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Untapped: Boros Do The Hustle

Matt’s got two Boros decks to share with you today: a very angry Humans Standard deck and a Commander deck with Basandra, Battle Seraph as its general.

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Ok, guys, let’s make this quick. I’m in a hustle.

Haste is one of my favorite abilities in the Magic lexicon; there’s just something about basically playing a card sideways and beating face right away. For a new player, I feel like haste is intuitive. "This creature can’t attack right away? Why is he sick?" As such, the ability to do what our mind wishes is a powerful motivator in Magic.

Today’s decks roughly focus on one of the fastest pairs of colors: Boros.

Save the Legion

Boros has been a thing forever; back when Boros was first released, I loved to bash in with Skyknight Legionnaire; Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran; and Razia, Boros Archangel herself. That feeling of overwhelming force, especially on the back of hasty creatures, has forever been appealing to me. At every level, I think most Magic players have experienced that giddy joy somewhere in their Magic tenure.

Alas, it is with great distress and sadness that I bring up today’s card, not because the card is poor but because it has seen almost no play.

Honor the Pure was always playable, and it made mono-white a bit of a thing when it’s been in Standard. Legion’s Initiative is not Honor of the Pure; it is more mana specific, and it requires two color requirements to be a full anthem effect. But the Initiative has the unique ability to not only save your team from any form of mass removal and returning them conveniently after the storm has passed but also rebuy enter the battlefield effects with very little cost. An anthem on one side and a Ghostway on the other plus haste? What’s not to like?

This forgotten mythic will have its day, and here’s a start that will make all you aggro junkies happy.

Save the Legion
Matt Higgs
Test deck on 06-23-2013
Standard
Magic Arena

Creatures (30)

Lands (22)

Spells (8)

Sideboard

Magic Card Back


This deck is without a doubt a very angry Boros Humans deck, so let’s take a peek at the pieces.

Creatures

Champion of the Parish was the first inclusion, but I’m gonna give a side note: he’s a bit of a nonbo with Initiative. However, with all but five creatures triggering him, I couldn’t turn him down. Legion’s Initiative is only four cards, so in every situation he is a practical and hard-hitting one-drop.

Reckless Waif, a favorite from Innistrad, is possibly a 4/2 on turn 2 with Legion’s Initiative and a flip, pretty much making her an auto-include. Having the Initiative out can let you flip her easily without "doing nothing" on a turn. Your opponent will be disinterested in playing a sweeper with Initiative up, so it should be easier than normal to keep Reckless Waif on the angry side. Stonewright can soulbond at will upon being returned to the battlefield (it does not target) even if it comes in with everything else. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I couldn’t find anything telling me that wouldn’t work. Otherwise, he’s great at making your opponents block poorly.

Legion Loyalist, one of the non-Humans, is a very cheap combat trick disguised as a one-drop. Trample is more relevant with more power—and so is first strike. Lightning Mauler provides ad hoc haste as needed and is easy to cast. It was between this hasty bloke and Nearheath Pilgrim, but this deck wants a 3/1 instead of a 2/2. Azorius Arrester is an awesome tempo card that works well as a blinked target for a Legion’s Initiative. He comes back with haste and detains something. Awesome! Wojek Halberdiers is a power card, short and simple. It’s a meaty 4/3 for two that can overpower almost every creature when battalion is triggered.

In three-drop land, we have seven nearly identical cards with subtle but essential differences. The aforementioned Skyknight Legionnaire (using original RAV art, of course) makes it in as a relevant Human on turn 3 that can get in the air to push over obnoxious blockers for three damage or more. Viashino Firstblade does much the same thing, but it sacrifices evasion for power. Five unblocked damage from one creature is a big game on turn 3. When you blink him with the Initiative, he still comes back as a sideways 4/4. Being a lizard-man brings him down a notch, though he is still a Soldier!

Kessig Malcontents is great pre- and post-Initiative blink. With 25 creatures to hit, it can take a nasty chunk out. Because its ability doesn’t count Humans until resolution, it doesn’t matter that it enters with everything else in a blinking situation.

Spells

Only eight spells this time. Boros Charm acts as an additional anti-wipe card, a final punch to the face, or, on the rare occasion, a blowout on a bloated five-power-plus attacker. The Initiative’s role has been exhausted, but I will take a moment to point out that once the Initiative resolves control decks will have very little hope of stopping the blink because the activated ability can’t be countered like Rootborn Defenses or Boros Charm can. It will allow you to safely overextend. Just keep that RW up!

Lands

Surprisingly, at least to me, the land base was quite a challenge to put together for a two-color deck, and Cavern of Souls took center stage in this drama. On one hand, a creature-based deck naturally flocks to the Cavern for its mana-fixing and must-resolve needs, especially when every creature is one or both of two types (Human and Soldier). However, the fact that this deck revolves around two heavily colored noncreatures spells throws a bit of a wrench in things. For Legion’s Initiative to be appropriately cast, you need RRWW up (unless you cast it on two, you lucky dog). This created quite a quandary, but I think I’ve settled on a happy medium.

