1.0 Burn: The Gateway To Modern
When players ask about starting in Modern, Burn is always recommended. Affordable, easy to learn, and hard to master, it gives new players meaningful experience and seasoned players tournament success. This article is geared to help new players enter the Modern format with Burn. Mono Red deck lists are in section 3.5. Section 4 goes over upgrades to Boros Burn.
2.0 Tournament Magic Archetypes
If you’re coming from kitchen table magic, the archetype you’re used to seeing is probably “60 cards that I think are fun”. If you’re from Commander then you might be used to tribal synergies and “packages” dedicated to ramp, removal, and card draw. In competitive magic there are 3 main types of decks:
1) Combo: Decks that assemble a combination of cards which win the game on the spot. Ignores their opponent to focus on their own strategy
2) Control: Decks that run opponents out of resources before taking over the game with card advantage. Have a high density of “interactive” spells (removal, counters, wipes) to focus on disrupting their opponent’s strategy
3) Aggro: Turn your creatures sideways!
Aggro is the best way to begin playing competitive magic. Control requires you to understand all the other meta decks. Piloting combo makes you better at that deck, but doesn’t always help you improve much at magic since the lines are so specific.
Aggro has a proactive enough game plan that you don’t need to learn the ins and outs of other decks to play. However, you care enough about what your opponent is doing to learn fundamentals like combat math and advanced concepts like playing around counter magic.
Red Deck Wins variants, like Burn, are the purest form of aggro!
3.0 Getting Started with Mono-Red Burn
Burn is the evergreen aggro deck in Modern. It has been good throughout the entire history of the format and rarely requires upgrades. Players are recommended to start with mono Red since basic mountains are less expensive than competitive dual lands.
Before getting into lists, it is important to understand how Burn works. You want to get under your opponent. You want to deal 20 before the combo player can combo-off. Against control, you need push damage before your opponent stabilizes. In tournament magic, a control deck stabilizes by deploying blockers/removal to neutralize existing threats while having counter magic up to prevent new threats from developing. Against aggro decks, you need to race to 20. Damage races are usually decided by creatures, so connect with your creatures while using cheap interaction to control the board.
In the time most decks take to develop their strategy you want to play out your hand for the kill. Every spell needs to pressure your opponent’s life total. There are 2 main ways of dealing damage:
1) Creatures
2) Burn spells
Creatures are repeatable sources of damage. Burn spells dodge blockers/removal and can target opposing creatures. Building a Red aggro deck is about picking the right creatures and spells and optimizing the ratio of creatures:burn:lands.
In an aggressive deck you want 2-3 lands in your opening hand while minimizing the overall land count to top deck spells. As per the hypergeometric table below, 18-20 lands is optimal. We’ll go over lands in section 4.3 after picking 40 spells.
3.1 Mono-Red Burn – Auto Includes
You want your creatures to attack as quickly as possible for 4 main reasons:
1) Your opponent is less likely to have blocks in the early turns
2) If they have an answer, it will cost their entire turn to cast it. Later they may have enough lands to play a creature and an answer on the same turn
3) Modern is seen as a “4 turn” format. A small creature that attacks from turn 1 could get in 4 times, while a bigger creature may only hit once and deal less total damage
4) Trading removal for opposing creatures is better when you are also hitting with your own creatures
1 CMC + Haste is perfect. Of all the 1 mana haste creatures ever printed Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear hit the hardest.
Eidolon of the Great Revel is the best curve topper. 2 mana for a curve topper might seem insane, but you need to deploy your threats before opponents can develop. If they answer Eidolon, they take 2. If not, Eidolon swings for 2 every turn and shocks them for casting spells.
Burn spells should deal as much damage as possible for as little mana as possible. You need to count to all the way to 20, but also need to count quickly. 1 mana for 3 damage is ideal. 2 mana spells need significant upside. I would rarely play anything that costs more than 2 mana.
Lightning Bolt is the gold standard. You can only have 4 bolts so Lava Spike, Rift Bolt, and Skewer the Critics are auto-includes.
