[Primer] Boros Burn

[pikachufan2164]

How would sideboarding against the Burn mirror go? I'm thinking of the following:

-3 Shock
-1 Searing Blood
+2 Blind Obedience
+2 Chained to the Rocks

However, a case can be made for -4 Ash Zealot instead of removing the burn spells, since it's much less resilient to removal spells (in comparison, Phoenix must be dealt with by Chains).

Blind Obedience invalidates Spark Trooper, and Firstblade can be burnt out in response to its ETB trigger. I think it's still a good idea to keep Skullcrack in so that they can't lifeswing with Helix.

[amcfvieira]

I will post my tought from my testing last night untill 5 am. Now I have to go lunch out. Someone can give me advices for Mono Black sideboarding with a list without firedancer. Last night I didn't like Firedancer in many games. It wastes my play and many times I can take any value from it. Waiting it in my hand for the 4 land to real take some 2-1, seems many times waste of time.

[zemanjaski]

Burn mirror: -4 Ash Zealot, +2 BO, +2 Chains.

I am 13-0 in the mirror.

[Valdarith]

If you are running Searing Blood I feel like you have to run Shock. It helps you kill 4 toughness creatures as early as turn three which is important for fast Courser or Frostburn weird openings.

[zemanjaski]

Got to do some testing against Willy Edel with his mono black aggro deck for an upcoming GP. Wonderful dude. Ran him over pretty bad.

[elkayser]

so can i have the list that zemanjaski is curently playing? i have a ptq tomorow and this is an open meta

[LaZerBurn]

Read post 814

[zemanjaski]

[deck=Zemanjaski's Boros Burn as at 8-March-14 5:11am]
Creatures
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Enchantments
2 Chained to the Rocks

Instants
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Searing Blood
3 Shock
4 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix

Lands
2 Boros Guildgate
9 Mountain
4 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard
2 Blind Obedience
2 Chained to the Rocks
4 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Spark Trooper
3 Viashino Firstblade
[/deck]

Firstblade victims tonight: 3

[zemanjaski]

No changes, won a bunch of SEs and cashed in two DEs. Very happy. Working on the deck with CFB guys right now.

[Jonnymagic]

I am happy to report that despite the frustrating loss in top 4, viashino firstblade connected 4 times last night. All four people turned the card over and said the same thing "Huh...Swings for 4. Seems good!"

[PrimalBurn]

Went 4-0 to win my FNM last night with the deck. My local meta is filled with white aggressive decks so Im still playing 3 firedancers main and they have been more than amazing. The consistency of this deck is just awesome.

[lorddax]

1-2 last night. Actually don't count it as horrible as I assembled almost the entire deck 20mins before round 1. Was short on cards so -1 Charm -1 Helix +2 Flames; this really hurt in the long run as the fourth copies might have closed games.

Round 1 vs White Heroic
Won game 1 in a fairly non interactive match, he landed a banisher on zealot but a shock cleared it for double AZ beat ride with charm to finish. Only other card seen was Brimaz.
Out 3 shock 2 Flames In 2 Mortars 2 Sparks 1 Chained.
Game 2 was a tug of war as I mull to 5 and then can't close out with him on 7 life and me on 6 and I get poked to death 2 at a time from Vanguard of Brimaz.
Game 3 5 minutes time called. Land a Phoenix, ignore reckoner, ride pheonix and burn to close.

Round 2 vs Mono Blue
Game 1 - Roflstomped by weird into nightviel into MoW swing for 18
Game 2 - Weird into thassa into nyx into bident into muta with swansong for my
weird Helix

Round 3 vs RB Minotaurs
Game 1 - bled to death by Purph triggers
Game 2 - beatdown with hasty pumped minotaurs. Realize after game that I didnt side Blind Obedience.

Buddy went 3-0 playing MBC and other stuff I saw included UW control, Naya, GR variants and Mono G. Think I'll still run the same deck next week, but try to get the last two cards and have actual sideboard idea.

