Dies to Removal

Hey guys I'm really new on the board here and just want to briefly introduce myself before throwing decks out. I'm a long-time mostly-casual player who has only ever really done local small tournaments and FNMs. I'm usually good enough to 3-1 or 4-0 in a very competitive store in Standard, and I also like playing Legacy Elves. I am mostly drawn to RW Burn because it oddly feels like the truest 'combo deck' in the format. It holds the line until you assemble the 'combo' of burning them to death on their end step plus your turn. I used to play 1 Maindeck Dictate of the Twin Gods for those really insane 'oops I win' moments, but found it to be the classic do nothing card when I was losing. The card advantage engine of Young Pyro and Chandra's Phoenix is not to be underrated and our card quality mana efficiency is extremely high. Another thing I love about this deck is the high density
of insants so it's possible to play an effective draw-go control style while backing up a threat, a la Delver Decks or Faeries decks of olde. Anyways, you all know this stuff, but I just wanted to remind everyone of where we're coming from with this deck to maybe trigger some ideas of how we can progress it forward. The meta is gonna change, and we'll need to adapt with it.

Anyways, after reading through tons of posts on here and now playing with some of the cards in M15, this is the list I'm considering right now. Pardon me if I mess up the formatting the first few times.

[deck=SiRe's RW Control-Burn]Lands 23
3 Battlefield Forge
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
1 Temple of Silence
3 Mutavault
8 Mountain

Creatures 9
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Young Pyromancer
1 Hushwing Gryff

Non-creature Spells 28
4 Chained to the Rocks
4 Shock
3 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Skullcrack
4 Boros Charm
4 Warleader's Helix
1 Stoke the Flames

Sideboard 15
1 Assemble the Legion
2
Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Banishing Light
1 Mutavault
2 Prophetic Flamespeaker
1 Blind Obedience
1 Wear//Tear
1 Keening Apparition
2 Pillar of Light
[/deck]

The new manabase is the result of simply exchanging the Boros Guildgate and Mana Confluence from the standard setup for Battlefield Forge. I prefer 5 or more scrylands if possible, but also want to make sure I have at least 12 white sources and 12 Mountains for Chain to the Rocks. The one maindeck Hushwing Gryff is purely experimental (also I just happen to have only one right now). I believe the card is totally bonkers but I'm not sure if I want to devote multiple slots to a card that seems best as a one- or two-of. The first one is almost Spellstutter Sprite in White. It comes in, hoses Gary and Master of Waves (as well as others I'm sure I can't think of at the moment), and beats for two in the air. It eve helps against Ghost Council of Orzhova, one of the worst cards for me to see. Since we mostly play draw-go anyways, I
think this is a tremendous option. If I wanted to add another, I think I would cut either another Magma Jet or one Warleader's Helix. Another card I'm experimenting with is Stoke the Flames. The card seems strong but I keep wondering whether it's actually better than a singleton Mizzium Mortars. Mortars has performed very well for me with its low cost and occasionally I'll stall long enough to two- or three-for one people with it. The card also gets around Hexproof, and is one of the only ways we have to beat random Hexproof stuff. For now I'll try it out, but it makes me nervous having access to fewer total copies of Mortars, even if this does go to the face.

My sideboard is pretty standard with a lot of one-ofs of cards I think are excellent when you only draw one. Blind Obedience is an excellent one-of because the marginal value of subsequent ones isn't very good. Assemble the Legion, similarly is just busted when you stick one and can protect it. It's basically unbeatable against Mono Black
and does great work against UWx control, and in both those matchups you're bringing in your extra Mutavault anyways (shoutout to Zem for this sick tech that has won me more games against control than I can count now). The new tech here is Pillar of Light, which is actually arguably the best removal spell we have in RW. It removes creatures based on their toughness so it gets pretty much everything that scares us normally. With only a relatively small amount of testing, I am seriously considerincutting g the safety Banishing Lights and pushing this card to 4 SB just because of how many problems this card seems to solve. This is finally the answer we needed for basically every creature threat that isn't named Stormbreath Dragon. Only the fact that it is dead in some matchups makes me hesitate from just jamming it into the mainboard. It's an instant playing even more into effective draw-go style! It even gets Ghost Council! The card is definitely good and
probbaly one of the best reasons to want to keep playing the deck in this unknown meta. Between the burn we have and three or more of this card in the sideboard, I don't really think I'd have anything to fear going into next week's unknown meta.

