
Always be yourself, unless you can be a colossal, fire-breathing lizard. Way back in the halcyon days at the dawn of 21st century, dragon decks were all the rage with the guys at Parkland. I, having a nearly pathological aversion to anything trendy, refused to indulge in such frivolity.
And then they printed the best dragon card ever: Form of the Dragon.
Lesser players were trying to curry the favor of dragons; I WAS a dragon. Obviously, this required me to fill the deck with all the best burn spells I could find. To limit my search, I restricted myself to fire. For a while, I ran both Kindle and Flame Burst, but ultimately cut the latter because it was too much of a pain to keep them straight in my graveyard.
Over time, the deck came to rely on Mana Flare, Gauntlet of Might, and Extraplanar Lens to ramp my mana (and being what I am, I ran Snow-Covered Mountains so that I didn’t have to share my Extraplanar Lens). These were explained as being part of Burny’s hoard, which further prompted me to put all the best, most powerful artifacts I could find in the deck.
But the power of a dragon inevitably brings ennui. I came to realize that the deck had become an artifact ramp deck that barely needed the red mana to function. It was no longer a dragon deck. So Burny had a heart-to-heart with his long-time lackey, Jeff the Goblin, and they concluded that it was time to get back to basics.
The deck as it runs now is dedicated to damage spells and enchantments that amplify damage spells, like Furnace of Rath and Repercussion. People often get so distracted by a dragon’s fiery breath that they spend the rest of their lives ignoring the fact that a dragon is also a physically imposing monster. To remind them, I included some blanket damage spells representing a dragon’s physical prowess in the form of Devastate and Smash to Dust.
It is a fairly open secret that Burny had dalliances with both Jaya Ballard and Chandra Nalaar, both of whom left some of their stuff at his cave when they split up. That’s why you’ll find Jaya’s goggles and Chandra’s gauntlets in the sideboard, along with other superb burn spells because there are just too many to choose from.