I really, really want to make a decent Boros deck.
But I also like winning, and practically all Boros generals give middling P/T boosts to creatures. Those don't go together.
I also really, really like using weird cards in EDH, and then I saw this: Burning Sands.
Then I thought of making a Boros deck with a twist - give my opponents creatures, profit off that.
The general will be Iroas, God of Victory, for two reasons only: Pariah and Pariah's Shield. Obviously there will also be the standard red/white pillowfort cards, like Ghostly Prison and Smoke, but I need help with the categories listed above (especially giving my opponent creatures and profiting off creature death in R/W), since these are harder to find.
It will be creature-light and enchantment-heavy. Any suggestions on cards to include/ways to win would be great!
Thanks (:
There will be a lot of times wherein you can't enchant pariah on your iroas. I'd say Tajic is the better indestructible commander. Arcbond is gold on a pariah enchanted indestructible.
If you play Gisela, Blade of Goldnight the Damage that comes off of Repercussion will be 4x to all your opponents and only 1/4 to you and 1/2 to your creatures.
Extra note on Gisela: She also makes you immune to 1/1s, which is very nearly every token to be given away. She makes a good case for being the general.
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Gisela would definitely be in the 99 (this deck was originally meant for her), but I have played a Gisela deck before and 7 mana is a lot in colours that have poor ramp. Besides, I want to use the Pariah/indestructible combo and have a minor equipment subtheme for things like Pariah's Shield and Avarice Amulet. It's pretty much a toss up between Iroas and Tajic, but Iroas has much higher power on an empty board and the "prevent all damage to attacking creatures you control" can help when I decide to activate Pyrohemia or I have Lightmine Field out.
It seems that there is a dearth of good token-givers that also keep me creatureless, though, so another option I have considered is to play token producers or things that give everyone tokens and use Mana Echoes as odd ramp.
So you're giving opponents tokens and then using effects that are powerful because they have tokens. That is one of the most awesome deck ideas I've herd of!
Suture Priest is something you can drop early game that triggers off of token creation instead of death. If you go Mardu, Dark Salvation can double as a kill spell.
If you want to consider Mardu, I'd like to mention the New Mardu Commander (Not linking incase someone doesn't want it spoiled.) for giving you Extra Draws. The Extra Draws ability can backfire, but while its backfiring backfiring, you get something that helps you Pillowfort. (Judging by the cards being used, that upside to the backfiring can also backfire. Hope you like being murdered because of your Commander. Also, Pillowfort is now a verb.)
Haha, thanks! Sorry, I want to keep the deck R/W, so not Mardu.
The deck idea is more of playing as few creatures as possible, then penalising my opponents for having creatures (and since this is R/W, penalising them again when those creatures inevitably die). The token producers are for opponents who may not have so many creatures, since not everyone is going to token-swarm me.
Is there an aura version of Arcbond, maybe? Something that says "when this creature deals combat damage to a player (or takes damage), it deals that much damage to each creature"? Nemesis Mask might be useful, but I want something bigger...
I can't blame you for wanting to keep your colors for one combo. I have a deck just to kill people with Blightsteel Colossus.
With Dark Salvation, I'm not sure if you noticed that it says that Target Player gets the Zombies instead of You and that it counts Zombies the Target Player controls, but sense you're not playing Mardu, it doesn't madder. As for the Commander I pointed out, yeah, she goes against your strategy.
I don't think there's an Aura of Arcbound or anything like that, but I'm not the best person to ask.
I remembered a card that's made for Token Decks. I'm not sure if I mean made for playing with them or against them, but ether way, it looks like it could work. Master Warcraft(AKA: The "I'll pay you $5 to punch that guy's face" Card)
Edit: You're better off with actually Bribing your opponents with $5 than playing that unless your Pillowfort is good enough. X(
I played a Gahiji, Honored One deck like this a while ago. Cards I used that work in your colors R/W include:
- Goblin Sharpshooter: Fits with your "enemy creatures dying" theme. Take down bigger creatures after a few small ones die, or turn those death triggers into Blood Artist triggers minus the lifegain.
- Fumiko the Lowblood: A pillowfort creature that is often missed when you are assuming a token swarm on the enemy side.
- Warmonger Hellkite: Like Gisela, encourages your opponents' armies to hit each other rather
- Tempt with Vengeance, Death by Dragons, Benevolent Offering: Can't forget these "symmetrical with a bonus" token makers from the Commander sets.
