MTG Salvation

I hadn't played this deck in a few weeks. Spent a little bit of time testing out another deck that didn't pan out so well, so thought I would bring this out for a tournament. I've wanted to get a manland into the deck, and decided to play blue for Dragonlord Silumgar. I also wanted to add in some counter magic for the sideboard. Tonight I went 3-0, taking first place. Round 1 was RG Ramp. Round 2 was Jeskai Control. Round 3 was Naya Friends. I won all of the matches in 2 games. I did play a third game against the control player, which I lost. Still a pretty good night.

Playing Abbot of Keral Keep should be sequencing that is best for you. Losing out on the card advantage isn't the worst thing ever. If you have a game plan for turns 3-4, you still run it out on turn 2. The part that makes it valuable is that it's a 2 drop that's still good to draw in the late game. I'm not looking at how good this is on turn 2. I'm looking at how good is this on turn 7, and it looks pretty good to me. I still haven't had a chance to test it out, but I'm hoping to find some time to give it some games.

Ob Nix and Chandra are both good cards. You could run them, but then I think you're moving away from Dragons, and more into BR control. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as those types of lists have been putting up results. I've seen lists where the only creatures were Kalitas, Hangarback Walker, and Goblin Dark-Dwellers. Some are even playing Languish, which kills all of those cards. However, Hangarback leaves tokens, and Kalitas makes zombies for all of the non-token creatures on your opponent's board that die.

I took 4th place at Game Day yesterday. I went 2-1-1 in Swiss, and then lost in the semi-finals. There has been a lot of Languish running around lately, and the white weenie decks have basically disappeared from my meta completely. I tweaked my list from States to adjust for that. Here is what I played:



Round 1: Naya Superfriends. This was an interesting brew. It played Gideon, Nissa, Arlin, and Chandra. Tireless Tracker. Oath of Nissa. Oath of Gideon. The first game was epic. We had a lot of back and forth. One turn, he would be ahead. The next turn, I would come back. The next turn, I would have to trade off my threats to stay alive. I was low for a while, but in the end I was doing stupid things like playing GDD, hitting K Command, bringing back and playing Hangarback for 4. I won it with 15 minutes left in the round. Game 2 was much more one sided in my favor, and I take it in 2. 1-0.

Round 2: BG Sacrifice. I don't see Kalitas in game 1, and my opponent overwhelms me after I bring them down to 3. I bring in Kalitas, Kozilek's Return, Dead Weight, Fiery Impulse. After a mulligan down to 6, I see no Kalitas, or any other cards that I boarded in. I get crushed. 1-1.

Round 3: BG Sacrifice. I have a t3 Olivia, followed by turn 4 Kalitas + discard. The life link and grave hate was enough. My opponent attempted to sac for Westvale Abbey with a Cutthroat on board. Didn't realize that Kalitas hoses that whole strategy. Game 2 I don't see more than 1 land in any of my opening hands. I mull to 5, keep a 1 land hand, and then don't draw another land. My opponent played Transgress the Mind on turn 4, and I concede in response. Game 3 came down to a race. I had Olivia in play, 4 lands, and I was sandbagging a 5th land in the event that I draw a creature. Topdecked Thunderbreak Regent, played and smashed for 8 with my opponent at 5. I take it in 3. 2-1.

Round 4: BG Season's Past. We're both 2-1, and ID to lock our spots in the top 8. 2-1-1.

Quarterfinals: Same opponent as round 1 - Naya Planeswalkers. I hit him with a Duress, and see Oath of Nissa, Gideon, and Chandra. I have Ruinous Path and GDD in hand, and take his Oath to slow him down. The his hand plays out slow. I kill off Gideon with Ruinous Path. Goblin Dark-Dwellers into Duress to take Chandra. It was pretty gross. The second game was just as much of a blow out. I win in 2. 3-1-1.

Semifinals: Round 4 Opponent - Seasons Past. I feel like I'm off to a good start in game 1, but Grasp of Darkness into Languish into Seasons Past can really catch up a deck that's falling behind. He wins game 1. Game 2 is better for me. I've got a better start with some hand disruption, and I wear him down a bit. I hit my 6th land, and come down with Dragonlord Kolaghan. I've got a second copy in hand, and bring him down to 2. He plays Clip Wings on his main phase. I draw into Dark-Dwellers, and have K Command in my graveyard. Seeing that the K Command is the safer of the two plays, as I don't lose to removal, I decide to go that route instead. I start game 3 with 3 land in hand. I only have 1 red source, and proceed to miss my 5th land drop for 2 turns in a row with 2x Goblin Dark-Dwellers in hand. He hits me with Infinite Obliteration naming GDD, and then again naming Kolaghan, and then again naming Thunderbreak Regent. I'm still stuck on 4 land, and concede. 3-2-1.

