Named after Jamie Hyneman's Blendo robot in Robot Wars (Youtube the video if you've never seen it), it literally dices up people in rather dramatic fashion. I've wanted to play Boros for some time to utilize the power of Lightning Helix, but thought Boros was rather boring as a guild until I saw the Boros Reckoner. I immediately thought "now this is a card I can build around." With his fellow Spitemare and Mogg Maniac, that gives a mass-blast spell a lot of power to hammer opponents. So rather than compromise and play with one strategy or the other, I got greedy and crammed both Lightning Helix tricks and damage blasters into one single deck. Lightning Helix, Firemane Avenger, and Balefire Liege cram all the helix damage you could want, and Blasphemous Act kicks off the party with eight means of protecting my troops from the hell I unleash. "Blendo" as a name just seemed right.
For awhile, I actually took Blendo into a Rakdos approach with Massacre Wurm, Hissing Iguanar, Deathgreeter, Twilight's Call and the Blasphemous Act with the damage flingers. Rakdos certainly allowed for way more damage overall, but using Boros in a Rakdos deck just didn't feel right. I took it back to the original decklist under the Boros banner. Also, I wanted to use the Spark Trooper playset in my elemental deck. Simply put, I use my Reckoner creatures (Reckoner, Spitemare, and Mogg Maniac) as rattlesnakes to cast a creature front. Once I have enough, I cast the Blasphemous Act after I give my side indestructible. If I have the mana and a second Act, then I set it off twice in the same turn. I kill as many people as that allows (13 damage per damage flinger is pretty severe), taking out the biggest player threats first. Then I go bonkers swinging through with my battalion and helix hijinks while I have board dominance. Once I torch it off, I've declared war on everyone at the same time, so I'm playing as aggresively as I can to finish it out. In that regard, it plays a lot like a typical 1v1 Boros deck that always swings with everything every turn, just with tactical nukes at the start to kick it off.
20 lands is light even if you account for the Bouncelands. This deck doesn't really need Figure of Destiny so I'd consider shaving some of those.
With 6+ ways to grant your team indestructible Chain Reaction seems way better than Lightning Helix. Spot removal simply isn't very impressive in a MP setting given that trading 1-for-1 with a single adversary is a marginal exchange at best.
Swans of Bryn Argoll brings some massive card draw to the deck given its obvious combo applications with mass removal such as B.Act and Chain Reaction. I would always run it over Firemane Avenger for example.
Where you play Balefire Liege I play Soulfire Grand Master. Not only does it boast immense synergy with B.Act/Chain Reaction but the buyback is relevant given that you can often jam B.Act for a single mana and immediately buy it back for future use.
Yeah, I always run light in the mana department, but I restrict my mana curves pretty tightly to keep things flowing at a good pace. Making some of your suggested changes would really inflate the mana curve (namely Chain Reaction). By keeping B.Act, I can cast for 1, give indestructible, and still likely cast a second one for three (assuming my creatures), costing a minimum of 6 mana, which is reasonable. Chain Reaction blows that out of the water, and is also not very available, even online. It's very popular for obvious reasons, lol. The other reason is tempo. For example, I can cast Aurelia, attack with enough to trigger indestructible with Battalion, and still squeeze off a 1 mana B.Act. I've tested both blast spells extensively, and the deck really seems to click better with the B.Act.
I do love the Soulfire Grand Master idea, though. I'll have to strongly consider him instead of Figure of Destiny. Not sure how I feel about the Izzit colors, though. Call it Vorthos thing I guess, but I will think about that, because that looks stellar. One of the reasons for keeping mostly dual R/W creatures, however, is to get max buff from Balefire Liege and swing like it's actually Boros to the core. I do get the combo ramifications of your suggestions, and they are very fine suggestions at that. Thanks!
Yeah, I always run light in the mana department, but I restrict my mana curves pretty tightly to keep things flowing at a good pace.
That makes absolutely no sense from a purely mathematical (i.e. objective) perspective. Land-light decks do not reliably make their land drops and therefore do not reliably curve out into their 3-5 CMC spells. Again, this isn't my opinion, it's pure math. By restricting your land count you are hindering your ability to play on-curve which, in turn, causes frequent and severe casting flow disruptions.
Added 4 Terramorphic Expanse, two plains, and two mountains, removing the Boros Guildgates. 24 lands should help draw percentage on mana some without damaging my land fixing.
I broke apart the Boros themed Blendo deck and made it into a Rakdos MP deck again. Taking advantage of the same Blasphemous Act damage reflection, I also added Hissing Iguanar and Massacre Wurm to the combo damage potential. I'm totally open to finishing suggestions, hence why I posted, but this deck is already infamous in my group for suddenly bringing all the creatures back into play, and then dropping a one mana Act to end it out of nowhere.
