It’s no secret – I’m in love with Lava Spike.

It’s just good, honest magic! Nothing subtle about Lava Spike – as soon as one hits the table both players know what’s up. My love affair with deal-threes has gone back years, and I sleeve them up about every chance I can get. It’s no surprise, then, that I’ll be bringing Burn to the table in Birmingham.

Burn’s on an eternal ebb and flow in Modern, and aside from the infamous Eldrazi Winter of 2016 is always somewhere near the top. Wild Nacatl has fallen out of favour of late as it’s easily invalidated by Fatal Push as well as the slew of much bigger creatures presented by the Death’s Shadow and Eldrazi Tron decks. As a result, Burn decks have dialled back on their green sources, creature count and cut out Atarka’s Command completely to streamline the mana base. In doing so the deck has evolved into a Red-White base deck splashing only for a set of Destructive Revelry in the sideboard:

The deck has become subtly more powerful in the Death’s Shadow matchup with the pickup of Inspiring Vantage. No deck can play forever against a run of burn spells off the top, and the pressure will induce a racing situation by any means necessary.  Historically Burn decks used to produce some draws that would necessitate the pilot taking eight or more damage through shock lands and Eidolon triggers, and missing on burn spells for a turn or two can allow an opponent to close the distance against these low-creature count decks, especially in the face of Eldrazi, Death’s Shadows, Delve monsters and Celestial Colonnades. With three to four Inspiring Vantage, and with fewer green spells in the deck to necessitate fetching the Stomping Ground, this new spin on the old classic can frequently play four or more turns while staying above eighteen life. This gives a surprising edge against both Valakut and the Death’s Shadow decks. The Valakut decks deal damage in chunks of three and frequently in a single blow of eighteen – staying healthy can mean getting another turn to draw the lethal Boros Charm you were missing. Against Death’s Shadow decks staying high on life with painless lands and Lightning Helixes puts the eponymous creature in a bind – they will be unable to easily one-shot you with Temur Battle Rage, and will have to bring themselves into range of a two-spell kill just to put on enough pressure.

Some decks have been pushing this principle even further – while you can’t afford to trim on fetches due to the requirements of Searing Blaze, you can avoid the awkwardness of drawing the Stomping Ground by shaving the four Destructive Revelries from the sideboard in favour of Smash to Smithereens. Personally, I never leave home without my Disenchants, as the added utility of being able to take down Leyline of Sanctity is a huge benefit, as the popularity of that card has risen in the face of the dominance of Inquisition/Thoughtseize decks.

There is, however, another contender for the throne, a long forgotten deck wielding a Lava Spike that’s back in Black:

This deck epitomises the principle that “You can’t take ‘em with you”. There’s lots of views on card advantage, and a timeless classic amongst them is that any time a player loses a game with cards stuck in their hand, the other has gained card advantage on them. By filling the deck with 1-cost cards and only as few twos as it can get away with, this deck is undeniably the fastest thing in Burn technology and should reliably empty its hand by turn three most games.  While the matchup against Chalice of the Void decks is somehow more miserable here, decks looking to pick apart key pieces with discard spells or countermagic will find themselves overrun by a tide of spells. This deck is not for the faint of heart, as there is even less interaction than in the classic Burn deck (note the lack of Path to Exile) and fewer ways to overcome opponents’ hate cards.

I’ve not yet had the chance to sleeve this deck up, but the raw speed should overcome even the fastest combo decks; if I’d gotten in the reps, this would be my go-to for Birmingham for sure – it’s wildly unexpected and few players will have had the chance to play against it, giving a serious edge especially against Death’s Shadow players who are a little too liberal with their life totals – with a full twelve ways to deal three damage from the hand for a single mana, anything below ten life is terrifyingly perilous. I think Burn is quite well positioned against most of the format currently, with Searing Blaze making the Devoted Druid matchup a joke and the Death’s Shadow matchups a contest of experience more than anything else, I like my chances to burn the whole place down.

Just be careful you don’t Bump in to me this weekend…