MTG Salvation

Hi all, trying a new take on burn with M14. Has tested really well, usually only loses if i get mana screwed.

I was thinking of trying something like this

Viashino Firstblade also deserves consideration in a deck that aims to keep the opponent under pressure. It trades above its weight class, and 4 toughness means it can survive that first confrontation.

That seems fine to be here. Here's my initial thought for a post-M14 burn build:

Don't run 8 shocks in the maindeck; they're just too low impact off the top; but otherwise you're headed in the right direction.

Ash Zealot is very good here and is a strong replacement for the more marginal burn spells; or you could maindeck Reckoner, which gives you a lot of board control against aggro, and he isn't terrible against control / midrange anyway.

Quote from zemanjaski

Don't run 8 shocks in the maindeck; they're just too low impact off the top; but otherwise you're headed in the right direction.

Ash Zealot is very good here and is a strong replacement for the more marginal burn spells; or you could maindeck Reckoner, which gives you a lot of board control against aggro, and he isn't terrible against control / midrange anyway.

You could be right, Z. I'm just excited to have so many burn spells that also interact with creatures. The 4 Skullcrack/Boros Charm/Thunderbolt package from my recent lists was miserable haha. Perhaps the deck could run just the amazing creatures then 16-20 burn spells to back it up. Boros Reckoner probably interacts more-favorably with aggro than Shock, but also has some merit against control.

I imagine that this deck is going to live and die by Skullcrack versus lifegain (Thragtusk, Sphinx's Revelation or Unflinching Courage), which means it's going to want to leave two mana open until the opponent's end step in those matches, which means that instant-speed burn is going to be very important.

Quote from RDW?

You could be right, Z. I'm just excited to have so many burn spells that also interact with creatures. The 4 Skullcrack/Boros Charm/Thunderbolt package from my recent lists was miserable haha. Perhaps the deck could run just the amazing creatures then 16-20 burn spells to back it up. Boros Reckoner probably interacts more-favorably with aggro than Shock, but also has some merit against control.

I played burn to 1st place at a nationals qualifier about a year ago (SOM-INN); 'shock' is going to be your worst card. The real problem is that that version of the deck had:
- grim lavamancer
- arc trail
- shrine of burning rage

All if which are substantially better than anything we have availae at the moment

How about something like this for a pure burn?

My list:




I don't like Reckoner much. Has Geralf's Messenger syndrome. Looks great on paper, but doesn't really win games. If its not exiled, it just gets chump blocked. 3 mana for 1 damage a turn? Nope. Not good enough.

I don't like Young Pyromancer either. A 1/1 turn 3 and a 2/1 I don't want to swing with? Nope. Rather use Gore-House and trade. Saves me a Spear I can send to the dome.

YMMV, but in my list, Gore-House is pretty much the only 2 drop I like. Its a flex-slot though.

As a side note, you haven't truly lived until you Boros Charm a Spark Trooper...

I've found that when playing boros and burn variants i'm always outpaced by much faster decks like naya or RG, it seems like boros is just less efficient at dealing damage quickly than them, flinthoof boar a potential 3/3 for 2 comes out faster and stronger than any of my boros cards can handle, ash zealot and stromkirk are both completely trumped and reckoner trades with it, but comes out a turn later. BTE is just too efficient and eventually i'm just entirely outpaced and always a turn behind, at the moment it seems as though R/W cannot compete evenly with R/G and as a spike this begs the question why play Boros at all if Gruul just does what Boros aims to do, better?

It's not the time for a burn-based deck. There's too much incidental life gain. When your opponent starts at 30, your Spears are really Shocks - and as Z said, Shock is not a good card in this deck.

I'm definitely interested in this sort of deck post-rotation, assuming the environment will be more hospitable.



Lots of question marks to fill in the curve, but we'll see what Theros provides. Some of the candidate cards depend on how creature-focused this deck ends up being.

burn wont be viable till rotation with all the incidental lifegain hanging around, restotusk is everywhere

Craig Wescoe is currently 2-1 in the standard portion of World Championships with this:


More of a W/r than R/w, but still seems solid. Not sure why he took out Reckoner though.

For sure. Lifegain is a tough blow to deal with. I got lucky by going to 3 first round, but lost to a long grindy army of restoration angels, with the opp countering all my spells in end game.
Match 2, just lost to a fast clock.
Think I might be putting this on the shelf until rotation.

My take on the deck. It's inspired by the Big Red lists but w/ that splash of W.



We'll see how it goes. Not to sure about the single blasphamous act in the main.

I think that Spark Trooper, Blind Obedience, Chandra's Phoenix, and Wild Guess would really help out these lists. Things like Lobber Crew snags a few additional pings at the end of your opponents turn and act as a buffer against aggro decks. For these lists, Lobber Crew is WAY better than Guttersnipe in my opinion. First off, he isn't as obvious as a threat. He doesn't scream "answer me or regret it". He slows your opponents down and if you run a full suite of multi-colored spells such as Boros Charm, Spark Trooper, Warleader's Helix, and possibly Aurelia's Fury you can still get the same 2 damage per turn promised by Guttersnipe but with twice the resilience.

If you are going the W/R route, what about Silence or Aurelia's Fury. Dropping one of those on an opponent's turn can really stifle them giving you much needed time to draw into a finisher. Consider X=3 for Aurelia's Fury. You could deal 1 damage to the player and tap down their too largest threats/blockers and pave the way for an un-/lightly contested Spark Trooper.

Lifegain is going to be important to the success of this deck. I don't mean dedicating space to cards just because of Lifegain but rather cards which support our plan with incidental lifegain. These games are undoubtedly longer than burn really wants, might as well try and have a plan to survive long enough to finish off your opponent. Defensively strong cards (Blind Obedience & Lobber Crew) and incidental life gain (Blind Obedience, Spark Trooper, and Warleader's Helix) are going to be key I think.