Tectonic Giant is a really good card from the new Theros set that goes really well with the double combat steps Aurellia provides.

Joe_Ken_ thanks for the suggestion! Tectonic Giant would add some incidental damage and a bit of impulsive draw to the deck. It would also synergize nicely with Aurelia's additional combat ability. However, I don't currently struggle with dealing damage nor drawing cards, and I would struggle a lot to find something to cut, so I'll keep it in mind for future reference but probably not include it.

Hey thanks for sharing the list! I have been starting to think about doing my own version of a hatebear deck and even tested with Aurelia once, but I am still kind of caught between Gerrard, Aurelia, and Akiri Bruse for the really high powered deck that I want to build. Anyway, I have so many questions about which cards are performing and which ones aren't.

So the general question on all of these is how have they been performing? The first 2 I am very excited about and started testing just a few days ago Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Hushbringer. Thalia seems like it should put opponents in slow motion, and I am pretty sure hush bringer is the answer to just about every deck that I lose to.

Next up: How have Aven Mindcensor, Wayfarers bauble, captain lannery storm, combat celebrant, and swift blade vindicator performed? Mind censor always feels like its a turn too slow for me but is reasonable. Lanery storm was underwhelming when I tried it, but that was a few years ago and probably needs a revisit. Combat celebrant has generally had survival problems for me because of the 1 toughness. How is wayfarers been on turn 1 vs on turn 7?

So yeah overall id like to get your thoughts on the deck. Like I said I think Thalia and Hushbringer are going to do some real work as I adopt them more.

On the opposite side of the coin Ive been doing a lot of Aurelia deck reviews lately, so based on my past experience heres what changes I would make. The first issue that jumped out at me is the number of 3 drops. This always becomes a problem when you run a lot of the swords, however when deck building I will often shift the swords to the 5 CMC slot visually just because that is much more inline with how they perform. Anyway with this being the case I always want to make sure my 3 CMC cards are essentially over performing because its so crowded, and the other thing is that you do want to have some number of bigger plays as the game goes later or if someone ramps hard. I recently destroyed all the tokens of Avenger of Zendikar with an Elesh Norn which was 7 drop vs 7 drop...you won't get that by running entirely 3 drops. When the game gets big, you want some ability to go big as well.

I would probably cut captain lannery storm as a result. I would add signet or talisman in its place. Combat celebrant has generally also underperformed for me so In place of that, the card you need more than anything else in this deck is Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite its removal, and its team pump for a deck full of small creatures. In short its a game winner.

Depending on how winds of abandon is performing, that would most likely be the slot for generous gift/chaos warp. By running both of those I notice that glacial chasm and spore frog aren't nearly the problems they used to be for me. In general I don't love that wind's of abandon gives something back to opponents, it can be a problem sometimes, so I might go for Volcanic Offering instead since blowing up key lands or just slowing your opponents while also taking out the 2 best creatures in play of your opponents.

Next Outpost Siege has never been my favorite, Light Up the Stage is a bit more immediate, but lately Ive been really hot on Commune with Lava especially when you've got feast and famine in play since you can float mana. Commune has the ability to grab 2 early if you just need a land or you can scale X to go bigger in the late game. You'll need to play it a few times it does require a small amount of skill to get it just right, but Id go that route over outpost. Tome of Legends is a card that i am currently trying to get tested, but i never seem to draw it, however it looks very promising in Aurelia. Beyond that, I've also used Prophetic Flamespeaker in the past. It wears equipments well and will get you to look at some extra cards, and it works best in a low curve deck like this because of the nature of impulse draw.

Here are things that I very much want to add but don't have room for but you might want to consider. Blackblade Reforged it deletes players from the game, especially if you have double strike. Umezawa's Jitte its easily the most complicated equipment since its range of performance goes from does nothing up to wins the game. Neheb, the Eternal It just makes so much mana and its good on attacking and blocking also. Archangel of Thune predominantly to make your hate bears bigger and close the game quicker.

