Primer: R/w/x Aggro

[LaZerBurn]

@ Montu - I like that build

@ Dauntless - Thanks for posting it! I like this list a lot! LOVE how greedy it is running 4 Dragons off 24 land and I also like the fact that you could take out the one drops and run Anger in the SB

@MDU - I'm not sure about running 'one colour' scry lands in any deck but it seems to work - the Burn lists ran 4 and seemed to run smoothly. I guess testing is the only thing to do

[DerWille]

[deck]Dauntless 268 Warleader Boros[/deck]

Not completely sure if this is the right place for this hybrid deck. Won an 8-man on MODO yesterday (2-0 WW, 2-0 Mono G and 2-1 Mono U) with this list. I'm very happy with the Manabase and I like Helix MB. Sideboard obviously needs work,
admittedly born out of a few frustrating Mono B losses with other builds lately. Probably should add a few shocks somewhere in the 75. Comments welcome!

When do you side in the 4 Assemble the Legions? Against mono-[mana]B[/mana] and [mana]GR[/mana] decks or something else?

[dauntless268]

@ MDU

Thanks for your feedback and for taking the deck through the mill. So FDS in place of YP$... Definitely worth considering in the present Meta. Will try this out, as well as a 2/2 split between the two. Re Manabase: I really like the 3 Temple of Silence, it gives you a reasonable chance of having a Temple in your opener and smoothen your draws.

@ LaZerBurn

Thanks for telling me to post the list (and making me realize my 1800 rating is actually not horrible) Anger in SB is a possibility, but if I was truly worried about Aggro, I'd much rather leave the Pyromancers in and board in Shocks for $$$ Value

@ DerWille

4 Assembles purely against MonoB. I figured 1 usually gets stolen by Thoughtseize or Duress, so I need more But as I said, it's probably excessive and with 4 Skullcrack and 4 Assembles, you need to board out 8 cards. 4 Stormbreath, 2 Chandra, Pyromancer, then what? Can't really take out the Magma Jet's either if you want to hit Assemble on Curve. So something like 2 Assembles + 4 Crack or 3/3 is probably correct. MDU's suggestion to replace YP$ with FDS improves that matchup as well. Against RG you really want Reckoners out of the board and keep Stormbreath Dragon at the 5 Slot. I haven't tested it but I can only imagine it's horribly slow.

I'll try my luck in DEs and report back, hopefully with a more consistent SB.

[LaZerBurn]

Ooops , I misread YP as FDS in your original list (due to my obsession with running 8 1 drops no doubt) so my Anger comment was based on that! Clearly it's not just me as MDU liked 4 FDS too though If you go for 4FDS over YP then I'd consider it, I do like Anger a lot though

2 Assemble and 3 'Crack sounds about right to me.

Your rating is good, be proud

[LaZerBurn]

Won a couple of 2 mans with this version of Dauntless' list. I ran 4 Vault's by accident, I just added them on auto pilot, like why wouldn't you have 4 ?

[deck]Dauntless 268 Warleader Boros[/deck]

Beat Mono B - Assemble is a must here as with the Dragons SB'ed out you don't have many threats.

Beat Esper Midrange which I was very happy
about as I had to figure out what to SB on the spot - I took out my 1 drops and a Dragon and morphed into a burn control deck I don't know if it is the best strategy but it worked a treat

As far as the SB goes I think you could drop a Reckoner and the Charms (few permanents to protect, 4 to the dome is less exciting with 4 MD Helix) for whatever is needed. Dauntless mentioned Glare Of Heresy to me and I think it's a good call - kills Chains, DSphere, Reckoner, most of the horrid Esper Midrange deck and wrecks GW, what more could you want from a card? 2 is likely enough so that leaves a flex slot! Maybe Elspeth?

Moving forward I'd like to try the original build with YP
over FDS and 3 Temples. though Control seems a bit scary with so few threats

[Lightning_Dolt]

4x 5 drops on 24 land is greedy... especially when you are swapping two drops for four drops...

