Table of Contents
Almost one year ago I wrote a deck guide about this archetype. Although this deck hasn’t been very popular in recent months, following its footsteps has led me to realize that today, once again, Boros Heroic is in a great position!
Many things have changed. With the release of the new sets, many missing pieces that make the Pioneer version much more solid are now available, and even new cards begin to stand out as new staples for the deck.
Boros Heroic Kumon Shun 1st Place CCQ @ Bigred Japan
by Bohe
Pioneer
best of 3
0 mythic
21 rare
19 uncommon
20 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Creatures (16)
Instants (17)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$171.38
Sideboard
15 Cards
$90.91
A few days ago, Kumon Shun, a Japanese player emerge victorious over the opposition in a Pioneer tournament with an attendance of 45 people!
The first thing that caught my attention was the fact that this Pioneer deck is the first Boros Heroic list with a great result in competitive play completely playable in Explorer. This led me to pick up the archetype again and work with it this week during my streams, and after many matches, I realize that Shun knew what he was doing!
The deck is very fun to play and gives very good results in Explorer if you have the patience to learn how to play it correctly. Let’s dive into it!
Deck Tech
The gameplay is very easy to understand. Put one or two creatures into play, and target our spells to them to pump them up for big swings while protecting those creatures at the same time.
We’ll go into some more general tips in the Tips & Tricks section of this article, but in the meantime, it’s important to understand the reasoning behind Japan’s CCQ winning list and how relevant it can be to translate it to Explorer.
The only land we couldn’t play in Explorer is now on Arena. Access to pain lands solidifies our mana base, allowing us to have more consistent starts. Even if the deck could kill our opponent on turn 4, now, with Battlefield Forge in our main deck, the number of games where this happens has increased by a considerable percentage.
Skrelv, Defector Mite is undoubtedly one of the best creatures in the last sets. Having a creature similar to Mother of Runes or Giver of Runes is formidable in decks like this. It not only works as a lightning rod forcing our opponents to kill this kind of creature first, but also, being able to get the effects we want in the form of a creature, allows us to keep the plan of putting pressure on the board, making the strategy much more coherent.
Speaking of protective spells, Loran's Escape, another card from the recent sets, has been wonderful this time that I have worked again with the archetype. Our trusty Gods Willing does a lot of work in many situations, letting us pass over blockers while keeping our creatures safe from removal at the same time. Nevertheless, Loran's Escape lets our creatures survive in complicated scenarios where Gods Willing could not. Protecting any of our creatures from Supreme Verdict is the best example of this.
Lastly, Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is probably the best card of the last one and a half years of releases; and if not, without a doubt it certainly competes among the top 3. It may seem a bit strange to think about this card in this kind of explosive archetype, however, this saga is so good, that thinking about playing it whenever possible has to be on the table.
In this particular case, having a full set on our sideboard, help us a lot against attrition matches. It not only allows us to keep the gas, but it gives us more creatures to keep the pressure up, and in the long run, making a copy of any of our creatures lets us do huge amounts of damage from nowhere. Adding to this, the capability of discarding a Homestead Courage makes the drawback of the second chapter almost nonexistent.
Oblivious to the new additions mentioned at the beginning of this article, the general controversy could be about playing Clever Lumimancer over Monastery Swiftspear.
Certainly, Monastery Swiftspear is one of the best red one drops in the game, and many could think that playing four copies of it in any aggressive deck that plays with red cards is mandatory. However, playing with Shun’s list exactly as he decided to present it to the tournament, makes me realize that in this particular scenario, Clever Lumimancer has its reason for being on the list over Monastery Swiftspear.
The issue with Lumimancer is how fragile it is. With no help, this 0/1 dies to almost anything. Spikefield Hazard is a good example of how easy could be to kill this creature. On the other hand, Monastery Swiftspear has one more point of toughness and haste, which can make it look like a much better option.
Clever Lumimancer magecraft ability gives it +2/+2, making it better than prowess. It’s easy to think that Lumimancer requires a lot of investment to overperform Monastery Swiftspear. Nevertheless, in a deck with four Homestead Courage, we just require to put one single +1/+1 counter on it to make this creature better than Monastery Swiftspear every single turn after this play.
Yes, we probably lost 1 point of damage if we play Clever Lumimancer over Monastery Swiftspear on turn 1, but every single turn after this gives turn 1 Lumimancer more explosive and powerful swings.
Shun’s deck has two more particularities. Maximize Velocity can go unnoticed by many players as a playable card in this archetype. Nonetheless, it enables several cool interactions that can make us push damage on turns when our opponents didn’t expect us to do so.
Giving haste to Illuminator Virtuoso is fantastic! In the late game, having 4 or 5 lands with this creature in our hand + Maximize Velocity can easily win many games on its own. The same is valid for Dreadhorde Arcanist. Just imagine a turn where you go: Dreadhorde Arcanist into Maximize Velocity into Invigorated Rampage and then swing re-casting Invigorated Rampage from our graveyard. That is 10 trampling damage for just 4 mana. If we do the same play with Illuminator Virtuoso, that attack goes for 16. No doubt cards like Questing Beast would be jealous.
