What I like about rakdos is its ability to lower its curve by running 20 bolts over the traditional 12 from boros or naya. 4 shard volley is a little extreme, but embraces the idea that mana efficiency is more important than individual card strength. Volley may be a worse card than lightning helix in a vacuum, but it costs one mana. When facilitating the fastest burn hands, one mana bolts build the ideal hands. A starting 9 cards (turns 1-3 on the play) with 3 land and 6 one mana spells (0-2 dorks,4-6 bolts) will deal anywhere from 18-lethal and be able to play all of its spells. Boros burn runs 20 one drops and 20 two drops, these kinds of numbers can't support these draws reliably. This build of rakdos burn sports 28 one drops (not counting ol' grim cause he doesn't facilitate the fastest kills), and only 12 two drops making it much more likely to curve out like this. It might be too greedy to drop to 18 lands with 4 shard volley, but with so few two drops, it's a temptation I feel compelled to try.
Black also brings collective brutality to the sideboard which I am very excited about. It's a great tool for the burn mirror, which would otherwise look stacked in boros' favor with lightning helix and kor firewalker. It also helps against company decks, ad nauseum, titanshift and any other decks with instants/sorceries they need to resolve to win the game.
Relic of Progenitus and Grim Lavamancer are at odds but they are here for different matchups. Grim is a great maindeck card because he can find uses in varied and difficult board states in almost any matchup. Where he excels however is against small creature decks without a lot of removal. I like having two main to make it a real part of my match one win percentage against those decks. Relic comes in for all manner of graveyard based decks, from the unfair like storm and grishoalbrand to dredge to fair decks like grixis death's shadow and abzan. In all of these matchups lavaman is either too slow and ineffectual or too susceptible to dying without dealing any damage.
I'm running the light green splash because D Rev is just too good for burn. Dealing damage alongside providing a meaningful effect is the hallmark of a good sideboard card for burn and is well worth the splash. The 2x shattering spree join them to fight chalice hard while also solidifying the post board affinity games.
I play online with 1850+ rating so I do understand wide metas (you can see it on my youtube channel).
I prefer 6x Anti-lifegain spells in the 75 and I HATE losing against taxes, pox and seas (even Ghost from E-Tron) which is why I don't play Atarka MD.
That said MUs like Titanshift & Ad Nauseam are common enough that I want Atarka as well so I have them in the side with the Lavamancer which people like in SB thrown into the MD (thus not really making a differences from the usual 4-2 split MD-SB).
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Enjoy Standard, Modern and Music (also some Pauper, Momir, Gaming, Animations and Legacy)? Then visit my channel:Here
Ive said a few times before, I enjoy the versatility of being able to switch back and forth from Naya to Boros and back. Atarka's is the main reason, that extra anti life gain can be very helpful for me in metas where thats a big problem. It wasnt long ago I was seeing people go 5 and as high as 8 (Skullcrack + Atarka's) in main and side. One great thing about Burn is that you have access to so many side board options. Running Mono Red does limit you a bit but there are still lots of options. Flames of the Blood Hand used to be in some in Mono Red sides before Skullcrack, can be another option if you wanna run Mardu/Rakdos/non Green you can use this as a Skullcrack 5-8 if you really needed it.
Each color you add has its pros and cons. Although if someone here has been killing it with Izzet/Grixis/adding to Burn please share.
What I like about rakdos is its ability to lower its curve by running 20 bolts over the traditional 12 from boros or naya. 4 shard volley is a little extreme, but embraces the idea that mana efficiency is more important than individual card strength. Volley may be a worse card than lightning helix in a vacuum, but it costs one mana. When facilitating the fastest burn hands, one mana bolts build the ideal hands. A starting 9 cards (turns 1-3 on the play) with 3 land and 6 one mana spells (0-2 dorks,4-6 bolts) will deal anywhere from 18-lethal and be able to play all of its spells. Boros burn runs 20 one drops and 20 two drops, these kinds of numbers can't support these draws reliably. This build of rakdos burn sports 28 one drops (not counting ol' grim cause he doesn't facilitate the fastest kills), and only 12 two drops making it much more likely to curve out like this. It might be too greedy to drop to 18 lands with 4 shard volley, but with so few two drops, it's a temptation I feel compelled to try.
