Hello awesome readers! I hope that your day is going as well as you are! Today I want to take on Stephen Johnson's Musical Chairs problem, and choose, instead of Simic, Boros Equipment. You can find his article where he created the deck and talks about it here: Simic Musical Chairs in Commander | Article by Stephen Johnson (coolstuffinc.com).

Here is my interpretation of this, that I will be using for my Boros deck.

Step #1 - Choose a number of potential leaders for your deck that all fit the theme. Prior to the game, have a foe choose one at random by doing Three Card Monty or choose your leader from your hand. They choose the one you will run in that game, and then you shuffle the rest into your deck and begin the game.

Step #2 - Rather than build a deck around the quirks of that leader, the deck plays into that archetype. For example, in Boros Equipment, there are some Commanders that only want one person getting all of the equipment and some that care about going wide. So, there will be some tension.

Therefore, this Commander deck won't spend time looking at a single leader and creating synergies for it, but instead will look at creating multiple lines of attack. Obviously one of the hard parts of any Equipment themed deck is to have a balance between creatures and equipment. A creature-based sweeper can't leave you card less. I added in some creature equipment like Lizard Blades and Komainu Battle Armor and Lion Sash to make this work. I also have man lands (Needle Spires) and man mana rocks (Fountain of Ichor) that can become a dork post removal and then grab a piece of equipment for a turn.

To get started, let's look at my potential Commanders.

Check out this duo. As you can see, Akiri, take one was in the first set of partners, and I am only running Akiri here not with anyone else. Akiri is a powerful 2-drop 0/3 with first strike and vigilance, and the latter is good on a Commander since you'll always have it waiting to block even after swinging. Folks might not want to swing into it due to the high power and first strike as well. They get an extra power for each artifact you control. I tossed in things like artifact lands and Treasure Vault into here to help Akiri punch for more damage. You can sac the Vault and make a bunch of artifacts for Akiri's Commander damage punch.

Then we have Jor Kadeen. This was the first "Boros Equipment" leader and was pretty heavily played at the kitchen table for quite some time. The Prevailer is a very on curve 5/4 with first strike for five mana. If you hit metalcraft, your stuff will get a giant +3/+0 until your artifact number drops or he leaves the battlefield. Increasing the artifact count for Akiri also increased it for him. I also added in some creature-based ramp like Solemn Simulacrum and Burnished Hart for you to pump. Good stuff!

Check out Akiri Part Two and the Hammer of the Battle himself, Bruenor. Warriors! The other Akiri is a nice three-mana 3/3 with two abilities. The first can draw you a sweet card when you swing with an equipped dork. Boros needs cards flow, so having it in the Command Zone is pretty nice. Note that it only triggers once/attack, no matter how many attacked. Then you can spend a White mana to make some indestructible and tap it but you have to unattach the Equipment, which is probably worth it.

Bruenor is pretty nice as well. This uncommon is four mana for big fat 5/3. Each creature you control gets a big boost of +2/+0 for each equipment attacked to it, which is pretty nice and lets you go big. Note that he does not prevent that from himself, so he can Voltron kill with himself getting a bunch of equipment and then getting the big boosts and then killing. You can pay 0 for the first equip ability that turn, so I added in expensive equips like Argentum Armor and Colossus Hammer, and then I have other ways to get free equips in here in case he is not your Commander like Sigarda's Aid and Puresteel Paladin.

Let's check out these very different Commanders. Tiana is a flying, first strike, 3/3 for five mana, which is fine. When your aura/equipment dies, then you can return it to your hands at the end of the next end step, so you wait a bit, but that's pretty nice. She'll will make sure that your valuable equipment will keep on keeping on after a mass removal spell like Vandalblast that keeps her around, or an Akroma's Vengeance where you saved your creatures with a Flawless Maneuver to give them indestructible. In order to make this work, I tossed in a couple of sacrifice effects that will let you sacrifice artifacts and then bring them back later. The first is Pia and Kiran Nalaar which also synergies with both Akiri Take One for two artifacts to pump her as well as giving Jor Kadeen three bodies to pump. My favorite addition is Breya's Apprentice, which is also two artifacts for Akiri, a sacrifice engine that draws you cards, and makes two dorks to pump with Jor.

