The first card that has received a lot of hype is Young Pyromancer.

The card does a lot of things, and in the words of the prescient NicotineJones, “I think this guy is a multi-format staple for a long time to come. It just isn’t that hard to cast spells, and there are lots of reasons to want extra dorks—good defensively, good offensively, potentially combo-relevant.”

The deck that most wants Young Pyromancer that hasn’t taken off a great deal is Burn at the Stake combo, which NicotineJones originally designed (and which cjlack92 played a fair amount of on Magic Online).

Here’s a somewhat rough draft of what it might look like with Magic 2014 cards:

"2014 Burn at the Stake"

• Creatures (12)
• 4 Augur of Bolas
• 4 Goblin Electromancer
• 4 Young Pyromancer

• Spells (26)
• 4 Battle Hymn
• 2 Hidden Strings
• 2 Reforge the Soul
• 3 Burn at the Stake
• 3 Past in Flames
• 4 Faithless Looting
• 4 Krenko's Command
• 4 Lingering Souls

• Lands (22)
• 2 Dragonskull Summit
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Hallowed Fountain
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Intangible Virtue
• 2 Pithing Needle
• 3 Duress
• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 3 Blasphemous Act

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The old list can be found here, which predates Dragon’s Maze as well.

The principle idea behind the deck is to play Goblin Electromancer and token-makers (Krenko's Command and the like), cast a bunch of Battle Hymns (or Hidden Strings), flash back all of them with Past in Flames, and then cast a lethal Burn at the Stake.

Turn one: Blood Crypt, Faithless Looting (discarding two spells for later use to flash back)

Turn two: Sulfur Falls, Goblin Electromancer

Turn three: Hallowed Fountain (or Clifftop Retreat), Lingering Souls and Krenko's Command

Turn four: Some land, Augur of Bolas for a Battle Hymn or Past in Flames, cast Battle Hymn, flash back Faithless Looting, cast another Faithless Looting, cast Past in Flames, flash back Battle Hymn, Krenko's Command and cast Burn at the Stake for lethal.

That is pretty close to the best draw, but other people who have playtested it more than I have say it is a turn-three-and-a-half deck.

The cards that you fear are Curse of Death's Hold, Izzet Staticaster, Ratchet Bomb, and Bonfire of the Damned. Pithing Needle answers two of the four, whereas Intangible Virtue does something by itself as well.

One of the board plans that I’ve discussed with the fine folks in #goodgamery (on EFNet) is boarding into Boros Reckoner and Blasphemous Act. It’s unclear if that’s the best angle to attack from, but I think it is worth exploring.

Another deck that gains a bunch of value from Young Pyromancer is an update of the eighteen-land mono-red Dynacharge deck (that Gerry Thompson wrote about a month ago).

"Eighteen-Land Dynacharge Pyromancer"

• Creatures (26)
• 2 Hellrider
• 4 Burning-Tree Emissary
• 4 Firefist Striker
• 4 Foundry Street Denizen
• 4 Legion Loyalist
• 4 Stromkirk Noble
• 4 Young Pyromancer

• Spells (14)
• 2 Weapon Surge
• 4 Dynacharge
• 4 Krenko's Command
• 4 Pillar of Flame

• Lands (20)
• 18 Mountain
• 2 Mutavault

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Young Pyromancer leads to some very explosive starts while also giving you some semblance of a late game (although that is not the ideal situation since Bonfire of the Damned and Supreme Verdict both blow you out).

Turn one: Mountain into Stromkirk Noble or Foundry Street Denizen

Turn two: Mountain into Burning-Tree Emissary and Firefist Striker

Turn three: Mountain into Krenko's Command

Turn four: Attack with everyone, overload Dynacharge (or Weapon Surge)

Young Pyromancer could be substituted there (instead of Firefist Striker), and it would still be a very good draw, albeit weaker against actual blockers. To this end, Mugging might actually be better than Pillar of Flame in this deck.

Similar to the Burn at the Stake combo deck, cards you fear are anything that kills your small guys quickly (Bonfire of the Damned or Ratchet Bomb and Izzet Staticaster).

Cards that could help out in that situation are Chandra's Phoenix (to become slightly more resilient), and perhaps the third and fourth Mutavault belong in the ’board if you want to board more expensive spells.

Other M14 Cards Bearing Mention

Fiendslayer Paladin is pretty annoying for red to deal with (first strike is a big deal).

Xathrid Necromancer is another card that significantly boosts the power level of The Aristocrats decks. I have not played enough with The Aristocrats variants to know for sure, but I think going back to a more Human-heavy W/B/R The Aristocrats deck does a lot for the Necromancer here.

Awaken the Ancient is interesting, but until Thundermaw Hellkite rotates, it probably will not see any play.

Garruk, Caller of Beasts could prove useful in a G/U Elves ramp deck or even just in a deck that has a lot of green fatties (Junk Rites comes to mind here).

Encroaching Wastes will probably take the slot of Ghost Quarter in blue-based control decks (Matt Costa mentioned he was interested in this card on Twitter).

Haunted Plate Mail is interesting if the format is all Wrath of Gods and sweeper effects.

To Summarize

Decks that I think gain a lot from Magic 2014 include any green midrange deck (Jund or Junk), red aggressive decks (Burning Earth is incredible), The Aristocrats decks, and Burn at the Stake combo.

I have also recently been writing on an almost-daily blog focusing on deck techs, and it can be found here.

I appreciate any comments or constructive criticism here or on Twitter.