Black also brings collective brutality to the sideboard which I am very excited about. It's a great tool for the burn mirror, which would otherwise look stacked in boros' favor with lightning helix and kor firewalker. It also helps against company decks, ad nauseum, titanshift and any other decks with instants/sorceries they need to resolve to win the game.
Relic of Progenitus and Grim Lavamancer are at odds but they are here for different matchups. Grim is a great maindeck card because he can find uses in varied and difficult board states in almost any matchup. Where he excels however is against small creature decks without a lot of removal. I like having two main to make it a real part of my match one win percentage against those decks. Relic comes in for all manner of graveyard based decks, from the unfair like storm and grishoalbrand to dredge to fair decks like grixis death's shadow and abzan. In all of these matchups lavaman is either too slow and ineffectual or too susceptible to dying without dealing any damage.
I'm running the light green splash because D Rev is just too good for burn. Dealing damage alongside providing a meaningful effect is the hallmark of a good sideboard card for burn and is well worth the splash. The 2x shattering spree join them to fight chalice hard while also solidifying the post board affinity games.
I've been running R/B/G burn due to lack of money to buy the white cards. However, this deck is still really strong in my limited playing. (My card shop is hosting modern again so I'll be getting more games in!)
The addition of Bump in the Night to our repertoire does a few things. It makes Grim lavamancer and Monastery swiftspear better. The ability to play swiftspear turn 1 and 2 1 cost spells turn 2 makes for a ton of early damage. With 4 more 1 cost spells, this happens that much more often.
My deck has only 2 shard volleys, but it's only because I only have 2 copies! I will certainly go up to 3, perhaps 4 if I get a chance.
Do you feel the need to run 2 of the shocklands? I've been going down to only 1 of each. It seems to work in my favor most games as taking less life every game seems more important than having a back up copy of the shocklands. What do you think?
I'm running Atarka's mb, which bumps me up to 19 lands.
Thanks for pointing out collective brutality. I need to put that in the sideboard. Another card I'm considering is Terminate. We don't have path to exile, and sometimes tron just shuts us out with creatures. What do you think of terminate in R/B build?
Final note, I'm only running two Eidolon due to funds, not for play reasons.
You need the back-up shock lands so you don't scoop against LD effects but if your local meta isn't playing LD (which is kinda odd considering E-Tron is the 2nd best deck) then 1x is ok.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Enjoy Standard, Modern and Music (also some Pauper, Momir, Gaming, Animations and Legacy)? Then visit my channel:Here
Took the deck to two modern tournaments one on Tuesday and the other today. I’m not normally a Burn fan, but while I finish up my Modern and EDH decks I like to borrow a swift Naya list from a friend.
Pretty new to Burn and going to my first big tournament in two weeks. Meta unknown. I would appreciate some advice regarding my sideboard (Mainboard is standard Boros list with 19 lands and 1 Lavamancer):
3 Destructive Revelry
2 Shattering Spree
3 Path to Exile
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Deflecting Palm
1 Searing Blood
Not sure about the Firewalkers, and would appreciate Feedback in general.
Thanks to all for the hints on beating Affinity, I finally managed to beat them!
Am I correct to say that the only way (assuming we do not have any sweepers) we can remove Etched Champion is in combat along with Skullcrack?
Skullcrack can only kill Etched Champion if they block with it. You can't block it if Metalcraft is turned on. You could kill it with Reality Hemorrhage or Pyrite Spellbomb (or another colorless damage source), though.
Pretty new to Burn and going to my first big tournament in two weeks. Meta unknown. I would appreciate some advice regarding my sideboard (Mainboard is standard Boros list with 19 lands and 1 Lavamancer):
3 Destructive Revelry
2 Shattering Spree
3 Path to Exile
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Deflecting Palm
1 Searing Blood
Not sure about the Firewalkers, and would appreciate Feedback in general.
Thats a solid side for a blind meta. Gives you some answers to a variety of decks. Blind metas can be very hit miss. I walked into a blind meta where I didnt use half my sides and one where every card in the side was used. When you run into those random rogue brews or decks that dont show up much remember you cant side for everything. Not a rule of thumb but I generally make sure I have help for Affinity, Shadow, Tron. Good luck let us know how you did in the event.
