This is my take on the Rakdos Burn idea that has been running around.
Of course we are all waiting for Blood Crypt to come out, but until then...
Creatures:
Of course, the staple red wizard creatures Viashino Pyromancer and Ghitu Lavarunner for early damage on turn 2 and enabling Wizard's Lightning.
Having 24 instant/sorcery cards mean that Electrostatic Field will almost always trigger. I am a believer in that, a red deck (in this case red/black), should focus on either full aggro or full burn. Doing any combination of the two diminishes the overall performance of the deck.
Electrostatic Field is far superior than Guttersnipe for three reasons: It has a lower CMC, it demands harder removal from the opponent, and it protects against early aggro.
The Burn:
So the burn is pretty self explanatory. Four copies of each Wizard's Lightning, Lightning Strike and Shock are fairly common in red strategies, for black we add four copies of Sovereign's Bite. This will add four more pseudo Lightning Strike with added life gain for matches versus aggro.
The Flame of Keld
Some might vote against this card, but my argument is "This is not an aggro deck". The Flame of Keld is very useful when we inevitably run out of cards in our hand. Even with running four copies of each Sword-Point Diplomacy and Risk Factor there is always a chance for bad luck to strike and not have them available.
The Flame of Keld also puts pressure on the opponent the moment it enters the field making them second guess every move if they are unable to deal with it. On most games, once Flame of Keld reaches the third chapter it signifies the victory of the burn deck.
If you are still not convinced of this card, please indulge me in a little mental exercise. Imagine Lightning Strike dealing 5 damage. Now imagine an single Electrostatic Field on the board dealing 3 damage on top of the 5 from the Lightning Strike. I hope you get the picture.
Sword-Point Diplomacy and Risk Factor A marriage made in Hell.
This is the most Rakdos we can get without it being officially in the Standard.
When Sword-Point Diplomacy resolves, the opponent will have a hard time letting burn pass. One thing is that the opponents will never pay 3 life for to deny me mana even if I seem to be in a clear disadvantage mana wise. That is the reason for the deck to be running only 20 lands. Also the Abnormal Endurance seems to slip through often enough to make the opponent regret their decisions.
Risk Factor is best used strategically, but it usually goes one of two ways:
1- Start of the game when opponent is above 15 life, resolves as an instant at the end of the opponent's turn (preferably after they cast something), dealing 4 damage, bringing them low enough to burn at the start of your next turn.
2- When the opponent is at 8 or less life. (also preferably at your opponent's end step)
Sideboard
Honestly the sideboard is not as important as the main deck. The objective of my deck is to be as aggressive as possible burning my opponent. My sideboard, or any sideboard in that matter, should not be copied cards by card. It is a good example on what to use against different strategies but your local meta will dictate the selection of cards.
My meta is full of 4 toughness creatures which is why I have 3 copies of lava coil.
Please leave comments and suggestions, I'm always looking for better ways to burn!
