Quote Originally Posted by Clark Kant View Post
Wallace, I'm confused as to why you're such a big fan of Fork. IF you manage to use it with Fireblast, it's basically a Flame Rift without lifeloss. But you won't get that combo together most games (believe me, I played Fork when not so many great burn spells and cantrips were available). So what then. It's unplayable unless you draw 3 lands, and even then, the best you can hope for is to Fork a Bolt turning Fork into a far more conditional incinerate.

And yes, I have rarely if ever had a problem with Spark Elemental as a 2 of. There is no reason a player would leave a creature untapped to block against burn. So just time the Spark Elemental any time your opponent is tapped out (roughly 70% of the turns in my experience) and you have yourself a Bolt.

Brainstorm + Ponder doesn't work well in burn imho. So you spend one extra mana to draw a lightning bolt one turn faster. Why not just play Incinerate if that's you're after. Without a fetchland, you'll be drawing back the same cards that you put back.

Many of the newer builds don't bother with Incinerate, because it's just not good enough.
I used to think the same thing about fork until I ran it for a while. Yes you have to hit 3 mana and yes if you have no cards in hand it sucks as a top deck. I almost always hit 3 mana with this deck and Forking a Fireblast, PoP, or even flame rift is insane. Even better is using fork in response to counter magic or an opposing draw spell like FoF. You like Spark Elemental, I like fork...I think it's a matter of personal preference over a 2 of...