What Are The Top Decks In Modern – Burn and RDW

Do you like dealing 20 points in a matter of minutes? If so, this is your deck. The entire basis of Red Deck Wins (RDW) is to throw as much damage as you can in as little time as possible. To do this, the deck runs very few lands and as many damage maximizing spells as it can fit in the list. This means maximising on Lightning Bolt and its various other versions from across the years (Shard Volley, Rift Bolt , Lava Spike). Some lists opt to run as few creatures as possible, sometimes none at all, earning the nickname Burn, however most conventional lists will include copies of Goblin Guide, Vexing Devil, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Monastery Swiftspear, and/or Hellspark Elemental to add additional pressure to the board. This is an all in aggressive strategy but requires decisive thought to ensure that your 20 damage happens in a timely fashion; the window of time you have to win with this deck can quickly close. As the deck mainly uses instant speed cards, be sure to take advantage of situations when you feel you can chain the most damage together safely (such as when the opponent taps out on their turn).

Sideboarding Against This Deck

Be wary of decklists containing the card Leyline of Sanctity and be sure to splash either white or green in the sideboard to be able to answer it, as this deck will simply fold to it alone. Thankfully this card is relatively rare. The biggest threats to this deck are white/green life gain cards like Kitchen Finks or Obstinate Baloth, decks that focus on life gain such as Soul Sisters, and artifacts such as Spellskite which can stop our instants and sorceries hitting the opponent, and Dragon’s Claw reduces the damage each of our spells can do.