- Grenzo, Havoc Raiser: In combination with your commander, giving all your creatures menace means forcing your opponents to attack each other even more, or snagging card advantage if you have a lot of mana.
- Volcanic Wind: Take out all the opponents' creatures save for the tokens you created.
I also second the earlier suggestion for Varchild's War-Riders, very fun to bring that out.
There isn't an aura version of Arcbond but there is Balefire Dragon... For triggers off damage being dealt to a particular creature, albeit in more limited ways than what you're looking for, there's Coalhauler Swine, Boros Reckoner, and Spitemare
I remembered a card that's made for Token Decks. I'm not sure if I mean made for playing with them or against them, but ether way, it looks like it could work. Master Warcraft (AKA: The "I'll pay you $5 to punch that guy's face" Card)
Note, you're gonna need that $5, because while Master Warcraft lets you decide which creatures attack, it doesn't let you decide who they are attacking.
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Zedruu: "This deck is not only able to go crazy - it also needs to do so."
You can absolutely do this in boros tho. I would go with the previously mentioned Tajic, and possibly compliment him with a few hard-to-remove creatures (stuffy doll/darksteel gargoyle/darksteel myr), or creatures that you can get rid of at your own whim (burnished hart). You're probably looking to have less than 8 creatures in your final decklist. Probably a lot of prison effects so you don't end up dying to the opponents creatures + your own creatures (ghostly prison/windborn muse/archangel of tithes/norn's annex/sphere of safety.
Since most of the tech here is enchantment based you will probably want efficient recursion like argivian find.
I think the biggest trick to this sort of deck is the speed of which you can create a meaningful presence compared to the speed of which the opponent can hurt you. If your deck is too slow, you will always fall behind and fail. Powerful cards like vicious shadows can easily win games, but may be too slow (mana-wise) in a deck like this.
But I also like winning, and practically all Boros generals give middling P/T boosts to creatures. Those don't go together.
I also really, really like using weird cards in EDH, and then I saw this: Burning Sands.
Then I thought of making a Boros deck with a twist - give my opponents creatures, profit off that.
Basically, use things like these: (The token producers)
Forbidden Orchard Rite of the Raging Storm
Then play things like these: (The enablers)
Vicious Shadows Burning Sands Repercussion
And follow up with this: (The payoff/finishers)
Blasphemous Act Pyrohemia Ward of Bones
The general will be Iroas, God of Victory, for two reasons only: Pariah and Pariah's Shield. Obviously there will also be the standard red/white pillowfort cards, like Ghostly Prison and Smoke, but I need help with the categories listed above (especially giving my opponent creatures and profiting off creature death in R/W), since these are harder to find.
It will be creature-light and enchantment-heavy. Any suggestions on cards to include/ways to win would be great!
Thanks (:
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
Hunted Lammasu only gives one creature so it might not be good.
One option could be to run something Assemble the Legion and Harmless Offering.
The only strong token givers left unmentioned are Alliance of Arms and Mogg Infestation. If you want to have a worse Vicious Shadows, you can play Rage Thrower. Phyrexian Rebirth, Incite Rebellion, and Chain Reaction are sweepers that scale with full boards. Deploy to the Front and Custodi Soulbinders can drop a ton of power down. Things like Patron of the Kitsune can make you functionally immune to 1/1s, and Congregate can gain a ton of life. I also highly recommend Comeuppance alongside Repercussion. And you should probably play Weathered Wayfarer and Expedition Map to find Forbidden Orchard, cause you're gonna lean on it pretty heavily when games go long.
Oh, and Gideon, Champion of Justice. Have fun.
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"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Gisela would definitely be in the 99 (this deck was originally meant for her), but I have played a Gisela deck before and 7 mana is a lot in colours that have poor ramp. Besides, I want to use the Pariah/indestructible combo and have a minor equipment subtheme for things like Pariah's Shield and Avarice Amulet. It's pretty much a toss up between Iroas and Tajic, but Iroas has much higher power on an empty board and the "prevent all damage to attacking creatures you control" can help when I decide to activate Pyrohemia or I have Lightmine Field out.
It seems that there is a dearth of good token-givers that also keep me creatureless, though, so another option I have considered is to play token producers or things that give everyone tokens and use Mana Echoes as odd ramp.
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
Suture Priest is something you can drop early game that triggers off of token creation instead of death. If you go Mardu, Dark Salvation can double as a kill spell.
