Burn Death is Back! (maybe)

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OK, so maybe it's just a fun/fast deck in casual, but it's worth playing! I also think it can surprise some meta decks. I made a version of this deck months ago (maybe a year?), but since then, I've picked up some new tools and reformulated the deck a bit.

The Deck

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Code:
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Basic Idea

Go fast! You've got a ton of reach to do face damage from hand, so you're looking to score two things early:

  1. Chip damage
  2. Leech a few points of life

If the game is going well, you've got about 5-6 more HP than your opponent and then it's just about playing mutual damage from hand until one of you is dead.

Face Damage from Hand

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Adding is fun, so let's add them up. Everything is 2x except Neferu.

  1. Brimstone: 4 damage
  2. Dangerous Ritual: 8 damage
  3. Barbed Fly: 6 damage (god power makes it trivial to hit for 3)
  4. Chiroptic: 4 damage
  5. Chimera: 4 damage
  6. Neferu: 2 damage (minimum)
  7. Ray of Disintegration: 4 damage

Total: 32 damage.

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Extreme Aggro

Except for a few removal spells, you want to be ignoring the board. If you get behind on HP, you can throw in the towel. Your kit is going to kill you. This means you have to make sure you're ahead. Also, it will take your opponent a few turns to realize what's going (this deck isn't common), so they'll likely do the trading for you.

Card Draw

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Two of my new tools are Dark Ritual (cheap) and Blade of Whiteplain (expensive). Remember, you've got 32 face damage in your deck, but you'll only draw 10 cards by 6 mana (when you want to be wrapping up). 6 cards in our deck help us draw more cards and find more of that 32 face damage. It also makes it a lot more likely to find our other key:

Leech

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GUdecks is silly and calls this a zombie deck. It isn't. It does, however, really benefit from getting even 2-4 points of leech healing. You're just looking to get some separation in god HP from your opponent. A single fiend to the face is a 4 HP swing.

Necroscepter is obviously a powerful card. It can do a lot of heavy lifting if you've exhausted your hand.

To get the most from Chiroptic, wait until you've taken damage. You really want that full 4 HP swing. Of course, if it's the only thing in your hand, you have to play it.

The Necromancer Package

So this is a new thing I'm trying, but it seems promising.

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And here's the cast of characters we're looking to bring back:

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A vanilla 5-mana creature has 5/6 stats. Assuming you have at least 1 1-mana creature in the void, the Necromancer is going to put a minimum of 7/6 stats on the board. More importantly for us, the creatures he'll be bringing back nicely compliment our gameplan.

Your best target is probably the Bombfly. It's almost as good as guaranteed 3 face face damage. It can get levied, but if that happens you're still happy about it. Next best is the Shrine. With backline, they have to get through the Necromancer before they can kill it. Starshard bolts will almost certainly be aimed at the Necromancer first. Petulant Firespreader is a bit 'meh' of a resurrection target. Easily cleared and a minimal threat.

Decaying Rhinos?

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Of course Decaying Rhinos! Worst case scenario, it's a 5/5 Rhino without confused. Shove off Overgrown Rhino:

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you only deserve plain shine

Also, you don't have to worry about staying frenzied in this deck. You'd have to try not to get frenzied on most turns.

Ragnarok?

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It's not in the deck. I've played a few games with it. It is really helpful if nature or light get wide early. You have to be able to get them burning immediately though. If they get in a few turns of face damage, you've lost. I swap them in and out for blade flies for testing. You could also drop the Necromancer for one.

Gameplay 1

A win against a meta nature deck. It only takes 3 minutes!

1 Mana

I probably should have kept digging for Blight Bombs, but whatever. He passes first turn, so I can put out both my one drops (protect against canopy barrage).

2 Mana

He's arguably lost by taking 4 damage to clear the Firespreader. The Shrine's auto-frenzy means I get to play the Fly for the full 3 damage.

3 Mana

Just pushing damage with Chimera. Also a note: against nature you only need a little gap between God HP. Unlike Magic, they can't go face, and they don't have surprise buffs like aggro deception.

4 Mana

Love getting an extra swing with Chimera. I like to hold Dark Rituals for surprise lethal, but since we have 2 I elect for the card draw.

5 Mana

Hot Blade-on-Blade action.

5.5 Mana

His fatal mistake was (understably) opting for more Blade-on-Blade action. Maybe that was his only play, but by leaving the shrine alive, he goes down to Dark Ritual range.

6 Mana

Ritual to win it.

Gameplay 2

Just a fun game against magic where I top deck sequential Dark Rituals for lethal.

Conclusion

One of the best things about this deck is its effectiveness against control decks. You don't need most creatures for more than their roar or afterlife, so having them cleared isn't the end of the world. Frontliners can be a pain, but the deck has answers for them and enough card draw to have a decent shot at finding them.

Perhaps the best thing about the deck is its speed. If you get out ahead, you're almost certainly going to win. If you get behind, you can concede. This makes it a particularly nice deck for the Winter Wanderlands competition.

Burn Death is Back! (maybe) | Ecency