Feather leads the Boros Legion and their allies to victory against the invading Dreadhorde!
So this is a Feather deck that seeks to out-draw, out-aggro, and out-value opposing decks by casting a bunch of cheap one-off spells for added value whenever and wherever it can. To do this though your angelic commander, Feather, the Redeemed has to be on the battlefield to lead the charge. So cast her early and do your best to protect her as the rest of the deck relies on her to lead it to glory.
The Army
Feather leads from the front thanks to her wings and natural toughness. She can soar over enemy hordes, with her greatsword or Sunforger and lay a serious beatdown on your foes. Her strategies allow her to recur instants and sorceries that target herself and her army for incremental advantages throughout the game.
Starting with her makeshift recruits, a ragtag army of legionnaires and allies drawn from the local citizenry. From the legion come, the Akroan Crusader, Favored Hoplite, Firebrand Archer, Phalanx Leader and Mileva the Tenth District Legionnaire all of whom benefit in some appreciable way whenever you cast one one of your instants or sorceries. Their civilian allies include: a loyal Capashen Unicorn, a goblin Guttersnipe, and his Kiln Fiend dog, the Monastery Swiftspear (guardian of the local Reliquary Tower), the crazed Thermo-Alchemist inventor of the Electrostatic Field generator, and alleyway catfolk lead by the Tethmos High Priest Old Deuteronomy, and championed by Skimbleshanks the Vanguard of Brimaz.
Under Feather's command this resistance group works well together. The Crusader and the Vanguard both generate additional troops in the form of 1/1 hasty red Soldier tokens and 1/1 vigilant white Cat Soldier tokens. These two along with the Goblinslide (that for one mana, in addition to playing one of your instants or sorceries, generates a 1/1 hasty red Goblin token) provide for a 'go wide' strategy. Meanwhile, the Hoplite, Meliva, the Swiftspear and the Kiln Fiend grow more powerful the more spells you target them with (or simply cast in the case of the Fiend and the Swiftspear) allowing for a 'go big' strategy. Then cast a couple of spells on your Phalanx Leader and watch everyone grow! While that's all happening Feather's other forces rain fire on your foes from afar. The Electrostatic Field, Firebrand Archer, and Guttersnipe rain additional damage down on each of your opponents anytime you cast an instant or a sorcery. In Firebrand Archer's case, it gets even better. Her trigger is any noncreature spell. The Thermo-Alchemist has to tap to deal his damage (again this is to each opponent), but he's crazy so he untaps each time you cast an instant or sorcery to do it again. As 2-drops he and his invention, the Electrostatic Field, both make for a decent blockers in the early game. Also, at the 2-drop spot is the Capashen Unicorn. The heroic sacrifice of our noble woodland friend can be used to remove an annoying artifact or enchantment.
The word '2-drop' is important here. All but three creatures in the deck are 2-drops or less (those being our leader, the Guttersnipe, and the Tethmos High Priest). The priest is our deck's means of saving the important parts of our army from destruction, allowing us to recur some of our important pieces from the graveyard straight to the battlefield. Alas, he cannot recur himself or the Guttersnipe, but usually you only need to cast him once and then immediately target him with an instant or two to get value from him. (I'm lookin' at you Capashen Unicorn!)
The Weapons
Most of the rest of the deck are just spells, spells and more spells. This is a spellslinger deck after all. The instants and sorcery spells in the deck were chosen for efficiency, impact, utility and (most importantly) style. Money might also have something to do with it too, but you fight with what's at hand. Going in mostly-reverse order (because Aurelia's Fury is a tad a complex in this deck, and Titan's Strength is not) we begin the list of our army's weapons below:
- Titan's Strength is a big impact card for cheap that makes most of your creatures bigger than most of your enemy's creatures. It doesn't make them appreciably tougher, but then again once it is in our hand we can cast it again and again on token creatures or on our Phalanx Leader, Favored Hoplite or Tenth District Legionnaire or one of our token generators. Casting it on our Kiln Fiend makes him a real threat! Practically it is situational removal. With Feather on the board, once you've cast it (either in on the attack, or to break one up) your opponent has to be wary of you using it from there on out. Oh! And you get scry too! And all that for a single .
