"I think it's the closest to getting Chain Lightning that we'll ever see in Modern, and being a sorcery doesn't bother me at all. I know that I'd have no hesitation about adding Chain Lightning, and this is doing a good Chain Lightning impression if you can cast it for R sufficiently often."
You'ree hyping Skewer up to be closer to Chain Lighting rather than Rift Bolt which is just absurd. Even Rift Bolt can ALWAYS be suspended for R. Skewer is a situational Bolt that has a requirement to be R= 3 damage. That is not the case for Chain Lightning, but is for cards such as Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, or even something like Thunderous Wrath with each of those cards progressively worse in the situation needed to pull off the requirement.
Also since when is doing damage to your opponent flavor text for burn?
Skewer is closer to Chain Lightning than Rift Bolt. If you want to play Rift Bolt for 1, you are always spending a turn. With Skewer, you are spending a card. We were planning on spending that card anyways; we don't love wasting time. More often than not, Skewer is a Chain Lightning that must be the second card you cast in a turn. The more bolts you run, the more true this becomes.
"I think it's the closest to getting Chain Lightning that we'll ever see in Modern, and being a sorcery doesn't bother me at all. I know that I'd have no hesitation about adding Chain Lightning, and this is doing a good Chain Lightning impression if you can cast it for R sufficiently often."
You'ree hyping Skewer up to be closer to Chain Lighting rather than Rift Bolt which is just absurd. Even Rift Bolt can ALWAYS be suspended for R. Skewer is a situational Bolt that has a requirement to be R= 3 damage. That is not the case for Chain Lightning, but is for cards such as Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, or even something like Thunderous Wrath with each of those cards progressively worse in the situation needed to pull off the requirement.
Also since when is doing damage to your opponent flavor text for burn?
I think you're wrong that it's closer to rift bolt than chain lightning. The condition to be R=3 is "play a Burn game plan".
It's flavor text when they don't cast things that trigger it. It's not "whenever your opponent casts a spell, ping them". It triggers on non-creature only, so a lot of an affinity deck won't care about that. KCI will, though. In matchups where you're gunning for the leyline, it won't trigger on the creatures they drop but it will trigger for things like iok. It will trigger on bogles' enchantments, but they're gaining 6 this turn and next turn and the turn after that and whoops game over just in time to blow up leyline.
"I think it's the closest to getting Chain Lightning that we'll ever see in Modern, and being a sorcery doesn't bother me at all. I know that I'd have no hesitation about adding Chain Lightning, and this is doing a good Chain Lightning impression if you can cast it for R sufficiently often."
You'ree hyping Skewer up to be closer to Chain Lighting rather than Rift Bolt which is just absurd. Even Rift Bolt can ALWAYS be suspended for R. Skewer is a situational Bolt that has a requirement to be R= 3 damage. That is not the case for Chain Lightning, but is for cards such as Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, or even something like Thunderous Wrath with each of those cards progressively worse in the situation needed to pull off the requirement.
Also since when is doing damage to your opponent flavor text for burn?
I think you're wrong that it's closer to rift bolt than chain lightning. The condition to be R=3 is "play a Burn game plan", and when you can do that it's R=3 now rather than next upkeep.
It's flavor text when they don't cast things that trigger it (though it may cause them to withhold spells, and then it's not flavor text). It's not "whenever your opponent casts a spell, ping them". It triggers on non-creature only, so a lot of an affinity deck won't care about that. KCI will, though. In matchups where you're gunning for the leyline, it won't trigger on the creatures they drop but it will trigger for things like iok. It will trigger on bogles' enchantments, but they're gaining 6 this turn and next turn and the turn after that and whoops game over just in time to blow up leyline (it's not worth trying to beat bogles).
I think it's much closer to rift bolt than you think. Also, it forces you to play at sorcery speed more. Maybe that doesn't matter much but I suspect it does a bit.
Rain of Gore just seems terrible unless you are literally playing soul sisters or thopter sword. Which if you are I would suggest you reconsider your life choices. Assassin's Trophy seems hard to cast, if you don't draw 2 fetches early.
