Soulforge Cathedral and the Sanguine Metal Dawn.
Gerrard had returned just in time, but something was different about him. He drew ragged breaths through an odd metallic mask and walked in a slow unnatural gait with the subtle clicking sounds of an automaton. His now rust-colored eyes focused lifelessly toward some horrific unknown future.
I've pondered rather long (4 months) on the cEDH boros conundrum and I think I've made some progress. Since our colors have arguably the weakest tutor and card draw effects, I'm going to go ahead and say that this can potentially be one of the more interesting decks to play with and against. The reason for this is that it makes use of not two, not three, but four compact and/or flexible win conditions.
A. Loyal Gerrard
B. Bomberman
C. KCI Loops
D. Wheel Breach // Stax Beatdown
E. Storm? (Maybeboard)
We have to pick a plan early, but we are certainly adaptable, which is a trait that earlier boros iterations have sadly fallen flat on. We're going to leverage our strengths, that is stax, hatebears, instant-speed scalpels and some good red+artifact engines. When observing similar narrow decks, like Heliod, Sun-Crowned or Godo, Bandit Warlord they interact sparingly, expending sesources only to keep the game going before pulling the trigger. We follow similar interaction patterns. We will be using some unintuitive interaction to improve our ability to not get shut out the game by our more singular-minded stax-employing jeskai/esper/bant brethren. They might run Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void These are cards that absolutely cannot stay if we want to end the game. That's the bad news. The good news is that we're not some insane (sultai) self-mill concoction that gets utterly turned off by them. We just need them gone for the critical combo turn. Therefore we're running Fragmentize, Chaos Warp, Wear, Erase, and maybe Leonin Relic-Warder.
Since our card advantage game is sooo weak, i was very pleased to learn about gerrard's ability to recur at deceptively efficient rates. We have a faith's reward in the command zone! A one-sided open the vaults for our artifacts. That's gotta count for something. We need every edge we can salvage, so i did some delving into additional card draw that synergizes with the unassuming but devastating recursion engines boros now has access to. The (previously) missing links are sac engines, eggs and rocks.
Sac Engines:
Krark-Clan Shaman,
Goblin Bombardment,
Altar of Dementia,
Blasting Station,
Makeshift Munitions
Phyrexian Altar,
Scrap Trawler + Krark-Clan Ironworks,
Auriok Salvagers + LED
Eggs:
Pyrite Spellbomb,
Implement of Combustion,
Chromatic Star,
Chromatic Sphere,
Soul-Guide Lantern,
Arcum's Astrolabe,
Terrarion,
Ichor Wellspring,
Mind Stone,
Ubiquitous Rocks:
Mana Crypt,
Mox Opal,
Lion's Eye Diamond,
Mox Diamond,
Chrome Mox,
Lotus Petal,
Sol Ring,
Mana Vault,
Grim Monolith,
Arcane Signet,
Talisman of Conviction
Your go-to (boring) wincon is to churn through your deck, tutor for
Loyal Retainers, cast
Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero and a creature sac outlet that deals damage or nets mana and draws cards. Most games will revolve around the deployment of
Loyal Retainers, and its interactions with Gerrard and a sac outlet ftw.
Auriok Salvagers is your first Backup Plan. They also have very high synergy with your deck's high 0-1drop artifact count. Recycles Eggs. Goes infinite with
Lion's Eye Diamond. 'nuff said.
Plan C. A delightful combo engine. Don't forget that
Krark-Clan Ironworkscan sacrifice itself and generate mana in respose to any trigger or non-mana ability activation since it's a mana ability. If you stack the triggers correctly with
Scrap Trawler in play, your
Myr Retriever or
Junk Diver can recur the
Krark-Clan Ironworks, as well as an egg. Remember this loop can net you either a card draw or a mana with each iteration using a wide array of combinations of 0,+ 1,+ 2-drop artifacts in the deck. Any questions feel free to ask!
Ghirapur AEther Grid: Was a crucial sb piece in the kci modern deck. I've been excited to try to make solid use of this card in edh since origins, and this environment might prove better than casual! Pops a mana dork per turn with 2 artifacts, pops a tymna or hatebear per turn cycle @ 4 artifacts, and pops other stuff at higher counts and is yet another card that can just win while executing any net 0 mana
Krark-Clan Ironworks +
Scrap Trawler loop. I often find myself using this to finish off my own
Skullclamped creature or Gerrard for the trigger! Very pleased with how this one turned out, though admittedly it was initially a bit of a pet card. Insanely good synergy with
Smothering Tithe and
Dockside Extortionist. It even works through
Null Rod,
Stony Silence, or
Collector Ouphe since it's an enchantment ability rather than artifact.
Ethersworn Canonist:
Turns off some of the most egregious win conditions in EDH (oracle consult, isoreversal, storm) , while only rarely hindering your development, since this deck is so artifact-heavy. Tutor it often. Cast it early and often. Protect it. It's an aftifact too. A perfect fit.
Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle:
I didn't have high hopes for this bird cleric at first. I severely underestimated the sheer recursion value this thing can accrue. It's Good! It ties together literally everything this deck is trying to do. Getting back a recruiter etb trigger or Dockside Extortionist simply by casting a cheap artifact (which you were going to do anyway) again and again is just too sweet to pass up. Worth the 4cmc. Worth protecting.
Most of these were either too slow, situational or narrow to make the cut. For example
Reckless Fireweaver,
Altar of the Brood, and
Impact Tremors are all great ways to win the game but they do not allow for sacrificing a gerrard themselves, and therefore they got axed in favor of superior choices.
We're working with something similar to elsha top but minus blue and the storm engine. So there are a few remnants of that shell that I really like. Helm of Awakening Sensei's Divining Top and Cloud Key
From my experience, your games are going to start conservatively. You have ways of stopping early combo, but sometimes ya just didn't hit your precious interaction, and that's okay. Let the harder blue control decks sort that out. It's not boros' prerogative to always have the answer. That's not to say we don't HAVE interaction. The cEDH caliber ones in our colors ( Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, Mogg Salvage ) are just in short supply, especially given the late, but explosive card draw characteristic of Gerrard Tech. Sometimes you took that risk and slammed gerrard down a bit too early, someone caught the scent and he got devoured by interaction sharks, and that's okay too. In cEDH, you often have to risk it, to get the biscuit
