I came here to say the same thing! I haven't tested him because I don't play Burn, but my friends and I had a Pauper tournament and the only game I lost to with my MBC deck was Burn because of Thermo-Alchemist sticking around (never drew my Doom Blades)! The other two games I won because he didn't get him out. It makes Burn so much faster!
Ever since Otherworldly Outburst came out I've been flirting with the idea of trying out a burn list that uses some of the creatures that die at eot or have sacrifice effects, like you have in your list. Not sure I it's better or worse than normal burn decks though. In theory, a mini pump and putting in a 3/2 body to keep the pressure on seems decent but, I just haven't found enough time to test.
Thermo-Alchemist is the real deal. Works really well in quite a few decks. If you're playing anything with red and lots of instants/sorceries it's pretty much an auto-include. Your opponent has to answer it or they will lose. It's probably one of the most format defining commons to come along since Delver.............which it also happens to pair with nicely.
Here's my new list, I play online but the mtgo thread for pauper burn is dead. I generally go 4 and 1 and 3 and 2 in leagues, I've top 8'd 3 times, the 3rd was with the unchanged list.
Burst Lightning I know the Primer suggests to steer clear of shock but I've found that running burst as a 2 of is pretty sweet. It does get kicked against grindier and more controlling matchups and burn doesn't have to lose in the late game if you've made the right decisions, I've won alot of games where I've gone through 5+ lands. My main reason for running it over Incinerate or Flame Rift was that I've found that running too many 2 drops was just clogging up my hand, I won't go more than 13. It's also nice to have more things to do on upkeep after suspending Rift Bolt to play around counter.
Edit: I've found Seal of Fire to be the better shock option, it's very useful with Needle Drop and for hitting Delver of Secrets/ Ninja of the Deep Hours/Face through counter, there are some other interesting interactions as well.
Ty, It'll have to but the reason why I run Raze is because it's a better tempo card, I'd almost not run land removal since tapping out on the for molten is pretty bad tempo wise but I'm not sure since it's been a while since I've tested with molten. I'd suggest running Thermo-Alchemist instead if Molten doesn't work out since Tron has problems with him.
Gorilla shaman you don't really need, Smash to Smithereens is a good selection.
As for pyroblast, I'd do some combination of Relic of Progenitus, Goblin Fireslinger and Seal of Fire. Razortip Whip could also be an option if you're worried about ub teachings. You'll want at least 3 Relic for ub delve, ur drake and ub teachings.
Also my list has changed a bit, It's running a lot better now; I'm going 4 and 1 more than 3 and 2 now, at about a 4-1 ratio but I imagine that will settle down to a 3-2 ratio after I play some more with the new build. I took out thermo since he's kind of win more card against the match-ups that he's good in and a liability in ux, which is 3/4 of the meta, he's sweet if they don't see bounce/removal but otherwise playing him can be a huge tempo loss. I'll update my list and show the changes.
Mogg Fanatic may be a better choice over Goblin Fireslinger since it can hit unflipped delver and spell stutter and since delver would have some trouble blocking it in the early game. Ub delve and ur drake will be able to remove either pretty early though, mogg might live a little longer if they try to save their removal for something juicier, I'm leaning towards mogg; I've a feeling he might be sweet with neonate, needle drop and seal.
I'm completely off Forgotten Cave. It has lost me too many games where I can't use 2 Fireblasts that would otherwise be game winning. When I was playing 2 or more Caves, I would sometimes even have trouble casting the first Fireblast. I don't flood more often than I need to cast those.
Thermo-Alchemist is great in the matches it doesn't get touched. I noticed in approximately half of my games, it would die without dealing damage. So I relegated it to the sideboard for the matches it can go hard.
I've always enjoyed playing burn, and have most of the cards I need already, so I'm putting together a mono red deck below to practice with the players outside of the tournament. Since they've all built decks according to this ruleset, of course I want to play them!
Dang, need to run. That's 52 cards... I figure my sideboard will be a pyroblast, relic of progenitus, gorilla shaman... argh, gotta go! Any suggestions? Comments? Thanks :o)
I've got some bad news. Given your deck building restrictions, I would avoid playing burn. The strength of this archetype is its redundancy - specifically in the one mana, three damage department. I know this isn't the answer you were hoping for, but I'd really suggest moving to something like mono green or white that has a smaller opportunity cost of replacing its staples.
