Bedlam Burn

[mistercakes]

I have been tinkering around with a new variant of burn, which I'm calling Bedlam Burn. This is because it has a relative dependency on Bedlam Reveler.

cantrips: The first two are used as cycling cards, however the probe provides information. They are a bit of a non-bo with eidolon of the great revels, but early game they have provided enough to keep in the deck. i discovered faithless looting a bit later, but realize after some testing that it is quite strong and allows you to cheat on lands, and flashback later on to get rid of junk. another primary function of this card is to enable cheap bedlam revelers.

4 gitaxian probe
4 manamorphose
4 faithless looting


burn: the core burn of the deck hasn't changed too much. because the deck is playing with so much card filtering, less bolts need to be played. there is unfortunately no getting around 4 lightning bolt and 4 chain lightning, but lava spike and rift bolt have been shaved down. rift bolt is at 3 because I like the ability to have a turn 1 play that can't be dazed easily. lava spike has its merits in this list as well because you can cast it when you have 3 mana in order to bring the bedlam reduction to RR. you can also get 3 damage immediately when drawn from bedlam reveler.

I have been very impressed with fireblast in this list. it's great to resolve a reveler, and with its ability on the stack, cast fireblast. there is usually a good enough chance to redraw into at least 1 land. again these numbers aren't completely firm and will require more testing.

one thing to note is that in my testing, i do not mind firing burn directly at any relevant targets. between reveler and faithless looting you will redraw into more burn, and unless if they are refilling their hand constantly, you will outdraw them.

4 lightning bolt
4 chain lightning
3 rift bolt
2 lava spike
3 fireblast
3 exquisite firecraft
3 price of progress
1 searing blaze


creatures: this is the biggest change of the deck. i had originally kept the swiftspears as i felt they would be powered heavily by the cantrips, but i felt in the end now the opponent's removal is limited to just reveler, and eidolon. grim lavamancer could easily find a home here, i just haven't tested him yet.

4 eidolon of the great revel
4 bedlam reveler


this is the lowest i could get to with the lands, although it might be worth trying 9 fetches and 8 mountains. this is pretty tough, but i have been okay with the 17 in its current configuration.

9 mountain
2 scalding tarn
2 wooded foothills
2 bloodstained mire
2 arid mesa


here's the cards i've been testing in sb, nothing too crazy here:

3 grafdigger's cage
1 surgical extraction
1 exquisite firecraft
1 searing blaze
1 price of progress
1 ensnaring bridge
2 red elemental blast
3 smash to smithereens
2 pyrostatic pillar


edit: i'm sure there are some questionable plays, but this should show the power of this deck, and why i'm making concessions with probe+manamorphose+looting for reveler.

first match vs miracles: 2-0 (this was in casual tourney practice room)

https://recordings.join.me/v0VRvuuaw0SwmKoQMADI4Q

2nd match vs junk nitfit: 2-1 (this was a 2 man event)

https://recordings.join.me/jvosveXq5E6hqOFBl6pf1w

I will get more games in and post here. Would love to hear from people that are wiling to give this a shot, and not just bash it. Ideal criticism would be something like "I tried this list, and X and Y happened. How can the deck be modified to deal with X and Y situations?

I am starting a new thread here as the deck is different enough from traditional burn and the responses there have not been positive. If the deck ends up becoming similar to traditional burn then we can discontinue this thread, but at this time they feel quite different.

Thanks,
-Rob

update, played a competitive league. finished 2-3. really great though as drawing into reveler can get you out of most situations.

league 1

r1, chaos elves
0-2. seems to be unfavorable. not as bad as natural order elves...maybe i'm wrong here?

2-0, painter
g1 he went all in on the play with blood moon. game 2 i killed 3 painters and a goblin welder while a grindstone was out.

0-2 grixis delver.
i wasn't patient enough game 1 and that cost me the game. so now i've learned that if you have a fireblast and don't need to do it, it might not always be correct. i had reveler with 3 lands in play. went down to 1 land to hit a fireblast....never drew another land when i had him at 2 life. was stuck with 2 more revelers and 2 eidolons. so we went about 6 turns with my reveler and his true name nemesis just sitting there. eventually i decided to pull the gun and go to 2 life with a gitaxian probe in hopes for a 2nd land. (i had eidolon + fireblast in hand and hew as at 1...i whiffed. figured he was overdue for a bolt at the time anyway)
game 2 he sided in a jitte and i was unprepared for it. i could have cleared his board, which might have been the right decision (but it required me to go to 1 land). also i had sided out 1 faithless, it's probably not a good idea to do this.

2-1 bant
drew enough burn and kept his guys off the table. he was about to have jitte + true name, but i ripped an exquisite off the top (needed to deal 4 more with that draw, or another bedlam into something crazy)

1-2 junk
game 1 i got double goyf'd. goyf tends to be a problem with this deck.
game 2 i had enough burn to finish him off and bedlams got some tempo.
game 3 i drew 3 revelers at the same time, had him pretty close but he drew into goyf, stoneforge.

overall pretty happy with the deck, will have to do a lot of testing on paper with someone like minded to make this deck a bit more resilient.

the grixis loss was probably my fault. the other two it may have been out of my reach. 2-3 when it probably should have been 3-2 is a fine way to start.