[Primer] Boros Burn

[dauntless268]

@ Whole: it's one of those times where the metagame for DEs is different than the one for 8-mans. I've seen a lot more Red Aggro on 2- and 8-mans than MTG goldfish would suggest. So best to adjust according to which types of events you play

@ Black Lanner. Chains is good vs. Aggro. When you run him out of creatures he's usually at about, umm, 20 life, so the win is usually via the creatures that you have and not via burn spells. It's getting to that point where low CMC removal is important.

[BlakLanner]

What would I cut for them then? When I pulled the Chains I added a Shock (1 mana removal), a Searing Blood (2 mana removal), and a Helix (racing tool). I have to keep 4x Stoke since I play without Mortars. I am not trying to be difficult but I really don't know what I would cut at this point.

[dauntless268]

Don't worry, you'll be fine with your MD vs. Red Aggro. It's just that saying Chains is bad vs. Red Aggro goes a bit far IMO.

I like chains over Blood MD because I'm not confident I can race U and B Devo without it. But maybe you can?

[pikachufan2164]

The local metagame is small and relatively biased towards aggro (Rx, Wx, Gx) and midrange (Bx, BWx, Gx). There is relatively little control, but there is at least 1 Hexproof deck (possibly 2) in the mix to complicate things. I'm preparing for an open meta, as inevitably, a few people from other stores will try to get the champion playmat at the small store I play at.

If your meta is filled with aggro and midrange I would just cut the Eidolon of the Great Revel run the 2nd W/T for Aura and then fill the last two slots with either Assemble or Hushwings depending on your prefer play-
style - everything else looks great vs your metagame.

Thanks! I might go -3 Eidolon, -1 Wear/Tear, +2 Keening Apparition, +2 Assemble.

Eidolon is good against about 1/5~1/4 of the players in my small meta (1 Burn, 1-2 Hexproof, 1-2 Control (one is UWr, the other is Maze's End) in a local field of around 12-15, with some number of unknowns from other stores arriving for Game Day), so I'm still hesitant about dropping it. I've added in Keening as an answer to Hexproof that remains relevant against Control; I guess I really don't want to keep losing to Hexproof

[magicdownunder]

I think I'm just going to not board in Reckoners against Mono Blue. It seems unlikely that they'd board in Domestication unless they expected Reckoner, but even still, I feel like the blowout is too big to even risk it. If they grab a Reckoner it stretches our Chained to the Rocks, and if we were leaning on it to not take a million damage then we almost definitely lose that game. I think there are enough SB tools to make the matchup favorable, and Reckoner is a huge wild card in my mind.

Most players wouldn't (its the same as Connection and Seize when playing MonoBlack Devotion) - but top tier grinders (top200) or players like Sam Pedree (No.2 grinder atm) would - because for U Devo Domestication might as
well be a 2-for-1 removal vs small Red/Burn.

I'm only seeing 13 in that sideboard... are the 2 missing Chandra?

You are correct, I'll update the list soon

Adrian Sullivan and I discussed Burn briefly and we both recognized that we didn't like Magma Jet. Drawing Magma Jet means the card in your hand is worse (2-mana Shocks aren't good) but you might make a future draw better. Well, in a deck with this much redundancy and mana this good, Adrian and I both didn't (and still don't) like that tradeoff. If you play Magma Jet, the scarcity of deck slots means something's gotta give—usually the 4th Shock and/or the 4th Searing Blood. I'd just rather draw those more efficient spells than
Magma Jet, and if I flood a bit more than other Burn decks, maybe the turn 1 Shock (or turn 3 Pyromancer + Shock) bought me extra time or the Searing Blood got me a free Lightning Strike anyway to offset that extra land I drew.

My thoughts on Magma Jet (I'm not a PRO so take it as a gain of salt):

In eternal formats Magma Jet is rather weak because every single spell does the same thing (1cc 3 damage burns) - In standard however that redundancy is gone, our spells varies from cost and ability for instant:

Digging for and shipping lands matters in standard because we usually want at least 4 lands but no more then 6-7
Digging for and shipping chains matters because an early DD or MoW needs too be dealt with, but as a finisher or vs control its rather weak

Other examples include 4cc spells, lifegain spells (WLH), creatures and our other removals post-board.

