It Never Lasts For Long

The card draw didn't quite do what I was hoping. Perhaps if Thrilling Discovery was an instant, I'd find it more usable? Rebecca's comment was, "I just don't feel like I'm doing something powerful, I feel like I'm discarding powerful things to get more cards."

So this is what I settled on.

4 Balefire Liege
2 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Swiftblade Vindicator
3 General Ferrous Rokiric
4 Figure of Destiny
2 Boros Recruit

3 Legion's Initiative

4 Lightning Helix
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Legion Leadership
3 Path to Exile

7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Sunbillow Verge
2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
1 Castle Embereth
1 Needle Spires

// 4 Sideboard

SB: 4 Cursed Totem

The Sideboard is incomplete: Rest In Peace seems like a gimmie, Wear/Tear and Red Elemental Blast likely too.

I ended up cutting the Boros Swiftblades, because I wanted to keep the deck as low to the ground as possible and make room for more Legion's Initiative. The boost in Swiftblade's toughness wasn't the answer I was looking for.

Anyway, I like where this deck has ended up and we're on to the next one!

Funny Things You Learn

One neat thing happened while I was reviewing Let's Take A Trip Together; I gave Rebecca Burn to Shine to play.

She asked for a copy of it, and started to tweak it for herself.  So when we played the decks against each other, I got to see how powerful Legion's Initiative could be. If the sequence is: T1: creature, T2, Legion, swing for 1, T3, Initative and attack for 6 or 7, this seems pretty good.

Another thing that I've been addressing is some card draw: in other games I've felt very on the edge, and reloading my hand seems important. So to that end I'm trying out Thrilling Discovery. 

The testing as been very positive, I have to admit. Burn To Shine has a nice curve, where there are some reasonable plays early, some stronger plays later. But it has been the addition of General Ferrous that has pushed this deck forward, without question. Having a difficult to answer threat early that generates a LOT of value means that a rough start can be smoothed out. That's a big deal.

Dream Away My Tears

 Let's update the list first, shall we?

4 Balefire Liege
3 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
2 Boros Swiftblade
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Boros Recruit
4 Swiftblade Vindicator
3 General Ferrous Rokiric 

3 Squee's Embrace
2 Ossification 

4 Lightning Helix
2 Lightning Bolt 

8 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Needle Spires
4 Sunbillow Verge

SB:
4 Cursed Totem

Now is this the bestest list? Probably not. But it does do a few important things.

Moves Cursed Totem to the sideboard. There probably isn't a place for that in the metagame anymore but we'll keep it there. Burn To Shine is never going be an A+ deck. 

Adds a little more removal in the form of Ossification. And with General Ferrous in there, I've now got a T3 play that has the potential to really put pressure on my opponent. 

Burn To Shine

 Taken from the delightful Ben Harper song, I started off with this R/W Liege deck:

4 Cursed Totem

4 Balefire Liege
3 Hearthfire Hobgoblin
2 Boros Swiftblade
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
3 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
4 Boros Recruit
4 Swiftblade Vindicator

4 Squee's Embrace

4 Lightning Helix
3 Chance for Glory

4 Scabland
7 Plains
7 Mountain
4 Needle Spires

Years ago, this started off as a Cursed Totem deck, if you can believe that. Inspired by a writer at Starcity Games, who used the Totem to remove the drawbacks to cards like Glittering Lion and Flailing Manticore, while also serving as a way to pre-emptively deal with other problem cards at the time (notably the Rebels deck) this deck was an easy one to morph into a Balefire Liege deck. The tech was SO old, why not make it a fun aggro deck? 

But here it languished until a card I've had for years but had forgotten about was brought to my attention via a Thraben U video: General Ferrous Rokiric. 

Let's get going.