The deck played pretty well. The only loss I had in the swiss I felt was winnable, but I just didn't hit the cards I needed. I also felt like I could have won the semi-finals if I had that second red source by turn 5. But sometimes that's how it goes. You can't win them all.

I finished 4-2 in States today, taking 12th place overall after Swiss. It was heart breaking, as I was 3-0 after 3 rounds. Just needed to win 1 of the next 2 matches, and failed to do so in both rounds despite winning game 1 in both. My losses were to BW Control and Bant Company. I won vs White Weenie, Pyromancer Goggles, BW Control and Bant Company. The list I played was adjusted based on what I saw being played at the Pro Tour. Expecting WW and Bant Company, I brought in a couple of Fiery Impulse from the board to main. I also made the snap decision to put Sin Prodder into my deck to help generate CA, pressure, and Delirium. Here's the list:



Round 1: White Weenie. He wins the roll, and proceeds to crush me in game 1. The turn 4 Archangel of Tithes ensured I was unable to block when he swung for lethal the following turn. I brought in Kozilek's Return, Fiery Impulse, and Ultimate Price. Took out Kolaghan, Transgress the Mind, and 1x Read the Bones. Games 2 and 3 went something like removal, removal, removal, Goblin Dark-Dwellers -> removal, GDD -> Removal. GG. 1-0

Round 2: Pyromancer Goggles. He wins the roll, and we trade off creatures for removal. I transgress him before he can drop Chandra, but unfortunately he has Goggles on board. Eventually he has me at 6, and I have him at 11 with no cards in hand and I have GDD on board. Luckily he does not draw a burn spell in his next 3 turns, and I'm able to grind him out. I bring out all of my creature removal, and bring in Ruinous Path, Duress, Transgress the Mind and To the Slaughter. I curve out with Duress -> Hangarback -> Sin Prodder -> Thunderbreak Regent -> Transgress the Mind + K Command. My opponent can't keep up and I close out the game with relative ease. 2-0

Round 3: BW Control. I remember winning the dice roll, but not too much beyond that. I won game 1 without taking a point of damage. I lost game 2 to a swarm of Secure the Wastes tokens (he played two copies). Game 3 I won. Boarding was identical to Round 2. 3-0

Round 4: BW Control. I win the dice roll again, and game 1 after grinding my opponent out of cards and he struggles to keep up with GDD and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Boarding was the same as above. I stumble on land in game 2, and can't get my 3 Thunderbreak Regents out quick enough. The game ends with him grinding me out with Sorin, Grim Nemesis, and Linvala, the Preserver. In game 3 he lands a Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet, and proceeds to deal with my creatures via 1 for 1 removal while generating Zombies. I can't find Ruinous Path, or any other way to deal with Kalitas, and lose. 3-1

Round 5: Bant Company. My opponent wins the dice roll. We both mulligan to 6. I come out strong, and reduce his threat/hand count with K Command and GDD. Eventually he's down to 0 cards, and I grind him out. I board in more spot removal, but not Kozilek's Return, as I saw Bounding Krasis, Sylvan Advocate, and Reflector Mage. Games 2 and 3 were a flurry of Reflector Mages, Declaration in Stone, and Collected Company. Every time I thought I was stabilizing, he was able to pull ahead of me. I lose in 3. 3-2

Round 6: Bant Company. My opponent wins the dice roll. I mulligan to 6, but come out strong. The first game, my opponent has some interaction and is able to slow me down. But my removal and card advantage is too much for him. GDD crushes his late game by flashing back my removal on his strongest creatures. Boarding was the same as round 5. Game 2 is just a blowout. The only life I lost was from my turn 3 Read the Bones, hoping to hit land for my Thunderbreak Regent and GDD in hand. I hit 2 lands and am happy to keep them. My t4 Thunderbreak Regent goes unanswered. I follow the next turn with K Command and Ultimate Price, removing his only threats. I land another Thunderbreak the following turn and my opponent has no answers. 4-2

Overall, I am pretty happy with how the deck played. Sin Prodder was an interesting addition. There were a couple times where I was sad to see a Hangarback Walker go to the grave, but there were games where it kept drawing me extra cards, or helped me filter past lands that I didn't want to draw anyway. The games where I curved out were incredibly difficult for my opponents to overcome. My two losses were both in 3, and I felt were winnable. I actually feel favored in those match ups, and beat both decks in other rounds. It's sad that I was a game win away from the top 8 in back to back rounds, and just couldn't seal the deal. You can't win them all though.

