After the recent rotation of Standard on MTGA, we finally said goodbye to Alrund’s Epiphany / Galvanic Iteration combo. Seeing every player either taking all the turns, or simply staring in disbelief as their life total slowly dwindled to the pecking of small birds, we emerged into a new era of Standard. The era of the Midrange Meta! Midrange decks have struggled to stay alive recently, due to the high volume of control, as well as the overpowered beat down of decks like Mono White and Mono Green. Enter the new Standard Meta with Streets of New Capenna. Control decks are virtually nonexistent, and in the first few weeks after the set dropped, we saw almost nothing but Midrange decks. Esper Raffine, Scheming Seer decks, decks sacrificing Tenacious Underdog to the Casualty ability of Ob Nixilis, and many more. Runes and Naya Humans still lurk in the shadows but are nowhere near as prominent. Then, as if it just fell from the sky, a Boros Burn deck showed up, and currently has the highest win rate out of any decks in best of one. Ironically, it doesn’t run a single new card from SNC, but you should recognize most of them.
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You may be familiar with most of the cards in this list, but they’ve never felt quite as seamless as they do in this deck, and the synergies are unreal! Hopeful Initiate was already a great card, but with this build, it’s almost impossible NOT to train him, since you have so many creatures with haste. Everything feels so cohesive- the cards complement each other so well that it’s hard to believe this deck wasn’t already a player before now. Hopeful Initiate’s ability to remove two counters from a creature to destroy an artifact or enchantment often comes up, and since you won’t have a problem training it to be a massive threat, you’ll almost always have the option as added removal.
Luminarch Aspirant and Valorous Stance are cards we should all be familiar with by now. They make the cut in this list as Luminarch Aspirant is just too good of a card not to include in an aggressive deck playing white creatures, and Valorous Stance has the option of saving one of your creatures from a removal spell or destroying a pesky blocker with a lot of toughness clearing the way.
Kumano Faces Kakkazan adds another layer to the deck. First, it pings the opponent and any of their Planeswalkers for one damage when it enters the battlefield, then gives the creature you cast on your next turn +1+1 counters, before finally turning into the Etching of Kumano; a 2/2 creature with haste that has the passive ability to exile the opponents’ creatures when they die this turn, if you’ve dealt damage to them. This card is so powerful, as all three modes are a threat on their own. It adds protection from board wipes, since the saga takes three turns to transform into a creature. The exile effect comes up often, as Shambling Ghast still runs rampant. Denying your opponent from receiving any value off their chump blocker is great. In that situation, if they blocked your Etching of Kumano with a Shambling Ghast, it may prevent them from ramping with treasures into say a The Meathook Massacre, since they often forget about the exile effect.
Sunrise Cavalier is a card I’ve tried playing before, and it always just felt like a worse Reckless Stormseeker. It really shines in this deck, all thanks to trample. There are more Planeswalkers than ever, and your opponent often doesn’t have enough toughness to block all the trample damage, allowing you to cleanly answer them. Add to that its ability to put +1+1 counters on any creature when it turns from Day to Night, or vise versa, and it becomes clear why the deck runs Brutal Cathar instead of Skyclave Apparition. Exile their most threatening creature with a Brutal Cathar, then cast a Sunrise Cavalier attacking with trampling haste. Now you’ll have the option of passing to night the following turn, flipping your Brutal Cathar, giving it ward and first strike. This gives you the option of putting a +1+1 counter on any of your creatures with Sunrise Cavalier‘s ability.
Thundering Raiju is a card we’ve seen a lot of people try and make work, but it just never seemed to get there. It hits like Mjölnir in this deck, adding a lot of power. Just like Sunrise Cavalier and Luminarch Aspirant, you can choose to put the counters on any of your creatures. Spreading your counters across all your creatures can overwhelm the opponent, forcing them to have to block your bigger threats, without destroying them, just to stay alive. Its ability to deal damage for each of your modified creatures other than itself just adds to its raw power.
Bloodthirsty Adversary is another card some people have tried in different builds. Even with a free spell out of your graveyard, it always seemed too pricey in an aggressive deck to have to pay five mana for a 3/3 haste creature, when you’re often trying to kill the opponent by turn 4 or 5. What a lot of people didn’t realize until now, is how great this card pairs with Hopeful Initiate. Playing the Bloodthirsty Adversary for two mana as a 2/2 creature with haste is amazing, if you already have Hopeful Initiate in play. You get to train right away, and attack for four damage. Having a Sunrise Cavalier to play on your third turn will set up another train for a total of eight attacking damage. If you also have Thundering Raiju in hand after all of that, the opponent needs a board wipe, or else they’ve already lost. Bloodthirsty Adversary also adds a lot of late game power, since you have the option of paying an additional three mana when you cast it to use any of your removal spells you may have in the graveyard.
For removal spells, there are four copies of Play with Fire and four copies of Roil Eruption. These are the reasons this deck is labeled as a ‘burn deck’, and not just an aggro deck. You do have the option of using your removal on annoying creatures, if you’re up against another creature deck. Against all the midrange decks, you can usually just go face with these, as you’ll also have massive creature threats on the board attacking every turn. Now it will be easy to burn the opponent out with two or three damage to the face. Mono White has been so strong for such a long time, but has always been vulnerable to board wipes, and lacks the ability of burn in the late game. You play all your cheap little white creatures, attack face every turn, but when faced with a The Meathook Massacre or Doomskar, you’re left top decking while the opponent gets the chance to rebuild.
This surprisingly impressive deck feels so strong against many others, though it does have its downfalls. Against Runes or Angels, you’ll really have to draw well, and have all your removal on time, or you really won’t stand a chance if they have a good curve. Weaknesses aside, it’s been so refreshing to see a new aggro deck rise in the current meta. Since Alrund’s Epiphany was banned in Standard, Mono White has remained firmly at the top, but now it has a contender. With Boros Burn quickly becoming the number one deck on the best of one ladder, it’s exciting to see what new decks will try and conquer it!
