Regionals, Regionals, Regionals... this is all I see or hear when visiting a Magic website or store. As I am sure that all of you have noticed, the word"metagame" has become a fancy term for Ravager Affinity with a sprinkling of Goblin Bidding; it appears that anyone playing anything else is just foolish. Now I do not claim to have an almighty answer to these decks, but according to my playtesting, this Ponza/Big Red (I'm not sure what to call this deck, the forum can name it) variant may have a fighting chance. The reason a mono-Red control deck is so effective against this field is simple: its maindeck weapons often double as maindecked hate against the popular field (e.g. Big Red from Kobe).

Now I wish I could admit to surveying the upcoming metagame and designing a deck that was built to hate it, whilst being competitive with the rest of the field. However, a genius and liar I am not, thus, I can not admit to building this deck with the metagame in mind. When the Darksteel spoiler was released I was immediately attracted to one card: Flamebreak. Combine this with the fact that I had a whole playset of Arc-Sloggers that kept calling my name, you might say I was destined to make a mono-Red deck.

The first incarnation of such a deck was a mono-Red Sligh type of build. However, much to my chagrin, I had never gotten the memo stating that Sligh is just a hair too slow in this environment, as too often would I need one more turn to win, when all of a sudden a Disciple, Patriarch's Bidding, or Pulse of the Fields drops and I cry in frustration. Thus my final incarnation of this deck was aimed to solve this tempo issue.

Burning Sensation
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Oxidda Golem
3 Arc-Slogger
4 Naturalize
4 Molten Rain
4 Stone Rain
4 Pyrite Spellbomb
4 Shrapnel Blast
3 Volcanic Hammer
3 Flamebreak

4 Chrome Mox
14 Mountains
4 Wooded Foothills
1 Forest

Sideboard
4 Echoing Ruin
4 Scrabbling Claws
4 Flashfires
3 Pyroclasm

Creatures
Slith Firewalker is easily one of my favorite cards in Mirrodin, when this little guy gets going early it often means game for the opponent - an easy inclusion in any Red deck. Oxidda Golem comes down as your turn 3/4 drop, and immediately starts pounding away; as a bonus, the Golem adds fuel to the Shrapnel Blast. Seventy percent of the time, Arc-Slogger serves as the finisher for this deck. Rarely does this big beast pound through; rather it is the Shock ability that serves to squeeze in the last points of damage. I have tried Blistering Firecat in the place of Arc-Slogger, but too often the Firecat has only struck for three damage and left me empty-handed.

Tempo
I call these cards tempo cards, because they serve only to slow the opponent down. After many playtest matches, I determined that eight land destruction cards were just enough to ensure early land destruction, but not enough to cause you to curse at a top-decked Stone Rain when you have a giant Ravager breathing down your neck (not that too much would help in that case). In fact, the LD in this deck serves as a poor man's Tangle Wire that is found in Extended RDW decks. Further, I have found that Naturalize is never a dead card in this environment, as it acts as a silver bullet for the following cards: Arcbound Ravager, Skullclamp, Astral Slide, Circle of Protection: Red, Lightning Rift, etc. Cards, such as Naturalize and Shatter, which were once sideboard material, are now forced to find room in the maindeck of any deck not running Skullclamp.

Burn
All the burn should be self-explanatory, except the inclusion of Flamebreak over Starstorm. Despite my perverse love of Flamebreak, I had tested Starstorm and have found that Flamebreak is far more efficient given the fact that you almost never want to cycle Starstorm and the three mana for three damage efficiency of Flamebreak is hard to ignore. I suspect that Starstorm is a superior card when a deck can supply more mana than Burning Sensation. Further, it may seem counter intuitive to have board sweeping damage effects when your own creatures are not so tough, but the effects of Flamebreak are usually shrugged off, since eight of your creatures have haste and the Arc-Slogger ignores Flamebreak altogether.

Importantly, most situations dictate that, in order to clear a path for your creatures, this deck's burn should be directed at creatures, and not your opponent's dome.

Mana
You have never played Magic until you play Turn 1: Mountain, Mox w/Imprint, and Slith Firewalker. Turn 2: Mountain, Molten Rain, and swing with the Slith Firewalker again. Trust me, the feeling you get from that draw, which happens more often than not, is wonderful. Also, the four Wooded Foothills and one Forest hardly ever leaves me mana-screwed for the Naturalize.

