Spelling-slingin' and combo kills are fun and all, but sometimes you just wanna turn your creatures sideways and charge into the Red Zone. There's something so classic-Magic about unleashing an army of attackers to bash your opponent upside their skull. Forget fancy card advantage and mana rocks. It's all about power and toughness and who can muster up the most of it. And when it comes to attacking, few color-combos wave the flag more than the Boros Legion.

Mechanically-framed as the 'attacking matters' Guild, the Boros Legion are Ravnica's standing army. When Nicol-Bolas, Dragon-God tried to take over the plane with a bunch of Blue skeletons, the Boros were the first to meet them in combat. When Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite sent the braches of Realmbreaker into Ravnica's streets, the first line of defense were the likes of Firemane Commando and kin. They may be hot-headed. And a tad egotistical. Okay, a lot egotistical, but the Boros embrace the classic hero archetype with a great big bear hug.

They're the cop-who-doesn't-play-by-the-rules. Sometimes literally (Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran). They value truth and justice, but understand that sometimes you've gotta break the law to maintain it. Take the community-centric focus of White and combine it with the independence of Red, and you've got a solid idea of your typical Boros trooper. They'll follow orders to a tee, but just as quickly defy said orders if they conflict with personal ethos. What you end up with is a Guild that is incredibly confident in its stance, sometimes to its own detriment, but is always deeply committed to its cause.

The Mentorability is the perfect illustration of this philosophy: Seasoned veterans passing on their combat prowess to new recruits.

Mentor is a triggered ability that fires upon your Attack Phase. Whenever a creature with Mentor attacks, if it's charging alongside another creature with less power, the creature with Mentor will grant its young cohort a +1/+1 counter. This not only incentivizes aggressiveness, but also increases the value of low CMC-cost creatures. In Guilds of Ravnica, where Mentor was introduced, humble 1-drops like Healer's Hawk and Hunted Witness were often elevated past their initial 1/1 stats into real threats once a Wojek Bodyguard or Hammer Dropper took them under their wing. This made the color combo a potent aggressive strategy in Limited, as creatures that were often outclassed in the later game received heightened stats, and thus staying power, so long as you could keep up the aggression. Fittingly, the set was laden with combat tricks (Integrity // Intervention, Take Heart) and blocking-restrictions (Cosmotronic Wave) to ensure attackers survived to fight another day.

Note that Mentor checks the power of its intended target twice per trigger. First upon the trigger itself, and secondly upon resolution. This is an important factor to bear in mind when considering multiple Mentor triggers. Because each will check the power level of the creature it targets both upon trigger and again resolution, you'll want to ensure one Mentor trigger doesn't nix the next. For example, let's say you attack your opponent with a Goblin Guide and Tajic, Legion's Edge. Tajic's Mentor ability triggers, going onto the stack and letting you target another attacking creature with lesser power. Because Goblin Guide is the only other attacker, he's in line to get the counter, but only after the ability's final check upon resolution. In this case, the goblin will receive the +1/+1 counter, as its power was less than Tajic's during both the steps of the process. Your goblin grows to a 3/3 and thus won't qualify for future mentor triggers unless you're able to bolster Tajic's power next combat. Handing Tajic a Sword of Fire and Ice now not only makes him more threatening in combat, but also allows him to grow the 3/3 goblin twice more via Mentor, as Tajic's power has grown to 5.

Now let's consider what happens if you also have an Isshin, Two Heavens as One in play. Because Isshin doubles attack triggers, Tajic will put two instances of Mentor onto the stack when he attacks. Both instances see the Goblin Guide as starting with 2-power, but problems arrive upon resolution. The first Mentor trigger will place a +1/+1 counter onto the goblin, who then becomes a 3/3. Once the second Mentor trigger applies, it'll see that the goblin already has 3 power, same as Tajic, so zero second counter will be placed. If you had an additional attacker, say an Esper Sentinel, then you'd be able to split up the Mentor triggers so both the goblin and sentinel got a +1/+1 counter, each. Because of this timing, you'll need to be careful when deploying combat tricks or other sources of stat-boost, making sure they don't elevate a creature's power out of range for Mentor triggers to apply.

In essence, Mentor rewards your ability to attack "wide," meaning with many creatures, by giving you the option of choosing which to pump up each turn. The bigger your army, the more options you'll have and ideally, the longer you'll be able to hand out counters. So long as you can keep up the aggression, that is. Fortunately for Boros, the combat phase where they thrive.

That's not to say Boros is the sole domain of the Mentor ability. While the vast majority of the mechanic is found on White/Red cards, other colors have adopted the mentoring approach to combat:

On Strixhaven, the Sliverquill College sees Felisa, Fang of Sliverquill putting aside her usual elitist demeanor to power up her younger teammates. Sure, this might only be to ensure Felisa receives an Inkling token each time one of her cohorts bites the dust, but I'm guessing she doesn't tell them that beforehand. Jump to Ixalan, and Tributary Instructor guides his fellow Merfolk in the ways of +1/+1 counters, rewarding you with card advantage should one of his pupils fall in combat. We even see Mentor pop up in Universes Beyond: Dr. Who on Danny Pink, who one-up's his Merfolk counterpart by letting you draw a card the first time a counter is put onto one of your creatures each turn. No death triggered required.

Next time you send your champion into battle, consider giving them a little brother or sister to bring along. With the Mentor ability, their cohort will grow in experience the more they fight alongside their veteran teacher. As a mechanic, Mentor is incredibly straightforward, but perfectly captures the flavor of the master-to-student relationship. Once Innistrad: Crimson Vow arrived, Mentor was given a mirror-image in the Training mechanic, but that's a story for another day.

Thanks for reading, and may you always have a mentor fighting at your side,

-Matt-

@Intrepid_tautog