You'll note that one of the videos that's up already is me playing Burn. Plus, I played Burn at the Grand Prix a while back. What gives, Jund dude? Let me explain.
Modern is an eternal format, which means it doesn't rotate. New cards enter the format all the time, but unless something gets banned, they don't leave. Decks that exist now have existed forever, and unless something gets banned, you can just play your deck at every Modern tournament from now until they stop running Modern tournaments.
In eternal formats, a great strategy is to master a single deck. Hopefully, you choose something that's versatile and consistent, and not subject to potential bannings. That way, you will always have the option to play a deck that you are comfortable with, and even if a scenario arises where you think to yourself "I should play Deck X because it's really good right now, even if I'm not familiar with it," that's fine, but having the option to play a deck you're a master of is really rewarding.
Modern is a skill testing format in a variety of different ways. First, the games are quick and mistakes are punished brutally, so normal gameplay ability is important. Secondly, it's a vast format with a pretty significantly long history at this point, so your opponent could be showing up with one of a huge variety of viable decks, and it's important to know not only how their deck works, but how your deck and their deck match up against each other. Third, is that since Modern is a format that is constantly being stirred up, a backlog of cards that you have tried out for various metagame scenarios is invaluable. When Humans gets a sweet land printed and now the format's number one deck is a 40-creature aggro deck, I've played Grim Lavamancer and Engineered Explosives in the past, so I know it's the right time to put those back in my list. These little decklist changes for a given event can be crucial and are often the difference between a good and a great tournament.
I've been playing Jund almost exclusively since Modern was created (with a short hiatus to cast Treasure Cruise). It's a great deck for Modern, not necessarily because it is versatile, has few unwinnable matchups, and rewards tight play and format knowledge. Also, I can just about guarantee that I've played more matchups with Jund than my opponents have with their deck if their deck was created in the last few months and they're just playing it as a metagame choice.
So why Burn? Well, the answer is that, for all of these same reasons, I like to have one specific backup deck. Even a deck as bad-matchup-proof as Jund just isn't worth it. These days, that could be because the format is based around Tron and Dredge, stuff that is perfectly beatable with my main, but tough (I'm told "main" is a term that means the character you are most familiar with in fighting video games, and it's a pretty good word to use here). If I am expecting those kinds of shenanigans, then I can press on, but it's an uphill battle, so changing gears for a weekend is a totally reasonable thing to do, so long as I am experienced with the deck and all of the above deck-selection process criteria are still true.
The reason I like Burn specifically, is that it has a lot of the same advantages as Jund but different specific favorable and unfavorable matchups. You still get to sport a robust sideboard, your deck is consistent and straightforward, and there are a huge swath of cards in the Modern format that you can use to your advantage that fit the deck and you can use to attack a given weekend. Matchups like Tron and Jund are way better with Burn that with Jund, but stuff like control decks and the mirror I like a lot better with Jund. If I expect to see Jund and Burn in the format since everyone in the world read this blog post, I'd roll with Jund. I talked about how I've been playing Jund forever, but even before Modern was a thing, I played Kird Ape at every single Extended tournament that it was legal. So basically, I've been only playing two decks for 16 years. Why change if it's still working out?
Hope you check out the Youtube page, and I hope you like it! I'll keep adding to it, and try to get back onto the streaming train too. Thanks for reading, see ya later!
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