Boros Voltron with a Twist

Boros Voltron with a Twist
By @MagusoftheSalt

Hey Planeswalkers, welcome back to the Top Down Commander Blog. I'm your Sensei, the Magus of the Salt. Today we're going to be taking a look at a different kind of Boros Voltron.

I know it's a bit of an oxymoron to say "different" and "voltron" in regards to a Boros commander deck but I think you'll see what I mean as this article unfolds. You see, when I think of Boros Voltron decks, I think of commanders like Aurelia, the Warleader and Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, suited up with tons of equipment and several extra turn spells. This deck runs none of those. Without further ado, let's take off our shoes and step into the deck dojo.

The Top Down Commander

Let's start off by taking a look at the commander of today's deck: Haktos, the Unscarred.

Haktos is Magic: The Gathering's representation of Achilles from Greek mythology. He attacks each turn if able, to demonstrate his commitment to the fight (which doesn't make a lot of sense if you know anything about Achilles, but whatever). And as Haktos enters the battlefield you randomly choose either 2, 3, or 4 and Haktos gains protection from each converted mana cost except the chosen number; this protection from all but a single source is obviously emblematic of the classic "Achilles' Heel."

Protection is an incredibly valuable mechanic to have on your giant 6/1 commander because it makes Haktos virtually unblockable, except by creatures with the chosen CMC. Remember the acronym DEBT when dealing with protection; the creature with protection cannot be Damaged, Enchanted, Blocked, or Targeted. The twist of this deck will be manipulating that protection to best take of advantage of our commander.

On the surface, Haktos looks like he has all the potential in the world, but we're going to have to dig a bit deeper to unlock said potential.

Sensei's Strategy

Before we start figuring out how we're going to abuse Haktos, let's start out by looking at different cards that Haktos will always have protection from. At converted mana cost zero, we primarily focus on lands that can't target Haktos. Lucky for us, our opponents can't depend on a Maze of Ith or Kor Haven to shut down Haktos. You'll have to be more clever than that. Unfortunately, this protection from lands goes both ways and we can't target Haktos with a Slayer's Stronghold or a Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion. Looks like we'll have to be more clever too.

Moving on to the one drop slot, we start to blank some popular removal spells that would otherwise take care of Haktos like Swords to Plowshares, Pongify, Lightning Bolt and a revolted Fatal Push. Once again, this protection is symmetrical so we lose access to utility cards like Mother of Runes, Assault Strobe, Built to Last, and Built to Smash.

Remember when I said that we weren't running equipment in this deck? That's because of Haktos and his random protection. We never know if Haktos will have protection from two, and stop Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots, or protection from three, stopping any of the Swords. Plus Haktos will always have protection from Skullclamp. So, in my opinion, it just isn't worth the struggle to play equipment that might just end up doing nothing.

And finally, Haktos will also have protection from cards with converted mana cost five or greater. This will blank effects like Mind Control and Windgrace's Judgement. We can also use this protection to our advantage in the form of damage based board wipes like Blasphemous Act and Hour of Devastation which will leave Haktos, Unscarred (pun intended).

Converted mana cost 3 is easily the most dangerous CMC for this deck and the number we hope we don't hit when we cast Haktos. Being vulnerable to three opens us up to so many popular targeted removal spells like Anguished Unmaking, Beast Within, Chaos Warp, and Generous Gift. We've got a few ways to protect ourselves from these spells, but usually we'll just be praying to the Lords of Chaos to avoid it in general.

The Haktos Twist

So we've seen what Haktos cannot do but I'm sure you're asking what CAN Haktos do? How are we going to abuse this 6/1, nigh-unblockable, badass? We're going to put most of our focus into two abilities: Exalted and Soulbond.

Let's start off by looking at Exalted, which says: Whenever a creature you control attacks alone, that creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn. I recommend running every card with exalted that we can because even one instance of Exalted puts Haktos into the sweet spot of seven power (or a three hit kill). The best exalted cards include Battlegrace Angel and Sublime Archangel. Sublime Archangel will even grant all of our creatures Exalted, hopefully making Haktos swing for a ton of damage each turn.

Soulbond is a mechanic I was surprised I could even include in this deck. I mean, when I think of Soulbond I usually only think of Deadeye Navigator anyway. But the important thing about Soulbond is that it doesn't target. Soulbond says: "You may pair this creature with an unpaired creature." So as long as Haktos isn't already paired with another soulbond creature, you can pair away. The best soulbond cards include Silverblade Paladin, which grants Haktos double strike and Stonewright, which gives firebreathing so you can dump all that sweet excess Boros mana into it. Because we all know you'll have soooooo much extra mana in Boros.

And the last way we're going to buff Haktos is with anthems. Just like exalted, any single anthem will bring Haktos to that magical seven power. Double Strike is another powerful way to ensure that we can close out games as quickly as possible. Some of my favorites in this category include Goblin Oriflame, Dictate of Heliod, Gratuitous Violence, and True Conviction.