Skewer does seem to make Rakdos "better" in that you can cut 8 white cards for it and Bump in the Night. But then you are still maining skullcrack.
It probably comes down to Rest in Peace vs. Rakdos Charm, assuming we don't care about enchantments. I don't seem myself getting Blackcleave Cliffs anytime soon though.
Wait. Isn't RW heavily favored vs. BR burn (pseudo-mirror).
I will probably just test Skewer > Skullcrack and Cinder Vines > Drev in RWg. I will miss deflecting palm though (have to put skullcracks somewhere).
"I think it's the closest to getting Chain Lightning that we'll ever see in Modern, and being a sorcery doesn't bother me at all. I know that I'd have no hesitation about adding Chain Lightning, and this is doing a good Chain Lightning impression if you can cast it for R sufficiently often."
You'ree hyping Skewer up to be closer to Chain Lighting rather than Rift Bolt which is just absurd. Even Rift Bolt can ALWAYS be suspended for R. Skewer is a situational Bolt that has a requirement to be R= 3 damage. That is not the case for Chain Lightning, but is for cards such as Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, or even something like Thunderous Wrath with each of those cards progressively worse in the situation needed to pull off the requirement.
Also since when is doing damage to your opponent flavor text for burn?
I think you're wrong that it's closer to rift bolt than chain lightning. The condition to be R=3 is "play a Burn game plan".
It's flavor text when they don't cast things that trigger it. It's not "whenever your opponent casts a spell, ping them". It triggers on non-creature only, so a lot of an affinity deck won't care about that. KCI will, though. In matchups where you're gunning for the leyline, it won't trigger on the creatures they drop but it will trigger for things like iok. It will trigger on bogles' enchantments, but they're gaining 6 this turn and next turn and the turn after that and whoops game over just in time to blow up leyline.
That is the whole point! It is still conditional. Is it going happen to be R=3 a decent amount of the time? Sure but there going to be times when it's not, and possibly not be able to be even castable with only 2 lands in play. That is why it is not close to Chain Lightning. Chain Lightning is ALWAYS R=3 with potential for RRR=6 under normal circumstances. You know what you can do at sorcery speed with no damage potential on the table (plenty of times our creatures get outclassed fast) and only 2 lands? Suspend a Rift Bolt. It is going to be similar to Searing Blaze in that there are going to be times where it is a dead card or not full value due to the board state.
With all that said I think this makes Grim Lavamancer even more needed in the deck as a 2 of. He was already great at helping keep creature decks in check, but he now plays double duty even more.
"I think it's the closest to getting Chain Lightning that we'll ever see in Modern, and being a sorcery doesn't bother me at all. I know that I'd have no hesitation about adding Chain Lightning, and this is doing a good Chain Lightning impression if you can cast it for R sufficiently often."
You'ree hyping Skewer up to be closer to Chain Lighting rather than Rift Bolt which is just absurd. Even Rift Bolt can ALWAYS be suspended for R. Skewer is a situational Bolt that has a requirement to be R= 3 damage. That is not the case for Chain Lightning, but is for cards such as Rift Bolt, Shard Volley, or even something like Thunderous Wrath with each of those cards progressively worse in the situation needed to pull off the requirement.
Also since when is doing damage to your opponent flavor text for burn?
I think you're wrong that it's closer to rift bolt than chain lightning. The condition to be R=3 is "play a Burn game plan".
It's flavor text when they don't cast things that trigger it. It's not "whenever your opponent casts a spell, ping them". It triggers on non-creature only, so a lot of an affinity deck won't care about that. KCI will, though. In matchups where you're gunning for the leyline, it won't trigger on the creatures they drop but it will trigger for things like iok. It will trigger on bogles' enchantments, but they're gaining 6 this turn and next turn and the turn after that and whoops game over just in time to blow up leyline.
