One of the challenges with writing about EDH is the pressure to figure out how to do something new. We'll talk about this even more with Simic next time, but honestly, the Boros Legendary creature options are pretty thin. Vehicle tribal could be cool, I guess, but do you really need someone to write an article about it? There are some big angels that do cool stuff too, but we've kind of already been over that. So what do we do?

One thing we could try is to start with how to actually win a game of Commander. Boros is considered one of the weakest color pairs in Commander, and for relatively good reason: Red shines in heads-up, fast Magic, where we knock our opponent down early with fast creatures and burn out the last few points of damage, not worried about our hand size. White likes to hunker down and can kill everything, but it tends to get outmatched and doesn't draw cards particularly well. Even though both colors are great at flooding the board with small creatures, one board wipe and the deck can have a hard time recovering. Besides, even if we have a bunch of little dudes, how are we going to compete with someone who's making 5/5 Beasts or whatever?

We cheat. That's how. I'm not suggesting sticking cards up your sleeve, but there's a Commander floating out there we might be able to leverage to equalize the playing field.

Melee is particularly strong in multiplayer, of course. If we consider a standard pod of four people, and we can reliably attack all three of our opponents every turn, we give each of our creatures +3/+3 every single turn. That's not nothing. If we can figure out a way to push a little harder, beef them a little more, we can get to a place where we might actually be able to win a game.

We're going to start with our normal 40 lands. We've got a relatively low mana curve (average converted mana cost is three on the nose, actually), but our Commander is five mana and we want to cast her on time, plus there's a pretty good chance she'll die now and again, so we need to be able to recast her when the time comes. Because we want to cast her on time, we're going to avoid comes-into-play-tapped lands. We've got a few, but for the most part our lands enter the battlefield ready to be tapped.

We're also skipping ramp of any kind. There might be a deck where racing to Adriana actually makes sense, but that's not our deck; this deck isn't going to win on turn four, it's going to win on turn eight or 9, so we don't need to rush. We'd rather have another creature or effect than faster mana. Hit the drops, play Adriana on time, and don't worry about the lack of Sol Ring. We do have a Rogue's Passage for the occasional time we might want to make our Commander (or something else!) unblockable, and a Ghost Quarter. Just in case.

We've also got limited draw options. Skullclamp is cheap and really, really good in a deck that makes 1/1s, so we've got it, and Mentor of the Meek can be abused while being a creature itself. We have a Sword of the Animist we can equip once we start attacking to thin our deck and make it more likely we'll draw action instead of lands. But mostly we're going to ignore what everyone else is doing, dump our hand, and attempt to win all at once. If we fail, well, okay. If we win, it should be fairly impressive.

We have a few ways to manage problems. Oblivion Ring and Banishing Light are good catch-all solutions, Winds of Abandon and Path to Exile both get rid of things for good, and Overloading Winds of Abandon will be a hard reset if we need one. Martial Coup can also do that if we really need it. Primarily, though, we're rocking ways to give our entire team Indestructible, with the theory we can use it defensively if someone tries to wrath our board or offensively if someone gets the funny idea they can trade off a bunch of our dudes with creative blocking. We're also running my favorite card of all time, Ride Down, but that's mostly because it's my favorite card of all time. Feel free to swap that with something else!

Our big game-winners are things like True Conviction and Victory's Herald. Iroas, God of Victory can do solid work as well, with all the Menace, and of course Odric. Márton plus Archetype of Aggression can win games. The idea is fairly simple, and has more in common with a combo deck than an aggro one: we spend our first four turns making as many creatures as possible. On turn five, we play Adriana. On turns six, seven, and maybe eight, we play whatever else we've got, probably deflecting a Wrath of God-type effect on the way with a Rootborn Defenses or whatever. Then we attack for 100 damage and hope we can win. We want to spend as much of our mana as possible and spend as little time as possible caring about what anyone else is up to. Don't attack for little bits here and there; sandbag the team until it's time for the alpha strike and go for it.

Adriana, Captain of the Guard | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Adriana, Captain of the Guard

• Creatures (29)
• 1 Accorder Paladin
• 1 Angel of Invention
• 1 Archetype of Aggression
• 1 Archetype of Courage
• 1 Captain of the Watch
• 1 Crashing Drawbridge
• 1 Custodi Soulcaller
• 1 Frontline Medic
• 1 God-Eternal Oketra
• 1 Hanweir Garrison
• 1 Hero of Bladehold
• 1 Hero of Oxid Ridge
• 1 Honored Crop-Captain
• 1 Iroas, God of Victory
• 1 Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1 Legion Loyalist
• 1 Legion Warboss
• 1 Márton Stromgald
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Odric, Master Tactician
• 1 Oketra the True
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Skyknight Vanguard
• 1 Soltari Champion
• 1 Sunhome Guildmage
• 1 Tajic, Legion's Edge
• 1 Taranika, Akroan Veteran
• 1 Urabrask the Hidden
• 1 Victory's Herald

• Instants (8)
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Make a Stand
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Raise the Alarm
• 1 Ride Down
• 1 Rootborn Defenses
• 1 Secure the Wastes
• 1 Unbreakable Formation

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Dragon Fodder
• 1 Finale of Glory
• 1 Hordeling Outburst
• 1 Krenko's Command
• 1 Martial Coup
• 1 Servo Exhibition
• 1 Sram's Expertise
• 1 Winds of Abandon

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Assemble the Legion
• 1 Authority of the Consuls
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Chained to the Rocks
• 1 Emblem of the Warmind
• 1 Fervor
• 1 Intangible Virtue
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Outlaws' Merriment
• 1 True Conviction

• Artifacts (4)
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Sword of the Animist
• 1 Hammer of Purphoros
• 1 Oketra's Monument

• Lands (40)
• 11 Mountain
• 14 Plains
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Ghost Quarter
• 1 Hanweir Battlements
• 1 Inspiring Vantage
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rugged Prairie
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Sejiri Steppe
• 1 Slayers' Stronghold
• 1 Springjack Pasture
• 1 Teetering Peaks
• 1 Temple of Triumph
• 1 Kher Keep

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One quick note: Iroas is very strong. Slamming that guy the turn after Adriana is almost certainly going to kill someone, and likely multiple players. There is an argument for finding room for an Idyllic (or, if you're flush, an Enlightened) Tutor, simply to find that one Enchantment. I generally prefer to make decks as inconsistent as possible or make them really consistent, so if I'm going to run one tutor I'm going to run several and try to make the thing happen. But running one as a "backup" copy of Iroas may be the right thing for your playgroup!

So we're all-in Boros. Dump the hand, play the Commander, and kill everyone with one attack. Keep in mind Adriana still gives everything else Melee even if she herself doesn't attack, and any creatures put into play tapped and attacking will not get the Melee triggers.

What's your favorite Boros Commander deck? How do you win with this color pair in Commander? Let us know! And while you're at it, if you have a great idea for a Simic deck that doesn't involve a single +1/+1 counter, please, for the love of all things, speak up. I'm so tired of +1/+1 counters in Simic I almost want to skip it.

Thanks for reading.