]
RW Prison: Really annoying/tough matchup. Between Blood moon, chalice, helix,GG mate
I've tested this last night in our regular wed night modern LGS:
- DnT: very very tough. 0-2. 18 lands hurt a lot against thalia
- Storm: Easy to outrace. 2-0 However, I only had 3 wear//tear so for the missing one I put a rakdos charm, and had it in starting hand so when past in flames got cast I responded by clearing the graveyard
- Boros burn (drev in s/b): 2-0. 2x gonti's mechanitions and threats on hand. 8 lifegain versus their 4 lifegain plus 4 antilifegain. Found it interesting that I could sit back and play control pretty well when gonnti's deployeyd, with or without counters
- friendly round: eldrazitron. touch matchups and close races but impossible againsnt chalices
- RG ponza land destruction prison: 0-2. turn 2 blood moon was tough. 2nd game I mull to 4 (no lands). Friendly game with s/b still in deck games were still close but once lifegain comes in (e.g. primal command) it's gg.
Glad to hear the deck did well enough for you. If you notice, the losses came from decks that messed with your lands (DNT, Ponza). Merfolk is rough for us as well. I think this would be true regardless of which version of Burn you run. I'm especially glad to hear that you went 2-0 against Boros Burn, as that's the obvious deck I lose percentage points against with my build.
I also brought it to my LGS on Monday and went 3-1, but all of my matchups happened to be aggressive (Affinity, Jeskai Midrange, and Merfolk x2, one of which I lost to), so I boarded out the black every chance I got. Nothing to really report, although I did win every game pre-board game I played except my round one with Affinity.
Mardu Burn
Monogreen Stompy
Legacy
Burn
Pauper
Dimir Flicker
Monowhite Tokens
I think Merfolk is 50/50 or slightly in our favor now. A creature heavy hand is very hard for them to deal with because of the slowness/clunkiness of the deck. They've gone away from cards that are good vs us, I.E. Tidebinder mage. I typically either play Merfolk or Burn, moreso burn. But as merfolk, my matchups against burn are frustrating. Burn comes out of the gate so quickly, and Merfolk is going to take 3-4 turns to set up. You spend a lot of your Turn 1 going Aether Vial, which means more free beats for Goblin Guide or Monastery Swiftspear.
Spreading Seas is much less of a back breaker for a 2-color deck. Fetch Mountains early when possible. They'll often go ahead and play it on a mountain to try to mana-screw you--and they need the card draw. Common sense says to put in Destructive Revelry because they have Seas and Aether Vial That's like, 8 good targets. But the reality is, now you're dependent on 3 colors, and each Spreading Seas is that much more effective at screwing up your mana base. Make them cast it on mountains. Let them have their Aether Vial, which you know takes several turns to get going, and burn their face off in the mean time.
About 25% of decks have at least one Collective Brutality in the sideboard. It appears that the combination of Fatal Push and the Gitaxian Probe ban killing Infect have pretty much eliminated Spellskite from sideboards. Feed the Clan is also pretty much gone from sideboards, and that's due to the fall of BGx decks in general. Most other cards are seen in 5-10% of decks.
I didn't check for them specifically in the script, but an MTGGoldfish search shows that both Life Goes On and Oketra's Last Mercy are seeing no play. I wouldn't be surprised if decks that want Feed the Clan played Life Goes On, but no one is playing Feed the Clan so no one is thinking about that switch. OLM sees no play, but I think most decks that would play that would rather have Finks or Blessed Alliance.
Even Incinerate was Extended-type power. The red burn gauntlet in Standard at that time (7-9 eds.) was Shock/Volcanic Hammer.