I've been on holidays and not super active... why warleader's helix over Ash Zealot?

[magicdownunder]

4x 5 drops on 24 land is greedy... especially when you are swapping two drops for four drops... why warleader's helix over Ash Zealot?

Warleader Helix is strong because its very difficult to disrupt, but I agree on the greediness and lack of Ash Zealot being bad.

Thus here is Math to help win arguments

With 24 lands (on the play) you have 63.3% chance of curving into 4 lands on T4 (this is about 5% less then 25 lands) to make up for this loss the deck runs 10 Scry which you have 86.4% chance of hitting by T4.

With your 6 four-drops you have a 68.3% chance of drawing them on T4, if you factor in the scry you get at least
one free draw which increases you odds hitting lands and reduces your odds of hitting a heavy drop which roughly equalizes the odds of things working out.

Anyhow I've tried the deck in two SE running:

[deck=MDU's Warleader Boros]Lands 24
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Silence
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Mutavault
11 Mountains

Creatures 16
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealots
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Enchantments 4
4 Chained to the Rocks

Instants/Sorceries 14
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Warleader's Helix

Planeswalkers 2
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard 15
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Skullcrack
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Rod of Ruin[/deck]

I suffered mana issues quite badly (as expected) but performed well enough, during the first SE I went 1-1 beating Ux Devotion G1 and then losing to UX Devotion G2 and on the 2nd SE I went 3-0 beating Bx Devotion, RW Devotion and Split.

Moving forward I may add another land..
. over the 4th [card]Warleader's Helix[/card] but I'll keep trying with 24 lands for now (gah its almost 4th and 8th I need to pick a deck soon).

[Purp]

(gah its almost 4th and 8th I need to pick a deck soon)

I am in the same boat! PTQ on the 4th, 14th and 26th.

[Lightning_Dolt]

4x 5 drops on 24 land is greedy... especially when you are swapping two drops for four drops... why warleader's helix over Ash Zealot?

Warleader Helix is strong because its very difficult to disrupt, but I agree on the greediness and lack of Ash Zealot being bad.

Thus here is Math to help win arguments

With 24 lands (on the play) you have 63.3% chance of curving into 4 lands on T4 (this is about 5% less then 25 lands) to make up for this loss the deck runs 10
Scry which you have 86.4% chance of hitting by T4.

With your 6 four-drops you have a 68.3% chance of drawing them on T4, if you factor in the scry you get at least one free draw which increases you odds hitting lands and reduces your odds of hitting a heavy drop which roughly equalizes the odds of things working out.

Anyhow I've tried the deck in two SE running:

[deck=MDU's Warleader Boros]Lands 24
4 Temple of Triumph
2 Temple of Silence
4 Sacred Foundry
3 Mutavault
11 Mountains

Creatures 16
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Ash Zealots
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Enchantments 4
4 Chained to the Rocks

Instants/Sorceries 14
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Warleader's Helix

Planeswalkers 2
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard 15
4 Boros Reckoner
2 Assemble the Legion
3 Skullcrack
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Firedrinker Satyr
1 Rod of Ruin[/deck]

I suffered mana issues quite badly (as expected) but performed well enough, during the first SE I went 1-1
beating Ux Devotion G1 and then losing to UX Devotion G2 and on the 2nd SE I went 3-0 beating Bx Devotion, RW Devotion and Split.

Moving forward I may add another land... over the 4th [card]Warleader's Helix[/card] but I'll keep trying with 24 lands for now (gah its almost 4th and 8th I need to pick a deck soon).

What's the math on hitting 5 land on turn 5 with a dragon in hand? That is after all out ultimate goal.

The odds of Scry helping you hit your land drops are impossible to quanitfy, so I don't think the math holds up.

We know that 25 land is correct with 4x five drops in these builds. Better consistent than greedy.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Also, I have heard different arguments on the value of scry, but it is definitely not worth the same as drawing a card.