I've been playing mostly on Cockatrice, and with some people at my LGS. There have been a small variety of things I've played against. Bant decks with Collected Company. RG decks that ramp into Eldrazi, among other fatties. BW Control with Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Sorin, Grim Nemesis, sometimes splashing blue for Dragonlord Ojutai. There's always the Rx aggro decks running around at this phase of a new meta too.

I find the CC decks do have some good cards. As you stated, Reflector Mage can be pretty nasty. I haven't seen any running Eldrazi Displacer, but I definitely see why those two cards are strong together. The main thing I found is that their best card advantage is Collected Company, which makes it usually the main target of Duress and Transgress the Mind. Reflector Mage can slow you down, but isn't great against most of our creatures. Thunderbreak Regent deals damage when they target it. Pia and Kiran Nalaar leaves their tokens behind, and produces more Thopters when they eventually come back into play. Goblin Dark-Dwellers lets you cast another spell from your grave. Even Hangarback Walker is flexible enough to fit back into your curve at a reasonable point, and can become bigger in some cases.

Not only that, but this deck has more card advantage built into it. I can slow them down with the disruption, and trade off my creatures for theirs knowing I can get mine back later with Kolaghan's Command. Then there is the part where most of their creatures don't fly, so there is little they can do when we are on the offensive with Dragons and Thopters. The match up has seemed pretty favorable in the games I've played so far.

The RG Ramp decks are pretty good. They play maindeck Kozilek's Return, which doesn't seem so nasty until they cast World Breaker and wipe my board. Their early game doesn't effect me much, so the best route is to try to win as quickly as possible. The best cards against them are Transgress the Mind and Ruinous Path, but I only run two in the main. Even when I bring in the other copies post board, they still usually draw into more threats than I can deal with. This is admittedly one of the toughest match ups.

The Control decks really aren't that bad. As you stated, the white based removal is the scariest thing for me to deal with. I don't like my creatures getting Exiled. It's one of the reasons I run 4 Duress main. Hangarback Walker and Kolaghan's Command don't mind Wrath effects. Descend Upon the Sinful seems really bad for me, but I haven't been seeing people play that card for some reason. A down side is that Draconic Roar is dead outside of hitting Gideon in creature form to deal damage to your opponent. Despite that, this deck produces more pressure than the Control decks can seem to deal with. In most of the games, I eventually grind them out. The match up seems favorable.

Rx Aggro decks can sometimes get there if they have an aggressive hand, and I don't have enough early game cards to interact with them. Slowing them down enough to get into a mid game can bring things into my favor. At that point, the card advantage can really take a game over. Landing a Goblin Dark-Dwellers into most removal spells can do a great job of stabilizing the board. From there you can build up and work out an offensive. Be wary of waiting too long, just in case they are sandbagging burn spells. This match up seems pretty even, if not slightly in my favor.

Tonight I lost against a guy playing a WU Flyers list. Always Watching and Archangel of Tithes was pretty nasty. He also played Archangel Avacyn and Meddling Mage. I'm not sure if he played Dragonlord Ojutai. I didn't see it, but I suggested it to him after the match. I dominated the first game, and felt like I should have won the second game as well. I kept an iffy hand, but it worked out. I just miscounted some damage, and blew myself out with a huge misplay. There was a major flood in game 3, and I just couldn't put any pressure on him. It felt winnable, but it was a good learning experience.

Admittedly, this is from a small sample base of around 40 or so games (roughly 18 matches) while I've developed the deck. I've also been pretty lazy about keeping notes. After playing today, I feel like the deck wants to have more threats. You're kind of echoing that with the Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury statement, so I think I'm going to bring that up to 3. Maybe 4 down the road, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. I'm probably fine on burn based removal, and cards like Grasp of Darkness. If anything, I would want to add more hard removal. Ruinous Path has been pretty good.

One thing I will say is that I am looking forward to taking this deck to States this weekend.

It often plays out like this:

First 1-3 turns is focused on sequencing of lands, and disrupting opponents. You want to play your lands out so that you're going into turns 3-4 with lands that don't EtB tapped. You play your hand disruption to look at what your opponent is trying to do. You sequence the next few turns based on that knowledge. You can also play removal as necessary. I'm not usually worried about a 1-2 drop from my opponent, as Draconic Roar and Kolaghan's Command can usually answer those threats effectively. You can also jam down a Hangarback Walker if there is nothing else to do. Lastly, I have Read the Bones to help ensure that I hit my 4th land drop.

Turn 4 usually results in my jamming down Thunderbreak Regent, or the occasional Pia and Kiran Nalaar. I want to take a moment here to say how awesome this card has been. I don't particularly like playing Hangarback Walker without a way to kill him off. Pia and Kiran offer a sac outlet for Artifacts, in addition to giving me three bodies in one card. There is very good synergy here, and I recommend playing Pia and Kiran with Hangarback.