If you want to consider Mardu, I'd like to mention the New Mardu Commander (Not linking incase someone doesn't want it spoiled.) for giving you Extra Draws. The Extra Draws ability can backfire, but while its backfiring backfiring, you get something that helps you Pillowfort. (Judging by the cards being used, that upside to the backfiring can also backfire. Hope you like being murdered because of your Commander. Also, Pillowfort is now a verb.)
The
Necromancer (or Noob)
Cat.
Don't ask, I don't know why ether...
The deck idea is more of playing as few creatures as possible, then penalising my opponents for having creatures (and since this is R/W, penalising them again when those creatures inevitably die). The token producers are for opponents who may not have so many creatures, since not everyone is going to token-swarm me.
Is there an aura version of Arcbond, maybe? Something that says "when this creature deals combat damage to a player (or takes damage), it deals that much damage to each creature"? Nemesis Mask might be useful, but I want something bigger...
Retired: WUEphara, God of the PolisWU blink | WGerrard CapashenW lifegain | WUB Ertai, the CorruptedWUB combo | WAvacyn, Angel of HopeW
mono-white controlangel tribalPauper: UBDimirKittyUB | RBG Deathcycle RBG
Modern: GWUEnchantressGWU | GWUTurbofogGWU
With Dark Salvation, I'm not sure if you noticed that it says that Target Player gets the Zombies instead of You and that it counts Zombies the Target Player controls, but sense you're not playing Mardu, it doesn't madder. As for the Commander I pointed out, yeah, she goes against your strategy.
I don't think there's an Aura of Arcbound or anything like that, but I'm not the best person to ask.
I remembered a card that's made for Token Decks. I'm not sure if I mean made for playing with them or against them, but ether way, it looks like it could work.
Master Warcraft
(AKA: The "I'll pay you $5 to punch that guy's face" Card)Edit: You're better off with actually Bribing your opponents with $5 than playing that unless your Pillowfort is good enough. X(
The
Necromancer (or Noob)
Cat.
Don't ask, I don't know why ether...
- Goblin Sharpshooter: Fits with your "enemy creatures dying" theme. Take down bigger creatures after a few small ones die, or turn those death triggers into Blood Artist triggers minus the lifegain.
- Fumiko the Lowblood: A pillowfort creature that is often missed when you are assuming a token swarm on the enemy side.
- Warmonger Hellkite: Like Gisela, encourages your opponents' armies to hit each other rather
- Tempt with Vengeance, Death by Dragons, Benevolent Offering: Can't forget these "symmetrical with a bonus" token makers from the Commander sets.
- Grenzo, Havoc Raiser: In combination with your commander, giving all your creatures menace means forcing your opponents to attack each other even more, or snagging card advantage if you have a lot of mana.
- Volcanic Wind: Take out all the opponents' creatures save for the tokens you created.
I also second the earlier suggestion for Varchild's War-Riders, very fun to bring that out.
There isn't an aura version of Arcbond but there is Balefire Dragon... For triggers off damage being dealt to a particular creature, albeit in more limited ways than what you're looking for, there's Coalhauler Swine, Boros Reckoner, and Spitemare
Note, you're gonna need that $5, because while Master Warcraft lets you decide which creatures attack, it doesn't let you decide who they are attacking.
A grixis punishment build can get pretty nasty. Blue gives you a bit of control and copy enchantment (which makes tainted aether/tainted flash/aether flash gross). Black gives you access to that tainted aether, spreading plague, and pestilence to compliment that pyrohemia of yours.
You can absolutely do this in boros tho. I would go with the previously mentioned Tajic, and possibly compliment him with a few hard-to-remove creatures (stuffy doll/darksteel gargoyle/darksteel myr), or creatures that you can get rid of at your own whim (burnished hart). You're probably looking to have less than 8 creatures in your final decklist. Probably a lot of prison effects so you don't end up dying to the opponents creatures + your own creatures (ghostly prison/windborn muse/archangel of tithes/norn's annex/sphere of safety.
Even vow of lightning and vow of duty would be ideal here, just to make the opponents creatures susceptible to pyrohemia.
Powerstone Minefield fits in boros and goes nicely with repercussion.
Since most of the tech here is enchantment based you will probably want efficient recursion like argivian find.
I think the biggest trick to this sort of deck is the speed of which you can create a meaningful presence compared to the speed of which the opponent can hurt you. If your deck is too slow, you will always fall behind and fail. Powerful cards like vicious shadows can easily win games, but may be too slow (mana-wise) in a deck like this.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
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