This year Boros has seen quite a bit of love, and even a re-imagining as Lorehold in Strixhaven. To catch up on where we’re at, check out our earlier pieces on if Boros is Powerful Again and How to Get Card Advantage in Boros. Continuing in this same vein, we’re going to dive back into Boros, but this time we’re going to explore a function that Boros has often lagged on: ramp. In this article we’ll attempt to build a landfall deck that tries to pull off the unthinkable: equipping Hundred Handed One with 100 rocks (one for each hand when it’s monstrous). Naturally, we’ll need Toggo, Goblin Weaponsmith to make these rocks, but instead of the usual Kodama of the East Tree, he finds himself partnered up with Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist. Can we actually do this? Create 100 rocks without the raw power of Green for ramp? Let’s dig in and find out!
Since our deck is focused on achieving our dream of having a Giant with one hundred hands holding one hundred rocks, you’ll notice that this deck falls quite short in terms of functional requirements in terms of removal. But that’s okay. Every deck in Commander doesn’t need to be built to win, or built to be as efficient as possible. It’s perfectly fine (and highly encouraged) to build something that’s just fun or out there. Of course, you’ll want to set clear expectations with your table about what you’re planning on doing as the best games come when everyone is on the same page. So keeping in mind that many, if not all, card choices for this deck are focused on equipping our Hundred Handed One instead of trying to eke out a win, we can dive into the specifics. As always. If you want to check out the list beforehand, you can find it here, but I’d urge you to read on if you’re curious about the strategies and criteria that went into card selection.
To lay the foundation we’ll need a lot of ways to trigger landfall, and we’re going to need to do so quickly, one rock per turn likely won’t cut it. Thankfully White has been getting a lot of design attention in this space, so there are some new cards (as well as some really old ones) that we can abuse to create a metric tonne of rocks. New designs like Archaeomancer’s Map, Scholarship Sponsor and Keeper of the Accord are recent designs that will pull more than their fair share, letting us mimic Burgeoning and benefit from our opponent’s ramp efforts. Oath of Lieges does double duty here, letting us get additional landfall triggers and keeping our opponents ahead of us in terms of land count. White’s flavour of ramp has been focused on catching up from behind, often requiring an opponent to have more lands than you. So how can we get the absolute most out of this? Blowing up our own lands of course! Now I know what you may be thinking, a self-inflicted disadvantage in this power level economy? How absurd. Not to worry though, we’ll get more than enough out of this to make it worthwhile.
Not only will blowing up our lands keep our land count lower than our opponents, but we can also turn this into raw card advantage with the absolute all star Aggressive Mining. At first glance this card is a real non-bo with our deck, preventing us from playing lands and all, but since we can sacrifice a land every turn, we can draw eight cards by the time it goes around the table. A lot of the current catch up effects put lands directly into play like Knight of the White Orchid, Boreas Charger and Kor Cartographer. We can also loop Burnished Hart and Wayfarer’s Bauble with Goblin Welder, sacrificing a rock to recur our artifacts. This is only really worthwhile when it’s net positive on rocks, so having Anointed Procession in play is key for looping the bauble. The real avalanche comes when we bring back all of our sacrificed lands at once with something like Planar Birth. We also run Brought Back, Second Sunrise, Faith’s Reward and Cosmic Intervention for some same turn shenanigans, but more on that a bit later. Once we’ve gotten enough value out of Aggressive Mining we can use one of the few removal spells we have to get it off the board.
To fuel our rock making endeavours we’ll need a lot of card advantage, and as Shawn expertly pointed out that’s now possible in Boros. Both Wyleth, Soul of Steel and Akiri, Fearless Voyager make the cut for burst and steady card draw, but the real explosiveness comes from Puresteel Paladin and Quicksmith Genius. The latter of this foursome lets us draw or rummage (discard, then draw) whenever we create a rock since they are equipment. This makes our slow fetches draw us cards and we could even draw upwards of twenty cards with a correctly timed Second Sunrise. So what exactly are we doing with all of this draw? The primary plan is to excavate our deck until we find a Codex Shredder, a Second Sunrise effect, and a sacrifice outlet for our lands (Zuran Orb is ideal, but Troubled Healer or Trenching Steed will do in a pinch). Once we’ve got these combo pieces and about ten mana we can play Codex Shredder, sacrifice all of our lands (after tapping for mana), resolve a Second Sunrise (or similar) to bring back all of our lands, then sacrifice the Codex Shredder to return Second Sunrise to our hand starting an infinite loop. Cosmic Intervention only works on the end step, so it won’t loop infinitely, but it could be a big enough burst of landfall triggers to make us enough rocks.
This deck does have some win cons, and they work surprisingly well. If I’m feeling like I want to focus more on the achievement I swap out some of these win cons for some more ramp and another infinite landfall loop (Price of Glory + Harmless Offering + Sacred Ground). When I am in the mood for trying to win with Toggo and Ardenn, Valduk, Keeper of the Flame can create a bunch of hasty Elementals out of nowhere if you have a bunch of rocks and an auto equipper (like Ardenn), and Ghirapur Aether Grid can weaponize your rocks without the crippling tap cost. Fathom Fleet Swordjack, Hellkite Tyrant and Reckless Fireweaver are a bit more visible to your opponents, but they can be pretty satisfying to resolve. While not currently in the deck, Kemba, Kha Regent and Reckless Crew can make a boatload of creatures for you to attack with on a subsequent turn.
There we have it, yet another way that you can play Boros in a new and exciting way. You may not get as many wins with a deck that’s focused on doing something really cool, but it will be sure to create some stories that you and your opponents will share time and time again. What did you think of this Boros deck with a color-shifted theme? Let me know on Twitter or say “hi” in the Chimera Discord. While we’re still unable to play in Store Chimera is hosting Commander night every Tuesday online. We start around 5pm and play games over SpellTable. There’s a wide range of players that enjoy various power levels, so you can jam your jank or get in on some cutthroat cEDH. We also love to welcome new players to the community, so even if you haven’t played much Commander we’re happy to slow it down and help you learn. I hope you found this article inspiring and that you’re thinking up your own achievements to pursue in Commander. Happy brewing and hope to see you at our next Commander night!
Bryan Smith
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