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![]() Burning Bridge
Ensnaring Bridge
did not drop out of 8th Edition. With 8th Edition coming in with lots of burn, the
Burning Bridge archetype is yet again a viable option for Standard. A recent version
printed on Brainburst.com uses green for Naturalize
against Astral Slide, but this version
is more straight out and uses full red for better sideboard options. However, it may have
trouble dealing with a recurring Teroh's Faithful. Lets take a look at our options for burn: Firebolt
There are more, but those are the candidates. Generally,Firebolt
is probably better than Shock as it deals 4,
it is possible to run both but we will have this as the 1cc burn for now: 4 x Firebolt 2cc Burn - Volcanic Hammer goes
before Chain of Plasma as it can
cause more trouble then you can handle.
4 x Volcanic Hammer Fiery Temper is probably not a good
choice as there is Carbonize. Recurring burn
is great, especially giving you something to do in the late game, so Hammer of Bogardan
is great. Sulfuric Vortex should be used
in any burn deck, Seismic Assault actually isn't
bad losing your excess land - it may be an option to fit in later but the deck might not run too much land and
this might screw up the Hammer. 4 x Carbonize Violent Eruption is an
obvious choice as it handles creatures well, otherwise it's a Lightning Blast
to the face. 4 x Violent Eruption So far we have built this up as a burn base:- 4 x Firebolt Utility is always needed for this deck as it you may always have the wrong cards in the wrong
situation. Burning Wish helps out by
giving utility. Here are wish options: Flashfires - Slide goes down down down...same with White Weenie =P So 1 of each of those - we have 8 cards. Boil is
yet another hoser against another colour - we grab 3 - leaving us with 4 cards left in sideboard.
Against RG and Sligh, I was thinking 2 Pyroclasms,
which when sided in (assuming Burning Wishes
are still there, gives you effectively 6 Pyroclasms in
the deck. The remaining 2 spots have the same theory - 2 Flashfires,
giving you 6 Flashfires to draw giving you a better
chance against Slide. Our maindeck now looks like this: 4 x Firebolt To deal with creatures we have 4 Starstorms. 4 Ensnaring Bridges
is obviously needed. 31 cards in, 24 lands counts for another 5 cards needed. This is where we put in 2
Seismic Assault,needed during the
lategame where drawing lands is getting annoying. 3 card-spots left. I was thinking Furnace of Rath .
When you use your burn and settle in for a 4th turn Furnace,
the burn really starts to hurt as 1-mana can provide you with 4 damage and paying 5 to flashback that Firebolt
makes it do a total of 8 damage - wow. Then there are the 24 land. Petrified Field
wrecks the red mana base but works well with Forgotten Cave,
Seismic Assault AND Barbarian Ring.
I think we need 3 Barbarian Ring, 3 Forgotten Cave
and only 2 Petrified Field as not to wreck the colour base.
The remaining 16 land can be 3 saclands to further thin the deck, even effectively if you have Petrified Field.
Then the rest can be mountains. Let's piece everything up I said Matchups after testing UG Madness Against UG Madness it probably has too much burn for it to deal with.Naturalize
after sideboarding will not be too devastating as you still have burn for most of their creatures and Boil
will slow them down, giving you time to set up a Furnace of Rath
and burning the heck out of your opponent with no Wurms to stand in your way. RG Beatdown Hard because of Phantom Centaurs and Elephant Guides.
Pyroclasm helps a bit after sideboarding - as long as you set
up a bridge or two you will have the upper hand as you will always win the race of burn. Astral Slide This match is much easier after sideboarding when you have Flashfires.
It's not an easy matchup by any means especially if they recur Teroh's Faithful.
Flashfires wrecks their whole mana base and you can go from there,
killing their Teroh's Faithful with less cycling resistance
and then just burning the hell out of your opponent as usual. Psychatog After 8th edition is in, Psychatog is pretty much dead.
Psychatog is pretty easy to deal with as they can't counter
all your burn, and Hammer of Bogardan just knocks him
out. Eventually a Boil will win you the game. Seismic Assault
and Furnace of Rath must be countered - if not, you will
win as they cannot remove it and it will just be too much for the 'tog player. I just don't see tog being run as it has
lost Counterspell, Duress...
but watch out for Haunting Echoes. Wake Same story for Wake - it has lost both Counterspell AND Memory Lapse.
without adequate counter and not being able to counter every burn you play anyway, Wake has problem defeating you unless
they somehow win the race with a very quick Miraried Renewed Faith.
After sideboarding, Boil and Flashfires
makes this matchup a bye. Sligh This matchup was fun in testing - Just greet the goblins, then hammer 'em,
bolt 'em and Carbonize 'em.
Watch your opponent's face when you Violent Eruption them. You use your burn
on your opponent's little dudes... his hand is getting small from playing too many dudes and your hand is getting small from playing burn.
He drops Vortex. You smile and proceed to outburn him as you have WAY
more burn than the average sligh player. Easy matchup, after sideboarding you even have the Pyroclasms.
Just burn all the little red men. This matchup is a bye. The only problem with those matchups is that you may not face them. RG is still a powerful machine that can eat the Burning Bridge deck if it
doesn't drop a sturdy bridge. Then there are the other decks that may emerge
from 8th Edition and may effectively be built to beat Burning Bridge. I guess the Scissors-Paper-Rock metagame will determine how this deck will
fair - but it looks good so far.
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