Deck Tech MONO RED BURN

Trogdor
I was playtesting with my buddies and we jokingly said that a mono red burn deck would be viable in extended because of all the spells available to a deck like that. We proxied up a copy and ran it against Doran the Explorer. It won 3 games straight. So then next day JPF sent out an email of an updated burning bridges list. He had taken the joke deck seriously.
I went up to castle with my friend Farrell and we sent the deck through the gauntlet. We tweaked and tested and tweaked some more. What we came up with was a quasi-mono red deck that was pretty good against the field.

4 mountain
4 great furnace
1 stomping ground
1 overgrown tomb
1 steam vents
1 blood crypt
2 sacred foundry
4 wooded foothills
4 bloodstained mire
4 tarmogoyf
1 draco
4 incinerate
4 shrapnel blast
4 sensei’s divining top
1 erratic explosion
3 insidious dreams
3 chrome mox
3 isochron scepter
3 terminate
4 lightning helix
4 tribal flames

The deck had trouble with NLB and Dredge, but took care of those matchups with its sideboard. That night a similar deck won a magic-league.com extended trial. It showed a ton of promise. It filled hole that the above deck had and took care of one of the bad matchups with its main deck.

4 Darksteel Citadel
4 Great Furnace
3 Blinkmoth Nexus
6 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Spark Elemental
4 Lava Spike
1 Chain of Plasma
4 Incinerate
3 Magma Jet
4 Rift Bolt
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Shard Volley
3 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Tormod's Crypt
3 Shattering Spree
3 Pyrostatic Pillar
3 Sulfuric Vortex


This deck does it all. Kills fast and circumvents the conventional ways of winning by not using the red zone to deal the final points of damage.
21 land seem to be enough since the top of the curve is 3 and most all but three spells costing one or two. This deck is the epitome of efficiency. Below is the math for the deck’s philosophy of fire.

With all lands being worth 0 damage except he ring which is worth 1 dmg since it has and activation requirement
1 dmg =4
2 dmg =8 or 12 (if marauders don’t hit)
3 damage = 20
4 dmg = 3
5 dmg =4 or 8 (if marauders hit)
17 blank
That equals out to 132/60 or 120/60 that’s 2.2 or 2 points of damage a card. That’s perfect philosophy of fire.
This deck seems so promising that 4 of us are taking it to a ptq this weekend.
Wish us luck

Big Will Clark

Farrell and I found out that Ideal is the worst matchup but how many of those are you gonna face? Not many. Also, would Ensnaring Bridge be helpful vs. Baloth and Hierarch to stop their attack while you burn them down? Just a thought.

Hmm, yeah i figured you guys got it from m-l. You should go back and read the page with the decks on it. The guy that played it had some advice, like cut the 1 chain for the 4th magma jet, etc. I think vortex+FotBH are better vs Hierarch/Baloth than Bridge. I don't think Pillar is necessary, I would just expect to ignore storm. Molten Rain is a great card though. Maybe SB Magus of the Moon instead of Pillar? Would give you a chance in Ideal mu. Oh yeah and you have to write "N00b Burn" on your deck reg sheet.

The Molten's would be great as well as the Magus. Well, the "Noob" definitely applies to me so that will be the title if I play that pile. Watch Farrell Q with it. It wouldn't surprise me. Hey what about Sam's deck? I'd like to proxy it up and see why he thinks so highly of it.

maybe cuz he hasnt played any extended yet? but yeah i think magus is an awesome sb card for you guys and much better than pillar at what you want it to do.

new list cuts the citadels for chrome mox i think farrell likes the idea of glacial ray but i think its too slow. im tweaking away and think the number of shard volleys needs to be reduced since the number of lan has been cut

that would mean upping the flames count or adding another spell


thoughts ideas?

Dylan's list got a mention in Josh Silvestri's SCG article today:
"“That twenty dollar burn deck” had a presence at the PTQ, along with the previous Top 8 finishes it picked up last weekend. The deck can just blow through decks that lean on Fetchlands and duals to fix mana, and the same goes for Blue if they don’t get Counterbalance-Top out to wipe the deck out. If they don’t, they end up facing down a number of creatures they can’t Shackle along with infinite burn to which it has few other outs.

The flaws in the deck are pretty apparent when you look at it, but it’s still something to look at and briefly consider because these are the kinds of extremes people will slide deck design towards to take advantage of a format that totally writes them off. Flores did the same thing at the beginning of the season with his stall and life-gain plan. This is the exact opposite of the plan with the same kind of results… certain decks just can’t hope to beat this concept barring luck-based influences like mana screw or mulligans. "

article here

Also I don't really know how the deck plays out because I've kinda refused to test it but I don't think Chrome Mox is what you want to do in the mirror. If you keep losing to blue you could also play like 3 Boil.