The deck building restrictions seem interesting. I would have to disagree with CalebCalhoun though. IMO I think Burn would be better since you already have so many functional reprints of the decks bread 'n butter. You'll have an easier time sticking to your game plan. You'll probably see a lot less Combo decks in a format like this since those decks rely on consistency.
So, you have 8 spaces to fill? Let's see what we can do.
To help increase consistency add in 2x Faithless Looting. This will get you more cards for cheap and you can pitch any unwanted land cards. Since it has Flashback it will also go a long way in a format like this.
Speaking of Flashback, you should try 2x Firebolt. This will extend your late game reach a great amount.
Then we can add a bit more consistency with the 2 mana, 3 damage options. These aren't good with normal Pauper, but you will definitely need them here. So add 2x Lightning Strike and 2x Searing Spear.
Yes, I'm really enjoying the 2 card limit rule and recommend it to others who want to mix up any paper pauper tournament that they organize. You need to give players a good amount of lead time to build their decks because of that rule, but you end up with new decks, a lot of excitement to try new ideas and a lot of variance between games in terms of the cards that get played. It feels a bit more like the old days so far. The players have dug into their cards instead of netdecking and brought out a lot of classics as well as strong new commons that are barely subpar for regular pauper. Kind of refreshing!
It sounds like fun. While I believe what I said is true (less than 4 Bolts, Chain, Spike, Rift or Fireblast hurts my heart), you can definitely put together enough burn cards to make it work. So rather than be a debbie-downer I'll throw some suggestions your way.
This might be a little greedy on the mana since it's slightly heavy on 2 drops. I can't say for certain, but it's possible that it needs another land. You can afford to run Caves though, sine you're only allowed two Fireblast.
I would avoid cards that don't deal damage. So things like Faithless Looting and whatnot look appealing in their best case scenario, but in their worst case, they literally provide nothing. And this deck will get hellbent typically. You can't really afford to draw one of those filtering spells at that point in the game. That's why it has been common ground for a long time that nothing but cards that deal damage and lands should be in your burn deck.
Excluded options: Collateral Damage, Goblin Fireslinger, Lava Dart, and Reckless Abandon. Not enough creatures for CD or RA and already using Shard Volley and Fireblast so no room for Dart. Fireslinger could be a reasonable option.
Essentially gives the deck 8 copies of Thermo-alchemist, except it can also attack.
Also, with the damage coming off of instant/sorcery spells--I think I would include some number of Gitaxian probe. There's of course value in seeing their hand.
Firebrand Archer is proving to be a fairly reliable thermo 5-8, from what I've seen.
Although it can't ping for 1 by itself, it can attack for 2. This can be extremely relevant in the early game and even longer against a good number of decks. It also allows Burn to play the control/tempo game even better against Aggro decks, being able to shoot down opposing creatures with spells and swinging in with archer, which still ends up dealing 3-5 damage in a turn by itself.
The card earns its place in traditional Burn lists, for sure.
It actually has an interesting effect on Sideboard options against Burn. Used to we didn't have to worry about too many creatures in Burn. Any that we saw were a bit slow like Goblin Fireslinger or they eventually died like Keldon Marauders. For the most part I would sideboard in cards to stop the burn like more efficient counter spells or discard. Then we had to face Thermo-Alchemist who could completely take a game if left unanswered. I had to leave some spot removal in the deck to handle it. Now we have 4 more copies to deal with?! This is ridiculous!
I keep thinking of switching my token makers out for two of Horned Kavu, Keldon Marauder, Jund Hackblade or Naya Hushblade for their combo with burning tree emissary, but my experience with mono black aggro tells me a 3/x creature is almost never relevant in a format with affinity and gurmag angler running around.
Going all in on the burn aspect fixed my issues with tron and turbo-fog, but I am slightly more of a dog to UB decks.
Updated with better drops, took the token makers out.
If Angler and other big threats are an issue then maybe use one of the 2 mana green creatures with Deathtouch in place of Valley Dasher. This will still give you a creature on the battlefield, but it can trade with anything or soak up some removal so your other guys stay around. Thornweald Archer might be the best choice.
