Burn is
a deck type that consists of mostly sorceries and instants capable of
dealing direct damage to your opponent. Burn deck has always been a favourite
for deck building, however many new players are having difficulties deciding
which burn spells should be included to maximize the deck efficiency. Today's
article is dedicated to building a cheap yet efficient mono Red Burn deck.
While
many burn spells have been printed throughout Magic's history, only a few of
them can be considered to be the core spells of a burn deck.
Let us first take
a look at the core spells that can maximize the burn efficiency in this type
of deck.
Lightning
Bolt, Rift
Bolt, Chain
Lightning and Lava
Spike are the gold standards for burn spells as they have the most
efficient damage per mana ratio. Fortunately the only expensive card that does
not fit into a budget build is Chain Lightning, the rest of the gold standards
are relatively cheap.
Flame
Rift, although not as efficient as the gold standards, is the only 2 mana
spell that is able to deal 4 damage to a player. The downside of Flame
Rift is that it also deals damage to the caster, however it isn't really a
problem since in general your opponents' life points will go down much quicker
than yours.
Another
powerful burn spell that should be auto-included in a burn deck is Fireblast.
The fact that you are able to cast Fireblast
for zero mana by sacrificing two already tapped mountains makes this spell
extremely dangerous for your opponent as it can deal a significant amount of
damage out of nowhere.
In
addition to instants and sorceries, Grim
Lavamancer is a creature that plays a critical role in a Burn deck. The
most common problem for a Burn deck is running out of spells while your opponent
is still alive. Simply relying on top decking a burn
spell is often not enough. Grim
Lavamancer allows you to "re-cycle" the cards in your graveyard
into damage. This is extremely useful especially when you are running out of
spells in hand; the extra damage output from Grim
Lavamancer can push you one step closer to victory.
Here is a list of the core spells for a burn deck
4x Rift
Bolt
4x Lava
Spike
4x Fireblast
4x Flame
Rift
That is
a total of 24 spells, normally a Burn deck only requires 19-20 lands due to the
number of low mana cost spells. This gives you room to customize 16-17 cards.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0Iqh-B1qke1XCzGiKtPgbcXzK0ygl8NqrSARQLSAu9gFtrMA-vVwkPd-RmJlzcZsqEbN3_4b0qY6IfwkpH3G4d4RUNrObM2LnZeQickr9CK8eMKNAW3deNK285myWy5Syo7ffBpdRGV8/s200/flamebreak.png)
It is
important to note that while some burn spells or creatures may seem to be suitable
in a burn deck, they are actually a liability to your deck efficiency. Vexing Devil and Browbeat
appear to be great, however they both provide your opponent the choice of which
effect will be resolved. A seasoned player will never choose the option that
will benefit you in a particular situation. Therefore rather than running these
spells that give your opponent the power to choose it will be more beneficial
to just run some generic burn spells such as Lightning
Strike, or Incinerate.
Until next time, keep the fire pit burning!
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