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Main » Articles » Premodern Burn at the End of 2023

Premodern Burn at the End of 2023

Michael Flores
Posted on December 19, 2023
 Reddit

Premodern Burn is my favorite deck of all time. Any strategy. Any format. Whew! Thank the Dealer it's also good.

I originally assumed that Modern Burn would be my favorite deck. Goblin Guide and Monastery Swiftspear might be the 1-drop tandem I've written about the most. I have tons of memorable finishes with them, and the various shells they've shared. At a PPTQ long ago I once was worried about becoming too static; too identified with a single strategy; but it was Roman Fusco - that notable U/W Control Magician - who reassured me that I wasn't violating the essential concept of No Long Term Alliances or Allegiances... We were constantly iterating and innovating. Chained to the Rocks, more Chained to the Rocks, Bump in the Night, Mono-Red builds, Manamorphose; and even Ensnaring Bridge. Constantly changing our curve, how many lands we were playing; which lands we were playing. A color combination next to a descriptive noun did no justice to the nuance of my favorite deck.

Sorry: Second-favorite deck.

Over the course of the last couple of weeks, I had some personal realizations that made this call ultimately obvious for me. From a play experience standpoint, Premodern Burn scratches a lot of the same itches as Modern Burn. If anything, Premodern is the more strategic Lightning Bolt deck. Games develop in a predictable fashion. Strategy, long-term planning, and sideboarding all help decide the outcome of what tend to be highly competitive duels. Somehow, despite being maybe the most popular deck in the format, Premodern Burn - or "Sligh" as they insist on calling it - is consistently underestimated.

I love the underdog position, especially when I think it's undeserved. I love Burn's elegance of tactical game play, especially in Gear Two or when Slow Playing the Beatdown. I love that - now that Land Tax has been banned a few months - it's once again top-tier in the format.

But none of those are what makes it my favorite deck.

Almost two years ago now I got a text message from Patrick O'Halloran-Gannon, asking if I had plans one night... No? Might I want to practice Premodern? He saw me chattering about it on what-was-then-called-Twitter and said the format looked like fun. I found out later that POG wanted me to adopt him as my new apprentice, and decided that getting into my play-test circle for an upcoming important tournament seemed like the best way to weasel into my real life. He was right on all counts! For my part, I ended up eventually placing third in what was then the largest live Premodern tournament of all time and falling in love with Magic all over again.

This was the first play I made with what would eventually become my favorite deck:

Mogg Fanatic

I attacked with my Fanatic and asked if POG was going to spend the Swords to Plowshares he so obviously had on it.

POG kind of scoffed. "Is that even good?" He asked. "You'd never play that today."

"In its day," I responded, "we called it Mogg Fantastic. And it really is; fantastic that is. You should Swords it."

POG didn't.

"Okay," I said, marking his life to nineteen. "BTW this is going to do like six."

I was wrong. It did seven*

Those were some of my first games with Premodern. They were the first games in what has become a true pillar of my life at a time I didn't know I needed one. Premodern hasn't just become my favorite pastime - I play Premodern meet ups two or three times every month - but the catalyst to some of the most important friendships of my adult life. I literally chose a studio I took this year in part due to its proximity to my friend David Tao's house. You know, from his legendary TaoHaus meet ups, including the one that gave birth to Iron-Man v. The Hulk.

That first deck I played was the Aaron Dicks version; and I don't see a lot of reason to deviate from its central core and spirit.

Aaron is famous for adding Urza's Bauble to "Sligh" ... Though this is still a somewhat controversial and not-universally-adopted innovation even years later. While slower than contemporary cantrips, Baubles not only let Aaron - famous for saying he'd rather try to operate with one Mountain in play than be stuck drawing more with five down already - cut lands, they fuel his Grim Lavamancers for no cost.

