Thermo-Scar Burn (Standard)

With the release of Amonkhet, I figured i could spice things up and give Mono-Red burn a go. Thermo-Burn is normally an extremely annoying deck that I thought maybe I could add a couple of new tweaks to and make it standard viable. By no means is this a Tier 1 Deck, but it will at least get some interesting lols.

Creatures (11): Thermo-Alchemist is probably the number 1 win factor for this deck; it has a pretty decent toughness and allows us to ping and untap any time we play an instant or sorcery spell (which, with 28 of them, we just so have happen to have plenty). Play him out block and at the end step, cast your instants and untap before your turn even begins. Soul-Scar Mage is great addition to the burn team. For only 1 mana we get a 1/2 Creature with prowess back in standard, which we haven't had since the Khans of Tarkir, and we get permanent damage on creatures we burn. This is simply stunning. One of the common problems of burn is that if an opponent can scramble a big enough creature, you'd generally have to sink a lot of mana at once to deal with it. This guy will let us whittle them down until they are manageable by your blockers or can take them out as you get the chance. Bedlam Reveler is our next big daddy and if the Thermo doesn't net the win, this guy probably will. This guy is absolutely insane for standard burn. To make the most of him you gotta play aggressively and essentially waste all of your cards in hand. Typically he won't see play until turn 4, but by then you should be empty handed anyway and he will make his grand debut for 2-3 mana. Quick and effective.

Spells (28): Burn from Within is a card that many people overlook entirely. Now that the God style cards are making their debut and the all-so-fun mechanic of Indestructible is following them, this is a guaranteed way to fix that problem and in a hurry. Especially if we don't have the Soul-Scar Mage out for whatever reason. In the late game you can even use it to pump that final push to defeat a stubborn opponent and exile him/her (see what happened there). Dual Shot is generally thought of as a quite terrible card on it's own right. Players look to Forked Bolt and Twin Bolt to make their bias against this card, but in actuality it can be the nuts. It can knock down spirit, thopter, or warrior tokens as a norm and most 1 drop creatures. To sweeten the pot further, it is only a 1 CMC instant and when added to our creatures abilities, that split damage and spell sling counts. Expedite is actually an odd card, but it serves roughly three purposes in your match. First it serves to thin out your deck trying to find another creature (a Reveler if you haven't already got one), spell, or even just a land. It's like cycling except you get an upside of being able to haste one of your creatures. It is also an instant which helps on your opponents turn with our Thermo, or on our turn with Bedlam Reveler or Soul-Scar Mage. Galvanic Bombardment is a great removal spell. Instant speed 2 damage for 1 mana to a creature OR you can pile them on to each other to get 5 damage for 2 mana if you have two in your hand. A lot of times it is just a removal that gets better over time as we capitalize on our creatures and instant speed removal. Renegade Tactics runs in here extremely similarly to Expedite and might as well read "When you cycle this card, target creature becomes unblockable until end of turn." Shock is prominently featured in a lot of burn decks where Lightning Bolt isn't allowed. It's been reprinted more times than (Seth) Saffron Olive has properly pronounced a card name and pretty much set the standard on fair damage equation for mana/burn ratio. Thanks Kaladesh for bringing it back. Incendiary Flow is such a good card whose only downside is that it is a sorcery. 3 damage for 2 mana that can exile most creatures? Especially when we are about to deal with the Embalm mechanic. Kari Zev's Expertise is another one of those cards that kind of flies under the radar. It performs beautifully against an opponent that manages to get a big hitter out, takes a vehicle away from someone before you swing in with a pumped Reveler or Mage and lets you cascade from your hand, which is great since a vast majority of our deck is under 2 cmc. It's like a cheaper Limits of Solidarity or a more versatile Act of Treason. In It's a win all around.

Enchantments (1): Harness the Storm Is definitely here for the late game destruction and prowess triggers. The real payoff is when you manage to have cards like Galvanic Bombardment in your graveyard and all of the sudden, for 4 mana, you get to essentially deal 6 damage to 5 creatures, Draw 3-4 cards and make 3-4 creatures unblockable with Renegade Tactics and the rest of the possibilities.

We run 19 mountains due to our extremely low mana cost and filtering ability. At the time of this posting there aren't many cards in standard that help mono-red burn decks beyond Hanweir Battlements. Creatures we own typically won't benefit from being given haste by a land as opposed to the spell we have and it produces colorless mana of which we really don't need much. We do run 1 Geier Reach Sanitarium for purely filtering effect in the late game or set up for Harnessed Lightning.

Our Sideboard has a fairly controlling package. Fall of the Titans is great when you are just trying to spot remove a creature as it lets you burn their owner for the same amount. Typically you'll want to use the surge cost, which won't be much of a problem to attain. Release the Gremlins is actually a card I overlooked myself until I saw the even trade out of 2/2 creatures being created with the upside of destroying Artifact(s). Extremely helpful when Mardu vehicles comes rolling around. Wrangle is one of the cards used purely out of the meta. Most creatures in the format, including legendary ones, are under 3 power much less 4. For such a cheap cost, why not? Collective Defiance helps us cycle through our hand and/or deal out some burn damage to whatever we need it to. Insult // Injury is just one of those cards that has very little drawback. Mid-Late game, this card is the nuts. It doubles our damage to creatures and/or players and can even be played from the graveyard in case we want to discard it for filtering or after use. Unfortunately it can only be done at sorcery speed. Oh well, can't have it all. Savage Alliance is extremely helpful when dealing with a swarm of tokens and causing those Prowess triggers to go off with even more oomph. We finally are left with Weaver of Lightning, this card in conjunction with Soul-Scar Mage is absolutely insane. Easily reducing your opponents field to a shadow of it's former glory. Combined with the reach ability and 4 toughness which out lasts a lot of the creatures out there, this card is nuts.

If you managed to sit through all of that, I appreciate your time. Hope you enjoy the deck and may your card draws always be plenty and useful/