That is the whole point! It is still conditional. Is it going happen to be R=3 a decent amount of the time? Sure but there going to be times when it's not, and possibly not be able to be even castable with only 2 lands in play. That is why it is not close to Chain Lightning. Chain Lightning is ALWAYS R=3 with potential for RRR=6 under normal circumstances. You know what you can do at sorcery speed with no damage potential on the table (plenty of times our creatures get outclassed fast) and only 2 lands? Suspend a Rift Bolt. It is going to be similar to Searing Blaze in that there are going to be times where it is a dead card or not full value due to the board state.
With all that said I think this makes Grim Lavamancer even more needed in the deck as a 2 of. He was already great at helping keep creature decks in check, but he now plays double duty even more.
Thanks for the explanation of how Chain Lightning can be cast. I definitely couldn't remember that it has a mana cost of R. You're familiar with analogies, right? I didn't say that Skewer the Critics is literally the second coming of Chain Lightning. I said that I expect that it will very often be cast for R and will do a "good impression" of Chain Lightning. I also said that I fully expect that it's the closest thing to Chain Lightning that Modern will get.
As for sorcery speed, so what? Chain Lightning is sorcery speed. If they had literally just printed Chain Lightning, would you be saying "eh, I dunno, it's sorcery speed, though"? No. Legacy Burn has been playing 4 Instant Bolts, 4 Sorcery Bolt, 4 Sorcery player-only Bolts, and 4 delayed-Sorcery Bolts for more than a decade at this point. That combination of Bolt variants is fine-and-dandy. For that matter, Legacy Burn is probably about to add 4 Sorcery-you-can-play-right-after-other-Bolts Bolts to the mix.
I stand by those statements and see nothing fundamentally wrong with them. You can talk about how absurd/hilarious you think those perfectly reasonable statements are if that is how you want to spend your time. I've explained myself and I see no reason to explain myself again.
If rakdos will be the best, would Fireblade Artist not be a good inclusion? Its atleast likely to be a shock. And throwing guides and swiftspears to the face when there outclased?
That card isn't playable in Burn. You use Guides and Swiftspears as fogs to buy time when they're outclassed. Fireblade Artist only lets you sacrifice one creature at the beginning of your upkeep, not as many as you want whenever you want. If you want repeatable shocks: Grim Lavamancer.
Wow what a way to divert the conversation into something that I never made a big deal about. The conversation was to differentiate the difference between Chain Lightning and Rift Bolt to see which one Skewer the Critics was akin to. News flash for ya, all 3 spells that were being discussed as the main topic are Sorcery Speed. This wasn't a win or lose argument as we both agree that it should be played in Modern burn, but when you divert the discussion into something that wasn't even a point of contention then you start to lose your side of the discussion.
The only reason I made the statement which had sorcery speed in it was to further explain the criteria for the scenario.
The discussion was derailed when one party said the other was saying things that are "hilarious" and "absurd". That's not how respectful disagreements take place and there's no reason to be hostile like that. I recognize I've repeatedly done that myself, but I've made a conscious effort to avoid doing it of late because it doesn't lead to productive discussions and alienates people.
What will make Skewer "like" Chain Lightning is how easily you can turn on Spectacle. If you're turning on Spectacle sufficiently often, not led to make bad decisions to achieve it, and it rarely languishes in your hand because it's uncastable, then it's "like" Chain Lightning. If the condition to turn on Spectacle is easy to meet, then it's almost as if there's no condition at all.
Everything you just said is 100% correct in that we collectively need to remain respect and thus I will apologize for being insultive.
At this point I agree to disagree about the core of our discussion, but continue to agree that this card is an automatic 4 of now going forward in Modern.
Quote from Agroplaya »
If rakdos will be the best, would Fireblade Artist not be a good inclusion? Its atleast likely to be a shock. And throwing guides and swiftspears to the face when there outclased?
That card isn't playable in Burn. You use Guides and Swiftspears as fogs to buy time when they're outclassed. Fireblade Artist only lets you sacrifice one creature at the beginning of your upkeep, not as many as you want whenever you want. If you want repeatable shocks: Grim Lavamancer.
Grim would defenitly be in my list. Didnt know that "Safrifice a creature" means i can only sac 1 creature, really thought i could sac multiple.
