MTG Salvation

The goal of this thread is to provide players with a staging point for developing their own budget burn lists. While certainly the easiest course of action is to abandon other colors and build Nineteen-Mountain.dec, the other colors give the deck the ability to handle a variety of threats and allow the budget player to acquire new pieces as his/her budget expands without having to commit to the budget strategy.

They typical burn deck online is already a great budget option usually costing about $200 US. The deck can be built in mono red for less than $50, but again the other colors matter. (Red has next to 0 ways to deal with Leyline of Sanctity for instance which is a big problem).

Sample Budget Burn Deck


Upgrade Options:
Fetches + Searing Blaze: Fetches allow you access to your white mana easier and allow for Main deck Searing Blaze You can avoid Arid Mesa at first using anything that can fetch a mountain to fetch Sacred Foundry.

Eidolon of the Great Revel: Most Burn Decks play this creature to punish other decks. A play set of this card since its from a 3rd set usually runs about $50+

Blood Moon: A powerful hoser sb card. If it were cheaper then Mono Red would be a more viable budget alternative. For the $60-80 a set of blood moon would set you back, you could get a mana base.

Tier 1 Burn Thread (Non Budget):
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-1-modern/219892-burn

Good stuff. Could you provide a monored list as well?

Out of curiosity I checked what tcgplayer priced this out to - where does $70 come in?

Goblin Guides are $17+ apiece... the deck (as listed) is $233.68.

My guess is that these prices are for MTGO. Goblin Guide runs for 8.68 according to mtggoldfish.

A decent black replacement for Eidolon is Sleeper Agent. The card sucks in the Burn mirror or against affinity, but it does a decent Eidolon impression. You also HAVE to play it after combat, as you don't want it blocking your Goblin Guides or Swiftspears. There is also some good synergy with Searing Blaze

And to the OP: Sacred foundry and Battlefield Forge cost just about the same, if not more than Bloodstained Mire's. You could take out three sacred foundry's and two battlefield forges for a playset of Mires and a stomping grounds.

Nice thread.

Have been working on a Modern Burn deck too. But I'm too poor right now to buy Eidolons and Guides. Played during Zendikar standard, so I have the fetches.

Here's the list using the cards that I have:



I used black because I want to use Bump In the Night, and to have Rakdos Charm available against Splinter Twin. The one Guttersnipe has been working well, the reason that I use only one is because he costs 3 mana.

Any suggestions are welcome. Is my mana base ok, or should I add a third Blood Crypt?

I'll second Spark Elemental as a good budget option.

I'm a big fan of Spark Trooper but honestly, in an environment as competitive as Modern it may not be that good.

Also, I'd think in a 2-color deck Magma Jet would still be dang near a staple finding color fixing for you as well as simply by passing pockets of land to prevent flooding.

I might suggest something like:


After that I would prioritize adding Lightning Helix and Boros Charm.

DontYouJIMMYMe

Ok, I've read your suggestions. Thanks.

Actually, I already have 4 Lightning Helix and 2 Boros Charm. However, I made the mistake of buying a playset of Steam Vents.. because I thought Treasure Cruise won't be banned. Would try selling the vents in order to get 2 Sacred Foundry - and maybe some Eidolons too.


alphagprime

Thanks. I'll try to get Spark Elementals too, they seem cheap enough to get at SCG. Hmm, you seem to have played this deck a lot already.. in your opinion, is going three colors a good idea? I'm thinking of making the deck RWB.

Quote from The Fluff »

DontYouJIMMYMe

Ok, I've read your suggestions. Thanks.

Actually, I already have 4 Lightning Helix and 2 Boros Charm. However, I made the mistake of buying a playset of Steam Vents.. because I thought Treasure Cruise won't be banned. Would try selling the vents in order to get 2 Sacred Foundry - and maybe some Eidolons too.


alphagprime

Thanks. I'll try to get Spark Elementals too, they seem cheap enough to get at SCG. Hmm, you seem to have played this deck a lot already.. in your opinion, is going three colors a good idea? I'm thinking of making the deck RWB.

Honestly, for buying singles I highly recommend TCGPlayer.com. They are WAY cheaper than SCG which is often dramatically over priced.

I think you are really better of in R/W. Three colors is rough on the mana base, especially for budget decks. Non-budget decks used to be 3 colors but even they have gone back to just R/W now. B only really adds Bump in the Night and Rakdos Charm in the sideboard . Bump sounds awesome but you really won't use the flashback because its so expensive. Lightning Helix is mega value because it helps keep you in the game long enough to finish off your opponent. Boros Charm produces more damage per mana than any other spell that's out there. Not to mention that it can potentially represent a lot more than just 4 damage depending on if/what kind of creature you have on the field and what it's current power is.

Also, push comes to shove, white also offers a couple other interesting budget options in Warleader's Helix as well as Spark Trooper. Both are 4cmc and are not recommended simply for the mana cost. My recommended deck list to minimize your budget and maximize its competitiveness is:



The 2 basic Plains are to protect against things like Ghost Quarter. Clifftop Retreat should eventually become Sacred Foundry. The damage you take isn't necessarily important because most of the time you are trying to kill as fast as you can. Faster lands are better in that regard.

