My last article focused on what you should be playing in RDW in Standard. In this article, I intend to take you through my thought process in card selection for the Burn list I played in Kansas City.\
Now the first steps were easy. One mana should equal 3 damage, as much as possible. Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Spike, and Rift Bolt (Don't forget, you can cast Rift Bolt for 3 if you really have to. It is still 3 damage!) all fit this line of thought. These cards were natural 4 ofs.
Now why not play Shard Volley? One mana. 3 damage. Instant speed. It seems like exactly what the deck wants. However it requires you to sack a land. Given that I am playing Fireblast, this seems fine. It is not. First, this deck frequently doesn't see a second land until turn 3 or 4, which is where you start playing your 2 mana spells and move from winning by a narrow margin to winning like an unstoppable ball of fire. Delaying that by even a turn is not what you want to be doing for 3 damage. All told, the cost is too high.
Keeping with the one mana plan, I took a look at mans that generate the most value, which in my case translated into direct damage. Goblin Guide, Grim Lavamancer, and Figure of Destiny were natural choices. Here is where some actual design began to take place.
Creatures can generate value for my opponents as well. For example, many of my Goblin Guide attacks were met with "in response to the trigger, Brainstorm." I decided that playing a red spell that said "the first time this creature attacks, defending player discards a card and draws a card" was worth 4 slots.
Next I took a long hard look at Grim Lavamancer. Here is where I take a wild leap away from the traditional Red mentality. What I found was, in the deck I wanted to play, Grim Lavamancer did nothing. Maybe it would get in for a total of 3 between an attack phase and an activation. However, with so many decks running around with Stifle and Snapcaster Mage, I could not safely run the Fetch Lands I needed to power the Lavaman, nor could I guarantee an activation with any reasonable reliability. Additionally, the card is a nonbo-anti synergetic-with the Barbarian Rings I wanted to run. The Lavamancer got the Lava Axe (I know, mechanically that makes no sense. Shut up and chuckle at my bad joke.) in the end, with zero spots in the total 75.
If you have actually seen my list, you will be surprised by what comes next. Figure of Destiny was not good enough for the ideal of the deck. You pay one mana for zero damage. That is very bad for a deck entitled Burn. You do get to sink mana into it in the mid game, but honestly if you are in the mid game with a deck like this, you have probably lost or you are slow rolling that Bolt like a champion. Thus the total spots awarded to this fine fellow are zero. Wait. I lied. Due to the urging of a friend of mine, I squeezed in three of these mans at the last minute. I found out two things by doing so. First, I was right. This is not a good card for Burn. Second, it is a ridiculous threat that must be countered or killed as soon as possible. Which meant that the three Figures I played read: "1 Red. Sorcery. Target opponent loses one life and discards two blue cards." (Force of Will). This meant that whenever I needed to resolve any other spell, I could try, knowing they were at least one counterspell down. If Mental Misstep ever becomes unbanned, my first change to this deck will be to cut one mountain for the 4th Figure.
Now I am out of 1 mana ~ 3 damage spells and 1 mana value creatures. Time to move on to the 2 drops. The first 2 mana men I looked at were Keldon Marauders and Stormblood Berserker. Keldon Marauders does two sweet things. First he is 2 mana for a guaranteed 2 damage. This seems like awful value but I can say that more than once, my opponent was at one or two life and could not deal with a Marauder. Additionally, this man has the option to turn into Lava Axe, or to eat a Wild Nacatl or block a Tarmogoyf. I got to stall a goyf for 4 whole turns with this man, playing burn spells like mad, knowing the Keldon had my back.
Now the first steps were easy. One mana should equal 3 damage, as much as possible. Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning, Lava Spike, and Rift Bolt (Don't forget, you can cast Rift Bolt for 3 if you really have to. It is still 3 damage!) all fit this line of thought. These cards were natural 4 ofs.