- Shoulder to Shoulder, our only sorcery. As such it seems sort of expensive to cast, but there is real value here under the right circumstances. This spell targets TWO CREATURES! and all of our creatures are pretty awesome when you target them! And let's face it if it was awesome before it's probably even more awesome with some +1/+1 counters on it. Plus, let's not forget you get to draw another card! If that's not value, I don't know what is.
- Shelter. TAKE COVER! INCOMING! One of our protective spells, in the early game Shelter allows you to protect creatures while again possibly beefing them up or making some more tokens and generating damage triggers for your artillery units. Later, it allows you to swing in for the kill by dodging protected against defenders. Plus, you get to draw a card!
- Samut's Sprint! Every aggressive Feather deck should run this. It gives your creature haste a power/toughness buff and allows you to scry 1. Now scry 1 isn't draw a card, but we don't want to be forced to discard too much either. Mill is a thing in Tiny Leader. A little bit of scrying though helps us through the mana droughts, and floods, and keeps us in the battle. And it's just to cast.
- Psychotic Fury is possibly the best card in any Feather deck. Double strike and a card for a CMC of 2. Our army has only one other viable target besides the leader herself, and that's the Tenth District Legionnaire who if you have been targeting her with other spells throughout the game could be bringing some player-ending damage to bear.
- Path to Exile is currently the most expensive card in the deck, but a needed one. Up until this point I've showed you a bunch of spells that synergize with Feather's ability to recur instants and sorceries that target our creatures. This looks to be the first one that looks to specifically target our opponent's creatures. What gives? Here's the deal. we can certainly use this to remove troublesome creatures from the battlefield, but in this deck, it is also very, very advantageous to target our own creatures with it. Send one of your 1/1 tokens down the path to scout the terrain for your army allowing you to find more land on battlefield in front of you. Do this enough, and you will not only have enough mana to cast more of those instants in your hand over and over again (racking up more triggers from your artillery units), but you will also thin your deck out a bit, and avoid drawing too many lands later in game when you don't need them. This is war, (wo)man! There were bound to be some losses. Plus, you can shuffle your library each time, a handy perk if you scryed away something you need back. And again, all that for one .
- Otherworldly Journey is not the best card for deck that relies on counters, but it saves your creature and gives them a parting gift.
- Mortal's Ardor is here because sometimes Magic: the Gathering players just gotta get a life.
- Mighty Leap. After that last joke I assume you might want me to take one of these.
- Heal is here for many of the same reasons as Balduvian Rage (below). In a game where there is a lot of aggressive face smashing though it can save a wounded creature--pushing them just out of kill range, or in a real pinch yourself. Mostly though it is here because for one you can draw a card next turn.
- Guided Strike gives someone in your army a tiny buff and first strike (which can be important against some 'bad touch' decks). What's more important though is that you get to draw a card for relatively cheap every turn that Feather is on the battlefield.
- Feat of Resistance works perfectly to protect something we wanna save (like Feather), buffing it for later, and telling our opponents that they can just suck it.
- Expedite! Oh, the value! On par with Samut's Sprint but with full-on draw a card and for cheap! Plus, once it is in our hand every creature that comes into play on our side can come in swinging! I'm looking at you Kiln Fiend!
- Brute Strength is another combat buff effect like Titan's Strength and Samut's Sprint. This one though let's you draw a card, while the other two only allow you to scry. This card also justifies it's high price tag by granting trample. Either this card or Titan's Strength when paired with Samut's Sprint and Kiln Fiend give you a 12/4 attacker (possibly with trample) for 4-5 mana. Add one of the cheap white protection spells from this list, and well, I think you see where we are going here. You are on the express train headed to Face-Smashburg.
- Battlefield Promotion just a decently-priced card with a number of effects that just become better when you can cast it turn after turn, while simultaneously triggering various creature-based effects.