Since your burn spells are 1-and-done lifegain is a problem. As all your threats are Red, protection from Red is also a major problem. Skullcrack solves both while still dealing 3 damage.
Sometimes you have to answer threats. Searing Blaze disrupts your opponent without missing damage. In lists without fetchlands, Searing Blood is a viable alternative. You can also try a mix (e.g. 2 Blazes + 2 Bloods).
So far we have 36 playable spells:
4 Goblin Guide, 4 Monastery Swiftspear, 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
4 Lightning Bolt, 4 Lava Spike, 4 Rift Bolt, 4 Skewer the Critics
4 Skullcrack, 4 Searing Blaze/Searing Blood
Assuming 18-20 lands, we have 4-6 spaces left.
3.2 Mono-Red Burn – Flex Slots
Unfortunately, there aren’t any auto includes left. However, there are some affordable B-Tier cards:
Shard Volley: 1 mana deal 3 fits perfectly. Sacrificing a land is a big enough downside to stop this from being an auto-include. Weak in multiples – don’t want to draw 3 Shard Volley while stuck on 2 lands. First copy is a good approximation of Lava Spike.
Flame Rift: 4th point of damage is huge, as it can change the math on the number of cards you need to win. 2 CMC is the cheapest you can get 4 damage. Sorcery speed can prevent you from holding up Skullcrack and the symmetry is an issue against other aggressive decks.
Bonecrusher Giant: Kills creatures profitably, top decks to face, plays around protection from Red, and having a big creature helps against Leyline of Sanctity and lifegain. You need to cast both halves to be better than Lightning Strike which costs 5 mana causing diminishing returns when drawing multiple.
Grim Lavamancer: Opening on a creature is ideal. Its ability can push damage late or disrupt development early. Lavamancer is awesome vs small creatures. However, 1 toughness and no haste means it can easily be answered before doing anything.
Dragon’s Rage Channeler: Same idea as Grim. Worse than Guide and Swiftspear early, but can push damage through blockers and the surveil helps mitigate flooding. Need to build around it to reliably enable delirium, so not necessarily the best use of a flex slot.
Light Up the Stage: Makes land drops early and finds gas late. However, tapping mana without dealing damage is a noticeable tempo loss which is not ideal in Burn.
Niche options: Collateral Damage, Firebolt, Play With Fire, Seal of Fire, Magma Jet, Bomat Courier, Hellspark Elemental, Keldon Marauders, Viashino Pyromancer, Shrine of Burning Rage, Reckless Impulse.
3.3 Mono-Red Burn – Lands
While Red Deck Wins has extremely efficient cards, its cards are also extremely low impact. If both players have 5 lands, a vanilla 5-mana 5/5 is better than Monastery Swiftspear. If your deck wins fast, why does this matter?
In 1000 coin flips, you would expect about 500 total tails and 500 total heads. But, sometimes you will flip 5 consecutive tails or 7 consecutive heads. Over 60 draws, some places will have 3-5 lands clumped together (coin flip analogy isn’t entirely fair because MTG draws are without replacement and have a fixed number of lands but the basic idea is the same).
Shuffle a 60 card deck with 20 lands and spread it out over a table. Count where lands are clumped. Mathematically, 60*(1/3)3=2.2 so expect about 2 crippling clumps. Some games those clumps will be at the top of your deck which is bad for mono Red. If your opponent draws a single high-impact card (Stoneforge Mystic, Murktide Regent) they can afford to hit that same patch of lands.
You can “remove” those clumps by having lands that do stuff other than just tap for mana. Anything that enters untapped and produces Red is worth considering. The best are:
1) Sunbaked Canyon/Fiery Islet (Extra draw)
2) Ramunap Ruins (Extra burn)
3) Den of the Bugbear (Extra creature)
4) Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance (Lowest deck building cost)
Sunbaked Canyon and Fiery Islet are the most likely to help you since they cost the least mana to activate. Won’t help if a lot of consecutive lands are on top of your deck.