The mono blue matchup...whats the game plan? I boarded in 2 mortars and 2 ctr over flames and 2 shock.

[BlakLanner]

The mono blue matchup...whats the game plan? I boarded in 2 mortars and 2 ctr over flames and 2 shock.

My plan has always been to Chain the Master, then let Firedancer run rampant all over their board.

[Valdarith]

Not surprised with black aggro result, Z. Your deck trounces their strategy pretty hard.

[DerWille]

Went 3-1 at FNM.

[deck]Boros Burn[/deck]

I don't have any Blind Obedience so I subbed in +1 Mizzium Mortars and +1 Spark Trooper

Round 1 vs Monoblack

---

I went 1-2 against monoblack. I already bitched about his shuffling in the clan thread.

Game 1
Mull to 6 going from flood to screw. Didn't draw my second land in time and he wiped me out.

IN: +2 Chained to the Rocks, +3 Mizzium Mortars
OUT: -3 Shock, -2 Magma Jet

Game 2
He
mulls to 6 and doesn't draw anything relevant besides pack rats. I believe I curve out this game and burn him down before he can really stabilize.

Game 3
Mull to 6 again and I'm forced to keep a 1 lander (I'd keep 1 land at 5). Unfortunately, he goes pack rat -> underworld connections -> demon -> demon -> Gary while I'm sitting with 2 and 3 point burn in hand. I'm not sure what I could do against that even if I wasn't mana screwed.

Round 2 vs UW Heroic homebrew/budget

---

Losing the first round of 4 round swiss is such a huge deal. It really messes up the tie breakers later on because you usually go against weaker opponents.

Game 1
I play the control deck in this match and burn his heroic guys in response to the +1/+1 trigger when he casts spells to nab as many 2 for 1's as I can. Unless he had God's Willing, I don't think this sort of match up is good for his deck. Once he was out
of cards, I pointed my burn at him.

IN: +2 Mizzium Mortars, +2 Chained to the Rocks
OUT: -4 Skullcrack

Game 2
This game played out exactly the same as the last one

Round 3 vs Mono-Red Aggro/Devotion

---

I take this 2-0.
Game 1
I used the same game plan as I had with the UW Heroic deck - burn creatures until he doesn't have any more left and then turn toward him. Searing Blood seems to be huge in this match up as every creature he played had 2 toughness. It's like drawing a free card every time. Warleader's Helix was key this game. It let me keep my life high enough.

IN: +2 Chained to the Rocks, +2 Spark Trooper
OUT: -4 Skullcrack

Game 2
He gets mana screwed for a few turns but his had is pretty low in cost. Once he gets going we have a bit of a back and forth going. I draw my Spark Trooper early and wait for him to tap out for Ash Zealot. I use that opportunity to
sneak him in and get a massive life swing in. I follow it up with a helix or two and put the game way out of his reach. He was completely caught off guard with the trooper.

vs Monoblue Devotion

---

I take this 2-1.
Game 1
Same strategy as above but my thought process was to keep devotion down and then go for the throat when there's not too many threats on the field. This game she flooded out a bit and only drew a few 1 drops (those owls are annoying).

IN: +2 Chained to the Rocks, +3 Mizzium Mortars
OUT: -3 Shock, -2 Skullcrack (I probably should have taken -4 skullcrack instead)

Game 2
I flood out a bit and Biden of Thassa really shuts down the burn out their hand and then go for the throat line of play. Thing is, she had Thassa and the bident online so I just couldn't ignore devotion or Thassa would kill me quickly. She probably draws 10+ cards on me this game.

Game 3[/b:
15m3tj6r]
This is long. Really long. I'm able to burn out her hand but I can't tap out very often because I need to be able to respond to devotion being higher than 5 to keep Thassa offline. I'm able to win this game by playing Mutavault first and sneaking in 6 to 8 points of damage in the opening turns and then burning her out for the rest. She made a few misplays when she chump blocks with 1 of her 2 owls. Those owls are so damn annoying.