That said I STILL highly recommend Sperling list because its easier to play ("scry&
quot; is the hardest thing you do in burn really) and because it leaves you with fewer dead cards (sure MoW and DD will be worst but YP$ can help against them).

[BlakLanner]

I think it is the Eternal player in me that just hates using 2 mana and a card to deal 2 damage.

[Valdarith]

I think there's something to be said for increasing the average damage per card in the deck. Removing Jet and Chained makes a significant difference here. If the scry is missed one could jam a couple of temples in the deck, but I think just running four Mutavault is likely better for the same reasons for cutting Jet.

[magicdownunder]

Jumped in an SE and fought G1 Jund Walker and G2 Planar Cleansing UW control - the finals was G devo (Jund Walkers and UW Planar Cleansing are really common MUs nowadays).

I really like the Planar Cleansing UW Control MU because they invite weakness which control doesn't normally have, lets have a look at the deck now:

[deck=IVAN FLOCH - PRO TOUR MAGIC 2015 TOP 8's Planar Cleansing UW Control]Planeswalker 3
3 Jace, Architect of Thought

Sorcery 10
4 Supreme Verdict
3 Planar Cleansing
3 Divination

Instant 20
4 Sphinx's Revelation
4 Dissolve
4 Azorius Charm
4 Quicken
2 Last Breath
2 Syncopate

Artifact 1
1 Elixir of Immortality

Land 26
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Azorius Guildgate
2 Mutavault
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Triumph
6 Island
6 Plains

Sideboard 15
2 Last Breath
4 Nyx-Fleece Ram
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Jace, Memory Adept
1 Deicide
2 Dispel
2
Gainsay
2 Archangel of Thune[/deck]

Firstly that MD, it has ZERO wincons and ONLY 6 counter spells, I think I really need too emphasize that they only have 6 counters - if your patience you should win (surprisingly).

That SD means post-board they a lifegain deck with only 8 counters keep in some chains because your boarding against your opp. M2 not M1 and any other white hate you have and you'll take the match with patience.

[Kilo]

Went to FNM tonight to get an idea what I should expect for game day and it was mostly aggro with some mid-range and virtually no control. Here's what I was planning to run (the only difference from what I ran tonight is -1 shock -1 helix and -1 mortars in the main for +3 searing blood)


[deck]
Creatures: 8
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer
Spells: 29
4 Boros Charm
4 Chained to the Rocks
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
3 Shock
4 Skullcrack
3 Warleader's Helix
3 Searing Blood
Land: 23
1 Temple of Malice
1 Temple of Silence
2 Battlefield Forge
8 Mountain
3 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph

Sideboard
2 Banishing Light
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Prophetic Flamespeaker
2 Pillar of Light
2 Hushwing Gryff
1 Assemble the Legion
[/deck]

Also considering cutting the Gryff's and the Assemble for like 3 spark trooper's. Mainly worried about aggro and green
devotion but I do need to remain flexible enough for a more open field because it's game day.

[pikachufan2164]

Also considering cutting the Gryff's and the Assemble for like 3 spark trooper's. Mainly worried about aggro and green devotion but I do need to remain flexible enough for a more open field because it's game day.

If you're worried about Gx Devotion, then you should keep Hushwing Gryff around, as it turns off ETB effects from BTE, Nylea's Disciple, Hornet Queen, Reclamation Sage, and most of their Chord toolbox.

Instead of Spark Troopers (which are better if you're racing), try using Boros Reckoner as an anti-aggro speed bump. Reckoner should slow down small aggro decks enough that you can clear their board with burn spells or set up 2-for-1's while on defence. It's also useful against green-based midrange decks (such as GRx Monsters and Gx
Devotion) as a way to attack through Caryatids and Coursers while discouraging bigger creatures from attacking.

Thanks! I might go -3 Eidolon, -1 Wear/Tear, +2 Keening Apparition, +2 Assemble.

