I won two weeks ago a PPTQ with burn, here's a report ( i already did a longer one for an italian website so it took me a bit of time to post here ).
There were 30 people, not a very bg event. Decklist :
[deck]4 Goblin Guide
4 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
3 Grim Lavamancer
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Rift Bolt
4 Lava Spike
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
3 Searing Blaze
1 Lightning Helix
1 Forked bolt
12 fetchlands
3 Sacred Foundry
5 Mountain
3 Molten rain
3 Smash to Smithereens
2 Flames of the Blood Hand
2 searing Blood
2 Rending Volley
1 Deflecting Palm
1 Lightning Helix
1 Path to Exile
[/deck]
Round 1 vs Abzan Company
Game 1. I'm on the draw and I know what he plays, i think it's not a very good matchup. Fortunately he starts with no mana accelerator, i go turn 1 Guide into turn 2 Blaze his anafenza and in the end i win a close game after he gains life with a kitchen fink.
In: +2 searing Blood + 1 Path to Exile + 1 Lightning Helix + 2 Flames Out -4 Guide -2 Boros Charm
i want to be able to control his board while stopping lifegain, so i drop 2 Charms because they only go the face and 4 guides because i am on the draw and i prefer keeping swiftspear that can attack past anafenza and melira if you cast a spell. On the play i would have kept in goblin guides and sided out all 4 boros charms and 2 lava spikes.
Game 2 . he starts with birds and after thinking a little bit i opt to bolt it despite having searing blaze in hand. he doesn't have any other land for 2 turns and i win easily. Always bolt the bird !!!
1-0
Round 2 vs G/R Tron
Game 1: i am on the play and happy to see tron. Unfortunately i have a lot of creatures and i am worried about pyroclasm, but he doesn't have it so i win very fast.
In: +3 Molten Rain +2 Flames +3 Smash to Smithereens +1 path to exile + 1 Deflecting Palm Out -3 Searing Blaze -3 Grim Lavamancer -1 Lightning Helix -1 Forked Bolt -2 Boros Charm
It is already a good matchup and i realize i have a lot of sideboard cards for it so i think it gets even better postboard. i want to stop lifegain, avoid wurmcoil connecting and disrupt his gameplan estroying lands and artifacts. I am unsure if siding in path and palm because they are reactive but i think they are worth it to stop wurmcoil. I side out boros charms instead of say lava spike or rift bolt because i always prefer the burn spell that costs less, given that i am already rasing up the curve when sideboarding.
game 2 : he keeps a one lander with chromatic stars to cycle and feed the clan / thraghtusk. He doesn't draw land in time and even if he did gaining 5 life would not have been enough. i think he should have mulled.
2-0
Round 3 Vs Merfolk
Game 1 : playing against a friend. He is favoured overall but i am confident if i start on the play. I am on the draw instead but with double searing blaze i manage to win.
In: + 2 searing blood + 1 Lightning Helix + 1 Path to Exile +2 Smash to Smithereens. Out: 4 Skullcrack 2 Boros Charm.
Sideboarding like this is risky because both searing blaze and searing blood are neutralized by kira, and smash to smithereens is not guaranteed to have targets. But this spells are all extremely good if they work and i think they are needed to try and win an otherwise quite difficult matchup.On the draw i would have taken out all Eidolons and kept in burn spells.
Game 2 : I lose due to Spreading Seas turning 2 lands into islands. This will be the theme of the day until top 8 match
Game 3 : I keep a one lander with lots of one drops. i know i am dead to spreading sead but o think mulling is worse. I can't look for a good six cards hand that is also good against mana denial because that would mean having few spells that are probably not good enough to win. i think it is better to keep and hope that either he doesn't have the enchantent or i draw lands. He has it, i draw only burn and i lose.
2-1
Round 4 vs Abzan
Game 1: He is one of the better players in my area but i am happy to see he is on abzan. I am on the draw and Start very well and get him to 3, but then draw 2 lands and grim lavamancer and lose to tarmogoyf beats.
