MTG Salvation

This deck has been retired.

I've been wanting to build a Boros deck for a long time but didn't really love any of the Boros legends until Tajic came around. He's cheap to cast, hard to remove and with the right support is a 3 hit clock.


Putting this up mostly as a way of keeping track of my deck changes, but also happy to discuss the deck and hear suggested additions and changes.

Reserved - just in case

I have played against this deck and I have to admit it is one of the best builds in our play group. The deck comes out quickly, hits hard, but most importantly has the ability to survive and rebuild quickly to become a presence. I have seen this build fend of three opponents at once. It is a very solid build.

If anyone is looking to build and EDH on Tajic. This would be a very good build to start you off

You are missing a land and sorcery in your deck list though, you have listed 37 and 8. Although you are under by 1 of each.

Quote from ECHO83

You are missing a land and sorcery in your deck list though, you have listed 37 and 8. Although you are under by 1 of each.

Hmm I will have to go back through the deck and find what I've missed. Thanks for bringing this to my attention

Also a small change to the deck:

- 1 Explorer's Scope

+ 1 Skullclamp

--

Edit: Found the missing cards and added to the deck list. Phyrexian Rebirth and a Plains

I would suggest:

1x Cenn's enlistment
1x Aurelia, the Warleader

I want an Aurelia, the Warleader for the deck, extra combat steps are crazy good with Tajic and battalion.

Cenn's Enlistment is a bit hard to retrace without setting back my land drops. The deck is quite mana hungry and I'd rather not be discarding lands for two 1/1's. Goblin Trenches might be better than Cenn's Enlistment as a 'cheaper' version of the spell.

I would prefer to add token production such as Goblin Assault, Rise of the Hobgoblins, Mobilization or Sacred Mesa.

Good to see another Tajic deck. In my expierence, Odric, Master Tactician is really handy as a semi removal by forcing blockers and no blocks leading the way.

I agree that Aurelia is absolutely bonkers.
Also I like Mobilization (gives vigilance to Tagic). Also Luminarch Ascension. You have the early game to protect it.

How has Mageta the lion been for you? A repeatable wrath is nice for an indestructible general, but having to discard two cards seems pretty harsh for two colors that have trouble keeping extra cards in hand.

You've already got the land tax and scroll rack combo so I think cenn's enlistment and goblin trenches can actually work out well. You should give flagstones of trokair and crucible of worlds a look if you do. Flagstones of trokair is nice as a little insurance against land destruction and can easily replace one of your plains without compromising your mana base. It gets better if you plan on adding a sacred foundry or include a mistveil plains + sunforger package. Mishra's factory is also a good land to add since it can activate battalion or hold some equipment in a pinch and still tap for mana.

I personally like having figure of destiny and sunhome guildmage around since they can come in during the early game and still make use of excess mana later. FoD fits into your ranger of eos package and the tokens from sunhome guildmage get both boosts from balefire liege.

RE: Mageta the Lion. Sometimes being able to clear the board more than once is worth the extra discard. I haven't had too much trouble getting the extra cards in hand to throw away. He is really great with Staff of Nin in play and/or haste. I'm not too worried by the 'card disadvantage' because it is easy to break even or come out ahead by destroying enough creatures. Opponents tend to keep key creatures in hand rather than casting them while he is on the field. He is also somewhat of a pet creature of mine, so that makes me reluctant to cut him.

Figure of Destiny, Flagstones of Trokair, Sacred Foundry and Sunforger are all on the wish list.

I have a Crucible of Worlds not in a deck at the moment, so I could look at playing it, but it is hard to cut things for and I'm not convinced Cenn's Enlistment is worth it as a token generator. Goblin Trenches is still better in my opinion, but that plus crucible only lets me keep my mana at status quo. One of the reasons this deck consistently does well is that it manages to ramp (as well as red/white can) and hit land drops most of the time.

Sunhome Guildmage seems a little fragile as a token generator, although repeatable token generation seems like a good idea as a mana sink. When I have Sword of Feast and Famine on a double striker it would be great to be able to pump some out some tokens before the second untap trigger. I'm thinking Mobilization might have the most upside for Tajic, although Sacred Mesa producing flyers is also pretty strong.

Another card I've been considering is Smokestack.

Edit: I wish Odric, Master Tactician only required two other attackers instead of three. Sometimes it is pretty hard to get battalion online, let alone add another attacker. That said, being able to make Tajic 'unblockable' is a pretty powerful effect.

Very minor change:
- 1 Plains

+ 1 Boros Signet

Found the Signet in my collection while sorting cards, figured I could get away with pulling out a basic land for more artifact ramp.

Had an order of cards arrive which prompted the following changes:

Out
- Darksteel Plate
- Mind's Eye
- Scarecrone
- Hound of Griselbrand
- Sunblast Angel

- Miren, the Moaning Well
- Mystifying Maze
- Transguild Promenade
- Rupture Spire
- Plains

In
+ Sacred Mesa
+ Sunforger
+ Smokestack
+ Figure of Destiny
+ Aurelia, the Warleader

+ Sacred Foundry
+ Mistveil Plains
+ Flagstones of Trokair
+ Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
+ Windbrisk Heights

Took out some cards which felt a bit too defensive and others that were under-performing. Mind's Eye was the most difficult cut, but in the 10 to 20 games I've had with this deck I have never drawn more than a couple of cards from it. There always seems to be other things to sink my mana into.

Experimenting with some more token generation, more combat phases and Smokestack! The dream is to get Assemble the Legion out with a few counters and then drop Smokestack and watch the counters keep ticking up.

Removed the slow lands Transguild Promenade and Rupture Spire. They are decent mana fixers, but very slow, and now I feel I have some better options. In general pushing the deck in a more aggressive direction.

