Velomachus, Air Raid Bomber *Primer*

Commander / EDH Casual Competitive Double strike Flying Land Destruction Primer RW (Boros) Voltron

Wolffang988

Sorcery (21)

• 1x Angelfire Ignition
• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Cataclysm
• 1x Deafening Clarion
• 1x Divine Reckoning
• 1x Fiery Confluence
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Past in Flames
• 1x Promise of Loyalty
• 1x Reconstruct History
• 1x Reduce to Memory
• 1x Rip Apart
• 1x Seize the Day
• 1x Single Combat
• 1x Thrilling Discovery
• 1x Tragic Arrogance
• 1x Urza's Ruinous Blast
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x World at War

Artifact (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Basalt Monolith
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Moonsilver Key
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sunforger
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Instant (20)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Bolt Bend
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Cathartic Pyre
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Critical Hit
• 1x Dragon's Fire
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Kaya's Onslaught
• 1x Lightning Helix
• 1x Lorehold Command
• 1x Onward / Victory
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Unbreakable Formation
• 1x Unexpected Windfall
• 1x Unleash Fury
• 1x Valorous Stance

Creature (11)

• 1x Balefire Liege
• 1x Bastion Protector
• 1x Blade Historian
• 1x Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
• 1x Feather, the Redeemed
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Loyal Warhound
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 1x Neheb, the Eternal
• 1x Osgir, the Reconstructor
• 1x Treasure Nabber

Commander (1)

Land (34)

• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Boros Garrison
• 1x Command Beacon
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Furycalm Snarl
• 1x Hall of Oracles
• 1x Haven of the Spirit Dragon
• 11x Mountain
• 11x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Spectator Seating
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1x Temple of the False God

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Monologue Tax

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Maybeboard

Creature (2)

• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Treasure Nabber

Artifact (2)

• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Monologue Tax

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Updates

10/31/21 Happy Halloween! Primer Up Show

Typed the primer and put it on here! Descriptions for the general strategy of the deck and helpful information

The Art of War (Intro)

Balanced between competitive and casual, Velomachus Lorehold is the second of my Strixhaven elder dragon decks! This deck is a strong contender on the field, with a playstyle focused on hitting your opponents hard and wiping the board consistently to keep the battlefield in your favor! You’ll have a variety of options available to you on many of your attacks with Velomachus, ranging from spells that buff Velomachus for extra damage to spells that destroy the majority of creatures on the battlefield!

Why would you enjoy playing Velomachus Loredhold?

-You like decks that tend to run fast with an explosive playstyle

-You enjoy more aggressive commanders, but also like casting impactful spells!

-Your commander is an elder dragon, perfect for Elder Dragon Highlander! (EDH)

Close Air Support Overhead! (Main Tactics)

The battle has begun! Your bomber has lifted off from the runway, the speakers in your aircraft are playing “Ride of the Valkyries” and it’s time to make your moves. This panel covers your main plays and strategy, everything from getting Velomachus on field as quickly as possible to protecting him once he’s there!

Engage Afterburner (Ramp) Show

So it’s time to confront the elephant in the room. Velomachus Lorehold costs 7 mana to cast and there’s not a speck of green mana in that color identity to run ramp spells. So how do we get Velomachus on field quickly in Boros? Artifact ramp! The deck runs several artifacts that can ramp you into a very early Velomachus cast, so you can start swinging as soon as possible to get those explosive attack triggers. Some highlights are:

Jeweled Lotus

Mana Vault Basalt Monolith

Moonsilver Key

And of course, Sol Ring!

Jeweled Lotus and Mana Vault are pivotal in getting Velomachus out super early, if you have them in your starting hand you should definitely strongly consider keeping it. Moonsilver Key is a fantastic card from the new Innistrad: Midnight Hunt that lets you search for any basic land or mana-producing artifact, and that includes all of the artifacts mentioned above! You can use Moonsilver Key to tutor Mana Vault, Jeweled Lotus, Basalt Monolith or Sol Ring to fill in the missing piece to bring you in range of casting Velomachus. The deck consistently manages to cast Velomachus early in the game, and if you manage to get a starting hand with a color producing land, Jeweled Lotus and Mana Vault, you can even cast Velomachus turn 2! Merely play your land turn 1, tap it to play Mana Vault, and turn 2 play Jeweled Lotus for free and sacrifice it for whichever color you’re missing! The reason I suggest not casting your zero drop Jeweled Lotus until turn 2 is both for the element of surprise, and to also prevent it from being targeted by a turn 1 Vandalblast or other fast artifact removal. The longer your artifacts sit on the field the more likely it is that someone may destroy them (especially if they see it’s crucial to casting your commander) so you’ll want to hold on to them until it’s time to cast Velomachus to avoid any unnecessary losses!