The second thing to notice is that there are just two copies of Tenth District Legionnaire, a card that tends to be always a four-of in any Heroic list. While it wouldn’t be illogical to play four copies of this creature, looking in detail at Shun creature selection let us understand the reason behind this:
- 8-one drops: 4 Favored Hoplite, 2 Clever Lumimancer, and 2 Skrelv, Defector Mite.
- 8-second drops: 4 Illuminator Virtuoso, 2 Dreadhorde Arcanist, 2 Tenth District Legionnaire.
Many players go for 18-19 creatures, but for Shun, things are very clear. We play four copies of each of our best creatures: Favored Hoplite and Illuminator Virtuoso, for turns one and two respectively. The rest of the creature slots are very well divided. We always like to play two Dreadhorde Arcanist, and if the creature curve stands on a total of 16 creatures, the logical choice for filling up that space is Tenth District Legionnaire.
The same goes for the one-mana creatures. If we are playing 4 Favored Hoplite and we want to play 2 Skrelv, Defector Mite for having 8 effective protective spells, two more one drops are the way to go. After explaining the reasoning behind the Clever Lumimancer versus Monastery Swiftspear dilemma, two copies of the white creature is the choice that makes Shun succeed.
After having explained my reasoning for the decisions behind Shun’s list and before presenting the sideboard guide, let me share with you a budget and a Bo1 decklists for this archetype.
Budget
Boros Heroic Budget
by Bohe
Explorer
best of 3
0 mythic
0 rare
23 uncommon
37 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Creatures (16)
Instants (17)
60 Cards
$26.94
Adapting this deck to a budget iteration is not that hard. Without counting the mana base, just 2 cards are rares in our main deck; Skrelv, Defector Mite, and Dreadhorde Arcanist. Both can be replaced easily for the third and fourth copies of Clever Lumimancer and Tenth District Legionnaire.
Talking about the lands, I prefer to play with lands that can come into play untapped during the first turns, however, if you prefer Wind-Scarred Crag can be played without many troubles.
Best of One
Boros Heroic Bo1 – Jegantha
by Bohe
Explorer
best of 3
0 mythic
21 rare
19 uncommon
20 common
0
1
2
3
4
5
6+
Companion
Creatures (16)
Instants (17)
Lands (18)
60 Cards
$171.38
Sideboard
1 Cards
$0.79
It seems clear to me that aggressive decks like this are very good to play in Bo1. Adapting and placing some cards that can help us against specific decks with high representation can be helpful in slower strategies. However, if we are playing aggressively, doing this would probably do us more harm than good.
Nevertheless, we have to remember that seven cards are allowed as a sideboard for Bo1 purposes. This means that we can still play Jegantha, the Wellspring.
Matchups and Sideboard Guide
Rakdos Midrange
Rakdos is easily one of our harder matchups. This doesn’t mean that is unwinnable. We have to maintain a strong mental and play our game without fearing they can remove everything we present to the table.
During game 1, spend our draw spells on dying creatures if we don’t have more creatures on our hands let us find more bodies to exert pressure with. We take out Defiant Strike from game 2 onwards
Showdown of the Skalds and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker are amazing in this kind of attrition match. Both cards let us play longer games giving us a high amount of gas while maintaining the explosiveness of the archetype.
Reckless Rage doesn’t kill Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and attacking over any other of their creatures is not hard, that’s the reason why we take out 3 copies of this spell.
Azorius Control
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +3 Showdown of the Skalds | -3 Reckless Rage |
One of our favorable matchups. Is important to play with tempo. Two creatures on the field are more than enough most of the time. Save the rest for rebuilding the board after a Supreme Verdict or similar sweepers.
Homestead Courage plays a major role in this pairing. Giving vigilance to our creatures make them avoid The Wandering Emperor
Showdown of the Skalds tends to win the game single-handedly after a Supreme Verdict. Speaking of it, save Loran's Escape for protecting our creatures against this sorcery. Gods Willing is not capable of doing it.
Never leave your opponent close to death but a Teferi, Hero of Dominaria alive. Strike for lethal, or kill the planeswalker first is mandatory.
Trade spells 1 on 1 against counterspells are part of this match. If Yorion, Sky Nomad is present, they probably would have Narset, Parter of Veils. This planeswalker has to die as soon as possible. This is because blocks our extra draws from Ancestral Anger and Defiant Strike.
Greasefang
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +1 Abrade | -1 Defiant Strike |
Don’t over-sideboard is the name of the game when we are playing decks like Boros Heroic.
They tend to don’t have any removal during game 1, play confident and develop the board as fast as you can.
