I had pulled a foil Gisela in an AVR draft and I decided it seemed like a pretty sweet general. The deck developed originally from a control perspective, but I also made sure to focus on cards that would benefit from Gisela's abilities. I also realized pretty quickly that the lack of good tutors in the color combination makes it a requirement that you build your deck to take advantage of the ones you have access to. Same goes with anything that can generate card advantage. I also decided to build it to punish greedy, expensive manabases and ramp decks. Cards like Ruination and Price of Progress aren't quite as good after the banning of Primeval Titan, but they still do the trick. After many tweaks this is what I ended up with, and in practice it turned out to be just about the best Boros deck I think you can build in the format.
-1 Ancient Tomb, -1 Temple of the False God: The deck is running a little heavier on nonbasics than I originally intended, and these are probably unnecessary.
-1 Cataclysm: This card just never seems to work out the way I'd like. It's great sometimes but you have to be set up pretty carefully for it to be good.
Been awhile, but I'm still playing this deck, still tweaking it, and still loving it!
-1 Coldsteel Heart: Needed it for another deck. Believe it or not, this innocuous little card is close to impossible to find at the card shops in Portland.
-1 Mind's Eye: In this deck, I don't usually have a bunch of extra mana floating around after wasting 5 mana on a card that does nothing on its own.
-1 Fireshrieker: Just not quite as good as what's replacing it.
-1 Reveillark: This card was in the deck forever, but the first time I actually looked at what it was capable of returning, it was easy to cut.
-1 Insurrection: Honestly, I was just bored with it. Where's the challenge in casting one spell and winning the game on the spot?
-1 Karn Liberated: I was hard up for cash and this happened to be as high in price as I suspect it will ever be. Love you, bro.
-1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: I like drawing cards, but helping my opponents draw cards pains me deeply.
+1 Tithe: Single-handedly makes sketchy hands keepable (unless you're "unlucky" enough to win the die roll), and gives you a way to find Mistveil Plains with Sunforger.
+1 Boros Charm: A Sunforgerable way to give Gisela double strike for a surprise kill, or save her and my precious artifacts from a sweeper? Mother may I!
+1 Aura of Silence: Another concession to the idea that this deck would be built around the tutors available in the color combination. Find it with Enlightened Tutor or Idyllic Tutor, recur it with Sun Titan
+1 Sword of War and Peace: Miles better than Fireshrieker, this thing hits like a mack truck.
+1 Burning Earth: A fairly new addition. A very early version of the deck had Mana Barbs in it, but that thing was too painful without Gisela around, and tended to turn the whole table against me. This card supports the nonbasic land hate subtheme and barely touches me.
+1 Molten Primordial: I'm actively seeking a replacement for this thing. Don't ask me why, I just dislike it for vaguely aesthetic reasons.
+1 Slayer's Stronghold: Another land-based source of haste for Gisela and her buddies, and it comes with vigilance and a power boost that allows Her Holy Hotness to kill a player with general damage in 2 turns rather than 3.
9/11/2013
-1 Arid Mesa: Sold it.
-1 Urabrask the Hidden: Needed it for another deck, and I've never really been too impressed with him in this stack. We also have plenty of haste granting effects as is.
-1 Burning Earth: I tried it. It's not great.
+1 Ancient Tomb: I'm allowed to change my mind, ok? It's good to have access to when tutoring with Weathered Wayfarer or Expedition Map in the early turns.
+1 Aurelia, the Warleader: Pretty much a nobrainer, just couldn't get my hands on a copy for a long time.
+1 Pyrohemia: A friend of mine asked me why I wasn't playing this card, and I didn't really have a good answer. It may not prove to be worth a slot, but we'll find out.
Add True Conviction or Rage Reflection, Double Strike is so boss with Gisela.
He has Fireshrieker which is more or less the same effect at a cheaper cost and is tutorable.
What are Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and Karn Liberated doing for you? They are good cards, no doubt, but they don't really fit into your plan and are more just value cards. I am curious if they have the game changing effects (specifically with Karmic Guide and Reveillark) that they do in decks that are designed to abuse them.
I don't see the point in having Keldon Firebombers or Godo, Bandit Warlord. The Firebombers are kind of overkill with the other mass land destruction you have. Godo is only a tutor for a piece of equipment. You only have a few, and you have enough tutors for them already I think.