As if I needed any more damage, lol. -4 Deathgreeter, +4 Pain Artist. I actually use the Hissing Iguanar in combat to defend myself with its three damage. Great suggestion and easy swap.
I just played this last night in a four person FFA. With my stupidly low creature curve, I put out two token spammers, and two damage reflectors. Someone Pyroclasm'd, and I did 9 damage to him, gained seven life, and four more creatures. A few creatures later, I cast B.Act, killing the red player with another 13, hammered another for 14, and gained 14 myself. Next turn, Twilight's Call, bringing back Eternal Witness, bringing B.Act back, and then cast the Act for the win. Everyone was kind of shocked at how fast it went. I think I've found Blendo's final firm, though I'll have to be careful how often I play it since its synergy is so powerful versus my friend's decks. Thank you to everyone who made suggestions between this thread and the Shiva Engine thread. Cheers.
Awesome! That sounds like a T7 win (no ramp in the deck, 6 mana for Twilight's Call + 1 for BA)?
If you ever need to get even faster, it's been said before, but Purphoros + BA + insects ends games on Turn 4 (T1 enchantment ramp, T2 insect, T3 ... T4 P + BA). That doesn't make for an interactive game, though... so
I personally removed Purphoros and pivoted to having to swing with the insects to win. Similar deck, but less drain effects and more Beastmaster Ascension, Soulfire Grand Master, and sweepers.
Two thoughts:
Speaking of sweepers, is 6x BAs enough to see one reliably in a game? I'm pretty happy with 8 (plus 8 buyback options), particularly since I want to use more than one in a game (and hitting recursion isn't guaranteed).
FWIW, Swarmyard has some synergy with the insects + sweepers.
Awesome! That sounds like a T7 win (no ramp in the deck, 6 mana for Twilight's Call + 1 for BA)?
If you ever need to get even faster, it's been said before, but Purphoros + BA + insects ends games on Turn 4 (T1 enchantment ramp, T2 insect, T3 ... T4 P + BA). That doesn't make for an interactive game, though... so
I personally removed Purphoros and pivoted to having to swing with the insects to win. Similar deck, but less drain effects and more Beastmaster Ascension, Soulfire Grand Master, and sweepers.
Two thoughts:
Speaking of sweepers, is 6x BAs enough to see one reliably in a game? I'm pretty happy with 8 (plus 8 buyback options), particularly since I want to use more than one in a game (and hitting recursion isn't guaranteed).
FWIW, Swarmyard has some synergy with the insects + sweepers.
So far, six has been fine, but I will watch out for that. Yep, that was a 7 mana win, but maybe a bit slower. Not really sure. My best friend's son said, "at least the game was quick."
Maybe less Witness and more card draw?
Maybe throw in a Whip of Erebos?
The lands look a little messy but effective.
Maybe some kind of alternate plan for when someone removes your B. Acts from your deck? Either mass pump (or even Garruk Wildspeaker) or some Subterranean Tremors?
Maybe some kind of alternate plan for when someone removes your B. Acts from your deck?
I've been thinking about this, haven't really thought of a good answer yet, to be honest. Any plan b I throw in there dilutes the Blendo concept, though there are effects like Earwig Squad and Extirpate actively used in my group. Hmm....
Impact Tremors and Subterranean Tremors both look like good possible additions. The more I hone this, however, the greater the chance I put it out of reach of my friends to beat. For example, replacing Spitemare with Impact Tremors and Bane of Progress with Subterranean Tremors would fix concerns but speed the deck up so much, it might well kill the table at turn four or five. My friends' decks are just not that fast.
I've been thinking about this, haven't really thought of a good answer yet, to be honest. Any plan b I throw in there dilutes the Blendo concept, though there are effects like Earwig Squad and Extirpate actively used in my group.
Except this is the opposite of what you should be doing. I could sit here and list an infinite number of "what if" scenarios and thousands of different cards that you could field to prevent them or mitigate their impact on your strategy. The problem is that your deck would become unplayable trash as a result and lose a significantly larger % of games. Unless you are consistently losing games to a subset of cards that you're facing on a routine basis then you should ignore any and all "what if" scenarios and build your decks without them in mind. I realize that you listed some cards that are played in your meta but you've also explained to us that the deck is kicking butt. Cutting your "good cards that win games" for "bad cards that might help vs Extirpate" isn't a direction worth pursuing.
Note, there's a world where you can apply both of our advice. For example, if you add one Chain Reaction to the deck (that you can Demonic Tutor for) you suddenly have access to a "backup plan" that's still works a primary plan assuming that you get your B.Acts exiled. It's obviously a weaker version of the effect and you'd never cut B.Acts for CRs but that doesn't preclude you wanting to run 5 (virtual 6 with DT) copies of the effect. In that sense I'm definitely not opposed to having outs in case things go awry, I just look for cards that won't be dead in "normal" games.