Turn 5 is typically a pivotal turn. Usually at this point I have played some removal, disruption, or preferably Kolaghan's Command. My favorite thing in Standard right now is Goblin Dark-Dwellers into K Command. I'm killing something, making my opponent discard, or bringing back my Hangarback or Thunderbreak from my grave to hand, all while getting a 4/4 Menace. Sometimes I am just replaying Duress or Transgress the Mind, giving me another look at my opponent's hand. I think Goblin Dark-Dwellers is the MVP of the deck, as it can be absolutely backbreaking for my opponent. That is specifically why I maxed out on K Command. I've never found it to be a problem. Even late game, I just bring back the most threatening creature in my grave and hit them for 2, or something. It's very good.

Usually at this point, I've gotten the game wrapped up for the most part. If not, Dragonlord Kolaghan can do some pretty nasty things. Even if the board is stalled, it makes playing more threats easier because your opponent can take 10 damage for anything they play that you've already killed.

On a side note: I'm currently running 6 dragons, and am not sure if that's quite enough. When I had 7, I found that Draconic Roar was hitting for max damage about 80% of the time. I'm not sure where that percentage is at with 6, but it's certainly lower. I do like having Twin Bolt though, as it's a 5th card that can answer Jace on turn 2. So I'm somewhat torn between these two.

Thread archived: See the new primer and discussion below! (11/2015)
http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/tier-1-modern/650623-burn

New burn there can be found here

1. Introduction

So you want to play a Burn deck? Well this is the right place. Burn is a deck made up primarily of the most efficient burn spells available. We don't care about a long term plan, and for the most part, we don't even care what our opponent is doing either. We simply want to deal as much damage to our opponents as quickly as possible. Lightning Bolt is the epitome of a burn spell. It deals 3 damage, where ever we want, at the low cost of 1 mana. And it does it at Instant speed. Filling our deck with as many similar spells as possible will benefit us in the long (short) run.

Burn was originally known as a deck called Sligh, which was developed by Jay Schneider and taken to a second place finish by Paul Sligh at a PTQ in Atlanta. At the time, second place was good enough to earn him a spot on the Pro Tour, and the internet went ablaze with hype of this new type of deck: an aggro deck. People still often refer to this style of deck as Sligh. As time went on and more cards were printed, the deck changed into what it is in Legacy today. While we don't have all the fun toys that the Legacy counterpart has access to, we still have quite a lot of gas to work with. Click here for more information on the origins of Sligh.

While the original Sligh decks were focused on filling the board with efficient creatures and widdling opponents life totals down to 0, we are going to take an approach that is more focused on throwing spells at our opponent's face. There are a handful of creatures that we will be looking at, but primarily we want to get as much damage per mana spent as possible. Three damage for 1 mana is what we are looking for. If we curve out, and net 3 damage for each mana spent, by turn 3 we would have dealt 18 damage. Turn 1: 3 damage. Turn 2: 6 damage (9 total). Turn 3: 9 damage (18 total). I realize that we start the game with 20 life, but thanks to fetch lands, such as Verdant Catacombs and Scalding Tarn, as well as the shock lands they fetch out, such as Steam Vents and Overgrown Tomb, we will find friends in our opponent's decks which can often mean that we only need to deal 17 damage (sometimes less) to win.

Of course things don't always go to plan. Counter magic, such as Spell Pierce, and hand disruption, such as Inquisition of Kozilek can slow us down a bit. Cards that gain life for our opponents is probably our primary hindrance. But if we have a high enough thread density, and a little luck, we can usually finish off our opponents while they are still trying to establish their central strategy.

2. The Cards

The basic Burn spell is Lightning Bolt, 3 damage for 1 mana. All spells in Burn must be compared with Bolt, Incinerate and Searing Spear are surely good cards, but they usually don't make the cut in this deck, not being efficient enough with a cost of 2 mana. When a spell does cost more than 1, it should also have some additional benefit.

Let us now discuss the specific cards, although I'll leave the mana-base for a later section.






3. The Lands

In burn, as in any other deck, the manabase is a matter of great importance. You generally only want to see 3 lands, but you definitely want to see 3. As such I recommend 20 lands. However, the curve is low enough that you can cut back on lands and still fairly reliably hit 3, some lists even go as low as 17 lands, although I would not recommend going that low.

In terms of Mulliganing, if you have 4+ lands in your oppening hand, probably mull it. Sometimes a 1 lander can be kept on the draw, or even on the play if you're feeling lucky.