This past weekend, Aaron made the finals of the Misty Mountain Finals. I'd have loved to see my friend complete his 2023 with a notable tournament win... But Aaron is already considered the preeminent theoretician of Ball Lightning in Premodern. He has back-to-back Easter Championships, a Top 8 at Lobstercon, and more top finishes and near-misses with Jackal Pups in front of him than anyone else in the community.

I also wanted to finish my 2023 in fiery fashion.

But I made kind of a boo boo.

You see, I had put up a Twitter, sorry X, poll earlier in the week, asking my followers if I should go with "heat" or "spice" in the final meet up of the year.

Spice was the predictable winner. I had my deck all picked out. I was going to bring back the Lan D. HOath deck that Lan D. Ho and I played at the Sacred Torch $1.5k... But with "spicy" updates from reigning monthly webcam champion Rich Shay. Only I didn't own the most spicy card he had added:

Words of Worship

Try this card with Sylvan Library some time!

Well, there went the original "spice" plan. So instead I just adopted a weird change that a recent online tournament winner Iron_lungs made: Swapping Aaron's Urza's Baubles with Phyrexian Furnace.

The change is kind of not that strange and also much worse than it seems even at first glance.

1998 World Champion Brian Selden won LobsterCon this year - arguably the most prestigious Premodern tournament there is - in part by adding three copies of Phyrexian Furnace to a deck that didn't typically play them: LandStill. So, on the one hand they're not that weird. Furnaces actually get a lot of action in Premodern, and thematically fulfill both heat (because they're Furnaces) and spice (because they're weird) requirements. "Content," you know?

On the other hand, you're basically replacing Street Wraith in this deck with an off-color cycler. While Phyrexian Furnace does, in fact, have an ability you might sometimes want, Urza's Bauble gives a Burn player a surprising amount of useful information. Like, you can sometimes learn if the opponent has a Counterspell, or what archetype they're on before committing your first 1-drop.

This is what Our Hero brought to NYC's last Premodern meet up of 2023:

Burn | Premodern | Michael Flores

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Round One: Sunny with LandStill

Sunny sat down and asked me if I had obeyed my X-poll. Had I brought the spice?

I told him I did, then won the roll.

Then I played a Jackal Pup into another Jackal Pup. He, understandably, gave me some side-eye.

"I really did add spice!" I pleaded. "Only you're probably not going to see it this game and I'm going to side it all out."

Game 1 was a classic Gear One game for a Burn deck. My draw chose me and my slow, control deck opponent didn't have Swords to Plowshares in his opening hand.

Sideboarding is kind of difficult for this matchup for a bunch of reasons. Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast can be contextually incredible in-matchup, but they also deal no damage. The bigger problem is that the more problematic cards tend to be White permanents, so Blasts don't even interact with them.

Another card that is a head-scratcher is Sulfuric Vortex. Vortex is one of the best cards in the abstract, but if the opponent lands a Circle of Protection: Red, you're just going to die to your own enchantment.

In a structure where I am not siding in all my Blasts, I decided to bring specifically Pyroblast. Pyroblast can leave your hand in some situations where Red Elemental Blast won't, which can help set up Cursed Scroll in a pinch. Moreover, if you're going to side in exactly three with a 3-3 split, siding in all the same name is also better with Cursed Scroll.

This match came really close to being a WLL when Sunny played a turn three Circle of Protection: Red. At that point, the game basically becames all about both players drawing lots of lands. Sunny needs lands to operate the Circle, and Heroes need lands to keep dropping them. If you draw too many spells relative to lands, eventually you can't sandbag them to try to overwhelm the Circle all in one turn (which is basically the only way you can win).

At some point Sunny discarded a redundant Circle and we just kept passing to each other.

With about ten lands in play, Sunny cycled a Decree of Justice for three Soldier tokens. I probably wasn't going to have a better opportunity so I threw my hand at him. I eventually resolved both a Fireblast and a Price of Progress after a couple of Circle-protected Incinerates. They were enough.

Winning with the Circle in play is surprisingly difficult. If the Red Deck doesn't give you the layup with Sulfuric Vortex, it can become an exercise in patience.