Cutting eidolon of the great revel for keldon marauders. Deals 1 on the way in and 1 on the way out, hits for 3 or blocks. Unlike Eidolon it's never dead. Can't think of a match-up where it comes out. The mana curve has shifted upward and Eidolon's effectiveness is at a low point. Sometimes a dead card other times a liability. I think the recent results in Birmingham show that it is not necessary and that something else can fill that space. It's what we were playing before and is consistent. At worst its a shock at best a lava axe.
Boros and Naya burn both have way different mana curves, which is what I like so much about rakdos and to a lesser extent, jund. I was running jund myself with main deck atarka's command for a while because I love that card so much and having 8x anti-lifegain is just filthy. What I've found is that pushing the curve even lower and playing only two colors main adds more than what I'm losing from the raw power of command, the same way I don't miss the raw power of the white spells. Burn pretty much only cares about two things, card efficiency and time (How much time our opponents give us and how much time our opening hand gives our opponent). In the context of the format it is probably correct that the white spells are the most efficient at burning out a wide field with varied resistances, but rakdos has been a fun little experiment and I'm feeling good about the results so far. While it seems "free" to play the third color, burn as a deck punishes it a number of ways. The deck often wants to operate on two lands to maximize burn drawn (this is heightened by running 20 bolts, boros needs three lands to double spell consistently). It's easy to get stuck without a color when on two lands. Straight rakdos takes less damage and doesn't lose to itself that extra little percent of the time because of missing a color or taking too much damage to find it.
As for the number of shocks I always like running 2 in burn, but 1 is fine. There's a regular contingent of spreading seas and stone rains at my lgs, two strategies I like to respect while building for open metas as well. Having the extra shock lets me fetch a stomping ground in situations where the other is stuck in my hand, either because I want to hide the green source or keep myself open between plays and how much damage I take. These are corner cases but I like having protection against all of them just by running one extra shock.
I like 20 lands with 3 colors. You want to hit three lands consistently and getting access to every color is important. I would cut the harsh mentor for one personally. If I were to play your build I would go -2 shard volley,-1 harsh mentor, +1 searing blaze, +1 skullcrack, +1 land. I'm not a huge fan of shard volley in more mana intensive burn lists. I kind of the like the idea of only two eidolon to be honest. I would still get the playset but 2 eidolon doesn't sound awful since I usually hate multiples.
As for sideboard stuff, I'm glad you like brutality. I think it's a good way to set black burn lists apart. It kills firewalkers and forge-tenders, eats burn alive, attacks coco decks where eidolon can fail, and hits ad nauseum and other spell based combo which can really help post board games when they've made their deck better against your ability to simply race. That's a lot for one card. I simply don't have the room in my board for push but it is a great card. I like it more in my goblins build where I have more recursive forms of damage. In bun I like to have as many of my cards deal damage as possible. I think the same thing can be said about terminate. Its a great option but I don't think I would want to cut anything I have for it. It also doesn't hit pro red guys which is something I need out my sideboard black removal spell.
As for builds with blue I love the idea of vapor snag and especially countersquall in burn. I have an untested grixis list I dream about sometimes but I've been low on three colors in my main lately. The two blue spells seem like really interesting tools against eldrazi tron
I'm also into that 5 color burn but I think I would much rather be a tribal flames list without the rainbow lands. 4 atarka's command, 4 boros charm, 4 tribal flames gives you the most hard hitting two mana burn suite for all of the less interactive moments in modern. Searing effects take a back seat to the sideboard for matchups where they really shine. Maybe I'll just dredge up those lists.
4 snag and squall is probably too many but I wanted to start at the full set to see how they felt. Definitely think snapcaster could be a thing in this list. Still never gotten around to testing it though
I wanted to try snappy over eidolon for tribal burn because of how much damage this deck deals itself. It has the potential to help grind, especially with tribal flames hitting the x/5's of the format and makes the fourth land a lot less terrible.
The land base was built to assemble the same three lands every game, instead of the mix I often seen in tribal flames zoo decks. Since most of our deck operates off of red I think this makes more sense. Temple Garden casts all of the two mana spells, but none of the one mana burn so should be fetched up second or third. With this set build temple garden is both your best land because it enables all of your two drops, and your worst land because it can mess with an otherwise reasonable hand of one drops. Not sure if this approach is worth it, but I like the numbers on the fetches and ability to achieve domain. Just need those tiago's lol.
