Ive been playing burn for a long time, i like trying new cards in my deck because sometimes they're good. And sometimes cards that werent good in the past become better as the meta changes.
I remember when chain lightning was a new card and i ditched all my earthquakes.....
Anyway...
Ive been playing exclusively online the past few years and lately I've been testing out 2 couriers. Ive had mixed results. Sometimes theyre really great. As in sac it and win the game immediately with the cards under it. However, a lot of the time it winds up not working out. I havent kept real results of when it's great and when its terrible, but im not really interested in it anymore, im replacing them with 2 risk factors as soon as i can.
Also....ill agree that burn doesnt NEED card advantage to be successful, but it never hurts. Having extra cards, or the ability to choose your next draw is really helpful with almost every magic deck ive ever played. Make yourself some pretend red brainstorm cards and see if a friend will let you play them....getting a choice of 3 cards for your next draw is super helpful.
Obviously such a card will likely never exist, but some kind of card draw/ selecting would be helpful to me in lots of the games i loose.
Something else ive been trying out are wastelands. Im running 18 mountains and 2 wastelands. Theyve been really helpful. Before i put them in some lands were just auto losses.....glacial chasm, dark depths.... Now theyre not. Its also useful against mishras factories and tabernacles. It sometimes holds off hymn to tourachs for a turn or 2, or takes away stp....
Theres lots of situations where its been helpful.
I mostly consider it a spell to take out trouble some lands, but its mana producing ability isnt wasted either. Some of our spells do take colorless mana, pop and all of the 3cc spells i use do. It also pays for daze and thalia....
Every card has ups and downs....and i know it doesny play great with pop, but i can decide when and how to use it before i cast the pop.
And sure there have been times that ive needed a mountain and got a wasteland instead, but what can you do? Sometimes Ive needed a mountain and drawn a lightning bolt too.
Overall ive been happy with the wastelands.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
What is the game plan against Death's Shadow decks? I ran into 3 decks this weekend and tried to adjust the play tempo each time but still couldn't work it out. Going fast puts out a huge Death's Shadow and no way to deal with it. Going slow sees a Gurmag Angler and a well sculpted hand that sucks up and momentum we hope to gain. I thought Risk Factor was good but it ate a Surgical. I thought Exquisite Firecraft was good but it ate a Thoughtsieze.
Any ideas or roadmaps would be helpful.
What's your board look like? If you're already packing Ensnaring Bridge, they seem like what you'd need for either problem.
Also if your risk factor ate a surgical you either ancestraled or fireblasted for three, then made opponent discard a card. That’s a great pay off.
Ensaring Bridge saw Force of Will when it came up.
It's frustrating in that the answers are clear but getting them into play is just as much a challenge as finding them in a deck without card selection.
I get that it could be an unfavorable matchup, Burn will have them, I just want to make sure the plan is sound.
Yeah... That's rough. Only other advice is to sandbag a Price of Progress and hope it resolves...
The Death's Shadow matchup shouldn't be a problem. They literally do 10+ damage to themselves. Apply aggressive pressure with your creatures while they self-inflict a bunch of damage to themselves. By the time Death's Shadow or Gurmag Angler hit the board, the opponent should easily be within burn range. Just hold onto your burn spells until you're ready to close it out.
Against Death Shadow you can´t play it slow! You need to hit him down as much as you can. I would say that the key is more blockers! You have to be able to block Death Shadow 2-3 times and kill your opponent in the meantime. I play more creatures:
4 Goblin Guide
4 monastery Swiftspear
4 Bomat Courier
1-2 Grim Lavamancer
4 Eidolon
That´s 17 creatures. With Bomat you can block, sac and refill your hand with new fuel. Bomat is also great with grim Lavamancer and Risk factor. Anyways, more creatures should help.
Problem with playing it fast is I'll end up hellbent with them almost dead, the Push a blocker and swing in with grossly beefy Death's Shadows, holding up Force for my topdeck to seal the deal.
Maybe I'm upselling the implied difficulty too much, I'm not confused how to win. It was just startling going from "this matchup is a bye :D" to "Wow they don't mind getting burned, and now the combat math is all wrong and wow I'm dead x_x"
The caution required to avoid half killing them and then die to the counterattack was unexpected is all. And the fact that one suggestion was to wait until you have lethal +1 spell before going for it and another is just go hog wild and empty your hand ASAP only adds to the notion that this isn't a match you can autopilot.
Why Searing Blood and not Searing Blaze?
Is this card incredibly good in this deck? It's almost like a 1 mana draw 2 spell, but:
- the two cards can't be discarded;
- you must cast them until the end of your next turn;
It says play, not cast, so you can play the lands you draw.
yes it's good. it also allows you play fireblast alternate cost as well. i would say easily merits testing 4x.
-rob
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
Sure thing, just wanted to make sure you understood that it doesn't give you a free land drop. I made that mistake with Act on Impulse once.
Even if you flip 2 lands, as long as you haven't made a land drop yet you are guaranteed your next 2 land drops. It's pretty significant if you're looking to get up to 4 lands so you can double Fireblast (or just fireblast and still have 2 lands in play.)
Brainstorm Realist
I close my eyes and sink within myself, relive the gift of precious memories, in need of a fix called innocence. - Chuck Shuldiner
I have done some slight test with burn, and I think it is really well positionned right now. Except combo the control matchups miracle grixis are favored, the tempo decks (grixis tempo) and others aggroish decks(eldrazi death and taxes, gob), now that drs is gone are too slow to beat burn.
The problem remain the combo decks such as reanimator show and tell storm and depth, I think we can't beat all of them so we have to make choice foccusing either on storm (which the easiest to hate I have found). I like pyrostatic pillar and mindbreak trap in side. The problem with reanimator is that even with 4+ hate cards you will likely lose cause you have to mull into your hate pieces and so you will have no more clock same thing with show and tell and depth, while storm we have already 4 eidolon main. Maybe some karakas in side 3 off might do the trick against reanimator show and tell and depth.
I have found the elf matchup really winnable if we play carefuly blasting creatures is the way to go.
Spectacle Bolt. Does Burn even want to be a 40 Bolt 20 Land deck anymore?
I immediately went to do a pro/con for Rift Bolt
Both cost 3 if you want no hoops.
Rift Bolt is fine turn 1, this isn't
Skewer the Critics can be used post combat, but that doesn't play well with Swiftspear pumping
This seems easier to cast with no downside every time however.
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