Here are some very interesting cards to think about that Ive used or have been trying to test more. Backdraft Hellkite slow but flashback on your spells. Helm of Possession Turn your 2 drops into someones consecrated sphinx or commander. Its somewhat skill intensive, but stealing other peoples stuff is absurdly powerful. You currently don't have a fog effect other than teferi's in the deck which makes me nervous, maybe its a meta call but I really like a fog that can be brought back with mist veil plains so Comeuppance or Dawn Charm depending if you value the lower CMC vs more power. Also as a nice, this deck does look a bit soft to other aggro or big stompy decks.

Next, lets talk about stax. You've got some light stax to medium stax happening in this deck. If you want to bring it to the next level here are some super nasty options. God-Pharaoh's Statue this thing makes it super hard for your opponents to cast anything and just grinds them to hault.. they won't be comboing off through this. Next, my personal favorite its very good as you get toward the Cedh side of things, is Winter Orb once again it crushes combo decks, crushes tatyova and golos style decks and other big ramp decks, and really any deck that doesn't have just tons of big creatures in play. Its very skill intensive, but the key to break parity is Feast and famine and Neheb. Next Blind Obedience its nasty, and if you draw enough cards its a win condition, plus life gain which is also relevant. If you find that other aggro or stompy decks are problem, take a look at Angelic Arbiter you basically don't lose to creature decks. Aura of Silence is also very real, sometimes a little slow but can come back with sun titan...happens occasionally.

I personally wouldn't mind seeing another protection spell in the deck. Many choices available here Eerie Interlude, Legion's Initiative Brought Back and even just Cloudshift Ephemerate bring some amount of protection but can also be used for the 3rd combat trick amongst other things.

Alright those are my thoughts for now. I am sure thats plenty to think about. Let me know if you have any questions :) -PJ, Commander Replay

@DespairFaction Hey PJ! Thanks for the feedback.

All the hatebears have been performing really well so far. Just having an early aggressive and evasive creature that can hold equipment and get the train going, the fact that it slows down opponents makes them great.

Captain Lannery Storm has always been a great card in my deck. Turn 3 when she comes out I can always seem to find a free attack that helps me ramp early on. Swiftblade Vindicator has been excellent as it holds equipment incredibly well. I don't think the low toughness has ever been a problem for me, so once again an early, aggressive creature is just what this deck wants. As for Wayfarer's Bauble (Commander's Quarter's echoes are heard in the distance) I've always liked how it can get a land. Drawing it late game is just like drawing a copy of Rampant Growth late game, something that never stops us from running it.

Winds of Abandon has actually incredibly overperformed in this deck. The floor of the card is a bad Path to Exile (which is still great) while the ceiling is a one-sided boardwipe that can only be protected against by a counterspell or Teferi's Protection. It's the white version of Cyclonic Rift. Not nearly as powerful, but I'll take one-sided exile board wipes any day. With that in mind, I really like all the pieces of removal I've got in this deck, what I really was talking about is that I want just one or two more slots I feel to get just a tad bit more instant speed interaction in the deck.

The draw power of the deck works really well. Outpost Siege has always been ol' reliable for me. The way I play this deck, a steady flow of a bit of impulsive draw every turn is exactly what I want. Commune with Lava,Prophetic Flamespeaker, and Light Up the Stage could probably get me more impulsive draw, but I don't like overextending in this deck, and I feel the Siege tends to be more reliable every turn. Tome of Legends does seem like it could be pretty good in this deck considering how often our general attacks. Let me know how that one works for ya.

The deck doesn't tend to struggle with other aggressive/stompy decks because of all the board wipes that are in the deck. I think Winter Orb probably works better in the weapons of war build than this build since the larger focus on equipment makes getting Sword of Feast and Famine easier.

The creatures are definitely the cards in this deck that I feel are most flexible. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is an amazing card, and I've definitely thought about picking it up and trying it before, it could probably swap places with Urabrask the Hidden. I really wanted Neheb, the Eternal to work, but every time I played it I rarely had anything to do with the red mana haha. All in all though I want this deck to be aggressive, so I don't want the top end of this deck to get too heavy, or I find my hands getting more and more clunky.