Evidently, he's missing one land and either intentionally left it out because he wanted to see who is paying attention or he screwed up and that's the story he's telling to hide it.
A few things: I don't think that Light up the Stage is playable in Burn (I bet Phoenix decks and Mardu Pyro decks play it, though). I just think that a Burn spell is better than a straight draw spell like that. 4 Shard Volley is way too many for an 18 land deck. I know Legacy plays 4 Fireblast, but Fireblast is leaps and bounds better than Volley. Gut Shot? I'd rather pay mana for more damage, but I can see how it might be necessary to make LutS better. His sideboard is odd, too. Dragons Claw (and Kor Firewalker for white Burn) is not worth it because Burn isn't 30% of the meta. I think RCharm is too cute and should probably just be Smash with Grave hate replacing Claw. I firmly believe Eidolon should be in the main of all Burn decks, and he said on Twitter he was thinking of moving it to the main over Blaze.
In general, I understand the desire for low CMC, but I don't really understand the decision to play a low CMC even if it means making what look like bad deck building decisions (LutS, GS, too many Volley). Burn already has a pretty low CMC and 2cmc cards can get pushed out by better 1cmc cards, but Gut Shot and LutS aren't it.
An aside: does he work for/write for any of the big stores? The way he alluded in Twitter to Gut Shot being strong reminds me of that "zomg Manamorphose should be in Burn" phase we went through that I'm pretty sure was motivated by stores wanting to sell excess Manamorphose.
That's what pros are advocated to do though. Promote ideas to sell cards. It's sorta part of what they do. Personally I think he will end up dropped LutS and gut shots and go back to 19 lands. I've watched some of his game play on YouTube and I have a hard time believing he will back that list up very long.
Yeah, I know that their job is to get people excited and get excited people to buy cards, otherwise they wouldn't be worth paying to produce content in the first place.
I do think that it means that you can't just take their word at face value, because they might just be trying to sell you something rather than genuinely believe that they've found the next best thing since sliced bread and are sharing it with the world.
Honestly, that list looks a lot more like a "Stephen A Smith Hot Take" than a credible build (for people who don't get that reference, he's a sports talking head who says outlandish, nonsensical "hot takes" a lot).
Just wanted to weigh in on this conversation a bit. Although this is a new account, I have played burn extensively in Legacy from 2011-2013, and have played it in modern for the past year. When I came back and sleeved up the standard Boros list, my first impression was "too many two-drops". I think we can all agree that we've had awkward games where we can not maximize damage due to the cmc of cards in hand.
I have been running a mardu list the past few months once the modern meta really sped up, and personally believe it's the better current choice despite the life loss from fetch-shock. For reference, here is the list :http://decks.deckedbuilder.com/d/2019-01-11/6nNiW9YqM0mGF4B6-xqrAw==
My main concern was trying to mimic the curve and cmc of a legacy list. You'll notice no eidolons. I believe they are too slow in the meta, and often times were sided out on the draw in most matchups.
Skewer is an incredible card, and helps us play more bolts. I do want to note that burn can not succeed by playing bolts alone. You need recurring sources of damage, and cards that do 3+ in one. Examples are Price of Progress in legacy as well as goblin guide. I believe our goal should always be to mimic a legacy burn list as much as possible while thinking about the overall speed of the deck. If a card presents itself to do this, we need to run it. Automatically, helix or skullcrack are out.
I believe boros charm needs to stay as 4 damage on one card is very important. I've included as many bolts as possible and favored to move eidolon to the side. I know the mana base is painful, but I have goldfished this 100+ times and the number of turn 3 wins I've achieved is much much higher than the other skewer lists i've seen posted.
Wanted to weigh in on the conversation, this is an exciting time for burn and I can't wait to see what we come up with collectively
It's definitely possible that Helix just gets the axe from RW builds, as Blaze and Skullcrack might just be necessary evils to keep in the main as 3/4-ofs even though they could be dead (Blaze) or expensive Lava Spikes (Skullcrack).
I'm not sold on cutting white because of Path, though. I'm already willing to forgo enchantment hate, since I'm playing Smash, so that's not what keeps me off of Black.
