Feather Voltron, optimized (EDH / Commander)

Rain down fiery justice with this Voltron-Style deck, featuring Feather, the Redeemed. (I really like Voltron btw.)

Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Boros? Voltron? I came here to win and not cry myself to sleep every night because I play the worst color combinations combined with the arguably weakest EDH-Playstyle.

But hear me out.

The deck aims to get Feather out ASAP (turn 2 possible) and then smash face with our beautiful Boros-Angel.

It is choke-full with interaction that is centered around Feather's ability to replay instants and sorceries that target herself or other creatures.

Because what's more fun than casting Reckless Rage or Fall of the Hammer to remove those wingless peasants crawling on the floor. And then do it again. And again... for the rest of the game.

And boy oh boy, say what you will, but there is little that can sweeten the day better than seeing a blue player's spell get countered when they thought they caught you off guard with their sneaky little tricks. Countermagic, we run it, red and white. That's how Boros do.

A central problem with Voltron strategies is often, that you are left vulnerable to attacks because you've only got one precious beefy boy out there giving his/her best. That's why we run a decent amount of removal and a tiny bit of lifesteal options.

And if you ever manage to get our friend and helper, Sunforger out and attached to Feather, oh woe unto your opponents. That Goblin-Player with 30 Goblins and Coat of Arms trying to run you down? Fear not, tutor for Intimidation Bolt and it shall save your day. They can't hurt you if they can't attack you.

The main crux with this strategy is mana, because recasting spells throughout other peoples turns, ramps up the mana costs, even if the spells are dirt-cheap. And sadly Boros isn't exactly known for its crazy ramping or mana generating abilities. However the deck does provide a decent amount of mana acceleration through rocks and gimmicks like Sword of the Animist, Land Tax, Burnished Hart and last but not least, our almighty lord and savior, Smothering Tithe.

The win condition fully revolves around dealing 21 Commander damage to each player, which is actually way easier to do than it sounds. Double Strike & a bit of a pump, and we're already there (for example Assault Strobe, Brute Force and Onward // Victory do the trick for a meager 2RRR). Often the bigger (and a very real one) problem is doing this fairly without angering the other players. Because ideally you should focus on one person at a time. This often results in one player getting knocked out pretty early, and usually leads to a bit of saltiness. But that's another topic, and not one that we as Boros players want to occupy ourselves with. We are here to smash face.

Drawing is provided by 8 Cantrips that we can usually cast for just one Red or White Mana. It is absolutely essential for feather to stick to the board after she is cast. For that reason, the deck runs a hefty amount of diverse protection spells. Between blinking, protection from color spells and indestructability, one should rarely lose Feather to targeted removal, or even boardwipes (provided you always keep the mana open... which you really should do).

A few tricks:

If Mangara of Corondor sticks to the board for a turn, you've got yourself a reusable Exiling-Machine, provided you have a blink spell in hand (which there are plenty off). Activate Mangaras exile ability, then hold priority and exile her with Cloudshift (or any other of the Exile-and-then-return-to-the-battlefield-instants), so that the targeted permanent gets exiled, but Mangara sticks on the board (because new entity on reentry). Awesome.

Same thing goes for Duergar Hedge-Mage and your blink-shenanigans. Abuse his etb trigger to get rid of all those annoying artifacts and enchantments.

This one is very basic but still: If you've got enough mana you can catch some creatures unguarded while they attack you. Say your Feather is tapped because you previously smashed face like you always should, and someone attacks you because you do not have any blockers (and you rarely ever will have any). You can just Cloudshift and voila, Feather is untapped and you can block with her.

Or vice versa, you need to block that Blightsteel Colossus but you don't want Feather to die? Declare blocks with Feather and then blink her before damage.

With all the protection, counterspells and removals / lock downs like Aurelia's Fury, Intimidation Bolt, Fall of the Hammer, Reckless Rage etc., the deck can actually play very control-heavy if left unchecked for too long and you manage to get enough mana.

Either way, I have a blast playing this deck, and I hope you will too, if you should decide to give it a go.

Through Fire and Flames with our beloved Angel, Feather, the Redeemed!

Cheers, Mindoiar