- Bathe in Light. Look it's a Boros Legionnaire being bathed in angel feathers and light. This should be in this deck for style alone! It is also here because it is the best protective spell we've got. Use this early for defense if you need to, and later for a big swing!
- Balduvian Rage. Is a real all-star. First, it's cheap and can be cast for it's baseline cost with X equaling zero and that is important. Second, it gives you a card on the turn after you use it (like Heal above). This helps us to avoid a forced discard for having too many cards in hand during the clean-up step. Otherwise it can be used to hit for a customizable amount of damage when the time is right.
- Aurelia's Fury is the most expensive card (mana-wise) in the whole deck. Usually you have to spend 4 or more mana to make use this instant, and then you are only damaging an opponent or opponent's creature for 1 point of damage and something on your side of the table for the same (so you can cast it again later, good thing you are packing Heal). Depending on the situation, the decks you are playing against, and the targets you are targeting, this can either be a good control/anti-control card, or an overly-expensive Fireball to the face. It is the card's versatility (and the fact that with Feather you can recast it over and over again) that allow it to make the cut as a sort of secret weapon for Feather should she feel the need to use it.
The Tactics
So how do we win? Unlike many Boros Legions which rely on a single approach (often the 'go wide' strategy), our Makeshift Battalion is made up of as many imaginative nonconformists as it is military professionals. It is this blending of thought and expertise that will lead us to victory! As pointed out we are a lot more nimble of foot and mind than the typical Boros unit. Instead of just one, we have three paths to victory! As explained above, we can 'go wide', 'go big', or 'fight at range'. Each of these strategies in turn supports the other two paths allowing us to avoid over commitment and to shift our tactics based upon our enemies' actions. We can, for instance, start out by going wide, and then (suddenly!) go big, all the while pounding our enemies from afar with our long-range artillery. Eventually they will will either have to attack into our lines (dangerous considering the combat tricks we have at our disposal), or allow us to wear them down at long-range. Once we have the right tools in hand and in play we can force the issue with an overwhelming attack of our own.
It is important to get Feather on to the field as quickly as possible. This usually means somewhere around turn 3-5. You want the mana down to cast her on round three, but you might hold up casting her until you can offer her some protection from enemy counterspells and creature destruction for a turn or two depending on the decks you are facing off against. Still in general sooner is better. If you can, try to have in your opening hand. If you find yourself mana-screwed use some of your scry and card draw spells to pick through your library until you get some mana on board. It might mean sending some good cards to the graveyard--including Path to Exile if it comes to it--but you need those three lands by turn 3, and there is some redundancy built into the spells available. If you have to, use some of the spells on your opponents creatures when they are attacking or blocking something you both want to be rid of. This might reap you some gratitude points in the political sphere of the game. After you have Feather on the field and 5+ mana start casting your instants and sorceries like there's no tomorrow. Try to stay on the offensive as much as possible. So long as Feather is on the battlefield you can recur your spells at the beginning of the end step following whenever it was you cast them. That is each player's turn. A third of the deck is made of instants so you should try to leave yourself a little mana open to react to your opponents' shenanigans, maybe just enough to unattached your Sunforger if it is in play. Remember, your opponents will know the spells you have in your hand after you've used them first time. They will try to make plans to disrupt your operations. Exercise information control (especially against blue decks). Only feed them information when you must, try to stay unpredictable and explosive. This is a war after all.
The sideboard for this deck is a work in progress, and reflects, my own pet cards, the local (artifact-heavy) meta, and so on. The maybe list is more of a list of things, I either don't own enough of (or even one of) to find one and put into this deck, or just don't think it makes the cut for one reason or another for instance I would consider adding Monastery Mentor, but it is kinda pricey ($$$) and doesn't mesh well with Tethmos High Priest. Young Pyromancer is good but its tokens are vanilla 1/1 red elementals (without haste or vigilance) and Goblinslide while more expensive to play is harder to get rid of. Although the pyromancer's elementals replace themselves via his trigger if you you sacrifice them to Path to Exile for ramp, so maybe it does slot in. I love Grapeshot, but I already have a lot of recursive pinging effects that I don't have to pay more for each time I want to use them. And so on.
