Modern-Tier Burn Deck Becomes Standard LEGAL for 5 Years

Last updated on January 18, 2025

Lightning Helix | Illustration by Shiyu

Foundations, the MTG set coming out in the next few weeks, will be Standard‘s bedrock for the next five years.

And by the look of the Magic cards revealed in the last few days, both new and reprints, burn is back on the Standard menu – big time!

Reprints of Boros Charm or Burst Lightning would be news all by themselves, and they come with supporting spells like Viashino Pyromancer, which MTG Arena old-timers probably remember from Open Beta's Standard. But what's eye-watering is one of the new scorching-hot toys.

As Saffron Olive notes on X/Twitter, Boltwave may be even better than Lava Spike for burn decks, since the “each player” rule plays around protection cards like Leyline of Sanctity, which gives players hexproof.

As Redditors have been quick to notice, Foundations will give Standard's burn decks access to some of the staples of a Modern burn shell, which often include Boros Charm, Lighting Helix, and Monastery Swiftspear.

Here's one such burning brew that is being discussed on the MTG Arena subreddit:

Source

In the image above u/Meret123's brew shows Lava Spike in place of Boltwave, but many players will likely want to use the new FDN card instead.

Top of Worlds

Monastery Swiftspear | Illustration by Steve Argyle

Aggressive red decks are nothing new in any Magic format. But after Bloomburrow, post-rotation Standard became hostile to mono-red decks and burn-heavy strategies, leaning a lot more into Gruul prowess decks that rely a lot more on creatures dealing combat damage than instants going directly to face.

But burn is still going strong in Modern.

Quinn Tonole, who last weekend ended Top 4 in the Magic World Championship with a Mono-Red Aggro deck, prefers Burn for Modern (as they piloted three days ago at the RCQ in RCQ Binghamton, NY), showcasing how Monastery Swiftspear, Boros Charm, and Lava Spike are central to this strategy.

Tonole's Top 4 deck at the World Championship, which uses many burn spells to supplement its aggro strategy, highlights the strength of Duskmourn‘s Screaming Nemesis in Standard.

“Even when Unholy Annex, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, or Tranquil Frillback appear, Screaming Nemesis can keep opponents from gaining life at critical moments,” notes Frank Karsten in his Metagame Mentor article about the Championship.

“Screaming Nemesis is extremely painful to block with Archfiend of the Dross, and it also works seamlessly with Witchstalker Frenzy.”

Pointing Witchstalker Frenzy to your own Screaming Nemesis basically turns Witchstalker Frenzy into a Lava Axe, Karsten notes. 

Counting To Twenty

Boros Charm | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

Will something close to classic Boros burn blossom in Standard in two weeks?

I have some reservations about the lack of card draw – Modern burn has access to extremely efficient instants – but Standard burn (as we saw back in the glory days of Experimental Frenzy and Runaway Steam-Kin) may need to draw a few more spells to count to twenty.

Is there even a snowball's chance in hell that oodles of burn buffs won't try, though? As every burn aficionado knows: never bet on the snowball!