In : +2 Flames +3 Molten rain +1 Lightning Helix Out : 3 Grim Lavamancer 1 Forked Bolt 2 Swiftspears
i may be wrong but i just don't want to side in reactive cards like path and palm against abzan. If i were on the draw i would have prbably sided out more swiftspears and less lavamancers, because the monk is less likely to be relevant on the draw and lavamancer also shrinks graveyards which is good.
game 2 : i start with guide that reveals feed the clan then obstinate baloth. I think i'm dead but in the end guide does a ton of damage, he has to use his spell to gain only 5 life and baloth is stopped by my skullcrack.
game 3 : Similar to game one, i need to topdeck my final burn spell. I draw several lands but fortunately he doesn't see any lifegain. i make a mistake casting a bolt instead of suspending rift bolt .... next turn i draw skullcrack but i have only 4 mana so i can't cast both skull and rift bolt and win. So i have to suspend rift bolt, pass the turn, and he draws baloth but thanks god my topdecked skullcrack saves me. i was very lucky and made a very bad mistake. Opponent is very salty, he hates burn and shows me 2 baloths and 3 feed the clans in sideboard. Also other people will complain during the day about how playing burn is stupid and boring and you only need luck to win. i don't know , part of me wants to explain carefully to them how idiotic their arguments are and/or punch them in the face while saying how bad are the decks they are playing , but part of me is happy because this attitude make people undervalue burn and not prepare for it. So i just ignore them.
3-1
Round 5 : ID against abzan. We play for fun and i lose 2-1.
3-1-1
Top 8 against merfolk, same opponent as before
Game 1. I am obviously on the draw and obviously lose to double spreading seas. i start damning islands and praying the gods of the mountains to save me while the crowd is very entertained to see me keep losing to spreading seas.
Games 2 and 3 : He has once a spreading seas when i kept a one lander, then double spreading seas when i kept a two lander. But both times i topdeck land after land and win
![:-) :)](./images/smilies/smile.gif)
that's how magic works, in the end i think he was more lucky to always have spreading seas than i was drawing lands. He only has 4 seas while i have 20 mana sources.
Top 4 against UWR control
Game 1:
Really didn't expect to see this deck and i hope he doesn't draw a ton of helices. He has 2 of them plus snapcaster so he gains 9 life while annihilating my board. Later he casts sphinx's for 3 so he gained 12 life overall. Despite this the game went very long because he didn't manage to draw his finishers and i drew a lot of gas, i was at 4 life and he was like 6-7 life. We both made a mistake : early in the game i took 2 free damages casting eidolon first then swiftspear, and that could have been very relevant. In the last turns he has a cryptic command and i cast a goblin guide : for some unknown reasons, instead of counter draw he bounces it and draws (he thought it would have been nice to see if he drew a land from my guide). It turns out he has no removal and i win thanks to that guide. despite mistakes it was the best game of the event.
In: +2 Flames +3 Molten rain +1 Smash to Smithereens Out : 3 Grim lavamancer 3 searing blaze
I know he plays at least one batterskull and i also expect spellskite so i board in one artifact destruction spell.
Game 2:
I have triple eidolon but he casts timely reinforcements turn 3 then does nothing until dropping batterskull. So he gains too much life while i kill myself with eidolons.
game 3 : This time also i have lots of creatures and double eidolon. the crowd makes jokes about me always having eidolon. he doesn't gain any life , no helix, no reinforcements, and he is overwhelmed by my army.
Finals against G/R tron
Very uneventful match, i win in 2 games with him opposing zero resistance.
So i am now qualified to a ptq the 27th of june. I don't even know if i want to go because reaching the location (Turin) will cost me quite a bit, but if i go i will get foil Liliana of the veil that would in part refund me, and have some free boosters (the format is sealed). Time will tell, what is important is that i burnt people to death.