You've lost games against Mardu, on the play, after SB. May I suggest that you probably made the mistake of going for the Midrange plan, instead of staying very low to the ground and aggressive? Except for By Force (so good) and Glorybringer, you should probably have left the rest in SB. The cards that win you games on the play are all in the main deck already...
Mimic is still good, IMHO. It is not more a win-more Combo with Garrison than Crop-Captain + Garrison. And you at least get instant benefit from Mimic if you Top deck it on T4 and play it on a Garrison before it attacks. It's main drawback is it's low toughness, but in matchups where you can expect Walking Ballista, you just have to play your cards in reversed order (Always Watching first ; and follow up with Mimic and Lieutenant... both at 3 toughness will make it next to impossible for Ballista to be anything more that a little burn to the dome).
I'll post later my list. But I've removed Celebrant from the deck, as much as it pained me. I have 10 Weenies and 4 of each lords (Lieutenant, Mimic, Crop-Captain and Garrison). Curve is better...
Playtested Oketra's Monument vs UR Control. It was good, even if I played it on turn 5 (my top deck). I could build a board even if my spells were countered and Humans removed. Won that matchup 2-0.
Edit : Mimic on T2 that dies to Ballista (this turn or next turn), is ok for me : A card for a card is a fair trade, and I'm happy to know that Ballista will not snowball out of proportion.
Thank you for your input. I always thought that boros vs mardu is a 50/50 match up. Thus adopting a more midrange setup. I do think that the losses were due to ill luck. My midrange strategy probably contributed to that.
BTW, I saw another player who played boros human ended up in the finals. He's on reckless bushwhacker n soul scar mage. I was impressed with reckless bushwhacker and the ability to deal significant dmg after boardwipe.
Played in an event with 42 players, 6 rounds swiss with the deck above. Record was at 3-3.
Round 1, 2-1 Vs Mardu Vehicles (Win)
Game 1 (on the draw) mull to 5, never got going and was ran over by Heart of kiran and got finished by Cut//Ribbons.
Game 2 (on the play) Boarded out 4 Mimics, 3 town gossipmongers, 1 combat celebrant 1 Shock and 1 dec in stone. Went for 2 selfless, 2 avacyn, 2 gideon, 1 stone quarry, 2 by force,1 insult to injury. Turn one Bloodlust Inciter, Turn 2 Thraben inspector swing for 1, Turn 3 Hanweir Garrison, Haste, swing with team. Turn 4 by force for 2, killing heart of kiran and scrounger, swing with team. Opponent scoops.
Game 3 (on the draw) Took out 1 Avacyn and go for glorybringer. Had a fast 4 turns, managed to knock opponent down to 10 with some of my creatures biting the dust, of fatal pushes. Stalemate for a while, until I slowly poke opponent's life total to 2 with always watching in play and opponent had nahiri. Finish the game with Insult // Injury, the aftermath part.
Round 2 (0-2) Mardu Vehicles (Lose)
Game 1 (on the play) opponent draw all 7 removals, died to Thraben Inspector with Clue and eating 4 unlicensed disintergration and 2 fatal pushes and 1 Cut // Ribbons.
Game 2 (on the play) sideboard plan very much similar to the previous round. Died to the planeswalker package when opponent turn 2 oath of chandra, turn 3 oath of liliana, curving out to gideons, sorin and chandra.
Round 3 (1-2) Mardu Vehicles (Lose)
Game 1 (on the draw) facing mardu god hand, turn 1 toolcraft, turn 2 kiran, turn 3 scrounger with push.
Game 2 (on the play) similar sideboard plans. Bloodlust inciter + Hanweir Garrison gave me a speedy win.
Game 3 (on the draw) I boarded in hazoret in favor of avacyn. game went grindy, and i made a bad mistake, opponent at 1, i had hazoret in play and a card in hand. I chose to cast the card. I could win the game by discarding it to hazoret.
Round 4 (1-2) U/R control (Lose)
Game 1 (on the play) is a breeze nothing much going.
Game 2 (on the draw) over committing on board is a mistake, died to swelthering suns and torrential beat down.
Game 3 (on the play) counter spells, magma sprays, harnessed lightning, you named it they got it. only managed to hit with my 1 drop.
Round 5 (2-1) G/B aggro (win)
Game 1 (on the play) nothing to say here, boros humans are just faster.
Game 2 (on the draw) similar outcome. boros humans way too fast. but I was overconfident and died to yahenni expertise.
Game 3 (on the play) Picking up from the mistake, played carefully to avoid blowout from yahenni expertise, ends up boros humans are better racers.
Round 6 (2-0) U/R Control (Win)
Game 1 (on the play) blaze through bloodlust inciter, mimic and garrison
Game 2 (on the draw) kept an aggressive hand and opponent kept a no swelthering suns hands. got lucky and sped through the game.
Overall thoughts
Boros Humans need to mull aggressively to get the better and aggressive hand. No room for land heavy or slow hands.
