Lightning Helix we had.

With Magic: The Gathering Foundations, Boros Charm is the returning hero we got. That, and this:

The immediate thought? Standard threatened to be a renaissance of pre-Horizons sets Modern. Lightning Bolt we might lack, but couldn't we make up for it with so many other tools? Burst Lightning isn't quite Lightning Bolt at one; but it makes up for it so much at five, even Domain Ramp decks are paying attention.

Couldn't Burn in Standard?

Not quite. Not quite with the first swing anyway.

The issues, I think, are threefold.

First, a reimagined Modern Burn doesn't have a perfect context in the present Standard. Many of the cards we play with in Standard right now are more powerful than what Burn had to contend with in say 2017 or 2018... And they're lined up in unfriendly ways.

Modern Burn was always pretty good at grinding past a fair creature deck, but less good against those with, say, 5 toughness. In Standard there are lots of large "fair" creatures... But many of them are undercosted, and Ward is an ability that didn't exist in 2017.

The existence of Sheltered by Ghosts gives some competitor decks challenges Burn's ability to play Gear Two on two fronts: Not only size via additional toughness; but Ward. On the Ward front Tolarian Terror is a more problematic (and often cheaper) Tarmogoyf. In Standard!

Second, certain wings of the format have become specifically hostile to the reimagined Burn deck. Burn's rough matchups those many years ago were often graveyard combo decks. Dredge could be poison; but straight up Big Spell Reanimator could be even worse. I hated playing against Nourishing Shoal and Gristelbrand. In Standard today we have some of the fastest reanimator decks Standard has seen in years and any number of huge threats that come ready-made with Lifelink!

This:

Does not matchup super great with this:

Direct damage - even a lowly Lava Spike variant - is in some ways the best option against a giant Lifelink creature, but it's still not something you might want to go up against round after round.

Third, and most pertinently, there was already a Boros Aggro deck in Standard. And it was pretty good!

Incumbent:

Boros Aggro | DSK Standard | fives, 5-0 MTGO Standard League

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Callous Sell-Sword
• 2 Manifold Mouse
• 4 Emberheart Challenger
• 4 Heartfire Hero
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Slickshot Show-Off

• Instants (4)
• 4 Monstrous Rage

• Enchantments (16)
• 4 Demonic Ruckus
• 4 Ethereal Armor
• 4 Shardmage's Rescue
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (20)
• 6 Mountain
• 5 Plains
• 1 Rockface Village
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Inspiring Vantage

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Get Lost
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 4 Torch the Tower
• 4 Urabrask's Forge

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All that said, we're coming to an interesting place for Boros Aggro in Standard. Unlike many other archetypes, Boros feels still in flux... And what makes it dangerous is that it seems to be "learning" from many teachers simultaneously. Take this one for example:

"Barely Boros"

Barely Boros | FDN Standard | Jarvis_Me, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 12/22/2024

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Emberheart Challenger
• 4 Heartfire Hero
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Manifold Mouse
• 4 Screaming Nemesis

• Instants (15)
• 3 Witchstalker Frenzy
• 4 Burst Lightning
• 4 Lightning Strike
• 4 Monstrous Rage

• Lands (22)
• 9 Mountain
• 2 Restless Bivouac
• 3 Rockface Village
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Inspiring Vantage

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Destroy Evil
• 2 Lithomantic Barrage
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts
• 2 Torch the Tower
• 3 Urabrask's Forge

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The first thing that jumped out at me from this deck was its number of Monastery Swiftspears.

Three?

What could JARVIS_ME have added to justify the slaying of one-fourth of the Red Deck's 1-drop sacred cows?

The answer was... Nothing?

This deck cut a sacred cow to add an Ox; well, two Oxen in Restless Bivouac. The deck basically added a land (upping the count to twenty-two) relative to the Mono-Red deck that you typically see in Standard.

JARVIS_ME chose Restless Bivouac... And shaved a Rockface Village (but left three!) to accommodate ten sources of White.

I nicknamed this deck "Barely" Boros because aside from the ten White sources in the main deck... There are no Lightning Helixes. There are no Boros Charms. All the White is in the sideboard.

Destroy Evil is interesting.

I think Authority of the Consuls is one of the best cards out of Foundations, because it does such a good job of containing the haste on Monastery Swiftspear, Emberheart Challenger, and especially the more expensive Screaming Nemesis. Destroy Evil is kind of a clunky answer to Authority of the Consuls, but it's infinity times more of an answer than Mono-Red can muster. It unlocks JARVIS_ME's Urabrask's Forges, and is also an answer to Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and other high toughness enemies.

Sheltered by Ghosts at this point needs very little introduction. It's an answer to... anything? And also can make JARVIS_ME's own creatures harder to kill. I think of Sheltered by Ghosts as the maximum leverage card in Standard. It's fast, it can undo an outsized amount of opposing mana commitment, and it's also a mirror-breaker.

When two aggressive decks fight - say Boros versus straight Red - Sheltered by Ghosts will often be the sole determiner of victory. When two Boros decks fight, navigating the duel between these Auras is a great test of skill. For instance, you might not have the mana to get past the Ward on the opposing creature enchanted by Sheltered by Ghosts... But have you thought about targeting Sheltered by Ghosts itself? That is less exciting (and also one trillion times less vulnerable to Shardmage's Rescue BTW), but it might get you back the material you need to take momentum in a game... And at the very least the other player will no longer have Lifelink.