[magicdownunder]

What's the math on hitting 5 land on turn 5 with a dragon in hand? That is after all out ultimate goal.

The odds of Scry helping you hit your land drops are impossible to quanitfy, so I don't think the math holds up.

We know that 25 land is correct with 4x five drops in these builds. Better consistent than greedy.

I'm not going to argue since I agree with you - esp. after playing with the deck I feel like I really want that 25th land and yes its true that scry doesn't excuse greed but it does help in some manner.

p.s. hitting 5 lands on the curve with 24 lands is 46.7% (on the play) so its most likely not going to
happen unless you Scry.

[dauntless268]

My build has a 7th scryland, this was the reason why I had YP$ over both Zealot and FDS. The scy is the only reason why 24 lands may be justified. Still possible that I'm wrong with this.

[Lightning_Dolt]

7th scry land? Yeah, I guess you can't play zealot at that point, and it might be hard playing reckoner on 20 mana sources. Chandra's Phoenix might even be hard at that point.

I personally found it infuriating playing with 8x CIPT lands.

[magicdownunder]

My build has a 7th scryland, this was the reason why I had YP$ over both Zealot and FDS. The scy is the only reason why 24 lands may be justified. Still possible that I'm wrong with this.

I cut the 7th scry land because you start to see diminishing returns once you hit number 11 (its only a 2% increase) we really shouldn't be playing 24 lands with 4x Stormbreath Dragon and six 4-drops but in theory assuming you don't hit duds with your scry and manage to put something under you can just scrape by - that said sometimes its better to be lucky then skilled

Though "Better consistent than greedy&
quot; is better if your going to play a large event with many rounds

[Lightning_Dolt]

I have a PTQ in two weeks. I'll be playing the same build as GP: Shizuoka, minus 1x Assemble, +1x Elspeth methinks.

[Purp]

Famous Pedros: http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/deck_sear ... %2F20%2F13

[Pedros]

lol nice

[dauntless268]

MDU asked for card choice explanations on the Warleader Boros list, so here's an attempt:

Deck is basically derived from 2 Burn(ish) Lists and the discussion around it
viewtopic.php?p=159175#p159175
viewtopic.php?p=166129#p166129

It's not a burn deck, but has enough burn to push through a few points of damage when needed

Card choices:

Manabase:7 Scrylands WTF? I thought it was outrageous when I saw the Player of the Year List with 8 Scry Lands & 4 Mutavault still casting Chandra's Phoenix. But it works very well in practice. As MDU suggested we should look at it as drawing at 1-2 extra cards when calculating %ages to
hit 5 lands on T5.

Rakdos Cackler & Young Pyromancer: Both cards have pros in a burn heavy deck, so this deck tries to run both. It just draws out enough removal to give your Stormbreaths a chance to survive when they hit.

Warleader's Helix: We all like Mizz Mortars, don't we? MM helps you to survive an aggro onslaught, gets rid of those pesky Garys, and is still 4 to the dome. Great versatility in a deck that curves up to it

Mizzium Mortars: Kind of a flex slot. These could also be shocks, FotF, Boros Charm or something else

Other Considerations:

FDS: I'm afraid 8 red 1-drops require more T1 untapped red sources, but maybe...

Ash Zealot: Great card, but the odds of casting the guy T2 are really slim here - I feel it makes the deck significantly weaker.

25 lands: I admit it will add consistency, but I'd insist it should be a Mutavault - I would
probably cut a Mortars, Chains or YP rather than a Helix

Matchups:

Good: Red Devotion, Blue Devotion, Aggro, Gx Aggro/Devotion
So-so: Control (certainly 6 terrors is a lot, but the combination of SBD and Phoenix still carries some weight)
Bad: Mono Black (lack of early pressure, but I generally seem to have more trouble than others, maybe I misplay the matchup) - still I want to have 6 SB slots devoted to it

Revised Sideboard:

4 Boros Reckoner
3 Skullcrack
3 Assemble the Legion
2 Mizzium Mortars
2 Last Breath
1 Glare of Heresy

[LaZerBurn]

Excellent post dauntless I like the 25 land with 8 scry and 4 Vaults option

[magicdownunder]

Excellent post dauntless I like the 25 land with 8 scry and 4 Vaults option

While I agree that its a great post and I'm really grateful for another take on Boros Aggro archetype , 8 non-red sources will kill ya if you intend to play with Chandra's Phoenix, heck the guy who came 5th regretted running a 8 non-red sources.