4. Piloting Burn

The goal of Burn is to bring the opponent's life total from 20 down to 0. Burn generally doesn't care about the board state, except as a clock for how long you have to burn down the opponent. Burn doesn't care about drawing cards, although if the opponent wants to give us cards we won't complain.

Burn cares about life totals. Burn is the only deck where turn 1 Lava Spike is a correct line of play. Other aggro decks have you save your burn for after the creature beatdown when the board has stalled, in Burn you throw it at their face from the start. Sometimes, of course, they have a creature that needs to die before it can do anything, like Martyr of Sands or Glistener Elf, in which case you send your removal at them and then get back to throwing fire and lightning at the dome.

Postboard you generally want to play your SB cards ASAP if they are permanents like Torpor Orb, and save them for the right moment if you boarded in Rakdos Charm or Faerie Macabre.

Also, some essential reading from Patrick Sullivan: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27944_Burn-vs-Counters.html

5. Match Ups

The Meta is always changing, and with it, we must be adaptable as well. This is the meta from day two of Grand Prix: Madird, which took place on November 15-16, 2014. You can find that data here.

Key:
Deck - Number of Decks - Percent of Field

U/x/y Delver of Secrets* - 37 - 16.8%
B/G/x Rock** - 23 - 10.5%
Scapeshift - 22 - 10.0%
Affinity - 22 - 10.0%
Birthing Pod - 20 - 9.1%
Burn - 19 - 8.6%
Jeskai No-Delver - 13 - 5.9%
Splinter Twin - 11 - 5.0%
Merfolk - 9 - 4.1%
Slippery Bogles - 8 - 3.6%
Tron - 6 - 2.7%
Jeskai Ascendancy - 4 - 1.8%
G/W Hatebears - 4 - 1.8%
Martyr of Sands - 4 - 1.8%
Zoo - 3 - 1.4%
R/G Aggro - 2 - 0.9%
Through the Breach - 2 - 0.9%
Ad Nauseam - 2 - 0.9%
Others: 9

* Of the 37 Delver decks, all similar in strategy, 24 were simply blue-red. Five added green for Temur, five added white for Jeskai. Two were blue-white-green and one was blue-black-green, also known as Sultai.

** Among the 23 Rock decks, 15 were Abzan, four were Jund, and four were straight-up two-colored black-green.

6. Sample Decklists

Here's one I would like to see:

Wrath of the Beast 2GG
Instant
Destroy all noncreature, nonland permanents.

Hey guys. Haven't been too active on the forums lately. Thought I would drop my latest build. Keep in mind that some of these slots are flexible and can (should) be modified for your meta.



A friend recently piloted this to top 8 at a local PPTQ (Madison, WI). The meta here has a lot of Burn, Affinity, Tron and Twin. Expecting Burn to be the most popular deck, we opted for 3x Helix main and Firewalker in the board. We also prepared for Affinity, which can usually be a bit faster than us, by playing both Revelry and Smash. Path was ideal for Wurmcoil Engine vs Tron, as well as good removal all around. I could see these being swapped out for other cards that are better for your meta.

I've been testing Atarka's Command, and the card is pretty bonkers. Getting 6 damage out of it is pretty common.

I've been playing a modded version of Wilson's list and I am really liking it. There is a lot of synergy within the deck and it is well positioned for the current meta. I've made room for some Abrupt Decay, Scavenging Ooze, a 4th Smiter and a singleton Tasigur, as well as a singleton Tectonic Edge. I'm liking the layers of hate for Liliana/Hand disruption. Souls, Liege and Smiter are all boss here. I like the additional creatures from Souls that get pumped by Liege, as well as the tokens from Voice (which I've mentioned in the past). Pridemage, Voice, Smiter, Rhino and Finks all get a double pump off of Liege as well, which can lead to overwhelming board states. Kitchen Finks and Rhino also give the deck a fair amount of lifegain, and Scooze only adds to it with an improved late game. This gives the deck some cushion room against the aggressive decks like Burn, Zoo and Affinity, and can make decks like Storm and Scapeshift have to work a little harder. The deck really has a good feel to it. The only bummer is that Tasigur doesn't get pumped by Liege, which I am entirely fine with.

Here is the list:



I'm still not really sure what I am going to do with the sideboard yet. I will likely add in some hand disruption, Aven Mindcensor, some sort of grave hate, possibly Timely Reinforcements. Decay 3-4 and/or Maelstrom Pulse also seems solid.

+2: Stolen Goods
+1: A better Unnerve
-4: Cinder Storm
-12: The meanest Plague Wind ever

That's one hell of a planeswalker.

