With the shake up that is Alchemy cards, Historic has been a very interesting place. While we have seen a good number of cards make headway in the format, players are looking to some old top decks to take advantage of the metagame. We’re seeing Selesnya Humans, Life Gain Combo, Control, even Sacrifice still show up to play on the ladder. One deck that has floated around the fringes is looking to be very well positioned in the meta right now.
Boros Tokens
Boros Tokens, a deck that may seem too linear on paper is honestly quite a strong strategy right now.
This is comes to us from one of my friends, JohnRamosMTG. He’s been piloting the deck on the ladder and reached top 500 Mythic with the deck in December. The deck aims to take advantage of a meta full of control and aggro decks. Let’s break down the deck a bit and talk about why this deck is doing so well.
How We Win
One of our Game 1 win conditions is Transmogrify into
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Vigilance
Other creatures you control get +2/+2.
Creatures your opponents control get -2/-2.
. Often times, an Elesh Norn is enough to win a game by itself, but having one on turn 4 is backbreaking for a lot of decks. Nearly all of the aggro decks in the format right now are all comprised of small creatures, so Elesh Norn can keep the board clean.
Our other methods for winning the game is through flooding the board with tokens.
Legion’s Landing
Legion’s Landing
When Legion's Landing enters, create a 1/1 white Vampire creature token with lifelink.
When you attack with three or more creatures, transform Legion's Landing.
is our earliest form of token generation, and one that’s consistent. It also puts us up a land a which can allow us to play a bunch of spells in a turn.
Next up, our instant speed token generation comes in the form of
Raise the Alarm
Raise the Alarm
Create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens.
and
You See a Pair of Goblins
You See a Pair of Goblins
Choose one —
• Charge Them — Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn.
• Befriend Them — Create two 1/1 red Goblin creature tokens.
. We’re usually not playing these proactively on our turn, we’re playing these spells at the end of our opponent’s turn. They can also be combat tricks where necessary.
Forbidden Friendship
Forbidden Friendship
Create a 1/1 red Dinosaur creature token with haste and a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.
and
Heroic Reinforcements
Heroic Reinforcements
Create two 1/1 white Soldier creature tokens. Until end of turn, creatures you control get +1/+1 and gain haste. (They can attack and {T} this turn.)
are sorcery speed spells but are helpful for building our board proactively and pushing damage.
Wedding Announcement
Wedding Announcement
At the beginning of your end step, put an invitation counter on this enchantment. If you attacked with two or more creatures this turn, draw a card. Otherwise, create a 1/1 white Human creature token. Then if this enchantment has three or more invitation counters on it, transform it.
has been an over performer in this deck. Giving us a free token each turn, or cards if we are attacking just helps this deck so much. On the back, it’s an anthem which does help.
Support Cards
We have a few supporting cards here. First off
Portable Hole
Portable Hole
When this artifact enters, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls with mana value 2 or less until this artifact leaves the battlefield.
is carrying a lot of weight here. One of the cards that we struggle with is
Esper Sentinel
Esper Sentinel
Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, draw a card unless that player pays {X}, where X is this creature's power.
. Since we don’t have a clean way to kill it otherwise, it’d gain a ton of cards for our opponents, so it’s a must go. This can also do well against some key cards such as lords,
Soul Warden
Soul Warden
Whenever another creature enters, you gain 1 life.
,
Ravenous Squirrel
Ravenous Squirrel
Whenever you sacrifice an artifact or creature, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.
{1}{B}{G}, Sacrifice an artifact or creature: You gain 1 life and draw a card.
and more.
Intangible Virtue
Intangible Virtue
Creature tokens you control get +1/+1 and have vigilance.
is fantastic for our deck since we make so many tokens. Beefing up the team and allowing them to attack and block is great.
Chandra
Chandra
(Theme color: {R})
doesn’t really play any specific role in the deck, but she can do a lot. She’s often times removing a threat with her -3, but she can give us cards or mana where needed.
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Sideboard
Our sideboard is tailored to beat a few decks.
Against Control:
- – 3 Portable Hole
- – 4 Transmogrify
- – 2 Elesh Norn
- + 4
Paladin Class
Paladin Class
(Gain the next level as a sorcery to add its ability.)
Spells your opponents cast during your turn cost {1} more to cast.
{2}{W}: Level 2
Creatures you control get +1/+1.
{4}{W}: Level 3
Whenever you attack, until end of turn, target attacking creature gets +1/+1 for each other attacking creature and gains double strike. - + 3
Adanto Vanguard
Adanto Vanguard
As long as this creature is attacking, it gets +2/+0.
Pay 4 life: This creature gains indestructible until end of turn. (Damage and effects that say "destroy" don't destroy it.) - + 2
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
Vigilance
Adeline's power is equal to the number of creatures you control.
Whenever you attack, for each opponent, create a 1/1 white Human creature token that's tapped and attacking that player or a planeswalker they control.
—
Against Aggro / Midrange
- – 2 Heroic Reinforcements
- +2
Justice Strike
Justice Strike
Target creature deals damage to itself equal to its power.
—
Against Graveyard Decks
- – 2 Chandra
- – 1 Wedding Announcement
- – 2 Heroic Reinforcements
- – 1 Intangible Virtue
- +2
Rest in Peace
Rest in Peace
When this enchantment enters, exile all graveyards.
If a card or token would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead. - +2
Relic of Progenitus
Relic of Progenitus
{T}: Target player exiles a card from their graveyard.
{1}, Exile this artifact: Exile all graveyards. Draw a card. - +2 Justice Strike
—
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This deck is a ton of fun, and doesn’t even require any Alchemy cards. Definitely give this one a shot and thanks to John for the deck!