Legacy is Magic's second-largest format by number of allowed cards, only being surpassed by Vintage, which contains a few dozen more cards due to bannings and power-level reasons. These small changes do have a large impact between formats, but Legacy is still gigantic. Generally, this allows some decks to pick from a pool of good removal,or countermagic, but the core strategies of decks tend to be the same. Better mana, better card flow, and better interaction spells are always nice, but if you want to play Painter-Stone, you know the core to that deck is going to remain stable, as are many other strategies.
Once you stumble upon a strategy that literally gets to pick from the best of a certain type of spell, though, Legacy offers a huge bump in power level. For example, imagine a deck featuring all of the best discard spells. Legacy is going to offer you a buffet of awesome cards for such a deck. Once you shift the focus from discard to something a little more lethal, though, you have quite the potent brew. Patrick Sullivan, a well-historied red mage, understands this and chose to attend the StarCityGames Open in Los Angeles with a deck packed full of fire and lightning.
Mono-red burn is an extremely fast deck and with the card pool in Legacy, it gets to be as fast as it possibly can be. Lightning Bolt is the standard for burn spells and this deck gets to play about sixteen of them. Chain Lightning, Lava Spike, Rift Bolt, and Lightning Bolt all join up to make for extremely aggressive draws. Goblin Guide and Grim Lavamancer provide the deck with some much-needed sustained damage as well. And then, once you get your opponent into single digits, bursts of damage from Fireblast or Price of Progress can completely catch an opponent off guard, dealing 8 or even 10 damage in a single turn. Best of all, though, the deck is fairly easy to get and clearly powerful, so give it a shot!
Patrick Sullivan's Red Deck Wins
a:19:{i:0;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:9:"Arid Mesa";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:4:"land";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"3";}i:1;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:17:"Bloodstained Mire";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:4:"land";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"3";}i:2;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:8:"Mountain";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:4:"land";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"9";}i:3;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:13:"Scalding Tarn";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:4:"land";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"3";}i:4;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:16:"Wooded Foothills";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:4:"land";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"3";}i:5;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:12:"Goblin Guide";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:8:"creature";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:6;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:15:"Grim Lavamancer";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:8:"creature";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:7;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:15:"Chain Lightning";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"sorcery";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:8;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:9:"Fireblast";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"instant";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:9;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:10:"Flame Rift";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"sorcery";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:10;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:10:"Lava Spike";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"sorcery";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:11;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:14:"Lightning Bolt";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"instant";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:12;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:17:"Price of Progress";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"instant";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:13;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:9:"Rift Bolt";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"sorcery";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"4";}i:14;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:15:"Sulfuric Vortex";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:11:"enchantment";s:10:"deck_count";s:1:"3";}i:15;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:16:"Ensnaring Bridge";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:8:"artifact";s:10:"deck_count";i:0;}i:16;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:14:"Mindbreak Trap";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"instant";s:10:"deck_count";i:0;}i:17;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:13:"Searing Blaze";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:7:"instant";s:10:"deck_count";i:0;}i:18;O:8:"stdClass":3:{s:9:"card_meta";O:8:"stdClass":2:{s:5:"title";s:14:"Vexing Shusher";s:22:"field_card_image_front";a:0:{}}s:4:"type";s:8:"creature";s:10:"deck_count";i:0;}}
