Burn, my favorite deck

  How hard is it to count to 20? Well that question has different answers depending on some different contexts. In real life, most people can accomplish this without any outside assistance. You can even use your hands. Four hand’s worth of fingers is 20. 20 is a number of mcnuggets you can get from mcdonalds. 20% battery is considered low. For me, 20 is the amount of damage I need to win a game of magic. Now, that’s pretty obvious, in most 1v1 formats of Magic:The Gathering you and your opponent both start at 20 life. Yet, for burn, 20 life is the only thing that matters to you and your opponent. That’s all that would ever stand between you and a match victory. Through that simple single goal, there is some kind of charm to one of Magic’s most iconic evergreen decks. That same charm is what captivated me and has kept me playing that deck for a while now.

As I said before, the goal of burn is to reduce your opponent's life total to zero as fast as possible. How is this different from other decks? Well, every card in burn is specifically chosen as a way to deal or enable direct damage to the opponent. I’m talking lightning bolts, goblin guides, monastery swiftspear, skullcrack, price of progress, chain lightning, lightning helix, boros charm, and so many more iconic red, white, or red/white spells that strike the fear into many players across the majority of formats in the game. There is an immediate reaction that comes from an experienced player when your opening is mountain, goblin guide or mountain, swiftspear. They know that slow keeps are punished, their window to interact is dwindling, and most importantly, the assault will not stop unless stomped into submission. On the flip side, if they are able to stem the bleeding for long enough, burn will run out of gas. It has always been the deck’s greatest weakness. It hits hard and fast, but without any true late game threats the time frame to win is actually very short. Goblin guides and swiftspears are possibly some of the greatest creatures ever made, but what are they going to do when the opponent starts slamming down 4+ toughness creatures in the mid to late game. So we end up with this deck that demands an answer, but a lot of the time, the answer ends up being the cause of our demise. To sort of bring it down from that hyperbolic statement. There are plenty of ways to fight back if the game goes long. Direct damage spells also happen to be very good creature removal, and most of the time we can just end up winning the race if it comes down to it. That is where the true skill of burn comes from. When do we remove creatures versus when can we just throw everything at face? Does that 3/3 matter when the opponent is at four life? Do I sandbag the creature so they’re happy to swing in? A huge decision tree opens up if our opponent survives the initial assault. The only rough part of all of this is that no matter what you pick, it can very easily never be enough. A land when you need that last burn spell. A creature that dies to a fatal push when you try to attack. Your opponent hits you with hand disruption, leaving you with dead cards and no more outs. 

That may seem a little frustrating and granted it was when I first started out with the deck. Yet, I began to find some kind of fulfillment in that feeling. Because I can only really do one thing, it’s all I’m focused on during a match. If that one thing succeeds, I am happy because it worked. If it fails, the opponent was just ready and there was really nothing more I could do. It’s all very cathartic actually. It’s a very ride or die deck that asks for the same passion shown in red’s storied history of dealing direct damage to your opponents. A feeling that I think is captured really well in a video I watched a long time ago. RED DECK WINS I think, is a masterpiece in showing the pure passion behind decks like these and how they never seem to stay dead no matter the meta. Even in the most bogged down multicolor midrange pile infested tournaments, a burn deck can come in and steal the whole thing in a blaze of glory.

So I guess a good place to end it off is that burn will always have a special place in my heart and my deckbox. I don’t regret any games that I lose to misplays or busted cards. It’s kinda helped me accept some things I can’t control in real life. Not all of them of course, it definitely isn’t replacing therapy, but it goes a surprisingly long way. I would go so far as to say it’s worth trying to pick up a burn deck at least once because you may find it more interesting being on the giving end than the receiving one. 

I’ve always wanted to write a piece like this at some point. It’s interesting to think that in commander I’ve always leaned towards more controlling decks while in 1v1 I let it loose so it’s interesting to see the dichotomy in playstyle and mood I’m in while playing both. I also hope it was interesting to read for you if you’ve read this far! I’m still trying to stay strong and get out these daily writing things whilst trying to improve other parts of my life. So with that, today’s article is finished and I will 100% be back tomorrow with more!