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Introduction.

Hello and welcome to the first volume of Adventures in Tribal-Land, some of the members of the site will know me from the weekly Tribal Apocalypse PRE run by this sites very own ShardFenix.  For those that don't I go by Melissafey on MTGO and I've been playing online since December last year. Previously I was a casual paper player since around the time of Onslaught, up to Lorwyn hence my love of tribal decks. I have decided to have a go at writing a series on classic tribal war decks. In each article I will cover a deck, my card choices, followed by match reports from the Tribal Apocalypse. Decks will arrange from pure aggro to control, from combo to mid ranged decks. Each of my articles will be based on a challenge which will spread over multiple weeks.

The Challenge.

The First challenge I have set myself is to produce decks based on the guilds from the Ravnica block. Each deck will be based around one of the two legends that each guild have and where possible focus on the essence of the guild. This week I’m going to take on the Boros Guild.

The Guild.

The Boros Guild are the militaristic guild, they act as the enforcers of order on Ravnica, and are more than willing to use force to keep everything peaceful. The guild is made up of premier righteous fighters, the proud determined Wojek enforcers and the Angelic warriors and spiritual advisors. All inspired by the Archangel guild leader Razia.  

In magic terms this is a combination of white’s ideal of maintaining peace and order whilst showing loyalty with reds passion and swift righteous nature. The combination of red and white gives us a good combined removal package which can be made to deal with any kind of permanent played be it a creature, enchantment or artifact.  We can also gain access to protection cards and pump spells. On the down side we have little to no card draw and similarly for preventing the casting of sorcery or instant cards.

The Legends.

So what do we get from the guildleader, well a 6/3 angel with flying vigilance and haste for a converted mana cost of 8. That’s not great and the 3 toughness could be an issue as that’s in the range of many common removal spells. This is where her second ability comes in, the in built creature only harm’s way effect can help her survive a number of removal spells. This legend would lend its self to a typical angel deck with mass removal and cards like moat to control or halt a opponents offensive whilst building up the mana base to start pumping out angels. Being in Red/White means we could also add some Firemane Angel and Searing Meditation combo, with cards like Lightning Helix to turn any life gain into additional damage against the opponent or their creatures.

The guild champion represents the foot soldiers of the guild. A 3/3 Human Soldier for 5 mana seems pretty poor however his power comes from his special ability. When he attacks he becomes 5/5 add into the fact that he actually boosts the power of attacking red creatures and the toughness of white creatures and suddenly he makes sense that he should be the finisher in a aggro deck.  His creature type also lends nicely to aggro deck as Soldier builds tend to be aggro orientated. He nicely sums up the idea of aggression and power projected by the Boros.

The Deck.

This week I want to concentrate on a build using Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran

Creatures
Agrus Kos's ability is of maximum value when our creatures are both red and white, when red/white creatures attack with Argus Kos they all get a +2/+2 bonus, so after examining our options. I went with the following creatures 

   

Three of these creatures have double strike or first strike, with Agrus Kos's ability these cards could be become difficult blocking prospects for the opponent, even Argus Kos becomes a 5/5. So I included 4 of each of the first/double strikers. This left us with 4 more creatures spaces. All our creatures so far have low toughness when not attacking so I went for 4 Sunhome Enforcer which will give us some much needed high toughness creatures. 

Spells

With our creature base in place its time to look over our non creature spells. This deck is an aggro deck, so I didn't want any combo element to the non creature spells. I've gone with a complete removal package to cover small creatures, fatties as well as artifact/enchantment destruction. I prefer path to exile in this deck over swords to plowshares as giving them extra life means they may have time to activate a combo or get out a fattie which could stop our assault. The final card is Glory of Warfare I added this card as pseudo set of Argus Kos, whilst the +0/+2 bonus only works on my opponents turn the +2/+0 when attacking can still be enough to push through some earlier damage. 

