This weekend, the Open Series headed to the Pacific Northwest for some sweet Standard and Legacy action in my hometown of Tacoma, WA. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it home to visit family and play some Magic, but I am happy to see that my old flame Chandra, Pyromaster has claimed another Open victory.
Let's take a look at the R/W Burn deck that won in Seattle!
R/W Burn by Neil Hartman
Maindeck
3 Searing Blood
4 Lightning Strike
3 Chained to the Rocks
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Stormbreath Dragon
2 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Warleader's Helix
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Boros Charm
2 Boros Guildgate
4 Ash Zealot
4 Chandra's Phoenix
3 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Magma Jet
11 Mountain
Sideboard
2 Fated Conflagration
4 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Chained to the Rocks
4 Skullcrack
2 Spark Trooper
2 Mizzium Mortars
Neil Hartman claimed the crown in Seattle with this spicy number, and I have to say that I love the fusion of Big Boros with R/W Burn that we see here.
Normally, the burn decks will only play four to 10 creatures, but what we see here is a whopping 14! Chandra's Phoenix and Ash Zealot are the usual suspects, but Boros Reckoner makes a surprise showing. Going into this weekend, I was guessing that control would have been pretty huge with Huey making waves online with the U/W/b control list he picked up from the previous GP, but as we see in the Top 16 from Seattle, there was only one Sphinx's Revelation deck. Boros Reckoner isn't at its best against Black Devotion strategies, but just about any other deck is going to have a hard time dealing with the innocuous Minotaur Wizard.
Stormbreath Dragon rounds out the creature suite by being just a sweet dragon — which is never bad!
I'm a bit curious at the Searing Blood in the main paired with the Boros Reckoner. Having these two cards in the starting 60 basically means that Neil was extremely prepared for decks like Blue based Devotion (Mono-Blue and U/w Devotion), or anything with Soldier of the Pantheon.
The burn suite is just about as good as it gets right now with Lightning Strike, Boros Charm, Magma Jet, Warleader's Helix, and Skullcrack out of the sideboard. Lightning Bolt would really be the next best thing, but let's face it; Bolt is just too good.
Against the control decks we get to bring in Firedrinker Satyr as an aggressive one-drop that requires a removal spell, and a bunch more burn. One interesting card that we see here is Fated Conflagration. Being able to do five damage at instant-speed against cards like Stormbreath Dragon, Polukranos, World Eater, and 5/5 Wurms from Advent of the Wurm is pretty important. Unfortunately, it doesn't answer Desecration Demon, but Chained to the Rocks is here to cover that base.
Spark Trooper is the last interesting card that we see, and I've actually been pretty impressed. I played around a bit with a Boros Aggro deck that used a couple Spark Troopers, and while they aren't that great against decks with a lot of removal, they pack a huge punch against decks that are lacking in removal, and since those decks are usually the aggressive decks, the life swing can be game ending.
If you're looking for something that can throw a lot of burn to the face of your opponents or gum up the ground with awesome creatures like Boros Reckoner or Ash Zealot, I would definitely recommend this deck. Plus, you get to battle with a red-hot-hottie like Chandra, Pyromaster — what's not to love?
@Chris_VanMeter