I do have to point out though that this isn't a deck meant to compete with cEDH decks. If you stuck it in a cEDH pod and have a strong, competent pilot really thinking about and making the correct plays, it would definitely seem really threatening to all the decks that aren't used to the aggression, but it could never win as fast as it relies on combat damage. I think it would sneak out 1 in 5 games in a cEDH pod. If we were to use the command zone deck rating scale, I would say this deck edges on the end of optimized, an 8.5 or so. I will say that adding back Helm of the Host would probably make this deck a tad stronger, but I took it out because I got bored of it haha.

So, TL;DR, I'm feeling pretty good about most of the deck, the creatures are the ones I feel best about swapping out, and I feel I want a few more pieces of instant speed interaction.

Did one play test game with your list. It played pretty well. Lannery Storm was reasonable, got killed before Aurelia came in, but it definitely helped with some sword stuff in the early turns. Took down a Maelstrom Wanderer and an Atraxa, but Etali dropped an Akroma's memorial that I couldn't answer. I flooded pretty hard which wasn't amazing, but I think that was just a variance thing. I felt like I was wanting a Mikokoro, Geier Reach or Arch of Orazca could have used some big late game draws, also maybe Spinerock knoll. Just a few tips, but yeah I took down 2 high power decks, and 1 was turn away from finishing so I thought it plaeyd

@DespairFaction I'm glad to hear that it performed well for ya. Unfortunately I didn't have that experience this last week haha. So I played 5 games that night with this deck and lost literally every game. It solidified what I thought that this deck could never be a cEDH deck. Unless we get the exact silver-bullet that we need, this deck just cannot kill fast enough before the cEDH deck combos off. I played against cEDH Zur the Enchanter & Demonic Consultation combo and cEDH Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, and just could not keep up. I definitely worked hard to punish them, but without drawing the right hate bear or board wipe to take them down, I could not win fast enough.

The other games I had pretty much every piece of removal in the game pointed at me, so every engine piece I had was blown up. Because my deck gets value from permanents, if every single one of them gets destroyed, the deck will naturally run out of steam very quickly.

So, with this pretty poor showing, there are a few things I learned about. 1) I had answers in this deck that could slow down, stop, or neuter the crazy decks I was playing against, but unfortunately, if it is not an equipment, this deck cannot tutor for them consistently. I was thinking if there was room to put in Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter then we would have some way to tutor for the right hate-bear. 2) How do you typically deal with players making very poor decisions that end up costing you and them to game to another player? You play on Magic Online, I play a lot in paper, so poor politics and emotions seem to matter a lot more when playing with paper in front of real people. How do you handle it?

Thanks a ton for spending time with my deck!

Sorry to hear that. Boros Cedh is very hard believe me ive been trying to make it happen for a while. You can build lists that can compete in the tier 2 and 2.5 space but tier 1 cedh is a monster. You essentially need mutliple blue decks at the table to counter each others combos while you slam stuff to attack with. It is hard. I have spent some time thinking about this equation. My first thing is to really give up on the flash hulk matchup, its so fast and so much stronger than everything else happening that I would just concede the fact that its probably going to win, but there are still some good hate bears for it, but the consistency wont be there. So I would narrow my focus to decks less than flash hulk. Most of the decks can be stopped or slowed down by the right hate bear or stax piece. So to make this work I would go with a full stax build. In Akiri Bruse I spiked some games against tier 1 lists with winter orb feast and famine, or if i had mana crypt i was able to turn 5 commander damage a flash hulk player. SO the keys will really be to stop your opponents from being able to win, which then gives you enough time to potentially win yourself. You'll then also need to stop their interaction. So yes, to fight Cedh you'll need a full hate bear stax list, and then you'll have to really grind out a lot of trial and error to find other little edges. I think cards like God Pharaohs Statue could play a role, and or going for the rule of law knowledge pool lock. But, there is a deck that uses these tricks check out some competitive blood pod lists. Its basically 4 color hate bear agggro/combo if you are not familiar with it. But you can see the stax pieces they use... run all that are available in your colors.