If Angler and other big threats are an issue then maybe use one of the 2 mana green creatures with Deathtouch in place of Valley Dasher. This will still give you a creature on the battlefield, but it can trade with anything or soak up some removal so your other guys stay around. Thornweald Archer might be the best choice.
I think if I was going that way I would run Ambush Viper, so I can use it as a kill spell.
The problem with this deck IME is that every deck is running an incredible amount of spot removal in response to stompy being on top. Stompy works by running more creatures than they can removal, and burn largely blanks the removal by running mostly spells and hoping stompy keeps the counterspell count low. 20/20/20 decks like Zoo get hit with both sides, and while it does very well against some decks it can't deal with the meta very well right now.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pauper: UB Wight Phantasm RB Burn UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
[quote from="Darkninja107 »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/other-formats/paper-pauper-and-peasant/paper-pauper-and-peasant-primers/488524-primer-pauper-peasant-burn?comment=106"]The problem with this deck IME is that every deck is running an incredible amount of spot removal in response to stompy being on top. Stompy works by running more creatures than they can removal, and burn largely blanks the removal by running mostly spells and hoping stompy keeps the counterspell count low. 20/20/20 decks like Zoo get hit with both sides, and while it does very well against some decks it can't deal with the meta very well right now.
If that's the case then I'm tempted to suggest splashing black some recursion like Unearth or Wander in Death to recover from spot removal. This would also allow for Bump in the Night to be in the deck which would help extend your reach. That might be pushing the deck more towards a Zoo focus than a Burn focus though.
Or you can add Revive or Reclaim and not worry about splashing black. Reclaim can even grab some Burn spells!
[quote from="Darkninja107 »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/other-formats/paper-pauper-and-peasant/paper-pauper-and-peasant-primers/488524-primer-pauper-peasant-burn?comment=106"]The problem with this deck IME is that every deck is running an incredible amount of spot removal in response to stompy being on top. Stompy works by running more creatures than they can removal, and burn largely blanks the removal by running mostly spells and hoping stompy keeps the counterspell count low. 20/20/20 decks like Zoo get hit with both sides, and while it does very well against some decks it can't deal with the meta very well right now.
If that's the case then I'm tempted to suggest splashing black some recursion like Unearth or Wander in Death to recover from spot removal. This would also allow for Bump in the Night to be in the deck which would help extend your reach. That might be pushing the deck more towards a Zoo focus than a Burn focus though.
Or you can add Revive or Reclaim and not worry about splashing black. Reclaim can even grab some Burn spells!
</blockquote>
Reclaim is actually pretty cool. I might try that one.
I do wish three color lands would be moved down to common though.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pauper: UB Wight Phantasm RB Burn UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Using it to attack is just icing on the cake. The main reason to use it is to have 5-8 Thermo-Alchemist effects. It adds a lot of extra damage to the deck!
Never boarded in the Spears or Smithereens. Flaring pains came in twice, but I never needed them.
I'm terrible at recaps, but...
R1 vs Izzet Blitz: Kinda scary, I did some joking "Am I dead now?", but I burned a few creatures out from under his spell bursts. I think I made a mistake in G2 when I double bolted a cyclopse, I did lose G2, but I pulled a T3 god hand in G3.
R2 vs Elves: Uhh... Main board Martyr was murder. G1 T1, Martyr and he just groaned. G2 I pulled in 2 trickery for 2 Goblins. He never had more than 3 creatures at once and I just calmly burned him out.
R3 vs Domain: He had a bunch of fliers, so in G2 when I boarded in my Flaring Pains (because white deck) I made a mistake to pull out my Curses when Martyr doesn't hit them. Didn't matter; went G1 T3 kill, G2 T4 kill with 2 extra burn cards in hand. Never saw COP: Red.
R4 vs Slivers: Intentional draw. We played for fun. Main board martyr was murder again. I just kept burn spells until he was hellbent, pressured him to keep up while I threaten martyr. Win in 2.
R5 vs Izzet Blitz (different guy, very good player): He was the one who convinced the top 4 to all draw then draw again in R5 for auto top 8... Then he turns around and wants to play it out to try to get top seed in top 8. Really guy??? These were really close games, I used Curse to pressure him again while I just casually burned his creatures off the field. We had some counter fights over burn, etc, but in the end I took it in 3.
