Introduction
Some people just like to watch the world burn, and if that’s you then you will be just the right kind of person for Big Boros, or Boros Mid-Range. As this format has begun to settle it appears that one for one answers and spot removal are all the rage. Big Boros is a deck that challenges its opponent to have the right answer at all times. The deck is chuck full of paths to victory and most of them complement each other and attack at different angles.
At its very basic level the deck wants you to take advantage of scry effects to shape your early hand and try to stabilize on turn 5 or 6. This is accomplished with spot removal like chained to the Rocks and, a full 14 burn spells. Then it tries to stick one of its finishers (Stormbreath Dragon, Assemble the Legions, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion) all of which are of a different type forcing your opponent to not just have an answer but the right answer.
Pros for the deck include multiple angles of attack a very reasonable mana base, and the best sideboard color in white.
Cons include a lack of true card drawing power, and a reliance on direct damage as its spot removal.
Boros Rekoner- This card puts the breaks on most aggressive decks, buying you some turns to get one of your gaming ending threats on line. Reckoner is also a card that needs a direct answer as damage is not the best way to cope with this Wizard, this may draw a removal spell out of your opponents hand and away from your dragons. Finally it gives you some inevitability at the end of the game as it cant be blocked very effectively by bigger creatures as he throws that damage back at your opponent.
Purphoros, God of the Forge- As a one of he is a beast. Combos well with either of your token generators and his damage threatens opponent’s planes walkers. He is also fairly easy to turn on as the deck plays a good number of permanents. Finally he is a great mana sink in the late game to make huge token armies lethal.
Stormbreath Dragon- 4/4 flying, haste, pro white dude that grows a couple turns later…do I need to explain????? Oooooooohhhhh wait it also spits a fireball at its opponent
Instant / Sorcery
Magma Jet- The weakest of the removal spells, but a hugely needed effect. I cast this as soon as possible. Preferably as removal but straight at the opponent is okay. You want the scry effect to craft the removal for you first 3-4 turns till you get a winner online
Lighting strike- Great early removal that helps stabilize the board early game and does its job on the opponent late game giving you some reach
Anger of the Gods- Your Primary sweeper, you want to use this early to handle the beginning of the game aggression or ramp, and let your win cons handle the mid to late game.
Warleader’s Helix- next up in the chain of damage spells, that also gives your life total a pad to help buy a turn or two. Again also give you some reach when it has no othe targets. (Note: As this is a very new deck this could be mizzium mortars instead but only testing will tell)
Enchanments
Chained to the Rocks- Premium one for one removal spell should be used last unless the treat is not killable by any other spell you have
Assemble the Legion- One of our kill conditions. Its best when used against the grindier or more controlling opponents (Mono-Black, Esper). Once it is in play it is very difficult to remove based on the current meta (note: my current list runs two in the main, and one thing I want to try is running only one with two in the sideboard)
Planeswalkers
Chandra, Pyromaster- Your primary source of card advantage, you must make sure to mangae the 0 ability properly, you should always do it before you play a land, and never if you plan on using most of your mana for cards in your hand already that turn.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion- Another win Con, and the most powerful card in your deck. Elspeth palys especially well with Anger as it clears out most threats that Anger cant.
Lands
Mountain- Cause you have to
Plains- See Mountain
Sacred Foundry- Helps for fixing and counts as a mountain for chained to the Rocks
Temple of Triumph- This land like magma jet isn’t great but has a needed ability in scry to smooth out the early game.
Boros Guildgate- Mana fixing at its worst, but I do think ten dual sources is needed to run the deck smoothly
Sideboard
Pithing needle- This guy is 1 mana and hoses huge pieces of the meta…planeswalkers, underworld connections, pack rat, Gods ect…
Banisher Priest- For the mid-range matches when lightning strike just doesn’t cut it. Great agains g/r because it doesn’t run a ton of removal, much less usefull agains mono-black
Precinct captain- Good against control and Mono-Red. Against control it increases your threat density and is an army in a can effect that needs an answer. Against mono red you get an early guy with first strike.
Assemble the Legion- its an enchanment, black cant remove enchantments, this card makes mono-black sad
Last breath- Good card against aggressive matchs like mono white, mono red, and Mono Blue
Debtor’s pulpit- blanks Aetherling, and blood baron, and D. Demon without growing him.