Ok guys, you win
I will modify my maindeck flex cards from :
3 skullcrack
4 sering blaze
4 helix
To :
3 skullcrack (maindeck, yeaahh i know... but im sure there will be a lot of accidental lifegain at gp toronto)
3 searing blaze
3 helix
2 skewer the critics
I'm convinced to play at least 2. but 4 might be too much ?
what happens if you have 2 skewer in your hands ? it might get harder to activate spectacle some times.
I got a couple games in on cockatrice last night with Skewer.
In a mirror game, I had a few in my hand at one point but couldn't do much with them because I kept a 1 lander and never saw another land. Opponent flooded so I had tons of time, and I cast Skewer on like turn 8 or something off of a Rift Bolt. I wasn't hurting for 1cmc stuff that game (had other things I could play in the meantime), just couldn't get another land. The game doesn't go bad because of Skewer, just bad because I was stuck on 1, and frankly should have been over by turn 5 but it wasn't over because they flooded.
In my other games (record is in a spread sheet at home), I cast it on turns 2 and 3 for R several times (about 5 different games). I had a Lava Spike, Skewer, Swift turn. Another with double guides on two that both died because of a push and a bolt but Skewer was turned on by my opponent's fetch. I turned it on with Rift Bolt coming off suspend, too. All in all, I think I saw Skewer 8 times and cast it for R each time.
It's a small sample size, but I haven't been unhappy to have it in my hand so far.
Skewer is closer to Chain Lightning than Rift Bolt. If you want to play Rift Bolt for 1, you are always spending a turn. With Skewer, you are spending a card. We were planning on spending that card anyways; we don't love wasting time. More often than not, Skewer is a Chain Lightning that must be the second card you cast in a turn. The more bolts you run, the more true this becomes.
I think you're wrong that it's closer to rift bolt than chain lightning. The condition to be R=3 is "play a Burn game plan".
It's flavor text when they don't cast things that trigger it. It's not "whenever your opponent casts a spell, ping them". It triggers on non-creature only, so a lot of an affinity deck won't care about that. KCI will, though. In matchups where you're gunning for the leyline, it won't trigger on the creatures they drop but it will trigger for things like iok. It will trigger on bogles' enchantments, but they're gaining 6 this turn and next turn and the turn after that and whoops game over just in time to blow up leyline.
I think you're wrong that it's closer to rift bolt than chain lightning. The condition to be R=3 is "play a Burn game plan", and when you can do that it's R=3 now rather than next upkeep.
It's flavor text when they don't cast things that trigger it (though it may cause them to withhold spells, and then it's not flavor text). It's not "whenever your opponent casts a spell, ping them". It triggers on non-creature only, so a lot of an affinity deck won't care about that. KCI will, though. In matchups where you're gunning for the leyline, it won't trigger on the creatures they drop but it will trigger for things like iok. It will trigger on bogles' enchantments, but they're gaining 6 this turn and next turn and the turn after that and whoops game over just in time to blow up leyline (it's not worth trying to beat bogles).
Rain of Gore just seems terrible unless you are literally playing soul sisters or thopter sword. Which if you are I would suggest you reconsider your life choices. Assassin's Trophy seems hard to cast, if you don't draw 2 fetches early.
Skewer does seem to make Rakdos "better" in that you can cut 8 white cards for it and Bump in the Night. But then you are still maining skullcrack.
It probably comes down to Rest in Peace vs. Rakdos Charm, assuming we don't care about enchantments. I don't seem myself getting Blackcleave Cliffs anytime soon though.
Wait. Isn't RW heavily favored vs. BR burn (pseudo-mirror).
I will probably just test Skewer > Skullcrack and Cinder Vines > Drev in RWg. I will miss deflecting palm though (have to put skullcracks somewhere).