As it stands Dauntless's Warleader Boros and PyroSkies are the most likely candidates I'll take for the champs, while statistically I know I should add the 25th lands I'm going to keep it at 24 because I value 4x SBD + Helix and I do believe shipping a card
with scry is like a sudo draw.

Standard Elimination Report Event 6545943
R1: Warleader Boros vs Bx Devotion
R2: Warleader Boros vs Rw Devotion
R3: Split

These may not be a good example of why keeping 24 lands would be ok, but even if I had 25 lands I would of had the same issues these MU.

fixed link

[Lightning_Dolt]

@mdu

Those both link to the same video.

See what happens when you run 24 lands? Stuck on three for infinite turns

Could you post the two lists you're thinking about running? When is the championship? If possible, I'll try to play one of the lists at fnm and give you some notes.

[Lightning_Dolt]

@ group

Running 8 scry lands and 4 magma jets is not the same as drawing one or two extra cards.

You have to calculate the odds of drawing those cards, then imagine whether or not you ship to the bottom. You can't calculate it. Either way, there is no actual card advantage.

[Lightning_Dolt]

I just spent like an hour crunching numbers and typing out an article on Virtual Card Advantage and Scry and it's value in this deck only to have my buddy's piece of shit Mac sign me out of D2R when I hit post. That's fun. I'm not doing it again.

Anyway, what I discovered is that 8x Temple gives you 0.50 Average Virtual Card Advantage, Magma Jet gives you 0.60 Average card advantage, and the odds of drawing 2x Temple and a Magma Jet to actually draw 1x VC is 44%.

Up to you guys, but to me, it is not worth ruining our tempo / colour screwing ourselves.

[Helios]

That's super interesting info. Highly recommend doing long posts in Google Drive so that it auto-saves for you.

[Lightning_Dolt]

That's super interesting info. Highly recommend doing long posts in Google Drive so that it auto-saves for you.

On my buddy's Mac, he doesn't use anything google related... Fanboys...

I would have done it in word or something and saved periodically if I was at home.

[Lightning_Dolt]

Basically assume that a scry is worth 0.50 VCA.

That makes 2x Temple or a Magma Jet 1.0 VCA.

However, your liklihood of drawing 1 Jet by turn 5 is about 60% and your liklihood of trading two temples is about 50%. Likelihood of drawing both for 1.1 AVCA is 44% (if I ran the numbers correctly).

[Lightning_Dolt]

Of course, these numbers are kind of meaningless, since they assume you scry 50% of the time, and it doesn't take into account rearranging the spells on top of your deck etc.

[dauntless268]

Thanks, Johnny Spike for running the numbers. It's nice to get some backing for the greediness of the deck I never meant to pretend Scry is actual card advantage (or claim that 24 lands is enough, or even the deck is better than other Big Boros builds for that matter My own, simplified calc runs like this:

Without Scry your chance of hitting at least 4 lands on t4 is 63%, at least 5 lands on t5 is 47%. Not great.

The deck has 15 scry effects (7+2*4), so on average t5 you get to see 2.75 extra cards that you can potentially ship to the bottom if it's not the lands that you want. I know that's somewhat flawed, but let's say it's 2, then on average by t4 (t5) you have seen 12 (13) cards, increasing the chances to 80% (67%). Adding a 25th land
increases both probabilities by approx. 5%. Whether that's good enough is another matter.

