Jund Burn

Modern* Burn Competitive RBW (Mardu)

newtontke

Land (19)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 4x Blackcleave Cliffs
• 1x Blood Crypt
• 2x Bloodstained Mire
• 4x Copperline Gorge
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 4x Wooded Foothills

Sorcery (15)

• 4x Bump in the Night
• 3x Claim / Fame
• 4x Lava Spike
• 4x Rift Bolt

Instant (11)

• 4x Atarka's Command
• 4x Lightning Bolt
• 3x Searing Blaze

Creature (15)

• 3x Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 4x Goblin Guide
• 4x Monastery Swiftspear
• 4x Vexing Devil

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Sideboard

Instant (7)

• 4x Destructive Revelry
• 3x Rakdos Charm

Artifact (3)

• 3x Dragon's Claw

Sorcery (3)

• 2x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Molten Rain

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Rain of Gore

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Maybeboard

Instant (2)

• 1x Shard Volley
• 1x Skullcrack

Artifact (1)

• 1x Grafdigger's Cage

Creature (1)

• 1x Harsh Mentor

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Why Burn?

- When I first reentered Magic, in about 2014, my budget was small and the idea of spending even $5 on a card was pushing my comfort level. Regardless, my friends decks got better and I wanted to keep up. Burn has grown in complexity and price but it is still one of the gatekeepers for the entry-point into several formats. So I built tabletop Mono-Red Burn. My casual tabletop burn deck was easy enough to convert to a fully-flushed out Pauper Burn deck (Classic Burn!), but not enough people in my area play Pauper and the ones that do play on a night that I'm busy. However, everyone plays Modern, and the upgrade to Modern Burn was more reasonable than a completely new Modern deck. I now keep both my Modern Jund Burn deck and the non-Modern Pauper Burn cards in a 100 card ultra-pro deck box and switch between them whenever I need to. At some point I will put together the applicable Legacy cards and have 3 decks in one box.

Why Jund?- The obvious starting point is Mono-Red. It was good enough for my table-top deck. It worked perfectly in my Pauper deck. When I started to gravitate toward Modern Burn a large void in my deck-list appeared. Without Chain Lightning, Flame Rift, and (my all-time favorite) Fireblast , I had 12 card slots to fill. Then I realized that Magma Jet, Incinerate and Curse of the Pierced Heart were underwhelming in Modern. Just like that, 9 more cards got the axe. 21 Card slots are about 50% of the non-land cards. Even with the creature count pushed to the 10-12 range the Modern version still seems to yearn for a splash color or 2. After scouring the web for all competitive Burn variants, I found 5 different options; each more intriguing than the last.

Boros Burn?

-One of the cheaper options since it is only 2 colors and because Fetch Lands aren't a 100% necessary price to play Boros. Boros Charm and, to a lesser extent, Lightning Helix make a very viable splash. One major upside is that Boros Burn fairs the best in mirror matchups because of its less damaging mana base and the lifegain from Helix. The one downside to the Boros Version is that it has one of the highest CMC among all Modern Burn variants. Running anywhere from 10 to 16 two-drops makes it one of the slower versions; if only by less than half of a turn on average. I started with Boros as my starting point but quickly began looking at the other versions.

Naya Burn?

-Naya Burn is the most popular variant currently in Modern thanks to Atarka's Command in the Maindboard and Destructive Revelry in the Sideboard. Both cards are SO good. It is no wonder why Naya is such a popular version. However, it suffers from the same problem Boros Burn does in that it has among the higher CMC averages for Burn variants. Obviously, these are small problems, but they were enough for me to keep looking.

Rakdos Burn?

-Rakdos Burn offers Bump in the Night as another 1-drop and Rain of Gore in the Sideboard. Lava Spike is a staple 4-of in all versions of Burn and Bump in the Night is just better. All by itself; thanks to both its low CMC and its overall power, it makes a really hard to pass up candidate for inclusion into my prospective Burn build. Additionally, Rain of Gore is a house against all the lifegain that normally is a scourge to Burn decks. Rakdos is great but the or splash option feel missed in this 2 color versions; especially in the Sideboard. However the power of is undeniable and, moving forward, I decided that Bump was too good to pass up and that my final build would include both and .

Mardu Burn!

-In my opinion, Mardu Burn is great and I like it even better than the very popular Naya Burn. My version of Mardu Burn boasts Boros Charm, Lightning Helix and Bump in the Night . It looks so good that, for a time, I settled on it as my only variant of choice. However, I just kept looking at Atarka's Command and Destructive Revelry and even considered going 4-color. 4 colors would have meant way to much damage from my mana base and way to much variance from my color access. So, I built both. While I find Mardu more consistant, I love that Jund Burn allows for the use of of Vexing Devil!

Jund Burn!

-Now this oddball version of Jund Burn that I have listed above doesn't get access to Boros Charm, Lightning Helix, Deflecting Palm or any of the potentially great sideboard options that offers, but it has the lowest CMC of any Burn variant and allows me all of the great options that I was lacking in Mardu. Between and , I wanted access to more. The printing of Claim / Fame makes Vexing Devil more playable than ever, and I have to admit, I love the chance to play the Devil and prove all of the naysayers wrong! For those that just refuse to get on board with the Devil, check out my Mardu Burn Build!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	U
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	32 - 4 Rares 11 - 11 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.59