I've been thinking about this, haven't really thought of a good answer yet, to be honest. Any plan b I throw in there dilutes the Blendo concept, though there are effects like Earwig Squad and Extirpate actively used in my group.
Except this is the opposite of what you should be doing. I could sit here and list an infinite number of "what if" scenarios and thousands of different cards that you could field to prevent them or mitigate their impact on your strategy. The problem is that your deck would become unplayable trash as a result and lose a significantly larger % of games. Unless you are consistently losing games to a subset of cards that you're facing on a routine basis then you should ignore any and all "what if" scenarios and build your decks without them in mind. I realize that you listed some cards that are played in your meta but you've also explained to us that the deck is kicking butt. Cutting your "good cards that win games" for "bad cards that might help vs Extirpate" isn't a direction worth pursuing.
Note, there's a world where you can apply both of our advice. For example, if you add one Chain Reaction to the deck (that you can Demonic Tutor for) you suddenly have access to a "backup plan" that's still works a primary plan assuming that you get your B.Acts exiled. It's obviously a weaker version of the effect and you'd never cut B.Acts for CRs but that doesn't preclude you wanting to run 5 (virtual 6 with DT) copies of the effect. In that sense I'm definitely not opposed to having outs in case things go awry, I just look for cards that won't be dead in "normal" games.
Yeah, that's kinda how I'm feeling, too. It's already a tad bit over the line of overpowered for the group. I understand what Thijs1301 is getting at, but I've yet to have that deck beaten that way. I'm just overthinking this.
For awhile, I actually took Blendo into a Rakdos approach with Massacre Wurm, Hissing Iguanar, Deathgreeter, Twilight's Call and the Blasphemous Act with the damage flingers. Rakdos certainly allowed for way more damage overall, but using Boros in a Rakdos deck just didn't feel right. I took it back to the original decklist under the Boros banner. Also, I wanted to use the Spark Trooper playset in my elemental deck. Simply put, I use my Reckoner creatures (Reckoner, Spitemare, and Mogg Maniac) as rattlesnakes to cast a creature front. Once I have enough, I cast the Blasphemous Act after I give my side indestructible. If I have the mana and a second Act, then I set it off twice in the same turn. I kill as many people as that allows (13 damage per damage flinger is pretty severe), taking out the biggest player threats first. Then I go bonkers swinging through with my battalion and helix hijinks while I have board dominance. Once I torch it off, I've declared war on everyone at the same time, so I'm playing as aggresively as I can to finish it out. In that regard, it plays a lot like a typical 1v1 Boros deck that always swings with everything every turn, just with tactical nukes at the start to kick it off.
What do you think?
1 Aurelia, the Warleader
4 Figure of Destiny
4 Mogg Maniac
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Spitemare
4 Frontline Medic
4 Firemane Avenger
4 Balefire Liege
4 Lightning Helix
4 Boros Charm
Sorceries:
4 Blasphemous Act
Land:
6 Plains
6 Mountain
4 Boros Guildgate
4 Boros Garrison
4 Terramorphic Expanse
With 6+ ways to grant your team indestructible Chain Reaction seems way better than Lightning Helix. Spot removal simply isn't very impressive in a MP setting given that trading 1-for-1 with a single adversary is a marginal exchange at best.
Swans of Bryn Argoll brings some massive card draw to the deck given its obvious combo applications with mass removal such as B.Act and Chain Reaction. I would always run it over Firemane Avenger for example.
Where you play Balefire Liege I play Soulfire Grand Master. Not only does it boast immense synergy with B.Act/Chain Reaction but the buyback is relevant given that you can often jam B.Act for a single mana and immediately buy it back for future use.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I do love the Soulfire Grand Master idea, though. I'll have to strongly consider him instead of Figure of Destiny. Not sure how I feel about the Izzit colors, though. Call it Vorthos thing I guess, but I will think about that, because that looks stellar. One of the reasons for keeping mostly dual R/W creatures, however, is to get max buff from Balefire Liege and swing like it's actually Boros to the core. I do get the combo ramifications of your suggestions, and they are very fine suggestions at that. Thanks!
That makes absolutely no sense from a purely mathematical (i.e. objective) perspective. Land-light decks do not reliably make their land drops and therefore do not reliably curve out into their 3-5 CMC spells. Again, this isn't my opinion, it's pure math. By restricting your land count you are hindering your ability to play on-curve which, in turn, causes frequent and severe casting flow disruptions.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
I broke apart the Boros themed Blendo deck and made it into a Rakdos MP deck again. Taking advantage of the same Blasphemous Act damage reflection, I also added Hissing Iguanar and Massacre Wurm to the combo damage potential. I'm totally open to finishing suggestions, hence why I posted, but this deck is already infamous in my group for suddenly bringing all the creatures back into play, and then dropping a one mana Act to end it out of nowhere.