One thing that I would say is that I tend not to sideboard multiple copies of Circle of Protection: Red. From the LandStill side, I like to mix it up with Hydroblast, Blue Elemental Blast, and a secondary "hate" permanent. Blasts give you additional action against a first turn Goblin Lackey. In terms of two permanents, a second Circle doesn't help, but a Circle and a Warmth, a Circle and a Chill, or a Circle and an Arcane Laboratory can all team up to prevent the kind of single turn overwhelm that I used to steal this match.

Warmth
Chill
Arcane Laboratory

1-0 / 2-0

Round Two: Lanny with Grow-A-Tog

Grow-A-Tog (GAT) is Lanny's pet deck. Last year the more handsome half of Spike Colony finished last in the Premodern Showdown Series... And then this year the far less handsome (but I guess younger and more talented) half of the podcast won with the much-maligned GAT.

Is GAT just a terrible Dreadnought deck? That splashes for its 2-drop?

At a minimum, 12/12 decks tend to have massive deck advantage over Sligh in Game 1 whereas GAT starts out way behind. A Quirion Dryad is savage once it gets to 5/5... But before that first +1/+1 counter lands? It can be meat to a measly Mogg Fanatic.

At the previous December meet up, Lanny beat me to eventually finish first.

This time?

REVENGE!

This was a WLW. Winning the matchup tends to involve getting Game 1. GAT can play as many as four copies of Chill - which can be deployed as early as turn one due to Mox Diamond - which can close out Sligh before it even plays Mountain #1.

Lanny got two Chills against me in Game 2! I only drew one land, but kept due to drawing multiple Blasts. Not that I could cast them.

A big part of turning this matchup around after the last meetup was just playing six Pyroblasts and Red Elemental Blasts. Lanny convinced me to cut Overload (a card I never liked anyway) for more action against the most problematic cards: Chill and Psychatog.

This makes us far worse against a resolved Phyrexian Dreadnought... But we have slightly more action in disrupting the Dreadnought combo itself. You have to have read Slow Playing the Beatdown, though (probably).

This is how I took down my podcast partner:

Cursed Scroll is a ridiculous trump in this matchup. The best cards are 1) Cursed Scroll, and 2) Grim Lavamancer, but the difference between #1 and #2 is immense. GAT has all manner of Fire // Ice to kill Lavamancer, but largely have to stop Cursed Scroll before it resolves. They basically kill everything, allowing the Red Deck a wide choice of Gears to play from.

You can play any Gear in this matchup, but Gear Two tends to be super easy because the GAT deck has relatively few actual ways to win. All of them die to a Grim Lavamancer or Cursed Scroll activation except for Psychatog, which still dies to six 1-drops.

An uncontested Cursed Scroll, paired with land drops, almost guarantees a Gear Three win. There is no direct way GAT can prevent just dying two points at a time, and every speed bump it tries to play is just more Scroll meat. Lanny was so convinced of this he cut a Counterspell from his PSS-winning deck to add a Winter Orb. He needed some form of mana control or Cursed Scroll was just going to get him.

Still, it got him.

2-0 / 4-1

Round Three: Bill with Elves

Bill and I have been trading wins in all the formats. He got me the first time we played - The Rock over LandStill; I got him the next time Sligh over Elves; but he beat me last weekend to put me in official last place at Standard Store Championships.

This meeting was a redux of our last Premodern match: Red against Little Green Men again.

In Game 1 I got an early Sulfuric Vortex. One of the reasons I have magnetized back to Premodern Burn is because of a prescient tip that Lanny gave me: Sulfuric Vortex - as a persistent source of damage - allows the Red Deck to better play Gear Two.

Often you are torn between using your burn spells on the opponent and on the opponent's creatures. Lightning Bolt versus Llanowar Elves? As classic as that heads up is - dating back to 1993 - it is kind of a waste of two damage.