Mabel is a Split Card

Hybrid Boros | FDN Standard | citizenofnerdvana, 5-0 MTGO Standard League 12/23/2024

• Creatures (19)
• 1 Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
• 2 Screaming Nemesis
• 4 Emberheart Challenger
• 4 Heartfire Hero
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Manifold Mouse

• Instants (13)
• 2 Boros Charm
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 4 Burst Lightning
• 4 Monstrous Rage

• Enchantments (6)
• 3 Shardmage's Rescue
• 3 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (22)
• 6 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 1 Raucous Carnival
• 2 Rockface Village
• 3 Restless Bivouac
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Inspiring Vantage

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Destroy Evil
• 1 Exorcise
• 1 Lightning Helix
• 2 Rest in Peace
• 1 Screaming Nemesis
• 3 Torch the Tower
• 3 Urabrask's Forge

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One of the things I think about when studying decks is what kind of DNA they have.

The FIVES Boros deck at the top of this article - despite being a unique strategy thanks to its mana base and many Auras - was a descendent of the hyper aggressive red and Rakdos decks of the recent past. It might only have two copies of Burn Together, but a big part of the plan is still setting up that kill. It isn't overloaded with instant speed, tactical, pump spells (Auras take a lot of their space) but it still exploits the shiftiness of a less explosive Slickshot Show-Off.

This deck has very different DNA, despite also being in the Boros Auras family.

It's much more a descendent of the Mono-Red deck that emerged at the World Championships, but manages to cram in both of the competing wings of Boros Aggro to produce something distinct.

From the Auras side we have three copies of Shardmage's Rescue and three copies of Sheltered by Ghosts. I'm not 100% how I feel about this, except that my blazing hot take is that the fourth Sheltered by Ghosts should be somewhere.

This is a way less "Auras" deck despite playing the most important Auras. For instance: There is no Ethereal Armor to gang up with Auras-tribal; and there is no Demonic Ruckus. Ruckus was never exactly the most powerful Aura, but it was a great catalyst for Emberheart Challenger because it left so much optionality; and for "zero" mana, it could help Slickshot Show-Off reach lethal power in a single turn. To be fair, as a descendent of Mono-Red rather than Callous Sell-Swords, this deck doesn't even play Slickshot Show-Off.

Where is gets interesting for me is that the deck incorporates so much Burn.

Screaming Nemesis x2 is quite a cut... But you have to make room somehow. This deck does a good job with all the Lightning Helixes (even if one is in the sideboard) and, I guess thanks to sacrificing Screaming Nemesis on the altar of optimization, even can run two Boros Charms.

The new card that I really want to zero in on though?

The presence of Mabel makes the Screaming Nemesis cut less of a gaping hole. CITIZENOFNERDVANA has a 3/3 for three mana, just a different one. I've said before that Mabel is a split card because you can also play her at "five".

Five mana implies that you're equipping Mabel's token equipment, either buffing a creature you already have in play, or giving Mabel herself haste... and making her a pretty good post-sweeper topdeck. A better one than Screaming Nemesis at some points in the game, in fact.

We said earlier that a problem Boros Burn decks can have in Standard is a weakness of Gear Two. Well, the Cragflame makes grinding much easier. If an opponent doesn't have a way to destroy a token equipment, they're probably going to lose to it if everyone is just drawing off the top of their decks. This is a card token that is ready to set up Valiant every turn, or give certain of your threats haste when they don't start with it.

Hybrid Boros | FDN Standard | ipbanned, 2nd Place MTGO Standard Challenge 12/22/2024

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Flowerfoot Swordmaster
• 2 Mabel, Heir to Cragflame
• 2 Screaming Nemesis
• 4 Emberheart Challenger
• 4 Heartfire Hero
• 4 Hired Claw
• 4 Manifold Mouse

• Instants (10)
• 3 Burst Lightning
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 4 Monstrous Rage

• Enchantments (6)
• 3 Shardmage's Rescue
• 3 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (22)
• 6 Mountain
• 2 Plains
• 1 Raucous Carnival
• 2 Rockface Village
• 3 Restless Bivouac
• 4 Battlefield Forge
• 4 Inspiring Vantage

• Sideboard (15)
• 4 Destroy Evil
• 1 Exorcise
• 2 Screaming Nemesis
• 1 Sheltered by Ghosts
• 2 Torch the Tower
• 3 Urabrask's Forge
• 2 Witchstalker Frenzy

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Here's a deck that is less "Burn" and more "Buff".

Relative to the deck we just looked at, it removes Boros Charm and adds more creatures. The most unusual of which is Flowerfoot Swordmaster.

The purist in me hates Flowerfoot Swordmaster because it think it's a less consistent cast on one. But maybe it's more there to be cast on three? A creature - or pair of creatures - that is worse than Manifold Mouse, but still gives you some Manifold Mouse card advantage. Flowerfoot Swordmaster gives you more ways to benefit from having access to the Cragflame, though.

... so IPBANNED doubled the number of Mabels at the same time.

If I had to gamble on the future of Boros in Standard, I think this is the closest to the mature Foundations build that I've seen so far. Boros Charm is a little inconsistent for a creature deck, so I can see the cut there. On the other hand, you can't argue with the last Sheltered by Ghosts (even if it's starting out in the sideboard).

At the same time, this deck is one of the better builds at learning from earlier generations. We still have Urabrask's Forge as one of the most powerful pivots after sideboarding, and Witchstalker's Frenzy as a combination Angel-killer and my-own-Screaming Nemesis-killer.

"Take five"

LOVE

MIKE