Dies to Removal

Everyone's favorite Legacy deck

[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).

You realize you should absolutely crush pox and nether void is an at best niche card

I went 1-19 against my testing partner with the deck. I could never find a way around Sinkhole/Smallpox into Liliana into Void. Void may be niche but it really hits us hard. Do you have any suggestions?

Keldon Marauders seems bad. Here is what I play:

[deck]
4 Goblin Guide
3 Grim Lavamancer

Spells
4 Chain Lightning
4 Fireblast
4 Flame Rift
4 Lava Spike
4 Searing Blaze
4 Price of Progress
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Sulfuric Vortex

Land
12 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard
3 Ashen Rider
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Searing Blood
2 Smash to Smithereens
2 Surgical Extraction[/deck]

In a version with fetch lands, I can easily see cutting Marauders since you can add things like Lavamancer. Since I just run a stack of Mountains, I had to dig a little deeper into our pool. I am not convinced on having the Searing Blaze main since quite a few decks don't run any creatures turning that card into a blank.

I run magma jet main and Searing Blaze in the side, but I might be insane.

You probably are insane. Magma Jet is too slow in Legacy. 2 mana for 2 damage is not where we want to be, even with the scry. Blaze is fine if you use fetches and can handle landfall, especially in the sideboard.

I was not impressed with flame rift and changed to jet because even with 19 lands I was flooding every game. I use it to aggressively scry lands to the bottom, but again, I might be insane.

I am on 18 lands. Rift is there just as a 2 mana 4 damage spell. It has been awkward at times where I end up drawing the game with it. It also is a weapon against Leyline of Sanctity, a card that my deck has no real answer to.

I've never seen anyone play leyline in legacy fwiw. I think you'd be in trouble even with rift vs leyline. What other spells could fit in there? Skullcrack?

The only deck in the format that does is omni tell really, you see obscure storm builds play it but the card largely doesn't exist in the format

I've never seen anyone play leyline in legacy fwiw. I think you'd be in trouble even with rift vs leyline. What other spells could fit in there? Skullcrack?

That depends on what else you are using. Some people advocate creatures like Spark Elemental or Hellspark Elemental. I don't like either of those because they don't do anything if you can't get them through, unlike Keldon Marauders.

I have Psully's list together, except I swapped rifts for jets. I know two damage in under powered, but two burn spells instead of two lands is more damage in tge long run.

Here's why you should play Flame Rift

Broken link.

I think he means this.

http://blip.tv/scglive/scg-la-lgc-t8-pa ... am-6359891

That's the one Blaklanner Fixed my post too

That was a truly epic finish.

As far as the deck posted, it is fine. It does everything a burn deck is supposed to. A good starting point for those who are on the fetch/Lavamancer plan.

Do you have a better list? I built Psully's. Is there an updated version somewhere?

This is what I would likely be on if I did the fetchland thing. There haven't really been a lot of results posted with burn lately but the deck really doesn't change all that much over time.

[deck]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
10 Mountain

4 Goblin Guide
4 Vexing Devil
3 Grim Lavamancer

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Flame Rift
3 Price of Progress
4 Fireblast
3 Sulfuric Vortex

Sideboard
3 Pyroblast
3 Ensnaring Bridge
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Searing Blaze
3 Smash to Smithereens[/deck]

Here's why you should play Flame Rift

He still would have got there with Skullcrack

Starting to optimize list for the Invitational this month.

[deck]
4 Grim Lavamancer
4 Goblin Guide

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lava spike
4 Price of Progress
4 Flame Rift
3 Sulfuric Vortex
4 Fireblast
4 Rift Bolt

9 Mountains
12 Fetches[/deck]

SB will be some combination of these cards:

pyroclasm
volcanic fallout
smash to smithereens
shattering spree
pyroblast
pyrostatic pillar
Ashen Rider
Red Elemental Blast
Searing Blaze
Surgical Extraction
Ensnaring Bridge

I think 21 lands are a bit much but otherwise looks pretty good.

I found that too, but Psully knows what he's doing. I think flame rift should be replaced though... worst card in the deck by far... thoughts on skullcrack?

I don't think lifegain is prevalent enough for it to be necessary. Sulfuric Vortex should handle what little lifegain there is in the format. If you are looking into replacing them, look into what cards you seem to be sideboarding in the most. Maybe something like Pyrostatic Pillar since everyone plays cheap spells.

My thinking is just that Skullcrack is a 3+ burn spell, and if they swords their own creature you could blow them out. Pyrostatic is promising.

Getting rid of Flame Rift is crazy talk. I've been playing Legacy Burn for years.

Combo is Burn's worst match-up. Flame Rift is how you race the combo decks. Against creature decks, its value can vary so it's usually the first to go (along with Goblin Guide). But the beauty of facing creature decks is that they're fair decks (I use fair loosely since we're still talking Legacy, but you get the idea), and Burn does pretty well against the fair decks. In fact, when the majority of the meta is fair decks, bring Burn. When the majority of the meta is Combo, switch to something else until Combo begins to get hated out and the fair decks start to return. Burn isn't just called one of the best metagame deck in Legacy for no reason.