@DespairFaction yeah I've seen Blood Pod lists before, it's the poster-boy for non-combo cEDH.

So I agree, if you want to compete in cEDH level metagame, you want to go full stax, otherwise you'll never be fast enough.

I think either Akiri, Line-Slinger/Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder or Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero are the best generals for cEDH. Aurelia, the Warleader can't take advantage of stax like the other two.

So, I'm not looking to turn Aurelia into a cEDH level deck, those games just got me thinking about how I could take advantage of my silver-bullet type cards.

Oh I see. So without completely rebuilding the deck a few things that will help, but not completely solve the problem. I would imagine that Blood Moon should be pretty good for zur. Maybe adding Leonin Arbiter and Stranglehold since both of those decks rely on tutoring pretty heavily. As far the recruiters, they are ok but without a ton of fast mana I can see the world where you are getting your hatebears a turn too late. The other thing you can do is look at loading up on cheap removal. Darksteel Mutation and Prison Term are cards that they ahve to answer before they can do their thing. So for that match up i would side out a few of your least effective creatures and up the removal. You have to keep their commanders out of play until you can stranglehold or something like that. Another fun card that is unbelievably nasty is Helm of Possession although it might be a touch slow without more fast mana. But as soon as you can get to 6 you just steal their commander before it does the thing. It has won me games. But yeah main point is you gotta keep their commander out of play, and you need to be fast and efficient, and that will be difficult without reworking the deck since both of those decks are built for speed and consistency so you really are getting into Cedh territory right there.

I would like to point out Split Second Sequeira's 'Combat as a Resource' Aurelia aggro-stax Deck:

[https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/combat-as-a-resource-aurelia-warleader/?cb=1584051558]

The deck runs 38 creatures including lots of hate bears and of course Blood Moon.

There is also a "casually competitive" Commander video by the Split Second Youtube Channel featuring the deck:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2T4rpdpVeM

AegonTargaryen thanks for the suggestion!

I actually really don't like his deck. It's intended for a cEDH metagame, and I don't intend for my deck to be cEDH. He also runs way fewer lands than I'm ever comfortable running.

He does make good points about the hate pieces though!

@DespairFaction

Yo PJ! I've made a good amount of updates to the deck since we last talked about it, what do you think now?

Other cards I want to test out: Cartographer's Hawk, Verge Rangers, Backdraft Hellkite, Fiendish Duo

Took a look. Seems pretty solid. You could add mana geyser for the underworld breach wheel of fortune interaction. I personally am also a fan of the Neheb, Feast and Famine Aggravated Assault Combo. Also i just really like Neheb by itself. But beyond that, I dont see any bad cards in the deck so Its really just about tailoring to specific scenarios or trying to build little packages like the ones I mentioned. Theres a cute trick im working on right now. So I've noticed that I just win more games when I draw dockside extortionist. In an effort to make that happen more often, ive been experimenting goblin recruiter. Put dockside on top of your deck, and you can choose to follow it up with a Kiki which is also very good on its own with Aurelia. Goblin Matron works also as well in addition to the normal recruiters, just that these ones are also nice and cheap. In a small sample size its been effective.

As far as the new cards I think the hawk is gonna be a little slow and more mana intense than other options. But on the other hand when you just need ramp it doesnt really matter where it comes from, see burnished hart for reference. Havent resolved a verge rangers yet, but im very excited too. Ive only ever been able to draw backdraft hellkite when im already super behind so i havent had a great look at it yet. Fiendish Duo seems solid, just that you gotta be careful of mana curve, it competes with a lot of good 6 drops. But test everything out, you never know when a card will outperform expectations and keep me posted if you see anything you really like. Another recentish one I need to test is Wildfire Devils and just jamming in winota even if you arent perfectly built for it. Both seem interesting.