Did some trades and opened an Ajani, Caller of the Pride today.

Out:
- Balefire Liege
- Mageta the Lion

In:
+ Ajani, Caller of the Pride
+ Baneslayer Angel

Ajani works really well with Tajic. If you give him flying and double strike and activate Battalion, well... 14 general damage in one hit is a lot. The +1/+1 counters are also really good to turn some of the smaller critters into real threats.

Baneslayer Angel is simply a very cost efficient attacker.

Bit sad to cut Mageta the Lion and Balefire Liege, but they seemed like the weakest links in terms of effects and costs for those effects. Who knows, they might end up going back in.

Sad to hear about Mageta. Pet cards are always tough to cut. I'm not surprised to hear about the mind's eye cut though since it only confirms my own feeling that it's kind of slow for an aggressive approach. I've been wary about staff of nin for the same reason although I do see its benefits as not requiring any additional mana and being able to ping away creatures and players when necessary.

How has sunforger been working out for you? I'm curious if it's worth keeping especially with only five instants (albeit very useful instants to have anytime).

Any thoughts on including umezawa's jitte? Some recent discussion on the forums prompted me to think about adding it. It's cheap to cast, can pump your own creature, take out utility creatures, and gain life in a pinch. The best part is that the charge counters remain on it even when unequipped. It also seems very innocuous.

I really like Staff of Nin, the ping effect keeps a lot of utility critters under control, can mess with combat math and kill planeswalkers. It is rarely the most obnoxious artifact on the table so it avoids targeted removal quite well.

I haven't had Sunforger in play yet, so I can't comment on its tutoring, although even with only five targets I think the card advantage in Boros is worth it. Another thing consider though is that +4/+0 brings Tajic up to 11 power with Battalion, changing him from a three hit to a two hit general.

I would play Umezawa's Jitte if I had one, it has so much utility. It's a wishlist card.

Changes.

Out:
- Dragonmaster Outcast
- Sword of War and Peace
- Baneslayer Angel

In:
+ Burnished Hart
+ Sword of Light and Shadow
+ Return to Dust

Dragonmaster Outcast and Baneslayer Angel both seemed to die before they ever got to do anything Sword of War and Peace moved into my Ashling deck where the prot red was more valuable.

Sword of Light and Shadow lets me get back Sun Titan, which is my main recursion engine for equipment. Return to Dust can be tutored with Sunforger and is a way to deal with an influx of indestructible enchantments and artifacts. Burnished Hart is sweet sweet ramp!

Changes

Out:
- Smokestack

In:
+ Elspeth, Knight-Errant

This deck didn't really work out with Smokestack, I guess I need to build a more dedicated Stax deck for it. Elspeth came over from Vish-Kal, both of her +1 abilities are pretty relevant in this deck.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is tons of fun to play in just about any red/white deck. Not only does she halve Tajic's clock by doubling his damage, which is huge in and of itself, she reduces any damage you take.

Quote from Sword of the Morning

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is tons of fun to play in just about any red/white deck. Not only does she halve Tajic's clock by doubling his damage, which is huge in and of itself, she reduces any damage you take.

I'll second this. Lately, I've been finding myself cutting Aurelia in favor of Gisela. Not to sound cliche, but they both die to basically the same removal spells; however, Gisela is way harder to kill in combat, and her abilities play politics better as well.

I'll add Gisela to my wants list

Changes:

Out:
- Sacred Mesa
- Increasing Devotion
- Stuffy Doll

In:
+ Unexpectedly Absent
+ Mirror Entity
+ Heliod, God of the Sun

I found Sacred Mesa difficult to keep in the board with its upkeep cost. Increasing Devotion was good, but because I don't run any anthem effects it was often underwhelming. I love Stuffy Doll, because it could attack for Battalion trigger, carry equipment and was indestructible, but it is fairly expensive for a 0/1 creature, so I'm trying something else for a while.

Heliod, God of the Sun will eventually lead his own deck, but in the meantime he is a repeatable token generator and indestructible. Giving my creatures vigilance gives me defense without sacrificing offense, and in combination with Skullclamp 3WW to draw two cards is quite reasonable. Late game I will almost certainly be able to switch on battalion every attack phase.

Unexpectedly Absent is versatile removal (even if temporary); it is good for tempo and great in response to an opponent's shuffle trigger. I can also find it with Sunforger.

Mirror Entity allows me to buff my tokens and small creatures for big beats! I can potentially use it to save my smaller creatures from Pyrohemia too (end of turn, pump red mana into Pyrohemia, and white and colourless mana into Mirror Entity).

Still dreaming of getting a Umezawa's Jitte for this deck... someday... someday :).

Angelic Overseer may not be super proactive, but Tajic's status as an indestructible human makes her rather difficult to deal with.

I have considered Angelic Overseer for exactly those reasons. I haven't got one, but I'll add it to the wishlist and pick one up next order to test it.

Definitely support your cut of Sacred Mesa, seems strictly worse than Luminarch Ascension, or even Rise of the Hobgoblins. I think there are still some powerful enchantments you could be including, have you considered Legion's Initiative to boost and help dodge sweepers, or Cathars' Crusade?

Also, Sudden Disappearance is fiendishly useful if you find yourself unable to get that last bit of damage through around some stubborn blockers.

I have spare Luminarch Ascensions, perhaps I should try and fit it in. I don't own any of the other cards you mentioned. I'd like to give Rise of the Hobgoblins a go, but I choose not to run Cathars' Crusade because I hate having to keep track of +1/+1 counters on numerous tokens. It just gets unwieldy, so I save myself the trouble by not running the card (I do recognise how powerful it can be though).