[Primer/Deck] Burn

[feline]

One of the longest running strategies in Legacy is to just "burn" the opponent out, literally casting burn in Lightning Bolt & variants of 1 cast 3 damage spells, or other similarly effective cards. On top of that, the mono red deck is one of the cheapest strategies you can play that has had the level of success it's achieved in the format.

1) Playing Burn
2) Successful decklists & trends
3) Card Choices
3a) Maindeck
3b) Sideboard
4) Price Guide
5) Awesome Links
6) Previous Burn thread http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...7811-Deck-Burn special thanks to Peter_Rotten
7) 20 Match ups

1) Playing Burn:
Overall strategy Your ultimate goal, like any deck, is to win the match, more specifically with burn, it's to just go all out aggressive, burn the opponent down from 20 to 0 as fast as possible, whether the opponent is playing combo, aggro, control or whatever, you are pushing to win the game as fast as possible and take the win before they do anything relevant, the hardest match up's will be those that are just faster than you, mostly being combo decks, while most other match up's will just be a race through their own clock for lethal and/or their disruption when they have it.

Starting hand Mostly you'll be looking for hands that are mostly burn and a couple lands, the strategy for the deck is just all out aggression, so as long as you're doing something you're doing your job, if you mulligan it will almost always be based on the land count, or lack there of.

Turns 1-2 You'll want to start out with a creature drop if you have it, specifically Goblin Guide since over the course of turns it has the potential to do 2 damage over and over again, depending on the strategy you're going against, if it keeps connecting to the opponent each turn. Grim Lavamancer also has the potential to do 2 damage recurring, however it will cost 1 per each activation, but does not require an attack step. After that you'll want to burn your Lava Spikes & Flame Rifts since they can only hit the opponent anyway. Rift Bolt also takes a turn to hit when you suspend it, so it's another you'll want to cast earlier.

Turn's 3 & later This is more where you'll cast your other burn spells Lightning Bolt & Chain Lightning because you may want it as removal against some creatures, while Price of Progress may do more damage because the more non basics the opponent has in play, the more damage it can hit for. Sulfuric Vortex, especially against slower decks, will also come down, with the potential to finish them off with a "soft lock" that does 2 damage every one of their upkeeps, & the ability to prevent lifegain against stuff like Baterskull as an example, so they don't catch up & you can finish them off with burn when they're stuck at low life from your earlier aggression. Your other "finisher" would be Fireblast since once they are at 4 or less life, you can just finish them off right there for "free" at the cost of 2 mountains, preventing them from getting to another turn in a chance to turn the game around by just killing them right there. Without disruption, your average damage will be lethal, 20 damage, on turn 4.

"Goldfishing" / "Practicing" Similar to a combo deck, you can get a basic feel for the deck even just by playing solitaire, sitting & playing it out while counting to 20, trying to do that much damage as fast as you can & seeing what turn you're on when you put out that much. In doing so, you'll see that while the average turn is 4, sometimes you can even do enough damage on turn 3, usually with the help of Fireblast or a turn 1 Goblin Guide that does 2 damage per turn, over the course of each attack phase. This, however, is just a base, as playing against an actual opponent they will likely have some interactions with you, many of which may come down to whether or not to burn a creature, burn the opponent, or even save it for a turn before committing.

Additional notes: by Justin
When playing Burn, you don't always want to aim every spell at the opponent's dome. There are certain creatures that you will want to kill, especially if it's turn one and you are on the draw. A turn one Goblin Lackey, for example, is something that you will usually want to get off the board. You also want to kill early creatures from aggressive decks that can outrace you, including the mirror-match, UR Burn, and WR Sligh. If an opponent drops an early Goblin Guide, Delver of Secrets, Grim Lavamancer, or Steppe Lynx, you will need to kill those creature. You also need to be prepared to take out creatures that can gain life against you, such as Deathrite Shaman. Sometimes you have no choice but to throw a Fireblast at a Germ token with Batterskull. So playing this deck is not just about goldfishing to do 20 damage to the opponents dome. You need to realize when to adjust your strategy and interact with your opponent's board.

