Mono-Red Burn
Creatures 20
Approximate Total Cost:
So far I've really liked the deck. It's simpler than most of the decks I play which makes it a nice change of pace. I especially enjoy that while it is an extremely fast deck, it has a lot of mid to late game power due to Ramunap Ruins, Sunscorched Desert, Earthshaker Khenra, and Grim Lavamancer. All of those cards also help mitigate flood.
While I've found it a great game one deck, I've been having trouble with the sideboard. Scavenger Grounds, Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp, and Insult // Injury are really the only cards I'm mostly sure of at this point. Even though Scavenger Grounds does hurt this deck a bit since it has Earthshaker Khenra, Ghitu Lavarunner, and Grim Lavamancer, I've really liked the ability to hate graveyards by either switching out Sunscorched Desert or in match-ups I expect to go long, by adding in two extra lands that are deserts.
Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp and Insult // Injury are for the Nine Lives decks which are running around. While normally a tough match-up, they can help the deck win out of nowhere. The split is just so I can bring in Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp against some decks where I want another burn spell, plus a bigger creature.
The other cards I more unsure about. Anax, Hardened in the Forge is for match-up that can wipe the board, while Lightning Phoenix is for match-ups with Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger since it is really easy to reanimate in this deck. Both of these I'm unsure are worth a spot however as I am having trouble telling if they are actually helping the control & Kroxa match-ups respectively.
Tibalt, Rakish Instigator is for against life gain decks. I chose this over Rampaging Ferocidon mostly because I don't have Rampaging Ferocidons and don't want to spend wild cards without testing it first. In theory Tibalt should be better against mono-white life gain decks since it is hard for them to remove (since their main removal is usually Glass Casket) and Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath decks since much of their removal is creature based, while providing two devils that can pig their one toughness creatures.
Tormod's Crypt I am looking to replace, probably with either more Scavenger Grounds or Grafdigger's Cage. Part of me wants to throw in Grafdigger's Cage for Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath and Muxus, Goblin Grandee, but the other part of me worries that it won't help the way I expect. Against Uro, theoretically I should be faster than they can escape Uro, and I should be more concerned with the life gain on the first cast. Against goblins, it's the same idea, yes it stops Muxus and Conspicuous Snoop, but it's one less damage card and they can just overwhelm me with Goblins. It's probably best match-up would be Rakdos Dreadhorde Arcanist, but in that match-up as well I wonder if Lightning Phoenix isn't just better since they can't block it.
Finally their is Leyline of Combustion which would be good against Sacrifice decks and other Thoughtseize decks like Rakdos Dreadhorde Arcanist, but I'm not sure if I want to spend the wild cards to test it on such a niche card.
If anyone has any thoughts on the sideboard I would love to hear it.
