So, how is everyone today? Yeah? Good! Cue music!

Trogdor was a maaaaaaan, no! He was a dragon-maaaaan! Actually, he was just a DRAGOOOOOOOOON!
Burninating the countryside, lalalala~

Now that I have your attention, let’s get down to business. It’s been a while since I’ve written my last deck-building guide, and I’ve been busy working on a few decks that have been on my mind for a while. I promise I won’t put in images for every card, but I will try to put links to their magiccards.info pages so you can read them as well as all addendum and rulings that have been added. I don’t want to try to go into the elaborate design that is my three-colored Esper (Shards of Alara: WUB/white blue black artifacts) deck, but I do want to share a bit on burn decks.

The one I’ve currently fallen in love with is my Chandra the Burninator deck, hence the Trogdor reference above. This deck features two of both Chandra Nalaar and Chandra Ablaze as well as the enchantment Pyromancer Ascension. The key with Pyromancer Ascension is to run four-ofs or a playset of burn spells. Most can be found and played for less than 3 (usually R and either 1 or 2, if anything).

The absolutely most important thing to remember about this kind of deck is that there are absolutely NO creatures. Your only defense is your arsenal of burn spells. You want to make sure that you have a couple big burn like Lightning Axe that you can throw at an opponent’s creature for little cost. Lightning Bolt is considered one of the best one mana spells out right now, and I agree. This, along with Shock and Tarfire, add quickness to your deck that, at best, can allow for a total of 9 damage by the start of turn 3.

Furnace of Rath is a nice addition that can be a double-edged sword. It doubles all damage that would be dealt, which means while your Lightning Bolt is doing 6 damage, that 1/1 Goblin that’s been pinging you all game is now hitting you for 2 every turn. If you’re lucky, by the time you play the Furnace, hopefully on turn 4 or 5, you’ll have your opponent scraping for life gain.

The nice thing with all the burn spells and the enhancers of Furnace of Rath and an active Pyromancer Ascension is that people will be more worried with those things than with an active Chandra. Sure, you can’t have both on the field at the same time, but you know those Lava Axes you’ve been holding onto? You can just discard them with Chandra Ablaze and deal 4 damage instead of paying the 5 and dealing 5. That damage will be doubled if the Furnace is out! It’s so worth it. Without creatures, though, you really need to work on protecting your planeswalker of choice until you know you can deal lethal damage with your spells.

I’ve played this deck a few times against demons, vampire, clones/creature theft, and red-black rakdos-inspired meanness. It hasn’t lost a game yet, but part of that is just my skill as a Red-colored player. I’ve played mono-red decks since my very first deck that I bought 7 years ago. Sure, I’ve played other types of decks, but nothing speaks to me like this deck. I’m proud of it. It has a great early game where you can usually empty your hand and get a lot of damage dealt, but the longer the game goes, the harder it is to stay alive. One of my best plays was being hellbent (no cards in my hand) and top-decking (drawing) a Chandra Ablaze with enough mana to cast her and win on my next turn. The biggest problem, however, is below.

This deck is not meant for multiplayer. I repeat, this deck is NOT meant for multiplayer games. I let someone that, I’ll admit, didn’t know how to pilot this much firepower play it in a 4-player game against GW spirits, Esper, and Rakdos-inspired decks. It didn’t die instantly, but the Furnace doubled the pinging from fliers and Abyssal Persecutor wasn’t looking very friendly. If you want to try it with three players, it might work, but when dealing with multiple opponents, most of your spells will be thrown at the faces of creatures and dealing finishing damage to your opponents.

Well, that’s about it as far as talking about how this kind of deck works and the things you should look for to build your own. There’s modified versions that involve creatures, and some variants that use other colors, but this is about the best I could do with a collection my size. Now, a treat for the curious future pyromancer!

Here’s my decklist! You’re welcome to try it out or modify it, but if you do decide to try it out or modify, let me know how it works! I’m not saying this is perfect, and I’d love to know what you, my lovely readers, would do or did do differently!

Deck Name: Chandra the Burninator

Spells:

4 Shock
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Ghostfire
4 Lava Axe
3 Incinerate
3 Tarfire
2 Rift Bolt
2 Lightning Axe
2 Pyroclasm
1 Cackling Flames

Enchantments:

2 Pyromancer Ascension
1 Furnace of Rath

Planeswalkers:

2 Chandra Nalaar
2 Chandra Ablaze

Land:

24 Mountain