Has anyone been testing shrine over eidolon because of the gp win lately? Still very suspect of it even after its performance. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic (and tired of k command)
More for fun and to better understand Burn than anything concrete, I decided to test out Gonti's Machinations in my Mardu burn list. I gotta say, I've been pleasantly surprised by it. I initially thought it would be far too slow for Burn, but it's surprisingly easy to hit two energy counters. I've found that one of two things are happening--either the opponent is hitting me, or they aren't. If they are, I'm getting energy. If they aren't, It's doing a Shrine of Burning Rage impression that costs no mana to pop, while I'm drawing cards that don't need energy, or drawing fetches that can be cracked to give me energy. In addition, I've been waiting to pop the card until I need it, to gain more energy in case I ever draw a second one. Of course, they're great in multiples, each instance of damage giving the energy needed to pop one of the cards. My guess is that Gonti's is about a turn slower than Rift Bolt on average. The one major downside is that it's an awful topdeck if you and your opponent are both staring at lethal, and yes that's a very real negative. I've played perhaps 40 or so games with it and it hasn't happened to me yet, but I can see why that would be brutal.
The deck has some deckbuilding considerations. I play fetch heavy, both to help ensure I get my colors when I need them, and also to help trigger Gonti. I moved Blaze to the side, because sometimes I want to fetch on my turn for Gonti, and because the format has slowed down so much I don't believe it's the auto-kill spell it used to be (and also because I needed room to pack everything in here). Also, you have to accept you'll be starting every game at 14. You just will. My hope is that my eight sources of maindeck lifegain will help mitigate that.
Here's the list I've been running. It runs 22 different versions of Lightning Bolt, to my knowledge the most of any deck in Modern.
have u tried collective brutality over lightning helix?
I don't think Brutality would be good for me. If I'm just using the drain effect, it's just worse than Helix. If I'm using others, then I might be discarding bolts to do so. Helix is already my least favorite card in the maindeck. But thank you for the suggestion.
More for fun and to better understand Burn than anything concrete, I decided to test out Gonti's Machinations in my Mardu burn list. I gotta say, I've been pleasantly surprised by it. I initially thought it would be far too slow for Burn, but it's surprisingly easy to hit two energy counters. I've found that one of two things are happening--either the opponent is hitting me, or they aren't. If they are, I'm getting energy. If they aren't, It's doing a Shrine of Burning Rage impression that costs no mana to pop, while I'm drawing cards that don't need energy, or drawing fetches that can be cracked to give me energy. In addition, I've been waiting to pop the card until I need it, to gain more energy in case I ever draw a second one. Of course, they're great in multiples, each instance of damage giving the energy needed to pop one of the cards. My guess is that Gonti's is about a turn slower than Rift Bolt on average. The one major downside is that it's an awful topdeck if you and your opponent are both staring at lethal, and yes that's a very real negative. I've played perhaps 40 or so games with it and it hasn't happened to me yet, but I can see why that would be brutal.
The deck has some deckbuilding considerations. I play fetch heavy, both to help ensure I get my colors when I need them, and also to help trigger Gonti. I moved Blaze to the side, because sometimes I want to fetch on my turn for Gonti, and because the format has slowed down so much I don't believe it's the auto-kill spell it used to be (and also because I needed room to pack everything in here). Also, you have to accept you'll be starting every game at 14. You just will. My hope is that my eight sources of maindeck lifegain will help mitigate that.
Here's the list I've been running. It runs 22 different versions of Lightning Bolt, to my knowledge the most of any deck in Modern.
The deck is designed to be as efficient at goldfishing as possible, and needs about 8.3 mana to drop someone from 20.
Wow! Now there is a very interesting card addition.
It does look a little weird upon first inspection. However dealing 3 damage and gaining 3 life for one mana investment is pretty crazy! If the deck can function on 18 lands, that's pretty incredible too.
Once you have the energy it can function at instant speed too, being able to activate it when you want it. I feel like this should be useful somehow in play, but can't think of any examples yet.