Eidolon is good against about 1/5~1/4 of the players in my small meta (1 Burn, 1-2 Hexproof, 1-2 Control (one is UWr, the other is Maze's End) in a local field of around 12-15, with some number of unknowns from other stores arriving for Game Day), so I'm still hesitant about dropping it. I've added in Keening as an answer to Hexproof that remains relevant against Control; I guess I really don't want to keep losing to Hexproof

Did some testing against the Burn mirror tonight at FNM with Eidolons in my sideboard. Eidolon is great
when it comes out on Turn 2, but it actually warps the mechanics of the mirror match so much that I don't feel comfortable enough to run it. (It probably also means that I need more sequencing practice against the mirror.)

Going forward, my sideboard will be as follows for Game Day:

[deck]Sideboard[/deck]

[NotARobot]

Took down the 2nd gameday in a row with burn


Shame next game day it won't be here anymore v_v

[Whole]

Got 16th in the MOCS Season 8 Finals. I'd like to thank y'all for all the help with playing Boros Burn. Without this thread, I probably wouldn't have a competent list or even be a good enough player to get the 35 QPs.

[magicdownunder]

Got 16th in the MOCS Season 8 Finals. I'd like to thank y'all for all the help with playing Boros Burn. Without this thread, I probably wouldn't have a competent list or even be a good enough player to get the 35 QPs.

Solid Result mate

I bombed out vs walkers in all 3 of my loses, but I built my build poorly so I had it coming (man I hate limited).

[GoblinWarchief]

I am officially retarded. In my first 3 rounds of the game day i crushed mono black and jund walkers and lost to B/W. 4th and last round i was paired up against the only one at 9 points and after some calculations i was sure i could make top 8 with a tie. So we tied and playing for fun i crushed him 2-0 ( he was on junk). It then turned out my math was wrong and i was 5th , not even for rating because the 4th one had more points than me.

I feel a stupid but it's not a big problem.... i had fun playing th edeck and i wasn't particularly interested in the playmat... there was also a courser of kruphix for the winner but well...

[BlakLanner]

Such an epic self destruction today at the SCG Open. Took the list I posted a little earlier.

R1 - Rabble Red
I simply burn him out game 1 and Satyr Firedancer keeps him under control in game 2
1-0

R2 - GU Devotion
I had to throw two spells to kill an early Polukranos but simply go to the dome the rest of game 1. Game 2 was the Firedancer show yet again.
2-0

R3 - BW Midrange
More burn straight to the dome ignoring his Demon game 1. I lose game 2 on the back of a mull to 6 combined with multiple discard spells. I take game 3 easily with a YP and lots of firepower.
3-0

R4 - Mono Blue (Fake feature match vs JD Nir)
He kept a slow hand and paid for it with multiple Stokes and Helixes to the head. Satyr Firedancer keeps him under control in game 2 giving me the win with the last card in my hand.
4-0

R5 - Mono Blue
A very close game but I topdecked a Helix at the right time to win the race game 1. Game 2
was a matter of board control and Mutavault beatdowns.
5-0

R6 - Rabble Red (vs. eventual Top 8 player Adam Bruce)
I win the race in game 1 with a pair of Helixes. Games 2 and 3 I barely lose the race stalling at 3 lands with multiple Helixes in hand.
5-1

R7 - Mono Black
I took him out game 1 through a pair of Grey Merchants with a combination of Phoenix beatdowns and Boros Charms. He stalls on mana game 2 for an easy win.
6-1

R8 - Mono Black
I run out of gas due to discard game 1, but beat him through two Grey Merchants in game 2 with burn and a very timely Chandra ultimate that very nearly bricked. Game 3 I make a massive mistake and forget my Phoenix in my graveyard while he plays Whip. I throw what burn I have at him but die with him at 1 life. A major mistake that probably signaled the end for me.
6-2

R9 - Rabble Red
I kept what would be a solid hand against any other deck in game 1 (2x Crack, 2x Charm, Searing Blood, 2 land) but can't stabilize in time since I had so little
creature removal. Game 2 was yet another Satyr Firedancer show. Game 3 was rough. He plays triple BTE but I start to stabilize at very low life with YP on the board and 2 Boros Charms in hand when he topdecks his second (of two in the deck) Ash Zealots to give him the last point of damage before I start to take over.
6-3

