I mentioned last week that I was interested in trying different takes on The Aristocrats. This is one such attempt. I'm swinging the mana to focus on red instead of black to support Searing Spear, Mark of Mutiny, and Boros Charm instead of Orzhov Charm and Sorin, Lord of Innistrad. I'm making the deck much more aggressive by adding Boros Elite, with Gather the Townsfolk to turn it on and Kessig Malcontents to take advantage of all the extra Humans.

A lot of the core interactions remain the same; we're just trying to be more aggressive. As a result, the Boros Reckoners have moved to the sideboard, where they join three Blasphemous Acts and a Skirsdag High Priest to form an anti-creature package. Boros Charms support my cheap pressure to beat Supreme Verdict decks.

Boros Aristocrats

Sam Black

0th Place at Test deck on 2/24/2013

Standard

 

Creatures (29)

• 4 Boros Elite
• 4 Cartel Aristocrat
• 4 Champion of the Parish
• 4 Doomed Traveler
• 4 Falkenrath Aristocrat
• 2 Kessig Malcontents
• 2 Silverblade Paladin
• 2 Skirsdag High Priest
• 3 Zealous Conscripts

Lands (23)

• 2 Plains
• 4 Blood Crypt
• 4 Cavern of Souls
• 4 Clifftop Retreat
• 4 Godless Shrine
• 1 Isolated Chapel
• 4 Sacred Foundry

Spells (8)

• 2 Searing Spear
• 4 Gather the Townsfolk
• 1 Lingering Souls
• 1 Mark of Mutiny

Sideboard

• 4 Boros Reckoner
• 1 Hellrider
• 1 Mentor of the Meek
• 1 Skirsdag High Priest
• 3 Boros Charm
• 3 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Lingering Souls
• 1 Mark of Mutiny

 

As the kids would say, "High Priest that is!"

Seriously, not sure what else to say here. His draws were great, and my trump cards worked the way I intended them to.

Going with 23 land instead of 24 is definitely risky. I think I've lowered the curve enough that it's correct, but I would have won game 1 if I'd drawn the fourth land and would have been in reasonable shape in game 2. Obviously, some mulligans were involved, and it's a small sample size, so it's just something to consider.

First of all, what I said at the end of game 3 wasn't true. I wouldn't have won by naming black; he could have just used the Victim on my turn, which is part of why it was only useful to name the color of a sorcery. Second, this was more evidence that a 24th land is something this deck wants. Finally, losing Orzhov Charm definitely hurts in the Olivia Voldaren department.

For the last match, I'm cutting the fourth Boros Elite for a Vault of the Archangel.

I'm not sure how real his deck was. I'm skeptical of the Wolf, although he was doing some things with it. I definitely like where my deck gets to after sideboarding against aggressive decks, which makes me feel like I really can afford to skip the Boros Reckoners main. The question is whether the extra synergy helps enough when I need to be aggressive, but games like the double Malcontents draw against Jund definitely make it look like there is some real potential payoff there.

Thanks for watching,

Sam

@samuelhblack on Twitter

twitch.tv/samuelhblack