I missed my firedancers this FNM. They would have made the monoblue match up so much easier. I found myself not needing 3 Spark Troopers, 2 is definitely better in the side. 3 Mizzium Mortars proved useful though.

[elkayser]

Need some advice for the side there is ainly some grull some control and mono blue ps help me

[BlakLanner]

Need some advice for the side there is ainly some grull some control and mono blue ps help me

That depends on your main deck but Zman's sideboard is an excellent starting point. If there are a lot of mono-blue, Firedancers become a bit more useful. For a second example, my sideboard is 2 Chained to the Rocks (2 main), 2 Blind Obedience, 2 Mizzium Mortars, 3 Satyr Firedancer, 3 Viashino Firstblade, 3 Spark Trooper.

[elkayser]

and wich are the in and outs with that side board?

[BlakLanner]

I tend to go with my gut when sideboarding but here is a starting point:
Gruul/Jund: +3 Spark Trooper, +2 Blind Obedience, +2 Mizzium Mortars. -4 Skullcrack, -2 Shock, -1 Searing Blood. You could also try +2 Spark Trooper, -2 extra Searing Blood to add in the last 2 Chained to the Rocks.

Control: +3 Viashino Firstblade, +3 Spark Trooper. -4 Searing Blood, -2 Chained to the Rocks. Could remove 2 Shock for 2 Blind Obedience (extort fun).

Mono Blue: +2 Chained to the Rocks, +3 Satyr Firedancer. -4 Skullcrack, -1 Magma Jet. If you get a Firedancer on the board, they really can't do anything. Save Chained to the Rocks for Master of Waves or Thassa.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Sweet sig blaklanner!

in the mirror, why are we bringing in chains? For phoenix? I guess that makes sense to me.

[NerdBoyWonder]

My current list I am testing:
[deck]Creatures 11
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Satyr Firedancer

Burn 26
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Searing Blood
3 Shock
4 Skullcrack
3 Warleader's Helix

Land 23
2 Boros Guildgate
9 Mountain
4 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard 15
2 Blind Obedience
4 Chained to the Rocks
4 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Spark Trooper
3 Viashino Firstblade[/deck]

Testing again this Thursday, then taking the deck to FNM and on Saturday taking it to our first local GPT. Testing on Thursday and at FNM will determine final list for the GPT. I want to squeeze in one more Warleader's Helix because I have been in a number of positions where I need to rip a 4 damage spell to finish my opponents. Having 8 of them would be awesome but at the same time the more efficient the spell and cost the better. If I do change the count I would probably cut a
firedancer and up a WLH.

After playing against my buddy's Jund Monsters build the deck comes down to racing. Post board Lifegain is huge and I may try to fit another Spark Trooper somewhere.

Current Viashino victims: 2 out of 3 testing partners.

[BlakLanner]

Sweet sig blaklanner!

in the mirror, why are we bringing in chains? For phoenix? I guess that makes sense to me.

The sig is thanks to our clan's friendly neighborhood graphic artist, NBW. It is indeed epic and suits me perfectly.

As for the sideboarding, I have to assume that it is for Phoenix. I go on a different plan and pull mine out for Spark Troopers. One hit with Ball Lightning Helix usually finishes the game on the spot.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Sweet sig blaklanner!

in the mirror, why are we bringing in chains? For phoenix? I guess that makes sense to me.

The sig is thanks to our clan's friendly neighborhood graphic artist, NBW. It is indeed epic and suits me perfectly.

As for the sideboarding, I have to assume that it is for Phoenix. I go on a different plan and pull mine out for Spark Troopers. One hit with Ball Lightning Helix usually finishes the game on the spot.

I feel like it will never connect.

Oh, you have a trooper? I'm real happy for you, and Imma let you finish but SEARING BLOOD!

nDo not pass go, do not collect $200.