Cut to top 8; I'm second seed.
R1 vs same guy as R5: I'm on the play because of my seed, he's not to happy about it. Really tight G1, I had double curse in play with lava spike and Incinerate in hand with him at 5; his turn. He attacks with Kiln Fiend, no blocks, Fiend hit would leave me at 1 life. He taps out to Blessing for lethal- response, Incinerate. I take 3 from an earlier bolt, passes to me with no mana open. Spike, pass, win. G2 he double probe and Preordain can't find a third land and has Island Island. I figure he has a mit of counter or he'd be doing something, so I resolve a Curse when he double probes with mana then. I see nothing from his for awhile except a few scattered counters, he still has a big hand. I'm letting Curse do work... Still plays nothing, still Island Island only. Suddenly windmills a mountain and starts dropping dudes and tapping out. I start flinging burn at his already low life total as Curse had been going for 5ish turns uninterrupted. He dies and reveals a hand of 6 creatures, no spells. He had a horrible hand.
R2 vs Slivers (same guy): Just wrecked house again, took it in 2. Tempo'd with a Martyr threat in both games.
G3 vs Elves (top seed, different guy): I take G1 in a solid fashion, no real resistance to Martyr, just straight burned his face off. G2 I board in all my trickerys so I have 8 board wipes; 1 lander with awesome gas and one martyr, didn't draw a second land. G3, opener has 2 lands, 2 board wipes, 1 curse, 2 Boltish things. Flood out... Lands for days... Literally held 4 Mountains in my hand and played a Martyr as bluff. His board faltered really hard as well after I dump my board wipes; he's got 3 Nettles, 1 land, a mit full of cards, and can't play anything! Curse does work... 4 turns down the road from turn 4 (for shame...) I draw a Fireblast and drop him from 5 to 1 and pass for lethal.
I... was stunned. Really good games, and really fun people. Awesome day.
Anyway, were I to make some changes I'd probably go -1 land, -2 Goblin, +3 Probe. The hand info would be wonderful (especially against Blitz), the one less land should reduce some flooding but I'm also adding deck sift. I'd also drop the Searing Spears for better creature removal, I found that I had to stall and let Curse do some work in some matches and better removal like Flame Slash would have done me a ton of good.
This was literally my first day playing the deck in a non-goldfish mode, any advice is certainly welcome; I'll be keeping this deck around for future use and tuning.
Never boarded in the Spears or Smithereens. Flaring pains came in twice, but I never needed them.
I'm terrible at recaps, but...
R1 vs Izzet Blitz: Kinda scary, I did some joking "Am I dead now?", but I burned a few creatures out from under his spell bursts. I think I made a mistake in G2 when I double bolted a cyclopse, I did lose G2, but I pulled a T3 god hand in G3.
R2 vs Elves: Uhh... Main board Martyr was murder. G1 T1, Martyr and he just groaned. G2 I pulled in 2 trickery for 2 Goblins. He never had more than 3 creatures at once and I just calmly burned him out.
R3 vs Domain: He had a bunch of fliers, so in G2 when I boarded in my Flaring Pains (because white deck) I made a mistake to pull out my Curses when Martyr doesn't hit them. Didn't matter; went G1 T3 kill, G2 T4 kill with 2 extra burn cards in hand. Never saw COP: Red.
R4 vs Slivers: Intentional draw. We played for fun. Main board martyr was murder again. I just kept burn spells until he was hellbent, pressured him to keep up while I threaten martyr. Win in 2.
R5 vs Izzet Blitz (different guy, very good player): He was the one who convinced the top 4 to all draw then draw again in R5 for auto top 8... Then he turns around and wants to play it out to try to get top seed in top 8. Really guy??? These were really close games, I used Curse to pressure him again while I just casually burned his creatures off the field. We had some counter fights over burn, etc, but in the end I took it in 3.
Cut to top 8; I'm second seed.
