Can any kind of fast aggressive deck deal with these game
plans? How should an aggro deck match up against these two grindy control
decks? Is there even hope to win before your team eats a Supreme Verdict or
your opponent recovers off a Grey Merchant?
I answer with a
new deck I’ve been championing: Boros Initiative Combo.
Here is the list I’ve been brewing with:
CARL’S BOROS INITIATIVE COMBO DECK
2 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr4 Magma Jet
3 Legions Initiative
4 Ash Zealot
4 Frostburn Wyrd
4 Boros Reckoner
4 Chandras Phoenix
1 Hammer of Purphoros
1 Chandra, Pyromaster
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge
4 Fanatic of Mogis
4 Sacred Foundary
4 Temple of Triumph2 Boros Guildgate
13 Mountain
THE DECK EXPLAINED
There is nothing worse than overextending your board into
an opposing Supreme Verdict. Legions Initiative solves the Supreme Verdict
problem while still allowing you to pressure your opponent because of the power
boost it gives your team. Only Reckoner benefits from the +1 to toughness, but
let’s face the facts… it’s all about power for this deck anyways. As long as
you’re able to keep RW up, you can safely roll out threats secure in the
knowledge that you won’t lose your entire team.
Initiative is also very important for the “combo” aspect
of the deck, as it plays nice with both Purphoros and Fanatic of Mogic.
Sometime having an Initiative in play, 6 mana and a Fanatic in hand is just
game over. You play Fanatic, opponent takes chroma damage. You blink your team
with Initiative, opponent takes chroma damage a second time. When you’ve
probably already done a good amount of damage in the first few turns with Ash
Zealot & friends, you’ve probably got them dead after the double chroma
damage because of the high devotion to red in your permanents. Initiative also
combos with Purphoros, as when your dudes come back into play, each one will
deal another 2 damage. When you have both a Fanatic AND Purphoros in play it’s
easy to blink and deal 10+ damage out of nowhere with a top decked Initiative.
YOU TALK A BIG
TALK… WHY SHOULD I BE IMPRESSED?
Picture this magical Christmasland (but entirely
possible) scenario:
You’ve got Ash Zealot, Frostburn Weird, Legions
Initiative and Purphoros in play and the game is stalled, but it looks like your
opponent is about to take control. You’ve got 6 lands in play. You draw Fanatic
and play it. Opponent takes 2 from Purphoros, then another 7 from chroma damage
(9 so far). You use the last 2 mana to blink your team, and come combat phase
opponent takes another 6 from Purphoros (3 creatures) and then 6 more from
chroma (1 less than last time since Initiative is no longer in play). That’s 9
+ 6 + 6 = 21 damage out of nowhere AND you could still attack w / Purphoros
since your team has haste!!
CURVE IN, CURVE
OUT
23 lands seems right since you often want to be able to
play a threat and leave up RW for Initiative should you need to pop it. Let’s
take a look at the curve:
1 – 6
2 – 153 – 9
4 – 7
So far it’s fairly consistent because of the 8 sources of
scry in the deck. I’m not a huge fan of Magma Jet overall, but in a deck like
this one that want to dig to a “combo” piece or revive a fallen Chandra’s
Phoenix it does the job. Mortars can come in out of the sideboard if it needs
to deal with Smiter / Bloodbaron etc. I miss not having 8 1 drops, but we’ve
got a backup plan for those matches that they’re normally best in (control) and
they don’t add much chroma on their own or effect the board as much as our
other cards.
(Note: I used to hate Firedrinker Satyr but he’s starting
to grow on me. Being able to attack into annoying “walls” like Omenspeaker and
Sylvan Caryatid make him kinda good I guess?)
You’ve probably noticed a lack of Nykthos? No error
there. I tested quite a few games with it and because of both the low curve and
the fact that we really, REALLY need reliable colored mana for Zealot, Weird
& Reckoner having a hand with Nykthos in it actually ends up working to our
detriment. Even when you CAN chroma for a ton of mana, what are you going to
spend it on by that point? Our curve ends at 4, and there are no X spells to
dispose of our extra mana. For these reasons I cut it, and I have no regrets.
If I were to move into a more midrange style build that used Stormbreath Dragon
I’d definitely think about including 1 or 2 because I’d probably be removing
some of the lower end RR stuff to make the room anyways.
SPEAKING OF
SIDEBOARDS…
Some of the options I’m debating include:
- Wear / Tear: Kills Enchantments AND Artifacts. All-star vs. Mono B since it can take out a Whip AND an underworld connections all in one card!
- Mizzium Mortars: Comes in vs. Creature based decks. Can kill tough threats like Stormbreath Dragon, Bloodbaron and Loxodon Smiter, as well as sometimes overloading and killing a team.
- Assemble the Legion: Basically kills control on its own if it resolves and they have no Detention Sphere. Combos with Purphoros as well!
- Elspeth, Sun’s Champion: Bring it in vs control / midrange decks? Unsure if it’s high CC would be welcome in the deck but it’s too powerful to not use in some capacity.
- Glare of Heresy: Really, really good against a huge portion of the field relying on W spells like Elspeth and Detention Sphere. Also good vs the mono W deck (obv).
- Burning Earth: Again, very good vs control and other 3 color decks with greedy manabases.
- Hammer of Purphoros: May as well go Hammer Time against control and keep a steady stream of attackers / Purphoros activations.
PREY ON THE
HUNTERS
Fast aggressive decks are the bane of slow decks and
decks that require setup everywhere. Sure if Esper is given lots of time it
will stabilize with Sphinx’s Revelations, or mono Black will recover all its
life with a Grey Merchant, but at the same time this deck is well positioned to
beat both of these boogeymen. With the popularity of these two decks on the
rise this deck has a good game plan to beat them.
Against Esper your fast start keeps them backpedaling until
they are within “reach” of your finishers. You can often do so much damage to
them in the first few turns that even a supreme verdict or Revelation won’t save
them. Esper and Mono B also have a lot of spot removal, but paying BB1 to Hero’s
Downfall a Frostburn Weird doesn’t seem like a very good deal. Mono B in
particular has a tough time against this deck as without an Erebus in play it’s
1 for 1 trades for tiny little people really sets them back. Both of those
decks also use Thoughtseize… and we are more than happy to trade one of our
spells for a card n their hand and a free 2 damage.
It's important to remember that you don't have to attack with this deck. You can literally just stall, build a board presence, then combo out to win.
It's important to remember that you don't have to attack with this deck. You can literally just stall, build a board presence, then combo out to win.
ASSEMBLE THE
COMBO!
I hope you guys enjoy this deck. I’m posting this article
even before I get to play it in any kind of “official” constructed event, but
so far in testing it’s had game against all comers (except sometimes mono G…
their guys just get too big!). You need to know when to shift your strategy
from being the beatdown deck, to being the control deck in your matches, and I
think that’s what’s going to be the hardest part to master as you’ve got two
completely different game plans.
Playing this deck made me wonder about the potential to
make a more midrange version of Boros featuring Anger of the Gods and other
controlish elements. In fact, I built a “Big Boros” deck and played it last
week to a 4-1 finish at FNM. Since I already had this article written
I figured I’d still post it for your viewing pleasure as it is an unexplored
archetype and one of the only “combo” decks I can think of ATM.
(I’ll try to get my “Big Boros” decklist up later this
week.)
Enjoy burning face and be sure to wear your hot gloves
when you handle those Fanatics! :)
Cheers,
Carl Szalich
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