Card/Deck Boros spells aggro

Not sure where to post this, if someone has better ideas, I can copy/paste and delete this topic.

I wanted to share a deck/strategy that I have been working on: Boros spells aggro.
Granted, this doesn't sound particularly groundbreaking, but let me elaborate.

Context:
Due to the nature of my cube (multiplayer), 1 drop aggro decks aren't really a thing. That means that curves usually starts on 2 and try to grind out the game after chipping some damage in. From my understanding, this is the case for a bunch of people here.

The strategy:
This is where it gets fun. This is an aggressive, graveyard focused, spells matter/prowess deck that can branch into different themes. The payoffs aren't particularly original, but it is the density and choice of enablers that really make the deck pop.

The payoffs are some of the classic spells matter cards with the addition of Clarion Spirit. They reward you for casting spells and many of them. They also all produce tokens which gives the archetype an additional direction. Except for Young Pyromancer, they work with any type of permanent which is important for the archetype to be as broad as possible.





After that, there are the recursion engines that make sure you have some staying power. I tried to chose the ones with the broadest applications possible.



Reclamation literally gets back all your payoffs and is 2 spells in one. Easily the most versatile. After that, Alesha gets back all but the planeswalker and has hybrid mana to fit into more decks. Lurrus only gets back a few targets, but the fact that he can get some enablers back at the same time is very valuable (and hybrid mana). Finally, Chandra gets back key spells and plays into the token theme. Very good with Reclamation if you flash that back.

There are more depending on what archetypes you want to support (I'll elaborate on that later).

Enablers need to be cheap so as to chain them together or double spell (with Clarion Spirit). Seeing as this is a GY strategy too, having flashback or aftermath greatly increases value. Drawing a card also allows you to keep the engine going. Finally, these should be playable in generic White and Red decks too.

There are instants/sorceries for Young Pyromancer, that also all have flashback or aftermath. The ones I listed are in RW (I cheated on some flashback costs) but other colors also have some goodies.



I also included a bunch of artifact cantrips because most of the payoffs don't care what you are casting. I am comfortable having so many because they offer draw smoothing and/or fixing to all decks by virtue of being colorless. There are others too, so you can tailor this to your tastes or how much you want to support the archetype.



To further support the theme in RW, there are a bunch of prowess creatures that would naturally fit the deck. They don't make tokens, but benefit from everything else you will be doing. Soul-scar Mage, Monastery Swiftspear, Abbot of Keral Keep, Heartfire Immolator, Seeker of the Way.


Here is a pretty good version from my own cube.









Where this gets exciting is the customization and cross-pollinisation possibilities.

Imagine having the above enablers, payoffs and recursion from White. Now add both Teshar, Ancestor's Apostle and Emry, Lurker of the Loch. All of a sudden you have a GY based artifact deck in UW. You can even hint towards that with some support in blue: Aether Spellbomb, Witching Well or Thirst for Knowledge.







Here is a made up GW deck that could use the recursive elements and spells payoffs of White and make it unique with green's +1/+1 counters. Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants and Travel Preparations bridge both decks as does the innocuous looking Implement of Ferocity.








Now with RG, you can go with a control deck using Young Pyro and Saheeli as a road block and Chandra doubles your ramp.









Because of the hybrid mana costs in Lurrus and Alesha, as well as the flashback/aftermath costs of some cards, a BW or BR deck pops up quite naturally. Cheap reanimation cards like Unearth are amazing because you can double spell and they get back permanents with CMC 3 or less. I would not play Claim // Fame because it doesn't get back Mentor, Lurrus or Alesha. Revival // Revenge is much better as it is hybrid and has a late game mode. Finally, Sorin, Vengeful Bloodlord and Agadeem's Awakening are stand outs for this deck as well.

BW tokens








I'd like to know if other people have had success with this sort of strategy and/or if there are other cross-pollinisation ideas you have.
 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Yeah, Boros Spells Aggro is actually an archetype I support as well, and it's great fun! The archetype has some cogs in my cube that you haven't mentioned yet.

Heroic
While the actual heroic keyword is completely absent in my cube, I do run these four:



Hero of the Games is undoubtedly the weakest of these four, and I wish there was a better alternative. It has been occasionally a good cog though. The other three are great in a cube where combat tricks are playable!

Adventure
This Throne of Eldraine mechanic is fantastic in this archetype. There are a number of aggressively statted creatures that fight right in and a number of them work really well together with the Heroic mechanic as well!



Combat Tricks
I've found a number of "combat" tricks that work really nicely in this shell.



Spells that are Creatures
I actually run a few customs in this section, and you've already named some that I also run or ran in the past, but there's a few more that I like.

 

Onderzeeboot

Ecstatic Orb
Oh, I'm forgetting one very special guest star in this archetype!



This card is amazeballs! Spectacular with combat tricks and/or equipment that pump its power but also just great in any spells build that runs a lot of cheap spells. Great in high power cubes drunk on cantrips and sweet in lower power cubes that run the Boros Spells package.
 
You are totally right that there are different flavors to this spells aggro deck.

I intentionally didn't mention the heroic stuff as the payoffs and certain enablers are quite different. The enablers needing to target your own creatures means less cross-pollinisation potential (this might be my lack of understanding of the heroic theme talking). The decks I outlined used a lot of cheap colorless cantrips and these can be the foundation of a ton of archetypes and would probably need to be a pillar of the cube in question come to think of it.

Just brainstorming right now, but if you use the 10ish 0-1 CMC colorless baubles, every color in your cube has access to draw smoothing. As most of these are artifacts would this skew the cube to being an artifact cube or is there a way around that?
 