That is the whole point! It is still conditional. Is it going happen to be R=3 a decent amount of the time? Sure but there going to be times when it's not, and possibly not be able to be even castable with only 2 lands in play. That is why it is not close to Chain Lightning. Chain Lightning is ALWAYS R=3 with potential for RRR=6 under normal circumstances. You know what you can do at sorcery speed with no damage potential on the table (plenty of times our creatures get outclassed fast) and only 2 lands? Suspend a Rift Bolt. It is going to be similar to Searing Blaze in that there are going to be times where it is a dead card or not full value due to the board state.
With all that said I think this makes Grim Lavamancer even more needed in the deck as a 2 of. He was already great at helping keep creature decks in check, but he now plays double duty even more.
Rakdos Burn:
Maindeck (56)
4 Goblin Guide
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lava Spike
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Searing Blaze
4 Skewer the Critics
3 Sovereign's Bite
4 Rift Bolt
1 Arid Mesa
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Mountain
2 Stomping Ground
4 Wooded Foothills
Sideboard (15)
2 Fatal Push
4 Assassin's Trophy
1 Rakdos Charm
3 Relic of Progenitus
2 Dragon's Claw
3 Rain of Gore
Thanks for the explanation of how Chain Lightning can be cast. I definitely couldn't remember that it has a mana cost of R. You're familiar with analogies, right? I didn't say that Skewer the Critics is literally the second coming of Chain Lightning. I said that I expect that it will very often be cast for R and will do a "good impression" of Chain Lightning. I also said that I fully expect that it's the closest thing to Chain Lightning that Modern will get.
As for sorcery speed, so what? Chain Lightning is sorcery speed. If they had literally just printed Chain Lightning, would you be saying "eh, I dunno, it's sorcery speed, though"? No. Legacy Burn has been playing 4 Instant Bolts, 4 Sorcery Bolt, 4 Sorcery player-only Bolts, and 4 delayed-Sorcery Bolts for more than a decade at this point. That combination of Bolt variants is fine-and-dandy. For that matter, Legacy Burn is probably about to add 4 Sorcery-you-can-play-right-after-other-Bolts Bolts to the mix.
I stand by those statements and see nothing fundamentally wrong with them. You can talk about how absurd/hilarious you think those perfectly reasonable statements are if that is how you want to spend your time. I've explained myself and I see no reason to explain myself again.
That card isn't playable in Burn. You use Guides and Swiftspears as fogs to buy time when they're outclassed. Fireblade Artist only lets you sacrifice one creature at the beginning of your upkeep, not as many as you want whenever you want. If you want repeatable shocks: Grim Lavamancer.
The only reason I made the statement which had sorcery speed in it was to further explain the criteria for the scenario.
What will make Skewer "like" Chain Lightning is how easily you can turn on Spectacle. If you're turning on Spectacle sufficiently often, not led to make bad decisions to achieve it, and it rarely languishes in your hand because it's uncastable, then it's "like" Chain Lightning. If the condition to turn on Spectacle is easy to meet, then it's almost as if there's no condition at all.
At this point I agree to disagree about the core of our discussion, but continue to agree that this card is an automatic 4 of now going forward in Modern.
If rakdos will be the best, would Fireblade Artist not be a good inclusion? Its atleast likely to be a shock. And throwing guides and swiftspears to the face when there outclased?
That card isn't playable in Burn. You use Guides and Swiftspears as fogs to buy time when they're outclassed. Fireblade Artist only lets you sacrifice one creature at the beginning of your upkeep, not as many as you want whenever you want. If you want repeatable shocks: Grim Lavamancer.
Grim would defenitly be in my list. Didnt know that "Safrifice a creature" means i can only sac 1 creature, really thought i could sac multiple.
A few things: I don't think that Light up the Stage is playable in Burn (I bet Phoenix decks and Mardu Pyro decks play it, though). I just think that a Burn spell is better than a straight draw spell like that. 4 Shard Volley is way too many for an 18 land deck. I know Legacy plays 4 Fireblast, but Fireblast is leaps and bounds better than Volley. Gut Shot? I'd rather pay mana for more damage, but I can see how it might be necessary to make LutS better. His sideboard is odd, too. Dragons Claw (and Kor Firewalker for white Burn) is not worth it because Burn isn't 30% of the meta. I think RCharm is too cute and should probably just be Smash with Grave hate replacing Claw. I firmly believe Eidolon should be in the main of all Burn decks, and he said on Twitter he was thinking of moving it to the main over Blaze.
