[Discussion] Ankh Burn

[al the great]

Hi I was wondering if anyone could post Ankh Burn deck lists and or explain how the deck works I haven't been able to find a deck list of it. Thanks in advance.

[outsideangel]

Well, basically you play Ankh, and lots of burn. It's, uh, fairly straightforward. Just take the burn list you like best and sub in Ankh of Mishra for stuff like Sulfuric Vortex or whatever. Good basic burn lists looks something like

16 Mountain
3 Barbarian Ring

4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Flamebreak
4 Magma Jet
4 Incinerate
4 Fireblast

Add in 9 more of your favorite damage spells, adapted to your meta. Stuff like Flame Rift, Price of Progress, and Spark Elemental are all good here. In an Ankh burn list, you just run 4 Ankhs and then 5 other things instead of 9.

[Zilla]

That's not entirely accurate. A lot of Ankh lists also play Wasteland, and occasionally Rishadan Port and/or Tangle Wire to bolster the resource denial strategy. Depending on the total number of artifacts, some lists also play Shrapnel Blast as an additional finisher.

[al the great]

That's not entirely accurate. A lot of Ankh lists also play Wasteland, and occasionally Rishadan Port and/or Tangle Wire to bolster the resource denial strategy. Depending on the total number of artifacts, some lists also play Shrapnel Blast as an additional finisher.

Thanks.

I dont think anyone has gone into detail about Ankh decks if anyone else has experiences and or tourney exp. please post here. I just would like to hear matchup analysists w/ other decks and so forth.

[DeathwingZERO]

True, my old Anhk list played 4 MD Isochron Scepters, to put either Blast or Price of Progress onto. Or my particular favorite, Magma Jet, so I could keep myself from being totally hammered by horrible topdecks.

Here's a rough look into my old list, revamped from newer sets:

Lands:16
10 Mountain
4 Wasteland
2 Barbarian Ring

Accel:4
4 Chrome Mox

Burn:32
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Incinerate
4 Fire Blast
4 Lava Spike
4 Ankh of Mishra

Manipulation:4
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Isochron Scepter

SB:
4 Price of Progress (meta choice, can be something else if not a lot of non-basics, was devastating against Landstill last year)
4 Flamebreak
4 Pyroclasm
3 Red Elemental Blast/Flashfires/Anarchy (basically it's a meta-hate slot)


Top + Shrapnel Blast is just hilarious, and Chrome keeps from needing the basic Mountains until you desperately need the Fireblast to go off, as well as more Shrapnel uses, in addition to a particular beautiful play: Turn 1 Ankh. The format is almost all shaped by a first turn Fetchland, so there's nothing better than 5 damage from throwing away a red spell, and you're already on 2 mana and have your most expensive spell on the table.

I myself kept Flamebreak in the SB, rarely do you have an aggro matchup that you are going to be falling really far behind with, barring Goblins, which in that case you have 4x Pyroclams + 4x Flamebreak to side in against them.

Personally, I didn't always go for the throat completely, I'd hold off a burn spell or two depending on what matchup I was playing against, and if I had the ability to cast an Isochron with any of those spells to be imprinted on it. General rule of thumb, throw every piece of damage at your opponent. If your in an aggro matchup where you're on a clock from creatures, try to get rid of them. Anything 2 toughness and under gets raped by this deck (short of Silver Night) so it's not really a worry post sideboard, just throw in the 4 Pyroclasm and if you think necessary, 4 Flamebreaks.

The great thing about this deck was the amount of tweaking that could be done to it, you can do whatever you want. If you want Wasteland, keep them. If you want more Barbarian Rings, throw in 4 (personally, I never used them, the deck was blazingly fast already), if you want more instant speed damage over sorcery speed, do it. You have a practically infinite number of burn you can use, and a ton of it can easily get you 20 damage by turn 3-4.

[xsockmonkeyx]

Lands:16
10 Mountain
4 Wasteland
2 Barbarian Ring

Accel:4
4 Chrome Mox

Burn:32
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
4 Magma Jet
4 Shrapnel Blast
4 Incinerate
4 Fire Blast
4 Lava Spike
4 Ankh of Mishra

Manipulation:4
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Shrapnel Blast



8 Shrapnel Blast is super secret tech:tongue:

[DeathwingZERO]

Haha, I was using my notepad file to cut and paste the portions in the right order, and duplicated and moved Shrapnel Blast instead of pasting in Isochron Scepter.

Understandable, that's what Scepter is anyways. :p

[xsockmonkeyx]

Top + Shrapnel Blast is just hilarious


What is so great about Top and Blast together? I dont see Top as any better than to sac than any other artifact.

[DeathwingZERO]

Because the Top still activates, netting you a card. Activate Top for it's replacement draw effect, in response use Shrapnel Blast sacrificing the Top, you still draw the card off your library.

Makes Shrapnel into a cantrip, even if the spell is countered, and that's just awesome.

EDIT: LOL I love the signature. I was going to post in that thread, but P_R got there before I could get my post in. Tazers and hammers FTK(ids).

[Bane of the Living]

I had a nasty build of this deck. The first thing I suggest is Zozu. There is no reason not to play 6-7 Ankh's. Especially ones that attack. For the rest of my creature suite I played Slith Firewalker and Veteran Brawlers. Port and Wasteland are huge. Some kind of accel is needed. I played Chrome Mox but Mox Diamond seems to fit the deck better since you'd rather not play your lands. The only issue is w/ chrome you could play it non imprinted and shrap it to the opponent.

Consider a ldx4 plan such as Pillage so the brawlers can attack when they think theyre safe.

Wish I could remember my list but its long gone now.

[Pinder]

Because the Top still activates, netting you a card. Activate Top for it's replacement draw effect, in response use Shrapnel Blast sacrificing the Top, you still draw the card off your library.


Last I checked, that didn't work. Saccing the Top is an additional cost to Shrapnel Blast, and last I checked you couldn't use Top's ability while you were declaring a spell. Someone should prove me wrong, though, because if it did work, it would be awesome.

EDIT: Oh, and if you're looking for more Blast targets, you could always go with 4 MD Great Furnace. You can't sac them to fireblast, but other than that they're essentially mountains, and that never really comes up too often anyway.

[DeathwingZERO]

Actually, the trick works, and it's been that way since it was T2 legal for Shrap+ Top.

The trick is you can ONLY do it one way. Activate the Top, to draw and replace with it. In response, while still on the stack, cast Shrapnel Blast, using Top as a sacrifice. The Top's ability to draw has already been activated, it just can't go back on top of the library. It doesn't cancel the effect. Neither the card you draw nor the Top are targeted, in it's ability so it'll resolve as normal.

I personally didn't think it worked, but had judge rulings left and right about it at the Champs/Mirrodin Regionals, because Red Deck Wins/Slith Burn was a huge archetype. Once they explained it, it made sense.

Great Furnace is also a great card, that was in my original build, because I personally thought Shrapnel Blast having 16 targets > Barbarian Ring needing Threshold. This also meant my Shrapnel'd Scepter had more to use without killing itself off.

[Pinder]

Oh, so you activate, then sac. That actually makes sense. And is so very sexy.