R1 vs same guy as R5: I'm on the play because of my seed, he's not to happy about it. Really tight G1, I had double curse in play with lava spike and Incinerate in hand with him at 5; his turn. He attacks with Kiln Fiend, no blocks, Fiend hit would leave me at 1 life. He taps out to Blessing for lethal- response, Incinerate. I take 3 from an earlier bolt, passes to me with no mana open. Spike, pass, win. G2 he double probe and Preordain can't find a third land and has Island Island. I figure he has a mit of counter or he'd be doing something, so I resolve a Curse when he double probes with mana then. I see nothing from his for awhile except a few scattered counters, he still has a big hand. I'm letting Curse do work... Still plays nothing, still Island Island only. Suddenly windmills a mountain and starts dropping dudes and tapping out. I start flinging burn at his already low life total as Curse had been going for 5ish turns uninterrupted. He dies and reveals a hand of 6 creatures, no spells. He had a horrible hand.
R2 vs Slivers (same guy): Just wrecked house again, took it in 2. Tempo'd with a Martyr threat in both games.
G3 vs Elves (top seed, different guy): I take G1 in a solid fashion, no real resistance to Martyr, just straight burned his face off. G2 I board in all my trickerys so I have 8 board wipes; 1 lander with awesome gas and one martyr, didn't draw a second land. G3, opener has 2 lands, 2 board wipes, 1 curse, 2 Boltish things. Flood out... Lands for days... Literally held 4 Mountains in my hand and played a Martyr as bluff. His board faltered really hard as well after I dump my board wipes; he's got 3 Nettles, 1 land, a mit full of cards, and can't play anything! Curse does work... 4 turns down the road from turn 4 (for shame...) I draw a Fireblast and drop him from 5 to 1 and pass for lethal.
I... was stunned. Really good games, and really fun people. Awesome day.
Anyway, were I to make some changes I'd probably go -1 land, -2 Goblin, +3 Probe. The hand info would be wonderful (especially against Blitz), the one less land should reduce some flooding but I'm also adding deck sift. I'd also drop the Searing Spears for better creature removal, I found that I had to stall and let Curse do some work in some matches and better removal like Flame Slash would have done me a ton of good.
This was literally my first day playing the deck in a non-goldfish mode, any advice is certainly welcome; I'll be keeping this deck around for future use and tuning.
I hope you all enjoyed the recap.
Nicely done! Martyr maindeck is a unique choice, what led to it?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Pauper: UB Wight Phantasm RB Burn UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy: R Burn CG-Post
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Ever since Otherworldly Outburst came out I've been flirting with the idea of trying out a burn list that uses some of the creatures that die at eot or have sacrifice effects, like you have in your list. Not sure I it's better or worse than normal burn decks though. In theory, a mini pump and putting in a 3/2 body to keep the pressure on seems decent but, I just haven't found enough time to test.
Lands: 19
17 Mountain
2 Forgotten Cave
Creatures: 9
3 Keldon Marauders
3 Thermo-Alchemist -3
3 Insolent Neonate + 1
Enchantments: 4
4 Curse of the Pierced Heart
+2 Seal of Fire
Soreceries: 12
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Chain Lightning
Instants: 16
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Needle Drop
3 Searing Blaze
3 Fireblast
2 Burst Lightning -2
+2 Incinerate
Sideboard: 15
1 Relic of Progenitus +1
2 Electrickery
2 Raze
2 Gorilla Shaman -1
2 Smash to Smithereens
3 Martyr of Ashes
3 Pyroblast
Burst Lightning I know the Primer suggests to steer clear of shock but I've found that running burst as a 2 of is pretty sweet. It does get kicked against grindier and more controlling matchups and burn doesn't have to lose in the late game if you've made the right decisions, I've won alot of games where I've gone through 5+ lands. My main reason for running it over Incinerate or Flame Rift was that I've found that running too many 2 drops was just clogging up my hand, I won't go more than 13. It's also nice to have more things to do on upkeep after suspending Rift Bolt to play around counter.
Edit: I've found Seal of Fire to be the better shock option, it's very useful with Needle Drop and for hitting Delver of Secrets/ Ninja of the Deep Hours/Face through counter, there are some other interesting interactions as well.
Gorilla shaman you don't really need, Smash to Smithereens is a good selection.
As for pyroblast, I'd do some combination of Relic of Progenitus, Goblin Fireslinger and Seal of Fire. Razortip Whip could also be an option if you're worried about ub teachings. You'll want at least 3 Relic for ub delve, ur drake and ub teachings.
