Whats the "best" burn deck?
Modern forum
Posted on April 13, 2022, 4:02 p.m. by Icbrgr
For a long time now I have thought about building a competitively viable burn list... I know this is a deck that has been around forever but I was curious what people thought the best variant of burn was.
-
Mono-Red: Super budget, one-sided Blood Moon
-
Boros: Lightning Helix white removal/ sideboard cards.
-
Rakdos/Mardu: Bump in the Night, Fatal Push, Kolaghan's Command, Lightning Skelemental and general hand disruption.
-
Gruul/Naya: Destructive Revelry..... ???
-
Izzet/Jeskai: access to cantrips/tempo spells Opt/Remand and counterrmagic?
My gut tells be that Boros burn is the way to go; essentially splashing white for Lightning Helix and some utility/removal like Stony Silence and Path to Exile... esentially keeping it very simple/pure with just a little bit of opportunity for tech options.
Honestly budget isnt really a factor in my decision making... ive been collecting for a long time now and have a lot of staples collected already over the years.
TL;DR
If you were gonna build a burn deck what colors would you choose and why?
wallisface says... #4
The easiest way to see what’s “best” in the current meta (at least from a “everyone is playing this” perspective) is just to check out the modern meta on mtg goldfish here. You’ll see the second-most played deck, at 7.1% at-time of writing this, is boros-burn. Deck page here. It’s s high-enough play rate that it’s pretty safe to say it’s the most competitive of the archetypes you’ve listed
April 13, 2022 5:11 p.m.
xtechnetia says... #5
I think it's been firmly established that Boros burn is the best in a Modern context. The strengths of Helix and Charm are fairly self-explanatory. Not to mention, for burn, cards that don't do damage are pretty much last resort sideboard cards, and white handles that better than black with its famed suite of silver bullets and universal answers.
Bump is alright but it's generally weaker than either of Helix and Charm. Black's other offerings are not really of interest to burn - they're more for grindy decks that want to trade x-for-1, which is the opposite of burn's gameplay (literally throwing cards to the wind in order to eventually kill you).
Revelry is a nice card and I have seen Naya burn once or twice, but Smash to Smithereens covers half of the functionality without needing to splash, and enchantments that need to be destroyed by burn are a rare sight. Maybe if everyone was playing bogles or something (maindeck Leyline of Sanctity? yikes) burn would play Revelry, but then it's far more likely burn just wouldn't be played, lol.
Green's other offerings are just outdated. Red has a near monopoly on premier aggro creatures in Modern. Maybe at the inception of Modern something like Wild Nacatl was alright (?), but Theros brought Eidolon of the Great Revel, Tarkir brought Monastery Swiftspear, and if that wasn't enough burn would probably run MH2 critters before even thinking about splashing into green.
Blue being added to burn usually means something's horribly wrong in Modern (it was done in the Treasure Cruise and Oko eras, to give you an idea). Generally speaking, blue's offerings subtly shift burn into more of a prowess-style deck because cantrips are nearly useless to pure burn (that's mana you could have spent doing actual damage instead) and counterspells have the same issue as discard: it's mana and cards spent trading, when burn doesn't want to trade, just kill you before trading is relevant.
For non-Boros burn decks to be good, I think Modern needs to change in a noticeable way. For example, Legacy burn tends to be mono-R because of the presence of cards like Wasteland and Price of Progress, both of which are unlikely to ever enter Modern.
April 13, 2022 5:43 p.m.
Yeah I appreciate the reassurance of Boros Burn being the optimal choice.... for whatever reason checking into mtgtop8 or goldfish didn't occur to me when I posted here lol... rakdos/Mardu burn honestly seemed tempting but I appreciate the explanation about trading cards not being ideal.
Yeah I think I'm sold/convinced/assured that Boros is the way to go... thanks all!
But by all means if anything interesting comes to mind feel free to add to the discussion!
April 13, 2022 6:25 p.m. Edited.
Metroid_Hybrid says... #7
Usually Boros Burn will run a single Stomping Ground (and Fetch-lands) so that they can keep a playset of Destructive Revelry in the sideboard..
I've actually been wanting to put together a Mono-Red list myself for a while now..
April 14, 2022 10:07 a.m. Edited.
Since it's already been confirmed as Boros Burn (and I agree with that), I'm going to mention the last Naya Burn card that nobody's brought up yet: Atarka's Command, along with Wild Nacatl and Destructive Revelry, were the big cards for RGx burn decks a few years ago.
Basically, if it's not dealing damage, it really needs to justify its place in a burn deck. And the answer's usually "no".
April 14, 2022 1:37 p.m.
I hear you legendofa! I unfortunately just have a bad habit of trying to "reinvent the wheel" and find myself really easily swayed into adding Jank into otherwise proven decklists.... your last point in particular is something I constantly need to remind myself.
April 14, 2022 2:45 p.m.
Max_Hammer says... #10
I'd absolutely build a Boros burn deck, but that's just because I love Boros decks. Not to mention that Soulfire Grand Master or Radiant Scrollwielder will make your burn deck into an unkillable machine.
May 10, 2022 10:23 a.m.
Max_Hammer says... #11
That said, any Furnace of Wrath effect is usually going to make a deck go crazy. Insult / Injury or Quest for Pure Flame might work well, too.
plakjekaas says... #2
Not only Lightning Helix, but Boros Charm too.
April 13, 2022 4:39 p.m.