On the question of which bolt spells to cast first, I usually favor Rift Bolt. The reason is that you have to wait a turn to cast it for R, so it's best to cast them early. When your strategy is to do 20 damage ASAP, I would value the one-drops in this order: Goblin Guide, Grim Lavamancer, Rift Bolt, Lava Spike, Chain Lighting, and Lighting Bolt. When you are concerned about removing your opponent's creatures this might change to: Grim Lavamancer, Goblin Guide, Lava Spike, Rift Bolt, Chain Lightning, and Lightning Bolt.

History: Burn, mono red, etc, these full aggression strategies have been a long time deck in Magic for years, but the breakout for burn strategies in recent Legacy would be 2011, followed by 2012 which had even more success.

2) Successful decklists & trends: from here http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/decklists/ & http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/for...=Legacy&page=1
2009:
9th place - David Kilmartin SCG Boston (187 players)
15th place - Gene Richtsmeier SCG St Louis (128 players)

2010:
29th place - Patrick Sullivan GP Columbus (1,397 players)
2nd place - Kyle Miller SCG Denver (125 players)

2011:
6th place - David Menor Gutierrez - Open City of Bridges, Spain (171 players)
5th place - Patrick Sullivan SCG Los Angeles (216 players)
7th place - Michele Salardi - Legnano-MLL#8 (116 players)
1st place - Manuel Gomez - LCL Lliga Catalana de Legacy 4, Abril, inGenio (118 players)
14th place - Iain Bartolomei SCG Denver (117 players)
15th place - Jacob Shapiro SCG Cincinnati (228 players)
8th place - Luisma Augusto - Eternal Weekend 2011 Legacy Main Event (293 players)
8th place - Samuel Davis SCG Kansas (156 players)
8th place - Austin Yost SCG Las Vegas (168 players)

2012:
1st place - Austin Yost SCG Washington (234 players)
1st place - James Allen SCG Richmond (118 players)
11th place - Cary Duncan SCG Cincinnati (297 players)
2nd place - Anthony Phaneuf SCG Memphis (94 players)
13th place - Lou Stefanovic SCG Tampa (141 players)
16th place - Jeremy Dunn SCG Tampa (141 players)
11th place - Issac Sears SCG Sacramento (116 players)
5th place - Burt Hamernick SCG Des Moines (148 players)
7th place - Niklas Rauterberg - Legacy Event in Maintal (127 players)
5th place - Robert Swiecki - Magiccardmarket 5th anniversary tournament (131 players)
15th place - James Syed SCG Worchester (213 players)
32nd place - Lou Stefanovic SCG Worchester (213 players)
30th place - Burt Hamernick SCG Indianapolis (313 players)
14th place - Jay Shield SCG Washington DC (350 players)
19th place - Charles R Dyk 2012 Gen Con Legacy Championship (350 players)
30th place - Charles Fitzgerald 2012 Gen Con Legacy Championship (350 players)
3rd place - Patrick Sullivan SCG Los Angeles (235 players)
8th place - Ali Aintrazi SCG Invitational Atlanta (311 players)
21st place - Joel Gibson SCG Dallas (175 players)
9th place - Jacob Dobbs SCG Los Angeles (269 players)

2013:
31st place - Michael Shelkofsky SCG Atlanta (230 players)
16th place - Jacob Harris SCG Cincinnati (279 players)
12th place - Jacob Dobbs SCG Las Vegas (142 players)
3rd place - Doug Honeycutt SCG Atlanta (349 players)
16th place - Jeremy Maciolek SCG Atlanta (349 players)
22nd place - Jacob Pettie - Tales of Tales of Adventure - Coopersburg, PA (186 plyers)

2014:
12th place - Hugo Villamor SCG Orlando (239 players)
5th place - Eddie Chalecki - LCL 2014, March (121 players) Deathburn
6th place - Joey Lively SCG Dallas (308 players)
4th place - Gentile Simone - Evil 10, Padova, Tarmogeddon 9 (205 players)
14th place - Jon Thiel SCG Indianapolis (346 players)
14th place - Lou Stefanovic SCG Providence (302 players)
16th place - Jamie Syed SCG Providence (302 players)
9th place - John Ware SCG Las Vegas (232 players)
1st place - Bryan Cambidge SCG Las Vegas (232 players)
9th place - Forrest Ashmore SCG Portland (296 players)
4th place - Charlie Mitchell SCG Worcester (290 players)
7th place - Brian Cooper SCG Kansas City (256 players)
23rd place - Kevin Stanley SCG Kansas City (256 players)
29th place - Logan Martin SCG Kansas City (256 players)
13th place - Matthew Long - Tales of Adventure Eternal Extravaganza (266 players)
8th place - Alex Johnson SCG Syracuse (230 players)
11th place - Ben Burchett SCG Washington DC (285 players)
8th place - Robert Wright SCG Atlanta (263 players)
8th place - Jackson Smith SCG Indianapolis (260 players)
9th place - Jim Davis SCG Worcester (225 players)
3rd place - Oliver Coffey SCG Portland (228 players)
8th place - Florian Stange - JK Legacy Cup (153 players)