Heavy Ordinance (Boardwipes/Removal) Show

This is where the game can get a little bananas, as we really take advantage of Velomachus Lorehold’s ability. There are quite a few boardwipes and destruction spells that are 5 CMC or less, letting you cast them for free off Velomachus’ trigger without boosting his power! In this deck we focus on boardwipes that allow you to keep Velomachus alive and on field, so that you can continue swinging him into the increasingly more devastated warzone!

Single Combat, Divine Reckoning, Urza's Ruinous Blast, Tragic Arrogance and Promise of Loyalty all wipe the field of the majority of creatures while completely avoiding Velomachus, with various bonuses such as Urza's Ruinous Blast also hitting other nonland permanents or Promise of Loyalty rendering the remaining creatures unable to attack you!

The deck also features some “soft” boardwipes, such as Anger of the Gods, Deafening Clarion, and Fiery Confluence. These cards can be cast off Velomachus Lorehold’s attack trigger to deal damage to each creature, as a way of killing off weaker creatures such as token swarms or living mana rocks like Birds of Paradise. The damage produced by each of these also does not kill Velomachus, allowing you to safely wipe out waves of low toughness creatures or damage a big creature enough to dissuade them from blocking or trading with Velomachus!

The final slot for the widespread destruction category in this deck are the two land destruction spells, Cataclysm and Armageddon. These two spells share the role of potentially putting your opponents at an extreme disadvantage with the sudden loss of lands, leaving them stuck in a cage match with Velomachus swinging every turn and few ways to respond. This is a play that won’t earn you any favors, but its a way to wrap up the game and put yourself firmly in a winning position.

Single target removal in the deck is pretty self-explanatory, all the single target spells are well under 5 CMC so that they can be free cast by Velomachus’ trigger and they range from the white staples Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares to more recent cards like Rip Apart, Abrade and Reduce to Memory!

Deploy Flares! (Protection) Show

The second focus of this deck is to protect Velomachus once he’s on field. Afterall, he cost’s 7 mana to start with, and that only gets higher if he dies! To keep him safe, we’re packing a good number of spells and creatures to protect him while he’s on field so he can do his bombing runs safely:

Giver of Runes, Mother of Runes and Eight-and-a-Half-Tails all function similarly, providing a way to protect Velomachus from incoming spells by giving him protection from the color of that spell (or in Eight-and-a-Half-Tails case, forcibly making a spell white and giving Velomachus protection from white).

Teferi's Protection is a white protective staple, letting you pull your entire board out of harm’s way and also protecting yourself from a wide range of dangers!

Akroma's Will and Flawless Maneuver both grant indestructible to all creatures you control, allowing you to save Velomachus from a “Destroy all creatures” or single target destroy spell, and Akroma's Will is also not a terrible choice to cast off of Velomachus’ attack trigger as it will grant him double strike and lifelink, increasing the commander damage you are dishing out and giving you some free life!

Bastion Protector also occupies the indestructible protection category, granting Velomachus +2/+2 and indestructible as long as it is on field.

Unorthodox Battle Tactics (Interesting Interactions) Show

Osgir, the Reconstructor can be used to exile Jeweled Lotus or any of your other high value artifacts from your graveyard to make 2 copies of them, allowing for an easy recast of Velomachus later in the game if he gets hit by removal.

Feather, the Redeemed pairs well with Velomachus as any buff spells you cast from Velomachus’ attack trigger such as Kaya's Onslaught or Unleash Fury will be returned to your hand and available for more casts!

Sunforger functions as an emergency safety button, allowing you to pay a red and a white to go search for and cast a red or white instant with 4 CMC or less without paying its mana cost. This can be used to search for and cast Teferi's Protection, Flawless Maneuver or Unbreakable Formation to quickly save yourself from a boardwipe, or even to grab and cast a removal spell like Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile!

Debriefing (Conclusion and the Other Strixhaven Decks)

As I mentioned in the intro, Velomachus Lorehold is the second Strixhaven elder dragon I built a deck for, with the first being Galazeth Prismari and the third being Shadrix Silverquill! If you liked this deck I hope you will also check out and enjoy my other two Strixhaven decks listed below, and as always please feel free to leave a like and/or comment if you enjoyed this deck!

Galazeth, Magitech Beam Cannon *Primer*: A fun deck focused on playing to Galazeth Prismari’s ability to tap artifacts for mana to cast huge X spells and deal massive amounts of damage! Features a full description with combos and synergies, breaking down the playstyle and goals of the deck!

Shadrix, Ambassador of Ultimatums *Primer*: A deck themed around politics, lifegain, and building an army! Shadrix Silverquill leads this deck filled with fun synergy, life manipulation and strong combos. This is the most recent of my Strixhaven decks, and as usual I’m constantly testing and improving it! Full primer!

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 0 Rares 26 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.06
Tokens	Copy Clone, Foretell, Spirit 3/2 RW, Treasure
Folders	Strixhaven Series, decks I like hehe, DecksToPlay, Velos, TableTopTrys, Other People's deck, EDH, tabletop