I've had success against Burn by bringing in Firewalker. I've had Storm players whiff and fail to kill me because I had a Firewalker out. It negates their first Grapeshot completely and takes the edge off the second. It obviously isn't as great as Eidolon, but it's another 2 cards you can mull into.
Collective Brutality saw a lot of use for some amount of time when players thought it was this super powerful Burn hoser and it took a little time before they realized that "1B Discard 2: fail to kill Swiftspear, duress taking nothing, and get skullcracked" is a really bad outcome.
Collective Brutality isn't that big of a deal. You mitigate the Duress mode by emptying your hand as quickly as you can, and you can bait them into using it by having some lands/creatures in hand. Prioritize unloading sorceries and you can respond to CB with instants to mitigate the Duress as well.
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Do you put out a Swiftspear and hold up Skullcrack? Or do you empty your hand completely of Guides and burn spells? I face T2 Brutality almost every match on MTGO...
Would Liliana's Caress be worth considering for Mardu? Completely shuts down BR Hollow One and combats Collective Brutality. Some other cases like Conflagrate against Dredge.
I keep getting my ass handed to me by RW Taxes. I don't know if I just play too aggressively, or not enough, but my RWg Burn list just shuts the bed everytime I play them.
I often have to send one or two burn spells at a creature, which makes me think I need to swap out some Helixes or Rift Bolts for more mainboard Searing Bloods.
Searing Blaze has got to be one of the most miserable cards in this deck by the way.
Do you guys flex out the Boros Charm ever? I migrated to RW burn from mono Red and find that Rift Bolt and Charm are my typical flex spots when I have to bring in Path, Revelry, etc.
I'll obviously take out the Blazes against creature light decks, but Charm and Rift seem to be my starting point otherwise.
Ran this list to a 5-0 in Competitive League this evening. Not sure it counts as budget with Guides and Eidolon...but thought some points might be helpful.
Volcanic Fallout has a ton of great uses, and Ramunap Ruins can slip in there to end a game. I've had several wins with that land.
Searing Blood is probably one of my favorite cards, although potentially could get replaced by the Landfall version when I upgrade to fetchlands.
Guerrilla Tactics are nuts against Jund if you get in the position to discard it (K Command usually) although is apparently bugged on MTGO against Liliana's +1 ability and will not trigger.
I actually haven't had any success with Grim Lavamancer, he dies as soon as he hits the field or ties up so much mana that I never really use his ability.
Leyline of Punishment seems like it could be good in the board if I ended up cutting Lavamancer and moving Hellspark and something else main.
My body is ready. May need to get the pieces to resurrect this beast. Feels like it has the high power to go over the top of Junk while still maintaining the disruption to hang with Blue.
Tasigur is looking really good in here. Maybe in place of Bob because he is so fragile in this meta, but he can supplement it too. He plays so well with Scooze and Bow and he is basically unkillable in a meta full of players who still think Path is a bad card.
For a Goyf replacement, run Hooting Mandrils...or Tasigur.
I haven't brewed or played in Modern in a long while, but I think with the addition of Siege Rhino alongside Lingering Souls, Tidehollow Sculler (sometimes), discard, and odd fliers like Mindcensor, this deck should be running equipment. We have enough evasive and trample beats now that we can reliably hit the opponent for additional advantage through Swords of Mask of Memory.
That's an interesting SB strategy. I usually keep Fire/Ice, as Pro-red is very important (usually being the way I push through them). Strapping Fire/Ice on Thalia or Canonist is basically GG right there. Additionally, I am unsure if pulling Sylvans are the correct call. I usually enjoy having a free Sensei's top filter for relevant cards. I've been able to find answers against burn when needed. Usually, I'm able to nab a key piece of removal or that needed QPM. As for 'Geddon, there's a high degree of risk there. I am not sure I agree there
For Burn, I basically take out anything that's too slow. Fire/Ice can be really slow, strapping it on Thalia or Canonist and you're already turn 4 (SFM) or 5 range...or rather, dead. Sylvans are the same, they basically filter one or two draws before I'm dead, meanwhile turn 2 they're beating with Goblin Guide again and dropping Eidolon.
I've been testing the Kor for the burn matchup, using a typical mono-red burn list.
Burn:
+2 Kor Firewalker
+3 Thoughtseize (will become 2 Duress, 1 Thoughtseize)
-2 Something?
-1 Sword Fire and Ice
-1 Gaddock Teeg
-1 Scryb Ranger
-2 Sylvan Library
+2 Armageddon
The Firewalker is good until they get a Vortex down, and then I need to burn Qasali on it - if I haven't burned it on an Eidolon yet. This plus a miracles heavy meta makes me lean towards Decays mainboard.