4 Monastery Swiftspear
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Shard Volley
4 Rift Bolt
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Blaze
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Wooded Foothills
2 Blood Crypt
2 Stomping Ground
2 Mountain
4 Destructive Revelry
4 Collective Brutality
1 Grim Lavamancer
2 Shattering Spree
4 Relic of Progenitus
What I like about rakdos is its ability to lower its curve by running 20 bolts over the traditional 12 from boros or naya. 4 shard volley is a little extreme, but embraces the idea that mana efficiency is more important than individual card strength. Volley may be a worse card than lightning helix in a vacuum, but it costs one mana. When facilitating the fastest burn hands, one mana bolts build the ideal hands. A starting 9 cards (turns 1-3 on the play) with 3 land and 6 one mana spells (0-2 dorks,4-6 bolts) will deal anywhere from 18-lethal and be able to play all of its spells. Boros burn runs 20 one drops and 20 two drops, these kinds of numbers can't support these draws reliably. This build of rakdos burn sports 28 one drops (not counting ol' grim cause he doesn't facilitate the fastest kills), and only 12 two drops making it much more likely to curve out like this. It might be too greedy to drop to 18 lands with 4 shard volley, but with so few two drops, it's a temptation I feel compelled to try.
Black also brings collective brutality to the sideboard which I am very excited about. It's a great tool for the burn mirror, which would otherwise look stacked in boros' favor with lightning helix and kor firewalker. It also helps against company decks, ad nauseum, titanshift and any other decks with instants/sorceries they need to resolve to win the game.
Relic of Progenitus and Grim Lavamancer are at odds but they are here for different matchups. Grim is a great maindeck card because he can find uses in varied and difficult board states in almost any matchup. Where he excels however is against small creature decks without a lot of removal. I like having two main to make it a real part of my match one win percentage against those decks. Relic comes in for all manner of graveyard based decks, from the unfair like storm and grishoalbrand to dredge to fair decks like grixis death's shadow and abzan. In all of these matchups lavaman is either too slow and ineffectual or too susceptible to dying without dealing any damage.
I'm running the light green splash because D Rev is just too good for burn. Dealing damage alongside providing a meaningful effect is the hallmark of a good sideboard card for burn and is well worth the splash. The 2x shattering spree join them to fight chalice hard while also solidifying the post board affinity games.
I prefer 6x Anti-lifegain spells in the 75 and I HATE losing against taxes, pox and seas (even Ghost from E-Tron) which is why I don't play Atarka MD.
That said MUs like Titanshift & Ad Nauseam are common enough that I want Atarka as well so I have them in the side with the Lavamancer which people like in SB thrown into the MD (thus not really making a differences from the usual 4-2 split MD-SB).
Enjoy Standard, Modern and Music (also some Pauper, Momir, Gaming, Animations and Legacy)? Then visit my channel:Here
Each color you add has its pros and cons. Although if someone here has been killing it with Izzet/Grixis/adding to Burn please share.
I've been running a 5 colour burn deck for a few years and putting up good results with it, posted the list a while back
4x Rift bolt
4x Lava spike
4 Bump in the night
4x Boros charm
4x Atraka's command
4x Goblin guide
4x Monastery swiftspear
4x Eidolon of the great revel
2x vapor snag
1x searing blaze
1x gonti's machinations
1x grim lavamancer
1x mountain
4x Gemstone mine
1x wooded foothills
1x stomping ground
1x sacred foundry
1x arid mesa
1x bloodstained mire
1x blood crypt
4x Mana confluence
4x City of brass
1x Counter squall
1x Torpor orb
3x Rakdos Charm
2x searing blood
1x vapor snag
1x self inflicted wound
4x destructive revelry
i have a pretty match up against everything but soul sisters and eldrazi tron, really
I've been running R/B/G burn due to lack of money to buy the white cards. However, this deck is still really strong in my limited playing. (My card shop is hosting modern again so I'll be getting more games in!)
The addition of Bump in the Night to our repertoire does a few things. It makes Grim lavamancer and Monastery swiftspear better. The ability to play swiftspear turn 1 and 2 1 cost spells turn 2 makes for a ton of early damage. With 4 more 1 cost spells, this happens that much more often.
My deck has only 2 shard volleys, but it's only because I only have 2 copies! I will certainly go up to 3, perhaps 4 if I get a chance.
Do you feel the need to run 2 of the shocklands? I've been going down to only 1 of each. It seems to work in my favor most games as taking less life every game seems more important than having a back up copy of the shocklands. What do you think?
I'm running Atarka's mb, which bumps me up to 19 lands.