Going forward, I will simply add an extra Mutavault as 61st card and see how it runs

@ MDU: I didn't want to suggest 8 non red sources (6 with 24 lands and 7 with 25 should be absolute max), I just referred to the Player of the Year Event Decklist you posted and was surprised this was even remotely possible

@MDU: Watched the videos. The MonoBlack win was a bit lucky. I also wonder if we board in 3 FDS and they board in 3 Pharika's Cure, then we're not really improving the matchup post board, we're running into their plan Therefore why not rather sidestep their likely sideboarding with more than 2 Assembles? I would leave Helix in (as you did G3) to kill Gary when he appears. These post-board games likely go quite long.

[agrevall]

As it stands Dauntless's Warleader Boros and PyroSkies are the most likely candidates I'll take for the champs, while statistically I know I should add the 25th lands I'm going to keep it at 24 because I value 4x SBD + Helix and I do believe shipping a card with scry is like a sudo draw.

Just out of interest - what didn't you like about the Boros Legions list in the current meta? I'm guessing the MODO champs will contain a higher percentage of control than the standard queues - I could be wrong.

[magicdownunder]

As it stands Dauntless's Warleader Boros and PyroSkies are the most likely candidates I'll take for the champs, while statistically I know I should add the 25th lands I'm going to keep it at 24 because I value 4x SBD + Helix and I do believe shipping a card with scry is like a sudo draw.

Just out of interest - what didn't you like about the Boros Legions list in the current meta? I'm guessing the MODO champs will contain a higher percentage of control than the standard queues - I could be wrong.

Nothing its a meta call, the Boros Aggro (Boros Legion) list
which we all have been working on for so long is very strong - its just not the best deck to run when Wx Weenies, Esper midrange and RDW is a thing.

Plus your correct, I reckon the Champs will be all Ux Devotion, Control and Bx Devotion just like MOCS11 was (the CQ however should just be like a DE or PE).

@Dauntless268: If your Opp. brings in Duress does that mean you don't bring in Non-Creature spells? If your Opp. brings Peak Eruption does that mean we cut Chains? I made the exception with Boros Reckoner vs Blue but that is because its not a 1-for-1 trade rather its almost a 4-for-1.

I'm not in favor of running too many Assembles, since unlike in Devo we can't pump them so it become a rather narrow SB option which we only really use vs Bx Deovtion

Moving forward I'll suggest either adding one land or cutting 1x Helix and 1x Dragon for 2x Selfies - if you cut 1 dragon and 1 four drop you have a higher chance of hitting the curve then drawing a heavy drop so it works out.

On the side note
the deck which won Poty ran 2x Cure MD which is now the norm online for Bx Devotion

@Johnny_Spike: its on the 8th but its on-going - Honestly I think I'll just take our Boros Aggro list since its so stable (I like the Shocks on the side) - but I'll like to add one Wear // Tear because the Esper midrange MU is so horrible.

If not the Boros Aggro deck I'll just run PyroSkies since I like MD Shocks in the current meta game (or I'll just try to go over the top with Warleader Boros if I can get a happy 75 together before the 8th - but since I haven't had the chance to play magic is awhile its not looking likely). (all my videos are pretty much stuff from last year)

[Zooligan]

Going forward, I will simply add an extra Mutavault as 61st card and see how it runs.

Yeeeeaaahhhh, idk about the 61st card thing. I think the extra variance and just the fact you've got another card in there might negate any fractional card advantage you would get from the scry.

It's your party, though, and you can scry if you want to...

[Narcasus]

For an SCG open, what do you guys think the meta would be like there? I'm guessing it might be better to assume a heavier mono u and b meta there and run with the lists with 8 one drops?

[dauntless268]

4-0ed a DE today with my modified Warleader Boros List (6488939, won by some MR_Thompson, I guess not the real one, huh?)