Wyleth is very different as a three-mana 2/2 with trample. As you can see, this will draw a card for each aura/equipment that is on it when it swings, which means this leader of a Commander product will want to grab as much as possible, in order to really jump up in card quality, which helps with Boros card flow.

Look at this duo of uncommon, 2-drop, 2/2 Dwarves! The first is very different from the rest of the field. Koll will let your non-token equipped/enchanted creatures that die come back to your hand, which is pretty nifty. It's another reason I added in the ETB cards Solemn Simulacrum, Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Breya's Apprentice. Also note that your creature tokens will get +1/+1 if they are equipped, which is another reason that the last two are here. I have the token making and equipment loving Nahiris. I also tossed in Castle Ardenvale to make tokens to equip as well as the channel of Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance and the modal land/sorcery Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave. I built a deck around Koll here - Building Around Nahiri and Koll, the Forgemaster in Commander | Article by Abe Sargent (coolstuffinc.com). Check it out!

And then Reyav is very simple and doesn't need any additional support. When your equipped/enchanted dorks swing, they get double strike. That's pretty nasty as you can really punch above your weight. Note that this does not read, "other" so Reyav will double his damage. In order to maximize the extra damage, you'll want to do wide and equip a bunch of dorks, unless you can Commander damage kill with Reyav getting double in.

This partner duo is our final grouping. Put just one of these out there upside down to give an equal opportunity to get the pair as the others. Ardenn is a 3-drop 2/2 that you'll want to cast pre-combat. When you pass to combat, you can, for free, place any number of equipment and auras you control onto a single target. This is another reason to add in expensive Argentum Armor style cards. Rograkh is a 0/1 with three keywords two of which are evasive. He costs nothing. You can drop him and then equip with your mana that turn and then swing and punch. Equip him with everything for free with Ardenn and then deal Commander Damage. Good stuff!

The rest of this build is just a bog standard Boros Equipment brew, so let's turn to my decklist!

Boros Equipment Musical Chairs | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Potential commanders (10)
• 1 Akiri, Fearless Voyager
• 1 Akiri, Line-Slinger
• 1 Ardenn, Intrepid Archeologist
• 1 Bruenor Battlehammer
• 1 Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
• 1 Koll, the Forgemaster
• 1 Reyav, Master Smith
• 1 Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh
• 1 Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
• 1 Wyleth, Soul of Steel

• Creatures (14)
• 1 Breya's Apprentice
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• 1 Halvar, God of Battle // Sword of the Realms
• 1 Lion Sash
• 1 Lizard Blades
• 1 Komainu Battle Armor
• 1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1 Puresteel Paladin
• 1 Rabbit Battery
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sram, Senior Artificer
• 1 Stoneforge Mystic
• 1 Stonehewer Giant

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 1 Nahiri, Heir of the Ancients
• 1 Nahiri, the Lithomancer
• 1 Nahiri, Storm of Stone

• Instants (8)
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Sejiri Shelter // Sejiri Glacier
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Brillant Restoration
• 1 Emeria's Call // Emeria, Shattered Skyclave
• 1 Ondu Inversion // Ondu Skyruins
• 1 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
• 1 Steelshaper's Gift

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Fighter Class
• 1 Sigarda's Aid

• Artifacts (22)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Blood-Forged Battleaxe
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Plate
• 1 Colossus Hammer
• 1 Embercleave
• 1 Fountain of Ichor
• 1 Hammer of Nazhan
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Talisman of Conviction
• 1 Shadowspear
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Sword of Fire and Ice
• 1 Sword of Hearth and Home

• Lands (36)
• 7 Plains
• 7 Mountain
• 1 Axgard Armory
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Darksteel Citadel
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Furycalm Snarl
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Needle Spires
• 1 Power Depot
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rustvale Bridge
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Spectator Seating
• 1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Urza's Saga
• 1 War Room

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And there you go! What did you think of my deck? Anything in here that is missing or that I should add? Remember your Boros deck might wind up looking very differently. For example, I only have two Swords of X and Y, one to draw card and the other to ramp me. But you might want to lean into that cycle, or you might own an extra Sword of Light and Shadow for the Raise Dead effect or your Umezawa's Jitte that you have sitting around. Everyone is in a different place with their budget and card collection but the key pieces and Commanders are pretty cheap. Good stuff!