Thanks for pointing out collective brutality. I need to put that in the sideboard. Another card I'm considering is Terminate. We don't have path to exile, and sometimes tron just shuts us out with creatures. What do you think of terminate in R/B build?
Final note, I'm only running two Eidolon due to funds, not for play reasons.
2x Grim Lavamancer
2x Eidolon of the Great Revel
1x Harsh Mentor
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Lava Spike
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Rift Bolt
4x Bump in the Night
2x Shard Volley
3x Searing Blaze
3x Skullcrack
4x Atarka's Command
2x Wooded Foothills
4x Arid Mesa
1x Stomping Ground
1x Blood Crypt
2x Copperline Gorge
2x Blackcleave Cliffs
3x Mountain
1x Searing Blaze
1x Terminate
2x Fatal Push
3x Blood Moon
1x Ghost Quarter
4x Destructive Revelry
1x Pyroclasm
2x Relic of Progenitus
Edit:
PS Fatal push is nice to have against Kor Firewalker, a card often sideboarded in against us. Push is even better than path in this case.
Enjoy Standard, Modern and Music (also some Pauper, Momir, Gaming, Animations and Legacy)? Then visit my channel:Here
I think 2 of each would be the correct number in your deck.
With 3x Blood Moom in the side I would cut one color main though.
Modern Event Aug 29th: 4-0
Round 1: Death’s Shadow 2-0
Round 2: Storm 2-0
Round 3: Scapeshift 2-1
Round 4: Bant Spirits 2-0
Modern FNM: 3-1, 1st due to breakers
Round 1: Affinity 2-0
Round 2: Soul Sisters 2-1
Round 3: Living End 2-1
Round 4: Bant Eldrazi 1-2
Safe to say best in the format? Maybe, but its definitely getting there.
UR The Great Storm RU
-Storm pimp & signed goal: 26/75
-Collector and avid traveler; purveyor of the fine things and escapes in life
Am I correct to say that the only way (assuming we do not have any sweepers) we can remove Etched Champion is in combat along with Skullcrack?
3 Destructive Revelry
2 Shattering Spree
3 Path to Exile
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Kor Firewalker
2 Deflecting Palm
1 Searing Blood
Not sure about the Firewalkers, and would appreciate Feedback in general.
Skullcrack can only kill Etched Champion if they block with it. You can't block it if Metalcraft is turned on. You could kill it with Reality Hemorrhage or Pyrite Spellbomb (or another colorless damage source), though.
Thats a solid side for a blind meta. Gives you some answers to a variety of decks. Blind metas can be very hit miss. I walked into a blind meta where I didnt use half my sides and one where every card in the side was used. When you run into those random rogue brews or decks that dont show up much remember you cant side for everything. Not a rule of thumb but I generally make sure I have help for Affinity, Shadow, Tron. Good luck let us know how you did in the event.
As for the number of shocks I always like running 2 in burn, but 1 is fine. There's a regular contingent of spreading seas and stone rains at my lgs, two strategies I like to respect while building for open metas as well. Having the extra shock lets me fetch a stomping ground in situations where the other is stuck in my hand, either because I want to hide the green source or keep myself open between plays and how much damage I take. These are corner cases but I like having protection against all of them just by running one extra shock.
I like 20 lands with 3 colors. You want to hit three lands consistently and getting access to every color is important. I would cut the harsh mentor for one personally. If I were to play your build I would go -2 shard volley,-1 harsh mentor, +1 searing blaze, +1 skullcrack, +1 land. I'm not a huge fan of shard volley in more mana intensive burn lists. I kind of the like the idea of only two eidolon to be honest. I would still get the playset but 2 eidolon doesn't sound awful since I usually hate multiples.
As for sideboard stuff, I'm glad you like brutality. I think it's a good way to set black burn lists apart. It kills firewalkers and forge-tenders, eats burn alive, attacks coco decks where eidolon can fail, and hits ad nauseum and other spell based combo which can really help post board games when they've made their deck better against your ability to simply race. That's a lot for one card. I simply don't have the room in my board for push but it is a great card. I like it more in my goblins build where I have more recursive forms of damage. In bun I like to have as many of my cards deal damage as possible. I think the same thing can be said about terminate. Its a great option but I don't think I would want to cut anything I have for it. It also doesn't hit pro red guys which is something I need out my sideboard black removal spell.