I think Firewalker will be better over CoP:Red for the droves of UR Delver because it can block Swiftspear all day long and it takes the edge off of their burn. CoP:Red can do that as well but Delver is already taxing our mana with Daze and being much faster in general, while they can just flood out with Pyro tokens or smash with Delver.
The COP Red + ETutor is nice, but not better than 2x Firewalker since it's still one of two cards you need to find. Obviously you can still run more beats like Chains and Canonist (and Courser!) for other matches but the board looks pretty tight to me. It's also good if Elves runs Progentius, but I think if they fire off a Natural Order without Priest then we've already lost.
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I like the concept of Courser. Defensive, bolt resistant, nice life gain, and it smooth your draws. You can also use it with Knight to get some extra life points.
Burn is a nightmare. I have 2 Firewalker in my board but it doesn't seem to be enough. I've had some success at playing Knight then Armageddon to race any top decked burn.
Extra removal past 4 swords is required for dealing with the Eidolon.
Do you like the Toxic Deluge or would Zealous be more appropriate? I'm a big fan of Deluge in general but this deck's creatures are way too wimpy to stand up to one...and in that case I'd lean towards Golgari Charm to have the additional enchantment hate.
Eternal Witness seems like a great fit. That Scooze slot has felt very lackluster, against Delver and Burn there aren't enough creatures to eat to gain any life of consequence and I believe it is too slow against anything else for gravehate to matter. It does well in a midrange meta where it can land late to eat the yards, but the masturbatory Cruise meta has sped everything up way too much.
Do you put out a Swiftspear and hold up Skullcrack? Or do you empty your hand completely of Guides and burn spells? I face T2 Brutality almost every match on MTGO...
I often have to send one or two burn spells at a creature, which makes me think I need to swap out some Helixes or Rift Bolts for more mainboard Searing Bloods.
Searing Blaze has got to be one of the most miserable cards in this deck by the way.
I'll obviously take out the Blazes against creature light decks, but Charm and Rift seem to be my starting point otherwise.
Volcanic Fallout has a ton of great uses, and Ramunap Ruins can slip in there to end a game. I've had several wins with that land.
Searing Blood is probably one of my favorite cards, although potentially could get replaced by the Landfall version when I upgrade to fetchlands.
Guerrilla Tactics are nuts against Jund if you get in the position to discard it (K Command usually) although is apparently bugged on MTGO against Liliana's +1 ability and will not trigger.
I actually haven't had any success with Grim Lavamancer, he dies as soon as he hits the field or ties up so much mana that I never really use his ability.
Leyline of Punishment seems like it could be good in the board if I ended up cutting Lavamancer and moving Hellspark and something else main.
4 Skullcrack
4 Lightning Bolt
17 Mountain
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
2 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
3 Searing Blood
4 Monastery Swiftspear
1 Volcanic Fallout
1 Hellspark Elemental
3 Shard Volley
3 Ramunap Ruins
2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Smash to Smithereens
1 Volcanic Fallout
2 Dragon's Claw
2 Hellspark Elemental
4 Guerrilla Tactics
2 Exquisite Firecraft
How is the twin matchup?
For a Goyf replacement, run Hooting Mandrils...or Tasigur.
For Burn, I basically take out anything that's too slow. Fire/Ice can be really slow, strapping it on Thalia or Canonist and you're already turn 4 (SFM) or 5 range...or rather, dead. Sylvans are the same, they basically filter one or two draws before I'm dead, meanwhile turn 2 they're beating with Goblin Guide again and dropping Eidolon.
What do you take out?
Burn:
+2 Kor Firewalker
+3 Thoughtseize (will become 2 Duress, 1 Thoughtseize)
-2 Something?
-1 Sword Fire and Ice
-1 Gaddock Teeg
-1 Scryb Ranger
-2 Sylvan Library
+2 Armageddon
The Firewalker is good until they get a Vortex down, and then I need to burn Qasali on it - if I haven't burned it on an Eidolon yet. This plus a miracles heavy meta makes me lean towards Decays mainboard.
I think Firewalker will be better over CoP:Red for the droves of UR Delver because it can block Swiftspear all day long and it takes the edge off of their burn. CoP:Red can do that as well but Delver is already taxing our mana with Daze and being much faster in general, while they can just flood out with Pyro tokens or smash with Delver.
The COP Red + ETutor is nice, but not better than 2x Firewalker since it's still one of two cards you need to find. Obviously you can still run more beats like Chains and Canonist (and Courser!) for other matches but the board looks pretty tight to me. It's also good if Elves runs Progentius, but I think if they fire off a Natural Order without Priest then we've already lost.
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I like the concept of Courser. Defensive, bolt resistant, nice life gain, and it smooth your draws. You can also use it with Knight to get some extra life points.
Extra removal past 4 swords is required for dealing with the Eidolon.