Sideboard
Echoing Ruin
Echoing Ruin vs. Shatter is a judgment call - some people like the instant speed, while others enjoy the potential power. Thus far, I have never been let down by Echoing Ruin, nor have I wished that it was an instant, but it is really anyone's discretion - the main point being that you need hate against the Ravager in your sideboard.

Scrabbling Claws
This card is included solely for the Goblin Bidding matchup. Fear and respect the Goblins.

Flashfires
This combined with Naturalize stomps on the annoying COP: Red or Story Circles the control decks seem to adore so much.

Pyroclasm
Fear and respect the Goblins. Also, Pyroclasm is great for any other crazy Aggro-Weenie decks that Skullclamp has breathed life into.

General Strategy
This deck is not a burn deck, rather it is an aggro-control deck, as Burning Sensation provides just enough speed bumps along the way in order for you to maintain tempo while beating in your opponent's face with the Slith Firewalker and/or Oxidda Golem. The thing I have found key in playing this deck is to maintain the upper hand in tempo, e.g. if you have three mana open early game and are deciding whether to cast an Oxidaa Golem or to destroy a land, then the correct play is to blow up their land. Quite simply, when piloting this deck, I have found the most effective course is to play as many of the cards listed as tempo cards as early as possible, i.e. up to turn 4/5.

Further, I will emphasize again that most of the time burn should be lobbed at the creatures staring you down or blocking your Firewalker's path. This deck will not run out of burn to throw at your opponent's dome, because the Arc-Slogger will come down and clean up the scraps of your opponent's life. Finally, eleven creatures may seem like a reasonable amount, but if you do not have an early creature drop, then you would assume you have a lot of land (at which point you should have mulliganed) or a lot of tempo and burn cards.

Now on to the matchups that you are likely to face during this Regionals.

Goblin Bidding
Game one against Bidding is slightly in your favor. The first game can go something like this:

1) You burning all their creatures away and Naturalizing a couple Skullclamps, while beating in some face with your creatures

2) The Goblin Bidding player play Patriarch's Bidding

3) You say,"Damn..."

The point of that story is that the key to this game one matchup is to stop the Bidding by denying their Black mana. Usually, they run around six to eight sources of Black mana, and seeing as how you run eight LD spells, it should be draw-dependent. Then again, sometimes Goblins just win.

Games two/three are a lot less stressful with the sideboarding looking like this:

-4 Stone Rain, -3 Volcanic Hammer
+4 Scrabbling Claws, +3 Pyroclasm

The Molten Rain stays so that I have some manner to deny their Black mana, but the addition of Scrabbling Claws make the threat of Bidding minimal. Just remember to keep the Goblin Warchief, Siege-Gang Commander, and Goblin Sharpshooter out of their yard, and do not waste your mana removing anything else. The Pyroclasms and Flamebreaks should provide a near constant board sweeping presence. Also, I don't think the Goblin Bidding sideboard will bring in anything of note against this deck. All in all, this deck posts a favorable matchup against Goblins (60-40).

Ravager Affinity
The strategy is simple; you burn the Disciple of the Vault and Naturalize everything else. Unfortunately, Ravager Affinity, much like Goblins, just wins. The maindeck Naturalizes work wonders, and I have to stress that the key is to Naturalize the first thing you see. The same holds true for your burn - you should burn Ornithopters, Frogmites, etc. Every artifact is a threat to you, as it can be sacced to the Arcbound Ravager, so it is prudent of you not to hold back your spells. When playing against Ravager Affinity, it would behoove to lose a little aggression and play more like the Rock, i.e. controlling the board and pushing in damage when possible. The matchup is very close and approaches a 50/50 win ratio.

Sideboarding usually follows this:

-4 Stone Rain, -3 Molten Rain
+4 Echoing Ruin, +3 Pyroclasms

Game two and three follow the same plan as before, except you now have more weapons to execute this plan, but they will probably have siding in Welding Jar and some spot removal like Electrostatic Bolt. Overall, this deck posts a favorable matchup against Ravager Affinity, since you will have more threats (burn and creatures) to lay out than they can handle (60-40), although the R/U/B builds that pack Thoughtcast turn out to be more troublesome. Just remember the Disciple is the devil!

