Could I Boros some Pants

Well, we made it. Dominaria spoiler season has passed and now we are counting down the days until release weekend. Soon the landscape of Standard will yet again change as new cards and strategies flood into the format, with brewers the world over flexing their creative muscles. Well, we here at Master of Magics are no different, and have already been hard at work piecing together some fun new deck for all of you to enjoy. Today we bring you the first of our Dominaria inspired decks and not only is it a real doozy, but it’s very fashionable too. So, if you’re looking for a spicy new brew for your next FNM, might I recommend that you try on some red and white pants.

For those of you who might be confused, the term ‘pants’ in Magic the Gathering circles refers to Enchantment-Auras that creatures ‘wear’ to buff them up. While these kinds of strategies are generally unpopular (due in no small part because it opens players up to the dreaded two for one) occasionally these decks find enough playable cards to make an impact on Standard. In fact, some of you out there might have come across a Blue/White Auras deck in the last few months. This deck works by pumping up a creature with Lifelink to be a real threat, then giving it Flying with a Cartouche of Knowledge to avoid any ground blockers. Our version of auras however, has a slightly more direct path to victory.

Boros Auras

Creatures (22)
4 Dauntless Bodyguard
4 Skymarcher Aspirant
3 Adanto Vanguard
3 Adorned Pouncer
4 Sram, Senior Edificer
3 Valduk, keeper of the Flame
1 Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker
Enchantments (16)
4 Cartouche of Solidarity
4 Cartouche of Zeal
2 Legion’s Landing
4 Giant Spectacle
2 Seal Away
Lands (22)
4 Inspiring Vantage
4 Clifftop Retreat
8 Plains
6 Mountain
Sideboard (15)
3 Authority of the Consuls
2 Abrade
2 Cast Out
2 Settle the Wreckage
2 Magma Spray
2 Fragmentize
2 Sentinel Totem

The deck can win in one of two ways. Firstly, we can take the traditional path to victory, which involves attaching some of our auras to an evasive or hard-hitting threat. In our deck these take the form of Skymarcher Aspirant, Adanto Vanguard and Adorned Pouncer. The Aspirant is your standard 2/1 for one with the added upside of becoming a flyer once we place our tenth permanent, while the Vanguard is a tough creature to remove if we are willing to part with some of our life total. The Pouncer is heavy hitting two drop thanks to Double-Strike, that can return the battlefield as a 4/4 if it is destroyed thanks to its Eternalize ability.

The other way the deck can win is with an army of token creatures, thanks to one of the new legendary creatures from Dominaria, Valduk, keeper of the Flame. Valduk is a legendary human shaman that at the beginning of combat on our turn creates an 3/1 elementals with Trample and Haste, for each aura and equipment attached to it. With only two or three auras Valduk can provide you with a steady stream of disposable threats with which to overwhelm our opponents and allows the deck to change up strategies should the need arise.

Valduk, Keeper of the Flame

The rest of the creatures in the deck provide us with different kinds of support. Dauntless Bodyguard is another 2/1 for one in the early game, that can be used to protect one of our key pieces as the game progresses. A single copy of Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker allows us to recur our Auras should our creatures be removed, and a playset of Sram, Senior Edificer provides us with plenty of card draw thanks to the composition of our deck.

Tiana, Ship's Caretaker - Dominaria Spoiler

Speaking of enchantments, we run sixteen in total, twelve of which are auras/pants. Cartouche of Solidarity and Cartouche of Zeal provide a surprising amount of value of the low, low cost of a single mana. Giant Spectacle give the enchanted creature +2/+1 and Menace, helping to push through damage in a board stall. For our four non-auras enchantments we run two copies of Legion’s Landing to provide some lifelinking blockers to protect our life total, and two copies of Seal Away to remove large threats our opponent might throw at us.

Our mana base is fairly simple thanks to only been in two colours, with playsets of Inspiring Vantage and Clifftop Retreat provide our quota of dual lands to go along with our basics. Our sideboard is fairly flexible, as we still don’t know want the meta is going to look like. Authority of the Consuls helps us to deal with heavy any heavy creature strategies, while Abrade, Magma Spray and Cast Out provide targeted removal. Settle the Wreckage gives us a selective wrath, Fragmentize gives us a way to handle opposing Artifacts and Enchantments, and Sentinel Totem takes care of threats from the graveyard.

And there you have it, Boros Pants for Standard. In the small amount of testing I have been able to do with the deck, it has impressed me with how much damage it can deal out. I personally can’t wait to take the deck out for a spin at my next standard FNM, and really see what it can do. But what do you think of it? What changes would you make to the deck, if any? Why not let us know in the comments below, and while you are there why not subscribe to the site to keep up to date with all the latest from us here at Master of Magics. But until next time remember, Good Luck and Have Fun.

 

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