In general, I understand the desire for low CMC, but I don't really understand the decision to play a low CMC even if it means making what look like bad deck building decisions (LutS, GS, too many Volley). Burn already has a pretty low CMC and 2cmc cards can get pushed out by better 1cmc cards, but Gut Shot and LutS aren't it.
An aside: does he work for/write for any of the big stores? The way he alluded in Twitter to Gut Shot being strong reminds me of that "zomg Manamorphose should be in Burn" phase we went through that I'm pretty sure was motivated by stores wanting to sell excess Manamorphose.
I do think that it means that you can't just take their word at face value, because they might just be trying to sell you something rather than genuinely believe that they've found the next best thing since sliced bread and are sharing it with the world.
Honestly, that list looks a lot more like a "Stephen A Smith Hot Take" than a credible build (for people who don't get that reference, he's a sports talking head who says outlandish, nonsensical "hot takes" a lot).
I have been running a mardu list the past few months once the modern meta really sped up, and personally believe it's the better current choice despite the life loss from fetch-shock. For reference, here is the list :http://decks.deckedbuilder.com/d/2019-01-11/6nNiW9YqM0mGF4B6-xqrAw==
My main concern was trying to mimic the curve and cmc of a legacy list. You'll notice no eidolons. I believe they are too slow in the meta, and often times were sided out on the draw in most matchups.
Skewer is an incredible card, and helps us play more bolts. I do want to note that burn can not succeed by playing bolts alone. You need recurring sources of damage, and cards that do 3+ in one. Examples are Price of Progress in legacy as well as goblin guide. I believe our goal should always be to mimic a legacy burn list as much as possible while thinking about the overall speed of the deck. If a card presents itself to do this, we need to run it. Automatically, helix or skullcrack are out.
My list moving forward will look like this (chain lightnings are proxied in for skewers) : http://decks.deckedbuilder.com/d/2019-01-11/VIrq48D91ki9O3BezXGAFw==
I believe boros charm needs to stay as 4 damage on one card is very important. I've included as many bolts as possible and favored to move eidolon to the side. I know the mana base is painful, but I have goldfished this 100+ times and the number of turn 3 wins I've achieved is much much higher than the other skewer lists i've seen posted.
Wanted to weigh in on the conversation, this is an exciting time for burn and I can't wait to see what we come up with collectively
I'm not sold on cutting white because of Path, though. I'm already willing to forgo enchantment hate, since I'm playing Smash, so that's not what keeps me off of Black.
I will modify my maindeck flex cards from :
3 skullcrack
4 sering blaze
4 helix
To :
3 skullcrack (maindeck, yeaahh i know... but im sure there will be a lot of accidental lifegain at gp toronto)
3 searing blaze
3 helix
2 skewer the critics
I'm convinced to play at least 2. but 4 might be too much ?
what happens if you have 2 skewer in your hands ? it might get harder to activate spectacle some times.
In a mirror game, I had a few in my hand at one point but couldn't do much with them because I kept a 1 lander and never saw another land. Opponent flooded so I had tons of time, and I cast Skewer on like turn 8 or something off of a Rift Bolt. I wasn't hurting for 1cmc stuff that game (had other things I could play in the meantime), just couldn't get another land. The game doesn't go bad because of Skewer, just bad because I was stuck on 1, and frankly should have been over by turn 5 but it wasn't over because they flooded.
In my other games (record is in a spread sheet at home), I cast it on turns 2 and 3 for R several times (about 5 different games). I had a Lava Spike, Skewer, Swift turn. Another with double guides on two that both died because of a push and a bolt but Skewer was turned on by my opponent's fetch. I turned it on with Rift Bolt coming off suspend, too. All in all, I think I saw Skewer 8 times and cast it for R each time.
It's a small sample size, but I haven't been unhappy to have it in my hand so far.