[deck= Warleader Boros '61]
Lands 25
4 Temple of Triumph
3 Temple of Silence
4 Sacred Foundry
4 Mutavault
10 Mountains

Creatures 16
4 Rakdos Cackler
2 Firedrinker Satyr
2 Young Pyromancer
4 Chandra's Phoenix
4 Stormbreath Dragon

Instants/Sorceries 14
2 Mizzium Mortars
4 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Warleader's Helix

Enchantments 4
4 Chained to the Rocks

Planeswalkers 2
2 Chandra, Pyromaster

Sideboard 15
4 Boros Reckoner
3 Assemble the Legion
2 Skullcrack
2 Viashino Firstblade
2 Last Breath
1 Glare of Heresy
1 Mizzium Mortars
[/deck]

R1 vs. Mono Black Devotion 2-0
1-0 I draw exactly the right mix of creatures, removal and land despite a mull to 6
2-0 He kept a removal light hand, and I had a Firstblade that lived...

R2 vs. Esper Control 2-1
1-0
Multiple Cacklers gave me an early lead
1-1 He has too much removal and multiple Jaces, 2 Sphinxes seal my fate
2-1 He plays only Scrylands for first 4 turns, I have 2 Mutavaults and beat him down quickly

R3 vs. RDW with FoM (had beaten LaZerBurn the round before, so I needed to avenge him )
0-1 He massacres me. I have nothing but a Helix and draw only land.
1-1 I grind him out. Technically, I play terrible, not daring to play a chains because I fear Peak Eruption (which would have played already had he had it)
2-1 He snap keeps, so after a thought I decide to keep a risky hand with Mutavault + Temple of Silence and a lot of 2 CMC burn, b/c I figure I have 3 draws to find a mountain. Turns out he kept a 1 lander and doesn't see a second land until turn 4 or so. This is enough to get my land base halfway sorted and run him over

R4 vs. Mono Black Devotion 2-0
1-0 double chain on double pack rats is just enough
tempo gain for the win...
2-0 Again he plays an early pack rat, this time I have endless Phoenixes and the games is over pretty quickly

I'm happy that I managed to beat Mono Black twice, since I thought it was a very bad matchup for this build:

On the deck:
[*] Very happy with the extra Mutavault, sooo important against Mono Black
[*] I liked the 2/2 split Satyr/YP$
[*] The Viashino Firstblade in the SB was an experiment against Mono Black and Control. Against MonoB, I figured if the creatures die anyway, I'd rather have them do some damage the turn they come into play. Or kill a Jace in the control matchup. I saw it once R1 G2 where it lived and did a million damage.

@MDU: Thanks for your constructive comments - you're a much better player than I am and I treasure your advice. I still feel safer with 3 Assembles against what I think may still be the worst matchup, even if its narrow. Going forward, I wonder if this deck actually benefits from skullcrack as much as PyroRed does? If not, one
could try even more Firstblades in the SB...?

@ LaZerBurn: Thanks for encouraging me constantly during the event and helping me sort out the replays

[magicdownunder]

Well done dauntless268, I'm glad you picked up the 25th land (I can't ever recommend using 61 cards since it ruins the maths and make setting up top-decks harder) - I've mention this to Lazerburn before but I'll type it here as well, Bx Devotion (we're not burn) is not a bad MU so I can't recommend 3x Assembles.

I have a few questions/suggestions for you:

Why Viashino Firstblade over Minotaur Skullcleaver, Boros Charm or Spark Trooper?

Why Glare of Heresy over Wear // Tear? This deck can run like a burn deck, esp. post board - getting over top is rather easy so we don't need to worry about Boros Reckoner or Elspeth that much, Whip and DShpere which is ran in the 4th most successful deck on MTGO (esper Aggro) is more of a threat

Skullcrack is more for Bx Devotion MU then anything else (vs control I prefer Boros Charm) - if you think Bx Devotion is
bad, don't cut Skullcrack

- - - - - - - - -

I haven't had a chance to play in awhile so i'm glad we have people testing the diff. variants.

[Lightning_Dolt]

MDU, can you post your current 75?