When P-Sulli won that SCG Open, you know what the big decks were at the time? Maverick (now it's all but extinct), Deathblade, RUG Delver,
Miracles/Counterbalance, Show and Tell, and TES. The majority of the decks were fair and Combo was just beginning to take over (where it sorta is now). P-Sulli shoved the Bridge in for Show and Tell and Mindbreak Trap for TES. The Shusher was to get around Counterbalance locks (and Chalice of the Void), and the Searing Blaze was for, you guessed it, the abundance of fair decks.

So what changes would you make for the current meta?

Which meta? My local meta? A meta for an SCG event in and around Atlanta (which would cover the Southeast U.S)?

First and foremost, you should always account for your local meta. Legacy is weird. You actually have to research your metagame. If I was playing in my "backyard," I'd check and see what people are playing. If I was traveling about, I'd do my best to find out what the preference is for an particular area (for example, from what I've read, Southwest California is Combo heavy, so I'd probably bring something to fight Combo if I played in a big tournament down there).

Right now, in my area, Combo is huge. For realz. Why do you guys not see me posting Legacy reports with Burn? For one, the hardcore Legacy tournaments is a drive since the scene is in Tampa and I play in Pinellas County. Two, the meta is all Human Reanimator, TES, ANT, Belcher, Show and Tell, MUD, Burn, and
Delver. Aside from facing the Delver player (or Merfolk, since I play Lavamancer), I don't want to play against any of those decks. Why? Cuz I'll get crushed! It's just not profitable.

But if I had to go in there and play, I'd go in packing this:

[deck]
Creatures 8
4 Goblin Guide
4 Grim Lavamancer

Enchantment 3
3 Sulfuric Vortex

Burn 28
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Flame Rift
4 Price of Progress
4 Fireblast

Land 21
3 Wooded Foothills
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Arid Mesa
3 Scalding Tarn
9 Mountain

Sideboard 15
3 Faerie Macabre
3 Mindbreak Trap
3 Ensaring Bridge
3 Searing Blaze
3 Smash to Smithereens[/deck]

Since all kinds of Combo are available in my area, I need to pack "Stack Hate," Graveyard hate, and Big Creature Hate. Aside from that, I need to pack hate from creatures and also Artifacts, like in the MUD matchup.

It's tough. Like I said, it's not profitable to play Burn in my area right now, but the deck is so
good that it can still steal some wins. There's just a right time to play and a wrong time to play it. Figuring out your window is your key to success with the deck.

Solid posts Khaos - LP was spot on in that quote

I'll be playing Burn at the invitational in Charlottte, what SB would you recommend?

MTGO is down My life is empty So, what would you do in this meta please Khaos Guru It looks pretty good for Burn to my inexperienced Legacy eyes I've put the cards that look good to me in true 'try to think for yourself' FoS fashion but I'd value your input

D&T 11% - Searing Blaze (Searing Blood?), Smash To Smithereens
UWR Miracles 10% - Vexing Shusher, Smash to Smithereens
Esper Stoneblade 9% - Smash To Smithereens, Vexing Shusher, Searing Blaze (Searing Blood?) - none of these seem great as they lack
threat density in any one area
Shardless BUG 7% - ditto
BUG Delver 6% - ditto
UWR Delver 5% - ditto
RUG Delver 5% - ditto
Painter's 4% - Smash To Smithereens
Sneak n Show 4% - Ensnaring Bridge, Ashen Rider
Reanimator 4% - Ensnaring Bridge, Faerie Macabre

Based on this it looks to me as though this might be a good place to start?

[deck]Sideboard[/deck]

Also why 4x3 fetches and not 3x4?

I could also use some SB tips, IDK what cards should be sided in out in matchups

I would count on seeing a number of True-Name Nemesis. The only thing we have that can stop one is a Pyroblast/REB to counter it. It is entirely possible for us to race it but if it gets equipped, it is nigh unbeatable.

I would count on seeing a number of True-Name Nemesis. The only thing we have that can stop one is a Pyroblast/REB to counter it. It is entirely possible for us to race it but if it gets equipped, it is nigh unbeatable.

Smash the equipment?

Just tested with this SB

3 Faerie Macabre
3 Pyroblast
3 Ensaring Bridge
3 Searing Blaze
3 Smash to Smithereens

Went 2-1 then 2-1 vs mud. Beat Show and Tell 2-1 as well.

Does flame rift always get sided out vs show and tell? I havn't played enough legacy to know which cards were bad.

I bring out my Price of Progress against them most of the time since most have learned to grab basics to handle that and Wasteland.

Smashing the equipment does work. I just like redundancy.

I can't see playing less than four searing blaze.