Boil seems good depending on the meta. Just watch for Spectral Shift tech! Hahaha!!!

the moxen have worked out extremely well and i think the card to replace shard volley with is lava blister. this too has tested well and i think that most of the meta cant deal with turn one lose your land only land or take 6. i hate galacial ray in this deck almost as much as i hate mark hendrickson. it negates a vaild turn one play so you can maybe gain a slight card and damage advantage. blehhhhhh

turn one is so critical. the addition of the mox and LD spell make it to where your turn one can be as devstating to your opponent as their turn two or three plays.

the sideboard stands at
4 leyline
3 crypt
4 shattering spree
4 ensnaring bridge ( only good thing to come out of hendricksons mouth ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

dont knock it til youve tried it

peace yo

bigwill

I saw your Lava Blister in action last night and it seems pretty devastating!

the deck is pretty much finalized. ive tried top in the deck and added sac lands and it did ok but the addition of sac lands opens you up to a hard time in the mirror. the list i am taking to OKC is as follows


4 [OD] Barbarian Ring ()
6 [ARE] Mountain (1)
4 [MR] Great Furnace ()
3 [DS] Blinkmoth Nexus ()
4 [10E] Spark Elemental ()
4 [PLC] Keldon Marauders ()
4 [10E] Mogg Fanatic ()
4 [10E] Incinerate ()
3 [BOK] Flames of the Blood Hand ()
4 [MR] Shrapnel Blast ()
4 [TSP] Rift Bolt ()
4 [FD] Magma Jet ()
4 [CHK] Lava Spike ()
4 [MR] Chrome Mox ()
4 [OD] Lava Blister ()


4 [TSB] Tormod's Crypt ()
4 [GP] Shattering Spree ()
4 [8E] Ensnaring Bridge ()
3 [8E] Boil ()

if PLB rises in popularity boil is needed. i dont like 4 flames since is is conditionally the weakest burn spell in the deck. lava blister is good when this deck is good and that is the early game. i wish this deck had leyline but all i really need vs dredge is 1 hate card since it buys me enough time to kill my opponent. my bubble hulk matchup got weaker but seriously how much of it ts gonna show at the ptq? plus one hate card wins me the match.

i still don't like lava blister. i'd rather play more burn there. also i think cutting leylines is ok since it did so bad at the gp. fewer people will probably play it at okc.

this won a ptq in england, seems like a good list:

2 Darksteel Citadel
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic
4 Spark Elemental
2 Chain Of Plasma
4 Flames Of The Blood Hand
4 Incinerate
4 Shard Volley
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Blinkmoth Nexus
4 Lava Spike
4 Rift Bolt
4 Great Furnace
4 Mountain
4 Barbarian Ring
1 Mutavault
3 Wooded Foothills

Sideboard:
3 Sun Droplet
3 Tormod's Crypt
1 Martyr Of Ashes
3 Sulfuric Vortex
2 Flaring Pain
3 Shattering Spree

my main issue with adding moxen and lava blister is that you're getting away from the philosophy of fire by playing too many cards that aren't burn. i think you're making "the trinket mage mistake" of getting away from your deck's plan. convince me i'm wrong.

the moxen replace a useless land in the deck darksteel citadel. i always hated drawing the citadel and wanted something else. the mox has tested very well and should be in the deck. the blister is either a two drop ld spell or 6 damage what more could you want. this also replaced the weakest card in the deck, shard volley.

a couple of questions about the list you posted. first how many ppl were at the event. second where dd you find the list?

but even if you kill a land for two mana, that's not dealing damage. so even though it's efficient, it's not really your deck's plan. i don't know how many people were at that ptq but the list is from rich hagon's most recent column on star city.

Just so I can understand the idea of a burn deck... its supposed to BURN, right? Not once did a person take 6 to the dome. Might as well play Browbeat, at least you can get more cards out of it. I played with Lava Blister and it blew. I looked at it every time and said "gee (no really but...) I wish this were a GOOD card" But thats just my thoughts.

Sideboard tech: Delusions of Mediocrity

Better be holding onto your Flames...

RDW. Seems like a good plan, especially with Top gone.


Hmmm... Crispy Bacon!
4 Keldon Marauders
4 Mogg Fanatic

4 Char
4 Flame Javelin
4 Flames of the Blood Hand
4 Incinerate
4 Lava Spike
4 Magma Jet
4 Riftbolt
2 Shard Volley

2 Keldon Megaliths
20 Mountain

More lower CC stuff is needed. Lava Spike FTW. 12 3-drops is too many. Blistering Firecat could be a metagame call.

I could take out a couple of Chars for a couple of 2 drops?

You can't play more than 6-8 3-drops without playing more lands than I think you want to.