2015:
6th place - Cameron Ramsay SCG Indianapolis (582 players)
16th place - Ben Henkes SCG Houston (143 players)
9th place - Trent Avera SCG Dallas (190 players)
7th place - Jacob Shannon SCG Syracuse (107 players)
14th place - Nicholas Herbs SCG Syracuse (107 players)
1st place - Adam Minniear SCG Indianapolis (121 players)
4th place - John Taylor SCG Charlotte (80 players)
12th place - Cristiano Silva - Impact Returns Legacy Event (107 players)
5th place - Andrew Croy SCG Cincinnati (119 players)
7th place - Austin Casey SCG Cincinnati (119 players)
16th place - Jared Welsh SCG Cincinnati (119 players)
25th place - Chase Harrell SCG Indianapolis (130 players)
30th place - Kyle Beltran SCG Indianapolis (130 players)
16th place - Jon Janssen SCG Atlanta (95 players)
11th place - Trent Avera SCG Dallas (98 players)
1st place - John Nickel - GP SeaTac Trial winner
26th place - Kian Dre - GP SeaTac (2014 players)
5th place - Ben Stecher SCG Denver (80 players)
5th place - Henti Nuuttila - Finnish Legacy Championship (109 players)
6th place - Tuomas Tarna - Finnish Legacy Championship (109 players)

3) Card choices:

3a) Maindeck: (most common in recent trends in bold)
Creature:
Grim Lavamancer Repeatable 2 damage based on 1 mana & 2 cards in graveyard, overall the best "pinger" available for the deck
Goblin Guide 2/2 with haste, overall the best 1 drop attacker for the deck
Eidolon of the Great Revel A newer staple as of recent, Pyrostatic Pillar on legs
Monastery Swiftspear A newer, though less common staple. Works like a "mini combo" with your non creature spells
Keldon Marauders 3/3 for 2 with vanishing, that does 1 damage coming into play & leaving play. Though the most recent lists have gone to more straight burn
Hellspark Elemental 3/1 for 2 haste trample, can be replayed from the graveyard for 2. Though the most recent lists have gone to more straight burn
Vexing Devil less common As most recent lists run more straight burn
Figure of Destiny less common As most recent lists run more straight burn

Instant:
Fireblast 4 damage for "free" at the cost of 2 mountains, a staple for Legacy burn decks as a "finisher"
Lightning Bolt 3 damage for 1 mana, a staple for Legacy burn decks
Price of Progress Damage based on non basic lands, as most Legacy decks run more non basics, a Legacy burn staple
Searing Blaze Seen more commonly lately
Searing Blood Not as common as Searing Blaze but also in some lists

Sorcery:
Rift Bolt 3 damage to any target, cast for 3, or suspend for 1
Chain Lightning 3 damage to any target
Lava Spike 3 damage targeting players
Flame Rift 4 damage against all players

Other:
Sulfuric Vortex 2 damage on upkeep, stops lifegain

Land: (Average around 20 lands, anywhere from 8-12 fetchlands)
Mountain
Bloodstained Mire Wooded Foothills Scalding Tarn Arid Mesa Fetchlands, Grim Lavamancer fuel
Barbarian Ring (2 in some lists) 2 damage with threshold

