Modern Burn and You!

Christian here to talk to you about my favorite format, Modern! We are post pro-tour fate reforged and there was a lot of excitement surrounding modern and what archetypes would reign supreme on the big stage in D.C. The top 8 was a rather diverse group and that is thanks to the recent ban list update, with Treasure Cruise, Dig Through Time and Birthing Pod getting the axe, it left a hole in the meta game and it looks like it was just big enough for siege rhino to fit through.

A large majority of the field this past weekend was non other than Junk midrange. It was a staggering 28% of the field. With a showing like that, it would have taken an act of god or nature to keep it out of the top 8. It took two spots on Sunday with Eric Froehlich taking top seat running the traditional version of the list and Jacob Wilson on the "Podless Pod/Wilt-leaf liege" version. There are significant differences between the decks but they are not what I'm here to talk to you about today.

The second most represented deck is one that is very near and dear to my heart, Burn. Burn is one of those decks that has always been around but has a lot of hate cards that can keep it in check. With the loss of treasure cruise, Delver disappeared from the meta entirely and Burn was waiting in the wings to take it's spot. With it taking two spots in the top 8, despite the numerous Kor Firewalkers and timely reinforcements in everyone's sideboard, I can say the deck is the real deal.  Let's take a look at one of the lists and see what burn was bringing to the table this past weekend.

"Burn"
Piloted by Seth  Manfield

4 Arid Mesa
4 Wooded Foothills
3 Sacred Foundry
2 Mountain
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Rift Bolt
4 Skullcrack
4 Searing Blaze
4 Boros Charm
4 Lava Spike
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
2 Shard Volley
2 Lightning Helix
1 Grim Lavamancer


4 Destructive Revelry
1 Lighting Helix
3 Kor Firewalker
3 Molten Rain
2 Deflecting Palm
2 Path to Exile

There are several different versions of this deck ranging from mono-red to five colors. The chosen flavor this weekend was boros. Getting access to powerful burn spells like boros charm and lightning helix for the mirror match. The deck splashes green for destructive revelry out of the board almost solely to blow up leyline of sanctity. The deck matches up well against both splinter twin and junk midrange. 

Against Junk it really wants to have a skull crack in it's opening hand. If it is able to stop the life gain from siege rhino, it is usually able to burn them out the following turn or two, depending on some friendly draws. Skullcrack becomes more important post-board as it has to stop timely reinforcements. Having played the match more than a few times I can say that if you are able to stop the first reinforcements you typically win the game. 

Now splinter twin is tricky. With it coming down to a race more often than not. Do you have enough burn to win before they combo off? Seth was missing a key sideboard card against twin. That being Combust. He instead has path to exile. That is a fair trade off, Path being able to catch more things but is able to be countered. I can't say that switching them would have changed the turn out for him at all but it's not a bad alternative if you want to save a few dollars on path to exiles. 

All in all i'm happy to see burn do as well as it did. Hope to see you guys suspending rift bolts in the coming future. With that being said, thanks for reading.

Until next time,

Christian.