Lightning Bolt and Some Lookalikes

Modern* Bigbadbear88

SCORE: 18 | 56 COMMENTS | 6963 VIEWS | IN 7 FOLDERS


capt4in_price says... #1

XD +1 for the name!

August 19, 2014 2:38 p.m.

GlistenerAgent says... #2

Janky combos and Splinter Twin , eh? Burn sounds pretty good. You can try sideboarding Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek if you see a lot of fragile combos, but I don't see it much and don't know if it will work.

September 1, 2014 7:35 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #3

GlistenerAgent I find the combos are usually inconsistent enough to be burned out, so as long as I have some good Twin hate I'm fine. Last FNM I came 2nd, was undefeated until I went 2-1 against Twin after he attempted the combo 3 times in game three after being Combust 'd twice

September 1, 2014 7:50 p.m.

Kornex2000 says... #4

Searing Blaze kinda sucks if you are not running 8 fetchlands. I would suggest getting fetchlands or replacing it with Searing Blood

September 26, 2014 3:08 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #5

Kornex2000 I'm working on adding fetches, which would be 4 Bloodstained Mires. Searing Blood is good, however Blaze gives me the ability to kill opposing Vexing Devils and other bolt-able creatures, as well as giving me a better chance of killing an early goyf. I am actually planning on cutting the Searing Blaze 's to 2 to make room for Bump in the Night. Another advantage however of Searing Blaze is that I can burn a creature too big to die and use it as a pseudo lightning strike. Blood is a little more limited in that the creature MUST die for it to be useful

September 26, 2014 11:46 p.m.

+1 for aggro-burn shenanigans. Check out my budget deck adapted for multiplayer: Kill it with FIRE!!.

October 2, 2014 12:22 a.m.

tclaw12 says... #7

October 2, 2014 12:40 a.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #8

tclaw12 I've put a lot of thought into Monastery Swiftspear , and have decided to not include it. My reasoning is this

My optimal turns 1 & 2 in almost every matchup would be Goblin Guide then Eidolon of the Great Revel . Being that Eidolon isn't a noncreature spell, Swiftspear would swing for only 1 damage each turn, being a net loss of 2 damage versus swinging with Guide turns 1 and 2. Even if I was to drop 2 burn spells, precombat I might add, turn 2, Guide and Swiftspear break even on damage, however Guide is more consistent and doesn't require me to play burn spells pre-combat, which may not be best. On turn 3, where Swiftspear would be swinging for 3-4 rather than Guide's 2, it would have dealt a total of 5-6 damage (assuming Eidolon) against Goblin Guide's 6. Modern Burn's greatest strength is it's brutal consistency, if you'd care to playtest you'll find that this deck will turn 4 goldfish about 70% of the time, with turn 3 being about 10% and turns 5+ being roughly 20%. Putting in a conditional creature would make my wins bigger and my losses harder, which is something I don't want to do.

My last reason for using Guide over Swiftspear would be that Guide is a much stronger topdeck, as it doesn't require other cards in hand to make it work.

As for simply taking something else out instead of Guide, I prefer to keep my creature count low and burn spells high. I don't see a card that I would take out in favor of a second, slightly weaker Guide.

October 3, 2014 8:21 p.m.

tclaw12 says... #9

Good explanation. Are you going to cut the Mana Confluence for more fetches? Either way this is the best burn deck i've seen. +1

October 3, 2014 10:06 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #10

Thanks!

It's possible I will cut the Confluence for Wooded Foothills , as foothills and mire are functionally the same in this deck. At the moment I have confluences, so thats what I'm using. Besides, burn usually races well enough that the 1 damage is only relevant in the mirror or against aggro

October 4, 2014 1:54 a.m.

tclaw12 says... #11

Hey I'm really considering building this deck now. I have most of the expensive cards (besides Goblin Guide ). Can you give me a breakdown of the sideboard?

October 4, 2014 1:26 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #12

tclaw12 I put a brief explanation of the sideboard in the description, however I'll gladly break it down for you!

Combust - My meta is filled with Twin and Kiki-Combos. Combust can kill Deciever, Pestermite, and Restoration Angel at instant speed, no questions asked. It is absolutely vital in that matchup to prevent the combo.

Leyline of Sanctity - with Burn becoming a very popular deck, Leyline gives you a sometimes insurmountable advantage in the mirror. If they aren't running Wear//Tear, or didn't side it in, and you drop Leyline, most burn players will immediately scoop. To a lesser extent, it also hoses Storm and Scapeshift very nicely.