Lowering the powerlevel really opens up some more possibilities for this archetype. Heroic becomes viable, and I also like some tappers that function as heroic enablers as well as tapping down blockers for aggressive decks. The already mentioned Nightbird's Clutches, Niveous Wisps and Ardenvale Tactician are great examples, I also like Choking Tethers, Repel the Darkness and Feeling of Dread.

Heroic guys that are quite good with enough support are Vanguard of Brimaz, Phalanx Leader, Arena Athlete, Hero of the Pride, Akroan Crusader, Dawnbringer Charioteers, Favored Hoplite, Fabled Hero, Labyrinth Champion, Tethmos High Priest, Triton Fortune Hunter and Wavecrash Triton.

It obv bleeds into blue, since Jeskai are the colours for spells matter.
 
I actually recently switched Feather, the Redeemed for

Which I've been testing, since I didn't have enough combat tricks for Feather, so she was mostly just a very good statted flyer.
Heroic also works with mutate, although I run a slight tweak, and made mutate non-planeswalker creature rather than non-human (cuz I didn't want that headache) and I wanted all of my heroic creatures to work with it.
 
I see the appeal of Heroic as an archetype, especially with removal being kept in check to allow them to shine. What I don't see is the cross appeal to different archetypes. It's just that the enablers are narrow since they need to target creatures. Compare with Baubles that just work everywhere.
Berserkers could work with the combat tricks as an other archetype but in my mind that is a similar strategy often in the same colors. How do you folks make Heroic combat tricks more than just a RW thing that other decks want.
 
In my case, it's pure theorycraft:
UW got the tap spells, which help ninjas and other saboteurs connect. it's also kind of a lifegain spell for control decks (UWBR) that want to get to the turn where they can play the big sweeper. Since I lowered the powerlevel, there's also less bounce since a lot of bounce is actually very strong, more so with lower powered removal, and I replace bounce with 2-turn-tappers like Grip of the Roil, Ojutai's Breath etc

Might actually be that it doesn't work out, but I think it'll do (limited experience). If it doesn't, there actually aren't that many cards to replace, since I don't overload on those effects (another advantage of a lower powerlevel with a smaller powerband: you don't have to look for great redundancy since there are a lot more different kinds of effects viable in such an environment).
 
I'm not sure if I made my point clear. There are plenty of spells that other decks can use, not debating that. The combat tricks to trigger heroic? Much less so. The adventures are probably your best bet overall as they can also be played as creatures.
Which was one goal when posting this thread: making a "spells" theme in Boros that can branch out into multiple different decks depending on what support cards you chose in other colors. The nature of the payoffs (trigger off almost all non-creature spells) and the enablers (colorless cantrips) means that there are less dead cards compared to combat tricks (unless combat tricks are playable at your power level and really shine in Heroic). I'll grant you that I didn't think of using tappers to target your Heroic creatures, that's pretty sweet.

Mutate is an interesting direction, but as you mentioned, the non-human is a real bummer. Maybe combat tricks that can draw a card are where you want to be, since that could branch into a "draw 2" deck in Izzet.
 
clarion spirit!!!!!
and i personally love the grand master.
also, as enablers for prowess/double spell, consider:
Professor of Symbology
Priest of Ancient Lore
Sentinels Eyes
Stoneforge Mystic
Cage of Hands
Ambitious Farmhand
Bygone Bishop
Mentor of the Meek

repeatable prowess triggers or built in CA to help you keep double spelling
 
I've found white to be an akward color to support spells matter. It's removal suite is motly enchantments, especially when Swords and Path are too good for a given environment. And while some of the payoffs work with noncreature spells and not instant and sorceries, it would also force you to make your blue and red payoffs work with noncreatures - but those tend to be more often interested in istants and sorceries. And if you don't do this, then only half the payoffs in your {W}{U} deck work with your O-Ring effects. And the hite payoff cards would become virtual jeskai tribrids.
 
I'm finding green to be my preferred spell-deck third color of choice, especially without the spells-tokens archetype in my format.
 
I definitely agree with this base



I've also had good success with Syndic of Tithes. Obviously much more powerful in my environment with 3 opponents, but if your spells deck is aggressive, then the damage can add up and give White decks some reach your opponent may not have suspected.

It's removal suite is motly enchantments, especially when Swords and Path are too good for a given environment.

I am going to disagree with that. If you want, I believe White can play more instant/sorcery based options just fine (these are just a few)

 
I've found white to be an akward color to support spells matter. It's removal suite is motly enchantments, especially when Swords and Path are too good for a given environment.
My white removal suite at the moment is mostly not enchantments (6 instants/sorceries, 3 artifacts/enchantments), but it does make things awkward in any cube that supports enchantments as an archetype.

 
Okay, I admit it's possible, but there are more enchantments that can remove any kind of nonland permanent, most instants/sorceries either can't or require something more specific (sacrifice a permanent, have multiple colors of mana available)
 
Are people still on this deck? Currently, spells matter is a Ux theme in my cube, mostly appearing in control shells. But I thought this could maybe be the way to finally give people a reason to draft boros. We also have some potential payoffs not mentioned here yet.



of course, red has all it's Monastery Swiftspears and whatnot.
 
Hearth Elemental is incredible. Reminded me to also check if I couldn't add more adventures for this deck. man, this would be the biggest change I've done to my cube for at least a year. Currently I am eyeing all those cards for an additions:



I already run a bunch of cheap spells, adventure creatures and Levitating Statue.

One card I do run that should be great here is



love that card in general.
 
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