MTG Salvation

hello, guys. i am just about to try Modern and Burn is my deck of choice. i have a question: is Ensnaring Bridge a must have in the SB? thanks!

Quote from JamesTheIV »

Was playing with this deck heavily up until Dominaria came out and took a break from the format. Interested in picking it up again but waiting until rotation. Has anyone been pondering post rotation brews? Selling off my Hazorets and picking up a playset of Goblin Chainwhirlers today.

we can talk about post rotation decks after Guilds of Ravnica has been fully spoiled.

so after selling your Hazorets for Chainwhirlers, are you going for a low to the ground mono red, perhaps one utilizing Flame of Keld?

thanks!

yeah i love Fight with Fire. aside from being a reference to Jaya Ballard, it is a versatile removal spell.



went 3-1 this Standard Showdown. still same list without M19 cards. defeated 2 mono red aggro and 1 mono blue mill, lost to G/B Stompy because i was stuck on 2 lands the whole game and i needed to cast Fight with Fire against Steep Leaf Champ.

went undefeated on the Constructed rounds of our local Nationals, but didn't win a single draft game (it was my first time to play draft) so i didn't make it to the top 8.

here's the deck i used:


fought against R/x (Mono Red, U/R, R/B), Stompy and Grixis Bolas decks. as you may have noticed, there's not a single M19 card there. i didn't feel the need to. the secret is in the sideboard. i knew various flavors of Red aggro decks will be the meta, so i adjusted my sideboard accordingly. also, i put in 3 Fight with Fire which came handy vs Stompy. Chandra's Defeat is great vs R/x decks and Bolas decks, which enables the player to kill Bolas for one mana.

i will be using this deck until rotation.

Quote from DeadWing »

Today I was playtesting this R/b Burn deck with one of my friends (G/x Stompy) and I think the deck has potential:

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
4 Soul-Scar mage 4 Ghitu Lavarunner 4 Viashino Pyromancer 3 Guttersnipe 4 Shock 4 Lightning Strike 4 Sovereign's Bite 3 Doublecast 4 Wizard's Lightning 3 Sword-Point Diplomacy 1 Banefire 1 The Flame Of Keld	4 Dragonskull Summit 4 Swamp 13 Mountain

I wanted to splash Black for Sovereign's Bite so I have a 5-8 Lightning Strike, plus against an Aggro deck lifegain can be crucial. Sword-Point Diplomacy can be a bit fringe, but in this deck is a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" card, since the majority of the cards are burn spells.

if the meta's G/x Stompy then yes, the deck i think is great against them preboard.

if Doublecast works for you, then good. but if not maybe replace them with a couple more Flame of Keld for more consistency.

Quote from Chrono_Trigger »

Hi guys,
I've started to playtest R/b aggro for GP providence in august. I know the meta will change with the PT in 2 weeks, but I still want to play standard in the meantime.
Here is my list :

4 aether hub
4 dragonskull summit
15 mountain

4 Bomat Courrier
4 Soul-scar mage
3 shock
3 Abrade
2 Kari Zev Skyship raider
3 Heart of Kiran
4 Scrapheap scrounger
2 Pia Nalaar
4 Goblin chainwhirler
3 Unlicensed disentegration
1 Chandra Torch of Defiance
4 Hazoret the fervant

Sideboard :
4 Duress
2 Chandra Torch of Defiance
2 chandra's defeat
3 Aethersphere Harvester
3 glorybringer
1 scavenger ground

I'm not playing any phoenix...
It's a little bit slow and pretty much all the removal in the format is exiling ... So I prefer a card like Heart of Kiran that will hit at least 1-2 hit before getting exiled ...
And when I board in the chandra and/or glorybringer, theres to many high drops

What do you guys think ?

looks good. if you're worried about the speed of the deck, add more lands so that there's consistent land drops. when going more top heavy, pack in more removal as well. the slower the deck, the more you need to interact early to prevent you opponent from running you over.



guys, please use proper decklist format. see my post below as an example. that will greatly help other players who wish to respond to your queries.

could be good against decks that don't pack in much removal (like G/x Stompy).

but is seems only to be good in Keld Red decks, where there's more direct burn.

could be just a really bad matchup. Ballista is rarely played nowadays. the hand is supposed to be empty or nearly so before casting Flame of Keld.

mono red aggro of course offers fast, consistent mana. i have defeated many R/B players who put themselves behind by playing a tapped land (Canyon Slough) at a critical stage of the game (usually turn 4). it goes under most decks, so they could be under 10 life already but still preparing their game plan. mono red's threats are less resilient than most, though.

