Hello Gentlemen.
I've read through the thread, thought I'd give my two cents, and bravo to my fellow Red mages for keeping the fire alive.
Now what would make this thread greater? More pictures of course. This is how you ball.
Yes. Those Legacy Mountains are sharpied. That's how us true ballers on a budget get down. That dual land of yours just got caved in by a marked basic land from 1994. The decks featured there are Purphoros EDH, Boss Sligh, Fanatic Mono Red, RW Yasooka Burn, Pauper Goblins, and Legacy Burn. Note the Russian Dragon Mantles, Japanese 4th Edition Lightning Bolts, Plethora of Foils, Zendi Halo Mountains, and of course the ubiquitous alphabetized box of Red cards. Ah, sexytime explosion. Make your opponents feel you coming my friends,
and prepare the car fire for them to burn in.
I've played a lot of Legacy in the past including Burn in big tournaments, but for the last few years my focus has been mainly Standard. I did well in a Legacy tournament last night losing in the Finals with Burn, and Khaospawn + Zemanjaski mentioned DTR many times so I figured I'd try to contribute more. I'm going to go over my thoughts on the deck I played last night which is similar to what you've been discussing, because I'd like to get even more interplay going here on card discussion and have some specific questions.
The deck I played -
Burn by Forrest Ashmore (9th Place SCG Portland Open - You're all familiar as you've discussed it, I only swapped out the bridges for riders because I'm too poor atm)-
[deck]Maindeck:
Creatures
4 Goblin Guide
4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
Enchantments
2 Sulfuric Vortex
Spells
4 Fireblast
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Price of Progress
3 Searing Blaze
4 Chain Lightning
3 Flame Rift
4 Lava Spike
4
Rift Bolt
Basic Lands
20 Mountain
Sideboard:
3 Ensnaring Bridge
2 Relic of Progenitus
2 Vexing Shusher
2 Pyrostatic Pillar
1 Sulfuric Vortex
3 Searing Blood
2 Smash to Smithereens[/deck]
Maindeck
Goblin Guide - A given four-of.
Eidolon of the Great Revel - I mean, he's already become one of my favorite Red cards in literally every format outside of Pauper and EDH. I think he single-handidly gave Burn players a much better percentage against many combo matchups along with giving an incremental advantage against grindy creature matchups like Delver and Stoneforge decks. A lot of you on here were talking with worry about Flame Rift alongside of him. Don't worry my dear friends, You can take the burn when you can dish the fire out faster. I think Flame Rift is perfectly fine in this deck alongside of him. I think a lot of people undervalue how important Flame Rift is. One of you mentioned the fact that Burn is a combo deck on here, and it's important to
remember that point. You will certainly have games where the card is awful, but that goes for many of the cards in your deck and any combo deck.
Sulfuric Vortex - Vortex is always an interesting card for Burn. Its seen swapping in and out of many lists, and largely the metagame will determine its usefulness. Legacy though is about as wide open as it comes with regards to metagame, and it's especially local-based considering that people make large investments into the format and can't hop decks easily. Personally, I think Vortex couldn't be stronger, and while being three mana will always suck, its effect on the game is stronger than anything else you can do. The truly hurtful cards, as many of you have been discussing, are Batterskull, Jitte, and other cards that pull you out of a game. It's great against non-interactive decks like Miracles and Lands because it fights them along a different axis forcing them to come up with answers that go against what they were expecting or that require them
to double-tap their resources. Creatures function along similar lines to those decks as well which is why Eidolon is so fantastic right now in my opinion. For Vortex, I like the 2-of in this maindeck, and have a half a thought to bring over the third from the sideboard, but these lists are so tight it's hard to cut cards.
Fireblast - Truly the glue that makes Legacy Burn work. In a format where a card like Force of Will exists along with other incredibly unfair things, us Red mages need some weaponry of our own.
Lightning Bolt - Yes.
Price of Progress - A lot of the talk about this card here is deserved. Too many Legacy players IMO just auto-comment that it's a given, so I'm glad to see that you guys are actually debating it. I think the reason it gets shoved as a 4-of in so many lists is that it's good against a great portion of the field and against popular decks that are a struggle sometimes to deal with. BUT, I'd really like to see this slot at least playtested with more. I actually
thought about running Skullcrack in this slot last night, which I saw one of you bring up as well. I think the raw power loss is a bit much to lose out on this spell, but I think it's one of those slots where the status-quo of "well someone better than me has tested everything already" is bullcrap. It can have its moments, against decks limited with basics, stuff like 12-Post (which I played last night), and just overall fine in general, but there's no reason to do a round robin of cards here and gather some statistical data. I don't mean you hop off the forum one night and hop on the next day. I mean like a 100 game sample or two. One thing in particular I always like to do in testing is mark cards that I'm considering for other things, it helps me keep track better than my terrible memory and it makes you focus on those game states better. It's a card that people actively play around, so I feel it should be actively tested.
Searing Blaze - Having this maindeck seems largely due to
the popularity of Delver and Stoneforge decks. It's probably the right decision, considering that the metagame is more creature-y and less combo-y than a few months ago, but the numbers will probably have to fluctuate rapidly based on results. I don't mind x3 Maindeck, but I don't support the x4 action. It's dead against a fair number of decks. Forrest's 3/3 split with Blood is perfectly reasonable to me.