I'd also highly recommend running Akroma's Memorial and The Immortal Sun as they are both incredible cards for this deck. Akroma's Memorial gives Haktos and the rest of our board so many keywords and can usually close out games shortly after it comes down. The Immortal Sun is an anthem, a cost reducer, and card draw all on one so you'd be hard pressed not to include it in every Boros deck ever.

Staying Alive

While Haktos has protection from a great many threats, he isn't indestructible. The two greatest weaknesses to this deck are board wipes and being overrun. Haktos may blank a lot of single target removal, but he doesn't have any defense against wraths. We don't have a critical mass of creatures so we struggle when opponents come at us with a huge board. So let's look at some ways to shore up those weaknesses.

We start off with ways to make our commander indestructible. Boros Charm, Selfless Spirit, and Unbreakable Formation do a great job of protecting Haktos and any other creatures on our board. My personal favorite form of protection, though, is Archangel Avacyn. Not only does Avacyn come down at flash speed and protect Haktos, but if it flips, Avacyn acts as a mini board wipe that deals three damage to each opponent and each creature (except Haktos because she retains her 5 CMC and can't damage Haktos!).

To stop ourselves from being overrun by tokens, we're going to run a small prison package. Ghostly Prison taxes our opponents for each creature they swing our way while Crawlspace is going stop all but two creatures from being able to swing at us in general. Lastly, we're running Silent Arbiter which fits perfectly into our Voltron strategy.

Sensei's Top Pick

And now we've come to Sensei's top pick of the deck. Remember Sensei's top pick is my choice for the best card in the deck. Drumroll please...

Sanctum Prelate is the perfect partner for Haktos. With the Prelate, there are two primary ways to capitalize on its utility. First, you can play the Prelate after casting Haktos and choose the same number to which Haktos is weak. EG Haktos enters and you randomly select three, then you cast the Prelate, choosing 3, and shutting your opponents down from casting noncreature spells with CMC of 3.

The second trick with Prelate is to use it proactively to protect you from certain spells. Let's say you know someone has a Wrath of God or Fumigate in hand; even if your Haktos has protection from 4, blanking someone else's Wrath of God could be a lot more valuable in keeping Haktos alive and devastating your opponents.

More often than not, the best choice will still be to choose 3. As discussed above, three is a popular and dangerous converted mana cost in commander. Ultimately, Sanctum Prelate is a versatile tool that is essential for a well run Haktos list and is this Sensei's Top Pick of the deck.

That's All Folks

And that's my deck overview for Haktos, the Unscarred, Boros Voltron with a twist. I'm sure you'll recognize that this isn't a full deck tech. I thought I'd just give a preview and discussion of the deck in this blog, so if you'd like to see the rest, I encourage you to check out the Archidekt link below. If you'd rather I cover the whole deck and the whole list next time, please let me know in the comments, on Facebook or Twitter. Be sure to also check out the full video breakdown of this deck HERE on YouTube.

Until next time, Keep Kicking Ass!

Archidekt: Achilles' Heel
YouTube: Top Down Commander
Twitter: @MagusoftheSalt
Facebook: Top Down Commander

The Ultimate Self-Isolation Deck Tech

The Ultimate Self-Isolation Deck Tech
@MagusoftheSalt


Hey planeswalkers, welcome back to the Top Down Commander Blog. I'm your Sensei, the Magus of the Salt.

It's week one of the global Corona-Quarantine. People are out of work. Parents are struggling to figure out what we're going to do with their kids who are now home for the remainder of the school year and the summer. And somewhere out there, a select few hoarders laugh atop their thrones made of toilet paper preparing for the upcoming Ass Paper Apocalypse. So what are we to do during this pandemic paranoia? Why, brew extra-janky EDH decks, that's what! And today, I bring you the spiciest of nuggets with the ultimate self-isolation deck: Karona, Skipping Turns.

Our commander for today's deck tech is none other than the Karona (Virus), False God herself. Unlike most Karona decks, that tend to focus on tribal synergies or Voltron strategies, we're going to be focusing on skipping our own turns for value. We'll be loading the board up with plenty of negative upkeep triggers and then self-isolating ourselves and letting the world outside burn.

Stockpiling Our Resources

We start off our journey of survival like we do with every deck by planning out our ramp and card draw. Of note, we're running Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map, and Golos, Tireless Pilgrim to fetch out Non-Basic Lands, as we've got a few that are important to the deck.

The important lands we're grabbing are Glacial Chasm, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, and Magosi, the Waterveil. Glacial Chasm can protect us from dying to creatures while we're skipping all of our turns and, luckily, we don't have to worry about the cumulative upkeep because we won't have an upkeep. Magosi, the Waterveil, is a redundant way to skip our turn stapled to a difficult to remove land. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth pairs nicely with Karma to ping our opponents for each land they control on their upkeep; that damage is nothing to sneeze at when it's coming every turn.

As far as card draw is concerned, we run a lot of enchantments in this deck and as such are best suited running an enchantress package. The only notable exception is mesa enchantress, which I omitted primarily because I forgot about her while building the deck. My bad! Why don't you come out of quarantine and fight me over it!

