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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Burn / Hand Control Deck
August 27, 2009

Today's deck is a classic example of how a simple strategy can sometimes be the best. Today's client has built a solid R/B deck out of simple commons, and has brought it to me for a tune-up.

---

Im just getting back into magic and this is my first deck with the new block. It only uses shards of alara block and 2010. I tried to use mostly discard with some burn. I didnt put a sideboard together wasnt sure what to use. If you could rate/fix it that would help a lot. The point is to use megrim and discard to damage. and burn and other spells for creature control.

Creatures:
-Hypnotic Specter- 4
-sanity gnawers- 2
-nyxathid- 4
-wall of bone- 2

Spells:
-blightning- 4
-lightning bolt- 4
-Duress- 2
-megrim- 4
-burning inquiry- 2
-earthquake- 2
-pyroclasm- 2
-mind rot- 4
-scepter of fugue- 2
-terminate- 2

Lands:
-dragonskull summit- 4
-mountain- 8
-swamp- 8


This deck strongly reminds me of a deck my friend plays, which exploits Underworld Dreams and Megrim alongside Burning Inquiry. That deck is ferociously annoying, and quite often wins on its opponent's draw step.

So, clearly the first thing I'm going to recommend is Underworld Dreams. This card is much more punishing than people give it credit for, especially given how many decks there are out there that want to draw extra cards, and pack Mulldrifter and Jace Beleren just to make that happen.

Once you add Underworld Dreams, you could choose to take this deck in a slightly different direction, with cards like Font of Mythos to make your opponent draw himself to death, but we'll assume you don't want to do that. I'll stick with your discard/burn plan, and if you decide to pursue Underworld Dreams, you can.

Now, for discard and burn, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the two hottest ladies in Magic today: Liliana Vess and Chandra Nalaar. One is a repeatable discard machine to rival Scepter of Fugue, and the other is as much burn as you need her to be. You only need one or two copies of each, but they're both potent enough that you want at least one of each. Especially when you have a Wall of Bone with which to protect them.

You should also look into Bituminous Blast. Not only is it a decent burn card, but the free spell you flip off the top is more useful than you may realize. When your opponent is discarding cards, and you're getting free ones off the top fo your library, you're going to generate an enormous advantage.

Mostly all the work here is already done. The goal is simple enough, so why make it complicated? Discard, burn, win.

Good luck!

~BMoor