Also my list has changed a bit, It's running a lot better now; I'm going 4 and 1 more than 3 and 2 now, at about a 4-1 ratio but I imagine that will settle down to a 3-2 ratio after I play some more with the new build. I took out thermo since he's kind of win more card against the match-ups that he's good in and a liability in ux, which is 3/4 of the meta, he's sweet if they don't see bounce/removal but otherwise playing him can be a huge tempo loss. I'll update my list and show the changes.
It's a common, and is extremely powerful
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Needle Drop
1 Implement of Combustion
4 Curse of the Pierced Heart
4 Flame Rift
4 Searing Blaze
4 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast
3 Electrickery
4 Smash to Smithereens
4 Thermo-Alchemist
4 Molten Rain
I'm completely off Forgotten Cave. It has lost me too many games where I can't use 2 Fireblasts that would otherwise be game winning. When I was playing 2 or more Caves, I would sometimes even have trouble casting the first Fireblast. I don't flood more often than I need to cast those.
Thermo-Alchemist is great in the matches it doesn't get touched. I noticed in approximately half of my games, it would die without dealing damage. So I relegated it to the sideboard for the matches it can go hard.
Just organized my second pauper tournament recently and thought you might be interested to hear a twist on pauper rules that we're using.
So, the tournament is paper pauper with the big twist being that only 2 copies of any card are allowed in a deck, outside of basic lands. Also, the sideboard is only 5 cards, not 15. There is a banned list of 14 cards (pretty typical) which are: Cloud of Faeries, Cloudpost, Cranial Plating, Empty the Warrens, Frantic Search, Grapeshot, Invigorate, Temporal Fissure, Treasure Cruise, Sinkhole, Merchant Scroll, Hymn to Tourach, High Tide, and Goblin Grenade.
I've always enjoyed playing burn, and have most of the cards I need already, so I'm putting together a mono red deck below to practice with the players outside of the tournament. Since they've all built decks according to this ruleset, of course I want to play them!
2 Keldon Marauders
2 Thermo-Alchemist
2 Mogg Fanatic
2 Spark Elemental
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Chain Lightning
2 Lava Spike
2 Rift Bolt
2 Needle Drop
2 Searing Blaze
2 Incinerate
2 Flame Rift
2 Molten Rain
2 Staggershock
2 Fireblast
Dang, need to run. That's 52 cards... I figure my sideboard will be a pyroblast, relic of progenitus, gorilla shaman... argh, gotta go! Any suggestions? Comments? Thanks :o)
The deck building restrictions seem interesting. I would have to disagree with CalebCalhoun though. IMO I think Burn would be better since you already have so many functional reprints of the decks bread 'n butter. You'll have an easier time sticking to your game plan. You'll probably see a lot less Combo decks in a format like this since those decks rely on consistency.
So, you have 8 spaces to fill? Let's see what we can do.
To help increase consistency add in 2x Faithless Looting. This will get you more cards for cheap and you can pitch any unwanted land cards. Since it has Flashback it will also go a long way in a format like this.
Speaking of Flashback, you should try 2x Firebolt. This will extend your late game reach a great amount.
Then we can add a bit more consistency with the 2 mana, 3 damage options. These aren't good with normal Pauper, but you will definitely need them here. So add 2x Lightning Strike and 2x Searing Spear.
As far as Sideboard I would go with the options you already listed and add in some Smash to Smithereens and maybe Goblin Fireslinger against control.
Yes, I'm really enjoying the 2 card limit rule and recommend it to others who want to mix up any paper pauper tournament that they organize. You need to give players a good amount of lead time to build their decks because of that rule, but you end up with new decks, a lot of excitement to try new ideas and a lot of variance between games in terms of the cards that get played. It feels a bit more like the old days so far. The players have dug into their cards instead of netdecking and brought out a lot of classics as well as strong new commons that are barely subpar for regular pauper. Kind of refreshing!