R10 - BW Midrange
Mulligan city. I mull to 6 game 1 and flood out horribly. Game 2, I mull to 5 but get multiple Phoenixes out that he can't keep off the board. I mull to 5 again in game 3 and take heavy Mutavault beats. I get him to 5 and might have stood a chance but a late Demon from him finishes it off.
6-4

It was so very disappointing to have the tournament end up like that. I can't help but wonder where I would have been if I hadn't punted away my round 8 match. The deck felt reasonably solid. I won a few games I probably had no business winning. I never brought in the Toil/Troubles but didn't face a single control opponent, either. Rabble Red seems to be a
harder fight than we seem to have thought. Either that or my opponents just always brought the kinds of draws that were very hard to beat. I don't think I would change anything in my deck but I might want to reevaluate which cards I bring in at what times. The one time I brought in Wear/Tear, he didn't bring in Whip. The one Whip I saw, I didn't bring in the Wear/Tear.

[NotARobot]

Thats rough to start a tournament so promising then go down that way... Just have to focus on keeping your cool and taking yourself off tilt so you don't impact later games. I think wear//tear is too narrow vs Bx decks - your single target is whip, right? I prefer the catch-all of banishing light, that can hit demons / other stuff if necessary, wear/tear is reserved for lists running 4x dsphere, constellation, ect.

[BlakLanner]

I did not have any Banishing Lights in my 75. Most BW decks run Whip so I thought it was an extra safety net. I only brought one in that game but saw it in all 3 opening hands game 3 >.>. I did manage to stay fairly calm up until the last round. This was my first Open and cashing would have been a solid start. I just remember mumbling to myself as I was mulliganing in the last round "Not like this, please just not like this." I was at the top of the 18 point bracket so a win in round 10 would have secured a top 32 for me.

[Jamie]

I think its really likely that you run into the '2 helixs in hand on 3 land' problem if you don't run magma jets in a long event like an open. 0 chains makes the rabblered matchup a bit worse. In my testing, rabblered is exactly as easy as we think.

[magicdownunder]

Rabble Red seems to be a harder fight than we seem to have thought.

I think with your set-up, you get blown out by Electrickery since your bank on dancers and young post-board.

Furthermore since your not running 4x Shock and 4x Chains you'll have a much harder time dealing with the horrible 3+ creature on T2 plays they usually have

- - - - -

That said with the usually set-up the MU is quite favorable

[dauntless268]

@ Jamie: Matt Sperling did exactly that and ended Top 8... That said, MJ certainly helps to shore up the Rx Aggro Matchup

@ Blak Lanner: great report! How do you feel in retrospect about cutting Chains from the MD? Would you overall recommend it?

@ MDU: TBH, I'd rather have them play Electricity than PE in their Board but it raises the question if and how many BC we should leave in postboard. What's your opinion?

[Jamie]

Sperling played in some nonsensical format where you can play against people who can do well in draft and not well in constructed. Any list from that tournament should not be regarded as toplevel deckbuilding.

I mean, my due respect to someone who top8s a competition that is 60% Standard.

[BlakLanner]

@Jamie I know it can happen but for it to happen twice in the same match was rather frustrating. I did run into one or two other variance-based mana issues but that is to be expected in any 10 round tournament. I don't consider Sperling's list to be the be-all, end-all. I did change out a few cards and might make a few more adjustments after some thought.

@MDU I didn't see a single Electrickery. They did burn away a couple SFD over the course of the event. With all the aggro I saw, I might actually add a few Anger of the Gods as a hedge in case I don't see my other answers. Then again, I also had some bad luck in both of my losses to Rabble Red as well. I will have to think it over.

@Dauntless268 I really didn't miss them all that much in game 1s as I had enough burn to finish them off even through Demon and Master of Waves. I would not want to cut them entirely from my 75 though. I left in all my Boros
Charms. It gives indestructable and wanted to cut the Phoenixes and Skullcracks before I went that far. I only had 5 cards to bring in against them anyway.