Wear // Tear- D. Spheres, Assemble, Under World Connections, Bestow-aways…
Fanatic of Mogis- This one is a shot in the dark, I think he severs two ver important purposes in the control matches. One he threatens planes walkers with his Devotion ability beter than nearly every other card but Boros Charm, and he is a 4 power threat that needs an answers because he is a clock. I could be very wrong about this though.
Strategy
At its core this is Mid range deck. It wants to disrupt its opponent in the first stages of the game, play its big threats in the mid stage and end the game, before getting to the Late game.
Early Game
The early game is dominated with, one for one, removal of your opponents beginning pressure. Though most of the spells in the deck function similarly as each is a burn spell it is important to recognize what your opponent’s threats will be in order to properly sequence the use of the removal. I would also recommend especially early on using your mana every turn. Most of the removal in this deck can also be aimed at your opponent and when its usefulness has run its course early hit him. Don’t be reckless but also be fearless about casting things like strike and jet right at your opponent. Two reasons for this are that in the mid-range mirror you won’t see a tone of great targets past the first or second mana dork, and second you need to use the scry off jet as early as possible. This deck lives off of virtual card advantage and velocity to shape the early game so that the mid game is manageable. Magma jet and the temples are the way to craft that mid game.
Mid Game
You need to win here. In the aggro match up this will be fairly easy as you can transition from the control player to the aggressive player due to your spells just being higher quality than your opponents now. In the Mid-range match up it is very important to identify if you can make the transition from control to aggro or if you are just the control player in the match and play accordingly. In the aggro role just relentlessly take your shots and keep as much pressure on as possible. Your threats attack from three very different angles most of the time and should be able to overwhelm your opponents plans to stabilize. As the control player, it becomes essential to identify which are your weakest threats against your opponent and run them out first. Each is answerable but all need different kinds of answers, and you want to draw out any “universal answers you can first before sticking the card that will give you inevitability.
Late Game
You can maintain a semblance of card advantage in the late game with Chandra but you cant beat a Revelation deck that has turned the corner on you easily. Your best threat in this case is Assemble the Legion, as it will make more tokens than your opponents Elspeth (esper). Too buy some turns late and to let assemble do its work remember that you can use burn to pressure their planeswalkers and to fog their aetherling if they pump it to high.
Synergies
Anger of the Gods+ Boros Reckoner- Don’t fear sweeping your boros reckoner as it will allow you to throw some damage your opponents way, it also allows an Anger to kill a virgin D. Demon when needed.
Purphoros + Tokens- This felt a little too cute to make the base of the deck but it is just another angle of attack as well. With the God of the Forge on the board any of your token generators become reach engines as each token domes your opponent for 2.
History
This is the deck I plan on using for the next year in standard, I will endeavor to keep a clean log of all updates and changes I make.
Side Board
-3x Precinct Captain
-1x Pithing Needle
-1x Buning Earth
-------------------
+1x Assemble the Leagion
+1x Debtor's Pulpit
+3x Chandra's Pheonix
Reasons: The deck had too many dead cards against esper control main deck and I wanted a repeatable damage effect for game one (Pheonix). I also wanted accesses to leaner removal for game one so we added 2 mortars. Also we cut a warleader's Helix for the 4th Chandra I trimmed one land as flooding had been a problem and cut one assemble as it is a very poor card in the aggro match ups. I moved it to the board replacing a pithing needle. This gives me the option to have three in the mid range or mono black matches. We also added 3 more Pheonix in place of captain for Esper, and replaced the burning earth for a debtor's pulpit as it answers both aetherling and blood baron.
Reason: Precinct captains WW mana cost is taxing for the current mana base, and Pheonix is a great threat against Esper in Capts. place.
Nov 23
-1 Warleader's Helix
---------------------------
+1 mountain
Reason: In my upcoming tournament report I took the deck out for its first spin to an FNM and twice needed to mull to five for land reasons and 4 games mulled to 6 for land ligh hands I think 26 iw optimal for this mana hungry deck
Record
Coming soon, but first a preview…
In play testing it has functioned great against aggro and mid range decks, specifically against mono black. Games against control decks are much more challenging as they go long better than you do and it becomes hugely important to take the role as the aggressor as fast as possible
Overview: Pretty simple, this deck hates out aggro like no one else. I looked forward to all turn one mountains all night long. I need to really play test the u/w/x control match. It think the deck can be especially after post board a very good match. I steuggled identifying my role in the match however and had no defined game plan. I pretty sure I need to ne the aggesor, but felt back footed the whole match. Land screw was a huge problem and helix was just to clunky so I have taken it out for an additional mountain.