Chain Lightning - Next.
Flame Rift - It's one of the few cards that gets around targeted problems like Leyline and it's pure efficiency at 4 damage for 2 mana which is what this combo deck relies on. I think this has to be a 3 or 4 of, and to me it's a matter of time put in with the deck to understand that. One of the posters here asked about that, saying if mileage would help understand it better and in my opinion yes it will. There are correct times to play and not play this card, times to not get frustrated when it isn't appropriate, etc. I rarely side it out, although there are
occasions, because it's rare outside of combo that another deck is racing faster than you.
Lava Spike - Honestly, as efficient as this is, Lava Spike is one of the cards that I take out a fair amount. It's another pure efficiency spell, but it can't hit creatures and it's less damage than Flame Rift. Yes, I realize Flame Rift damages you, but 4 vs 3 is a big deal in a deck counting to 20. There's something to be said for chaining one mana spells in one turn though too. Don't take me the wrong way, I'm not advocating to take Lava Spike out "all the time", it's very good in this deck but it's a consideration at times to remove.
Rift Bolt - I misplayed this last night and was kicking myself, forgetting in a crucial moment that it was CMC=3 instead of 1. Always have loved this spell though, it's a great "play around things" card. Most of the time it's one of the first spells you want to jam, but there are options in different games. The importance of turn playing I
think is hyper-emphasized in a fantastic article by our hero P.Sully here if you haven't read it -
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/stan ... eport.html
This one too-
http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/stan ... eport.html
20 Mountain - I personally like running x8 fetch better, I just haven't been able to afford them again. I sold about 10K worth of cards 4-5 years ago and haven't been able to fully build back since then. Buddies of mine can lend them, but I prefer not to borrow when I can avoid it. Thankfully last night this basic-count worked fine, and obviously it took Forrest to a nice finish.
Sideboard
Ensnaring Bridge - This to me is the best choice because it stops
just about any of the big creatures that Show and Tell or Sneak Attack would drop in play, but it's a permanent which they can deal with. I mean, those kind of matches are just really bad to begin with, so there's not much you can do. I was playing Ashen Rider last night due to budget reasons, but in the past have played Bridge. The Ashen Rider thing is cute, but I feel like there's something I'm missing that can be played around with it. I imagine most S&T opponents are prepared for this too, so it's always worth some research to see if something else provides curious value.
Relic of Progenitus - I'm with you guys on this boat. I'm glad that Khaospawn brought up that the reason it seems to be played is due to a trend from an SCG Indy list, because I personally haven't logged enough games to understand why this is #1 right now. I love the incremental value it provides against Goyf and Deathrite decks, but I feel a bit worried against Dredge and Reanimator with this card. I also feel it'
s wildly incorrect to not include any graveyard hate as I've seen some of the lists around here feature. Unless your metagame is just extremely abnormal, you're usually bound to run into something that requires some intervention. The graveyard is another axis which is at opposition with normal lines of play, so I think anything going on with it is usually the equivalent of broken. I personally have used Faerie Macabre back in the good old extended days, but I agree with some of the posters here that I wouldn't side it in against Goyf decks, nor Tormod's Crypt, so maybe that's why Relic is present. There is also credence to the point that the "graveyard" decks don't always go off turn 1, but the combination of a slow graveyard hate spell along with only two copies is a bit irksome.
Vexing Shusher - I really want a third Shusher in the board, possibly a 4th. Miracles is popular in my area and is popular in general at the moment, and you really need this piece to fight them better.
Depending on build I don't think the matchup is that bad, but it's also not great, especially if they get their pieces online early. This card was also instrumental for me in fighting RUG Delver at SCG Opens, despite the fact that it's killable. There's just a number of places where he's useful and where his ability is more relevant than a 1-time Pyroblast that doesn't give you repeat use nor damage.
Pyrostatic Pillar - I think having x6 of this effect in the deck is honestly really sweet since this whole format revolves around 3 CMC or less, but I wonder if there's room to shave x1 of them for something else since the numbers are so tight. Seems like it's possible despite this being a good card against so much.
Searing Blood - Honestly despite what naysayers might say, I think this card is a really nice sideboard. It's honestly better in quite a few situations than Searing Blaze (although not on the whole) and it's a card I'd much rather have against Delver than Pyroblast or REB.
Anyone who's played Standard or Modern with this card knows how absolutely absurd it is, and not having to have landfall (especially in Forrest's non-fetch version) is fantastic. I saw a lot of the lists on here ran 4 Blaze and 4 Blood, but in a format as open as Legacy I don't believe that you have the room to make this concession. x6 of a great card is already enough to see multiples or see it with regularity.
Smash to Smithereens - I think everyone on this forum has made the relevant points about this card. It gets around Chalice for 1, it actually functions as a burn spell when it comes in to replace one, and you rarely need to kill a large amount of artifacts except against matchups that you already have a good grip on.
I'll try to get back at any comments as soon as I can, it's hard for me to find time but I like this forum a lot. Good work guys and girls.