I'll never forget what it was like to come back to magic a few years ago after taking a seven-year break to stumble across a meta that was so diverse, it had a deck that was centered around equipment, and the deck was actually really good. It was the golden age of Standard. Kaldheim was the most powerful set in the format by far, and the rares and mythics from that plane set the tone for what the meta would be in our beloved format. Sadly, it ended up rotating, and it did not get to stick around long enough to see the three-year rotation cycle like we have now. The good news is, we are going to try and bring it back! We will look to use cards that go all the way back in Standard so far to the point where the deck might only be playable for a couple of months. That's okay, we will have our fun while we can. I want to throw my hat in the ring for a powerful Boros Equipment list in our new Standard that comes out with Final Fantasy. I think there are too many powerful equipment both in this set, and that have come out within the last year to overlook giving this a shot. It may look a little different, and be a bit janky, but we have enough powerful cards to make this deck awesome. What I love most about it is that we will be able to tutor for equipment cards, and that is where we can kind of use a toolbox of equipment and have a few different one-ofs to diversify our threats. This also allows us to use our sideboard for additional equipment cards if needed. We should expect the deck to change as we see what the meta turns into after Final Fantasy is released. I believe that people are expecting change, and even if we don't get it in the first two months, we will also have rotation. That will guarantee change if nothing else does. We will take a look at the deck and then go over some of the new cards that are showcased within it, and we can see a pretty cool combo that will form. I included a lot of new cards in this deck, so forgive me if I don't get to all of them - but I promise that they all fit well for their own reasons.
You can see that we definitely want to set things up early with this deck. The meta is very fast and we want to have our engines going on turns two and three and start trying to amass value from there. We will even try to get maximum value out of cards like Leyline Axe to try and get it going before we even lay our first land. Some of our creatures create their own equipment, and some creatures allow us to tutor for equipment. Some allow us to equip for free, and some even reanimate equipment from our graveyard, or allow us to attach them from our hand. We have many different ways to get value in this deck, so let's take a look at the key players.
Key New Cards
Cloud is one of the creatures we hope to play on curve. He immediately gets the ball rolling and people will quickly identify him as a threat that must be dealt with. He can give us double triggers from equipment and from himself. People will quickly learn that they must deal with him, or things will start to snowball.
Raubahn is the creature that when I first saw him, I knew that we could try to make this a thing. I think that his ward ability gives us a lot of options when we are talking about buffing his power. It really creates a dilemma between our incredibly powerful two-mana creatures as for which one must be killed first. Maybe we play Cloud first and it forces the opponent to burn their removal spell on him, and then Raubahn runs away with it, or vice versa. Raubahn and Cloud directly play off of one another, because we can tutor for the equipment, and then attach it for free. The only thing we are missing here is casting it for free! But don't worry, that is coming too.
Buster Sword is what made my eyes light up after already having the idea for the deck. Things just kept getting better. We are already tutoring for equipment that we need, and now we are talking about equipping and casting them for free? You are basically daring me to put this deck together. I think it is pretty easy to see how this archetype almost seems "pushed." I hate to use that word here, but I will at least have fun with playing the list whether or not they wanted me to. Our highest mana value spell is five in the deck, so equipping Buster Sword onto even our smallest creatures should almost always allow us to get in for enough damage to cast our five-mana spells. Even if we can't, the creature will just be huge and will start to eat up blockers for breakfast.
Final Thoughts
This deck is sweet. It is a breath of fresh air to be able to say "I am playing Boros" and have it not be an annoying aggro deck, or a token deck that just wants to exile everything and stop the opponent from playing the game. We are going to get back to fair and honest Magic with this one, and it should be reasonably competitive. One thing we will have to pay attention to is the cost of some of these cards. The prices are spiked right now, but even the sealed product will be more expensive, so it would then follow that the paper versions of these cards would in turn also cost more by default. We will have to keep an eye on that, because I did include a lot of new cards. Luckily, in early access, we have access to all of the cards on Arena without paying any money - so if you would like to see this deck in action, be sure to come check out the event on Wednesday, June 4th, on my Twitch channel. The link is available at the bottom of the page!
