So you're tired of dying at your local pioneer tournament. I get that, we've all been there. Drink this shady brew, and become extremely persistent.

Synopsis

 This is a red/white mid-range deck with a heavy flying presence, a decent amount of lifegain for padding, and some killer resilience. The main gimmick of this deck is phoenixes: they're hard to kill forever. Using this high amount of air dominace and flaming majesty, an assortment of burn spells, and some tactical use of the Elixir of Immortality, you can easily close out a game against an opposing mid-range deck and/or control deck.

Ground Rules

 These are "rules" to consider when piloting this deck:

• This is NOT an easy deck to pilot. If you're expecting a braindead win deck, go play piledriver or something, idk. Your victories will most likely be very narrow ones, and they will pretty much always be fought for.
• Make sure you can realistically make it to 4 mana with your opening hand. Obviously, the manabase helps in this regard, but make sure you keep an appropriate hand, or you will suffer. There is very little margin for error in the perfection of a phoenix.
• This deck is still aggressive as balls, so make sure you take advantage of any attacks you get. Unless your opponent is chucking a Ghalta at you (F in the chat if that's the case).
• DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE PITCH A CARD TO MAGMATIC CHANNELER AFTER SPENDING MANA OR PLAYING LANDS. You WILL 99% of the time waste a card this way.
• Take pride in playing this deck. You have persistence, and you're never out of the fight until your life total is 0.

Opening Hand

 Opening hands can be a bit tricky with this deck, so it's important to watch closely. An ideal opening hand for this deck should include:

• 3 lands
• 1 or 2 one-drops
• A phoenix. Flamewake Phoenix is the best curve out option for it, but Everquill Phoenix or Rekindling Phoenix is perfectly fine.
• A burn spell. Flame-Blessed Bolt is fine and the most likely, but Play with Fire and Response // Resurgence will suffice.

 This opening hand is the ideal one, but there are other keepable hands that I will paraphrase down below:

• 2 lands, Magmatic Channeler, Play with Fire, Elixir of Immortality or Ghitu Lavarunner, any 2 others. This hand will provide you tools to dig and an out in case early life pressure is high. Pitch the random two others to Magmatic Channeler and prioritize finding a third and fourth land. With this opening hand, hitting 4 will be your priority, and will set you up into a predictable Rekindling Phoenix or Everquill Phoenix.
• 2 lands, Ghitu Lavarunner, 2 burn spells (at least 1 Play with Fire), Healer's Hawk, any other. Play the lavarunner, burn some shit, and go really fast for a bit. You'll most likely draw into a Magmatic Channeler or Heartwarming Redemption, which can revitalize you.
• 4 lands, Play with Fire, Rekindling Phoenix or Flamewake Phoenix, either another Play with Fire or a Ghitu Laverunner/Magmatic Channeler. This hand will be a bit slower, but guarantees a phoenix and some presence. Definitely pitch any spare lands you get past 4 for playables to Magmatic Channeler if it shows up.
• 3 lands, Healer's Hawk or Ghitu Lavarunner, Flamewake Phoenix, Heart-Piercer Manticore, Everquill Phoenix. Highly specific, but definitely keepable. The idea is to curve out: play your one drop first, turn 2 swing in if possible and play either your second one drop or whatever two drop you might've drawn, turn 3 Flamewake Phoenix and swing in, and turn 4 mutate Everquill Phoenix onto either a Healer's Hawk if you have it out and need the life, or onto Flamewake Phoenix otherwise and swing in. Now on turn 5, you can swing in if possible and play Heart-Piercer Manticore sacrificing the Everquill Phoenix if it's mutated onto Flamewake Phoenix for 4 damage to either a creature standing in your way, a pesky walker, or the opponent's face (preferred). Then next turn, use the feather token to bring back Everquill Phoenix on your opponent's end step and leave a red open to get Flamewake Phoenix back. Barring some serious luck or a hard answer, this hand is pretty unstoppable.

Winning the Game

 Now the imortant part: how to win. Well, there's a few ways. Overwhelming flying damage is the most common. Heart-Piercer Manticore will help you fling a phoenix at someone to close out a game, as well as other burn spells. Ironically, winning is the simplest part of playing this deck. It's making decisions that set yourself up for victory that's the hard part.

Matchups and Sideboard

 Now we get to reactive plays and sideboarding. There are some options here, so use them wisely.

• Sweltering Suns - A nice boardwipe for wide aggro decks. Also comes pre-packaged with cycling, so that's neat.
• Flame Sweep - Same as Fiery Temper. Bring it in if the aggro is weak enough, or bring it in alongside Sweltering Suns if it's crucial to have a boardwipe.
• Response // Resurgence - Great against stompy. An absolute mammoth killer, plus extra combat to help close out a game if necessary.
• Roiling Vortex - Freecasting is a virgin move, so make them hurt for it. Also no life gain for them.
• Elixir of Immortality - Use if you're going against mill.

On the topics of matchups and how this deck performs against them:

• Combo - P e r i s h   p u n y   r a t
• Aggro - Wide aggro can be a bit stressful for this deck. But, stick true to your burn spells and take out lords/enablers and you're good to go.
• Stompy - It's gonna be really difficult, so be prepared for suffering. Stompy has an extremely favorable matchup against this deck due to it's strong, explosive early presence. (Might add Justice Strike into the board, if so use that and pray).
• Control - This deck is capable of playing a long game against a control deck, and it's really hard to permanently remove barring exile spells. Don't over extend, and they'll waste their resources soon enough.
• Mid-range - Your opponent is playing mid-range, so it's a gentleman's duel the way Richard Garfield intended. Good luck, have fun, and adapt to your opponent's strategy to win.