Surprise! Take 3!

By Gavin Verhey

When Gavin Verhey was eleven, he dreamt of a job making Magic cards—and now as a Magic designer, he's living his dream! Gavin has been writing about Magic since 2005.

This weekend is Pro Tour Return to Ravnica. The location? Seattle. The format? Modern. The competition? Steep. The deck I'm reviewing today? Burn!

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let me set the stage first.

Modern is a format full of powerful cards and diverse decks, and pinpointing an exact metagame is difficult. Creature-based Zoo decks exist right next to combo decks composed entirely out of spells. Players are both trying to assemble the Urzatron (Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant, Urza's Mine) and hook up a creature with Cranial Plating. They're dredging Life From the Loams in some decks and activating Birthing Pods in others. It's an absolutely crazy format, and there's no telling exactly what this weekend will bring.

But what I can say for certain is this: the format has been shaken up by the recent unbanning of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle. Since the moment the decision was announced, players have been trying Scapeshift decks of all shapes and sizes – and after all the buzz, it's definitely something you have to be ready for this weekend.

It's a format defined by the early game where cheap cards take center stage. If you fall behind, games will end quickly as you're crushed under the weight of Tarmogoyfs, or some awesome combo, or even an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn attacking to annihilate all of your permanents.

I'll talk about some of the individual decks a bit more later, when I'm talking about card choices, but for now onto the deck at hand!

This week, we're going to take a look at Nick Montalbano's burn deck!

Nick Montalbano’s Burn

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (12)

4 Ash Zealot 4 Goblin Guide 4 Grim Lavamancer

Sorcery (13)

4 Bump in the Night 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt 1 Blightning

Instant (16)

4 Lightning Bolt 4 Magma Jet 4 Needle Drop 4 Searing Blaze

Land (19)

4 Arid Mesa 3 Blackcleave Cliffs 3 Blood Crypt 5 Mountain 4 Scalding Tarn

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

3 Blightning 4 Magus of the Moon 4 Rakdos Charm 4 Terminate

Deal Another Hand

Ah, burn. A deck practically everyone has sat across from at some point, and that has been around throughout Magic's entire history. Whether you're having Searing Spears or Fireblasts lobbed at your dome, the goal is always the same: deal lethal damage as quickly as possible using a slew of burn spells. In most decks, Lava Spike would be considered horrible – but in a deck simply trying to maximize its mana-to-damage output, it's an all star.

"But wait," you say. "Isn't burn a deck for newbies?"

I'm here to dispel that myth.

Let me start with a brief story. Most of you know of Jon Finkel, the player many have called the best to ever play the game. I don't think anyone is willing to say that Finkel is a newbie or simpleton. Well, in 2008 Jon Finkel picked up a burn deck to play in a tournament. Or, to be more precise, to play in the World Championship.

But that's not the only story of burn at the high level. It has claimed many PTQ victories and done well at both Grand Prix and Pro Tours alike. It has been wielded by some of the best players in the game.

Now, it is true that a lot of newer players tend toward burn because playing it at 90% capacity isn't that difficult. There will be games where you just roll over your opponents, and there will also be games where you mulligan to six and are never in it. However, in all those games somewhere between ensuring you eke out every point of damage can be the difference between winning and losing. I can't tell you how many games I've ended at one or two life against burn because my opponent made a slight mistake with optimizing his damage – every point counts.

Additionally, there are a lot of deckbuilding choices to make. The cards you're dealt depend on how you build your deck in the first place – and there are a few different ways to take a burn deck.

Is a burn deck as tricky to play as a combo or control deck? No, probably not. But once, as I was preparing for a PTQ and had casually dismissed burn, my friend Dan Hanson asked me a question: "Is your goal in Magic to prove how much smarter you are than your opponent, or is it to win?"

Some weeks on here, I might choose the former. But on a competitive Pro Tour Week? It's time to look at the latter.

Let's dive into the decklist and see what fits and what doesn't. First I'll go over the creatures, then I'll talk about the burn.

The goal of creatures in a burn deck is to act as de facto burn spells. Creatures, by virtue of staying on the battlefield, can deal damage over time. A turn one Goblin Guide will often be just as good as a Shock, and is usually a Lightning Blast or better. So, looking through that lens, let's take a look at the creatures.

... And speaking of one mana Lightning Blasts, Goblin Guide is as good as it gets in a burn deck. Turn one Goblin Guide is definitely the best thing you can do on the first turn, and multiple Goblin Guides can be game ending. We're definitely going to want all four of these.