4 Blood Artist
4 Mogg Maniac
4 Hissing Iguanar
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Spitemare
4 Massacre Wurm
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Blasphemous Act
4 Syphon Mind
4 Twilight's Call
Enchantments:
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Necropotence
1 Sol Ring
Lands:
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Rakdos Carnarium
4 Reflecting Pool
4 Bloodfell Caves
4 Akoum Refuge
4 Desert
Even if it's 1 vs 2 mana when the 2 drop is orders of magnitude more powerful you can't justify the former. I'm with you; Blood Artist all the way.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
4 Blood Artist
4 Mogg Maniac
4 Hissing Iguanar
4 Broodhatch Nantuko
4 Spitemare
4 Hornet Nest
4 Eternal Witness
2 Bane of Progress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Blasphemous Act
4 Twilight's Call
Enchantments:
1 Necropotence
Lands:
4 Forbidden Orchard
4 Savage Lands
4 Reflecting Pool
1 Stomping Ground
1 Blood Crypt
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 City of Brass
2 Gruul Turf
2 Rakdos Carnarium
2 Swamp
2 Forest
I just played this last night in a four person FFA. With my stupidly low creature curve, I put out two token spammers, and two damage reflectors. Someone Pyroclasm'd, and I did 9 damage to him, gained seven life, and four more creatures. A few creatures later, I cast B.Act, killing the red player with another 13, hammered another for 14, and gained 14 myself. Next turn, Twilight's Call, bringing back Eternal Witness, bringing B.Act back, and then cast the Act for the win. Everyone was kind of shocked at how fast it went. I think I've found Blendo's final firm, though I'll have to be careful how often I play it since its synergy is so powerful versus my friend's decks. Thank you to everyone who made suggestions between this thread and the Shiva Engine thread. Cheers.
If you ever need to get even faster, it's been said before, but Purphoros + BA + insects ends games on Turn 4 (T1 enchantment ramp, T2 insect, T3 ... T4 P + BA). That doesn't make for an interactive game, though... so
I personally removed Purphoros and pivoted to having to swing with the insects to win. Similar deck, but less drain effects and more Beastmaster Ascension, Soulfire Grand Master, and sweepers.
Two thoughts:
Speaking of sweepers, is 6x BAs enough to see one reliably in a game? I'm pretty happy with 8 (plus 8 buyback options), particularly since I want to use more than one in a game (and hitting recursion isn't guaranteed).
FWIW, Swarmyard has some synergy with the insects + sweepers.
Maybe less Witness and more card draw?
Maybe throw in a Whip of Erebos?
The lands look a little messy but effective.
Maybe some kind of alternate plan for when someone removes your B. Acts from your deck? Either mass pump (or even Garruk Wildspeaker) or some Subterranean Tremors?
My meta: 3 or 4 player free for all, anything goes but boring games or broken decks cause a vote to end that game.
I've been thinking about this, haven't really thought of a good answer yet, to be honest. Any plan b I throw in there dilutes the Blendo concept, though there are effects like Earwig Squad and Extirpate actively used in my group. Hmm....
Impact Tremors and Subterranean Tremors both look like good possible additions. The more I hone this, however, the greater the chance I put it out of reach of my friends to beat. For example, replacing Spitemare with Impact Tremors and Bane of Progress with Subterranean Tremors would fix concerns but speed the deck up so much, it might well kill the table at turn four or five. My friends' decks are just not that fast.
Except this is the opposite of what you should be doing. I could sit here and list an infinite number of "what if" scenarios and thousands of different cards that you could field to prevent them or mitigate their impact on your strategy. The problem is that your deck would become unplayable trash as a result and lose a significantly larger % of games. Unless you are consistently losing games to a subset of cards that you're facing on a routine basis then you should ignore any and all "what if" scenarios and build your decks without them in mind. I realize that you listed some cards that are played in your meta but you've also explained to us that the deck is kicking butt. Cutting your "good cards that win games" for "bad cards that might help vs Extirpate" isn't a direction worth pursuing.
Note, there's a world where you can apply both of our advice. For example, if you add one Chain Reaction to the deck (that you can Demonic Tutor for) you suddenly have access to a "backup plan" that's still works a primary plan assuming that you get your B.Acts exiled. It's obviously a weaker version of the effect and you'd never cut B.Acts for CRs but that doesn't preclude you wanting to run 5 (virtual 6 with DT) copies of the effect. In that sense I'm definitely not opposed to having outs in case things go awry, I just look for cards that won't be dead in "normal" games.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold