This is an aggressive deck based around Dragons and Knights, with an Equipment subtheme that seeks to exploit the fact that the cheaper of your generals, Sylvia, has double strike.
The general strategy is to beat down in the air with Dragons (all of whom will often have double strike) and exploit Knights for value, tempo, and as Equipment wearers. Late game, Khorvath can come in and pop all of your Knights into the air, opening up opportunities to execute massive, evasive alpha strikes. There isn't much subterfuge or trickery to this list -- it's best suited to players who want to swing in hard every turn and drop big bombs.
Boros colors struggle with both mana acceleration and maintaining card advantage in Commander, but card selections have been made to somewhat mitigate these disadvantages.
Let's go through the cards.
-
Knight of the White Orchid
: Ramps you when you're behind, and can fetch nonbasic Plains if needed. First strike means it wears gear fairly well.
-
Puresteel Paladin
: Provides a bit of card advantage when you play Equipment cards, while removing their equip costs if you can get Metalcraft.
-
Danitha Capashen, Paragon
: Powerful beater that reduces the mana costs of your Equipment spells. Wears gear very well.
-
Knight Exemplar
: Pumps and protects your other Knights. First strike means it wears Equipment well.
-
Mirran Crusader
: Built-in protection and double strike make this Knight one of the best users of your Equipment cards.
-
Balan, Wandering Knight
: Instant über threat if you control enough Equipment.
-
Bloodsworn Steward
: Pumps your generals and gives Sylvia haste (Khorvath already has it). Its solid body, coupled with built-in evasion, makes it an excellent wearer of Equipment.
-
Hero of Bladehold
: Powerful Knight that becomes better the wider your board gets. Battle cry will trigger again if you get a second combat phase with
Scourge of the Throne
.
-
Adriana, Captain of the Guard
: Things will get out of hand fast if you've gone wide with her on board.
-
Thalia's Lancers
: This Knight can tutor up a surprisingly wide array of cards in this list, giving it a distinctive toolbox feel:
Danitha Capashen, Paragon
,
Balan, Wandering Knight
,
Adriana, Captain of the Guard
,
Lathliss, Dragon Queen
,
Yosei, the Morning Star
,
Blackblade Reforged
,
Sword of the Animist
,
Umezawa's Jitte
,
Hammer of Nazahn
,
The Immortal Sun
,
Karn, Scion of Urza
,
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
, and
Flagstones of Trokair
. First strike and a big body make it a decent Equipment user, too.
-
Thunderbreak Regent
: Solid body with evasion for a cheap cost, punishes opponents for targeting your Dragons.
-
Scalelord Reckoner
: Similar to some of the other Dragons we've gone over, this one also punishes opponents attempting to use targeted removal against your Dragons.
-
Scourge of Valkas
: This Dragon's
Firebreathing
ability gets even better if Sylvia is in play. It also grants a small bonus when you have it or other Dragons enter the battlefield (and it gets stronger each time it triggers). You can use this ability to exert some control on the board, or simply to deal some extra damage to your opponents.
-
Stormbreath Dragon
: Built-in protection and powerful keywords make this a very strong Dragon. It can act as a mana sink later in the game to punish players who have lots of cards in their hands, perhaps due to effects like
Reliquary Tower
.
-
Sunscorch Regent
: This Dragon can get out of hand quickly if your opponents don't get it off of the board fast.
-
Thundermaw Hellkite
: This is a hasted threat that can clear the way for aerial alpha strikes. This is an excellent card to keep in reserve for when you're getting ready to present lethal damage in the air.
-
Hellkite Tyrant
: Alternate win condition, also very disruptive against opponents in general. Solid offensive body to boot.
-
Lathliss, Dragon Queen
: Lathliss is kind of a toned-down mashup of
Moonveil Dragon
and
Utvara Hellkite
. While she is a decent threat on her own, she is at her best once you resolve a few Dragons.
-
Moonveil Dragon
: Board-wide
Firebreathing
, even stronger when Sylvia gives your Dragons double strike.
-
Scourge of the Throne
: Preys on life gain decks, or whoever's ahead.
-
Steel Hellkite
:
Ratchet Bomb
for your opponents attached to a Dragon. Can be very effective for clearing out a variety of problematic permanents. Also has an overcosted
Firebreathing
-like ability that can be used in a pinch (it's pretty strong with double strike).
-
Yosei, the Morning Star
: If he dies, you can apply a very harsh tempo penalty to one of your opponents.
-
Balefire Dragon
: Sneak this past enemy lines to wipe opponents' boards.
-
Knollspine Dragon
: Cast this Dragon after combat to draw a whole mess of cards, provided you hit an opponent hard enough.
-
Utvara Hellkite
: This is a death sentence for your opponents if you have the proper board state. Extremely good with
Dragon Tempest
and
Scourge of Valkas
.
-
Blackblade Reforged
: Turns legendaries into extremely powerful beaters. If you have have nine or more lands in play, it makes Sylvia lethal.
-
Swiftfoot Boots
: Haste and hexproof for your important threats.
-
Sword of the Animist
: Tutors a basic land directly into play, and thus provides both ramp and card advantage. A critical piece of tech in a Boros Commander deck, since these colors struggle to do either of these things.
-
Umezawa's Jitte
: Powerful and versatile, very high value with double strike. Pump its wearer for extra damage or to survive certain sweepers or combat, spend its counters to remove small creatures or give you an advantage in combat, or simply gain life to stay alive.
-
Sunforger
: Adds power to a creature, but primarily for tutoring any of your instants onto the stack. Combos with
Mistveil Plains
to quickly re-use any such spent spell (except for
Teferi's Protection
, which is exiled as part of its resolution).
-
Sword of Feast and Famine
: The cycle of Swords are all very strong with double strike. After the first strike damage trigger resolves, you can spend the mana on things like instants, activated abilities, or
Firebreathing
effects.
-
Sword of Fire and Ice
: Card draw and spot removal in one neat package. Doesn't really get any better than this. Double strike adds superb value to this card.
-
Sword of Light and Shadow
: Puts dead or discarded creatures back in your hand, gains life.
-
Sword of War and Peace
: Adds an offensive edge to a creature and hits control players especially hard.
-
Hammer of Nazahn
: Protects and pumps its wearer and lets you cheat around equip costs.
-
Mana Crypt
: Premium ramp. We don't particularly mind the life loss clause because it can help us trigger
Scourge of the Throne
's dethrone ability if we'd otherwise be in the lead.
-
Sol Ring
: Ramp.
-
Boros Signet
: Ramp, fixing.
-
Coldsteel Heart
: Ramp, fixing.
-
Boros Keyrune
: Ramp, fixing. Can be animated into a double strike creature in a pinch, good for delivering Equipment value after a board wipe.
-
Urza's Incubator
: Ramps by reducing the mana cost of one creature type. Usually you will choose Dragons since this is both the most numerous and expensive creature type in the deck.
-
Worn Powerstone
: Ramp.
-
Thran Dynamo
: Ramp.
-
Gilded Lotus
: Ramp, fixing.
-
Mind's Eye
: Offers card advantage.
-
Staff of Nin
: Card draw engine, removal for X/1's, and/or additional damage source against opponents or planeswalkers.
-
The Immortal Sun
: Aside from shutting down planeswalkers, this provides several important utilities — primarily card draw and ramp. The board-wide pump is also a nice bonus. Keep in mind that it turns off your planeswalkers, too. If you have
The Immortal Sun
in hand along with
Karn, Scion of Urza
and/or
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
, you’ll have to decide which resource is more important.
-
Path to Exile
: Cheap, powerful removal. You can also target one of your own creatures in a pinch if you need to fetch a basic land.
-
Swords to Plowshares
: Cheap, powerful removal. You can also target one of your own creatures in a pinch if you need to gain some life.
-
Boros Charm
: Direct damage to either a player or a planeswalker, protection from board wipes or messy combats (or simply just save a key permanent from destruction), or double strike in a pinch (especially good when used on one of your Dragons in Sylvia's absence).
-
Oblation
: Versatile removal. You can also target one of your own permanents if you want to draw some cards, or simply to save one of them from incoming removal. The latter use is especially good for your cards that can be tutored for, namely Dragons (if you have access to
Sunforger
and/or
Sarkhan's Triumph
), but also Equipment and legendary cards.
Oblation
is also a good solution to situations in which you’ve got
The Immortal Sun
in play but wish to use one of your planeswalkers.
-
Teferi's Protection
: Supreme tech against board wipes, including the loathsome
Cyclonic Rift
. Also works in a pinch against targeted removal, or for getting out of a potentially costly combat. This card also protects you against certain forms infinite combo and/or disruption from your opponents. It’s generally the best white card in the format for protecting you and your permanents. It is exiled as part of its resolution, so it cannot usually benefit from the
Mistveil Plains
/
Sunforger
combo (unless you discarded or milled it). It can still be tutored up from your library by
Sunforger
, though.
-
Wear / Tear
: Artifact and enchantment removal, a fairly strong value card. Easy to get back with
Sunforger
for persistent control of troublesome permanents.
-
Sarkhan's Triumph
: Instant-speed tutor for a Dragon. Combos with
Sunforger
and
Mistveil Plains
to pull any of your Dragons out of your deck on demand.
-
Arid Mesa
: Fetches Mountain and/or Plains cards. Worth noting that this can also fetch nonbasics with the Mountain or Plains subtype, namely
Sacred Foundry
and
Mistveil Plains
.
-
Battlefield Forge
: Pain dual, can be tapped for colorless to avoid damage. We often don't care about losing life to our lands since this tends to make
Scourge of the Throne
better.
-
Boros Garrison
: Usually these bounce lands aren't so great. With
Land Tax
, however, they are actually pretty strong since they put us behind by a land (thus helping
Land Tax
trigger) without putting us behind on mana production.
-
Cavern of Souls
: We're split between two tribes, but usually we are going to name "Dragons" as our creature type when we play this. Pushing our Dragon bombs through countermagic is usually going to be more important than pushing our utility Knights through them, though there are situations in which it could be better to name "Knights."
-
City of Brass
: Another fixing pain land. Again, we're usually happy to pay some life for mana since it keeps
Scourge of the Throne
's ability relevant.
-
Clifftop Retreat
: Check dual that should usually come in untapped.
-
Command Tower
: Mana fixing staple of the format.
-
Crucible of the Spirit Dragon
: A storage land for Dragon spells and abilities. It's a useful mana sink for when we can't do anything else, since it can allow us to cast big Dragon spells, activate
Firebreathing
abilities, or activate
Stormbreath Dragon
's monstrous ability, and still have mana left over to do other things.
-
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
: Comes in tapped but gives us a powerful triggered ability if we control seven Plains. Reanimating a creature every turn (preferably a big Dragon) will make it difficult for our opponents to keep us under control.
-
Flagstones of Trokair
: This land is legendary, so
Thalia's Lancers
can tutor for it. In addition, it serves as a small insurance policy against mass land destruction effects. If it is destroyed, it can fetch up a Plains card — including a nonbasic one.
-
Haven of the Spirit Dragon
: Fixing for Dragon creature spells, and the second piece of our land-based reanimation package. This can put a Dragon creature, or your copy of
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
, back in your hand.
-
Inspiring Vantage
: Fast dual, simply a tapland if played late.
-
Mana Confluence
: Another fixing pain land.
-
Mistveil Plains
: The final piece of our manabase's reanimation package. It can be fetched with
Arid Mesa
and
Knight of the White Orchid
and counts as a Plains for
Emeria, The Sky Ruin
. This card is especially strong with
Sunforger
, since it can put any of our instant spells back into our deck to be tutored for (and cast for free) when we need them. With
Sarkhan's Triumph
, we can put a Dragon in our hand every turn. Alternatively, this can also be a reliable (if lengthy and expensive) method of returning specific Dragons from our graveyard to our hand.
-
Path of Ancestry
: This is a tapland, but it provides perfect fixing and allows us to scry 1 whenever we cast a Dragon or a Knight.
-
Reliquary Tower
: Removes the hand size limitation, which usually isn't relevant unless we draw a ton of cards from
Knollspine Dragon
. Worth including just for that, though.
-
Rugged Prairie
: Boros filter land. Provides fixing for the many double mana symbols in our creatures' casting costs.
-
Sacred Foundry
: Fetchable dual that we usually don't mind taking damage from.
-
Slayers' Stronghold
: Utility land that can pump up a creature and let it attack the turn it comes down. This is pretty useful for situations late in the game when we might lack a haste source but are trying to deliver the last few points of damage to an opponent. The granting of vigilance also allows us to keep up our own defenses.
-
Spinerock Knoll
: Hideaway tapland that usually grants a tempo advantage. It's pretty easy to deliver 7 points of damage to an opponent with this deck. However, the ability doesn't care who dealt the damage to an opponent, so long as all of the damage dealt to that opponent during the turn totals at least 7. Thus, you can use its ability even when another player hits one of your opponents. Generally, this makes activating this ability fairly trivial.