R/B on the other hand is more of a midrange deck; hence, it's flexible. it can be deadly aggressive at times too. another advantage is the ability to use Unlicensed Disintegration which is the best creature kill spell for me. finally, splashing Black opens up sideboard options, like Duress and Arguel's Blood Fast.

5-0 MTGO lists for M19 Standard's out.

this red deck incorporates Viashino Pyromancer to make the deck more consistent.


that's a total of 44 pts of base "burn" damage (from actual burn spells and from Pyromancer and Chainwhirler).

it's low to the ground so it gets under slower decks.

it has ways of refilling the hand.

i like it. q problematic card i can see it will have to deal with is Shalai, Voice of Plenty.

but if it can kill most of the time in 4-5 turns Shalai may not be a problem at all. even T3 kill is possible with the deck but with an extremely good hand.

T1 Soul Scar Mage
T2 Another Soul Scar Mage plus Ghitu Lavarunner attack with T1 Soul Scar Mage down to 19
T3 Triple Wizard's Lightning, trigger prowess, Lavarunner gets +1/+0, attack with all

another thing is the lack of Hazoret, which could make Hazored matches tricky.

i think i will have to playtest the deck. it has potential. Nationals is only 2 weeks away.

yep, that's about it.

i think Aethersphere Harvester is still better. can let you gain life, is a solid blocker for Rekindling Phoenix, and can fly over stalled ground state.

Banefire seems too costly for mono red aggro to use and from what i have been reading, it contends with Fight with Fire in the SB slot. FWF is more versatile in that it can cheaply deal with threats like Steel Leaf Champion and Lyra Dawnbringer, unlike Banefire. same logic applies to FWF vs Lava Axe.

Fountain of Renewal can be cleanly dealt with Abrade.

i think the best M19 card for R/x aggro is Lightning Mare vs U/x control, though maybe it will be much better when Fatal Push rotates out of Standard.

i think Wizards/Flame of Keld builds got more options with M19 with Dismissive Pyromancer and Viashino Pyromancer.

Chandra not MD is probably a meta call. if you're expecting to against mostly control decks, Chandra ToD is likely good maindeck. i have 1 maindeck, 2 in the sideboard. but if you expect mirror matches Chandra is probably not the best card.

another sideboard consideration is Vance's Blasting Canons. likely a good SB card in mirror matches and against B/R decks. however, it's pretty difficult to flip and unlike Chandra doesn't really do much unless flipped.

i have seen some lists that cut Kari Zev and replace them with Scrapheap Scrounger. of course that would mean splashing black to take advantage of Scrounger's ability. probably good in a control-filled meta, but in an aggro meta likely terrible as it cannot block. Kari Zev is good in that it is a decent blocker is 3 power on 2 bodies when it attacks. incidentally, the extra body it provides may be useful when you suspect opponent is holding Settle the Wreckage because you get to search for 2 lands then to ramp up to 9 mana for kicked Fight with Fire.

Hungry Flames too costly at 3 CMC, though i know one player who puts it in the sideboard to use against weenie decks.

Invigorated Rampage i have read some players put it in their deck to race in mirror matches, but it i haven't seen it in lists recently.

Renegade Tactics probably not the best card to put in a Constructed deck. better to kill the creature or make it unable to block with Earthshaker Khenra or Ahn Crop Crasher.

as for Blood-Rage Brawlers, while they are aggressive, they can easily be killed by common removal, so not really ideal to put in a deck.

Rekindling Phoenix is your friend vs green decks (they can't block it because they usually use creatures without flying but it can block their creatures) and control decks because it is pretty hard to get rid of.

you might want to put a Scavenger Grounds in your SB because U/B decks are becoming more popular and they have The Scarab God so better to empty the GY.

tried it last standard showdown. went 2-3.

i found the deck neither neither fast nor explosive. fewer copies of Earthshaker Khenra and Ahn Crop Crasher meant i had to expend burn on blockers, burn which could have been going to the face, which decreased the amount of reach.

i think it was also pretty bad vs Steel Leaf Stompy, as that deck could go T2 Heart of Kiran then T3 Rhonas or Steel Leaf Champion then it didn't care what small creature i played next.

still, the deck could be good and i could just be a bad pilot, so i will stick to the mono red deck that got me 4-1 2 SS ago.