American Re-Load - 2024

The build as is has three major problems that I'm seeing: too much of a good thing, too slow, no spell diversity.

The theme/idea here is solid. I very much love the adventure cards, and have wanted to build a deck including Hearthflame Duelist for a while. It's my opinion that it's well worth the three-drop three damage to store material you can cast the next turn that's a conditional beatstick and gives your bolts lifelink. But you're not running four, you're running eight, which is kind of what I'm getting at here. Isochron perpetuates, so does Meletis Charlatan. Snap and the Sword do the same thing as well. Fifteen instants that burn and no other interaction whatsoever. All this deck does it hurl fire slowly, it's an inefficient burn deck.

As for speed, you've got a curve problem. Only four one-drops, activated abilities that eat mana like they're deep fried and cheap. Meletis, for example, needs to be fielded, wait a turn, then at a minimum eats four mana (bolts), but in reality eats five mana (every other burn spell) to do anything. Thus, it's a dead card till you field five lands, it's slow, and does nothing on its own. Thus, you're going to be casting one spell per turn for a while, then two at maximum till you hit seven lands.

I applaud the idea of repeated burn that also keeps you alive long enough to keep burning, but I think it would go much better with some spell diversity to lower the curve, move through the deck, and let you respond to things that aren't small critters. Isochron and snap both absolutely love Consider, Counterspell, Izzet Charm, and Fire // Ice, all of which work extremely well on their own anyway. Having a Counterpsell on isochron is a GG 90% of the time on its own, as you're doubling up on material compared to opponent unless they draw an out against artifacts and burn a card that you counter in the same turn.

In general, I'd consider throwing in Prismatic Ending for general removal, even though you can't Scepter it. Maybe also Miscast, either maindecked or sided.

Muddle the Mixture is always a consideration for Isochron builds, as it is the best of both worlds. If you need to fetch a Scepter, its turns into a three-drop fetch sorcery. If you don't/can't afford it/have a Scepter, it's not a bad counter on its own and realistically isn't bad on a Scepter either. It's not as ideal as a Counterspell or burn card, but saying no to almost all removal and interaction on a stick isn't too bad.

I'm a huge fan of Bonecrusher Giant // Stomp in here (and in general). All the advantages you want, an extra win condition, guaranteed burn damage, combos with everything you've got. It even has stored tempo.

So basically what I'm getting at is cut the Charlatans, Grand Masters, Swords, and about half the burn and add in support that does other stuff but still lets you pull off what you're trying to pull off.

Just suggestions, not trying to sling hate.