2 Forgotten Cave
2 Mogg Fanatic
2 Spark Elemental
2 Keldon Marauders
2 Thermo-Alchemist
2 Chain Lightning
2 Implement of Combustion
2 Lava Spike
2 Lightning Bolt
2 Needle Drop
2 Shard Volley
2 Curse of the Pierced Heart
2 Fire Ambush
2 Flame Rift
2 Incinerate
2 Lightning Strike
2 Searing Spear
2 Searing Blaze
2 Thunderbolt
2 Rhystic Lightning
2 Rift Bolt
2 Fireblast
2 Martyr of Ashes
2 Electrickery
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Pyroblast
1 Font of Ire
2 Lash Out
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Molten Rain
This might be a little greedy on the mana since it's slightly heavy on 2 drops. I can't say for certain, but it's possible that it needs another land. You can afford to run Caves though, sine you're only allowed two Fireblast.
I would avoid cards that don't deal damage. So things like Faithless Looting and whatnot look appealing in their best case scenario, but in their worst case, they literally provide nothing. And this deck will get hellbent typically. You can't really afford to draw one of those filtering spells at that point in the game. That's why it has been common ground for a long time that nothing but cards that deal damage and lands should be in your burn deck.
Excluded options: Collateral Damage, Goblin Fireslinger, Lava Dart, and Reckless Abandon. Not enough creatures for CD or RA and already using Shard Volley and Fireblast so no room for Dart. Fireslinger could be a reasonable option.
Essentially gives the deck 8 copies of Thermo-alchemist, except it can also attack.
Also, with the damage coming off of instant/sorcery spells--I think I would include some number of Gitaxian probe. There's of course value in seeing their hand.
Although it can't ping for 1 by itself, it can attack for 2. This can be extremely relevant in the early game and even longer against a good number of decks. It also allows Burn to play the control/tempo game even better against Aggro decks, being able to shoot down opposing creatures with spells and swinging in with archer, which still ends up dealing 3-5 damage in a turn by itself.
The card earns its place in traditional Burn lists, for sure.
UGTurboFogGU
BRSacrificial AggroBR
16The Paper Pauper Battle Bag16
EDH
BRRakdos, Lord of PingersBR
GTitania, Protector of ArgothG
UB Ramses OverdarkUB
Sig by Ace5301 of Ace of Spades Studio
8 Mountain
8 Forest
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flame Rift
4 Thunderous Wrath
4 Chain Lightning
4 Kird Ape
2 Hooting Mandrills
4 Mogg War Marshal
4 Mire Boa
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Nest Invader
3 Raze
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Curse of the Pierced Heart
3 Electrickery
3 Flame Slash
I keep thinking of switching my token makers out for two of Horned Kavu, Keldon Marauder, Jund Hackblade or Naya Hushblade for their combo with burning tree emissary, but my experience with mono black aggro tells me a 3/x creature is almost never relevant in a format with affinity and gurmag angler running around.
Going all in on the burn aspect fixed my issues with tron and turbo-fog, but I am slightly more of a dog to UB decks.
Updated with better drops, took the token makers out.
3 Skyshroud Ridgeback
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Kird Ape
4 Flame Rift
2 Hooting Mandrills
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Burning-Tree Emissary
4 Valley Dasher
4 Chain Lightning
3 Mire Boa
4 Thunderous Wrath
8 Forest
3 Raze
3 Ancient Grudge
3 Curse of the Pierced Heart
3 Electrickery
3 Flame Slash
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
I think if I was going that way I would run Ambush Viper, so I can use it as a kill spell.
The problem with this deck IME is that every deck is running an incredible amount of spot removal in response to stompy being on top. Stompy works by running more creatures than they can removal, and burn largely blanks the removal by running mostly spells and hoping stompy keeps the counterspell count low. 20/20/20 decks like Zoo get hit with both sides, and while it does very well against some decks it can't deal with the meta very well right now.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
If that's the case then I'm tempted to suggest splashing black some recursion like Unearth or Wander in Death to recover from spot removal. This would also allow for Bump in the Night to be in the deck which would help extend your reach. That might be pushing the deck more towards a Zoo focus than a Burn focus though.
Or you can add Revive or Reclaim and not worry about splashing black. Reclaim can even grab some Burn spells!
Reclaim is actually pretty cool. I might try that one.
I do wish three color lands would be moved down to common though.