Ramunap Ruins is the best option against blue decks. Punches through counter magic to close out games. Balanced by having a higher activation cost.
Den of the Bugbear has the highest ceiling. Other lands are 1-and-done, this activates every turn. However, can be blocked/removed and may enter tapped so has the lowest floor.
Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance doesn’t cost life or enter tapped. Being legendary makes it weaker in multiples.
Fetchlands are great for Searing Blaze and Grim Lavamancer. However, if you have the budget you might as well just build Boros Burn (see section 4).
Update: If you want some more advice regarding the manabase of Burn and how to optimize your play patterns, check out our follow up article.
3.4 Mono-Red Burn – Sideboard
In competitive magic your sideboard serves 3 main purposes:
1) Answers to broad strategies (e.g. Graveyard hate)
2) Cover weaknesses in the main (e.g. Roiling Vortex for lifegain)
3) Silver bullets for specific decks (e.g. Dragon’s Claw for the Mirror)
If you are headed to your first tournament, focus on the first two categories. I will briefly outline some common strategies/weaknesses and list answers, highlighting the strongest.
Artifacts:
Cards like Chalice of the Void and Batterskull are a problem. With Urza’s Saga, artifacts are stronger than ever. Killing must kill artifacts is the best line using:
Abrade, By Force, Shattering Spree
Best: Smash to Smithereens
Graveyards:
Tarmogoyf and Snapcaster mage used to top Modern and many decks still rely heavily on their graveyard. Nuking the yard does the trick with options including:
Grafdigger’s Cage, Leyline of the Void, Soul-Guide Lantern, Tormod’s Crypt, Unlicensed Hearse
Best: Lantern of the Lost, Relic of Progenitus, Unlicensed Hearse
Lifegain:
In games 2 and 3 opponents will often board in lifegain. Preventing lifegain is the best answer with cards like:
Flames of the Blood Hand, Giant Cindermaw, Leyline of Punishment, Rampaging Ferocidon
Best: Roiling Vortex
Protection from Red:
Cards like Kor Firewalker and Auriok Champion can be unbeatable. Skullcrack can force a trade if they block (damage can’t be prevented) but you may want more direct answers such as:
Best: Pyrite Spellbomb
Combo:
You can disrupt combos by either taking away their ability to cast key cards or punishing them for executing the combo. No cards stand out since each combo deck plays differently. Good choices include:
Blood Moon, Grafdigger’s Cage, Harsh Mentor, Magus of the Moon, Roiling Vortex
Control:
Repeatable sources of damage and cards that dodge counter magic can force lethal damage against control decks. Good choices are:
Banefire, Vexing Shusher, Volcanic Fallout
Best: Exquisite Firecraft, Roiling Vortex
Small Creatures:
Taking out multiple threats at once or killing creatures without punting on damage can help you win races against aggro or profitably disrupt creature based midrange. This can be accomplished using cards such as:
Bonecrusher Giant, End the Festivities, Forked Bolt, Pyroclasm, Volcanic Fallout
Best: Grim Lavamancer, Searing Blood
Big Creatures:
Mono Red doesn’t have direct answers to big threats (see 4.2 Boros Burn – Sideboard Upgrades)
3.5 Mono Red Burn – Some lists
Flame Rift is arguably the best “flex” card because it deals the most efficient damage. I like running a mix of Searing Blaze and Searing Blood in a fetchless list, as Reid Duke says if two cards are similar running a split helps you have the right tool for the job. However, if you are planning on upgrading to Boros eventually you might as well have 4 Blazes. I won the UOL ONE season with a Linear List.
If you face creature decks that are difficult to race, replace Flame Rift with Bonecrusher Giant and Grim Lavamancer. Instead of damaging yourself, you can control the board and still pressure life totals. I made 3 top 8s on UOL using an Interactive List.
Notes:
I recommend 20 lands to make your first 2-3 land drops and maximize early pressure. If you run Light up the Stage/Dragon’s Rage Channeler to dig for lands or just hate flooding you can try a lower land count.
