Goat Format World Championship 2025 Deck Tech: Hernyhog's Panda Burn

Panda Burn is nothing new to the format. Though sometimes controversial, it's a strong contender for any event, including the 2025 World Championships! 

Deck List

Overview

Panda burn decks have existed for most of the modern era. Though innovation has occurred, the core gameplan has largely remained the same. The strategy even made 1st place at the 2021 World Championship in the hands of Delinkquent. The deck tries to kill its opponent as fast as possible using a combination of aggressive creatures, like the eponymous Gyaku-Gire Panda, and direct damage effects, like Secret Barrel.

​Hernyhog's list today opts for a singleton Big Shield Gardna to eat up Nobleman of Crossout and give a little extra damage should an opponent attack into it. Mask of Darkness is also an interesting and fairly uncommon inclusion that allows the burn player to recycle burn or fallen Gravity Binds. Some may notice the absence of oft-considered staple monsters like Giant Rat or Injection Fairy Lily.  The ladder can be explained in part by the full 3 Solemn Judgment seen in the main deck. The life loss from each do not play well together, after all. 

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Player Insight

Burn at this years worlds felt like the right decision for me because I wanted to avoid going into time and felt this deck offered a competitive advantage game one that included resilience against strong openings and was less reliant on the outcome of rock paper scissors. I came prepared with a synchronized strategy to counter what I anticipated my opponents side decks would contain. Having quick matches would provide me with valuable time to learn about future opponents side strategies. I have thousands of matches worth of experience piloting burn and felt comfortable navigating the intricacies of this weekends competitive environment.

​I built this deck to be the beneficiary of as many free game ones as possible. Narrowing in on chainable cards that inflict burn damage and cards that will stall until you can assemble lethal. I did not want to use Giant Rats, instead opting for monsters with flip effects and choosing not to attack. Trying to leave my opponent with dead cards. Solemn judgment and Injection Fairy Lily didn't test well together and I knew I only wanted to use two Giant Trunade for consistency purposes.

​Thanks to MMF I got the idea to side Solemn Wishes vs Burn providing security that doesn't conflict with Mask of Restrict while gaining added value from the Jar of Greeds that help dig for combo pieces. Mask of Restrict is used to counter popular side deck options like Mobius the Frost Monarch, Mystic Wok, Amazoness Archer. Mind Control works great with Ojama Trio and answers threats while pairing really well with the inclusion of Gravekeeper's Spy. Mask of Darkness is the ultimate Swiss army knife taking advantage of the deck's large trap count.

​The deck's been playing really well. I believed I had a competitive advantage against my opponents until I was mortified during round five when I got paired vs Nova Ethos Control Zombies Deck. Royal Decree was a big problem, having to destroy it on three different occasions during our game three, but he was heavily prepared for the match up with Creature Swap, Mataza the Zapper, Mystic Wok and Amazoness Arhcer, resulting in my inevitable defeat. The perfect combination to disrupt my strategy.

​Mask of Restrict and Solemn Judgment help propel this deck into a contender. However, its success will always be partly reliant on your opponents allocating the majority of their side deck towards other match ups.