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post
4 Martyr of Ashes
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Chain Lightning
4 Searing Blaze
4 Incinerate
4 Flame Rift
4 Fireblast
18 Mountain
4 Electrickery
4 Flaring Pain
4 Smash to Smithereens
3 Searing Spear
Never boarded in the Spears or Smithereens. Flaring pains came in twice, but I never needed them.
I'm terrible at recaps, but...
R1 vs Izzet Blitz: Kinda scary, I did some joking "Am I dead now?", but I burned a few creatures out from under his spell bursts. I think I made a mistake in G2 when I double bolted a cyclopse, I did lose G2, but I pulled a T3 god hand in G3.
R2 vs Elves: Uhh... Main board Martyr was murder. G1 T1, Martyr and he just groaned. G2 I pulled in 2 trickery for 2 Goblins. He never had more than 3 creatures at once and I just calmly burned him out.
R3 vs Domain: He had a bunch of fliers, so in G2 when I boarded in my Flaring Pains (because white deck) I made a mistake to pull out my Curses when Martyr doesn't hit them. Didn't matter; went G1 T3 kill, G2 T4 kill with 2 extra burn cards in hand. Never saw COP: Red.
R4 vs Slivers: Intentional draw. We played for fun. Main board martyr was murder again. I just kept burn spells until he was hellbent, pressured him to keep up while I threaten martyr. Win in 2.
R5 vs Izzet Blitz (different guy, very good player): He was the one who convinced the top 4 to all draw then draw again in R5 for auto top 8... Then he turns around and wants to play it out to try to get top seed in top 8. Really guy??? These were really close games, I used Curse to pressure him again while I just casually burned his creatures off the field. We had some counter fights over burn, etc, but in the end I took it in 3.
Cut to top 8; I'm second seed.
R1 vs same guy as R5: I'm on the play because of my seed, he's not to happy about it. Really tight G1, I had double curse in play with lava spike and Incinerate in hand with him at 5; his turn. He attacks with Kiln Fiend, no blocks, Fiend hit would leave me at 1 life. He taps out to Blessing for lethal- response, Incinerate. I take 3 from an earlier bolt, passes to me with no mana open. Spike, pass, win. G2 he double probe and Preordain can't find a third land and has Island Island. I figure he has a mit of counter or he'd be doing something, so I resolve a Curse when he double probes with mana then. I see nothing from his for awhile except a few scattered counters, he still has a big hand. I'm letting Curse do work... Still plays nothing, still Island Island only. Suddenly windmills a mountain and starts dropping dudes and tapping out. I start flinging burn at his already low life total as Curse had been going for 5ish turns uninterrupted. He dies and reveals a hand of 6 creatures, no spells. He had a horrible hand.
R2 vs Slivers (same guy): Just wrecked house again, took it in 2. Tempo'd with a Martyr threat in both games.
G3 vs Elves (top seed, different guy): I take G1 in a solid fashion, no real resistance to Martyr, just straight burned his face off. G2 I board in all my trickerys so I have 8 board wipes; 1 lander with awesome gas and one martyr, didn't draw a second land. G3, opener has 2 lands, 2 board wipes, 1 curse, 2 Boltish things. Flood out... Lands for days... Literally held 4 Mountains in my hand and played a Martyr as bluff. His board faltered really hard as well after I dump my board wipes; he's got 3 Nettles, 1 land, a mit full of cards, and can't play anything! Curse does work... 4 turns down the road from turn 4 (for shame...) I draw a Fireblast and drop him from 5 to 1 and pass for lethal.
I... was stunned. Really good games, and really fun people. Awesome day.
Anyway, were I to make some changes I'd probably go -1 land, -2 Goblin, +3 Probe. The hand info would be wonderful (especially against Blitz), the one less land should reduce some flooding but I'm also adding deck sift. I'd also drop the Searing Spears for better creature removal, I found that I had to stall and let Curse do some work in some matches and better removal like Flame Slash would have done me a ton of good.
This was literally my first day playing the deck in a non-goldfish mode, any advice is certainly welcome; I'll be keeping this deck around for future use and tuning.
I hope you all enjoyed the recap.
"Reveal a Dragon"
Nicely done! Martyr maindeck is a unique choice, what led to it?
UB Wight Phantasm
RB Burn
UR Faerie Rites of Initiation
Legacy:
R Burn
CG-Post