Mana Base
The curve topped out at 5 CMC, so I was happy with a total 22 lands. With the decreasing cost of the Ravinca Duels, I decided to put 4 Sacred Foundry in as well as 2 Boros Garrison. The rest was filled with basic plains and mountains, once again, I want to avoid too many come into play tapped lands, as I want to be able to play cards from turn one if I have them. 

The Matches.

Normally I would bring you the matches from the Tribal Apocalypse PRE, however all the game replays were lost during the latest update. So instead here are couple of games I played in the casual rooms. 

Match 1 vs. J.DustyVK playing Snakes. 

I choose to play first and mulligan down to six whilst they stay on 7 and keep the following six 

Mountain, Sacred Foundry x2 Boros Swiftblade Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran x2 

I play my first Sacred Foundry in to play tapped, followed by a Mountain and cast Boros Swiftblade.  Two forests and a Orochi Ranger on the opponents side of the board. 

I play my freshly drawn plains, attack with Boros Swiftblade and Orochi Ranger blocks, is destroyed. I follow up with a Boros Recruit and pass the turn. My opponent plays a forest and (Matsu Tribe Sniper). 

I put my Sacred Foundry into play tapped, attack with both creatures, opponent doesn’t block and goes down to 17.  They play a forest and cast Orochi Hatchery for 2. 

I attack with both creatures, no blocks and the opponent goes down to 14, I play a third Sacred Foundry this time untapped taking me down to 18 and play Agrus Kos. My opponent plays a forest, taps the Hatchery for two snakes. 

I attack with all three of my creatures, the two snake tokens block the Swiftblade and the Recruit, the sniper blocks Agrus Kos, all the snakes are destroy and my legend is unable to untap next turn. Two more snakes for my opponent and its my turn. 

I attack with both creatures, no blocks and my opponent is on 13. I Oblivion Ring their Hatchery, He plays Sosuke, Son of Seshiro, which they then attempt to enchant with Alpha Status, I react with a path to exile on the legend. 

I attack with all my creatures, the snake token block and only the recruit gets through, taking my opponent down to 8.  They pass their turn and attack for lethal the following turn. 

Match 2 vs. Pilot11111 playing Spirits. 

My opponent choose to play first and I keep my opening hand of 

Plains, Mountain, Lightning Helix, Disenchant, Hearthfire Hobgoblin, Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran x 2

First Two turns, both of us play lands, my opponent using fetch lands. Third turn no land drop for them but a Floating-Dream Zubera. On my turn I have no third land drop so decide to Lightning Helix his Zubera, to prevent any mass sac effects for multiple cards etc. 

They follow up with their third land and a Ashen-Skin Zubera. No land drop again on my turn so I path the Zubera for the same reason as before.  Opponent plays Wicked Akuba passes the turn. 

I finally get my Third land drop and play Hearthfire Hobgoblin. They follow up with a (Chainer’s edict) and I’m forced to sac the Hobgoblin, they attack with the Akuba, and use 3 mana to do a total of 5 damage taking me to 18.

I follow my turn with another Hobgoblin which is met by another (Chainer’s Edict) and the Akuba, brings me down to 13. I play Sunhome Enforcer which keeps the Akuba back for a turn. However my opponent adds to their board with a Graveborn Muse. 

I play Glory of Warfare passing the turn, they flashback (Chainer’s Edict) and I have to sac the giant, and I’m brought down to three life and concede.

Conclusion.

Well that is my first try at an article. The deck is fun to play but can be fragile when it doesn’t curve off well, it can be out raced by other Aggro decks or subjected to removal after removal to stop it getting board position. I took the deck to a 2-1 record in the PRE, the one match I did lose at 1-1 I had a crazy moment and mulliganed down to 4 cards in a effort to get the perfect draw so who knows.  Would appreciate any comments, feedback and also any ideas for future challenges. Join me next week where I cover the secretive Dimir guild.

Hugs and Kisses
Melissafey
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