Question:
What is the Best Burn Cards in magic the gathering?
adam
2009-01-01 20:39:37 UTC
Well....i want to know if there is any better Burn cards to put in my deck...this is what it is right now.

4 Barbed Lightning
4 Book Burning
4 Incinerate
4 Beacon of Destruction
4 Pyromancer's Swath
4 Pyroclasm
4 Blaze
4Goblin Charbelcher
4 Stuffy Doll
4 Mirari
20 Mountains
Four answers:
borg_01003
2009-01-02 12:03:55 UTC
First item is that I think you may be confused as to what Book Burning does. The current Oracle text of the card (they changed the card text about 5 years ago because the printed version is confusing) is:



Any player may have Book Burning deal 6 damage to him or her. If no one does, put the top six cards of target player's library into his or her graveyard.



This means that you don't get both the damage AND the mill... you get whichever one your opponent chooses. Your opponent will ALWAYS choose to mill 7 cards instead of take damage. That's why the card is bad in a burn deck... you never deal damage with it.



There are a lot of burn spells which are significantly better than what you're currently playing. One of the philosophies of Magic that you have to get used to is that your life total is a resource. It does not matter if you are at 1 life or 1000 life... as long as your opponent has 0. You are free to take damage (even from your own cards), if it furthers your goal of bringing the opponent from 20 to 0 as quickly as possible. To do this, you want to play the fastest, most efficient burn spells possible (the average mana cost of the cards in my suggested deck is 1.2, in yours 3.5). On average, you won't be able to play anything until turns 3-4 given your average mana cost... while I will have completely emptied my hand and won the game by turn 4.



I've included relative prices for you, per card.



Lightning Bolt ($3) - 3 damage for 1 mana instant. Can't beat that.

Lava Spike ($0.10) - 3 damage for 1 mana sorcery. Still pretty good.

Chain Lightning ($7) - Same as Lava Spike.



Flame Rift ($0.25) - 4 damage to everybody for 2 mana. You taking the damage doesn't matter... as long as they do.



Flamebreak ($2) - 3 damage to all creatures and players for 3 mana. Better than Pyroclasm b/c it hits more stuff and gets your opponent.



Fireblast ($2) - The mac daddy of burn. 4 damage for the low, low cost of sacrificing 2 mountains. You can even pay 4RR if you have to... Best burn spell ever printed!!



Mogg Fanatic ($1) - Yes, it's a 1/1 creature for 1... but it usually winds up hitting the opponent for 3-4 damage per game. Attack early, and when it's no longer useful, sac it to hit your opponent for another 1.



Grim Lavamancer ($6) - Another 1/1 creature... with a really good ability. Why not let your burn spells pull double duty as extra damage. All you have to do is pay R, tap the Lavamancer, and remove 2 cards from your graveyard to deal 2 damage.



Price of Progress ($1-2) - If your opponent plays a lot of nonbasic lands, this is devastating. It deals 2 damage for each nonbasic land in play to whoever controls it. Since you only have Mountains, you aren't affected... but those decks with dual lands easily wind up taking 8-10 damage off this 1 spell for the price of 2 mana. In Eternal formats, if this card resolves... you usually win.



Ball Lightning ($8) - a 6/1 trample haste for 3 mana. It's ok, but it's huge drawback is that it's got a bullseye painted on it and gets killed before attacking most of the time.



Barbarian Ring ($1-2) - A land that can tap for red (at the cost of 1 life). When you get 7 or more cards in your graveyard, you can pay a red, tap and sacrifice Ring to deal 2 damage (which is colorless) to a target. I know some people who swear by this card, so I'm giving it to you as an option.



Wooded Foothills ($10) and Bloodstained Mire ($9) - You pay a life and sacrifice them to go find a mountain. You're probably asking why include it instead of basic lands?? Here's why:



1. You can find dual lands (Taiga, Stomping Grounds etc) with these, if you ever want to splash a color.



2. It thins your deck of extra land... this means that you draw more burn spells.



3. If you have Lavamancer, these cards are an automatic 1 damage to the opponent.



Incinerate is good.



Here is what I would recommend, if your budget allows:



Creatures-

4x Mogg Fanatic

4x Grim Lavamancer



Spells-

4x Lightning Bolt

4x Chain Lightning

4x Lava Spike

4x Incinerate

4x Flame Rift

4x Fireblast

4x Flamebreak

4x Open spots for what you like



Land -

4x Bloodstained Mire

4x Wooded Foothills

12x Mountain



Sideboard-

3x Shattering Spree (replicate copies aren't played, so it won't trigger chalice of the void set at 1.. which happens to neuter your deck)

4x Pyrostatic Pillar (for combo decks relying on cheap spells. taking 2 to deal 3 isn't a bad tradeoff)

3x Earthquake (extra board sweep which hits the opponent)

3x Sulfuric Vortex (for control decks, or decks with life gain)

2x Relic of Progenitus (for graveyard recursion decks)
anonymous
2016-03-14 18:03:08 UTC
It's not so much the coating you have to worry about. The coating is not carcinogenic. That being said, the coating is there for a couple of reasons. Probably the primary reason is of course to keep the cards smooth, clean, and preserved but this is not the most important factor. What you should really be worried about is the spirits that will be let out of these cards and summoned into your realm. A friend of mine once burnt a Pokemon card that had Squirtle on it. Within a few days, there was a turtle in his back yard that used to spit water at him all the time. If you don't want the cards anymore I would not recommend burning them. Do what my friend did and put them in a metal container. Seal the metal container with an oxy-welder. Dig a hole in the ground that is AT LEAST deeper than 6 foot. Once this is done, hop into the hole with the cards and have a friend or family member push the dirt back in.
anonymous
2016-11-09 10:48:58 UTC
Best Burn Deck Mtg
anonymous
2009-01-02 11:06:03 UTC
If you are playing Type 1 or Vintage or whatever they are calling the format these days, check out:



Lightning Bolt

Fireblast

Isochron Scepter

Hammer of Bogardan

Urza's Rage


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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