Controlled Blaze - The First Deck Article Just in time for the second article, I've finally written an article about deck construction. This deck, in particular, is a Type I mono-red deck that many of my friends and other random opponents absolutely hate. It even has red-backed Deck Protectors as a sort of "Go ahead, sideboard if you dare" warning to its helpless victims. It thrives on basic burn-deck principles, but has some odd elements in it-such as a little bit of control. Creatures 3x Shivan Dragon 2x Two-Headed Dragon 2x Ball Lightning 1x Thundermare 1x Skizzik 1x Balduvian Horde 1x Eron the Relentless 1x Lightning Hounds 1x Tahngarth, Talruum Hero Spells 1x Fork 1x Fireball 2x Urza's Rage 2x Pillage 2x Disintegrate 3x Lava Burst 3x Mana Flare 4x Lightning Bolt 4x Incinerate Artifacts 1x Sol Ring 1x Zuran Orb 2x Icy Manipulator Land 25x Mountain Side Board 1x Maze of Ith 1x Dingus Staff 1x Mana Web 3x Pyroclasm 1x Cave-In 2x Kaervek's Torch 1x Boiling Seas 2x Anarchy 2x Pyroblast 2x Red Elemental Blast Total cards in main deck:65 Now for a quick breakdown: First of all, many of you are probably wondering why I have 65 cards instead of 60. It's simple: I made a normal 60-card deck, then added 5 Mountains. This helps keep me from running short on mana, and also annoys most Millstone decks so badly, they can't see straight. I always do this with the decks I make as a means of boosting their efficiency. The meat of the burn concept always lies in the creatures and spells. Incinerate and Lightning Bolt are always incredibly versatile. Urza's Rage is a real pain for permission decks, and the use of X-damage spells should be pretty obvious. Ball Lightning and Skizzik are basically damage spells disguised as creatures, the Dragons are huge fliers that double as mana sinks when needed, and the other creatures are all large and fast for support purposes. The deck's only enchantment, Mana Flare, is instrumental in making this deck faster. Although Mana Flare helps your opponents as well, you'll benefit from it far more than they will. Trust me. The control and support side of the deck is where the strange cards come into play. Thundermare taps all other creatures when it comes into play, which your opponent will hate if you can play Ball Lightning at the same time. (Don't laugh-I've done it before.) The infamous 50-cent Maze of Ith, as well as the Icy Manipulators, can act as short-term control for your opponent's best cards. Sol Ring allows you to make your deck even faster, and Fork can play all kinds of strange tricks on your opponent. If you want to build something similar, consider a little bargain shopping mixed in with large doses of intimidation. My first article, "Bargain Magic", can help you a lot in this area. Ball Lightning, Shivan Dragon, Balduvian Horde, and several other great creatures can be found in the Beatdown box set, which you might be able to find for $25 or so. On the intimidation side, consider this: See the lone Fireball in the deck list? It's from Beta. I shopped pretty hard for it, but you'd be surprised how much seeing a card from Beta can rattle an opponent. Taking a look at the sideboard, it's not hard to see what most of the cards are for. Dingus Staff, an artifact from Weatherlight that deals 2 damage to a player every time one of their creatures goes to the graveyard from play, eats decks with little creatures for breakfast when used with Pyroclasm. Mana Web locks down mono-color decks, while Boiling Seas and Anarchy blow blue-white decks into tiny pieces. Kaervek's Torch, Pyroblast, and Red Elemental Blast are all anti-blue. As for the disgustingly underrated Cave-In, it's basically a free Pyroclasm. So what about black discard decks? Sample Game: Opponent plays Mind Twist. I play Fork. Enough said.