Counter Burn and it's Evolution

Counter burn has been a viable deck since the dawn of cube. The principle is pretty simple, blue is for counter magic and card draw while red is used in stead of the more common white or black for removal and some added utility. Red burn as removal has some upsides and some downsides, it is very good early and keeps little critters at bay and can be used at the dome to end the game suddenly. This means you have less dead cards when you play any given deck and are able to cope best with the most aggressive decks but you pay for this by being weaker against the big fat monsters that usually require two burns spells to tackle. Pre-Zendikar the deck was a little awkward and was just not quite as reliable as the other various tier one decks of the time. Little things like really wanting a bit of bounce to deal with enchantments and sometimes artifacts. Also wanting some life gain to keep things safe despite frequently self harming with mass removal cards however the options for these things in red and blue are limited and generally require a dedicated spot in the deck. Cryptic Command was a great relief in this regard as it is such a nice cover all spell and means that you can free up the slot of your previously needed bounce card. The early incarnations of the deck had few options for threats, little diversity in mass revmoal and awkward holes to fill. It also lacked planeswalkers which are a huge asset to control decks. The list below is very much what counter burn looked like in Mirrodin block and shows why it was not quite tier one, having to play things like Mystical Tutor and Boomerang are unpleasant, the lack of threats makes actually winning hard and stuff that resolves is a royal pain. The deck was utterly carried by Isochron Scepter as a decent win condition, staller and card advantage engine but this reliance on one card made the deck fragile as well as awkward. Even the mana base was a bit rough...



Old School Counter Burn

23 Spells

Chrome Mox
Zuran Orb

Brainstorm
Lightening Bolt
Force Spike
Mystical Tutor

Boomerang
Counterspell
Memory Lapse
Arcane Denial

Incinerate
Fire / Ice
Isochron Scepter
Pyroclasm

Daze
Magma Jet

Fact or Fiction
Solemn Simulacrum

Force of Will
Prophetic Bolt

Time Spiral
Rorix, Bladewing

Rolling Earthquake

17 Lands

Volcanic Island
Shivan Reef
Faerie Conclave
Flooded Strand
Polluted Delta
6 Mountains
6 Islands













It was really the printing of Inferno Titan that catapulted counter burn back into the limelight rather than the release of Zendikar. Cards had slowly been getting released that would really aid the archetype and while Zendikar offered lots of choice, alternatives and rounded cards to the deck there are no auto include cards in the set. The new incarnation of the deck was styled almost exactly like the old school version but had just vastly increased the quality of the cards in lots of slots. More than anything else the mana base had become highly workable and being able to do things like turn one burn spell into turn two Counterspell became quite likely. As the deck was deep, consistent and powerful enough now to be a tier one deck it was getting a lot of play. People love control and at the time both UW and UB control were under performing. People also love burn and being and to play power cards like Inferno Titan which has relatively few homes given how good it is and so the popularity of the deck swelled further. The list below is a lot like the first tier one counter burn decks to be played in the cube looked like which is basically the Old School version but with all the new juice jammed in for the previous weakest links.


Counter Burn when it asserted itself as a tier 1 deck in Zendikar block

23 Spells

Lightening Bolt
Burst Lightening
Ancestral Visions
Force Spike

Incinerate
Fire / Ice
Isochron Scepter
Memory Lapse

Counterspell
Arcane Denial
Lat-Nam's Legacy
Into the Roil

Sea Gate Oracle
Volcanic Fallout
Time Twister

Solemn Simulacrum
Cryptic Command
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Fact or Fiction

Force of Will
Treachery

Inferno Titan
Rolling Earthquake

17 Lands


Volcanic Island
Steam Vents
Scalding Tarn
Shivan Reef
Cascade Bluffs
Faerie Conclave
4 Mountains
7 Islands
















The popularity and strength of the deck meant that people started to experiment with the build. Red and blue had enough control style creatures to be able to move away from an entrenched reliance on Isochron Scepter and sub par mass removal and play more dorks. This hugely aided the early and mid game tempo of the deck and allowed it to play much more game winning cards. It could worry less about lacking ways to deal with things as it would often be making the most serious threats. These cards also replaced certain effects such as life gain or extreme card draw and thus freed up more space for more threats in the deck. It was this style of deck that was the first to start making Mana Drain really tedious as it so frequently resulted in a turn three game ending 6 drop. With all the card quality from blue having a high curve is not at all a problem and so the deck kept posting the results. One of the great strengths of the deck had always been the ability of the deck to win suddenly and catch the opponent unprepared which is a rarity in a control deck. With all the ridiculous creatures the deck could now play this winning from nowhere was happening unreasonably soon in games.



