"Back in the Day" Boros

[Nutox]

I played a badass Red-White deck way back in the day when Balance, Strip Mine, Land Tax, Sol Ring and Mana Vault were legal, and Moat was under $100. Now I want to play it again. Legally.

I have spent a LOT of time looking and thinking about an almost-legacy-playable Boros Deck. I have seen the flat-top of the rock.... and after passing Boros Landfall on the way up, I see this: It is Bad. Very Bad.

However.... $200 on four magic cards that are lands with no abilities is about as deep as I'm getting into a mana base these days. And I want to play something either way more stompy or way fuller of cool cards than Boros Landfall, and stay with my pet-deck colors. I want to swing the jank around like a dead cat. I want to cast Squee, for value. I want to play a combo-lock deck with no Blue, and all Red and White. I loved playing Maverick, but there's no ass-stomping synergy (and Sylvan Library and GSZ) to be had like that in Boros.

So with no hand disruption, no countermagic, no freaky fast cheaty-face clocks, and maybe, just maybe, no Stoneforge Mystic... I want to jam Solitary Confinement. And the best way to protect it in Boros is probably just to make sure my opponent can't cast any spells after drawing 50+ cards over 50+ turns. There's not much room for stuff outside of support cards and combo enablers. A "taxing" package is not going to survive into the late-late-late-late game with no clock to back it up. Does Stax have enough open slots, and enough synergy with a game plan with such inherent weaknesses? Land Destruction, it is. You'd figure Red and White would be good with THAT concept. Scepter-Chant is probably relative, but done to death. Let's get fresh. In the spirit of Maverick, for the sake of a level of consistency necessary for a good deck, I like to have every card in the 60 have as much board/game state impact individually as can be had. Dead draws without Brainstorm is just no fun. Greater Auramancy isn't winning any games by itself. Squee can kill you. Scepter can't.

So, two questions:

1) What's the most badass Boros land-destruction/mana-control deck possible? I need to see how hardcore Boros can get with this while winning. See if I can adapt it.
2) Any great ideas for a Boros Stompy/Midrange? Something that could hold a tier-3 candle in the Top-25 DTB meta over the last five years no worse than most decks that have serious problems with certain decks?

I have come up with some really sweet, synergistic deck ideas that would be fun and play out nice in the goldfish bowl. It's when thinking about playing against another deck do these ideas become weak. I'll let y'all browbeat me for my lunatic ravings a bit before I write some of them out here.

Incidentally, it occurs to me one of the major factors holding Boros Legacy brews back might be the idea that Playing Red = Playing Lightning Bolt. Playing StP/PtE and 'Bolt together sure seems like the best of all worlds. But I think the kinds of decks Boros would compete with just wouldn't have room for Lightning Bolt. Crazy talk!

(Spolier Alert: Junk Diver.)

EDIT: I know draw-decking people is not a way to win timed games. That's why I picked the Casual forum!

[Bosque]

Have you considered the red splash of Parfait? Solitary Confinement, Land Tax, Scroll Rack, Blood Moon, Humility, assorted other stax like tools...

http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/t...ol?page=9#c207

[Karhumies]

1) What's the most badass Boros land-destruction/mana-control deck possible? I need to see how hardcore Boros can get with this while winning. See if I can adapt it.
2) Any great ideas for a Boros Stompy/Midrange? Something that could hold a tier-3 candle in the Top-25 DTB meta over the last five years no worse than most decks that have serious problems with certain decks?

Land destruction:

From white, we can get the UW tempo recurring land destruction engine:
4x Weathered Wayfarer
3-4x Wasteland
2x Jötun Grunt
0-4x Aether Vial
0-2x Aven Mindcensor
...which needs a way to bounce or destroy your own lands to keep Wayfarer active

Mana denial:

With the inclusion of red, we can play a stompy shell:
4x Ancient Tomb
3x City of Traitors
0-3x Sandstone Needle
4x Trinisphere
4x Chalice of the Void
3-4x Blood Moon
4x Simian Spirit Guide
Bunch of 3+ mana win cons