Match One Boros Aggro 2-0 Win
He was never in the game. It was so easy aftwr a resolved anger to just overwhelm him with my theats. Game one I won with assemble, game two a pair of dragons.
Match Two Boros Aggro 2-1 Win
Only thing ewally notable here was a mull to 5 and a mull to six both due to land light draws. Otherqise same as above
Match Three U/W Control 0-2 Lose
Again I sruggled to identify my role fast enough and didn't play a cohernt game plan. Again a mull two five due to no land in the match as well
Match Four Nivix Cyclopse Aggro 2-1 Win
Lost game one out of the blue as a angered 8/4 cyclopse and a frostburn wierd killed me. After that I reapected the cyclopse killing it on site and won next tqo games easily
So given my match ups against G/R devotion, and Aggro feel solid and my game against U/W/x feels very 40/60, I believe what i need to run is a 12 card transitional sideboard against these control decks. In the end I believe that the deck can present more high powered threats than a blue deck can beat. Aetherling is the only threat the blue deck plays that just locks us out of the game and so I think 3 pithing needle is a must. I am very open to any ideas in regards to the sideboard
This is Boros Control in my opinion. I think you need to look at some of the Boros Midrange decks that have already proven themselves. No offense, but it would be nice if you could completely redo the primer or rename it accordingly.
Adrian Sullivan's Boros Midrange - 1st place TCGPlayer 5k Columbus
So given my match ups against G/R devotion, and Aggro feel solid and my game against U/W/x feels very 40/60, I believe what i need to run is a 12 card transitional sideboard against these control decks. In the end I believe that the deck can present more high powered threats than a blue deck can beat. Aetherling is the only threat the blue deck plays that just locks us out of the game and so I think 3 pithing needle is a must. I am very open to any ideas in regards to the sideboard
I think that the key to boarding against UW is to just have a number of threats to be able to bring in. Replacing all of your Anger of the Gods and most of your removal to bring in a number of powerful threats is excellent. I also aggree with 3 Pithing Needle SB, as it answers Aetherling, turns off Jaces (and Elspeth if absolutely necessary, but you run her too), and stops Garruk in RG(stop Garruk and you should almost always win). I like not running many creatures, as you can blank opponent's removal (especially MBD). However, Brimaz is a must-have card, he is an incredible roadblock against aggro (blocks almost anything and attacks freely to make token chump blockers), as well as being an excellent clock.
I'm still just in testing phase, but my SB uses stuff like Heliod, extra Assembles, and other cards that take over the game on their own. Using noncreature threats also has the advantage of overloading control's Detention Spheres. If they have to rely on 4 D Spheres and maybe a few Revoke Existence to answer Elspeths, Assembles, Heliod, Purphoros, and Chandras (she is pretty good here, even if Jace is better), then they have little chance of keeping up. Any one of those threats can pretty much win on their own, and fairly quickly (except Purphoros, but he turns any those cards or Brimaz into REALLY fast clocks).
Also, would you please update the Primer for BNG? I would be willing to create a new one if needed, but since you created thread I figure I should give you the opportunity to update first
Last Friday was my fourth time playing since theros released. I stopped playing back in may of 2013 because of work.
The initial deck i started with ( I played twice in Jan and twice so far in Feb) was
R1:Mono Black Devo (Did not run into the whip and they had no side board (to be fair))
G1: I just tried to keep their board clear and use my creatures as fodder so i can stick a stormbreath and not worry about it being removed after one attack.
G2: I kept a hand with 2 chandra's phoenix a reckoner a wierd 2 land and a burn spell. First draw was a third land. He had thoughtsiezed my removal but i guess he kept a removal light hand because i drew into another chandra phoenix and all three of them got to work.
R2:Necra/Junk/Rock w/ White Thing
Went 0-2 here
G1: Got him to 8 or 10 then losing momentum to obzedat and an unloaded hand of some little beaters
G2: I got him to 8 while i was still at 20. Lost momentum and could not recover because of obzedat. i had him on a turn two clock after maintaining a stormbreath for two turns but lost it to a top decked removal while i was at 9 and he had 9 power on board.