The preferred Gear for this matchup tends to be Gear Two. When I beat Bill last time I had both Grim Lavamancer and Sulfuric Vortex in the games I won. If you can land a Lavamancer before Elves "goes off" with explosive mana, you can usually keep them from ever getting anywhere. Vortex not only provides a way to win while using your direct damage on their Little Green Men; it can prevent backdoor wins via Wellwisher or even bigger life gain.

So anyway... I had Sulfuric Vortex and was feeling pretty good.

And then Bill played Wall of Roots.

Wall of Roots

If you know the Premodern metagame, you know no one "just plays" Wall of Roots in their Elves deck. Wall of Roots means only one thing:

Natural Order

Wall of Roots has gigantic toughness, but it's not really there to block a Jackal Pup. You play it on turn two with good reliance it'll be there on turn three. Then you can make your land drop, add one extra mana, and use the Wall itself to go 7/7 Saproling Machine:

Verdant Force

That's exactly what Bill did!

"You didn't used to play Natural Order, did you?"

"No," he replied. "But everyone is playing Burn now!" He had me there.

The game came down a little anticlimactic. I chumped the non-trampling 7/7 with Mogg Fanatics twice. One got a point in on Bill, and the second saved me four +1/+1 damage by sniping a hasty Deranged Hermit before combat damage landed. Meanwhile Lightning Bolt, Incinerate, Grim Lavamancer, and of course the Vortex all conspired to go Gear One.

Then I drew Fireblast. Whew!

Here's how I sideboard:

I think you can swap a Ball Lightning for a Cursed Scroll here, but Cursed Scroll is not the suppression tool that Grim Lavamancer can be, mostly due to its mana requirement.

Burn can play any Gear in the Elves matchup, but Gear Two is the best barring two circumstances. The first, obviously, is that they don't just Natural Order you. You can't really "suppress" a 7/7, let alone a 7/7 lifelink. The second is that you have one or more persistent sources of either card advantage or Philosophy of Fire units (Grim Lavamancer, Cursed Scroll, and Sulfuric Vortex are all good examples) and the opponent isn't going off with Survival of the Fittest. If you don't have a natural source of card advantage it's very difficult to keep up with their Survival. In a sideboarded game it is possible for the Elves opponent to find a Mountain, Survival for Anger, and then just cast (and use) a Goblin Sharpshooter. This will take out your Grim Lavamancer, or really anything you can play.

I won Game 1 by shifting into Gear One, but that Gear, too, is more difficult to cement in sideboard games. First of all, Jackal Pup is super unreliable because they can put literally any 1/1 in front of it, or double Time Walk you with a Multani's Acolyte. Because you sideboard Jackal Pup out, that makes it more difficult for Gear One to choose you. Secondly, Phantom Nishoba overcomes Gear One by itself; often even if you have a Vortex.

Game 2 was not competitive. My opponent shipped to London twice, whereas I had a Lava Dart, Grim Lavamancer, Vortex opening. Bill was just too short of resources to compete the regular way or put together Natural Order.

3-0 / 6-1

Victory, I think you'll agree, was a great way to end my Premodern year, with my favorite Premodern deck.

Thanks especially to Evan Erwin for letting me write about this format. That said, it looks like Premodern is gaining a ton of popularity. It's been added to at least one traveling cash convention, and more and more Pro Tour and Mythic Champions are taking it up.

The recent near-1,000 Legacy players at Eternal Weekend give me revitalized hope for the growth of the format. The New York Premodern scene grew out of our Legacy community. And I really don't see why, if a current Legacy player stumbled into a Premodern meet up, they wouldn't immediately trade in their Underground Seas for Underground Rivers. Or at least add them to the playable repertoire.

LOVE

MIKE

* POG wanted to make sure I pointed out that he had saved the Plow for a Ball Lightning. Which nevertheless doesn't change how effective the first swinging Goblin was.

TAGS articles, constructed, tournament reports, analysis, tournament report, burn, decklist, mono-red, michael flores, premodern, 12192023

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