Grim Lavamancer hits an interesting need in burn. On one hand, repeated blasts of two damage every turn is incredible as you begin to run out of gas. On the other hand, he's not very good on offense and this deck is going to be tapping all of its mana for the first two or three turns. Drawing two Grim Lavamancers can end up extremely poor if you don't have the spells in your graveyard to support them.

In a slower format, I would definitely want all four – but here I think I only want three copies. An opening hand with too many Grim Lavamancers is nearly a mulligan, and it also takes time to get them going, and that's time you don't always have in this format.

This exciting new Return to Ravnica card fills a few solid roles.

First of all, as a 2/2 haste for two mana, it keeps the pressure up. Following up a turn one Goblin Guide with this will drop them to at least 14 on turn two! Ash Zealot's Snapcaster hate is a nice bonus, since the ubiquitous wizard has been running rampant in Modern lately. A lot of decks might Bolt your turn one creature, then try and Snapcaster the Lightning Bolt a couple turns later. Ash Zealot makes them pay the price!

But what really sold me on Ash Zealot was actually the first strike on top of all that. One of the most popular cards in all of Modern right now is this burn-hating fellow:

Finks is so frustrating because, not only does it gain them life, but it also negates your attackers. In essence, Finks usually ends up gaining far closer to ten life between the four of its ability and the creatures it trades with or the burn spells it sucks up. Ash Zealot doesn't care. She can safely zoom right into Kitchen Finks!

And it's not just Finks that she favorably tussles with. Delver of Secrets, Bloodbraid Elf, and Huntmaster of the Fells, just to name a few, all back away from Ash Zealot. She's going to be a little worse than some other creatures in no ncreature-centric matchups and I have some other two mana creatures I want to play – more on that in a moment – so I'm only going to start with three, but I could easily see going to four. I'm certainly willing to give her a try.

The Burn

Since there's so much redundancy in a burn deck that most of my individual card comments would just be, "yep, three damage for one mana. Sounds good," I'm going to look at the whole section of spells together.

Lightning Bolt: Three mana anywhere at instant speed for one mana. Check!
Lava Spike: Three damage to your opponent's dome for one mana. Check!
Rift Bolt: Three damage to creature or player delayed by one turn for only a single mana. Check!
Bump in the Night: Three points of life loss straight to the noggin' for one mana. And, uh, I guess the chance to flashback it in some dream scenario. Check!

Okay, so that gets the easy ones out of the way. Now let's look at some of the other cards picked here.

First, let's look at Needle Drop. This is an unusual card that hasn't seen a lot of play before, but certainly has interesting applications. The principle here is that you're practically always going to be dealing damage to your opponent, so this is just a "free" point of damage since you get a card back. It's free! That makes it awesome right?

Except it's not really free. While I think this card would go well in some builds of burn, especially if I wanted to go the Quest of Pure Flame route, this deck needs to be as fast as possible and the single mana to cast it is a very real cost. This format is so fast that even a burn player can die with cards still in their hand.

Additionally, if you top deck Needle Drop late or only have it with Bump in the Night, it's no good. It's a cool idea – but not what I'm looking for in the fast world of Modern.

Magma Jet is another card that suffers from the speed issue. It used to be in Extended that I wouldn't even consider cutting Magma Jet because of the digging it provided. You can ship unnecessary lands to the bottom, ensuring you were only going to draw gas.

However, that was a different world.

Finding the high-variance Shrapnel Blast (or an artifact land) was crucial, and you had the time to get to whatever you were looking for. Now that's not always the case.

This deck also features a couple of two mana cards, and it's crucial your hand isn't glutted at two. Often you won't hit four mana, so casting two cards that cost two mana each turn isn't something you can plan on. To top it all off, Magma Jet also has a very slight poor interaction with fetchlands. Magma Jet has got to go.

Next up is Searing Blaze. This is a card that's extremely hit or miss: against creature decks, it's unbelievably powerful. When burn is fighting against Zoo or similar, it's entirely a race – and killing off their creature puts you pretty far ahead in that race. However, Modern has a several decks that aren't creature based. Especially with Scapeshift back in the mix, Searing Blaze is a risk.

Now, it's certainly a calculated risk you can consider. I don't think it's necessarily wrong to play with Searing Blaze maindeck. However, I would prefer to be conservative and make sure all of my cards are on in the first game. Often a single dead draw can spell defeat for burn decks when you're trying to count up to 20, and that's not a risk I want to take.