How has Catastrophe been working out for you? Whenever I play it, I always want it to do both or cost less. Have you thought about Razia's Purification? Seems similar to Cataclysm.
I'd be running Repercussion in a deck with Gisela, myself. It makes your dudes better than unblockable, and is amazing with any sort of creature-damage board wipes, which red has access to.
Darcykun: Catastrophe is terrrific. I like having options in EDH and this deck never wants to wrath 100% of the time or 'geddon 100% of the time, but pretty much always wants to do one or the other. The cost isn't a big deal; did you see how many freaking mana rocks I'm playing?! Repercussion is a card I will definitely be adding just as soon as I can find one. Razia's Purification will probably come in also. Making room is going to suck.
talencross: Keldon Firebombers is sweet. I like that it's a body you can put equipment on, and I like that it punishes ramp players more than others, so it makes it a sort of fair card. Godo, Bandit Warlord is a recent addition, and will get a lot better when I can find a Batterskull to add to the deck.
maxmaceachern: Karmic Guide and Reveillark are both in there simply because they do something that WR doesn't have a lot of access to (creature recursion) and because they're both good with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. They are somewhat underwhelming a fair amount of the time though, so might be worth cutting. Karn Liberated seems good against people with permanents and cards in hand. If I'm replacing any of them, it would have to be with creatures, the deck is a little light already. I was thinking Puresteel Paladin would be pretty good, free equips is pretty nice, especially with Sunforger.
There only thing I'd do differently.
The X burn spells, and price of progress, when you plan on blowing up the world. These aren't the best thing out there.
Some replacements.
Wild Ricochet - amazing off sunforger , and in general.
Pyrohemia - because hoseing the entire board for 2 / red is pretty cool when it's not hitting you or your critters at all
Any of the buyback spells are also pretty decent with sunforger.
hmm. yeah, i like it! i always forget that card is an instant, i may have to make some room
Recently won a game with Jor Kadeen using Final Fortune. You want to see eyebrows raise, tutor this up with Sunforger, then on your second turn tutor up Angel's Grace. With Mistveil Plains or Reito Lantern you could even take a third turn (that's pretty mana intensive, but hey, why not).
Recently won a game with Jor Kadeen using Final Fortune. You want to see eyebrows raise, tutor this up with Sunforger, then on your second turn tutor up Angel's Grace. With Mistveil Plains or Reito Lantern you could even take a third turn (that's pretty mana intensive, but hey, why not).
I had pulled a foil Gisela in an AVR draft and I decided it seemed like a pretty sweet general. The deck developed originally from a control perspective, but I also made sure to focus on cards that would benefit from Gisela's abilities. I also realized pretty quickly that the lack of good tutors in the color combination makes it a requirement that you build your deck to take advantage of the ones you have access to. Same goes with anything that can generate card advantage. I also decided to build it to punish greedy, expensive manabases and ramp decks. Cards like Ruination and Price of Progress aren't quite as good after the banning of Primeval Titan, but they still do the trick. After many tweaks this is what I ended up with, and in practice it turned out to be just about the best Boros deck I think you can build in the format.
1 Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
Artifacts
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring
1 Expedition Map
1 Mana Vault
1 Grim Monolith
1 Boros Signet
1 Mind Stone
1 Scroll Rack
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Darksteel Ingot
1 Coalition Relic
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Staff of Nin
Equipment
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sword of Fire and Ice
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of War and Peace
1 Sunforger
1 Batterskull
Creatures
1 Weathered Wayfarer
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Stonehewer Giant
1 Keldon Firebombers
1 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1 Karmic Guide
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
1 Duplicant
1 Sun Titan
1 Inferno Titan
1 Godo, Bandit Warlord
1 Balefire Dragon
1 Molten Primordial
1 Magmatic Force
1 Tithe
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Orim's Chant
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Boros Charm
1 Price of Progress
1 Oblation
1 Chaos Warp
1 Return to Dust
1 Comet Storm
1 Fault Line
Sorceries
1 Steelshaper's Gift
1 Gamble
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Ruination
1 Austere Command
1 Catastrophe
1 Molten Disaster
Enchantments
1 Land Tax
1 Fervor
1 Blood Moon
1 Repercussion
1 Aura of Silence
1 Pyrohemia
1 Vicious Shadows
12 Mountain
14 Plains
1 Terramorphic Expanse
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Arid Mesa
1 Thawing Glaciers
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Mistveil Plains
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Wasteland
1 Slayer's Stronghold
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
CHANGELOG
11/11/2012
-1 Ancient Tomb, -1 Temple of the False God: The deck is running a little heavier on nonbasics than I originally intended, and these are probably unnecessary.