[Whole]

R9 - Rabble Red
I kept what would be a solid hand against any other deck in game 1 (2x Crack, 2x Charm, Searing Blood, 2 land) but can't stabilize in time since I had so little creature removal. Game 2 was yet another Satyr Firedancer show. Game 3 was rough. He plays triple BTE but I start to stabilize at very low life with YP on the board and 2 Boros Charms in hand when he topdecks his second (of two in the deck) Ash Zealots to give him the last point of damage before I start to take over.
6-3

Why do you keep Boros Charm against RabbleRed?

[BlakLanner]

Not enough things to bring out. Also having the ability to make creatures indestructible and make tokend is an excellent ability to have when you need to block.

[Whole]

That might be why you think Rabble Red is hard. The indestructible mode is merely okay, but I always try to side out 4x Skullcrack and at least 3x Boros Charm vs aggro because you never want to draw 2 Charms against them. Even then I usually take out 4x Charm, 4x Skullcrack, and some number of Phoenix in favor of more removal and better creatures.

[BlakLanner]

All I have to bring in are Saturday fire dancer perhaps chains and Chandra everything else is fine. First to go are Phoenix and skullcrack. the matchup is probably not as bad as I am thinking given how my loss is played out. I lost primarily to screw, a bad keep game 1, and a nut draw that I'm not sure I would be even if my deck was All removal. I will however look at reevaluating my sideboard plan.

[Whole]

I just did the most broken shit vs GW aggro. I was on the draw. Turn 2 Young Pyromancer. He untaps and plays a turn 3 Fleecemane Lion, so his board is Soldier of the Pantheon, 2/2 Experiment One (He played Soldier turn 1...number of plausible reasons the Exp. One is a 2/2), and a Fleecemane Lion.

Untap. Mountain. Shock Soldier. Trigger. Shock Experiment One. Trigger. Convoke Stoke the Flames on Fleecemane Lion. (Trigger)

So I had a Young Pyromancer and 3 Tokens and he had an empty board all on turn 3. Needless to say, I won that game.

[BrainsickHater]

I played at the SCG Open on Saturday and had a pretty mediocre showing. Here's the full-fledged report, the 75 I played, and some thoughts on the deck (despite their irrelevance as the format wanes).

[deck]
Creatures:
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix

Spells:
4 Chained to the Rocks

4 Shock
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
3 Warleader's Helix
1 Stoke the Flames
1 Mizzium Mortars

Lands:
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
9 Mountain
3 Mutavault
2 Battlefield Forge
1 Temple of Silence

Sideboard:
3 Mizzium Mortars
3 Boros Reckoner
2 Banishing Light
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Wear // Tear
1 Hushwing Gryff
1 Pillar of Light
1 Mutavault
[/deck]

These were my thoughts as I put this list together for the open:
- PT results + SCG Open = creature decks. I felt
that the casual try-hards would be playing some kind of green dudes or Rabble Red, and the top tables would be full of BW MIdrange.
- It's hard to have the tools for everything, so I should tune my deck to be well-suited against a wide-range of creature-centric matchups; I could lean on play skill to handle the random UWx or Bx matchups. The Bx matchups especially I felt were almost a bye (I had become much better at beating them in recent testing).

I ended up going 4-4 drop, as by the time I lost my 4th round I was salty and punting games. I really didn't feel like playing and I couldn't keep my head and my heart in it.

Round 1 vs Rabble Red:
I made some play mistakes as it was my first match of the day, but my opponent had never played the deck before and I easily won in 2 games.
(1-0)