As for builds with blue I love the idea of vapor snag and especially countersquall in burn. I have an untested grixis list I dream about sometimes but I've been low on three colors in my main lately. The two blue spells seem like really interesting tools against eldrazi tron
I'm also into that 5 color burn but I think I would much rather be a tribal flames list without the rainbow lands. 4 atarka's command, 4 boros charm, 4 tribal flames gives you the most hard hitting two mana burn suite for all of the less interactive moments in modern. Searing effects take a back seat to the sideboard for matchups where they really shine. Maybe I'll just dredge up those lists.
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Vapor Snag
4 Searing Blaze
4 Countersquall
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Steam Vents
2 Blood Crypt
2 Stomping Ground
2 Spirebluff Canal
2 Blackcleave Cliffs
2 Mountain
4 snag and squall is probably too many but I wanted to start at the full set to see how they felt. Definitely think snapcaster could be a thing in this list. Still never gotten around to testing it though
4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Snapcaster Mage
4 Bump in the Night
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Atarka's Command
4 Boros Charm
4 Tribal Flames
4 Arid Mesa
2 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
2 Blood Crypt
2 Steam Vents
2 Temple Garden
2 Mountain
I wanted to try snappy over eidolon for tribal burn because of how much damage this deck deals itself. It has the potential to help grind, especially with tribal flames hitting the x/5's of the format and makes the fourth land a lot less terrible.
The land base was built to assemble the same three lands every game, instead of the mix I often seen in tribal flames zoo decks. Since most of our deck operates off of red I think this makes more sense. Temple Garden casts all of the two mana spells, but none of the one mana burn so should be fetched up second or third. With this set build temple garden is both your best land because it enables all of your two drops, and your worst land because it can mess with an otherwise reasonable hand of one drops. Not sure if this approach is worth it, but I like the numbers on the fetches and ability to achieve domain. Just need those tiago's lol.
Has anyone been testing shrine over eidolon because of the gp win lately? Still very suspect of it even after its performance. Maybe I'm just too pessimistic (and tired of k command)
The deck has some deckbuilding considerations. I play fetch heavy, both to help ensure I get my colors when I need them, and also to help trigger Gonti. I moved Blaze to the side, because sometimes I want to fetch on my turn for Gonti, and because the format has slowed down so much I don't believe it's the auto-kill spell it used to be (and also because I needed room to pack everything in here). Also, you have to accept you'll be starting every game at 14. You just will. My hope is that my eight sources of maindeck lifegain will help mitigate that.
Here's the list I've been running. It runs 22 different versions of Lightning Bolt, to my knowledge the most of any deck in Modern.
2x Blood Crypt
2x Sacred Foundry
2x Mountain
12x Fetches
Creatures
4x Goblin Guide
4x Monastery Swiftspear
4x Eidolon of the Great Revel
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Rift Bolt
4x Lava Spike
4x Bump in the Night
4x Gonti's Machinations
2x Shard Volley
Other Burn
4x Boros Charm
4x Lightning Helix
4x Skullcrack
4x Searing Blaze
4x Wear // Tear
3x Path to Exile
The deck is designed to be as efficient at goldfishing as possible, and needs about 8.3 mana to drop someone from 20.
Mardu Burn
Monogreen Stompy
Legacy
Burn
Pauper
Dimir Flicker
Monowhite Tokens
I take out bump in the night when I run blood moon. So I go down to 2 colors. I will up the number of fastlands. Thanks!
I don't think Brutality would be good for me. If I'm just using the drain effect, it's just worse than Helix. If I'm using others, then I might be discarding bolts to do so. Helix is already my least favorite card in the maindeck. But thank you for the suggestion.
Mardu Burn
Monogreen Stompy
Legacy
Burn
Pauper
Dimir Flicker
Monowhite Tokens
There was a time my LGs had the following do deal with:
- etched champion
- kor firewalker
- master of the waves
And during that time I sided in 2-3 reality hemorrhage
It does look a little weird upon first inspection. However dealing 3 damage and gaining 3 life for one mana investment is pretty crazy! If the deck can function on 18 lands, that's pretty incredible too.
Once you have the energy it can function at instant speed too, being able to activate it when you want it. I feel like this should be useful somehow in play, but can't think of any examples yet.
Curious to know how this works out!