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top 8

2 Twin, 2 Abzan, 1 Bloom, 2 Burn, 1 Abzan hatebears

I thought I would share my experience with my list at the SCG Premier IQ. I'm proud to represent G/W to a 2nd place finish in a large event like this!

Quote from DOLZero »

A Hatebears list made *2nd* at the SCG IQ this weekend: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=79426

Pretty standard list. Looks solid.

DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Creatures (33) 3 Aven Mindcensor 1 Baneslayer Angel 1 Birds of Paradise 4 Leonin Arbiter 4 Loxodon Smiter 4 Noble Hierarch 2 Qasali Pridemage 2 Scavenging Ooze 3 Voice of Resurgence 2 Wilt-Leaf Liege 2 Brimaz, King of Oreskos 1 Sigarda, Host of Herons 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben 1 Thrun, the Last Troll	Lands (23) 2 Forest 2 Plains 4 Ghost Quarter 3 Horizon Canopy 4 Razorverge Thicket 2 Stirring Wildwood 2 Tectonic Edge 4 Temple Garden Spells (4) 4 Path to Exile	Sideboard 1 Engineered Explosives 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender 2 Mirran Crusader 2 Choke 2 Stony Silence 1 Dismember 1 Fracturing Gust 1 Gaddock Teeg 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant 1 Creeping Corrosion 1 Sunlance

I would be a little uncomfortable running 6 colorless sources with Sigarda and Liege. I'm also not a fan of Forge-Tender, but I suppose Scapeshift running Firespout and Affinity running Whipflare one could make the argument for BFT. I've never played Brimaz, but maybe I will have to give him a shot.

Round 1 – Loss vs. Affinity (David Long also top 8’d)
Game 1, he turn 2 Ensouls a vault scourge. On T3 when I destroy it with Pridemage, I’m too far behind to race.
Game 2, I have a T2 Stony Silence to slow him down. I end up having to keep up Wildwood mana because he has 3 fliers, while I swing for 2 a turn. Eventually I draw enough enough mana to deploy a 2nd threat and win.
Game 3, I have a T2 Stony Silence but he plays a back to nature. We have a grindy game where I draw a few pieces of removal. I have Liege + Smiter, while he has 2 etched champions, one with ravager counters. We are both at about 6 when I top deck a Fracturing Gust and play it to swing through for lethal. However, He has a Spell Pierce, and I lose the game. Instead, I could have activated Wildwood that turn to swing for lethal, but I thought playing around Galvanic Blast was safer.

Round 2 – Win vs. R/B Burn with Tombstalkers
Game 1, T2 Thalia into T3 Brimaz is very difficult for him to deal with.
Game 2, Baneslayer>2xTombstalker.

Round 3 – Win vs. R/W Burn
Game 1, he has a T1 Goblin Guide that gets in for 4 damage, but I have T1 Hierarch and T2 Voice. He decides he wants to trade guide for Voice, and I oblige. The board advantage from the token + exalted is enough to race him.
Game 2, He bolts my T2 Thalia and beats me in a race.
Game 3, Again, Voice is amazing. And Brimaz is a big beat stick whose damage output grows each turn.

Round 4 – Win vs. Splinter Twin
Game 1, I have T1 Hierarch, He counters T2 Voice. I play a T3 Thrun into open blue mana. He has no answer to Thrun, and I win. The only other card I saw was a Clique, so I mistakenly assume I am playing Blue Moon, and bring in Elspeth, Teeg and BFTs, leaving out my Dismember, and taking out a Path.
Game 2, Play the mana destruction game. T1 Hierarch into T2 Arbiter + GQ. I see a Deceiver Exarch and end up succesfully keeping off casting twin with Thalias and Tectonic Edges until I swing through with a massive voice token with flying from Elspeth.

Round 5 - Win vs. Scapeshift
Game 1, I draw three Arbiters to slow down his search, I eventually nickel and dime him to death.
Game 2, I draw all three of my Mindcensors, and eliminate all my opponents green mana sources but 1. He plays well to his outs and top decks a forest to cast scapeshift a turn before I could kill him.
Game 3, my opponent ramps nicely and plays an Inferno Titan on T4 that kills two of my creatures. On my turn I am able to Path the Titan, play a Teeg and a Forge-Tender to protect the Teeg. BFT eats a Pyroclasm, but Teeg sticks to win the game.

Round 6 - Win vs. Tron
I mull to 6 in G1 and G3. Mull to 5 G2.
Game 1, Arbiters and GQ are too much and my opponent never assembles Tron.
Game 2, my opponent has a natural T3 Tron and plays Wurmcoil. I path, but he follows with Karn and soon overwhelms me.
Game 3, I have an Arbiter on the field and y opponent is at 3 mana with 2 pieces of Tron. I am leaving up Tectonic Edge mana for 2 turns, he eventually plays GQ as a 4th land and immediately destroys my Tec Edge. He follows with a map and I have a 2nd arbiter to stop him from using it. I'm able to finish him off before he assembles Tron.

