Boros Burn – Red Burn – RDW
Darin Minard
8th place at GP Dallas Fort Worth 12/8/2013
Lands (22)
Creatures (8)
Other Spells (28)
Planeswalkers (2)
In my heart I’ve always been an aggro player so the instant I saw this decklist it really appealed to me. There is a critical mass of burn spells in this deck which will inevitably lead to the toasted carcass of your opponent sitting across the table from you. The deck boasts a throng of two dozen dome scorchers with 2 pointers Shock & Magma Jet, 3 pointers Lightning Strike & Skullcrack, and 4 pointers Boros Charm & Warleader’s Helix. And half of the burn spells double up with additional valuable capabilities. Given the limited card drawing in these colors the Magma Jets get paired up with the Temples help gas the deck with some very integral scry action. The non-damage abilities of Skullcrack prove especially potent against not only mega life gain such as Sphinx’s Revelation or Gray Merchant but also many of the post board answers that will come in against this deck. The creatures are particularly suited for this composition with Young Pyromancer able to spew forth a potent army to either chip away more life points or hold back a ground assault and Chandra’s Phoenix which with this deck will never be hanging around the graveyard too long. The removal of the deck, not that the burn doesn’t double as removal as well, comes in the form of Chained to the Rocks which is particularly well positioned right now to deal with indestructible threats such as Thassa or Erebos. The deck is capped with a pair of Chandra, Pyromaster which should be primarily used to grind some card advantage but the first ability is very good at working down life totals while the ultimate if achieved will net either 6, 9 or 12 points of damage. With this much raw power behind it I could definitely see myself taking this one for a spin
Orzhov Control
Marlon Gutierrez
Sideboard
Grand Prix Dallas-Fort Worth Champion Marlon Gutierrez took down the tourney with a pretty spicy Orzhov Control deck. It is strikingly similar to an Orzhov list that we featured last week from GP Vienna. The list is actually exactly the same with the exception of 2 additional Dark Betrayal found in Marlon’s sideboard to combat MonoBlack, replacing a Shrivel and a Wear // Tear. Looks like we were right to keep the Orzhov Control list on our radar and just like the UW Planeswalker Control list we spotlighted last week it was able to climb to the top of the mountain. I doubt they will continue uncontested but we did see a shift in the metagame from a more aggressive field to a more control oriented one.