3b) Sideboard:
~Graveyard hate:
Tormod's Crypt 0 cast
Relic of Progenitus Cantrips
Faerie Macabre "Uncounterable"
Leyline of the Void Starts in play
Grafdigger's Cage Also affects stuff from the library
Surgical Extraction "Free" to cast, removes all copies
~Blue hate:
Vexing Shusher Uncounterable & makes other spells so
Pyroblast Destroy blue permanent, counter blue spell
Red Elemental Blast Destroy blue permanent, counter blue spell
Burnout Counter blue instant, draw a card next upkeep
Volcanic Fallout 2 damage to creatures, uncounterable
~Artifact hate:
Smash to Smithereens Destroy artifact, do 3 damage
Shattering Spree Can hit multiple artifacts
~Sweepers:
Pyroclasm 2 damage to all creatures
Ratchet Bomb Destroys based on converted mana cost
Flamebreak 3 damage to all creatures, 3 players
Pyrokinesis 4 damage divided, with alternate casting cost
~Burn:
Pyrostatic Pillar Good against cheap, fast decks
Searing Blaze 3 damage to creature & player, with Landfall
Sulfuric Vortex 2 damage on upkeep, anti life gain
~Other:
Pithing Needle Affects activated, non mana abilities
Phyrexian Revoker "Pithing needle" with legs
Reverberate Copy an instant, sorcery spell
Reroute Retarget an activated ability
Phyrexian Metamorph Copy an artifact or creature
Ensnaring Bridge Especially against Show and Tell decks
Mindbreak Trap Usually against combo decks

4) Price guide of more known burn cards: As of March 2013 (For the most current prices, click on the link of each card) High-Mid-Low according to http://magiccards.info/ & http://magic.tcgplayer.com/all_magic_sets.asp
$20.00 to $50.00:
Bloodstained Mire $42.97 $37.29 $31.25
Wooded Foothills $41.18 $34.69 $29.47
Scalding Tarn $44.39 $34.80 $30.95
Arid Mesa $39.98 $24.57 $20.89

$10.00 to $20.00:
Chain Lightning $16.03 $13.15 $10.87

$5.00 to $10.00:
Goblin Guide $10.99 $7.02 $4.92
Vexing Devil $8.95 $7.54 $6.20

$2.00 to $5.00:
Price of Progress $4.99 $3.80 $2.85
Lava Spike $4.35 $3.56 $2.84
Sulfuric Vortex $6.17 $4.08 $3.24

$1.00 to $2.00:
Grim Lavamancer $2.97 $1.84 $0.95
Hellspark Elemental $2.50 $1.67 $1.04
Rift Bolt $2.88 $1.93 $1.20
Flame Rift $2.05 $1.30 $0.95

$1.00 or less average:
Keldon Marauders $0.74 $0.36 $0.20
Fireblast $1.65 $0.98 $0.67
Lightning Bolt $1.63 $0.95 $0.74
Mountain $129.98(Guru) $6.09(Unhinged) $5.00(Unglued) $3.99(Beta) $0.75(Zendikar) $0.03(Basic)


5) Awesome Links: In relation to Burn & Legacy
Price trends of Singles:
http://www.mtgprice.com/sets/4th_Edition/Lightning_Bolt

Burn articles/reports/etc:
2014:
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...-Counters.html Burn against Counters (Patrick Sullivan)
2013:
http://www.essentialmagic.com/em2/Do...318&hdocpage=1 Essentialmagic.com
http://blog.mtgdeals.com/flongmore/i...-time-to-burn/ Burn article, MTGdeals (Feline Longmore)

2012:
http://starcitygames.com/events/cove...derson_ru.html Feature match, Burn in the top 8, SCG Invitational Atlanta (Ali Aintrazi)
http://www.starcitygames.com/article...ek---Burn.html Article, after the two SCG 1st place wins (Patrick Sullivan)
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...f_vs_zac_.html Feature match, Burn in the finals, SCG Memphis (Anthony Phoneuf)
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/..._vs_james.html Feature match, Burn in the finals, SCG Richmond (James Allen)
http://www.starcitygames.com/events/..._josh_cho.html Feature match, Burn in the finals, SCG Washington (Austin Yost)

2011:
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/s...eport-5th.html Article, playing burn (Patrick Sullivan)

Burn decklist sources:
Starcitygames.com Burn
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/tip...&format=Legacy

Legacy metagame:
http://www.starcitygames.com/pages/decklists/
http://www.thecouncil.es/tcdecks/for...=Legacy&page=1
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...y(started-2012)

6) The previous Burn thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...7811-Deck-Burn & special thanks to Peter_Rotten as well as everyone else that participated in the thread since it's creation in 2007.