Instead of Searing Blaze, I would rather have Keldon Marauders. Marauders is still great against the beatdown decks at dealing damage and buying you time, but it doesn't have the drawback of being shut off against some decks. In fact, it is often at its best against decks without creatures, serving as a two mana Lava Axe! The primary issue with Marauders is that it turns on the removal spells of those decks – but since this deck has a few more creatures than your average burn deck, they're likely enough to have targets anyway that I don't mind piling some Marauders onto the fire.

Finally, Blightning, is just a little more expensive to cast than I would like and three mana for three damage isn't a rate I'm interested in. If I wanted a three mana card I would look to Flames of the Blood Hand, but I don't really want either.

Now, what do I want to play over these? There are three different cards I'd like to add – two creatures (or at least creatures masquerading as burn spells) and one Bolt variant.

The first is Vexing Devil. Goblin Guide may be the best turn one this deck can usually muster, but this vexing creature is definitely second. While there is the drawback of this being weaker than a burn spell because of your opponent's removal spells or bounce, it's so powerful early on – which is where this deck tends to capitalize best – that it's worth that potential downside of getting Lightning Bolted. I definitely want four.

Hellspark Elemental is the next card to look at. Two mana for three damage isn't stellar, but the ability of this to come back makes it incredible. Often this is Searing Spear with flashback, and even if a creature sucks up some damage in the process it's okay – you still got more than enough value out of it.

Lastly, I'd like to add a pair of Shard Volleys. Volley is a card you don't want to draw two of, but finding one at some point just gives you more Bolts to work with.

So what does this bring us to? Take a look!

Gavin Verhey’s Burn!

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (22)

4 Goblin Guide 4 Hellspark Elemental 4 Vexing Devil 3 Ash Zealot 4 Keldon Marauders 3 Grim Lavamancer

Sorcery (12)

4 Bump in the Night 4 Lava Spike 4 Rift Bolt

Instant (6)

4 Lightning Bolt 2 Shard Volley

Land (20)

4 Arid Mesa 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Blood Crypt 2 Blackcleave Cliffs 9 Mountain

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

4 Smash to Smithereens 4 Molten Rain 4 Searing Blaze 2 Relic of Progenitus 1 Ensnaring Bridge

Deal Another Hand

So, what's up with that new sideboard? Let's take a look!

In many formats, burn just doesn't have enough good sideboard cards to bring in so it has to play some subpar ones. In Modern, that's not the case. There are so many decks and so many cards that burn actually has some good options!

One of the reasons I chose to cover burn for this week is simply because I think it really is a good choice for this weekend. Nobody is gunning to fight burn right now – and as a deck that can be very uninteractive at times, that's a strong sign for burn. Burn is best when nobody expects it. It's also proactive, which is always where I like to be in a large format like this. But the primary reason is that there are the matchups for burn are actually pretty good. Let's first go over how all of the cards are used, then look at some sideboarding:

Smash to Smithereens is one of the bestsideboard cards ever printed forburn. It's pretty rare that burn gets a proactive card that helps against a weakness and also deals damage. Smash does all of these things! It fights off Birthing Pods, Cranial Platings, Signets, Swords – whatever people have brought to the table. When you face a deck where Smash is turned on, it's incredible.

Similarly, Molten Rain is excellent against any deck that relies on a lot of its lands. It's proactive, and it gives you a damage bonus! Against Scapeshift and 'Tron, Molten Rain can slow them by a turn or two and give you the time you need to finish them off. While Blood Moon is also a three mana card that's effective against Urzatron, Prismatic Omen makes that undesirable against Scapeshift. While it does cost three so it's a little expensive, I'm willing to play the full four Rains simply because casting multiples on time just gives you free wins.

Searing Blaze, as mentioned earlier, is fantastic against beatdown decks. Killing their creature and getting a Lightning Bolt in on them for two mana is an incredible deal against decks where it's active. I definitely want access to all four of these for those matchups.

Uninteractive combo decks like Storm are often burn's worst sort of matchup, but those don't seem to be too popular right now. (Though there might be a move toward Storm with the rise of Scapeshift.) Relic of Progenitus helps out against their Pyromancer Ascensions, and also any various graveyard decks you might fight against – all while digging you a card deeper if you need to finish them off.

I wanted one more card against beatdown decks and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combo, and a nice trump is Ensnaring Bridge. Decks like Zoo and Birthing Pod do have answers like Qasali Pridemage, but often you just need to buy some time to finish them off if you aren't already ahead. Bridge helps you out there.