I am very much impressed by metallic mimic with hanweir garrison combo. not the mention the driver, bloodlust inciter. Not sure if it is a win-more combination.
Combat Celebrant, never got to cast and use it. couldn't comment much.
Hazoret is surprisingly good in aggro decks during topdeck mode, despite the mistake I've made.
By force is a crazy card that I think is way better than release the gremlins as it is easier to cast.
{*]Burn Spells is surprisingly good at it can go to the face
Moving forward
I would like to remove Metallic mimics from the decks and go with Honored Crop Mate. It is just a gut feeling.
I am also thinking of ways to add Reckless Bushwhackers into the deck as Bloodlust Inciter can be bad when you are on the draw. I may remove all the shocks and go for 2 Cast Out, 2 Declaration in Stone with 4 Always Watching.
Lastly, Sour scar mage for Town Gossipmonger for the extra Butt size.
Try gonti... he is fantastic... take their bombs, ships their land and threats.... i exiled 1 reflector, 2 elder-deep fiend, 1 archangel avacyn and selfless spirit all in the same game...
I think there is a couple ways to go about beating those decks. I would recommend using GW Lead the Stampede versions with perhaps an Enchantment/Artifact based board. You want to run a lot of effects that are roughly permanent due to the value you are seeing there.
Sideboard
2 Stony Silence (tron)
2 Mark of Asylum (tron, jeksai, grixis and jund)
2 Rest in Peace (jund, grixis)
3 Kitchen Finks (jund, grixis, and nayas)
2 Chameleon Colossus (grixis, jund)
2 Grafdigger's Cage (jeksai,grixis)
2 Dismember/Path (jund, infect)
Any ideas on how to tweak it? Was pondering to exchange sentinel for dywen elites or maybe for essence warden. Most of the time I will chord for shaman of the pack if I have enough on board. Otherwise, Ezuri, mirror entity or Archdruid.
I would like to reiterate the idea of play to win and not play how not to lose.
In any events, I would think luck is the majority aspect for elves with us making it so all rounded. We may have answers to a lot of things, but not top decking it proves to be costly.
Thus, my suggestion will be play test the deck enough before jumping into conclusion.
I played in a pptq event without playtest and it cost me a lot. A lot of mistakes were made. 4 rounds all losing G1 until I board in answers. Collected elves is still very much aggro deck that requires racing. Post-board we very much have most answers.
My point is still playtest, playtest and playtest. Things that work for me might not work for you.
I lament the fact that lady luck wasn't with me that day, I played against 2 burn and 2 twins. Spellskite never showed up. The wins I got is either aggro to victory or choke to win. Only managed to cast ~2-3 CoCo in 12 games, never see Spellskite and my chord...
With the rising prices of mana fixing lands, I am wondering why the choice of razorverge thicket over sunpetal groves?
To be honest, other than first turn utility of razorverge, I could not think of the next possible advantage over sunpetal Grove. Cos Beyond 2 lands, razorverge will be tapped upon play.
Opening hand with razorverge and a forest versus opening hand with sunpetal and a forest. I will certainly choose the second, I will choose to play a mana dork with a forest then sunpetal to BFT or kataki on my next turn.
Thank you for your input. I always thought that boros vs mardu is a 50/50 match up. Thus adopting a more midrange setup. I do think that the losses were due to ill luck. My midrange strategy probably contributed to that.
BTW, I saw another player who played boros human ended up in the finals. He's on reckless bushwhacker n soul scar mage. I was impressed with reckless bushwhacker and the ability to deal significant dmg after boardwipe.
Following this thread when AKH was spoiled and is certainly intrigued by the different thoughts and builds from you guys.
Been finding ways to tweak my deck and yes, it suffers a lot against U/R Control.
9 Plains
5 Mountains
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Needle Spire
Creatures (28)
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Bloodlust Inciter
3 Town Gossipmonger
3 Hanweir Garrison
4 Metallic Mimic
1 Combat Celebrant
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Glory-Bound Initiate
3 Shocks
3 Declaration in stone
4 Always Watching
1 Stone Quarry
1 Glorybringer
2 Selfless Spirit
2 Fragmentize
2 By Force
2 Archangel Avacyn
1 Hazoret the Fervant
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Insult // Injury
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Played in an event with 42 players, 6 rounds swiss with the deck above. Record was at 3-3.
Round 1, 2-1 Vs Mardu Vehicles (Win)
Game 1 (on the draw) mull to 5, never got going and was ran over by Heart of kiran and got finished by Cut//Ribbons.
Game 2 (on the play) Boarded out 4 Mimics, 3 town gossipmongers, 1 combat celebrant 1 Shock and 1 dec in stone. Went for 2 selfless, 2 avacyn, 2 gideon, 1 stone quarry, 2 by force,1 insult to injury. Turn one Bloodlust Inciter, Turn 2 Thraben inspector swing for 1, Turn 3 Hanweir Garrison, Haste, swing with team. Turn 4 by force for 2, killing heart of kiran and scrounger, swing with team. Opponent scoops.
