Burn Decks are designed to inflict damage (or burn) to reduce the opponent's Life Points to 0 with cards that can cause effect damage, instead of relying on battle damage and in many cases, Burn Decks do not rely on the Battle Phase at all.
True to its name, many "burn" cards feature FIRE Attribute or Pyro-Type monsters, or otherwise feature fire in general (such as "Hinotama", "Tremendous Fire", and "Meteor of Destruction"). The "Trickstar" archetype focuses on effect damage, while many other archetypes have some burn cards, usually to give the archetype on last push in damage, examples include; "Updraft", "Venom Burn" and "Shadow Toon" for "Cloudian", "Venom", and "Toon" Decks respectively.
Contents
Playing StyleEdit
There are many different methods for building a Burn Deck. The most effective play style often changes depending on the format. Burn Decks can generally be divided into two types:
- Fast, FTK/OTK Burn Decks. These tend to focus on a few extremely powerful burn cards together, or using almost all of the user's deck in a single turn; many key cards have been placed on the Forbidden & Limited List to nullify these decks.
- Slower (perhaps 1000-2400 damage per turn) Burn Decks. These are usually combined with Stall cards to protect the user's Life Points (as Burn Decks do not usually run many powerful monsters to defend directly) while chipping away at the opponent.
Some cards that can be run in most Burn Decks include; "Lava Golem", "Ring of Destruction"/"Bad Luck Blast", "Dimension Wall"/"Magic Cylinder", "Secret Barrel"/"Secret Blast" and "Just Desserts"/"Ceasefire".
Chain BurnEdit
Chain Burn OTKEdit
Chain Strike or Chain Burn is a Deck usually designed to win usually by the third turn. This is accomplished by starting a chain with various burn cards or in response to opponent's chained effects and continuing until a well-timed "Chain Strike" can generate enough burn damage to win. These Decks are generally built with very few monsters, typically those with burn or stall effects.
Historically, Chain Burn decks aimed to finish off the opponent during their first turn, though modern Chain Burn decks is now geared towards blind second approach, by allowing the opponent to build their board and punish them either by using "Lava Golem" to neutralize their board or attacking with various "Timelord" monsters, and inflict large amount of damage with cards such as "Ceasefire", "Just Desserts", "Secret Barrel", or "Secret Blast", etc..
- Crimson Firewing Pegasus
- Destiny HERO - Dynatag
- K9-ØØ Lupis
- Lava Golem / "Kaiju" monsters
- Michion, the Timelord
- Royal Rhino with Deceitful Dice
- Sandaion, the Timelord
- Card of Fate
- One Day of Peace (to stall out for a turn in case you did not get a good hand)
- Pot of Duality (if not running "Lava Golem")
- Pot of Extravagance
- Pot of Prosperity (watch out for damage halving downside)
Chain Burn (non-OTK)Edit
While "Chain Strike" is certainly part of the Deck's strategy it doesn't rely on it completely. Chainable stall cards such as "Threatening Roar" and "Swift Scarecrow" can be used in supplement as a more reliable stall cards and to prolong the damage dealt to opponent.
- Battle Fader / Speedroid Menko / Swift Scarecrow
- Destiny HERO - Dynatag
- Performapal Kuribohble
- Lava Golem
- Royal Rhino with Deceitful Dice
- "Timelord" monsters
- One Day of Peace (to stall out for a turn in case you did not get a good hand)
- Pot of Duality (if not running "Lava Golem"
- Pot of Extravagance
- Pot of Prosperity (watch out for damage halving downside)
- Accumulated Fortune
- Bad Luck Blast
- Balance of Judgment
- Boo-Boo Game
- Ceasefire / Just Desserts
- Dimension Wall
- Fairy Wind
- Gravedigger's Trap Hole
- Jar of Greed / Legacy of Yata-Garasu
- Paleozoic Marrella (with "Transaction Rollback")
- Reckless Greed
- Ring of Destruction
- Secret Barrel / Secret Blast
- Trap Trick
Banquet FTK / D.D. Dynamite BurnEdit
Banquet FTK, also known as D.D. Dynamite Burn, is a Deck centered around the Normal Trap Card "D.D. Dynamite". "D.D. Dynamite" has an effect to deal 300 damage for each of the opponent's cards that were banished, and by using the effect of "Banquet of Millions" to temporarily banish all of the cards in the opponent's Extra Deck, this allowed "Dynamite" to deal massive amount of damage.