Your number and choice of utility lands comes down to personal preference. I went with Ramunap Ruins + Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance in both my lists due to budget but gave different counts to demonstrate the flexibility in assigning utility land slots.
In a mono Red Burn sideboard, I think 4 Roiling Vortex and 4 Smash to Smithereens are a must. The other 7 slots are flexible, so I put different options in each list.
4.0 Getting Competitive With Boros Burn
4.1 Boros Burn – Why Splash White
Remember how we could get 36 A-Tier mono Red spells, but needed 40? Instead of running B-Tier cards, you can add a second color. Boros Charm is an instant, and instead of hitting yourself it has the upside of 2 extra modes! The Double Strike mode gives it text versus Leyline of Sanctity and against decks like Storm using the Indestructible mode to save an Eidolon is worth more than 4 damage.
Splashing White is easy. Sunbaked Canyon is already worth running as a utility land, so the color fixing is essentially free. Inspiring Vantage is a good approximation of a true dual in a low to the ground aggro deck. Fetchlands already help enable Searing Blaze, so including a couple Sacred Foundry gets you White or even WW very easily.
The only real cost is lifepoints, which Lightning Helix can gain back! It’s typically run as a 2/2 split with Skullcrack. In aggressive metas you can go with 4 Helix and if you are expecting significant life gain you can do 4 Skullcrack.
4.2 Boros Burn – Sideboard Upgrades
Another appeal of adding white is extra sideboard options. Mono Red can’t deal with big creatures. Path to Exile replaces Pyrite Spellbomb as an answer to protection from Red while also nuking big creatures.
Sanctifier en-Vec is much better than any of the graveyard hate available in mono Red because it can dish out damage and hate at the same time. Great body vs decks like Rakdos Scam or Death’s Shadow. If all you want is graveyard hate, Rest in Peace is even better.
Kor Firewalker tilts the mirror and prowess matchups even harder than Dragon’s Claw.
Wear//Tear is an alternative to Smash to Smithereens if you care about enchantments. However, it deals 0 damage when destroying artifacts so Smash to Smithereens is generally better given the aggressive nature of Burn.
Deflecting Palm is a messed up magic card. It ignores hexproof and if your opponent goes for an alpha strike strategy (e.g. Hammer Time, Infect) it becomes a full Uno Reverse. Deflecting Palm deals the damage itself so you don’t place poison counters when choosing an infect creature and don’t gain life when choosing a lifelinker.
The 5 times 3 method of boarding is a great start. Basically you pick 5 cards you want and run 3 copies of each. Redundancy is important since you don’t have any tutors or card draw beyond Sunbaked Canyon.
4.3 Boros Burn – List
This is the Boros Burn list I used to win the Brother’s War Modern Season of UOL, having lost to Amulet Titan in top 8 the previous season.
Recently players have been cutting Eidolon to play around Solitude/Fury/Leyline Binding. You can either max out Lightning Helix/Skullcrack, run Dragon’s Rage Channeler/Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, maindeck Roiling Vortex/Exquisite Firecraft, or bring in new burn like Flame Rift/Play with Fire/Shard Volley.
You only need 3 mountains to ensure you can always fetch, leaving space for 1 utility land, typically either Fiery Islet or Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance.
I run a mix of fetchlands to play around Pithing Needle. However, since they will probably name Sunbaked Canyon you can just buy the cheapest Red fetchlands (currently Arid Mesa and Scalding Tarn).
I trimmed on Path to Exile and Deflecting Palm to max out Smash to Smithereens and Roiling Vortex. Andrea Mengucci runs a 2/2 split of Smash with Wear//Tear in order to hit Urza’s Saga, Leyline Binding, and Leyline of Sanctity. Frank Karsten main decks Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer over Skullcrack since he really likes having a creature in his opening hand. Personal preference is very important in deck building – having something that suits your playstyle is better than a list that is strong in a vacuum.
