Boros Burn, without a doubt, is my favorite Magic deck of all time. I was introduced to Boros Burn exactly 10 years ago, and I remember getting beaten pretty badly by who else but fellow CoolStuffInc writer Mike Flores at a Preliminary Pro Tour Qualifier in midtown Manhattan in 2016. Instead of playing "garbage Scapeshift" Mike offered me his Burn list. A few weeks later I won my first PPTQ, and the rest was history.

Burn treated me well over the years, as it was the deck I piloted to become the SCG Modern Regional Champion in the winter of 2017. I had some PTQ finals as well as two Grand Prix top 24 finishes. While Boros Burn has been off the docket for a few years, due to Modern Horizons sets upping the power level of the format, it's (to my surprise) made a recent resurgence.

Without Phlage, Burn is back in Modern! ??? Lost all 5 die rolls and still crushed the opposition! Eidolon of Great Revel is now needed again in the list. Youtube veedeo out soon! ? #MTGModern pic.twitter.com/qnyORsV1a8

— Andrea Mengucci (@Mengu09) May 20, 2026

I was so excited to see pro player Andrea Mengucci triumphantly 5-0 with Boros Burn in a recent Magic Online Modern League, and after seeing more and more successful lists pop up, I became hopeful for the archetype's return.

Boros Burn is usually mislabeled as an easy deck to play in Modern. Sure, it's an Aggro deck where you play cards like Goblin Guide and Lightning Bolt to swiftly and surely reduce your opponent's life total down to zero. However, it's secretly a deck that requires a lot of thought, patience, and planning in order to effectively win matches of Magic: the Gathering.

What is Boros Burn?

So first off - what is Boros Burn? Boros Burn is an aggro deck that focuses on playing a multitude of similar spells that deal direct damage to your opponent. With cards that deal three or four damage for two or less mana, like Lightning Bolt and Boros Charm, you can fling these spells directly at your opponents' face in order to reduce their life total to zero, before they end up doing the same to you.

Here's an average 2026 build of Boros Burn:

Boros Burn | Modern | Roman Fusco

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

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

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Boltwave
• 4 Lava Spike
• 4 Skewer the Critics

• Lands (20)
• 3 Mountain
• 2 Barbarian Ring
• 2 Sacred Foundry
• 2 Scalding Tarn
• 3 Bloodstained Mire
• 4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Sunbaked Canyon

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Kor Firewalker
• 2 Deflecting Palm
• 3 Smash to Smithereens
• 4 Skullcrack
• 4 Searing Blood

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You play on average a maximum of 12 Creatures that have Haste or deal damage in other ways, since you also need repeatable sources of damage. Overall, it's a pretty consistent strategy, with most cards in the maindeck and the sideboard dealing direct damage in some form or another.

An initial breakdown of an average Boros Burn deck looks like this:

• 12 Creatures
• 28 direct-damage Instants and Sorceries
• 20 Lands

Burn's Creature package hasn't changed at all in the last decade, and for good reasons. Monastery Swiftspear and Goblin Guide are your best Haste threats at just one mana. These Creatures are so important because if you get to play them early, and they're unchecked, they can deal multiple points of damage. In Burn, you want to maximize your cards.

If your Monastery Swiftspear is able to attack one game for one, then two, then three damage over the course of multiple turns, you've just used one card to deal six damage, which is more than any of your individual burn spells can deal.

Eidolon of the Great Revel is so great for this reason, because it usually gets in for around four damage or so before your opponent has a chance to remove it. Goblin Guide is the worst of the bunch, but the old bugger gets the job done if you can deploy him on turn one.

For spells you have a decent mixture of one- and two-mana spells. Usually, you don't want to play more than 12 two-mana cards. In Burn, efficiency is paramount, so if you're stuck on three mana you want to be able to deploy your one and two-drops together, rather than be bottlenecked on only being able to cast one two-mana card a turn.

For one-mana spells, Lightning Bolt, Lava Spike, and Boltwave are your cheapest ways of dealing three damage directly to your opponent. Skewer the Critics, while technically three mana, is usually one mana, but you have to sequence it correctly.

For two-mana spells you get Boros Charm and Searing Blaze as your premier options. Boros Charm is the only Instant at two-mana that directly deals four damage to your opponent, with Searing Blaze being a little more awkward if your opponent has no Creatures in play. If they do, it's a great two-for-one.

Your last two-mana spell is usually a toss-up between Skullcrack and Lightning Helix, and the choice you make is usually more of a meta-call. Skullcrack can definitely stop cards like Guide of Souls and The Shadowspear momentarily, but honestly I prefer Lightning Helix since it can target your opponents' Creatures (this is incredibly relevant in the Burn mirror too).