Slide
The last of the big three that are expected at Regionals is Slide. Maindecked Naturalizes really shine here and will deal with their choice enchantments. One thing to keep in mind is that they have an annoying amount of board-sweeping effects and burn to take care of your eleven creatures. Also, Sliding your Slith Firewalker out falls under the category of"not cool, dude." Since eleven creatures in hardly enough to overwhelm a Slide deck, you need to start aiming your burn at their head. The Slide matchup in game one turns into a damage race, which you should win, because you have more creatures and more burn. However, if they happen to be running Pulse of the Fields maindeck, you should just ball up and cry. Seriously, the White Pulse owns this deck and you can only combat it in game one with your eight LD spells.

Sideboarding helps all of this:

-3 Volcanic Hammer, -1 Flamebreak
+4 Flashfires

Flashfires equals instant win right? Wrong. The sideboard of Slide is more effective against you than your sideboard is against them, as they will bring Pulse of the Fields and COP: Red. So, in games two/three you will have twelve ways to destroy their Plains. Remember destroy their Plains! Destroying their Plains neuters their plan against your deck, as it renders the Pulse of the Fields useless and makes their boarded COP: Red less effective. Also, try and save your Naturalizes against the COP: Red that is sure to be sided in. Playing against Astral Slide is a long and painful process, and you will only win about 40% of the games played. In fact, I am leaning toward placing two Pulse of the Forge in my sideboard in lieu of one Flashfires and one Pyroclasm in order to combat the Pulse of the Fields.

Mono-White Control and U/W Control
As far as MWC, the plan is the same as above, except that in game one I generally attack their Urza land or Cloudposts, as opposed to their Plains. The main card you have to try and race against MWC is their Mindslaver, which means game for you if your Arc-Slogger is on the table. Your matchup is slightly worse than against Slide, because they tend to pack fewer Plains and can shrug off land loss easier, but the winning percentage should still approach around 50%.

As far as U/W control goes, I thankfully do not expect to see much of this archetype at Regionals. However, if you do, then you should go take a lunch break for game one, because U/W control eats this deck in the first game. The counters give this deck headaches and the card drawing negates any tempo advantage you manage to build against U/W control, and they run Pulse of the Fields! U/W control manages to do all this while playing with four essentially dead cards (Damping Matrix). After sideboarding Flashfires, Burning Sensation stands a better chance and plays out more like a LD deck, but it does not change the fact they can still counter your main threats and have probably added COP: Red. U/W control is seriously a bad matchup (30-70).

And finally some quick notes against other decks you may see floating around:

B/G Cemetery
Very, very, very annoying, but your maindeck Naturalizes helps stop the nonsense this deck brings to the table.

Sarnia Affinity
This plays out much like U/W control and is not a good matchup against this deck, as they counter everything, and they can draw cards like crazy. Hope that U/W control and Sarnia Affinity have been sufficiently pummeled by the other aggro decks to discourage them from showing at your Regionals.

Elves! and Elvish Wedding
This is just like the Goblin Bidding matchup only easier. Its a damn shame, because I am huge fan of Elvish Wedding, and I was secretly hoping it would beat Burning Sensation. However, from a different standpoint, it is great fun to burn away creature everything that is played out.

WWe - See above.

TwelvePost
Eight LD spells will slow them down just enough for your deck to steamroll in. Although, no one is a fan of the Leonin Abunas and Platinum Angel combo.

R/G LD
Generally a favorable matchup.

Lynch Mob and Suicide Black (by NJX)
I have yet to play against these"underground" builds, but I suspect both have game against this deck. Also, I would be reluctant to playtest against these decks, because I know of no one, myself included, that could pilot these decks as their creators wished.

This deck is a solid choice against the metagame as it has serious game against Ravager and Goblins. While it may suffer strongly against U/W control and Sarnia Affinity, both decks should not have a strong showing at Regionals. I plan on playing this deck at my Regionals, but knowing my luck, the metagame there will be brimming with U/W control and Sarnia Affinity.