[deck]
18 Mountain
4 Goblin Guide
4 Vexing Devil
3 Keldon Marauders
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Price of Progress
4 Flame Rift
4 Fireblast
3 Sulfuric Vortex
Sideboard
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Smash to Smithereens
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Pyroblast
3 Searing Blood[/deck]
The plan is simple: count to 7(20).
Most of the cards are self-explanatory but there are a few options.
Fetch lands: Useful for minor deck thinning and feeding Lavamancer. I tend to avoid them to protect against Stifle.
Vexing Devil: Some love it, some hate it. Excellent card in your opener but not that good as a late game topdeck.
Grim Lavamancer: Excellent card and often used in
burn decks. Needs fetch lands in order to function properly. If you do, you probably want 2-3 in the deck.
Young Pyromancer: Probably too slow for what we want to do. It will have a hard time fighting on the ground against most other decks with creatures.
Sulfuric Vortex: Continual damage and shuts off lifegain. A little slow but it can stop some decks from taking the game away from us.
Thunderous Wrath: Sometimes seen as a single copy in a deck for random extra damage. I don't suggest it since you will almost never be able to hard cast this.
Keldon Marauders: One of our weaker viable creature options. Often just two damage but sometimes hits for 5 or acts as a blocker. Probably not worthwhile in decks that run fetch lands.
Sideboard Options
Ensnaring Bridge: Stops Show and Tell
cold. Often keeps other attacking decks like Elves at bay.
Mindbreak Trap: Use to fight Storm/ANT. Kind of narrow but they tend to be faster than us.
Searing Blood: A new option that I am really starting to like. This card lets us take out Delver, Stoneforge, Wirewood Symbiote, etc without slowing down our damage to the opponent. You can run Searing Blaze if you run fetches and can ensure landfall.
[card]Tormod's Crypt[/card]/Relic of Progenitus/Faerie Macabre: Graveyard hate, enough said.
Smash to Smithereens: Some prefer one-mana solutions like Shattering Spree. I like that this will do damage to my opponent as well as take out the troublesome equipment and get around Chalice of the Void set to 1.
[card]Pyroblast[
/card] / Red Elemental Blast: Standard-issue anti-blue card.
Vexing Shusher: Spend mana to get our spells through counters, especially Counterbalance. Would probably need a few more lands to make it usable.
Volcanic Fallout: Uncounterable cheap sweeper. High effectiveness against decks like Esper Deathblade and Elves. Pyroclasm also works if you can handle sorcery speed.
Pyrostatic Pillar: Great against Storm and decks that rely on a large number of cantrips. Hurts us as well, so be careful with it.
Chaos Warp: Our only enchantment hate. If Leyline of Sanctity makes a comeback, this is our only defense.
Runeflare Trap: A cute way to deal with heavy Brainstorm users. I don't think we have room in the
sideboard to use it.
Common Matchups
RUG Delver (Even): We are immune to Wasteland and Stifle but watch out for Dazes. It is usually a race but one we can often win. Heavier counter packages stop us from being a favorite. Useful sideboard cards: Pyrostatic Pillar, Ensaring Bridge, Pyroblast. Weak: Sulfuric Vortex, Flame Rift (hard to use either from behind).
BUG Delver/Shardless (Good): Sulfurous Vortex stops Deathrite's lifegain although it can eat an Abrupt Decay. They are slower than RUG, buying us enough time to burn them out without pushing too hard. Kill early Dark Confidants, but let later ones live to help finish the fight. Useful sideboard cards: Ensnaring Bridge, Searing Blood. Weak: Keldon Marauders, Vexing Devil (killed by non-exile removal and eaten by (DRS).
Esper Stoneblade/Deathblade (Good): A popular but slower deck, we should be able to push
through their removal and counters unless they get an early Batterskull down. Kill Stoneforge Mystics ASAP and try to get a Vortex down to stop DRS/Batterskull. Useful sideboard cards: Searing Blood, Smash to Smithereens. Weak: Price of Progress (if they grab basics).