If you want to play a combo deck, there is white Helm combo available:
4x Rest in Peace
4x Helm of Obedience
0-2x Academy Rector
0-4x Enlightened Tutor
0-4x Gamble
0-4x Swords to Plowshares
0-4x Pyroclasm

...or colorless mill combo:
4x Painter's Servant
4x Grindstone
1-3x Relic of Progenitus (for Emrakul triggers)
0-4x Enlightened Tutor
0-4x Gamble
0-4x Red Elemental Blast

...or some form of Pyromancer's Ascension combo

For midrange guys, there is
Death & Taxes shell
Some potential red additions:
Lightning Bolt
Grim Lavamancer
Young Pyromancer

"Dumb" beats creatures:
Countryside Crusher
Taurean Mauler
Figure of Destiny

I would probably go with a combo shell, then figure out ways to delay the opponent until the combo gets assembled. E.g. Phyrexian Revoker, Mana Tithe, Judge's Familiar, Swords to Plowshares. SB Vexing Shusher, Defense Grid and/or Pyroblast to push the combo through.

[Karhumies]

Boros Painted Stone:

19x lands
Duals
Fetches? (Leonin Arbiter?)
Karakas
Wasteland
A.Tomb/C.Traitors?

4x Painter's Servant
4x Grindstone
2x Relic of Progenitus
2x Red Elemental Blast
2x Pyroblast

4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Gamble
1x Goblin Welder

4x Ethersworn Canonist
4x Phyrexian Revoker
2x Thalia
4x Judge's Familiar
2x Blood Moon/Aven Mindcensor

2x Umezawa's Jitte

SB options:
Defense Grid
Vexing Shusher
Mana Tithe
Blood Moon
Stoneforge Mystic
Swords to Plowshares
Batterskull
Something against P.Needle/P.Revoker
Leyline of Sanctity
Engineered Explosives/Ratchet Bomb
Journey to Nowhere/Oblivion Ring (vs non-haste Emrakul if no Karakas)
Peacekeeper
Humility

Game plan:
1) Slow down the opponent
2) Attempt painter-stone combo with Blast back-up
3) Fallback option is Jitte beats
4) Post-SB, the deck has tutors (E. Tutor and Gamble) for SB hate cards. I would probably play in SB Defense Grid for combo protection, Stoneforge Mystic + Batterskull for beats, Swords to Plowshares for removal, Leyline of Sanctity against discard, burn and Tendrils of Agony, something to kill P.Needle/problematic enchantment (e.g. Wheel of Sun and Moon).

Transitional SB to side out the combo and go for only S.Mystic hatebear equipment beats (Death & Taxes style) is also a possibility.

[GoblinSettler]

I enjoy playing rw prison builds. I don't have an exact list, but something like:

// 24 lands + 3 Mox Diamond
Stompy lands
Colored sources
Mana denial stuff

// Card "quality"
Sensei's Divining Top
Enlightened tutor

// Board control
Swords
Terminus
Moat

// Lock pieces
Chalice of the Void
Trinisphere
Tangle Wire
Blood Moon

// Fun
Goblin Welder
Artifact shenanigans
Other silver bullets for E. Tutor

Good at slowing down the game, not so much at winning. But it's best not to worry about winning when you can continue to drag out the game.

[mojoiskewl]

I played this when modern was new

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...ht=#post579275

Maybe you can "legacify" the list by adding geddons and better mana stones etc.

Note this was modern 2011 and we were talking about nacatls and dragonstorms and pyro swaths in the thread

oh times have changed

[Karhumies]

In Boros colors, there's also Kuldotha Forgemaster combo (basically MUD shell), which can be tuned to include Goblin Welder, Gamble and Enlightened Tutor.

Key note:
Most of the suggested playble decks are taking an existing shell (Stompy shell, Painter shell, MUD shell, d&t shell, etc.) and then converting it into the RW color context. R + W color combination simply does not have that much synergy going on in the Legacy context. When we think of some of the most powerful "Boros" cards we notice that Lightning Helix is suboptimal, Ajani Vengeant is too slow, Figure of Destiny is dumb and not as good as Delver, Boros Charm is not very relevant.