With all that gushing out of the way, I'd like to turn to some cards I've been thinking about (both playing with and against), as well as a few 'out there' ideas I've been thinking on.

First of all, I think Aggressive Mining sucks. Without a way to get rid of this card, it will end up just slowly killing you. I would argue that the two cards competing with Aggressive Mining are Hammer of Purphoros and Chandra, Pyromaster, and I'd say of the three Chandra is by far the superior choice. I have only done a small amount of testing, but already I dislike the card. Like Chandra, Aggressive Mining costs 4, but unlike Chandra, you are unlikely to play it until you have 6 or 7 lands in play, in order to optimize its value. While I think ours is one of the
best possible decks for this card right now, I think decks will evolve a bit to include ways to remove it from play, especially since they can dig hard in order to find it. It's only one red mana symbol, so it may be splashed. With the major enchantment sub-theme of Theros, I'm sure there's some card with good synergy with Aggressive Mining, but I'm really not gonna look for them, because I have a feeling they're not in Red or White. Likewise Hammer begins to slowly grind you out as you create threats. Unlike how Mining draws you cards which you have to cast, Hammer gets you immediate, repeatable damage in the form of Golem tokens. In cases where they have large blockers, I could see the card draw being better, but in a top-deck scenario I think I'd actually prefer the hammer. I'd argue that most of the time when either of these cards are good enough to kill them, you would have been just as well served by Chandra, and she can make a measurable difference in Card Advantage starting on Turn 4, all
while slowly building up to a game-ending ultimate if not answered. If I was going to mix two of the three for best effect, I think Chandra and Hammer is a much better pairing than Chandra and Mining. Basically mining just sucks, it's not better than Chandra and I don't think it is even better than Hammer in this deck. I'm still gonna test it some more to see if there's anything I've missed, but I really, really don't like it so far.

One of the cards I noticed first when browsing the M15 spoiler just before prerelease was Resolute Archangel. No idea how I'd missed this guy, but it seemed very intimidating that control could have a way to gain a large amount of life at an inopportune time. After further thought, though I realized this card is not a threat in the least. We have lots of repeatable damage and tons of ways to kill the body. Besides the burn usually doesn't come gradually, but typically I save it for a big all-in burst to kill people at instant speed. I suppose if they survive, say,
with good counter play, untap and drop this it could be a savage beating, but so long as you don't walk into it, this card should never be threatening. Now: on to Planeswalkers.

Nissa is not a threat to us.

Liliana Vess, however, could be a problem. She is back and her high starting Loyalty could make her a real pain in the ass. Having to one-for-two just to get rid of her (after she tutors for their best card or makes us discard) makes her seem like an incredible threat in Mono Black or even Jund Monsters. If all she does is keep making us discard every turn, she's already excellent. The best bet is to just hold Phoenixes in hand if you suspect she's coming for any reason and try to burn her out or get damage through where you can. I don't really know what to do about her, other than hope Banishing Light and Chandra post-board are good enough to beat her. Anybody got any ideas?

Ajani, too, seems like a terrifying new addition to standard. With the ability to give a creature pump, Lifelink and
Vigilance, I don't think you could design a card better against us in standard. He even has high loyalty! What was Wizards thinking?! Your only hope is the fact that he doesn't directly impact the board at all, and he even offers you the chance to sort of two for one them if he goes to use an ability while you have burn for his creatures. I think as soon as I see a white mana source, I'm going to start playing very differently from now on.

Garruk, Apex Predator is an expensive terror of a card, but honestly I don't feel that threatened by it. It requires a lot of mana and represents a horrifyingly strong threat, but probably won't beat us more often than the other two just because it won't be cast as often. It's probably at its best in Jund Ramp//Monsters, a tough matchup for us anyways, but you may see it in B/g Devotion. In all honesty, though I think I'd be more afraid of an opposing Assemble the Legion.

Another card I'm interested in is Spirit Bonds. As more and more creatures are added
to the deck, this card starts looking better and better. Often in attrition scenarios, every burn spell I draw allows me to recur one or two of my Phoenixes and the option to get flying tokens and possibly make a creature indestructible sounds very nice. I am aware that each extra creature added means fewer burn spells and therefore weaker Phoenixes, but if more creature heavy decks start being played anyways, I feel like this card could potentially find a niche.

So yeah, this was my first post here and I just realized I wrote a book! Hope you guys like it, and thanks again for building a resource that has been nice for me and many of my friends!