I figured I should at least comment on your list. I don't see how Luminous Broodmoth is good in your list due to the lack of sac outlets and how many fliers you have. Personally I think you run too many equipment, but it might be better for your build because going face is what it does. I do have a suggestion in Godo, Bandit Warlord > Stonehewer Giant. It has two solid abilities and can be used with Hammer of Nazahn to make sure your equipment actually attach if someone puts a Stony Silence effect into play.

I also think Bloodforged Battle-Axe and Puresteel Paladin are very good in this list. These two cards allow you to draw lots of value and lets you put pressure on the board without having to over commit. With Hammer out Bloodforged Battle-Axe has the ability to attach itself so you can get more damage with first strike and extra combat rounds allowing you to attach to different creatures too.\

I also think Goblin Engineer has a slot in this list over the lesser tutor effects for equipment say Steelshaper's Gift. If your not playing enough grave effects steelshaper is probably better though.

@WesomeNight thanks for commenting!

Luminous Broodmoth is currently in testing. I haven't resolved it enough times to see if it plays well or not. There are a few cards I'm trying out in that 4-drop creature slot, the moth is just the current one.

This deck isn't an equipment focused deck, so I only run the equipment that produce advantage (card or mana) or act as removal. And Lightning Greaves, because it's good (protection and haste!). If it were an equipment focused deck then a lot of your suggestions would be excellent, and I would change a lot of things.

It's rather ironic that you bring up Godo, Bandit Warlord because I actually just recently cut him from the deck. I couldn't disagree more with your opinion that Godo > Stonehewer Giant. The giant can win a game practically by itself, without Helm of the Host (which I cut because I got bored of it) Godo has never done that for me. Maybe if it was a more equipment-focused deck then Godo would be a lot better, but it's not. The 6-drop slot is rather crowded, and that CMC has to be impactful- after all, Aurelia is also at that CMC. I just never felt Godo being super impactful when I played him at six, that's why I decided to replace him with Fiendish Duo.

Anyways, I will be testing the 4-CMC slot to see if the moth is good enough. Other 4-cmc solid creatures would be appreciated. They have to be on the same power level as the other 4-cmc creatures you see in the list (Hero, Aurelia, Iroas).

Really enjoy the list, I can see you put some dedication into it. I am also building an Aggro Aurelia, would you mind taking a look and offering your suggestions? https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/04-07-20-flight-of-the-valkyries/?cb=1594161253

Always nice to see people give Boros a shot at higher levels of play.

I see that you got bored of Helm of the Host, so how about two different-ish ways to win? :^)

Coupled with your Sword of Feast and Famine, both Hellkite Charger and Aggravated Assault have the potential to generate infinite attack steps. Same win condition, different cards. They work wonders in my Scion cEDH deck (not to say that Scion and Aurelia are the same thing lol), and they might be worth considering if you haven't already.

I like your list! Hope this helps. :^)

Thanks for the suggestion Peoni!

I have thought of putting back in Neheb, the Eternal and Aggravated Assault into the deck. The problem I actually had with Helm of the Host (aside from the fact that it was most definitely boring) is that by itself it was such a clunky, bad card. It is part of a combo, but it's either a boring "you win" button or a clunky equipment. While Neheb and Aggravated Assault (as well as the Hellkite Charger you mentioned) are better than the helm by itself, I tend to like any combo pieces I have to be good on their own. Aggravated Assault and Hellkite Charger have too low of a floor for my liking and Neheb just didn't work when I tried playing him (as much as I really wanted Neheb to work).

My current list does have one combo- that would be Underworld Breach, wheel effects, and Smothering Tithe. This lets me draw my deck, play most of it, cast Teferi's Protection, and then pass the turn with a Grand Abolisher ready (then I just kill everyone by attacking). The reason I like this one..... is because all the cards were so good on their own the combo was unintentional- I didn't realize I had it until I came up with it in a game.

So while I currently don't plan on running any Aggravated Assault combos, it's still in the back of my mind to revisit at some point. I do want to make Neheb, the Eternal work, so we'll see. Thanks for the suggestion!

