A Myth About Burn Decks Is Keeping Them Down
Modern forum
Posted on May 13, 2013, 9:06 a.m. by ulosethegame
Mono-Red Burn is my favorite deck archetype for Modern. I have been working up my knowledge of playing Mono-Red Burn mostly by sparring with my friend and his mono-white beatdown deck, which wins a good bit of the time. But in doing so, I have learned quite a bit about the archetype. One of the key things I'm learning is that the old myth that killing creatures is "giving your opponents life" is a bit false.
In my games with him, if I were to blindly rush my burns down his throat, I would lose as soon as he gets rolling, because then my only advantage would be that I am slightly faster than him. If I realize that there are key creatures to be killed, I can survive long enough to get my burn in and total him. I will post the deck eventually, but I cannot now, so let's just discuss this little myth that I think is keeping Burn Decks down in modern.
I will note that typically I will lose because I made a small mistake because versus this deck type I need to play near perfectly to survive long enough to get the better of him. Still a need for speed is my end.
Deck to be posted...
MindAblaze says... #3
I have a question, and it may seem obvious, but I tend to sit in this annoying place between aggro and midrange when I try to build an aggro/burn deck.
Do you kill the blocker before it can be declared, or do you allow it to be declared as a blocker THEN burn it? From Rhadamanthus' statement I would assume you don't allow yourself to get blocked so you can punch as much damage through as possible, but I'm just making sure.
May 13, 2013 11:25 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #4
Letting blockers get declared is only worthwhile if you want to see if your opponent will let you use combat damage to kill his creatures. At that point, there's no reason to use a burn spell because you should just let your attacker do the work, and playing burn on the blocker now is wasting time and cards. Also, attacking into a creature your burn can kill but your attackers can't is just a bad idea. Go ahead and burn it, then attack.
Rhadamanthus says... #2
You're right. The myth is an oversimplication of the proper strategy for a mono-Red burn deck. From playing Red both casually and competitively for a very long time, I know first-hand that there are plenty of correct opportunities to burn a creature instead of the opponent's face. They boil down to 2 essential situations: that creature is going to kill you before your opponent dies from burn, or that creature is going to block one of your attackers. Knowing when to take these opportunities separates the good mono-Red burn players from the rest of the crowd.
Some examples of competitive mono-Red decks I've played are Goblins (Pre-Rotation) and Scars-Innistrad-M12 Big Red. My casual deck that I still keep up with is Goblin Burn.
May 13, 2013 11:12 a.m.