Basandra, Battle Seraph: Cry 'Havoc!', and Let Slip the Dogs of War (EDH / Commander)

"Those skilled in war bring the enemy to the field of battle and are not brought there by him."
—Sun Tzu, Chinese general, 6th century BCE

"Catapult" by 2WEI: https://youtu.be/9ABlM_IjaI4

INTRODUCTION

In most cases, it's not the power level of a legendary creature which makes me want to build an EDH deck around it, but rather its flavor - and most of all, its artwork.
Since I started playing Magic during Mirage block, the outstanding art of Terese Nielsen accompanied me during the years as I explored this extraordinary game. Unfortunately, Terese Nielsen hasn't been assigned only powerful cards to illustrate, but also rather mediocre ones. Hence one of the least played Boros commanders got one of the most amazing artworks in all of Magic: Basandra, Battle Seraph. But as I said before, for me its not all about power, but more about flavor and fun, and I really enjoy a deckbuilding challenge.
When Feather, the Redeemed was spoilered back in 2019 I was considering to make her my Boros commander; but in the end I kept Basandra, and never looked back.

STRATEGY

I tinkered around with several strategies for Basandra over the years, the last one being an enchantress deck with pillowfort elements. But the games with that design turned out to be rather static and repetitive. Additionally, in most cases I didn't even need to cast Basandra once over the course of the game. So I returned to the drawing board and came up with a "high risk, high reward" aggro control strategy that_more or less revolves around Basandra's abilities. It tries to slow down my opponents' advance with soft stax cards, turns them against each other and wins with plenty of creatures, buffed by powerful anthem effects.

TACTICS

1. Soft stax
   I tried "real" stax for a short time in the past and didn't like it, but I think it's okay to mess with the board by just a little in order to make events turn out in my favor. Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Urabrask the Hidden disable potential blockers for one turn and hose haste (including any Kiki-Jiki nonsense), Aura of Silence cripples artifact and enchantress decks, Archetype of Aggression and Archetype of Courage weaken my opponents' forces, Smothering Tithe taxes every card my opponents draw, Mangara, the Diplomat punishes extensive spellcasting and The Immortal Sun outright disables any superfriend_shenanigans.
2. Forced combat
   Bloodthirsty Blade, Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and Disrupt Decorum keep enemy creatures at bay and my opponents at each others' throats. In my experience one shouldn't go crazy with goad effects in their deck. I had Shiny Impetus and Martial Impetus in my 99 for a while, and they were great as long as several other players were around; but once only one opponent was left, their buffed beater came for me! Other cards - besides Basandra - that force opposing creatures into the red zone are Fumiko the Lowblood and Avatar of Slaughter.
3. Combat support and manipulation
   To help my own troops (or another player's creatures attacking an opponent) I run some cards for combat support and manipulation. Key to the City, Subira, Tulzidi Caravanner, Frontier Warmonger and Odric, Master Tactician make blocking really tough or even impossible. Duelist's Heritage and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight turn any attacker into a huge threat. Cathars' Crusade is crazy good with any creature token generator, but nucking futs with Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. And last but not least, Fractured Loyalty, Spectral Grasp and Pariah are more subtle manipulation, but synergize very well with Basandra's activated ability.
4. High risk, high reward
   Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, Chance for Glory, Crescendo of War and Archangel of Strife are potentially backfiring cards, but also a ton of fun and very, very powerful. Most people seem to be scared by the "you lose the game" clause of Chance for Glory, but this instant is a mythic rare for a reason and much more epic and flavorful than Boros Charm will ever be. Combined with a board wipe on my turn or with extra combat steps, it's an "I win!" card.
5. Treasure!
   You may have noticed that the deck has a very small "treasures matter" subtheme. With all the treasure tokens e.g. Dockside Extortionist or Smothering Tithe can create, Captain Lannery Storm can easily become a one hit_wonder that no one sees coming (haste). The new Goldspan Dragon from Kaldheim provides crazy mana acceleration through treasures, and once Treasure Map has transformed into Treasure Cove, any treasure not needed for ramp can be cashed in for extra cards.

EVALUATION

Whenever I play this deck, the game switches into archenemy mode sooner or later, which is expected and fine by me. Games with Basandra are rather short; either I win in a couple of turns, or my opponents are so low on life after my_defeat that the game is over shortly after. The deck performed very well so far, and is a truckload more fun than my previous Basandra designs.
If you like my approach (or if you have suggestions), feel free to leave a comment. Thanks!