Round 2 vs Jund Walkers:
I was very nervous about this matchup, as I honestly feel like it's difficult to beat the deck consistently without dedicating a
lot of cards out of the board. Game 1 my opponent did nothing for 4 turns and I burned him out in a laughably easy fashion.
Boarding: -4 Chained, -4 Pyromancer, +1 Mortars, +3 Reckoner, +2 Chandra, +2 Banishing Light
Game 2 I didn't have enough burn in hand to burn him out, and my Phoenix got sprayed, so I was forced to deal with his walkers to buy some time. I got him down to one card in hand, which was probably removal, and only a 2/2 and a caryatid in play, but he just ripped gas a couple times and I couldn't keep up. Game 3 was pretty interesting. I landed a turn 3 Reckoner which was just an unstoppable force. At the very worst it ate caryatids which was fine. Eventually my opponent drew into a second courser, but I was able to magma jet into a Skullcrack to buy myself some time. Unfortunately, my opponent played Nissa, which I decided to deal with since I had been taking courser beats. After dealing with the Nissa, my opponent is at 7 life, has 2 coursers and a 4/4
in play, and there's a long-awaited dreadbore on top of his library. I'm at 6 and am dead to attacks, even if my mutavault blocks. I draw for turn and see a mountain (shit!). My only play here is to attack and bluff Warleader's Helix. He blocks and I put him to 5 and during his turn he kills the Reckoner and tanks for an eternity. He makes conservative attacks to avoid dying to Helix + mutavault swing and I draw another Reckoner. GG. I'm not sure if I could have done anything better in this match; the only real decision points where scrying and where to point burn. It's possible I didn't point enough at my opponent's face or I left cards that just weren't good enough on top, but it's hard to say.
(1-1)

Round 3 vs UW Cleansing Control:
Game 1 my opener was the dreaded scryland + magma jet hand on the draw. Initially I looked at it and thought to myself "snap-ship" since there was only one land, but upon seeing it was a scry land and realizing I was on
the draw, all the thought I had to put into this scenario caused me to reconsider my decision. This was the biggest mistake of my life. Chances are if your instinct with a deck you played for months is to ship a hand, you should ship it. I ended up making excuses, being greedy, and keeping. I then miss a couple land drops and let my control opponent go through the first few turns unpressured. I concede in response to Jace ultimate to hide information.
Boarding: -3 Chained, -1 Shock, -1 Helix, -1 Mortars, +2 Chandra, +2 Banishing Light, +1 Mutavault
This is where my build really hurt me. I don't have nearly enough powerful cards for the matchup and I'm really leaning on variance and extraordinarily tight play to carry me to a match win.
Game 2 I get off to a much faster start and have a much better hand. Whenever my opponent taps out I do as much damage as I can in a turn cycle and my opponent ends up not being able to play around Skullcrack and I take him down. I do
see a lot of shocks this game, however, so I side one out in favor of another helix. Shock is useful, but there is something to be said for 4 points of damage.
Game 3 starts off very similarly to the first and I absolutely spew burn during a couple turn cycles dropping my opponent down to 7. I don't leave up skullcrack because my opponent is at 5 mana and I'm not scared of a rev. If he has the one-of elixir then he has it. He ends up Last Breathing his mutavault while I'm tapped out to keep him out of lethal range. I sit on my burn waiting to draw enough to bottleneck him for lethal damage, but after a couple untaps I'm looking at a Sheep and an Archangel. I skullcrack in his upkeep to avoid him carrying the game out of reach, but he revs for 3 in response to trigger his angel. That's enough to keep me out of the game for another turn and I scoop after some beats.
(1-2)

Round 4 vs UW Cleansing Control:
Game 1 wasn't looking to good for me, but I could tell my
opponent wasn't the strongest player, so when he ultimated Jace I let it go. He ended up grabbing a Helix from me and a Divination (lol) from himself. I skullcracked the helix and he didn't have a Rev. I ended up being able to draw into enough burn to take the game. I boarded the same way I did for Game 3 of last match.
Game 2 I managed to ultimate Chandra and the first card I hit was Boros Charm. GG get rekt shitty. After this match was over I talked to my opponent who was from the area. He said Syracuse was a super UW-heavy metagame, which I recall someone mentioning a few months ago for a PTQ. I feel like an idiot and I really being to lament my card choices, hoping I can avoid the matchup for the rest of the day.
(2-2)

Round 5 vs MB Devotion:
Game 1 my opponent thoughtseized me and I jokingly offered, "Phoenix?" I was answered with a tentative yes. Shocked, I quickly moved the card to the graveyard before he changed his mind. I proceeded to offer
Phoenix whenever possible for the rest of the match and my opponent took it 2 out of 3 times. Needless to say, I won this match 2-0.
(3-2)