I have to second DespairFaction's recommendation of Cloudshift and the like (Acrobatic Maneuver, Flicker of Fate, Justiciar's Portal, Eldrazi Displacer) since they can be used for extra combats or as protection, and many can be found with Sunforger.

You might like these too: Signal Pest, Lapse of Certainty, Chance for Glory, Final Fortune, Last Chance, Angel's Grace, Tithe, Mistveil Plains, Gratuitous Violence, Berserkers' Onslaught, Treasonous Ogre, Knollspine Dragon

@king-saproling oh boy you threw out a bunch of cards without explaining any of them. Since you were nice enough to comment, let me explain my thoughts on them.

Short version: I don't like any of them.

Long version: I've already got a good amount of protection spells in my deck, including the two free ones that came from C20, so I don't feel the need for extra protection spells, especially ones that feel rather mediocre like the ones you mentioned. Getting more combats out of them with Aurelia is cute, but still doesn't make them any better than the protection spells I'm currently running (Deflecting Swat, Flawless Maneuver, Boros Charm, Teferi's Protection). Lapse of Certainty feels like it falls into the same category, I think I like Deflecting Swat much better.

The spells that let you either end the turn/take an extra turn but then you lose the game feel a bit too all-in for me. My deck can win just fine without them, and I'm not abusing any sort of combo. I have thought of angel's grace before, but it still feels a bit too situational for my liking. Most of the game it's gonna sit dead in my hand.

I'm not a fan of tap lands, so I actually cut Mistveil Plains from the list (the only tap land I play is Myriad Landscape because it's decent ramp). I also cut Signal Pest from the deck a while ago since it's cute, but not much better than that. Hero of Bladehold has a battlecry effect that's way more powerful. Treasonous Ogre is also way too all-in, and if I want a red ritual-type spell then I would look into Jeska's Will or Neheb, the Eternal or Mana Geyser before I woud consider the ogre. Knollspine Dragon is a cute wheel effect, but it's a whopping 7 mana. When you take a look at my two 7-mana spells in my current deck, they are game-winning powerful. The dragon isn't nearly as good as either of them. Then the big 5-mana damage enchantments I'd much rather have on a creature, which you can see is the case with my list.

So thanks for all the suggestions, but unfortunately I'm not a fan of pretty much any of the cards you suggested in Aurelia.

Sure thing fam. Yeah I usually just suggest a bunch of cards and let the reader interpret why I mentioned them haha. Sometimes people get turned off if you explain things to them that they already understand.

Sunforger finds tithe, tithe grabs mistveil plains, then you could sunforger again chance for glory. Take your extra turn, recycle chance using mistveil plains, use sunforger to play angel's grace. Repeat! Extra turns.. in Boros?! And indefinite indestructibility on all your creatures too thanks to Chance for Glory (i think it might be the only card that does that). You could even take infinite turns if you throw sword of feast and famine in there (grabbable via enlightened tutor, also found by sunforger!). The beauty of it is, all you need to start assembling the infinite turn combo is sunforger since it can grab all the other pieces.

I guess that'd be different than what you're going for here though. Nothing wrong with your list, I'm just spitballing ideas.

@ king-saproling Haha yeah, I know the cheeky things you can do with those types of spells. BTW I didn't mention Tithe. It's a good card, so that's more of a room issue more than I don't like it.

I like my combos to be composed of all cards that do something good outside the combo. It's the main reason I don't run Aggravated Assault, it's great for the combo, clunky and slow in this deck otherwise. The one combo the deck currently has is Underworld Breach + Wheel of Fortune + Smothering Tithe. All great cards that if I have at the same time, I win the game.

The combo you are mentioning I think would go much better in a deck that can equip Sunforger for free. This deck loves Sunforger, but it can't abuse it like, say, Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist.

Tithe will only help you win games of magic. :) Unfortunately its on the reserved list.

jakeyuki12 I like your Aurelia deck +1 from me