For Lands you play a mixture of Dual Lands, Fetch Lands, and Utility Lands. The breakdown on average is:

• 2 Sacred Foundry
• 3 Mountain
• 3-4 Inspiring Vantage
• 4 Sunbaked Canyon
• 2-4 Barbarian Ring
• 4-8 Red Fetch Lands

The numbers vary from deck to deck, but I think if I were to register a Burn deck for an event tomorrow my breakdown would be two Sacred Foundry, three Mountain, four Inspiring Vantage, four Sunbaked Canyon, two Barbarian Ring, and five Red Fetch Lands. I don't particularly like Barbarian Ring due to how much life you lose already from Sunbaked Canyon and your Fetch Lands, but it is a nice way for some extra damage in long games.

Building the Sideboard

For your sideboard you have to be careful. One of the biggest lessons I've learned from playing Burn is how consistent of a deck it is. You want every card in your deck to deal damage in some shape or form, which means you have very little room to dilute your strategy. Over complicating your sideboard plan with too many cards that don't deal damage will slow you down and just lose games where you slightly flood out or don't draw enough action.

This is why I tend to avoid cards like Rest in Peace and Wear // Tear. I wrote an article about sideboarding earlier this year where I broke down why Wear // Tear is so awful compared to Smash to Smithereens in Boros Burn. You can check it out for more context.

The tldr is, Wear // Tear is awful because it doesn't deal damage. Sure, it kills Urza's Saga and another card for three mana, but I'd rather just have Smash to Smithereens to further my gameplan of putting my opponent's life total to zero.

Cards like Searing Blood, Roiling Vortex, and Skullcrack are all great sideboard options in my opinion, because they can help you become better suited against the wider metagame while also retaining your plan. I'd pass on cards like Rest in Peace, Wear // Tear, or any other card that doesn't inherently attack or deal damage. Even Kor Firewalker is a fine option if you expect to see the mirror.

If I had to register a sideboard tomorrow for an event it would be:

• 4 Searing Blood
• 2 Deflecting Palm
• 3 Smash to Smithereens
• 4 Skullcrack
• 2 Kor Firewalker

I'd maybe cut the Kor Firewalkers if I thought I was the only Burn player in the room, so Exquisite Firecraft, Obsidian Charmaw, and Molten Rain are other options to consider.

Have Patience

While I could go on forever about this deck, the most important lesson I'll leave with you today is to have patience. I've won so many Burn mirrors over the years against opponents who treated the deck like a mindless aggro deck, where you play your cards as soon as you draw them.

The biggest mistake I see Burn players make is mis-sequencing their spells when they can bide their time. For example, if you're up against an Azorius Control deck with a multitude of counterspells, you want to be mindful of when you cast your spells. The best way to approach the matchup is to sometimes do nothing on entire turn cycles. The Azorius deck is so much better than you at countering your spells and drawing cards. If you make the first move, it could mean death.

Instead, you can bide your time, waiting for the right moment to unload your hand if they try and tap out for a draw spell or use their mana to deploy a Planeswalker. You ultimately need to wait for when the time is right to dump your hand, and catch them at a time where they can't counter all of your burn spells that will deal them lethal damage.

Sometimes, if you think your opponent has a removal spell in their hand, there's no reason to attack with a Goblin Guide. Doing so might net them a free card draw in a Land off the top of their deck. Instead, you can wait until the coast is clear and they are tapped out to attack with a flurry of Creatures.

Most bad Burn players by nature are, well, hot-headed. You have to keep your cool and exercise patience when playing. Funnily enough, most of my Burn matches across the hundreds of matches I played over the years ended within 30 minutes. If you're just learning the deck, you can use your time effectively to just sit and think for a few extra seconds, since you'll never go to time.

How do you Sideboard?

As for sideboarding against popular Modern decks, I actually haven't played enough recent Modern matches to really provide a detailed sideboard guide. Over the years I was pretty flexible in my sieboarding, and I feel like I never really sideboarded the same way twice unless it was a very specific matchup I had prepared for.

I'd say go with your gut. In some cases it's worse to leave Eidolon of the Great Revel in against Creature-based decks, especially if you're on the draw for Game 2 or three. Skullcrack is great against lifegain, or just as a swap for Searing Blaze if your opponents have few targetable Creatures in their deck. Deflecting Palm can be the finishing blow against a Primeval Titan or Eldrazi. Smash to Smithereens replaces Eidolon of the Great Revel against Artifact decks, Searing Blood is good against Energy - that's really all there is to it.

Conclusion

All in all, Burn might be the best deck in the format, but with the banning of Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury, I feel like it's due for a comeback. I'm definitely going to sleeve up my old Goblin Guides and Lightning Bolts for the next Modern RCQ I'm able to attend, and I'm looking forward to seeing if I can stand toe to toe with some of the top strategies in the format.