With that down, let's look at just a few of the matchups you might encounter in Modern.

Beatdown and Aggro-Control

-3 Ash Zealot, -2 Hellspark Elemental

+4 Searing Blaze, +1 Ensnaring Bridge

So many of the aggressive decks in Modern have plenty of aggro-control elements, and it is hard to know precisely where beatdown starts. The primary decks you can expect to face here are many various forms of Zoo, Affinity, and Blue-Red-Green Delver of Secrets. Against Affinity, you should also bring in Smash to Smithereens over the other two Hellspark Elementals and two Bumps.

In these matchups, it is all about dealing as much damage as possible while controlling the amount you take. Keep burning them while using cards like Searing Blaze and Keldon Marauders to slow them down. Against Affinity be careful to leave up mana to Blaze and Smash on their turn to ensure you don't die to any surprise Cranial Platings.

Jund

-3 Lava Spike, -2 Shard Volley

+4 Searing Blaze, +1 Ensnaring Bridge

Jund is the primary midrange deck, so it's the one I'm going to talk about. Jund loves to attrition you, so if there was ever a matchup where you would flashback Bump in the Night it is this one. (Hence boarding out Spikes over Bumps.)

Jund is a pretty good matchup for you overall, though a heavy Finks or Tarmogoyf draw can be rough. You don't have a great way to fight through Tarmogoyf, but rather than sideboard in cards for it I'd rather just try and attack around it. While a defensive Tarmogoyf can be threatening, if they aren't attacking you and choosing to hold their Tarmogoyfs back then they're just giving you more time to kill them.

Scapeshift

-3 Grim Lavamancer, -1 Hellspark Elemental

+4 Molten Rain

Your Scapeshift matchup is awesome, whether they're straight Red-Green or Red-Green-Blue. You're fast enough that you can beat all but their quickest draws, and after sideboarding you gain Molten Rain. They're likely going to have some life gain tools, but your quick draws still trump theirs and Molten Rain gives you enough time for your burn cards to get the job done.

There were plenty of exciting Modern decks with Return to Ravnica cards that didn't make the cut. Take a look at some of them and see if they inspire you – whether you're playing at your local store or this weekend's Pro Tour.

Paul Pangilinan’s G/B Re-Vengevine

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (32)

4 Deathrite Shaman 4 Bloodghast 4 Gravecrawler 4 Vengevine 4 Tarmogoyf 4 Lotleth Troll 4 Dark Confidant 2 Bloodthrone Vampire 2 Slitherhead

Instant (8)

4 Abrupt Decay 4 Grisly Salvage

Land (20)

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Verdant Catacombs 2 Marsh Flats 2 Misty Rainforest 3 Overgrown Tomb 2 Woodland Cemetery 2 Cavern of Souls 2 Forest 2 Swamp

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

4 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Thorn of Amethyst 2 Seal of Primordium 2 Tragic Slip 3 Thoughtseize

Deal Another Hand

Zachary Devine’s Five Color Control

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (4)

4 Snapcaster Mage

Sorcery (7)

1 Cruel Ultimatum 2 Wrath of God 4 Glittering Wish

Instant (22)

2 Mana Leak 3 Esper Charm 4 Path to Exile 3 Lightning Bolt 3 Lightning Helix 4 Cryptic Command 3 Hide // Seek

Artifact (2)

2 Chromatic Lantern

Land (25)

4 Reflecting Pool 4 City of Brass 2 Gemstone Mine 2 Vivid Crag 2 Vivid Creek 2 Vivid Meadow 2 Godless Shrine 1 Cascade Bluffs 1 Dragonskull Summit 1 Glacial Fortress 1 Island 1 Mountain 1 Plains 1 Lavaclaw Reaches

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Cruel Ultimatum 1 Hide // Seek 1 Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker 1 Broodmate Dragon 2 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Firespout 1 Jund Charm 1 Meddling Mage 2 Leyline of Sanctity 1 Supreme Verdict 1 Izzet Charm 1 Countersquall

Deal Another Hand

Ryan Bogner’s Blue-White Urzatron

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (3)

1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre 1 Wurmcoil Engine

Sorcery (4)

4 Supreme Verdict

Instant (19)

2 Condescend 1 Dismember 3 Gifts Ungiven 4 Path to Exile 4 Remand 1 Repeal 4 Thirst for Knowledge

Artifact (8)