I tried a 23 land version of the deck with 2x dragons and 3x shock for team constructed. It didn't go well. In theory it should have been fine, but it just did not work. Mulligans and manascrew.

[magicdownunder]

I've been kinda of out-of-the-loop due to silly RL stuff and now with the meta changes the Boros Aggro list which I ran in my YouTube vid is no longer something I can recommend anymore.

I think the main issues is that the meta is too healthy (this is one of the best standards in a long time) I don't know how to slant the deck thus I can only recommend the staple list:

[deck]Boros Aggro 60[/deck]

Maybe 1 or two Selfies or something to improve the midrange/aggro MU abit.

I'm really like the direction Warleader
Boros is going though - its kinda like running Boros Charm MD except it slower but more relevant across the field.

[dauntless268]

Thanks, MDU!

Why Viashino Firstblade over Minotaur Skullcleaver, Boros Charm or Spark Trooper?

Hmmm. Firstblade and Skullcleaver are very similar. Skullcleaver is easier to cast, but dies to UP. I like that they leave a body behind and do something to the board state unlike Boros Charm or Spark Trooper, but yeah, I see your point.

Why Glare of Heresy over Wear // Tear? This deck can run like a burn deck, esp. post board - getting over top is rather easy so we don't need to worry about Boros Reckoner or Elspeth that much, Whip and DShpere which is ran in the 4th most successful deck on MTGO (esper Aggro) is more of a threat

Glare says permanent, so it does exile DSphere, along with relevant lifegain cards such as Paladin, Archangel of Thune and Unflinching Courage. I particularly like
that I can bring it in against UW control in place of a Chained to the Rocks. But yes, Whip and the popularity of Esper Midrange is an argument.

Skullcrack is more for Bx Devotion MU then anything else (vs control I prefer Boros Charm) - if you think Bx Devotion is bad, don't cut Skullcrack

So much for narrow cards lol. But yes, the question you're really asking is what kind of deck we want to be postboard. I hate Standard Burn so my reflex is to rather play different kinds of threats, but it could be funny to start throwing Boros Charms, Spark Troopers and Skullcracks around post board... So many options!

I agree that the meta is really diverse and the Devotion mechanic makes it much more complex than the usual Stone/Paper/Scissors with Aggro, Midrange and Control. I'm sure smarter people have written about it, but for me it's almost like Mono Black Devotion and Mono Blue Devotion are the opposite ends of the format right now and a good deck needs to be able
to beat both which is not easy... I guess that's also the reason why a deck running eight 1-drops and four 5-drops can actually be good...

[LaZerBurn]

I think the main issues is that the meta is too healthy (this is one of the best standards in a long time) I don't know how to slant the deck

I'll second that, the meta is really healthy. I hate it

[Lightning_Dolt]

I'm really like the direction Warleader Boros is going though - its kinda like running Boros Charm MD except it slower but more relevant across the field.

But at the cost of Ash Zealot, which is something I am less than crazy about...

[magicdownunder]

[quote="[url=viewtopic.php?p=169576#p169576:r4adcvrr]Johnny_Spike » Thu Jan 02, 2014 9:34 pm[/url:r4adcvrr]":r4adcvrr][quote="[url=viewtopic.php?p=169542#p169542:r4adcvrr]magicdownunder » Thu Jan 02, 2014 3:12 pm[/url:r4adcvrr]":r4adcvrr]
I'm really like the direction Warleader Boros is going though - its kinda like running Boros Charm MD except it slower but more relevant across the field.[/quote:r4adcvrr]

But at the cost of [card:r4adcvrr]Ash Zealot[/card:r4adcvrr], which is something I am less than crazy about...[/quote:r4adcvrr]

I'm running 4x Ash Zealot in my Warleader Boros list... I don't really like YP without Shock since he become a 4cc+ spell.

Its the newest variant to our Boros Aggro pile of choices anyways so it has room for improvement and wacky ideas.