Classic Burn (circa 1994)--this is as simple of a deck construction as you can get. This deck archtype (along with mono-black Juzam Djinn, Dark Ritual, Hypnotic Specter, Erg Raiders, Juggernaut, Paralyze, Terror, Unholy Strength, and Mind Twist) by far predominated tournaments in the summer-fall 1994 (after the release of Revised and Legends). There is one The Dark card (Maze of Ith here), which was restricted at the time to 1 copy per deck, later in 1994). The deck also might run 1 Karakas, just to be safe (although nobody ever played Legends in tournaments at this time--they sucked!--and Karakas was restricted to 1 copy per deck at the time, so not likely that you would draw it even if needed).

Side Board:
1x Maze of Ith
4x Mesa Pegasus (to band with the Dragon and to take all of the damage from a bigger blocking creature, like a Mahamoti Djinn)
2x Serra Angel
4x Chain Lightning
4x Fork
You might include Shatter as well...or Life Link...the true burn decks also included Mox Pearl, Mox Ruby, and Black Lotus, but really the ramp was to get the Mana Flare out as soon as possible--but these Moxes and Lotus were less "required" to be competitive as Mana Flare does not help produce more mana from artifacts and in the case of Mana Flare (when playing against an opponent who also has a burn deck) you want to have your opponent play the Mana Flare first, so you can take advantage of the extra mana on your turn (it was a double edged sword, really--many times you would hold back the Flare to see when you could best play it, or see if your opponent would cave first and play it for you). For example, a good use of the red Mox and Sol Ring--tap those to play the Flare, then use your lands to produce the extra mana. Same with the Lotus, although this was usually not a "make or break" use of the cards. Really, if your opponent played the Flare first, and you dropped a second Flare on your turn, your Fireball was pretty much lethal using a Fork even with only a few lands in play (5 lands with 2 Flares = 15 mana; this is 1x 12 point Fireball Forked for 24; 4 lands with 2 Flares = 12 mana; this is 1x 9 point Fireball Forked for 18 and a Lightning Bolt for lethal on the following turn...which would be dubious against another burn deck--you would never see the next turn!). Hence, despite the myth that all "Vintage Decks" kill you in the first turn, the burn decks sometimes took several turns as it was a Mana Flare "Stare Down Contest" when competing against another burn deck...against non-burn decks, well yeah, they killed you in less than 4 turns once the Flares got out--cast whatever big stuff you got, because that direct damage is coming straight at you! This also is a good benchmark for Vintage decks--aggro decks should have lethal by turn 4 (most often based on a random draw) and control decks need to completely handle the board by this time if not include some alternative first turn win condition.

Anyhow, an alternate version of the burn deck also had Wrath of God x4 (and/or Balance x1) in the sideboard for creature decks--depending on the era, creatures were either a threat or not so much...when the burn decks reigned supreme in 1994, nobody really played creature decks outside of mono black, so most opponents played burn or weak-control with only a few big creatures (usually the Shivan, Mahamoti Djinn, or Juzam Djinn--believe it or not Juggernaut as well was very common--hence Shatter in the sideboard) and Wrath of God often was a dead card--Swords to Plowshares and Lightning Bolt were good enough to remove most things. I did play Red-Green aggro at this time (although I was one of few) and that deck did pretty good...although burn usually won most matchups in the end, until it began to rotate out of favor in late 1994-early 1995.

Also at this time, because there were limited dual lands, almost all decks were mono- or 2-color (there were not a whole lot of competitive 3-color decks...maybe Blue-White, Blue-Green with Birds of Paradise, or Blue-Red control with a splash of black for Demonic Tutor and/or Mind Twist). The only control decks that could keep pace at this time were Red-Blue (burn control--cards like Reset, Counterspell, Mana Drain and then direct damage red spells--nothing like playing Mana Drain on your opponent's 20 damage Fireball, just to hit them back with a 40 point Fireball on your turn!). A good side board against these control decks was Fork--which resulted in both players dying and a draw. In the now defunct definition of "Interrupt", the Fork copy actually went off first and thus you would win the game. Anyhow, good times...also anyone from this era knows exactly what the Lightning Bolts are for--save them for the Hypnotic Specters and Juggernauts (or lethal damage to the opponent--never "just to do 3").

As far as opposing decks, Blue-White control was much too slow (it did not really get competitive until Alliances in 1996--Force of Will; early Blue-White control was based on Stasis and Zephyr Falcons/Serra Angels, the so called "Stasis Decks") and Blue-Black did not get good until Fallen Empires (really Hymn to Tourach, late 1994), Shallow Grave (with Nicol Bolas from Legends; Mirage, 1996--people did play Karakas then!), and Megrim (Stronghold, 1998), which launched the discard control deck era (also with Howling Mine and Underworld Dreams)--those decks dominated tournaments in 1998. First turn Dark Ritual then Hypnotic Specter was bad, first turn double Dark Ritual (or Dark Ritual and Sol Ring) then Mind Twist or double Hymn to Tourach was worse, and first turn, do not play a land and discard Nicol Bolas and then second turn Dark Ritual, Shallow Grave Bolas, and hit you for 7 damage and discard your hand was the worst. Remember at this time both players drew a card first turn and there was no mulligan unless "no land or all land" and you had to show your hand (so called "No Ace, No Face rule"). The modern mulligan rulings greatly favor control decks (and disfavor aggro decks)--back then you could not "shop around" for a clutch starting hand and you got, what you got. As such, most decks were very simple in construction--each random draw gave you pretty much identical starting hands, like this burn deck.   
--RED_GREEN