Shard Volley is a "staple" but honestly, I wouldn't add it in greater than 2 or 3. You don't have enough lands to sac them until its going to be your kill shot. Remember you can also sac the land that you tapped to pay its cost. Goblin Guide is also a "staple" but the only reason creatures are good in this deck is damage vs mana. A Goblin Guide is a crappy Shock if it dies after 1 attack. If it dies after two attacks then its strictly superior to Lightning Bolt. After 3 its straight broken, 6 damage for 1 mana? Holy crap. That being said, if you add creatures to the deck its important to add as many that you can milk for value as possible. That being said Spark Elemental is the first to remove. Hellspark is good because of Unearth so even if it dies you can still potentially get it back. It's also really good because if you are drawing nothing but lands you can just cast Hellsparks from the 'yard to keep up the pressure.

Ok so I was looking through what little cards I have left and came across a few Brute Force now I've seen what most 3 for 1 & RDW builds look like but for budget sake could brute force, Spark Elemental, Magma Jet, Young Pyromancer, etc etc... be a viable build?

Merged with Budget Burn thread
-ktkenshinx-

wrong forum, please read the rules stickied at the top.

Quote from ryand83 »

Ok so I was looking through what little cards I have left and came across a few Brute Force now I've seen what most 3 for 1 & RDW builds look like but for budget sake could brute force, Spark Elemental, Magma Jet, Young Pyromancer, etc etc... be a viable build?

Maybe if you wanted to build some sort of Heroic deck you could use Brute Force but Giant Growth isn't playable in Modern outside of Infect so... Though I admit, Brute Force is cute with Swiftspear. The idea with burn, the thread you got merged into, is to take the shortest path between your hand and the opponent's face. Creatures, typically, don't qualify however some are just so good that they warrant inclusion. Not to mention that there aren't 10 different copies of Lightning Bolt available in Modern so you have to fill the extra slots some how.

Merged with Budget Burn thread
-ktkenshinx-[/quote]

Quote from amalek0 »

wrong forum, please read the rules stickied at the top.

Its not his fault, he didn't originally post that here. The Admin moved it here.

Hellspark is potentially 6 damage, Keldon is only 5. Keldon is at least guaranteed 2 but I still think Hellspark is better.

I've written an article about Budget Burn for anyone curious http://modernnexus.com/burn-on-a-budget/ It covers two monored lists, one $180, one $80.

I read your article. I like the suggestions you make for a mono-red list. What do you think about running Zurgo Bellstriker in place of Firedrinker Satyr? Its a 1 cmc 2 power but has optional haste and dodges sorcery speed removal and doesn't hurt us either.

Probably would be a pretty bad idea since you can't play multiples of them throughout the game. Nothing is more scary than 2 guides attacking in on turn 2.

-Deck prices out to $100.34 without sideboard included, using TCG Low Price.

-Eliminating the Black would save you about $47.00 by Eliminating Fetchlands, Blood Crypt and Dragonskull Summit (Add 10 mountain, replace Bump in the Night with Magma Jet)

-Adding 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel would cost $33.
-Adding 4 Goblin Guide would cost $94.

-Adding 8 Fetches (Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills) and replacing Searing Blood with Searing Blaze would cost $75.
-Adding 3 Sacred Foundry (assuming 8 fetches already added) would cost $28.
-Adding 4 Boros Charm would cost $8.50.
-Adding 4 Lightning Helix would cost $11.
-Adding 1 Path to Exile for the SB would cost $7 each.
-Adding 1 Stony Silence for the SB would cost $3.50 each.
-Adding 1 Deflecting Palm for the SB would cost $.50 each.

-Adding 1 Arid Mesa would cost $26 each.
-Adding 1 Blood Crypt would cost $6 each.
-Adding 1 Stomping Ground would cost $8 each.

-Adding 4 Atarka's Command would cost $17.
-Adding 4 Destructive Revelry for the SB would cost $1.

-Adding 1 Grafdigger's Cage for the SB would cost $2.70 each.

Pricing based off TCG Low as of Wednesday June 17, 2015 @ 3:30 PM Eastern.

Made a Mono-red version for a few bucks.

Has actually been doing really well!

Next step is guides then colors.



I honestly want to drop the 2 Shard Volley

Wow, somebody finally mentioned Blistercoil Weird. I've been wondering about this card for ages.

At worst, I see it as a Monastery Swiftrear sans haste. Is Weird just so terrible that nobody dares test it?

Quote from PenguinPete »

Wow, somebody finally mentioned Blistercoil Weird. I've been wondering about this card for ages.

At worst, I see it as a Monastery Swiftrear sans haste. Is Weird just so terrible that nobody dares test it?

No pun intended but the Weird seems... well, weird in the deck. Anyway, it can pump up due to the burns spells, but the problem as you mentioned is that it lacks haste. It sure does an upside of having to attack, cast a burn spell then untap for defense. At best, it could be like a swiftspear and deal decent damage, but at worse, it could deal 0.

Perhaps some tests will otherwise clarify the weird's potential?