Every workday while the set is new, Insight takes a quick look at a deck featuring the latest additions from Phyrexia: All Will Be One. Boros Monarch was once one of the best decks but failed to find ground in recent times. Barbed Batterfist is the perfect card to bridge the gap and make Boros fit for this era!
For a long time Boros Monarch was one of the defining decks of Pauper. It absolutely shredded Faeries but would lose badly to Flicker Tron. In the midrange department, it only struggled to beat the other variant of Boros, the Boros Bully that had a battalion of flying creatures with and as well as a set of to further help defend until it amassed a board big enough to use and win the game.
Boros Monarch ran the infamous "kitty package," popularized by player TurboKitty3000 many, many years ago. The basic idea was to use permanents that pair nicely with and . Those cards were , later , and for a while it would even splash black to add a lone copy of to make a loop with the Skyfisher. This was an age of Pauper when decks tended to grind and focus on value plays, as the games would take several turns.
Following Modern Horizons 2 the format became faster. With the exception of a few bans, the culmination of this speed was the addition of from Double Masters 2022. Since then the only variant of Boros that enjoyed some relevant presence in the meta was Boros Bully, which could leverage cards like and to buy time against all kinds of Swiftspear builds. Any attempts to revive the value-oriented Boros deck fell short. Its aggro plan proved too slow, even after incorporating Swiftspear itself, and it didn't generate enough value to rival the long-term plans of Grixis Affinity.
However, Phyrexia: All Will Be One may have given the deck the missing piece to make the aggro plan great again! With you can present a clock much faster and you're not too reliant on early plays. The card pairs well with the kitty package as you get to bounce the Equipment to create another 2/2 token. On top of that, the equip cost is so cheap that you can always put the Equipment on one of the flying creatures and push for more damage.
The deck also has access to more traditional lines with , , and . Alongside Batterfist and the fliers, they allow you to amass a small board while generating value and pressuring your opponent both on the ground as well as in the air. There are now more lines that enable the deck to push for damage and work as a faster aggro strategy, which it absolutely needed to survive in this new era of Pauper!
You can clearly see the strength of in the first game of this recorded League by player Teasdale. Moving forward, the deck may either become more aggressive or try to pivot to a more grindy midgame plan. It could go either way, and that's the beauty of it. Boros finally has the tools to adapt properly to whatever the current meta demands.
| Boros Synthesizer by Heisen01, 5-0 in Pauper League, February 15 |
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| Main Deck | Sideboard |
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Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, not of Cardmarket.