Round 7 - Win vs. Merfolk
Game 1, we both Mulligan to 6, and have an awkward game of flooding. My top decks end up being stronger than his and I am able to sacrifice Horizon Canopies to get to some action and win.
Game 2, I have a T2 Choke, but he has vial in play. This ends up being an excellent back and forth game where I'm forced strange plays like Ghost Quartering my own land with a spreading seas on it to be able to block and use colored mana. I eventually win by forcing chump block when I swing with a Smiter and 4 exalted triggers.

Round 8 - Win vs. Blue Moon?
I got paired down this round vs a X-1-1 and had to play it out.
Game 1, I draw the nut. T1 Hierarch, T2 Smiter, T3 Liege, T4 Sigarda, beat face.
Game 2, my opponent kills my T1 mana dork and I am terrified of Bloodmoon. my opponent only leaves 1 mana up on T3 to cast Spreading Seas and I jam a Choke and ride it to victory.

I place 3rd in the Swiss.

Quarterfinals - Win vs. Zoo brew
To preface, this was a sweet list, check it out on the SCG site.. It was horrifying to play against. Kind of felt like playing against infect.
Game 1 - He has T1 Wild Nacatl, T2 Goblin Guide. I have a good start of Hierarch, into Smiter + 2x Arbiter. But he ends up sneaking in for lethal with a Become Immense.
Game 2 - We race, But a T3 Wilt-Leaf gives me the push I need to be quicker. Brimaz making tokens to step in front of his attackers every turn is great.
Game 3 - He has a T1 Swiftspear, I T1 Sunlance. He has a T2 Nactl, I T2 Path. He plays a Goblin Guide that he rides for a long time with pumps. But it draws me 2-3 lands, and the advantage becomes large when he can't find another creature. I eventually assemble enough creatures to have a blocker every turn and attack for lethal.

Semifinals - Win vs Jeskai Tempo
Game 1 - Playing a T2 Smiter through Remand mana is just about the biggest perk of this deck. That tempo advantage combined with Voice forcing him to play at Sorcery speed allowed me to race his threats.
Game 2 - My opponent is stuck on 3 mana and Thalia is a house. My opponent plays a Young Pyromancer and I Path since an unanswered Pyromancer is one of the hardest things for this deck to deal with. I'm able to Tec edge to put him back at 3 lands and beat him before he draws a fourth.

Finals - Loss vs. Amulet Combo
Game 1, my opponent puts me on tilt with his super fast play style and missed triggers. I'm flustered from being in the spotlight and prematurely scoop.
Game 2, I mull to five, but find a keep-able hand. I have double Hierarch and Arbiter to slow his search and swing for 4 a turn, but he eventually EE's for 2, killing the Arbiter. I top-deck a Sigarda and fly over for 7 twice to win.
Game 3, my opponent has a T1 Spirit Guide, Amulet, bounce land, Summer Bloom, PrimeTime attack for 8. I have a path and use it on his T2. However, has another Primeval Titan that he gives Double strike to attack for 16 and kills me on T2.


Card Choices:
2x Brimaz is amazing in any match-up where you are racing, which is a large chunk of the format right now. His damage quickly grows faster than Smiter's whenyour opponent is not blocking. And having vigilance tokens to chump on the swing back should not be overlooked.

4x Loxodon Smiter. Best card in the deck (besides Hierarch). There are so many decks that leave counter-magic up T2 and T3, and being able to walk through it is a luxury. Smiter is also great against Liliana decks where we need all the help we can get.

2x Scooze, 2x Pridemage. These are both great cards, but I don't like overdoing either. I like having two in the main-deck each so I dont't have to side additional graveyard or enchantment hate (besides gust).

3x Voice. Voice is a good card in almost every matchup, he is one of the few cards I never side out. This is something I may consider a 4 of in the future especially if I am playing Wilt-Leafs.

2x Wilt Leaf Liege. I feel like most matches are a race, and having a trump that your opponents don't see coming when they are trying to leave up blockers is great.

1x Thrun, Sigarda, Baneslayer. These higher end cards are extremely match dependent, and end up being sided out a lot. the Thrun and Sigarda are a hedge to the Rock decks that I consider our worst match-up (besides maybe affinity).