Rain of Gore - this is very much a meta call as I see a lot of lifegain in my area, however it does work on Melira Pod and any other deck running Kitchen Finks. It completely and utterly prevents all lifegain, and creates pseudo-card advantage, as the Finks/Obstinate Baloth/Thragrusk/Sphinx's Rev (or any other lifegain card) is now completely dead in their hand.

Rakdos Charm - this guy is really an all star. It's damage mode is great against Aggro, Tokens, Faeries, and Twin (insta kill vs. twin). The artifact destroy mode is fabulous against Affinity, Spellskite, and Pod. Lastly, the graveyard hate is invaluable against Bolt-Snap-Bolt decks, Goyf and Scooze, and overall graveyard shenanigans.

Wear / Tear - possibly the most important card in this sideboard, it defends against Leyline of Sanctity and Affinity, as well as pod. A word of advice with Wear//Tear is to side it very aggresively. If you have even a gut feeling your opponent has a Leyline of Sanctity in their side, bring it in. This includes nearly every deck with white in it. I say this because an unanswered Leyline is pretty much a game loss unless you can drop a large number of Guides and Eidolons. In the event they don't actually have it, I'd rather have a dead card in hand than lose outright off the bat.

To better tune to your meta, I have a few suggestions.

Molten Rain is killer against Tron and manlands.

If Affinity is getting you down, try swapping something out for the worlds best artifact hate, Smash to Smithereens and/or Shattering Spree . If you want to aggresively counter Affinity in your deck, I would suggest taking out a Combust and the Rains for 2 Smash and 1 Spree. Also, Kataki, War's Wage is great against Affinity.

If Aggro is big in your meta, consider adding a combination of Searing Blood , Searing Blaze , and Volcanic Fallout to the side. Blood and blaze are pretty self explanatory, and I prefer Fallout to Anger of the Gods due to Fallout also hitting players, being Instant (to use during Attack steps to kill hasty creatures), and being uncounterable, which is vital against Faeries.

When siding, take out whatever didn't help you last match. I usually recommend taking out either Searing Blaze or Skullcrack , however make sure to keep Skullcrack in against Scapeshift in case of Obstinate Baloth or Thragtusk ! Rarely will a deck have both lifegain and small creatures.

I hope this has fully explained the sideboard! If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I wish you luck and good topdecks playing this deck, it's my own build!

October 4, 2014 2:37 p.m.

tclaw12 says... #13

Wow thanks for the detail! I hope im not asking too much of you, but what would you side out against some of the decks you listed above? just some sorcery speed bolts?

October 5, 2014 1:28 a.m.

tclaw12 says... #14

Never mind haha you wrote that above too :P thanks again!

October 5, 2014 1:37 a.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #15

I would say never to take out the 3 damage for 1 mana burn spells, as they're the backbone of the deck. The first things I usually remove would be either Searing Blaze or Skullcrack , occassionally removing part of both. You'll find there are few, if any, matchups that you will need both small creature removal and lifegain prevention. Also, as they are two casts, they don't disturb the curve being that the sideboard is almost completely 2 drops.

Some example sides

Twin- Out 2x Searing Blaze, 3x Skullcrack, in 3x Combust, 2x Rakdos Charm

Melira Pod- Out 2x Skullcrack, 2x Vexing Devi, in 2x Rain of Gore, 2x Rakdos Charm

Scapeshift- Out 2x Searing Blaze, 1x Skullcrack, 1x Vexing Devil in 2x Rain of Gore, 2x Leyline

Junk/Jund/The Rock- Out 2x Searing Blaze, 3x Skullcrack, in 3x Leyline of Sanctity, 2x Rakdos Charm

Affinity- Out 4x Skullcrack, 1x Bump in the Night, 1x Vexing Devil, in 2x Rakdos Charm, 4x Wear // Tear

Faeries- out 2x Skullcrack, in 2x Combust

Storm- out 2x Searing Blaze, 2x Skullcrack, in 4x Leyline of Sanctity

Burn- out 4x Skullcrack, in 4x Leyline of Sanctity (unless they run Lightning Helix, then try taking out something else)

U/W/R Control- Out 2x Searing Blaze, 2x Skullcrack, 2x Vexing Devil, in 2x Rakdos Charm, 4x Wear//Tear (if they don't bring in Leyline, take out Wear//Tear game 3)

Hexproof Auras- Out 2x Searing Blaze, 2x Skullcrack, in 4x Wear//Tear

That's pretty much the important decks in modern, if there is a deck I did not list feel free to ask! Keep in mind these are suggestions based on the most common versions of each deck, suit your boarding to your immediate needs

October 5, 2014 2:02 a.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #16

Lol already typed before I saw

October 5, 2014 2:05 a.m.