Now why not play Shard Volley? One mana. 3 damage. Instant speed. It seems like exactly what the deck wants. However it requires you to sack a land. Given that I am playing Fireblast, this seems fine. It is not. First, this deck frequently doesn't see a second land until turn 3 or 4, which is where you start playing your 2 mana spells and move from winning by a narrow margin to winning like an unstoppable ball of fire. Delaying that by even a turn is not what you want to be doing for 3 damage. All told, the cost is too high.
Keeping with the one mana plan, I took a look at mans that generate the most value, which in my case translated into direct damage. Goblin Guide, Grim Lavamancer, and Figure of Destiny were natural choices. Here is where some actual design began to take place.
Creatures can generate value for my opponents as well. For example, many of my Goblin Guide attacks were met with "in response to the trigger, Brainstorm." I decided that playing a red spell that said "the first time this creature attacks, defending player discards a card and draws a card" was worth 4 slots.
Next I took a long hard look at Grim Lavamancer. Here is where I take a wild leap away from the traditional Red mentality. What I found was, in the deck I wanted to play, Grim Lavamancer did nothing. Maybe it would get in for a total of 3 between an attack phase and an activation. However, with so many decks running around with Stifle and Snapcaster Mage, I could not safely run the Fetch Lands I needed to power the Lavaman, nor could I guarantee an activation with any reasonable reliability. Additionally, the card is a nonbo-anti synergetic-with the Barbarian Rings I wanted to run. The Lavamancer got the Lava Axe (I know, mechanically that makes no sense. Shut up and chuckle at my bad joke.) in the end, with zero spots in the total 75.
If you have actually seen my list, you will be surprised by what comes next. Figure of Destiny was not good enough for the ideal of the deck. You pay one mana for zero damage. That is very bad for a deck entitled Burn. You do get to sink mana into it in the mid game, but honestly if you are in the mid game with a deck like this, you have probably lost or you are slow rolling that Bolt like a champion. Thus the total spots awarded to this fine fellow are zero. Wait. I lied. Due to the urging of a friend of mine, I squeezed in three of these mans at the last minute. I found out two things by doing so. First, I was right. This is not a good card for Burn. Second, it is a ridiculous threat that must be countered or killed as soon as possible. Which meant that the three Figures I played read: "1 Red. Sorcery. Target opponent loses one life and discards two blue cards." (Force of Will). This meant that whenever I needed to resolve any other spell, I could try, knowing they were at least one counterspell down. If Mental Misstep ever becomes unbanned, my first change to this deck will be to cut one mountain for the 4th Figure.
Now I am out of 1 mana ~ 3 damage spells and 1 mana value creatures. Time to move on to the 2 drops. The first 2 mana men I looked at were Keldon Marauders and Stormblood Berserker. Keldon Marauders does two sweet things. First he is 2 mana for a guaranteed 2 damage. This seems like awful value but I can say that more than once, my opponent was at one or two life and could not deal with a Marauder. Additionally, this man has the option to turn into Lava Axe, or to eat a Wild Nacatl or block a Tarmogoyf. I got to stall a goyf for 4 whole turns with this man, playing burn spells like mad, knowing the Keldon had my back.
"Fields can be replanted. Settlements can be rebuilt. Burn it all."
—Latulla, Keldon overseer
Now to Stormblood Berserker. What I noticed about this fellow was that he guaranteed zero damage, similar to the Lavaman that did not make the cut. While he is essentially unblockable in the Legacy metagame, he still has to resolve and live through my next upkeep. This simply wasn't good enough for the deck. So what do I put in its place? A good friend of mine suggested I take a look at a hasty fellow by the name of Hellspark Elemental. I did and I was happy with what I found. This dude usually got in for the full 6 damage, could kill himself against Dredge with their Bridge from Below laden graveyard, and only stole one card from my threshold count if I had to activate Barbarian Ring. This is a sweet man. In the original draft of the list, both the elemental and the marauders were 4 ofs. However eventually I cut one mountain and one of each of those fine men to fit in the abomination that was Figure of Destiny.