We already play four one-mana removals for Greasefang, Okiba Boss. Hold up Reckless Rage from turn 3+ is generally better than progressing our plan.
Abrade seal the deal letting us remove Greasefang, Okiba Boss, and/or any hard-casted vehicle.
White Weenie
| In | Out |
|---|---|
| +3 Portable Hole | -4 Defiant Strike |
| +1 Abrade |
We are in another favorable match. Even if it doesn’t look like, our deck has many tools to win against mono-colored decks.
Gods Willing is a star in this pairing. Save it for the right time. Most of the time this let us win the race dealing lethal damage. Try to save our creatures from Skyclave Apparition, Brutal Cathar, and similar cards without other protective spells first.
Depending on the situation, playing Dreadhorde Arcanist before our other two drops can make the difference between winning and losing. Attacking with it and recasting our removal spells usually is enough against this kind of deck.
Thalia is the enemy here. Kill this creature as early as you can, don’t keep one land hands! Thalia punishes this kind of keeps strongly.
Do your best trying to recognize if you are the aggressor or not at every turn of the game. Holding the attackers back waiting for the right moment like Illuminated Virtuoso with Gods Willing or attacking with vigilance thanks to Homestead Courage can be decisive.
Tips & Tricks
- Sequencing our creatures properly is key: Favored Hoplite is our preferred turn one play. On turn two we want Dreadhorde Arcanist against decks that play Bonecrusher Giant, Bloodtithe Harvester and damage based removals that deals 2 damage like Fiery Impulse. Illuminator Virtuoso is preferred against non-interactive decks like Greasefang.
- Don’t slow roll against non-interactive decks like Mono Green Devotion or Greasefang.
- Skrelv, Defector Mite is better than it looks. The best scenario for it is playing it on turn one followed by a powerful two-drop.
- Try to keep Favored Hoplite alive against Gruul Vehicles, Crativity, Mono-Red, and the Mirror match.
- Illuminator Virtuoso shines against decks with very little interaction.
- Against UW and Rakdos, hasty creatures are superb! Tenth District Legionnaire and Maximize Velocity take many wins by surprise.
- Against mono-colored decks like Mono-White Humans, Mono-Green Devotion, and Mono-Red Aggro, Gods Willing do wonders protecting our creatures and passing over blockers.
- Don’t forget that Ancestral Anger and Invigorated Rampage gives trample. Sames goes for Dreadhorde Arcanist.
- Speaking of Dreadhorde Arcanist, playing it on turn two against Humans, Spirits, Rogues, Elves, and similar creature-based decks let us keep the board clean exerting pressure at the same time.
- Going for a 5/6 Favored Hoplite on turn 2 is the way to go against non-interactive decks. It also works very well on the play against other creature matchups when we don’t have removal or Dreadhorde Arcanist.
End Step
After four months of absence, writing again for MTG Arena Zone fills my heart with joy.
Boros Heroic is without a doubt a very powerful and quite fun deck. Being able to work with Shun’s list and learn the reason behind his decisions has allowed me to properly pilot the deck, get good results, and decide to use it as my main tool to get to Mythic this season.
I hope this guide has been helpful if you are interested in the archetype. Looks out for more guides soon!
Let me know your opinions on my social media (links below), and until the next article, don’t forget to smile! I assure you that it makes a difference.
Premium >
Enjoy our content? Wish to support our work? Join our Premium community, get access to exclusive content, remove all advertisements, and more!
- No ads: Browse the entire website ad-free, both display and video.
- Exclusive Content: Instant access to all exclusive articles only for Premium members, at your fingertips.
- Support: All your contributions get directly reinvested into the website to increase your viewing experience!
- Discord: Join our Discord server, claim your Premium role and gain access to exclusive channels where you can learn in real time!
- Special offer: For a limited time, use coupon code L95WR9JOWV to get 50% off the Annual plan!
Bohe
Articles: 105More Articles
New Brews for Outlaws of Thunder Junction Standard and Alchemy
New Outlaws of Thunder Junction Standard Decks for Day 1
Top 5 New Timeless Decks for Outlaws of Thunder Junction Day 1
Top 5 New Historic Decks for Outlaws of Thunder Junction Day 1
Best Outlaws of Thunder Junction Cards for Standard and Alchemy
B/W Control Standard Bo1 Deck Guide
Timeless Meta Report – Best Decks for Timeless Metagame Challenge, New Metagame Changes & Show and Tell Discussion
Standard Meta Report – Best Decks April 2024 Week 1
Timeless Mono Black Necro Vampires Deck and Sideboard Guide
Arena Championship 5 Explorer Decklists and Metagame Breakdown
Two Brews for the Explorer Metagame Challenge
Explorer Meta Report – Best Decks Post-Murders at Karlov Manor
Bo3 Explorer Metagame Tier List and Rankings
Bo1 Explorer Metagame Tier List and Rankings
Alchemy Golgari Midrange Deck Guide
