Boros Blue

Last time I took a novel idea, make a mono Blue deck that plays like a Boros deck. It likes combat and can go wide or tall. The deck scales rather well for a Heroic style deck since we have options to clone the best creature on the field, even if it's not ours at the time.

To continue with this theme it only felt fair to give Boros the blue treatment. Before embarking on this endeavor it was imperative to list out the characteristics of stereotypical blue decks: draw, mill, counters, artifacts, un/tap, frost (keeping something tapped down), bounce, merfolk and sea monsters. That's a lot, too much for any one deck to contain. There are some easy cuts for themes and strategies, merfolk and sea monsters specifically. Draw is a key component of the game, so expect a fair amount of that. Mill is too tightly wound with blue to exclude. The tapping related mechanics are ubiquitous, but I'll only be able to add a few cards that mirror that characteristic. The pool of sea monsters and merfolk in red white is very low, so those tribes can't be a focus of the deck. That doesn't leave many options for a blue identity, but the ones remaining are very distinct. I'll be leaning into counter spells and mill in a big way for this deck to keep that blue spirit. This means there will be a few more staples in this deck than usual. Staples in the sense of off color counter spells. With a limited card pool you expect to see some of the usual faces in the 99. The mill portion will be a little more distanced from traditional mill, which will only help the deck.

With themes in place, who's going to lead this deck? Running through the Boros options there aren't a lot of gold cards that care about saying “nope” and moving cards out of libraries. That's what makes this a challenge. Rather than make a convoluted explanation how something like Basandra, Battle Seraph is blue because she “shuts down spell casting at times and that as good as a counter” to shoehorn in a commander I decided to circumvent the problem entirely. Rather than find one commander that does everything the deck is about why not pick two that each do a different portion of blue. Looking at the partner options I started to realize just how many options Commander Legends dropped that I've never seen played before. The first pick is the easiest. Breeches, Brazen Plunderer allows us to exile cards from opponents' decks. Milling usually puts cards from the library into the graveyard, which can be a liability against anyone with even a small recursion package. Exiling cards this way not only circumvents that problem, but the impulse draw effect will make us feel blue if even just on our own turn. Etali, Primal Storm and Stolen Strategy are nice additions to this play pattern that compliment what the commander is doing, if not a little high on mana cost.

Choosing Breeches also sets up a deck building path, play more pirates. Kari Zev, Skyship Raider gets in quick with tacked on evasion while Captain Lanery Storm ramps nicely. Emberwilde Captain introduces the monarch mechanic which nets a card the turn it is played, and maybe more. Changelings are too meh for me. It seems like a cheatcode for tribal decks that don't really care about the tribe as much as they claim. I did make a sort of exception for Runed Stalagtite. It may not be very traditional pirate weapons like Captain's Hook, but both help push the mill plan along. Those pirate enablers will help some of the other natural millers in the deck like Ulamog The Ceaseless Hunger. Ulamog is one hell of a beater. It comes armed with removal and knocks out a considerable chunk of a deck every time it swings. Terpination Blade keeps the combat mill strategy going. Looking for lands may seem trivial but when combined with white removal that trades threats for lands (Path To Exile, Settle The Wreckage, and Winds Of Abandon) there may not be many lands left to mill to. Jester's Cap is a little pricey for only putting 3 cards into the graveyard, but it makes up for that cost by allowing you to remove the 3 best cards or key combo pieces. If you can't mill en masse mill with precision. Also of note is the classic Painter's Servant – Grindstone combo. With all cards sharing a color Grindstone will always find a match and mill one player out per activation. Although I'm not a huge fan of infinite combos this one has a little more wiggle room as it only deals with one player at a time. Each player after the first will see it coming big time and will have the opportunity to respond with gusto.