[BlakLanner]

That is indeed a risk, as is Ash Zealot. So far I have not been blown out by it since many don't hold up mana to burn it, especially if they are winning the race at that point.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Why wouldn't they hold up mana and play at EoT?

[BlakLanner]

Usually because they dropped a creature or used Mutavaults.

[zemanjaski]

It's pretty bad against a competent pilot, though they're probably few and far between.

[amcfvieira]

Yesterday Testing about 4 hour in MTGO and in the end feel that Curser of Kruphix is a very good card (that make our life terrible if we can't deal with that in time) and RG/Jund Monters are really tough match. I don't see Mono Blue and see very little Agroo decks. Don't really like Satyr Firedancer in the majority of the games I play. Sometimes it delay my game more than I can deal with that without hurt me.

Thinking in add a third Mizzium Mortars to the board only to have 3 in the Monsters matchup to up the odds of see one to deal with the early Curser. What are your thoughts about this possible third Mortars?
I don't like to be much reactive with Burn, but are sometimes that I can close my eyes to some thoug cards, I see it like Faerie Macabre in Legacy to remove a Iona from graveyard in the reanimator matchup.

Today I play a 5 round tournament and went second with 4-1. Win to BYE (lol), Rw Devotion (2-0), UW
control (2-0), UW control (2-0) and losing to Jund Monsters (0-2). In the Jund game one I lose very naturally because went out of gaz and flood a bit. In game two side in chained, Blind O., Trooper and Mizzium Mortars. Keep a 7 cards hand with 2 Mizzium Mortars, 2 Mutavault, 1 Mountain, 2 Magma Jet. The game begin with me beating up with the mutavaut but a second turn Caryati slow me down. Turn 3 he cursed but I kill it, then I kill another one with the second mizzium and their game slow a lot. I feel in that point I will win the game, but I collour screwed (after 2 Magma Jet scry) and never found another color mana and drew all my mutavault. He draw all their Caryatid and after some turns I lose the control. Finish with 7 cards in hand all with 2 colour mana. I feel really when I deal with the Curser that I was ahead, this make me think a lot in add a 3 Mizzium to the board.

I play 60 main that Z (post #814) with the third Guildgate over a Mountain. My sideboard is the follow:

[deck]Sideboard:
2
Chained to the Rocks
2 Blind Obedience
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Viashino Firstblade
2 Spark Trooper
3 Satyr Firedancer[/deck]

The other games were a lot like Z told, I use his tech sideboarding in Rw and went first game with 20 life (after playing 2 Sacred Foundry untaped) and the Second with 28...
The buddys with control made mad with Viashino, I conect twice in first opponent and gain 4 life from a Last Breath with the trigger on the stack, and conect three times in second opponent. I'm very happy with only 4 Viashine against control and didn't feel that I need Firedrinker for now. I finnish one of the round against control with both games above 20 life. I didn't side in Firedanker in any game, but I like it in the sideboard because in the store are some Ephara decks. Tomorrow or Monday I will begin playing this version with no Firedancer and will see if it feels that I want.

[Jonnymagic]

Haven't got to play much today, took the fam to a lightning game -- lost in shootout! Good game. I did run an 8man earlier today and played 2 mono u and a g/r monsters -- and other than the perfect curve out no chained to the rocks hand -- I gotta say I didn't miss firedancer. Won with only the 1 loss to the perfect curve out. Also, thanks to @nerdboywonder for the sig =D.

[Kyarie]

I had this entirely typed out this morning and then the browser hiccuped and at it.

Anyway, here it is again.

FNM with Rw Burn

I often lurk but rarely chime in. I wanted to add to the data pool for this deck because I am really enjoying playing it and would like to see continued refinement.

James, thanks for kicking it off and thanks to all of the rest of you who are running with it.

