A good Boros commander

[Morganator 2.0]

Commander 2019 is probably coming in... August?

There was a wish-list made for this set a while back (https://deckstats.net/forum/index.php/topic,39669.0.html) and while I'm not confident that any of this will come true, I'm hopeful that we will at least see Boros get a buff. Because it needs it. In the worst way.

So I'm curious, what do you guys think would make a good commander in these colors, and what supporting cards do you think Boros needs?

[Soren841]

For a Boros commander to be truly good it would have to seriously destroy the color pie.

[Firegriff]

Of all Boros Commanders, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is probably the most versatile option.  An interesting option would be Tiana, Ship's Caretaker.

[Morganator 2.0]

Honestly I think Firesong and Sunspeaker were really close to being the breakthrough Boros commander. If only it had read "Whenever a white instant or sorcery spell causes you to gain life, Firesong and Sunspeaker deals that much damage to any target". Then we might have seen something come from this. Still not mind-blowing, but it's a start.

[Soren841]

They're still very Boros. It's burn in EDH, it'll never be GOOD. It needs a good source of draw/card advantage or a wincon tutor in the Command Zone (Like Godo).

[Red_Wyrm]

Why has boros become a meme in MTG? I mean I get that in EDH it is the weakest color pair, but everyone seems to hate on boros, not because it is weak, but because all the commanders encourage attacking in one way or another.

My friend has an aurelia the warleader equipment based deck. He does fairly well with it. If left unchecked, he get 21 commander damage out of nowhere. Not to mention it is an infinite combo with helm of the host, which he has several tutors to go get. Nothing like swining in with my maelstrom wanderer and Malignus to hit him, tapping out since he had no board, and being killed the next turn by infinite aurellas. (Totally didnt happen yesterday.) I should've won that game.

There are two ways to build an EDH deck that I can see. You see a commander and build around it, or choose what you want to do, and find a commander to do it. If you are doing the latter, you know if you want to attack or not, if you do you may find yourself in boros, if you don't want to attack, you definitely won't find yourself in boros.

Just my two cents.

[Soren841]

It's a meme because Boros is trash. The only worse color combo is mono white.

[Judaspriester]

@Red_Wyrm The problem with attacking in multiplayer is, that its usually to slow, compared with other options to win the game. It may work at the kitchen table, or in a small group with a really agressive deck, but if the deck budgets rise higher, the chances drop to win a game this way.
Your example with infinite Aurelia's may seem like a proof that attacking works, but first of all, its not the attacking itself, its the combo that makes this that efficient. and then, its very easy to stop this. Spore Frog, Constant Mists etc. Besides that, you need to play Aurelia first, and than manage to get another 9 mana (or some tricks to play and/or equip the helm) before you can finish off.

[Morganator 2.0]

What the Boros colors really need is card advantage. Red has some stuff like Winds of Change and Faithless Looting, but white has... Mentor of the Meek? Bygone Bishop? Not exactly good options.

What I have started to notice, across all colors, is that the successful commanders have at least one of:

• Mana ramp (Marwyn, the Nurturer)
• Card advantage (Edric, Spymaster of Trest, Muldrotha, the Gravetide)
• Built-in win condition (Najeela, the Blade-Blossom).

Frankly, I think flavor-wise Najeela could have easily been a Boros commander. Generating tokens and extra combats are within those color identities.

I think fixing Boros has two steps. First, improve the supporting effects. A little bit of mana ramp, and a lot of good card draw. Second, a Boros commander that doesn't focus on attacking, or at least some combo that is easy to build into (Aurelia-Helm comes close).

[Soren841]

It's basically an issue with white. Mono white is trash. Mono red has Godo so it's decent, but when you combine the two, the white section of the color pie hurts a lot.

[TrueNeutralPaladin]

I'd like a strong Boros commander designed to make white-red weenie viable for EDH:

Solace, the Blazing Sun
2WR
Legendary Creature - Giant
4/4
Whenever Solace, the Blazing Sun enters the battlefield or attacks, you may return target permanent card with converted mana cost 2 or less from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Whenever another creature with base power 2 or less enters the battlefield under your control, you may draw a card.

and strong card draw in white:

Eternal Hope
WW
Enchantment
Whenever you gain life, you may pay 1. If you do, draw a card.

and strong card draw in red:

Blazing Insight
RR
Enchantment
Whenever an instant or sorcery spell you control damages an opponent or a creature an opponent controls, you may pay 1. If you do, draw a card.

[Manticore]

Something that might work with Boros without breaking the color pie is a hybrid between Uba Mask/Smothering Tithe and Experimental Frenzy. This would solve beautifully Boros' problems with card advantage.

[Soren841]

Except it would have to be a legendary creature

[TrueNeutralPaladin]

I'm not convinced that white and red card draw would be "breaking the color pie" - what's wrong with card draw being available to all colors under differing conditions?

We've already seen trends in that direction:

Black - paying life or creatures dying
Blue - unconditional
Green - creature power or creature toughness
Red - tbd
White - gaining life, tbd

Blue and green already have numerous options. Add some conditions under which white and red can draw cards, and provide some new draw spells for black, and then we might have a color pie in which any color is considered viable in the format.

[Soren841]

White and Red historically do not draw cards. Red gets wheels but they wont make a boros wheel commander. White basically never gets card draw.