I have been contemplating smite or gods willing. If i had smite in the deck i would have been able to answer obzedat due to losing a few wierds to it.
R3: Jund
G1: wierd, reckoner, flame-wreath and chandra phoenix + mogis for 10 to end it.
G2: Lost to a broken chain that was holding back the third desecration demon of the match. Could not find another answer.
G3: Was able to establish presence and was holding my singleton act of treason for a deamon since i had been using every removal to keep his board empty. i lost it to a rakdos return but did not matter cause i was able to stick a stormbreath and still no demon in sight.
That's all i could remember since i left my pen and pad at home.
The deck feels very flexible. I tried to balance between mid range and control depending on what i am play. When i use my board i change the deck to a more R/W Burn/Control removing only creatures.
Not too impressed with Born of the Gods. Still putting some thought into what i could utilize. The flame-wreath phoenix was just a small test sample. I saw it twice that night. The first it was given tribute then removed and the second it was allowed haste since the guy was below 10 points of life and could not find removal. So fare i have no gripes with it. It gets in for 3 or lets stormbreath not meat immediate removal. What i do like is the mogis + legion's initiative combo. I has gone off for 7 main phase 1 then pop the enchant and landed for 6 more plus what made it via combat damage. I am considering the smites/gods willing like i mentioned above.
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Some people just like to watch the world burn, and if that’s you then you will be just the right kind of person for Big Boros, or Boros Mid-Range. As this format has begun to settle it appears that one for one answers and spot removal are all the rage. Big Boros is a deck that challenges its opponent to have the right answer at all times. The deck is chuck full of paths to victory and most of them complement each other and attack at different angles.
At its very basic level the deck wants you to take advantage of scry effects to shape your early hand and try to stabilize on turn 5 or 6. This is accomplished with spot removal like chained to the Rocks and, a full 14 burn spells. Then it tries to stick one of its finishers (Stormbreath Dragon, Assemble the Legions, Elspeth, Sun’s Champion) all of which are of a different type forcing your opponent to not just have an answer but the right answer.
Pros for the deck include multiple angles of attack a very reasonable mana base, and the best sideboard color in white.
Cons include a lack of true card drawing power, and a reliance on direct damage as its spot removal.
The Deck
3x Boros Rekoner
1x Chandra's Pheonix
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
4x Stormbreath Dragon
Spells
4x Chained to the Rocks
4x Magma jet
4x Lightning Strike
2x Mizzium Mortars
4x Anger of the Gods
1x Warleader’s Helix
1x Assemble the Legions
4x Chandra, Pyromaster
2x Elspeth, Sun’s Champion
Lands
4x Sacred Foundry
4x Temple of Triumph
2x Boros Guild Gate
1x Nythkos, Shrine to Nyx
9x Mountains
5x Plains
1x Pithing needle
2x Banisher Priest
3x Chandra's Pheonix
2x Assemble the Legion
2x Last Breath
1x Debtor’s Pulpit
2x Wear // Tear
2x Fanatic of Mogis
The Cards
Main Deck
Creatures
Boros Rekoner- This card puts the breaks on most aggressive decks, buying you some turns to get one of your gaming ending threats on line. Reckoner is also a card that needs a direct answer as damage is not the best way to cope with this Wizard, this may draw a removal spell out of your opponents hand and away from your dragons. Finally it gives you some inevitability at the end of the game as it cant be blocked very effectively by bigger creatures as he throws that damage back at your opponent.
Purphoros, God of the Forge- As a one of he is a beast. Combos well with either of your token generators and his damage threatens opponent’s planes walkers. He is also fairly easy to turn on as the deck plays a good number of permanents. Finally he is a great mana sink in the late game to make huge token armies lethal.
Stormbreath Dragon- 4/4 flying, haste, pro white dude that grows a couple turns later…do I need to explain????? Oooooooohhhhh wait it also spits a fireball at its opponent
Magma Jet- The weakest of the removal spells, but a hugely needed effect. I cast this as soon as possible. Preferably as removal but straight at the opponent is okay. You want the scry effect to craft the removal for you first 3-4 turns till you get a winner online
Lighting strike- Great early removal that helps stabilize the board early game and does its job on the opponent late game giving you some reach
Anger of the Gods- Your Primary sweeper, you want to use this early to handle the beginning of the game aggression or ramp, and let your win cons handle the mid to late game.
