Boros Legends

Hello Alchemists,

For the next couple of days I’ll be out facilitating a workshop in Bangkok (non-Magic related unfortunately) and I want to leave you guys with a brew that looks to be strong contender looking at the decks I see topping PPTQs and local FNMS.

Lyra has been the go-to finisher for UW control decks, BW vehicles and GW Legends. No wonder, she’s a formidable airforce that closes the game as quick as she separates your lifetotal from your opponent. Almost uncontested in the air, she is worth the kidney you sold to get a playset of her.

Why only play Lyra if you have a lot of firepower in the air thanks to Glorybringer and Rekindling Phoenix. Glorybringer is looking at a lot of juicy targets nowadays. From Steel Leaf Champion, Shalai, Voice of Plenty, Goblin Chainwhirler, unguarded Chandra, Torch of Defiance, Knight of Malice/Grace and many more. Going Lyra then Glorybringer is a great way to pressure the opponent to find a clean answer to both or they just die.

I like how History of Benalia on T3 makes protecting T4 Chandra super easy. Having two 2/2 Vigilant Knights standing guard while you tick up Chandra feels really good and provides inevitability especially if you have Rekindling, Glorybringer and Lyra as your follow up. Pia Nalaar does the same job at protecting Chandra by putting 2 bodies in front of would-be attackers.

Thanks to tremendous upgrades to white’s removal, Boros now has access to one of the best removal spells in Standard. Abrade deals with Heart of Kirans which escapes your Seal Away. Seal Away on the other hand deals with what Abrade can’t. Then Magma Spray is there particularly for Scrapheap Scrounger which is in the rise thanks to Vehicles dominating GP Birmingham.

We don’t have Vraska’s Contempt but we have something just as good (or sometimes better). Cast Out answers any problematic permanent can be cycled early to draw our lands.

We don’t have card advantage in these colors in the past but now thanks to Karn, we have ways to draw cards and catch up on card advantage. We won’t be ticking Karn down to make Constructs as often so don’t expect to take this beat down path anytime soon.

We’re playing Pia, Chandra, Karn and Lyra so we can effectively cast Jaya’s Immolating Inferno which is another surprise finisher we have in the deck that the opponent may not expect. It’s also a great way to kill off 2-3 creatures if needed to get our creatures through!

Here’s my Boros Legends list:

Creatures: 13

2 Pia Nalaar

4 Rekindling Phoenix

4 Glorybringer

3 Lyra Dawnbringer

Spells: 11

3 Magma Spray

3 Seal Away

3 Abrade

2 Jaya’s Immolating Inferno

Enchantment: 6

4 History of Benalia

2 Cast Out

Planeswalker: 5

3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

2 Karn, Scion of Urza

Lands: 25

4 Clifftop Retreat

4 Inspiring Vantage

2 Stone Quarry

7 Mountain

8 Plains

Sideboard: 15

3 Authority of the Consuls

1 Magma Spray

1 Abrade

2 Crook of Condemnation

2 Sorcerous Spyglass

3 Forsake the Worldly

1 Karn Scion of Urza

1 Huatli, Warrior Poet

1 Chandra, Torch of Defiance

The sideboard addresses the wide spread of aggressive decks like Mono Red, Mono Green, BR vehicles and the likes.

Authority shuts down haste decks and the ability of Scrapheaps or Rhonas to crew Kiran on turn 3. The life gain is also essential to buy you time to get into the mid to late game where this deck really pulls ahead in value and power.

Crook is there for Scarab God decks, Scrapheap Scroungers, Khenras and stop Search for Azcanta from flipping. It has a lot of applications against many decks and it doesn’t affect us much.

Sorcerous Spyglass is now becoming more and more popular to combat opposing Karn and Teferi. But beyond these 2, we can also use it disable Scarab God, Hazoret (not that it matters), and even Scrapheap from coming back.

We have another Planeswalker in the sideboard in Huatli. She comes in against control match-ups to really stress their decks in finding answers to Planeswalkers and noncreature threats. Once Huatli resolves, we can keep generating 3/3s without committing more to the board and deprive getting blown out by a Fumigate or Settle the Wreckage. Against aggressive decks, Huatli gains us a bunch of life because our creatures are huge. Worst case, we can negative her and stop creatures from blocking our creatures if needed.

Outside Vraska’s Contempt, the popular Planeswalker and creature removal are enchantments like Seal Away and Cast Out. Forsake the Worldly comes in against these cards with zero risk because we can cycle it if we don’t have targets or if the opponent didn’t draw their cast outs. This also comes in against decks that play artifact creatures or pesky enchantments like Arguel’s Blood Fast.

That’s it for now, I think the deck has a lot of answers to the meta and has a lot of threats that don’t fall short with what we see on top tables. Haste dragons, recurring phoenixes, durable angels and powerful Planeswalkers make this deck very powerful!

Thanks for reading, hope to see you back soon!

Please share the page and the post, this helps motivate me to write more of these amazing deccks!

Ciao,

Vanson