Game 3 (on the draw) Took out 1 Avacyn and go for glorybringer. Had a fast 4 turns, managed to knock opponent down to 10 with some of my creatures biting the dust, of fatal pushes. Stalemate for a while, until I slowly poke opponent's life total to 2 with always watching in play and opponent had nahiri. Finish the game with Insult // Injury, the aftermath part.
Round 2 (0-2) Mardu Vehicles (Lose)
Game 1 (on the play) opponent draw all 7 removals, died to Thraben Inspector with Clue and eating 4 unlicensed disintergration and 2 fatal pushes and 1 Cut // Ribbons.
Game 2 (on the play) sideboard plan very much similar to the previous round. Died to the planeswalker package when opponent turn 2 oath of chandra, turn 3 oath of liliana, curving out to gideons, sorin and chandra.
Round 3 (1-2) Mardu Vehicles (Lose)
Game 1 (on the draw) facing mardu god hand, turn 1 toolcraft, turn 2 kiran, turn 3 scrounger with push.
Game 2 (on the play) similar sideboard plans. Bloodlust inciter + Hanweir Garrison gave me a speedy win.
Game 3 (on the draw) I boarded in hazoret in favor of avacyn. game went grindy, and i made a bad mistake, opponent at 1, i had hazoret in play and a card in hand. I chose to cast the card.
Round 4 (1-2) U/R control (Lose)
Game 1 (on the play) is a breeze nothing much going.
Game 2 (on the draw) over committing on board is a mistake, died to swelthering suns and torrential beat down.
Game 3 (on the play) counter spells, magma sprays, harnessed lightning, you named it they got it. only managed to hit with my 1 drop.
Round 5 (2-1) G/B aggro (win)
Game 1 (on the play) nothing to say here, boros humans are just faster.
Game 2 (on the draw) similar outcome. boros humans way too fast. but I was overconfident and died to yahenni expertise.
Game 3 (on the play) Picking up from the mistake, played carefully to avoid blowout from yahenni expertise, ends up boros humans are better racers.
Round 6 (2-0) U/R Control (Win)
Game 1 (on the play) blaze through bloodlust inciter, mimic and garrison
Game 2 (on the draw) kept an aggressive hand and opponent kept a no swelthering suns hands. got lucky and sped through the game.
Overall thoughts
Moving forward
I would like to remove Metallic mimics from the decks and go with Honored Crop Mate. It is just a gut feeling.
I am also thinking of ways to add Reckless Bushwhackers into the deck as Bloodlust Inciter can be bad when you are on the draw. I may remove all the shocks and go for 2 Cast Out, 2 Declaration in Stone with 4 Always Watching.
Lastly, Sour scar mage for Town Gossipmonger for the extra Butt size.
Wouldn't Grafdigger's cage lock your own coco?
My land Base (19)
Razorverge thicket x4
Cavern of souls x4
Nykthos x2
Gilt-Leaf Palace x3
Temple garden x2
Forest x4
Ive not tested with horizon canopy too ex for me. I splash black for 2 shamans MD. Maybe changing 1 Nykthos for overgrown tomb.
Maindeck
Heritage x4
Sentinel x4
Visionary x4
Llanowar x4
Mystic x4
Archdruid x4
Ezuri x2
Rec sage x1
Mirror entity x1
Spellskite x1
Craterhoof x1
Copperhorn scout x1
Shaman of the pack x2
Coco x4
Chord x4
Any ideas on how to tweak it? Was pondering to exchange sentinel for dywen elites or maybe for essence warden. Most of the time I will chord for shaman of the pack if I have enough on board. Otherwise, Ezuri, mirror entity or Archdruid.
Playtest it, if the cards are awesome share it.
CoCo elves you really have to play it to know it and discuss it. Just too many synergies.
On the other note, I really learnt a lot from you guys.
In any events, I would think luck is the majority aspect for elves with us making it so all rounded. We may have answers to a lot of things, but not top decking it proves to be costly.
Thus, my suggestion will be play test the deck enough before jumping into conclusion.
I played in a pptq event without playtest and it cost me a lot. A lot of mistakes were made. 4 rounds all losing G1 until I board in answers. Collected elves is still very much aggro deck that requires racing. Post-board we very much have most answers.
My point is still playtest, playtest and playtest. Things that work for me might not work for you.
I lament the fact that lady luck wasn't with me that day, I played against 2 burn and 2 twins. Spellskite never showed up. The wins I got is either aggro to victory or choke to win. Only managed to cast ~2-3 CoCo in 12 games, never see Spellskite and my chord...
Was thinking about painlands to reach7-8 untapped white sources.
The market for canopy is too steep for me to jump in.
To be honest, other than first turn utility of razorverge, I could not think of the next possible advantage over sunpetal Grove. Cos Beyond 2 lands, razorverge will be tapped upon play.
Opening hand with razorverge and a forest versus opening hand with sunpetal and a forest. I will certainly choose the second, I will choose to play a mana dork with a forest then sunpetal to BFT or kataki on my next turn.