UWR Delver (Good): A mix of Delver and Stoneblade that, while often stronger against most decks, is weaker to us than the decks it is derived from. We only need watch for their heavier counter package. Useful sideboard cards: Pyroblast, Smash to Smithereens, Searing Blood, Pyrostatic Pillar. Weak: Keldon Marauders, Flame Rift (not really, but we want everything else more).
Merfolk (Even): A true race made harder on us with the printing of True-Name Nemesis. Kill any early lords that you can and throw the rest upstairs. Keep an eye out for Cursecatchers. Useful sideboard cards: Smash to Smithereens (Aether Vial), Pyroblast, Ensnaring Bridge. Weak:
Price of Progress (mostly basics), Sulfuric Vortex (slow unless they bring Jitte).
Elves (Even): Another race. Killing off key creatures like Symbiote before they can get their engine online is critical. Your own creatures will not likely swing through for much damage with their block and bounce abilities. Useful sideboard cards: Ensnaring Bridge, Pyrostatic Pillar, Volcanic Fallout. Weak: Sulfuric Vortex (slow), Goblin Guide (will never get through T2+)
High Tide (Even): They will try to go off on turn 4 or 5. Kill them before that. Useful sideboard cards: Pyrostatic Pillar, Pyroblast, Mindbreak Trap. Weak: Sulfuric Vortex (slow), Price of Progress (all basics), Grim Lavamancer (slow).
ANT (Even): While faster than High Tide, they tend to hurt themselves a lot more before going off. Save a spell or two in order to finish them off once they cast Tendrils to snipe games away from them. Useful sideboard cards:
Pyrostatic Pillar, Mindbreak Trap. Weak: Grim Lavamancer, Sulfuric Vortex (slow).
Death and Taxes (Even): Their Wasteland plan isn't going to be effective so they will try to rely on Thalia and Mother of Runes. Kill them ASAP and run from there. Useful sideboard cards: Smash to Smithereens, Volcanic Fallout. Weak: Goblin Guide, Keldon Marauders (won't get through T2+)
Sneak and Show (Even): Game 1 is very rough as they can often go off before you finish them. Ensnaring Bridge shuts them down hard in sideboarded games. Useful sideboard cards: Ensnaring Bridge. Weak: Price of Progress (most will fetch basics).
Omni-Tell (Even): Much like Sneak and Show. Bring in Pyroblasts as well to kill Omniscience when they try to cast Enter the Infinite.
Dredge (?): If they start going off and you don't have graveyard hate, you die. Don't be afraid to kill your own creature if you see a couple
Bridge from Below in their graveyard to slow them down. Always take draw against the manaless versions to get the free card. Useful sideboard cards: Tormod's Crypt, Faerie Macabre, Relic of Progenitus. Weak: Sulfuric Vortex (slow).
Miracles (Bad): One of our worst matchups. If they get you under a Counterbalance with Top, you are almost certainly done for without a lot of trickery. Useful sideboard cards: Pyroblast, Chaos Warp, Vexing Shusher. Weak: Keldon Marauders (no haste, vulnerable to Terminus).
Pox (Bad): Another horrible matchup as their land destruction plan can and will decimate us. Nether Void will essentially stop us from casting spells. Thankfully the deck is not played as often as many of the above decks. Useful sideboard cards: Vexing Shusher. Remove: Sulfuric Vortex (slow, expensive), Fireblast (likely won't be able to sacrifice lands).
Lands (Excellent): Price of
Progress crushes this deck. Just try to finish them off before they can get Dark Depths or Glacial Chasm online. Useful sideboard cards: Ensnaring Bridge, Smash to Smithereens if you think they will bring in Sphere of Resistance or Thorn of Amethyst. Weak: Goblin Guide (lets them draw most of the time).
Jund (Excellent): A slow, grindy deck that we can usually beat with little resistance. Early Lilianas do cause some issue. Useful sideboard cards: Searing Blood, Ensnaring Bridge. Weak: Vexing Devil, Keldon Marauders (dies to non-exile removal and eaten by DRS).
Reanimator (Bad): A combo deck that is often faster than us. Bring in the graveyard hate and pray. Weak: Sulfuric Vortex, Grim Lavamancer (slow).
My life is empty