For reference, my decklist:

[deck]Creatures:
4 x Chandra's Phoenix
4 x Ash Zealot
3 x Satyr Firedancer

Burn:
3 x Shock
4 x Magma Jet
4 x Lightning Strike
4 x Skullcrack
4 x Boros Charm
4 x Searing Blood
3 x Warleader's Helix

Lands:
4 x Mutavault
4 x Sacred Foundry
4 x Temple of Triumph
2 x Boros Guildgate
9 x Mountain

Sideboard:
2 x Spark Trooper
3 x Viashino Firstblade
4 x Firedrinker Satyr
4 x Chained to the
Rocks
2 x Blind Obedience[/deck]

4 rounds played and I went 3-1 for matches won and lost; 7-3 for games won and lost.

Round 1: My opponent played a very controlling Izzet build that used a number of counterspells to include Dissipate, Nullify, and Annul. There was the occasional Lightning Strike and Archaeomancer was used to recur from the graveyard. There was a minor detain subtheme as well with the use of Soulsworn Spirit. Game one, on the play, I learned about a number of the counterspells and played around them and baited them using dual Mutavault for the beatdown. I took out a Skullcrack and a Magma Jet for two Blind Obedience. My thought was to have her creatures tapped so I could get an extra swing through after they were cast and use extort for value. In game two I kept the opposing board clear swinging with Mutavault and hitting with burn.
I don't believe my sideboard exchange was optimal and I should have probably treated this like a control deck and brought in more creatures,
bringing in the Viashino Firstblades for sure and possibly some number of the Firedrinker Satyrs.
Match: 1-0 Games: 2-0

Round 2: My opponent was playing a fairly typical Jund Monsters list. I started game one on the play while my opponent took a mulled to five. I'm pretty frustrated with this game because I was too conservative storing up my burn. If I would have played more aggressively, racing, I would have won as I had plenty of burn to still play out when he killed me. He finished my off with a Stormbreath Dragon joining Polukranos to finish me off. I took out three Shock, a Satyr Firedance, a Skullcrack, and a Magma Jet. I brought in two Blind Obedience, two Spark Troopers, and two Chained to the Rocks. Game two, I just destroyed him as he had a slow start with a number of gates/temples and I had plenty of gas. Game three was his from the start when he cast Polukranos on turn three. I continued until dead hoping to draw an out but failed.
Again, I think the sideboard exchange could have
been better. I think Blind Obedience should have been my other two Chained to the Rocks.
Match: 1-1 Games: 3-2

Round 3: This time my opponent was playing another homebrew that I can only call Naya Goodstuff. His deck was designed to ramp with Sylvan Caryatid. His early creatures were Boros Reckoners and Loxodon Smiters while prepping for Trostani, Voice of Selesnya and Advent of the Wurm. Game one, on the draw I straight burned him out. It wouldn't have happened without the help of Satyr Firedancer. He allowed my to remove Trostani with a Boros Charm and Shock to my opponent. Awesome value. That was the turning point and I finished him off with burn. I sided out four Searing Blood, a Satyr Firedancer, and a Shock. I replaced them with four Chained to the Rocks and two Spark Troopers. I had to mulligan to six in game two. It was tough and I used Skullcrack to good effect, preventing Trostani lifegain twice. I needed one more though for an Advent of the Wurm. The five life he gained was
what made the difference in the damage race. Game three I also had to mulligan to six cards because I couldn't keep a five land hand with Chandra's Phoenix and Satyr Firedancer as my only spells. I drew a hand of mixed burn and a phoenix and was good to go. My opponent was land-flooded this game and was finished fairly quickly.
Match: 2-1 Games: 5-3

Round 4: Rakdos aggro leaning a little more red was the match. Game one, on the draw, my opponent had a fast start with double Tormented Hero into Rakdos Cackler and Spike Jester; I had to burn creatures out until I could stabilize at nine life with Ashley twins on the board. A little back and forth from here but Seering Blood is amazing in this matchup, as is Firedancer while he remains on the board. I replaced two Skullcracks for two Blind Obedience in game two. This started out with another Tormented Hero and a turn two Madcap Skills on the hero taking my to 14 right away. I burned the hero right off but took hits from a few more hasty
creatures but again Searing Blood was awesome. Finished game two with an extorted Magma Jet on opposing end step and a Boros Charm and Skullcrack on my turn.
Match: 3-1 Games: 7-3