Now the fun part of the deck! 3 spells that I absolutely don't ever want to play without.
First was a game winning all star: Fireblast. After playing with the card for probably three rounds, I realized that it had a converted mana cost of 6! Do you know how many 6 drops the typical Counterbalance deck runs? Did you guess the same number as the amount of Grim Lavamancers a good burn deck runs? If so, you were correct! Between that and the ability to put 3 cards in my graveyard to turn on my Rings, the fact that this spell does 4 damage at instant speed is almost unimportant. Except that is 4 damage. At instant speed. SO FAST! Needless to say, this was an auto 4 of.
Next was the decidedly slower version of 4 damage for 2 mana: Flame Rift. Aside from the two games I dropped in the swiss portion, The most damage done to me was from this spell. That means that 4 to you is entirely insignificant. 4 to your opponent, however, brings them to a life threatening 16 life. The fact that it is Sorcery speed is the only complaint I have about this spell. But one more mana for one more damage on Lava Spike seems worthy of 4 slots in any burn deck I intend to build in the near future.
If you don't like sorcery speeds, Sam, why not consider Magma Jet? 2 mana. 2 damage. (Already I am underwhelmed.) Instant speed! And I can scry 2! That seems sweet. Now what do I want to scry to or from? I have two land so I could pitch the lands away, keeping my draws live. However, getting mountain number 3 can keep me in the game after I Fireblast, so rarely do I want to hide those precious resources, especially if someone ever gets a Rishadan Port active against my sparse land count. And I certainly don't want to scry away from burn spells. I could pitch that turn 4 Goblin Guide but in all honesty, in burn, if you must, you can clear the way for your men with all the direct damage and if you don't have to clear the way, drawing a dude is just like drawing a spell. I would rather just wait until my turn to cast Flame Rift. The scry is a useful thing but it doesn't have a place in this deck.
"Target opponent discards 1 or 2 blue cards or loses the game." That is the text on Price of Progress. This card,and you will excuse my subtlety here, is good. I play a mountain and pass against Ian Ellis. He draws his card, plays a swamp and casts Thoughtsieze. In response, I Lightning Bolt him to the face. He looks at me and says "I think I heard about you." then looks at my hand and just stares at the Price sadly, knowing that if he doesn't strip it from my hand it will certainly end game 1 without much trouble. At the Top 8 players meeting, Alex Bertoncini straight up asks me how many Prices I am running. When I reply 4 in the main, he scowls and says "I don't want to play you." The player reactions alone told me that this card is straight up phenomenal. The fact that it, on a regular basis, was 4-8 damage at instant speed for just two mana means that seeing that in my opener or off the top took me to a magical land full of winning whatever game I was playing. Once it was dead against mono blue, which just made finding a spot for 4 Pyroblasts out of the side really easy. I wish I could play 8 of this card but since 4 is the maximum legal number, I settled for 4. Unless legacy vastly changes to mono colored decks or 100% basic land, this card will remain an all star.
You will note that there are no Volcanic Fallouts or Sulfuric Vortexs and here is why. Those spells are just fine. Actually they are both really solid spells. But first, they cost 3 (That is double infinity for this deck), and secondly, The mana to damage ratio is already so finely tuned that you can't cut spells to find a spot in this deck and for 3 mana you certainly cannot cut land either. In the Legacy format, there are simply more efficient spells to be cast.
All told, I ended up with 19 lands, 13 men, 12 instants, and 16 sorceries in my deck. To see the full 75, look here! This deck was probably the most fun thing to play with since I started playing Magic in any competitive sense and I feel I can say, with relative certainty, that I am officially a red mage.
Hopefully those of you who intend to play Burn! this Sunday in Las Vegas will take a gander at this and find some help or inspiration. You can always find me on Twitter and listen to my podcast over on Couch Pirate Radio! Until next time, keep your sleeves clean and your mana to damage ratio low.
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