Other customizations include dropping to 19 lands for a 1-of Shard Volley, or splashing black for Bump in the Night. You can even add green for Atarka’s Command main and Destructive Revelry side. Remember, there is no “perfect” list, just the right list for you.
5.0 FAQ
Why not Vexing Devil?
Vexing Devil is a trash card because your opponent gets to choose. They will only give you a 4/3 if they have an answer making you deal 0 damage since it doesn’t have haste. If they take 4 it means they have nothing and any unanswered creature (even a humble Jackal Pup) will easily deal >4.
What if I don’t have the budget for Eidolon?
Budget Mono Red Prowess costs about 30$ (20$ with sideboard changes). However, if you love Burn there are some options. Viashino Pyromancer is the most direct replacement for Eidolon of the Great Revel. While it has a comparable floor to Eidolon it has a much lower ceiling. You can also main deck Roiling Vortex, but results will vary by meta.
In Moneyball, Billy Beane discusses replacing Giambi in the aggregate. I’d consider 4 Light up the Stage to replace Eidolon. Digging for good cards is arguably better than running weaker replacements. Boros Burn can operate without Eidolon due to Boros Charm and Lightning Helix.
How do I upgrade to Boros if I can’t buy all the cards at once?
Start with Sunbaked Canyons and Fetchlands since they add value to mono Red. Pick up Boros Charm or Lightning Helix after 2 Sacred Foundry and 4 Inspiring Vantage. The best time to buy is after a reprint, and enemy fetchlands were reprinted in MH2.
Built my deck! How do I start playing?
If you’ve never played competitively, see Reid Duke’s Level 1 Magic. Reid is the ultimate pro both for gameplay and sportsmanship. Although he prefers Jund to Burn, he is excellent at explaining magic: twitch, youtube, pro tour win
For Burn specific content, Sullivan vs Merriam is a classic match. Watching it taught me how to play a red deck. Red is about managing limited resources and punishing misplays. I also recommend the channel GG for Goblin Guide
Recommended reading: Burn vs Counters, Who’s the Beatdown, and Philosophy of Fire
Once you have the basics, find a FNM, sign up here on UOL, or try out MTGO and Cockatrice. Expect to lose at first – practice makes perfect!
6.0 Conclusion – Moving on from Modern Burn
Red aggro is a mainstay of all formats. Once you’ve built Modern Burn you have most of the pieces to play Red Deck Wins variants in Legacy, Canadian Highlander, Pioneer, and Pauper. I won the UOL Summer Legacy Season by essentially adding Chain Lightning, Price of Progress, and Fireblast to a Modern Burn deck. My first place Canadian Highlander build from the ONE season looks like a singleton version of the decks from this article (pro tip: proxy the moxes).
While I don’t play paper Pioneer and never finished above top 4 on UOL, others have done well with RDW – my third place lists from the NEO and SNC invitationals (multi-format tournaments) and my current list had 4 Eidolons but again I am far from an expert on Pioneer. Check out the First Pioneers podcast for more details on the format!
I won the UOL DMU Pauper Season with Prowess and the ONE Season with Kuldotha and neither is much different from Modern Burn. Of course, classic Burn is also in Pauper. This is my second place Classic Burn list from Summer League. Playing Modern Burn opens an easy transition to other competitive formats.
However, Modern Burn is best seen as an introduction to tournament magic. The card pool has overlap with tempo decks like Murktide, midrange decks like Obosh, and other aggro decks like Prowess. The skills you learn piloting Burn overlap with any deck.
Pretty much every Modern and Legacy player at my FNMs started off with Burn. Most of them tell the same story: one day they were paired against a deck that looked absolutely sweet. They copied it as their new deck and never looked back. Even after you’ve fallen in love with another deck, you can keep Burn sleeved up. Having another list to test with or loan to a friend is great and Burn will never fall below tier 3. Maybe you’ll be like me and never quit Red Deck Wins!
If you want to give the deck a spin for free, try joining our Discord server where we host free online Modern tournaments several times per year!