4 Azorius Signet 3 Expedition Map 1 Mindslaver

Land (26)

1 Academy Ruins 1 Buried Ruin 4 Celestial Colonnade 1 Eye of Ugin 2 Hallowed Fountain 1 Island 1 Plains 2 Seachrome Coast 1 Tolaria West 4 Urza's Mine 4 Urza's Power Plant 4 Urza's Tower

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

2 Baneslayer Angel 1 Crucible of Worlds 2 Ethersworn Canonist 2 Ghostly Prison 2 Kami of Ancient Law 1 Rule of Law 1 Tectonic Edge 3 Timely Reinforcements 1 Torpor Orb

Deal Another Hand

Petr Joura’s Eminent Domant

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (5)

3 Frost Titan 2 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius

Sorcery (6)

2 Red Sun's Zenith 4 Wildfire

Instant (10)

4 Izzet Charm 3 Mana Leak 3 Repeal

Artifact (8)

3 Izzet Signet 3 Mind Stone 2 Izzet Keyrune

Enchantment (8)

4 Annex 4 Dream Leash

Land (23)

4 Shivan Reef 2 Izzet Guildgate 2 Desolate Lighthouse 8 Island 7 Mountain

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

4 Spell Pierce 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Pyroclasm 2 Earthquake 3 Pithing Needle

Deal Another Hand

Kaelfros’s Loam Rock

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (3)

2 Liliana of the Veil 1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

Creature (13)

4 Knight of the Reliquary 4 Dark Confidant 1 Eternal Witness 4 Tarmogoyf

Sorcery (13)

2 Thoughtseize 2 Inquisition of Kozilek 4 Life from the Loam 2 Maelstrom Pulse 3 Raven's Crime

Instant (6)

3 Abrupt Decay 3 Path to Exile

Land (25)

1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 4 Ghost Quarter 4 Verdant Catacombs 4 Marsh Flats 1 Stirring Wildwood 3 Overgrown Tomb 1 Temple Garden 1 Godless Shrine 1 Horizon Canopy 1 Sejiri Steppe 1 Bojuka Bog 1 Plains 1 Swamp 1 Forest

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Eternal Witness 1 Maelstrom Pulse 1 Abrupt Decay 1 Path to Exile 3 Unknown 1 Thrun, the Last Troll 3 Kor Firewalker 2 Surgical Extraction 2 Gut Shot

Deal Another Hand

William Moreno’s Rock

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (2)

2 Liliana of the Veil

Creature (16)

2 Gaddock Teeg 3 Kitchen Finks 4 Knight of the Reliquary 3 Qasali Pridemage 4 Tidehollow Sculler

Sorcery (8)

2 Maelstrom Pulse 4 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Thoughtseize

Instant (8)

4 Abrupt Decay 4 Path to Exile

Artifact (1)

1 Crucible of Worlds

Land (25)

1 Bojuka Bog 1 Forest 3 Ghost Quarter 1 Godless Shrine 2 Horizon Canopy 3 Marsh Flats 3 Overgrown Tomb 1 Plains 1 Sejiri Steppe 2 Swamp 3 Temple Garden 4 Verdant Catacombs

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

1 Plains 1 Kitchen Finks 1 Eternal Witness 3 Grafdigger's Cage 2 Loxodon Smiter 3 Oblivion Ring 2 Pithing Needle 2 Tormod's Crypt

Deal Another Hand

Kevin Kerr’s Hakkon Dredge

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (7)

3 Haakon, Stromgald Scourge 4 Knight of the Reliquary

Sorcery (18)

3 Inquisition of Kozilek 2 Life from the Loam 3 Lingering Souls 2 Maelstrom Pulse 4 Mulch 2 Raven's Crime 2 Thoughtseize

Instant (8)

3 Abrupt Decay 1 Darkblast 4 Grisly Salvage

Land (24)

1 Forest 3 Godless Shrine 1 Grove of the Guardian 4 Marsh Flats 4 Overgrown Tomb 1 Plains 6 Swamp 4 Verdant Catacombs

Tribal instant (3)

3 Nameless Inversion

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Anonymous’s Necrotic Ooze Combo

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (26)

3 Elves of Deep Shadow 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Devoted Druid 2 Fauna Shaman 2 Quillspike 4 Necrotic Ooze 2 Obstinate Baloth 2 Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon 1 Grim Poppet 2 Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord

Sorcery (3)

3 Lead the Stampede

Instant (4)

4 Dismember

Artifact (4)

