Last updated 27 April 2018
Boros Burn is a deck built around dealing direct damage to the opponent through low-CMC spells such as Lightning Bolt and Lava Spike.
Spells dealing direct damage are called Burn spells, which is where the deck gets its name from. Burn is played in Mono-Red, Boros and Naya colours, but this article focused on Boros Burn.
Burn is very much a 20 to 0 deck and although Burn players deal lots of damage to themselves through fetch-shocking and Eidolon of the Great Revel, the main focus of Burn is watching the opponent's life total drop to 0.
Of this deck's 9x Fetchlands only the 4x Arid Mesa are fixed. The other 5x Fetchlands are able to be any Fetchlands that include red because a very vast majority of Burn spells are red.
Bloodstained Mire and Wooded Foothills are recommended for players on a budget, but for a higher cost in stores 4x Scalding Tarn for Fetchlands #5-8 can trick your opponent into thinking that you're running a different deck (such as Jeskai Control or Storm). If 4x Scalding Tarn are being run, the 9th Fetchland should be Wooded Foothills to trick your opponent into thinking that the deck is Naya Burn, causing them to play around Wild Nacatl and Atarka's Command which aren't available to the Boros version.
Burn's sideboard is rather flexible, but as a result of Burn's clock the spells included are to be cheap, efficient and usually instants or sorceries to fuel Grim Lavamancer.
3-4x Wear / Tear are a frequent occurrence in Burn sideboards due to their ability to hate out any opposing Leyline of Sanctity in post-board games as well as aiding against Affinity and Bogles.
Most sideboards contain 2-3x Path to Exile which serves multiple purposes within the deck. One use is providing removal to answer huge bodies like Tarmogoyf out of Jund and Gurmag Angler out of Grixis Delver. Another is hating out creatures that gain life, which make it more difficult to apply pressure with burn spells. Kitchen Finks, Courser of Kruphix, Scavenging Ooze and Kor Firewalker all fall into this category.
2-3x Deflecting Palm improve matchups like Grixis Shadow, Bogles and Infect by redirecting the damage from their fatties while 2-3x Kor Firewalker are amazing against other red aggressive decks like Red Deck Wins and Naya Zoo.
The sideboard is also able to include varying amounts of Torpor Orb, Molten Rain, Volcanic Fallout, and Combust depending on both the current meta and your local meta.
Amonkhet brought Burn the new addition of Harsh Mentor, allowing 1-3x to be run in the Sideboard. Since fetching isn't a mana ability, Harsh Mentor can shutdown tri-colour decks such as Abzan Traverse and Jeskai Control as well as hitting decks that require a lot of mana-fixing. Bant Knightfall, Affinity and Elves all get struck by this card as they rely so heavily on activated abilities.
Ensnaring Bridge has been a staple of 8-rack and UW Prison decks for many years but only during 2016 did it begin to find its way into Burn Sideboards.
It was now transitioned from a niche pick to having 1-3x Ensnaring Bridge being run in most competitive Burn sideboards to deal with Grixis Shadow and Bogles as well as (to a lesser extent) Elves, Merfolk and Affinity.
However, in order for Goblin Guide to attack with an Ensnaring Bridge on the board, two cards must be in hand. As a result, Burn spells are now being cast during the second main phase and during opponent's turns more often, allowing Goblin Guide to swing.
Since early 2016, Burn has taken a few hits competitively. The printing of non-allied Fastlands in Kaladesh (such as Blooming Marsh and Spirebluff Canal) allow for decks to no longer rely on pain lands like Llanowar Wastes, causing the amount of self-inflicted damage to drop for some competitive strategies.
However, not all decks have dropped the pain lands completely. For example, Storm still runs Shivan Reef because it has no issue paying the life and Bant Eldrazi still plays with painlands because they can provide colourless mana for Eldrazi like Thought-Knot Seer or coloured mana for Eldrazi Sky Spawner and Eldrazi Displacer.
Because Burn is focused on getting the opponent's life total from 20 to 0, opponents in certain matchups paying less life to their mana base is a luxury lost to Kaladesh. However, Inspiring Vantage was printed into Burn and Zoo decks alike so the non-allied fastlands were beneficial to RWx aggro too.
While this doesn't have much impact on grindy matchups like Jund and Abzan, decks that apply more pressure early have an improved Burn matchup now that there are non-allied fastlands. Decks benefiting from this include Storm, WB Tokens and Zoo just to name a few of the competitive-viable options.
Another reason Burn is weaker than previous years is because of the printing of Fatal Push. Prior to Aether Revolt decent Black removal cost two mana or more with the only exception being Dismember which costs 4 life. This meant that the only way to remove a Goblin Guide or Eidolon of the Great Revel was by paying 4 life (which is in favour of the Burn player) or to cast a multicoloured black removal spell like Terminate or Abrupt Decay.
Nowadays, 3-4x Fatal Push are run in a vast majority of Black decks. This means: decks such as 8-rack, Lantern and Black Devotion that used to struggle at dealing with Burn's creature threats are now able to do so.
Collective Brutality is another card from 2016-2017 that makes Burn's life difficult. The -2/-2 kills Goblin Guide, Grim Lavamancer and Eidolon of the Great Revel, the discard forces the loss of a burn spell with less damage being dealt as a result and the drain 2 allows the opponent to decrease the life total gap.
Collective Brutality is Burn's worst nightmare during 2017's Modern competitive scene and 1-2x of them can be found in the Sideboard of almost every opponent playing Black including Grixis Shadow and Jund, which are possibly the top decks in the Modern format.
Burn is unlikely to become a dead archetype. It's easy to learn and ideal for beginners, but also requires strategy and is viable at the top levels of competitive play. Burn has been around for many years and it is unlikely to be going anywhere, despite never being the top deck of the Modern format.
Last updated 27 April 2018