Warleader’s Helix- next up in the chain of damage spells, that also gives your life total a pad to help buy a turn or two. Again also give you some reach when it has no othe targets. (Note: As this is a very new deck this could be mizzium mortars instead but only testing will tell)
Chained to the Rocks- Premium one for one removal spell should be used last unless the treat is not killable by any other spell you have
Assemble the Legion- One of our kill conditions. Its best when used against the grindier or more controlling opponents (Mono-Black, Esper). Once it is in play it is very difficult to remove based on the current meta (note: my current list runs two in the main, and one thing I want to try is running only one with two in the sideboard)
Chandra, Pyromaster- Your primary source of card advantage, you must make sure to mangae the 0 ability properly, you should always do it before you play a land, and never if you plan on using most of your mana for cards in your hand already that turn.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion- Another win Con, and the most powerful card in your deck. Elspeth palys especially well with Anger as it clears out most threats that Anger cant.
Mountain- Cause you have to
Plains- See Mountain
Sacred Foundry- Helps for fixing and counts as a mountain for chained to the Rocks
Temple of Triumph- This land like magma jet isn’t great but has a needed ability in scry to smooth out the early game.
Boros Guildgate- Mana fixing at its worst, but I do think ten dual sources is needed to run the deck smoothly
Pithing needle- This guy is 1 mana and hoses huge pieces of the meta…planeswalkers, underworld connections, pack rat, Gods ect…
Banisher Priest- For the mid-range matches when lightning strike just doesn’t cut it. Great agains g/r because it doesn’t run a ton of removal, much less usefull agains mono-black
Precinct captain- Good against control and Mono-Red. Against control it increases your threat density and is an army in a can effect that needs an answer. Against mono red you get an early guy with first strike.
Assemble the Legion- its an enchanment, black cant remove enchantments, this card makes mono-black sad
Last breath- Good card against aggressive matchs like mono white, mono red, and Mono Blue
Debtor’s pulpit- blanks Aetherling, and blood baron, and D. Demon without growing him.
Wear // Tear- D. Spheres, Assemble, Under World Connections, Bestow-aways…
Fanatic of Mogis- This one is a shot in the dark, I think he severs two ver important purposes in the control matches. One he threatens planes walkers with his Devotion ability beter than nearly every other card but Boros Charm, and he is a 4 power threat that needs an answers because he is a clock. I could be very wrong about this though.
Strategy
At its core this is Mid range deck. It wants to disrupt its opponent in the first stages of the game, play its big threats in the mid stage and end the game, before getting to the Late game.
Early Game
The early game is dominated with, one for one, removal of your opponents beginning pressure. Though most of the spells in the deck function similarly as each is a burn spell it is important to recognize what your opponent’s threats will be in order to properly sequence the use of the removal. I would also recommend especially early on using your mana every turn. Most of the removal in this deck can also be aimed at your opponent and when its usefulness has run its course early hit him. Don’t be reckless but also be fearless about casting things like strike and jet right at your opponent. Two reasons for this are that in the mid-range mirror you won’t see a tone of great targets past the first or second mana dork, and second you need to use the scry off jet as early as possible. This deck lives off of virtual card advantage and velocity to shape the early game so that the mid game is manageable. Magma jet and the temples are the way to craft that mid game.
You need to win here. In the aggro match up this will be fairly easy as you can transition from the control player to the aggressive player due to your spells just being higher quality than your opponents now. In the Mid-range match up it is very important to identify if you can make the transition from control to aggro or if you are just the control player in the match and play accordingly. In the aggro role just relentlessly take your shots and keep as much pressure on as possible. Your threats attack from three very different angles most of the time and should be able to overwhelm your opponents plans to stabilize. As the control player, it becomes essential to identify which are your weakest threats against your opponent and run them out first. Each is answerable but all need different kinds of answers, and you want to draw out any “universal answers you can first before sticking the card that will give you inevitability.
You can maintain a semblance of card advantage in the late game with Chandra but you cant beat a Revelation deck that has turned the corner on you easily. Your best threat in this case is Assemble the Legion, as it will make more tokens than your opponents Elspeth (esper). Too buy some turns late and to let assemble do its work remember that you can use burn to pressure their planeswalkers and to fog their aetherling if they pump it to high.