Thoughts -

I have a kneejerk reaction to Boros Reckoner and burned out the early ones in the third round whenever they came down. I'm still trying to decide if that was the best line to take or if I could have raced an early Boros Reckoner because people so often want to keep them back to block. I think my opponent would have attacked with it so burning it early was probably the best play but I have to remember that this is a burn deck, not a 20-20-20 deck...

I also need to better know when to race and when to hold back with this deck. I'm still irritated with myself for the game one in round two.

I like Satyr Firedancer quite a bit and will continue to test with him in. People at my store haven't yet learned just how powerful he can be so I was getting a few activations before they decided that he must die.
n
I was very pleased with Searing Blood. Finishing a creature and doming your opponent in one is huge.

Please critique my boarding. I think there were probably better choices in some of my matches.

NerdBoyWonder, it looks like we are playing the same 75. What have you been sideboarding for G/r or Jund Monsters?

[NerdBoyWonder]

NerdBoyWonder, it looks like we are playing the same 75. What have you been sideboarding for G/r or Jund Monsters?

On the Play
-3 Shock
-4 Ash Zealot
-1 Skullcrack
+2 Spark Trooper
+2 Blind Obedience
+4 Chained To Rocks

On the Draw:
-3 Firedancer Satyr
-4 Ash Zealot
-1 Skullcrack
+2 Spark Trooper
+2 Blind Obedience
+4 Chained To Rocks

Ash Zealot gets out classed fast by that deck. The match up is a race and lifegain is key from what I have found. They have minimal life gain in the form of Courser or ScOoze but when it is there it is there. The reason the take outs are different from draw and the play are as follows:

On the play I take out
shock as I can get maximum value out of taking out a turn 1 dork with Searing Blood. On my turn 1 I can play a scry or guildgate. If I play the scry I normally look to set up another land drop or more gas depending on my starting hand. I take out just one SKullcrack because Lifegain is very minimal in their deck and if they are already in a position to gain value out of life gain the game is already lost.

On the draw Zealot still comes out. She can't fight through Caryatids. Firedancer comes out but not because he is bad in this match up but when on the draw he is a bit slower to set up. Shocks stay in also because if they do have a turn one dork you can shock them as opposed to getting value out of Searing blood. I still leave in 4 searing bloods in though because if I have to waste 2 on a Courser or a Stormbreath Dragon that is still 6 points of Damage to the dome.

[Kyarie]

Thank you and well explained. I'm much more used to creature kill and it is hard to think I should side more out.

BTW Love the banners.

[zemanjaski]

Opponent: untap, land, Stormbreath Dragon, move to combat.
Me: two Searing Bloods!

[Khaospawn]

Opponent: untap, land, Stormbreath Dragon, move to combat.
Me: two Searing Bloods!

And he died on the inside, correct?

[BlakLanner]

And hopefully on the outside as well.

[zemanjaski]

Yeah untapped and killed him. I am on an absurd tear online this week, will hit 30 QPs within a week.

[zemanjaski]

I beat his draw of Turn 4 Polukranos into Stormbreath into Ruric Thar in Game 2, so serves him right. Turn 1 Shock your Elf, Turn 2 Blind Obedience, Turn 3 Phoenix does that.

[zemanjaski]

Whatever that feel is when your opponent's no longer want to play against you.

[Khaospawn]

I beat his draw of Turn 4 Polukranos into Stormbreath into Ruric Thar in Game 2, so serves him right. Turn 1 Shock your Elf, Turn 2 Blind Obedience, Turn 3 Phoenix does that.

Death to Ming!

[zenbitz]

I beat his draw of Turn 4 Polukranos into Stormbreath into Ruric Thar in Game 2

pics or it didn't happen