Round 6 vs MB Devotion:
Game 1 didn't go super-well for me at first. I was flooding out and didn't have much in hand besides Skullcrack, Mortars, and Chained. I was staring down 2 nightveil specters and just waiting to hit my land-drops. On turn 5 I chained a demon and skullcracked a devour flesh, and on turn 6 I overloaded mortars. A few draw steps later and I had taken the game. He had played Temple of Silence on turn 1 and I put him on BW midrange without a second thought. I didn't even rethink that after he played Specter, but thankfully the boarding plan is pretty similar.
Boarding: -3 Shock, -2 Boros Charm, +2 Chandra, +1 Gryff, +1 Pillar, +1 Mortars
I don't really remember game 2. I think I just had a decent hand and I played well and got there. I was now 4-2 and was feeling pretty good about
myself, but whenever I feel that way I always choke. Maybe it was a self-fulfilling prediction, but the next game made me pretty pissed.
(4-2)

Round 7 vs UW Cleansing Control (ugh):
Game 1 my hand was a 4-drop heavy, but I decided to roll with it. When my opponent played a UW temple I was a little peeved, but I didn't let it get to me. I threw as much burn at him as I could when his defenses were down or I could bottleneck his mana to make the most of use my 4-drops (thankfully I hit lands on time). I ended up getting him down to 2 and hand 5 lands in play with a Skullcrack and Stoke the Flames in hand. I felt really good about my chances. I drew a YP and played it, and my opponent went to last breath it on my end-step. He had 5 lands in play so if he had a Sphinx's Rev I could still kill him by convoking Stoke the Flames. In my arrogance and my tendency for fast play, I didn't consider what would happen if the Stoke got countered and I went for it. It got countered
and my opponent untapped to rev for 8. What a miserable way to lose. Boarding was the same as it was for the last UW match.
Game 2 I got wrecked by turn 3 sheep, into Jace, into Archangel. If I hadn't tossed away game 1 I could have had a shot at the match with game 3 but I was an idiot.
(4-3)

Round 8 vs Esper Control:
Game 1 my opponent's manabase railed him a new one and it was a cake-walk.
Boarding: -4 Chained to the Rocks, -2 Shock, +2 Wear // Tear, +2 Banishing Light, +2 Chandra
At this point in time I'm really fucking sick of playing against control and am super salty with myself. When my opponent plays BBoV I'm about ready to lose it. I play like an idiot and try to use my multiple skullcracks one at a time to keep him off lifegain, and they just get countered. I could have bottlenecked him during his upkeep and given myself the ability to draw into a victory. It ends up not mattering, but it was still stupid of me. I board out at
W//T and board in a MM for game 3.
Game 3 I scry a mortars down to the bottom because it's early in the game and I'm hoping I can just burn him out before Blood Baron becomes relevant. Immediately afterwards a Sheep comes down. I play things in a stupid sequence and run out my Chandra, Pyromaster instead of trying to bait a counterspell first, and my surest avenue to victory hits the graveyard. A Blood Baron comes down a couple turns later and I know I'm not seeing an answer for it any time soon. I drop out of rage. frustration, and exhaustion, and feel like a baddie.
(4-4)


In hindsight, I metagamed extremely poorly for this event. I faced UWx 4 times and lost to it 3 times. I could have had a maindeck and SB much better suited to the matchup instead of cards that barely came in all day.

This leads into my next point. I feel that with the burn deck it's very difficult to have a 75 that can consistently beat everything. While you could say that every deck has this problem, I feel like
the issue is much more prevalent with burn than in any deck in the format, as it's not just different cards you want, but the playstyle is completely different. Against UWx, Jund Walkers, and Bx, I want to pack my deck full of goldfish, shitty r/spikes-style burn cards. Against pretty much everything else, I want to play control. The bottom line is that you can't have a 75 that does both exceptionally well, so you just pick which one is best for the meta. Because I've been playing the controlling, 4x MD Chained lists for so long, I stuck with that style even though a Matt Sperling list probably would have destroyed pretty much every deck I played against.

I'm probably going to work on a list that dumps on the slower decks while still having a game against the creature decks, as I think that's the direction you want to go to have a more flexible 75. Satyr Firedancer might not be the absolute best place to be against creatures, but it takes up the least slots while still being strong.