CricketYT says... #17

I'm sorry, but i don't get Eidolon of the Great Revel dont you just kill yourself with it?

October 5, 2014 2:09 p.m.

I highly recommend four Blackcleave Cliffs , as they let you cast anything but Boros Charm with less life investment. While I understand that Burn doesn't care about its life total, four Confluences and 8 shocks may get to be problematic. I recommend playing 8 fetches, 4 Cliffs, 4 shocklands and 3 basics.

October 5, 2014 2:12 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #19

GlistenerAgent I very much like cliffs, however 8 fetches seems excessive. How do you feel about 4 Fetches, 4 Foundries, 2 Blood Crypt, 4 Cliffs, 2 Confluence, and 3 basics? This gives me 10 White and 12 Black mana sources, as opposed to the current 12:12, however it cuts some pain from the deck. I'd do your suggestion, but at the moment I can't get another playset of shocks

October 5, 2014 3:03 p.m.

8 fetches makes Grim Lavamancer much better and more consistent. I don't really like Confluence because it's not necessary to have very good mana. If the budget is an issue, Wooded Foothills won't cost you too much. I do think 8 fetches, 4 shocks (probably 2-2 Crypt-Foundry), 4 Cliffs and 3 basics is the way to go. This cuts down on life payment by allowing you get basics more often if you can.

October 5, 2014 3:07 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #21

CricketYT it does kill you, however it also kills the opponent. While you may look at Eidolon and realize that every spell you play will shock you, it will also shock the opponent. The reason it's good is this...

Imagine you have an Eidolon out. If you play a card, assuming its a bolt of sorts, and your opponent plays a card, which will 9/10 be 3cmc or lower, you lose 2 life and the opponent loses 5. While this seems worse than 0 and 3, realize that Burn is a race. You must kill the opponent, even if it means you go down to 1 life.

The burn player will far outdamage their opponent turns 1-4. As their life will be lower than yours, most likely as much as 10-15 below you, if you both lose life at the same rate they'll die first.

Double Eidolon is the closest thing to cheating in modern. If your opponent has 6 or less health, they're dead. Period. Every thing they cast burns them for 4. Even if they have two back to back removals, they take 4 then 2 damage.

October 5, 2014 3:11 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #22

GlistenerAgent my only problem with cutting Confluence and putting 8 fetches is that you'll be fetch-shocking a lot, as opposed to the slower, possibly greater damage of confluence. By turn 2 this deck will need all colors, often needing them turn 1 for Tear or Bump in the Night

October 5, 2014 3:15 p.m.

Pupp3tMast3r says... #23

4-6 fetches seems more consistent, less painful, and less mana-screwy to me.

Maybe cut the Combust from your sideboard for Dragon's Claw , more Rakdos Charm or mirror-match hate? The Charms double as graveyard and creature-flood hate, and 1/3 of your sideboard meant against Kiki, Twin, and Pod seems excessive. Unless, of course, these decks make up half your meta, than I completely understand. Love the deck, +1 from me.

October 14, 2014 11:27 p.m.

Bigbadbear88 says... #24

Thanks for the upvote!

Kiki, Twin, and Pod are an obnoxiously large part of the competitive portion of my meta, so I include a solid amount of hate on them. I have very much been considering more fetches, as of right now the manabase is great, but a little painful. I find that Dragon's Claw is incredibly strong, however Leyline of Sanctity can be used in more matchups, good against hand disruption too, and it doesn't slow me down. Besides, artifact destruction is more common to be counter-sided in than enchantment destruction\

I've been wanting to put in a third Rakdos Charm, but I don't know what to take out. I need all 4 Wear//Tear because of Leyline of Sanctity, and I need those 3 combusts. Possibly I will take out a Leyline, but I don't really want to do that either

October 14, 2014 11:35 p.m.

Pupp3tMast3r says... #25

Yup, I forgot that you had Leyline in the side when I commented. Leyline is definitely better than Dragon's Claw and four Wear / Tear is important as well.

Personally, I would drop a Combust for another Rak Charm so more often than not I can let their combo go off then laugh as I make them eat it.

I've never played Modern before but have watched a few games and know certain decks, so I know Scapeshift and how it wins but not why you would side in Rain of Gore or why it is an important side. I also don't understand the mechanics of Melira Pod (Kiki Pod is straightforward, beat you in the face for infinite) so why would you side in Rain for that?

October 14, 2014 11:53 p.m.

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