With the introduction of "Transaction Rollback", Banquet FTK enjoys a significant boost in consistency, as player can now copy the effect of either "Banquet" or "Dynamite" in GY to banish cards or deal more damage. In addition, "Evenly Matched" also works well with this Deck, as it can double both as a board breaker and help banishing opponent's cards to add to the damage tally of "Dynamite".
Historical Burn DecksEdit
Stall BurnEdit
The main priorities of this Deck is to stall using cards such as and "Swords of Revealing Light" to prevent taking battle damage, while slowly inflict damage with cards such as "Solar Flare Dragon", "Stealth Bird", "Lava Golem" and "Wave-Motion Cannon". One must also include defense against Spell and Trap destruction, due to the Deck's reliance on Continuous Cards.
In past formats, cards such as "Burden of the Mighty", "Gravity Bind" and "Level Limit - Area B" were popular choices for stalling, however with the advent of Xyz Monsters and Link Monsters they are largely redundant now.
- Battle Fader / Speedroid Menko / Swift Scarecrow
- Destiny HERO - Dynatag
- Fire Cracker
- Live☆Twin Lil-la
- Lord of the Heavenly Prison
- Solar Flare Dragon / Volcanic Slicer
- Trickstar Narkissus
- Cauldron of the Old Man
- Chain Energy
- Dark Room of Nightmare
- Dark Snake Syndrome
- Decisive Battle of Golgonda
- Messenger of Peace
- Toll
- Wave-Motion Cannon
Bubbleman BurnEdit
The Bubbleman Burn Deck" is a variant of Burn Deck which uses cards like "Elemental HERO Bubbleman" and "Card of Sanctity" to draw Normal or Quick-Play Spell Cards which inflict damage. These Decks are made up mostly of one-time burn cards and self-milling cards that go to the Graveyard after they are used, making "Bubbleman" and "Card of Sanctity" easier to use.
Stall cards are not recommended, since the drawing effect of "Bubbleman" won't trigger if there are cards on the field. Dome people do run Normal Traps like "Threatening Roar" or "Magic Cylinder" that can be set last, and can be used as back-ups when you are forced to discard. The only Trap card specifically recommended is "Magical Explosion", which is often used as a finisher in this Deck.
- Elemental HERO Bubbleman
- Destiny HERO - Diamond Dude
- Fire Trooper
- Giant Germ
- Rapid-Fire Magician
- Mecha Bunny
- Morphing Jar (Traditional Format only)
Cure-BurnEdit
Not to be confused with: Anti-Cure
This deck uses the effect of "Fire Princess" along with Life Point gaining cards to deal constant effect damage. The Deck is sometimes called a Big Bang Deck, after the Japanese name of "Fire Princess" - "Big Bang Girl". Despite being a burn deck itself, Cure-Burn tends to be quite strong against most other burn decks due to the constant LP gain.
Dark Stall BurnEdit
This Deck focuses Special Summoning, and inflicting a large amount of damage using "Dark Room of Nightmare" and "Earthbound Immortal Chacu Challhua".
For defense, use tokens (can also be used as Synchro fodder) along with cards, such as "Magic Cylinder", "Black-Winged Dragon" and "Stardust Dragon" to disrupt the opponent's attacks, effect damage and destruction respectively.
Exxod BurnEdit
See: sphinx
The main point of the Exxod Burn Deck is to quickly Summon "Exxod, Master of The Guard" and continually use its burn effect.
FIRE BurnEdit
As the name implies FIRE Burn, sometimes called Molten Burn, is a Deck that focuses on dealing damage with FIRE-Attribute, mostly Pyro-Type monsters. This Deck can be played either passively or aggressively.
The more passive variants of the Deck play similar to Stall Burn, using many protective cards and slowly, but consistently, dealing effect damage each turn. See Stall Burn's recommended Spells/Traps. If using only Pyro-Type monsters, "Soul of Fire" & "Firewall" could be considered as methods of effect damage and protection respectively.