While on the subject of Painter's Servant, it's color manipulation is not only reminiscent of cards like Blind Seer or Alter Reality, it sets up the next function of the deck rather well, counters spells. It's easy to associate a single color with a function of the game when its namesake is a powerful spell in that color. Blue doesn't have a monopoly on counter spells, per se, just the best ones. Since the pool for non blue counter spells is small you may be familiar with a lot of these supposedly niche cards. Mana Tithe and Lapse Of Certainty have certain conditions to them. Save the white Force Spike for when someone taps out for a huge game ender or X spell. Lapse Of Certainty may just delay the problem, but it gives the whole table an opportunity to deal with it too and puts a target on the offending player. Red lets us play Tibalt's Trickery. It counters, for sure. But it's more like downgrading the spell for something random. The randomness is red but it has mill printed on it making it a good fit. Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast may seem narrow because they hose blue but don't do much else. Luckily blue is one of the most popular colors. Painter's Servant also opens these up to being the best counters and removal in the deck. All you have to do is name blue. The last creature based counter I'm going to mention is a big one, Kozilek, The Great Distortion. It acts very blue by filling your hand. Then it turns those cards into potential counters if they share the same CMC as a spell an opponent is trying to cast.

I started thinking about the meme aspect of counter spell, saying nope to an opponent. As I went through that thought experiment and blurred the edges I realized stopping spells from being cast is powerful in a very similar way. White is stacked with Rule Of Law effects that keep cards in opponents hands. There is even a creature with it stapled on, Eidolon of Rhetoric. If you think someone is going to go off, go ahead and nope his whole turn with Silence before the untap step even hits. Orim's Chant does the same if kicked, but only against one opponent. Abeyance does all that and also replaces itself. Mandate Of Peace will counter anything below it on the stack in the combat step as it fast forwards the table to the next main phase. It also prevents everyone else from casting anything in that newly entered main phase. Howling Mine doesn't feel as dangerous if the extra card is stuck in an opponent's hand and he has to discard to hand size at end of turn. It almost feels like mill.

I've been a little cagey about the second partner so far. That's in part because there aren't a lot of mono white partners, or even Boros partners, that mill, counter, or even draw off our game plan. I'm sticking with Livio, Oathsworn Sentinel. He lets you play a political game, a thinking man's game. When should you offer to exile an opponent's creature? How much of my board can I Evacuate in response to a board wipe? That level of strategy and cold calculation feels very blue.

Here's what the deck looks like.

Etali, Primal Storm Captain Lanery Storm Mana Tithe

Stolen Strategy Coastline Marauder Lapse of Certainty

Altar of The Brood Coercive Recruiter Red Elemental Blast

Mesmeric Orb Dire Fleet Daredevil Pyro Blast

Terpination Blade Emberwilde Captain Tibalt's Trickery

Sands of Delerium Fathom Fleet Swordjack Eidolon of Rhetoric

Ashnod's Cylix Glint Horn Buccaneer Rule of Law

Crumbling Sanctuary Impulsive Pilferer Curse of Exhaustion

Jester's Cap Kari Zev, Skyship Raider Silence

Keening Stone Lightning Rig Crew Artifact Blast

Oblivion Sower Captain's Hook Dawn Charm

Grindstone Runed Stalagtite Illumination

Pyxis of Pandemonium Blessed Alliance Kozilek, The Great Distortion

Codex Shredder Sword of The Paruns Mage's Contest

Robber of The Rich Jandor's Saddlebags Molten Influence

Ulamog, The Ceasless Hunger Pollen Lullaby Null Brooch

Settle The Wreckage Rallying Roar Order of The Sacred Torch

Winds of Abandon Victory Chimes Vigilant Martyr

Path to Exile Boros Signet Warping Wail

Crib Swap Talisman of Conviction Abeyance

Painter's Servant Orim's Chant

Lorehold Campus Wind-Scarred Crag Temple of Triumph

Needle Spire Mutavault Geir Reach Sanitarium

16 Plains 14 Mountain

This is the weirdest Boros deck I've put together. Your opponents will never see it coming which will give you a good edge to get your gameplan going.

If you're unhappy with Livio Oathwsorn Sentinel in the command zone you may want to add in a token maker like Prava Of The Steel Legion. This mana sink would play into the mill plan with Altar Of The Brood or an Altar Of Dementia. Traditionally blue was the color of pingers and leans into both tap and untap abilities, think Hidden Strings. Red has plenty of pingers like Chandra, Fire of Kaladesh, Spear Spewer, and Nettle Drone. Couple that with some untapping effects in white like Village Bell Ringer and To Arms! I didn't want to go that route since direct damage feels very red these days, even if blue did it too.