[BrainsickHater]

Following up on my last post, maybe a list like this is where I want to be:

[deck]
Creatures
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
1 Eidolon of the Great Revel

Spells
4 Stoke the Flames
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix
4 Shock

Lands
1 Temple of Silence
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Temple of Triumph
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Mutavault
9 Mountain

Sideboard
4 Satyr Firedancer
3 Chandra, Pyromaster
3 Chained to the Rocks
2 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Searing Blood
1 Wear // Tear
[/deck]

[NotARobot]

Whats your justification for having 0 chains maindeck?

[zemanjaski]

Burn is a meta choice; with a format as open as it is right now it's a fairly poor choice. You can tweak it to beat two of: aggro, midrange or control, but not all three at once.

[BlakLanner]

Now that I am at home and don't have to type this out on my phone: Burn seemed a good choice for the weekend. I faced a lot of aggro and didn't see much control at all yesterday. I will be doing some self-analysis of my losses now that I am at home. I will probably shave a Toil/Trouble and maybe a SFD for a pair of sweepers as well as replacing a Wear/Tear with a Banishing Light. My sideboard plans also needs some refinement.

[magicdownunder]

Last Time

---

[deck=MDU's Rw Burn]Lands 23
2 Battlefield Forge
8 Mountain
3 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Silence
1 Temple of Malice

Creatures 08
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer

Enchantments 04
4 Chained to the Rocks

Burns 25
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
4 Magma Jet
4 Shock
3 Skullcrack
4 Warleader's Helix
2 Stoke the Flames

Sideboard 15
3 Toil // Trouble
3 Mizzium Mortars
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Flames of the Firebrand
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Wear // Tear
1 Skullcrack
1 Banishing Light
1 Pillar of Light [/deck]

Flames of the Firebrand is my nod at small aggro and bx devo, 1x Skullcrack in my SB is a nod at the diverse metagame - everything else is standard.

Standard Report SE 7364271
G1 Jund Walkers vs Rw Burn Standard SE 7364271
G2 UW Control vs Rw Burn Standard SE 7364271
G3 Green Devo vs Rw Burn Standard SE 7364271 <--- 4x [card]Nylea's Disciple[/card], 1x Time to Feed and 2x Courser of Kruphix later...

This week videos will have lots of Jund Walkers and BW (as per usual), 2x UW Planer control and 1 or 2 aggro decks (which is a nice change from all the aggro decks last week ) - I'll also up upping some modern videos as well running Levy's LD deck.

[BrainsickHater]

@zemanjaski

I really felt that this past weekend. I kind of gave up laboring over card choices because it felt like no matter what I didn't have everything I needed. Definitely something I realized too late but at the very least know to watch for it in the future.

@notarobot

The idea is you just concede a lot of percentage points game 1 against the decks you need chained against and board into fire dancer which will hopefully hose the decks in games 2 and 3.

[BlakLanner]

The only two cards that we really need Chains for is Demon and Master of Waves. It is nice to have against a few others but hardly critical. Game 1, without all the sideboard hate from them, we can either keep their devotion under control to minimize the damage or try to pin the Demon down with YP tokens and/or simply race them. Firedancer is a beating against Mono Blue but I wouldn't go anywhere near it against decks that run Demon.

[sirzevo]

How are you all determining what will be played at these events? The only thing I can think of is looking at some of the last major events in my area (GP Portland was just here, so I will probably use that).

[BlakLanner]

We look at what has been winning recently and plan to play against those decks as well as the ones that tend to beat those decks.

[Rhyno]

Didn't get there with burn at the Standard Open but I apparently ran the deck back in the modern event.
http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdata ... ckID=71448

[Kaitscralt]

Sperling played in some nonsensical format where you can play against people who can do well in draft and not well in constructed. Any list from that tournament should not be regarded as toplevel deckbuilding.

I mean, my due respect to someone who top8s a competition that is 60% Standard.

sadly your post does not make any sense

[sirzevo]

We look at what has been winning recently and plan to play against those decks as well as the ones that tend to beat those decks.

Cool. I will look into it. Do you use mtggoldfish.com, SCG events, etc. to see what's been winning recently?