1 Thousand-Year Elixir 3 Birthing Pod

Land (23)

1 Woodland Cemetery 1 Ancient Ziggurat 9 Forest 3 Rupture Spire 1 Verdant Catacombs 8 Swamp

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Mark Wischkaemper’s Turbofog

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (2)

2 Jace Beleren

Sorcery (6)

4 Supreme Verdict 2 Terminus

Instant (15)

4 Dawn Charm 4 Dissipate 3 Fog 4 Holy Day

Artifact (10)

3 Font of Mythos 4 Howling Mine 3 Temple Bell

Enchantment (4)

4 Rites of Flourishing

Land (23)

1 Azorius Guildgate 4 Breeding Pool 4 Hallowed Fountain 2 Misty Rainforest 4 Reliquary Tower 4 Seaside Citadel 4 Temple Garden

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Tim Schutser’s Grixis Aggro-Control

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (16)

2 Vendilion Clique 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Snapcaster Mage 4 Sedraxis Specter 2 Sygg, River Cutthroat

Sorcery (10)

1 Rakdos's Return 4 Blightning 1 Dreadbore 4 Serum Visions

Instant (12)

2 Electrolyze 4 Lightning Bolt 3 Terminate 3 Vapor Snag

Land (22)

1 Watery Grave 6 Island 2 Mountain 2 Swamp 4 Scalding Tarn 3 Misty Rainforest 1 Marsh Flats 2 Steam Vents 1 Blood Crypt

60 Cards

Sideboard (15)

4 Darkblast 4 Smash to Smithereens 3 Anathemancer 2 Slaughter Games 2 Leyline of the Void

Deal Another Hand

Anonymous’s Nivmagus Pacts

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Creature (12)

4 Nivmagus Elemental 4 Delver of Secrets 4 Snapcaster Mage

Sorcery (8)

4 Gitaxian Probe 4 Bonfire of the Damned

Instant (16)

4 Pact of the Titan 4 Pact of Negation 4 Mutagenic Growth 4 Vapor Snag

Land (20)

6 Mountain 6 Island 4 Arid Mesa 4 Steam Vents

Other (4)

4 Unknown

60 Cards

Deal Another Hand

Nick Frega’s Isochron Control

Decklist Stats Sample Hand

Planeswalker (2)

1 Ajani Vengeant 1 Jace, Memory Adept

Creature (2)

2 Sphinx of Jwar Isle

Instant (28)

4 Azorius Charm 4 Izzet Charm 4 Lightning Bolt 4 Lightning Helix 4 Path to Exile 4 Remand 4 Silence

Artifact (4)

4 Isochron Scepter

Land (24)

4 Arid Mesa 4 Scalding Tarn 2 Desolate Lighthouse 2 Ghost Quarter 2 Hallowed Fountain 2 Island 2 Mountain 2 Plains 2 Sacred Foundry 2 Steam Vents

60 Cards

Surprise! Take 3!

Nick Montalbano’s Burn

Creature (12)

Sorcery (13)

Instant (16)

Land (19)

Sideboard (15)

Black (4)

Red (40)

Multi colored (12)

Colorless (19)

1 (24)

2 (20)

3 (12)

Common (25)

Uncommon (16)

Rare (31)

Mythic (3)

The Burn

Gavin Verhey’s Burn!

Creature (22)

Sorcery (12)

Instant (6)

Land (20)

Sideboard (15)

Black (4)

Red (48)

Colorless (23)

1 (27)

2 (19)

3 (9)

Common (41)

Uncommon (4)

Rare (27)

Mythic (3)

Beatdown and Aggro-Control

Jund

Scapeshift

Paul Pangilinan’s G/B Re-Vengevine

Creature (32)

Instant (8)

Land (20)

Sideboard (15)

Black (23)

Green (10)

Multi colored (18)

Colorless (24)

1 (19)

2 (32)

4 (4)

Common (18)

Uncommon (2)

Rare (41)

Mythic (14)

Zachary Devine’s Five Color Control

Creature (4)

Sorcery (7)

Instant (22)

Artifact (2)

Land (25)

Sideboard (15)

White (8)

Blue (10)

Red (3)

Multi colored (27)

Colorless (27)

1 (7)

2 (21)

3 (9)

4 (9)

6 (1)

7 (2)

8 (1)

Common (8)

Uncommon (16)

Rare (49)

Mythic (2)

Ryan Bogner’s Blue-White Urzatron

Creature (3)

Sorcery (4)