-1 Cataclysm: This card just never seems to work out the way I'd like. It's great sometimes but you have to be set up pretty carefully for it to be good.
+1 Repercussion: Awesome suggestion is awesome. Much like Balefire Dragon, it's a separate triggered ability so the creature takes double damage because of Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, and Repercussion doubles it AGAIN. Soooooo much damage.
+1 Plains, +1 Mountain
11/30/2012
-1 Stranglehold: It's good, but a little low impact and draws a disproportionate amount of hate.
+1 Batterskull: This thing is seriously the nut; in addition to being a free creature off of Godo, Bandit Warlord, giving Gisela, Blade of Goldnight +4/+4, vigilance, and lifelink is pretty insane.
8/23/2013
Been awhile, but I'm still playing this deck, still tweaking it, and still loving it!
-1 Coldsteel Heart: Needed it for another deck. Believe it or not, this innocuous little card is close to impossible to find at the card shops in Portland.
-1 Mind's Eye: In this deck, I don't usually have a bunch of extra mana floating around after wasting 5 mana on a card that does nothing on its own.
-1 Fireshrieker: Just not quite as good as what's replacing it.
-1 Reveillark: This card was in the deck forever, but the first time I actually looked at what it was capable of returning, it was easy to cut.
-1 Insurrection: Honestly, I was just bored with it. Where's the challenge in casting one spell and winning the game on the spot?
-1 Karn Liberated: I was hard up for cash and this happened to be as high in price as I suspect it will ever be. Love you, bro.
-1 Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: I like drawing cards, but helping my opponents draw cards pains me deeply.
+1 Tithe: Single-handedly makes sketchy hands keepable (unless you're "unlucky" enough to win the die roll), and gives you a way to find Mistveil Plains with Sunforger.
+1 Boros Charm: A Sunforgerable way to give Gisela double strike for a surprise kill, or save her and my precious artifacts from a sweeper? Mother may I!
+1 Aura of Silence: Another concession to the idea that this deck would be built around the tutors available in the color combination. Find it with Enlightened Tutor or Idyllic Tutor, recur it with Sun Titan
+1 Sword of War and Peace: Miles better than Fireshrieker, this thing hits like a mack truck.
+1 Burning Earth: A fairly new addition. A very early version of the deck had Mana Barbs in it, but that thing was too painful without Gisela around, and tended to turn the whole table against me. This card supports the nonbasic land hate subtheme and barely touches me.
+1 Molten Primordial: I'm actively seeking a replacement for this thing. Don't ask me why, I just dislike it for vaguely aesthetic reasons.
+1 Slayer's Stronghold: Another land-based source of haste for Gisela and her buddies, and it comes with vigilance and a power boost that allows Her Holy Hotness to kill a player with general damage in 2 turns rather than 3.
9/11/2013
-1 Arid Mesa: Sold it.
-1 Urabrask the Hidden: Needed it for another deck, and I've never really been too impressed with him in this stack. We also have plenty of haste granting effects as is.
-1 Burning Earth: I tried it. It's not great.
+1 Ancient Tomb: I'm allowed to change my mind, ok? It's good to have access to when tutoring with Weathered Wayfarer or Expedition Map in the early turns.
+1 Aurelia, the Warleader: Pretty much a nobrainer, just couldn't get my hands on a copy for a long time.
+1 Pyrohemia: A friend of mine asked me why I wasn't playing this card, and I didn't really have a good answer. It may not prove to be worth a slot, but we'll find out.
WRGisela, Blade of Goldnight: Holy Fire
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind: Dimir Machinations
RGThromok the Insatiable: OMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Retired EDH Decks:
BBMikaeus, the Unhallowed: Black Gold
RUGRiku of Two Reflections: The Most Epicest Experiment
BWVish Kal, Blood Arbiter: Vishous
(R/G)(R/G)Rosheen Meanderer: Party Time!