The more aggressive variants tend to focus on a higher monster count and dealing damage through monster effects, often including the destruction of their own monsters, then dealing damage with the monster's on destruction effects in combination with the Continuous Trap Cards "Backfire" and "Kickfire".
Herald Cannon BurnEdit
This Deck focuses in restricting the opponent with "Herald of Perfection" and inflicting effect damage using "Wave-Motion Cannon".
Reactive Burn DeckEdit
This deck works around making your opponent pay life points for every action. As your opponents life points start reaching zero, they stop making plays, which forces a few high damage cards to be used like "Ceasefire"and "Just Desserts", or continuously damaging cards like "Minor Goblin Official", "Nightmare Wheel", or "Lava Golem". This deck works best adding stalls cards, forcing your opponent to waste most of their efforts destroying either your stall cards or burn cards, hopefully not both. Cards that can stall without completely negating attacks like "Ordeal of a Traveler", "Mirror Force", or "Waboku" over those that completely stop attacks likes "Gravity Bind" or "Swords of Revealing Light" to add in the damage from "Toll".
Reactor BurnEdit
This Deck revolves around the three "Reactor" monsters, working to Special Summon "Flying Fortress SKY FIRE" while dealing damage to your opponent until you can.
Timelord BurnEdit
See: "Timelord"
This variant of a "Timelord" Deck using cards such as "Michion, the Timelord" and/or "Sandaion, the Timelord" to quickly reduce the opponent's LP before finishing off with various burn cards that can be easily chained together, Continuous Trap Cards that can deal damage with certain actions of the opponent, or battle traps that prevent the opponent from attacking.
- Metaion, the Timelord
- Michion, the Timelord
- Lazion, the Timelord
- Raphion, the Timelord
- Sandaion, the Timelord
- Santa Claws
- Time Maiden
- "Kaiju" monsters
- One Day of Peace
- One for One
- Piri Reis Map
- Pot of Extravagance
- Pot of Prosperity (watch out for damage halving downside)
- Time-Tearing Morganite (if not running any handtrap monsters)
- Traptantalizing Tune
- Tremendous Fire
Toon BurnEdit
See: "Toon"
This variant of a "Toon" Deck focuses on weakening the opponent with burn cards before attacking directly to finish the Duel. One of its powerful plays involves giving the opponent "Lava Golem" or a "Kaiju" monster, then using "Shadow Toon" to deal large amounts of damage, before taking control of it with "Comic Hand" and using it to attack the opponent directly. Instead of attacking directly to finish the Duel the deck can use "Toon Cannon Soldier", which can tribute Tokens and itself to deal 500 damage multiple times a turn.
- Toon World/Toon Kingdom
- Toon Table of Contents
- Shadow Toon
- Comic Hand
- Scapegoat (can Tribute for "Toon Dark Magician Girl" or the effect of "Toon Cannon Soldier")
- Vengeful Bog Spirit
Volcanic BurnEdit
See: "Volcanic"
The strategy of this burn deck is to attack and burn your opponent with Pyro-Type monsters.
WeaknessesEdit
Burn Decks are infamous and generally disliked by many players as most Burn Decks can either play around most of the interruptions, or aim to stall out the game without the way for the opponent to interrupt, and can be rather difficult to play against and defeat when a player is not prepared for it. Despite this, in general, it is considered one of the easiest Decks to Side against. This results in Burn Decks having more success in single Duels, opposed to Matches and, by extension, tournaments.
- In general, most Burn Decks have a poor grind game should their interruptions or Burn cards are dealt with, due to almost all of them is geared solely to deal damage instead of offering any forms of interruption.
- Since most Burn Decks utilize a large amount of Trap Cards (and a sizable amount of Spell Cards), the Deck is very weak against cards that can get rid of their Spell/Traps (such as "Harpie's Feather Duster" or "Eradicator Epidemic Virus"), either forcing Burn player to deal a suboptimal damage, or even prevent them from dealing damage entirely.
- In some cases, a well-timed Negate can prevent the Burn Deck player from dealing lethal damage, and often leaving them vulnerable.
- Certain cards that can nullify effect damage, such as "Black-Winged Dragon" or "Supreme King Gate Zero" can effectively shut down most of the Burn Decks.