Intermediate Counter Burn - how it looked a year ish ago after M12 hit


24 Spells

Lightening Bolt
Burst Lightening
Ancestral Visions
Spell Pierce

Remand
Fire / Ice
Arc Trail
Arcane Denial

Counterspell
Lat-Nam's Legacy

Chandra's Phoenix
Vendilion Clique
Manic Vandal
Sea Gate Oracle

Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Chandra, the Fireheart
Cryptic Command

Time Warp
Treachery
Force of Will

Inferno Titan
Wurmcoil Engine
Consecrated Sphinx

Rolling Earthquake

16 Lands


Izzet Boilerworks
Volcanic Island
Steam Vents
Scalding Tarn
Shivan Reef
Cascade Bluffs
Faerie Conclave
3 Mountains
6 Islands












Counter burn had risen to the best control deck and arguably the best archetype in my cube and then they went and released Innistrad block which is probably the single biggest block in terms of contributing power cards to the archetype. Cards like Snapcaster Mage and Bonfire of the Damned which are both utterly abuse and mainstays of the deck. Counter Burn is a perfect home for Snapcaster as it has lots of cheap targets to reuse. The redundancy that Snapcaster gives the deck is also of great value and further lets you free up slots in which to cram more power. Bonfire however is the real game changer, mass removal had become weaker with the introduction of the latest cycle of man lands and the increasing abundance of persist and undying style monsters. Bonfire having the capacity to be used as an instant is able to hit a lot more targets but also offers a great tempo boost over sorcery mass removal even when man lands are not in the equation. Being instant is not the main thing unfair about Bonfire which is of course the fact that it is not symmetrical. This means you are not all that concerned about playing your own dorks, it is also not so obviously broadcast as is the case often enough with symmetrical mass removal effects. Being able to take out planeswalkers with mass removal is also a huge bonus all of which add up to make Bonfire the clear best mass creature removal spell in the cube. This injection of power and flexibility has given counter burn huge freedom on how it will be put together such as this rather fast paced version of the deck below.

Most Recent Counter Burn with all the miraculous joy of Innistrad block

24 Spells

Zuran Orb
Chrome Mox

Delver of Secrets
Lightening Bolt
Burst Lightening
Ancestral Vision

Sensei's Divining Top
Brainstorm

Fire / Ice
Snapcaster Mage
Lat-Nam's Legacy
Counterspell

Remand

Serendib Efreet
Trinket Mage
Illusory Angel

Cryptic Command

Tamiyo, the Moonsage
Force of Will

Inferno Titan
Time Sprial

Temporal Mastery
Rolling Earthquake
Bonfire of the Damned

16 Lands

Izzet Boilerworks
Volcanic Island
Steam Vents
Scalding Tarn
Shivan Reef
Cascade Bluffs
Great Furnace
Faerie Conclave
Desolate Lighthouse
2 Mountains
5 Islands









Or finally (I think we have probably had quite enough of very samey deck lists) this quirkier build which tries to abuse the old school mechanic of locking people out of the game with Forbid being bought back with reusable Squee. Having only one Squee makes the combo rather weaker but the power of the archetype is now able to carry such things. While not unlike the slightly outmoded Isochron Scepter principle it does allow for a great deal of different and fun synergies and is a little less vulnerable to disruption.


The Forbidden Squee version of the deck

24 Spells
Lightening Bolt
Faithless Looting
Enclave Cryptologist
Geistflame

Brainstorm
Noxious Revival

Counterspell
Arcane Denial
Snapcaster Mage
Fire / Ice

Think Twice

Intuition
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Chandra's Phoenix
Forbid

Chandra, the Firebrand
Fact of Fiction
Firewing Phoenix
Cryptic Command

Force of Will
Treachery

Inferno Titan
Bonfire of the Damned
Devil's Play

16 Lands

Izzet Boilerworks
Volcanic Island
Taiga
Tropical Island
Steam Vents
Scalding Tarn
Shivan Reef
Cascade Bluffs
Faerie Conclave
Desolate Lighthouse
3 Mountains
3 Islands







I find the evolution of decks to be both interesting and informative and this is a great example to show. The deck has been around a long time and progressed in a linear way until it hit a critical power level and started to split up into many directions of progression and design. A small core of the deck has remained as constant presence in the deck which is slowly added to. A larger number of cards cycle in and out of the decks depending on what the deck is doing, what other cards are included and so forth and this pool of card grows rapidly as better and better cards are printed. Only a few cards have completely fallen by the wayside never to see play in the deck again. Some early players who were unpleasant necessities we were glad to see the back of have now gone full circle and are starting to look appealing for new reasons. A great example of this is Mystical Tutor which is fantastic with the miracle mechanic. By looking in close detail and a selection of lists for the same deck you are able to gain a good appreciation of how the deck should work and the interactions of the cards within it. Asking questions like why a card appears in most lists but not some will improve your deck buildings skills. Decks require different ratios of groups of cards such as threats or answers or card advantage. Some cards allow these ratios to change, some cards cover multiple groups and so forth. Decks tend to also want a few specific things but understanding those fully requires a good grasp of the meta and when looking over a period of history it obviously changes. The specific cards may be in any group of types of card (with the ratios) and may not be in any at all. Spotting these omissions and their replacements is also something I find informative. It is an exercise in problem solving via deck design and game mechanics.