BGNath of the Gilt-Leaf: The Rock
GWUJenara, Asura of War: Bant 187
Numot - Retired
He has Fireshrieker which is more or less the same effect at a cheaper cost and is tutorable.
What are Karmic Guide, Reveillark, and Karn Liberated doing for you? They are good cards, no doubt, but they don't really fit into your plan and are more just value cards. I am curious if they have the game changing effects (specifically with Karmic Guide and Reveillark) that they do in decks that are designed to abuse them.
Gisela: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=530741
I'd be running Repercussion in a deck with Gisela, myself. It makes your dudes better than unblockable, and is amazing with any sort of creature-damage board wipes, which red has access to.
Draft my Peasant Cube.
Catastrophe is terrrific. I like having options in EDH and this deck never wants to wrath 100% of the time or 'geddon 100% of the time, but pretty much always wants to do one or the other. The cost isn't a big deal; did you see how many freaking mana rocks I'm playing?! Repercussion is a card I will definitely be adding just as soon as I can find one. Razia's Purification will probably come in also. Making room is going to suck.
talencross:
Keldon Firebombers is sweet. I like that it's a body you can put equipment on, and I like that it punishes ramp players more than others, so it makes it a sort of fair card. Godo, Bandit Warlord is a recent addition, and will get a lot better when I can find a Batterskull to add to the deck.
maxmaceachern:
Karmic Guide and Reveillark are both in there simply because they do something that WR doesn't have a lot of access to (creature recursion) and because they're both good with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. They are somewhat underwhelming a fair amount of the time though, so might be worth cutting. Karn Liberated seems good against people with permanents and cards in hand. If I'm replacing any of them, it would have to be with creatures, the deck is a little light already. I was thinking Puresteel Paladin would be pretty good, free equips is pretty nice, especially with Sunforger.
WRGisela, Blade of Goldnight: Holy Fire
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind: Dimir Machinations
RGThromok the Insatiable: OMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Retired EDH Decks:
BBMikaeus, the Unhallowed: Black Gold
RUGRiku of Two Reflections: The Most Epicest Experiment
BWVish Kal, Blood Arbiter: Vishous
(R/G)(R/G)Rosheen Meanderer: Party Time!
BGNath of the Gilt-Leaf: The Rock
GWUJenara, Asura of War: Bant 187
There only thing I'd do differently.
The X burn spells, and price of progress, when you plan on blowing up the world. These aren't the best thing out there.
Some replacements.
Wild Ricochet - amazing off sunforger , and in general.
Pyrohemia -
Any of the buyback spells are also pretty decent with sunforger.
hmm. yeah, i like it! i always forget that card is an instant, i may have to make some room
WRGisela, Blade of Goldnight: Holy Fire
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind: Dimir Machinations
RGThromok the Insatiable: OMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Retired EDH Decks:
BBMikaeus, the Unhallowed: Black Gold
RUGRiku of Two Reflections: The Most Epicest Experiment
BWVish Kal, Blood Arbiter: Vishous
(R/G)(R/G)Rosheen Meanderer: Party Time!
BGNath of the Gilt-Leaf: The Rock
GWUJenara, Asura of War: Bant 187
Recently won a game with Jor Kadeen using Final Fortune. You want to see eyebrows raise, tutor this up with Sunforger, then on your second turn tutor up Angel's Grace. With Mistveil Plains or Reito Lantern you could even take a third turn (that's pretty mana intensive, but hey, why not).
WUBRG Some of these decks can actually win games...WUBRG
How I know I should build a deck:
ooh...i like it!
WRGisela, Blade of Goldnight: Holy Fire
UBLazav, Dimir Mastermind: Dimir Machinations
RGThromok the Insatiable: OMNOMNOMNOMNOM
Retired EDH Decks:
BBMikaeus, the Unhallowed: Black Gold
RUGRiku of Two Reflections: The Most Epicest Experiment
BWVish Kal, Blood Arbiter: Vishous
(R/G)(R/G)Rosheen Meanderer: Party Time!
BGNath of the Gilt-Leaf: The Rock
GWUJenara, Asura of War: Bant 187