A while Back... my friend came to me a little frustrated with his Equipment deck. He said, outside of the most casual of play environments... that equipment decks don't seem to function in an enjoyable way but he has desired to make a "Weapons & Warriors" build that could sit down at nearly any table with a reasonable chance at winning. We got to work and later brought the version we formed to several local stores to test against a blind population. It went undefeated, while being piloted by either of us, for 11 games in a row with 4 man pods across 3 stores. It finally found it's first loss to a pod we both sat in & one of us took out the other.
This is not that deck, but! He had it on his tapped out & it has since become dated with some of the new released cards. I mentioned it because I eventualy purchased it off him and he recently told me I should flip it into Boros colors. He told me he was brewing with in in red/white and it was a monster so he wanted to see what my Boros version of the deck might turn out to be. This is that Deck.
The aspect that allowed us to play it so successfully in several pods... was two fold.
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It so happened that we never randomly ran into cEDH pods. We didn't try to avoid any games because the stores where either packed or empty so we took every opportunity to test we got the chance too & only played against some of the same player (different decks) on two occasions. None the less... neither this nor the old build can stand up against a cEDH deck that threatens a win consistently on Turn 3 or less or is capable of stopping such decks. That said, this version is capable of & I've played a hand that killed a table of 3 opponents on Turn 4. From a consistency stand point, you can expect to threaten a win on Turn 5 at best if no one stops you & you play as aggressively as the deck allows... and that may not be the best bet. Hopefully that gives you an idea for if this deck will fit in with your current playgroup or not.
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The original deck successfully ran under the radar in every pod... basically no one felt threatened by our little creatures and would under estimate the decks ability to bounce back after board wipes & other removal. There are a lot of equipment tutors so even if someone in the pod removes an early equipment they felt threatened by, we can tutor up another much more suited for the game state at the moment we need one. Outside of our commander, the creatures are not very threatening and relatively cheep to cast... so most the time people didn't want to waist removal on them because there was almost always a juicier target. I always held critters in my hand in case of a board wipe, so I could almost always recover from them faster then anyone else. 1 or 2 mana to cast my guy and remaining mana to equip him with the left over equipment or something new I wanted in play. This aspect make the deck both un-assuming in the early turns when I played my 1/1 for 1 or 2 mana and very resilient in later turns.
The aim with this conversion is to maintain the un-assuming and resilient nature of the original build But! Boros can increase the consistency of getting double strike on board, providing crazy value with those combat damage triggers from swords & defensive ability either as a spoke or unspoken threat. What really changed my mind was the ability of Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar to allow us to effectively tag all opponents at once if the match-ups don't look like the sort I want to lay low with. Now we can race a win if that seems like the better option or possibly make our opponent hold removal they would have otherwise used because they are scared of us casting our little red friend.
I think in the end, you can get a gist of what is happening here to make the equipment deck effective in pods and still apply it to your favorite colors. Saturate the deck with low mana creatures that folks won't want to waist removal on & ensures you can get them in your initial 2 or 3 turns. Turn 4 and on you want to be equipping them... by then someone else has likely become the threat. You just need to play politics and wait for your opportunity to steal the victory with some well placed combat steps. Don't strike every opportunity and save cheep creature in your hand to replace the ones that get actively killed or end as collateral damage to a board wipe. In the later turns your field will have equipment hanging out and your tutors will become very meaningful as they get you the exact answer you need for evasion or removal. As for this build... you play it exactly like that except that you know you can use Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar to turn up the heat really fast if you are playing against a bunch of players who will win out of no where but leave themselves pretty open in the early game.
I have included many suitable substitutes in the maybe board that you & I may want to swap into the deck depending on who our normal playgroup is. These are cards that will either slowly attrition your choice opponent(s) or lock them out entirely if timed right. Not really suitable for all meta's however so my main build is the most universal. To give you an idea how I might swap around card choices for this particular deck.
If I'm going to stick with an all out sprint based around my commanders... I would swap out many of the creatures with double strike for appropriate hatebears (keep in mind, there are many hatebears I didn't include in the maybeboard but are def considerations in the right pods), other creatures offering redundancy for reduction or equip costs and protection for my commanders. I would also swap out the pro red/white swords for utility equipment like Argentum Armor so that I can answer more issues or Sunforger for answers that suit def or offence.
If I'm relying on the commanders as a back-up or suitable pivot plan... I might swap out many of the double strike spells because they are deadwait if I plan to play it safe and lay low with my double strike creatures. What I would swap into the build is a few winies who replace themselves on death with a token so I can avoid summoning sickness setbacks & def/off based responses that fit well with Sunforger & Isochron Scepter. If I didn't go the spell rout then I would definitely add in some of the other awesome double strike 3 mana dudes you might have noticed missing from this list. Mirran Crusader... as well as some of the equipment cost reduction redundancy.
Leaving the list as it is will function well in many play environments but you will primarily be using the double strike creatures to threaten both offence and def with the swords acting as both evasion and enabling unwavering blockers. There effects triggering twice make for crazy explosive nature when you decide to attack. The commanders offer the fastest way to down a table of opponents & your double strike spells are for use with them in much the same way... they can be explosive damage that your spread to the other opponents when you hit twice with your commanders equipped or saved for a tricky combat trick someone didn't expect as they swing into your soldiers. The build as listed is to give the pilot the flexibility to decide if he should play a subtle game or aim to take the table down asap. Using the sideboard for some of the swaps I suggested above or similar tweaks will offer varied experience that might suit your playstyle or meta more appropriately.
