WR Burn [Modern] (Modern)

So here we have another mindless modern burn deck tutorial to play it "optimally." I use quotes because it's burn and as long as you are dropping your opponent's life total you're doing just fine. I mean your hardest choice will be between dealing three damage to your opponent or to their creature. Spoiler alert: Always go for the face. The face is the place. Personally, I find it helpful to black out the words 'creature or' with a Sharpie so I'm never tempted to think about targeting a creature. I use a big Sharpie so the ink bleeds through the back which is why sleeves will be important.

But I digress--which is quite alright since there is nothing to be said that hasn't already been said by the numerous other pointless commentaries available online. It's burn! It burns or it doesn't. That's it. You try to kill your opponent before they kill you. And obviously we fold to any form of lifegain at all. I mean, is lifelink really fair? One spell can undo like, three of ours? If anything needs a nerf it's lifegain. And don't get me started with Leyline of Sanctity. One card, no mana cost, down literally before the game begins and our whole deck is rendered useless. Yes, we still have our Swiftspears, but we can't very well pump them up without a target now can we? ANYHOW.

Lands (18)
Arid Mesa 4
Inspiring Vantage 4
Mountain 4
Sacred Foundry 4
Sunbaked Canyon 4

Artifacts (2)
Shadowspear 2

Instants (16)
Lightning Bolt 4
Boros Charm 4
Lightning Helix 4
Searing Blaze 4

Sorceries (12)
Lava Spike 4
Rift Bolt 4
Skewer the Critics 4

Creatures (12)
Goblin Guide 4
Monastery Swiftspear 4
Eidolon of the Great Revel 4

Sideboard (15)
Path to Exile 3
Deflecting Palm 3
Roiling Vortex 3
Smash to Smithereens 3
Leyline of Sanctity 3

Sigh. Okay so where do we begin? So we have like five Lightning Bolts. I know Searing Blaze costs RR but considering almost every creature in modern has three or less life I think we can make an exception. And of course we have Lightning Helix which is an honorary member of the Lightning family and the main reason we play white. If you are unsure of how relevant hitting creatures is, check the mono-black card Sovereign's Bite. It sees play in exactly zero decks because black is not burn! You hear that Wizards of the Coast? BLACK IS NOT BURN! And then we have Boros Charm because it deals four damage, sometimes (rarely) can give your Swiftspear double strike, and its third ability will literally never be used so feel free to cross that out also. Honestly, if you, a burn deck, are using a card that says 'deal four damage to your opponent' and you're using it to protect your little one-drop creatures you're already not going to win.

Sideboard, sideboard. Ehh.. Okay so we're using Smash to Smithereens as a good replacement for Searing Blaze in those damn artifact decks. Roiling Vortex is good because I read somewhere that it had a bunch of uses. Oh like, it stops lifegain which is good because screw lifegain. And we have Leyline of Sanctity because sometimes you have to become the enemy to defeat the enemy. Seriously, I almost feel bad playing it against a fellow burn player. Or I would if I weren't a damn dirty burn player! (Which I am.) So that's it. Just point, aim, and shoot and make sure not to feel too bad when lifegain gets you. Because it will.

Oh, lands? Well, a perfect burn deck would just be sixteen mountains and none of this white-splash stuff. But until we get a few more decent Bolts we'll have to stick with this. So play dual lands. I don't care if you lose three life every time they become tapped, just use the lands. If you as a burn deck even need to look at your life total, you're doing something wrong. I hate that lands are so expensive though. I think if you take out the Eidolons and Shadowspears, the bulk of the cost is in the lands. But one day my burn brothers, we'll go back to our roots and play sixteen mountains.

UPDATE > 2/2

-2 Shadowspear
-2 Mountain
+4 Battlefield Forge

I'll be honest. I don't care what anyone says--the painlands have always been one of the most reliable--and not to mention, most affordable--dual lands you can use. They always come into play untapped, they always make two colors of mana, and you can often get by without taking any damage by using them for colorless. Now granted our deck doesn't have any colorless pips--except for the sideboard and even then it's not much--but the fact remains that these are still some of the best lands WotC has given us. And thanks to numerous reprints (and yes, "better" duals being added), they are often had for a couple dollars at most.

Oh, and the Shadowspears are just.. I don't know. They're still good and all that but I just think we're better off without them. Bogles is never a problem for burn--thanks to Deflecting Palm WHICH DOESN'T TARGET!!! And if we really needed the lifegain, we just weren't going to win anyhow. If there's a deck out there that has US wanting to gain life, then just concede and admit you've been beaten. Cause there's no way a "Healing Salve" is gonna save us when another Lightning Bolt couldn't.