2x Tectonic Edge. I like having the 6 land destruction cards. In some matches where attacking their mana is the best option or an opponent is stumbling, having two LD cards is so much stronger than just one. I occasionally have to mulligan a hand from lack of colored mana, but sometimes screwing your opponent is good enough. There is always the last resort of GQ'ing your own Tectonic Edge to get a basic. The play results in the same amount of mana for the turn, turning a colorless into a color.

Sideboard.
This is the first time I played with BFT over Firewalkers, but I think I like them more. BFT can protect your team against board wipes, and protect key bears (Thalia vs Burn, Teeg vs Combo).

2x Stony Silence, 1x Creeping Corrosion, 1x Fracturing Gust. I wouldn't play less Affinity hate than I am now, the matchup is just tough. The SS's are also great against Tron and Ad Nauseum. I'm running the 1 Gust as a catch-all and an out against Boggles.

2x Mirran Crusader. We really need help against The Rock/Abzan. I haven't played against it in some time, but I wouldn't hedge here.

I think Elspeth was my worst card in the deck this week and I would replace it in the Board with a second Teeg. He is a versatile threat, especially with the rise of Amulet combo, and the prominence of Scapeshift and Splinter Twin. Teeg is even better when you are running BFT and Voice.

Overall, I was very happy with the deck. I believe it is extremely consistent against any archetype. There are so many different ways you can tune for the meta, and different ways to attack every match up.

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Quote from FoodCityEmployee »

I'm sorry for asking but is there any replacement for Noble Hierarch in this list? I'm not really on a budget but I can't afford to drop $300 on a playset of them.

Birds of Paradise is a decent replacement to Hiearch. But I've seen lists that run both.

Quote from Aodh »

Quote from Mirrored Hearts »

thiers also a bunch of terrible moto players, to get stats we have to follow what is being played, POD does well, Delver does well, moto for me is for testing new decks and thats about it.
-MH

You don't know what you're talking about. Magic: the Gathering Online has the best (technical) players and the best (objectively) decks.

Or you could just beat Delver with better cards, a better sideboard, and an overall more consistent deck.

The cards are better in a vacuum, not necessarily against delver. 4 dmg for 2 mana isn't that much better than 3 dmg for 1 mana against Delver, and it's susceptible to the counter cmc 2 spell, and Lightning Helix = Searing Spear if you shock a lot, or under your assumption that life total doesn't matter, so... Doesn't seem much better MB, to me at least. IDK what white sideboard cards you want against Delver?, and adding a color (all other things constant) makes your deck strictly LESS consistent, so there's that.

Those BGx decks tend to keep that Goyf back so they don't take damage from Goblin Guide/Swiftspear/Eidolon. Even still, it's only doing about 3-4 damage per turn, where we are pushing out 4-6 damage per turn.

You're likely right here, except for the fact that their ONE card is don't 3-4 damage per turn, for the rest of the game. That's insane. Luckily, this is probably a nonissue since Treasure Cruise has knocked green out of the metagame almost entirely lol.

It's odd you accuse another person of not "knowing what you're talking about," yet your own assertion is just as void of empirical evidence as their own. We call this insecurity of opinion. Then your proof is "popular opinion". Right.

With this major flaw aside, real life experience is quantitatively more impactful than theory. For example, I trust DolZero's opinion over a number of people simply because he has proven results on paper. For this reason, when he makes the claim that the Boros, or even Jeskai, build is better, there is validation to this point. In your case, flinging wild accusations about the ignorance of other posters does little to convince others. If you played the deck hundreds of times with a large sample size to back yourself up, there may be some validity to this opinion. However, numerous decks have splashed various colors to a much more significant margin than mono red.

Here is a list of first place RDW decks: http://www.mtgdecks.net/decks/index/rank:1/format_id:29/archetype_id:1386

I was not able to get an exact count, but nearly 90% of them splash a color beyond Red, most of them three colors.

By your logic, if adding another color were to make the deck inconsistent, then any deck should run only one color to remain competitive. That way no one will ever get mana screwed. (this is arguably the most consistent deck in the format.) Let's not forget the card options available with another splash: Boros Charm is a superior Flames of the Blood hand (Flames does the same thing as Skullcrack for one extra mana,) Lightning Helix is a superior Lightning Strike. Bump in the Night is a superior Shard Volley. Treasure Cruise needs no explanation. Sideboard wise black gives Rakdos Charm, Rain of Gore, and Dismember. White gives stoney silence, wear//tear, rest in peace, and Kor Firewalker. It evens has Refraction Trap for those feeling bold. Red provides zero advantage over the splashed colors other than not damage damage from shock lands. Skred is the only mono red "burn" deck I would play, because it uses the solid color to its benefit.

Normally I don't particularly care, but egotism is something that bothers me to a great extent.

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