Anger of the Gods+ Boros Reckoner- Don’t fear sweeping your boros reckoner as it will allow you to throw some damage your opponents way, it also allows an Anger to kill a virgin D. Demon when needed.
Purphoros + Tokens- This felt a little too cute to make the base of the deck but it is just another angle of attack as well. With the God of the Forge on the board any of your token generators become reach engines as each token domes your opponent for 2.
This is the deck I plan on using for the next year in standard, I will endeavor to keep a clean log of all updates and changes I make.
Nov 15th
Main
-1x mountain
-1x Boros Reckoner
-1x Assemble the Leagion
-1x Warleader's Helix
----------------------------
+1x Chandra, Pyromaster
+1x Chandra's Pheonix
+2x Mizzium Mortars
Side Board
-3x Precinct Captain
-1x Pithing Needle
-1x Buning Earth
-------------------
+1x Assemble the Leagion
+1x Debtor's Pulpit
+3x Chandra's Pheonix
Reasons: The deck had too many dead cards against esper control main deck and I wanted a repeatable damage effect for game one (Pheonix). I also wanted accesses to leaner removal for game one so we added 2 mortars. Also we cut a warleader's Helix for the 4th Chandra I trimmed one land as flooding had been a problem and cut one assemble as it is a very poor card in the aggro match ups. I moved it to the board replacing a pithing needle. This gives me the option to have three in the mid range or mono black matches. We also added 3 more Pheonix in place of captain for Esper, and replaced the burning earth for a debtor's pulpit as it answers both aetherling and blood baron.
Nov 17th
Sideboard
-3 Precinct Captains
---------------------
+3 Chandra's Pheonix
Reason: Precinct captains WW mana cost is taxing for the current mana base, and Pheonix is a great threat against Esper in Capts. place.
Nov 23
-1 Warleader's Helix
---------------------------
+1 mountain
Reason: In my upcoming tournament report I took the deck out for its first spin to an FNM and twice needed to mull to five for land reasons and 4 games mulled to 6 for land ligh hands I think 26 iw optimal for this mana hungry deck
Coming soon, but first a preview…
In play testing it has functioned great against aggro and mid range decks, specifically against mono black. Games against control decks are much more challenging as they go long better than you do and it becomes hugely important to take the role as the aggressor as fast as possible
Match Record: 3-1
Archtype Records
Boros Aggro: 2-0
Izzet Aggro: 1-0
U/W Control: 0-1
Overview: Pretty simple, this deck hates out aggro like no one else. I looked forward to all turn one mountains all night long. I need to really play test the u/w/x control match. It think the deck can be especially after post board a very good match. I steuggled identifying my role in the match however and had no defined game plan. I pretty sure I need to ne the aggesor, but felt back footed the whole match. Land screw was a huge problem and helix was just to clunky so I have taken it out for an additional mountain.
Match One Boros Aggro 2-0 Win
He was never in the game. It was so easy aftwr a resolved anger to just overwhelm him with my theats. Game one I won with assemble, game two a pair of dragons.
Match Two Boros Aggro 2-1 Win
Only thing ewally notable here was a mull to 5 and a mull to six both due to land light draws. Otherqise same as above
Match Three U/W Control 0-2 Lose
Again I sruggled to identify my role fast enough and didn't play a cohernt game plan. Again a mull two five due to no land in the match as well
Match Four Nivix Cyclopse Aggro 2-1 Win
Lost game one out of the blue as a angered 8/4 cyclopse and a frostburn wierd killed me. After that I reapected the cyclopse killing it on site and won next tqo games easily
Adrian Sullivan's Boros Midrange - 1st place TCGPlayer 5k Columbus
3 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Firedrinker Satyr
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Boros Charm
4 Lightning Strike
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Mutavault
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
I think that the key to boarding against UW is to just have a number of threats to be able to bring in. Replacing all of your Anger of the Gods and most of your removal to bring in a number of powerful threats is excellent. I also aggree with 3 Pithing Needle SB, as it answers Aetherling, turns off Jaces (and Elspeth if absolutely necessary, but you run her too), and stops Garruk in RG(stop Garruk and you should almost always win). I like not running many creatures, as you can blank opponent's removal (especially MBD). However, Brimaz is a must-have card, he is an incredible roadblock against aggro (blocks almost anything and attacks freely to make token chump blockers), as well as being an excellent clock.
