Totally agree with thoughts on mutagenic growth. I tested Probe and Growth for a bit in a R/u/g shell and the amount of times you just dont have a good target for it is way too many - very inconsistent. Would much rather draw a 3 dmg spell any day of the week.
My burn deck felt very slow in my last semi-serious tournament. Thus I wanted to up my 1 cmc count and drop down in land count. To do this I introduced B and cut U and all 3 cmc spells - also cut the devils and introduced white primarily for Charm. I have to admit Im very uncomfortable about playing 4 colours and maybe B is not worth it in paper magic as there just wont be as much lifegain floating around at my LGS as there is online. At the same time Im currently not happy with U - so perhaps - R/w/g is something I need to think about..
Does anybody have a breakdown of which deck types burn played against and the results that the burn decks achieved at Worlds. I watched some of the matches and know that both decks went 2-2 - giving burn a 50% 4-4 win rate overall but beyond that Id be interested to know what happened in each game played..
I totally agree with you that he is a top player and Im just a total scrub and anythiung I say is probably ridiculous in comparision to a 6 figure player - I think I acknowledged that - but did you watch him play? I didnt just say what I said without providing supporting evidence.
Anyway maybe he was just having an off day and clearly TC must have been good in the other matchups - even at a strange 4x copies??!! Again as I said before - a great player and im cheering him on as a burn player throughout the tournament.
In regards to Boros - perhaps you're right but Im finding RoG to be pretty essential and Rakdos Charm to be very useful against tokens and a house when you need to exile a GY which I think will become more important as JA Fatesticher with GY sheningans games 2-3 combo gets more popular - the artifact destruction utility is also pretty useful... Bump in the Nght is probably better than any other burn spell outside straight Red except for perhaps Charm (which I play 4x of). One of the problems for me is that U doesnt give you anything else besides 3x TC - which although a strong card leaves you vulnerable as you have to drop other colours to play it. Again Im a scrub and top players are top players - so you can just label me as ridiculous if you want - but that is my reasoning and I like to think of myself as reasonable so Im open to reasoning myself and improving my game..
Imagine if Sheenhar had burn spells in his hand instead of cute mutagenic growth? Why was he playing 4x TC - looks like he died game 1 because of TC and 2 he won with TC in his hand without needing to cast it. Game 3 he lost due to not understandinghow to play with Eidolon.
I get that he is one of the best players the World and knows 10,000x more than me about Magic - but Im going to go out on a lg here and say he is a terrible at burn.
What do you think Leyline of Punishment will deliver over RoG? Sure it hits all methods of life gain including lifelinkers but with 2x in the SB it seems like you will never cast it as you will have to aggressively mulligan to it thus resulting in a poor hand. If you dont mull to it hardcasting it seems improbable to happen in a relevant timeframe - if you can cast it at all playing 19 lands.
For some reason MTG salvation wont allow me to quote - this is in response to mhjames but Im also interested to hear what other players think of RoG in a more detailed way..
I have a GP trial event coming up this weekend. With the resurgence of Burn (due to damn TC?) MD lifegain is rearing its ugly head again and thus I think B is well positioned with RoG (unless of course lifelink is your concern than obviously RoG wont help). I dont like Leyline of Punishment but I suppose Eternal Torment could be viable. I've played a reasonable amount of R/B/W Burn over the last 4 months and will likely run this version of Burn. Despite TC's popularity (and I agree with many of the arguments for using it) I have found that I prefer to run alternative colours. I'm a big fan of Bump, Boros Charm and Helix (especially when running 3x-4x colours) plus the SB cards that B and W offer. Although a large part of me knows I'm stretching by including a 4th colour I've found myself coming unstuck against enchantments lately. Thus I'm torn between the more colour compatible Wear//Tear and the more game plan advancing Destructive Revelry option.
The top players at my LGS will play RUG delver, Affinity, Ad Nauseum, U/W/R control, All-In Twin, Pod, Fate Stitcher Jeskai Ascendancy, Gift Tron. In addition to this there will be a couple of rogue artifact combo decks (eggs like), U/b mill and maybe a Boogle deck. Below is my likely list - all constructive criticism appreciated.
My burn deck felt very slow in my last semi-serious tournament. Thus I wanted to up my 1 cmc count and drop down in land count. To do this I introduced B and cut U and all 3 cmc spells - also cut the devils and introduced white primarily for Charm. I have to admit Im very uncomfortable about playing 4 colours and maybe B is not worth it in paper magic as there just wont be as much lifegain floating around at my LGS as there is online. At the same time Im currently not happy with U - so perhaps - R/w/g is something I need to think about..
Anyway maybe he was just having an off day and clearly TC must have been good in the other matchups - even at a strange 4x copies??!! Again as I said before - a great player and im cheering him on as a burn player throughout the tournament.
In regards to Boros - perhaps you're right but Im finding RoG to be pretty essential and Rakdos Charm to be very useful against tokens and a house when you need to exile a GY which I think will become more important as JA Fatesticher with GY sheningans games 2-3 combo gets more popular - the artifact destruction utility is also pretty useful... Bump in the Nght is probably better than any other burn spell outside straight Red except for perhaps Charm (which I play 4x of). One of the problems for me is that U doesnt give you anything else besides 3x TC - which although a strong card leaves you vulnerable as you have to drop other colours to play it. Again Im a scrub and top players are top players - so you can just label me as ridiculous if you want - but that is my reasoning and I like to think of myself as reasonable so Im open to reasoning myself and improving my game..
I get that he is one of the best players the World and knows 10,000x more than me about Magic - but Im going to go out on a lg here and say he is a terrible at burn.
For some reason MTG salvation wont allow me to quote - this is in response to mhjames but Im also interested to hear what other players think of RoG in a more detailed way..
The top players at my LGS will play RUG delver, Affinity, Ad Nauseum, U/W/R control, All-In Twin, Pod, Fate Stitcher Jeskai Ascendancy, Gift Tron. In addition to this there will be a couple of rogue artifact combo decks (eggs like), U/b mill and maybe a Boogle deck. Below is my likely list - all constructive criticism appreciated.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Bump in the Night
4 Boros Charm
3 Skullcrack
3 Lightning Helix
3 Searing Blaze
4 Arid Mesa
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Blood Crypt
2 Sacred Foundry
1 Stomping Ground
2 Mountain
//Sideboard
SB: 4 Destructive Revelry
SB: 3 Rain of Gore
SB: 3 Rakdos Charm
SB: 2 Deflecting Palm
SB: 1 Kataki, War's Wage
SB: 1 Stony Silence
SB: 1 Skullcrack