Sideboard

Creature-based sideboards are always fun because you don’t feel like you’re giving up much when you bring them in. Ash Zealot, who didn’t make the maindeck because of her strict color restrictions for what could turn out to be unnecessary benefits, comes in for matches where the first strike or trigger will be relevant, such as catching rubes like yours truly in Burning Oil graveyard casting. Remember, the Initiative grants an extra point of power, meaning that Ash Zealot can eat both sides of a Thragtusk or a Vampire Nighthawk.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben seems like a no-brainer; Human aggro plus few spells equals auto-Thalia. This will make your opponent’s removal even more useless, and once you resolve your Initiative, you won’t really care about the penalty to yourself. Rest in Peace is still a necessity in Junk Reanimator-heavy fields, so I’d recommend holding up three in the board if things get dicey in the undead department. With the popularity of Aristocrats/Blood Artist decks, removing the "dies" clause from consideration might just save your skin.

Similarly, Pithing Needle is great to stop any problem planeswalker, Aetherling, or any other resolved threat. Fiend Hunter is a great piece of removal that doesn’t interfere with the plan; Legion’s Initiative and five mana can also let you remove two things thanks to the trigger orders permanently exiling your first target. Zealous Conscripts is a nice choice for the slower decks. It grabs something with an Initiative blink at instant speed, and if you grab a creature you can trigger Battalion easily, for what that’s worth. Originally a maindeck creature that was relegated to the side for being obnoxiously expensive, Zealous Conscripts can still be a backbreaking effect in a stalemated board.

I think this deck could be improved, perhaps by abandoning the strictures of the Human theme or by utilizing a wider range of colors (Naya perhaps to include Burning-Tree Emissary or black to add unleash creatures). I considered a Gatekeeper shell for a long time, too, as they could provide a great value engine on a blink, but I was never pleased with them. They are just hard-to-effectively-cast Pillarfield Oxen, and I found it a bit too gimmicky. I hope that this deck proves an effective and powerful deck in the metagame. It’s time to put those Initiatives to use! If your FNM is loaded with control that relies on sweepers to stabilize, perhaps this deck is just what the doctor ordered.

Basandra, Battle Seraph

Now I’m going to wander into slightly uncharted territory. While in the vein of explaining Boros’ potential, I considered doing a Commander deck based around a challenging general that shares the Legion’s colors. Don’t worry—Sheldon, Cassidy, and Sean are the real EDH masters on here—I’m just dipping in a pink toe. This lovely lady, clad in her awesome Terese Nielsen art, descended to help.

When this card was revealed along with the other legendaries, most everyone I talked to said that it should read "opponents can’t cast spells during combat" and dismissed her with wave of their combat-trick-loving hands. For me, though, the fact that combat can be a major part of an often combat-light format was intriguing, so I set to work on making a combat-oriented EDH deck that can’t reliably cast anything during combat.

Challenge accepted.

Basandra, Battle Seraph
Matt Higgs
Test deck on 06-23-2013
Commander
Magic Arena

Creatures (38)

Planeswalkers (3)

Lands (36)

Spells (23)

Magic Card Back


Without boring you kind readers with a very lengthy card-by-card, I’ll just say that the goal is to force decks into combat that would otherwise prefer a bit of planning or to avoid it entirely. The deck was originally based around Fumiko the Lowblood, one of my absolute favorite cards from Kamigawa, but adding white gives the concept much more depth, so I explored that path. Fumiko just features prominently now, making opponents attack without requiring investment.

The creatures support the theme as much as possible, providing relevant blockers where possible or creating poor blocks. Cards like Kami of False Hope and Children of Korlis provide non-spell ways of negating combat, and Proclamation of Rebirth can rebuy them turn after turn. Likewise, Boros Reckoner, Spitemare, Stuffy Doll, and Pariah’s Shield all work together to make life unpleasant for your opponents. Guardian of the Gateless and Palace Guards also act as non-spell Fogs while active, and post-combat spells like Faith’s Reward can recover the team, too.

Bear in mind that Holy Day effects like Dawn Charm, Safe Passage, and even Chant of Vitu-Ghazi can be cast pre-combat; when your opponent is forced to attack, it effectively just taps their creatures or, perhaps even better, throws them at somebody else. Combat-control cards like Master Warcraft; Odric, Master Tactician; and Boros Battleshaper all help plan effective counterattacks or overwhelm a weakened opponent. Powerful finishers like Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite; Sunblast Angel; and White Sun’s Zenith all drive at the same point: wipe them out and crash for the win.

I’m working to put these pieces together and making a fun and effective Commander deck, but this is still a bit in the concept stages. Perhaps you’ve used Basandra in a completely new way; Commander decks are many players’ pride and joy, so share your ideas and suggestions with us in the comments.

I’ve got another highly effective Standard deck to toss your way next week, and it’s a step in the opposite direction! Hurry back, and don’t forget to untap!

– Matt

CaptainShapiro on Magic Online