I'm still just in testing phase, but my SB uses stuff like Heliod, extra Assembles, and other cards that take over the game on their own. Using noncreature threats also has the advantage of overloading control's Detention Spheres. If they have to rely on 4 D Spheres and maybe a few Revoke Existence to answer Elspeths, Assembles, Heliod, Purphoros, and Chandras (she is pretty good here, even if Jace is better), then they have little chance of keeping up. Any one of those threats can pretty much win on their own, and fairly quickly (except Purphoros, but he turns any those cards or Brimaz into REALLY fast clocks).
Also, would you please update the Primer for BNG? I would be willing to create a new one if needed, but since you created thread I figure I should give you the opportunity to update first
The initial deck i started with ( I played twice in Jan and twice so far in Feb) was
14 Mountains
2 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
Creatures
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Tajic, Blade of the Legion
3 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Lightning Strike
3 Shock
2 Warleader's Helix
Sorcery
3 Mizzium Mortars
Enchantment
4 Chained to the Rocks
3 Assemble the Legion
3 Boros Charm
2 Wear // Tear
2 Glare of Heresy
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Skullcrack
2 Burning Earth
Changes I made were:
- 2 Glare of Heresy + 2 Pithing Needle
- 3 Shock + 2 Fanatic of Mogis + 1 Lightning Strike
- 2 Mountain + 2 Plains
Ran this on Friday (21 Feb).
11 Mountains
4 Plains
1 Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Temple of Triumph
Creatures
4 Frostburn Weird
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Fanatic of Mogis
2 Flame-Wreathed Phoenix
3 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Lightning Strike
2 Warleader's helix
Sorcery
2 Mizzium Mortars
1 Act of Treason
Enchantment
4 Chained to the Rocks
3 Legion's Initiative
4 Boros Charm
1 Warleader's Helix
1 Mizzium Mortars
3 Anger of the Gods
3 Pithing Needle
3 Glare of Heresy
I was 2-1 before dropping due to family concerns.
R1:Mono Black Devo (Did not run into the whip and they had no side board (to be fair))
G1: I just tried to keep their board clear and use my creatures as fodder so i can stick a stormbreath and not worry about it being removed after one attack.
G2: I kept a hand with 2 chandra's phoenix a reckoner a wierd 2 land and a burn spell. First draw was a third land. He had thoughtsiezed my removal but i guess he kept a removal light hand because i drew into another chandra phoenix and all three of them got to work.
R2:Necra/Junk/Rock w/ White Thing
Went 0-2 here
G1: Got him to 8 or 10 then losing momentum to obzedat and an unloaded hand of some little beaters
G2: I got him to 8 while i was still at 20. Lost momentum and could not recover because of obzedat. i had him on a turn two clock after maintaining a stormbreath for two turns but lost it to a top decked removal while i was at 9 and he had 9 power on board.
I have been contemplating smite or gods willing. If i had smite in the deck i would have been able to answer obzedat due to losing a few wierds to it.
R3: Jund
G1: wierd, reckoner, flame-wreath and chandra phoenix + mogis for 10 to end it.
G2: Lost to a broken chain that was holding back the third desecration demon of the match. Could not find another answer.
G3: Was able to establish presence and was holding my singleton act of treason for a deamon since i had been using every removal to keep his board empty. i lost it to a rakdos return but did not matter cause i was able to stick a stormbreath and still no demon in sight.
That's all i could remember since i left my pen and pad at home.
The deck feels very flexible. I tried to balance between mid range and control depending on what i am play. When i use my board i change the deck to a more R/W Burn/Control removing only creatures.
Not too impressed with Born of the Gods. Still putting some thought into what i could utilize. The flame-wreath phoenix was just a small test sample. I saw it twice that night. The first it was given tribute then removed and the second it was allowed haste since the guy was below 10 points of life and could not find removal. So fare i have no gripes with it. It gets in for 3 or lets stormbreath not meat immediate removal. What i do like is the mogis + legion's initiative combo. I has gone off for 7 main phase 1 then pop the enchant and landed for 6 more plus what made it via combat damage. I am considering the smites/gods willing like i mentioned above.