Spreading the Plague

Since we're running Karona (Virus), we might as well include some Karona staples. Much like her namesake virus, Karona spreads to our opponents every turn and they can attack with her right away. We want to make sure that we're keeping ourselves as safe as we can so we're going to run the Vow Cycle and Assault Suit to keep the virus from spreading our direction. With all of these cards, Karona (Virus) is safe to swing at our opponents without being able to attack us.

Lock your doors and keep everyone out

Now that we're sure the virus can't come our way, we want to make sure that we're keeping the infected away as much as possible. We're going to do this by using several ghostly prison effects to make it less profitable to swing at us. Meanwhile, crawlspace will keep us from getting swarmed by tokens.

We've also got a few more ways of inspiring our opponents to avoid combat and focus on self-care. Fatespinner will hopefully entice them to skip their combat steps and if they need more gentle nudging we can lock the board down with Pramikon and Mystic Barrier. 

No self-isolation deck would be complete without the ultimate "stay away from me!" card: Solitary Confinement. Solitary Confinement does a great job of keeping us safe and once we start skipping a ton of turns, it makes us nearly invincible with no downside (since we don't have an upkeep). This card is crucial to surviving when we've skipped all the turns so be careful not to play it too early and risk it being removed.

The End Times Are Upon Us

Next, let's take a quick look at some of the ways we're going to punish our opponents for playing the game. We're running Primal Order and Ancient Runes to deal damage to our opponents each turn for each nonbasic land or artifact they control (respectively). Sulfuric vortex will also deal damage to our opponents each upkeep without allowing them to gain life. We wouldn't want them recovering after all.

One of the ways we can lose is if our opponents get a board full of creatures before we can assemble our protections. Doom foretold and Mogis, God of Slaughter are both great at keeping the table clear of attackers so that we don't have to worry about that.

Gibbering Descent and Bottomless Pit can help us to deny our opponents of resources. Pandemics are notoriously difficult to combat and its often tough to find the appropriate tools. Dreamborn Muse is another way to ensure our opponents have trouble finding the answers to deal with our board state.

We're also going to punish our opponents for drawing cards. If you want to find answers, good luck. Besides, you always draw at least one card every turn so it's like every upkeep, right? Right. Anyone who's run a Nekusar, the Mindrazer deck will recognize these next cards. Underworld Dreams, Spiteful Visions, and Fate Unraveler are all going to punish our opponents for drawing cards. The more you struggle against the Karona Virus, the more you're going to be punished.

Keep that White Blood Cell Count Up

While our opponents are going to be getting pummeled by the plague each upkeep, we're going to be building up our defenses. Just like a healthy white blood cell count, we'll be amassing a token army to keep us safe from harm (or beat down our opponents should we have to hit the panic button). Dragon Broodmother, Tendershoot Dryad, and Verdant Force are all going to make tokens every upkeep.

No token deck I build with black in it would be complete without including Ophiomancer. This little snake charmer is going to make a 1/1 snake with death touch every upkeep, unless we already control a snake. So it's going to make sure we always have at least one death touch blocker but the real trick comes in when you pair Ophiomancer with Divine Visitation. This is going to turn those snakes into 4/4 angels with flying and vigilance and since we're never making snakes, Ophiomancer will continue to churn out angels every turn. Divine Visitation is also just gravy in this deck turning all of our other token makers into Angel factories as well. And then, just in case you're feeling spiritual, Purphoros, God of the Forge is descending from the heavens to ping our opponents for two every time a creature enters the battlefield under our control. What can I say, I like my gods to be a bit more proactive.

Self-Care is Best Care

So far I've called this deck a skipping turns deck without showing any ways to skip turns. It's time to rectify that. The first essential skipping turns cards are Chronatog and its Totem. These allow us to skip every other turn which can be great in a pinch. Eater of Days lets us skip two turns and Meditate lets us skip a turn with the benefit of drawing us four cards. There aren't a lot of turn skipping cards so we want to get the most out of these cards.

Sensei's Top Pick

And now we've come to Sensei's Top Pick of the deck, my choice for the best card in the 99. For this deck that can be none other than Lethal Vapors. Lethal Vapors may not look like much, but it's ability can be activated any number of times on the stack, allowing us to skip an inordinate amount of turns all at once. When we've assembled a lock piece and a protection effect (let's say Sulfuric Vortex and Solitary Confinement), we can tutor up Lethal Vapors, skip 100,000 turns, and hopefully win the game as our opponents burn alive in the vortex, unable to touch us. As the only way to enable the skipping of an absurd number of turns, Lethal Vapors is Sensei's Top Pick of the Deck.

That's All Folks

That's the deck, folks. Thanks for taking the time to check out this article. I hope you enjoyed it. Check out the links below for a full decklist and more Top Down Commander content. Until next time, Keep Kicking Ass!

For more interaction, follow me on twitter @magusofthesalt

For more content, head over to facebook and search Top Down Commander

Find the full decklist for this deck, head over to archidekt.com-- Karona: Skipping Turns. 

The video breakdown for this deck is available at youtube-- Top Down Commander on Youtube