Arms Race (Boros Aikido) (Commander / EDH MTG Deck)

Arms Race (Boros Aikido)

Commander / EDH* Bracket 2 Casual Counters Group Hug Pillow Fort Primer Redirection RW (Boros) Voltron

ShieldOfHolyShadows

Land (43)

Enchantment (3)

Instant (21)

Creature (18)

Commanders (2)

Artifact (13)

Maybeboard

Creature (51)

Sorcery (7)

Artifact (41)

Enchantment (20)

Instant (35)

Land (20)

Planeswalker (2)

Boros aikido. Buff everyone's creatures and retaliate against anyone who attacks you.

Moxfield and Archidekt lists for convenience, though they may not be as current as this list.

Very casual, but more viable than it looks. Brackets are interesting; card quality bracket 2, game length bracket 2, philosophy somewhere between brackets 2 and 3, winrate bracket 3. It may be bracket 3 because I have a very high winrate against unmodified precons, but I'm aiming for 2 and people in bracket 2 have told me that they enjoyed playing against me and had fun.

(Foils are cards I'm playtesting or need to adjust in my paper deck.)

"If you're thinking only one step ahead, you're already falling behind." - Make Your Move

"A Waterbender lets their defense become their offense, turning their opponent's energy against them." - Redirect Lightning

What's "Aikido"? Show

Design Goals: Show

Maximize fun for the entire playgroup. Obviously this can't be perfect, but for context, my original playgroup played at sub-precon levels of power. I had trouble building decks that could play fairly at that level because I'm inherently an optimizer, so instead I gave myself a goal of optimizing the play experience of the group rather than the deck itsef. After a lot of research, playtesting, theorycrafting, etc., I came to an answer that's obvious in hindsight: people want their decks to do something, so let them do their thing. You don't really need to give them fancy toys to play with because they have their own already. I also do my best to not force people to do anything. I try to make most of my tools opt-in, but in a way that the optimal choice is to work with me. I don't force them to attack with effects like Disrupt Decorum, I just try to give them the tools to empower themselves to do what they want. This deck had good games at sub-precon tables and it has good games at upgraded precon tables.
Maximize fairness. One thing that can lead to not having fun in a casual setting is feeling like the game wasn't fair. This deck tries to make every action feel fair. If someone swings at you and you cast a response like Comeuppance, they're more likely to feel like they deserved it than if you did something like Ruinous Ultimatum. You are responding to their aggression rather than beating them down. On the flip side, most of the buffs are also symmetrical, which keeps you from racing out of control. You can't get ahead of anyone unless they're refusing to work with you, which is their own fault/decision. There's also quite a bit of interaction to keep the game more balanced if one person is pulling ahead of the others. To boil it down, I want my deck to follow the tenet of "I am at my strongest when I am defending myself."
Maximize winrate. After all is said and done, I'm playing to win and I'm very transparent about that. My goal is to slowly advance my board to a winning state and outscale everyone else if my opponents let me. However, I want my wins to adhere to the first two goals so they're fun and fair. That's usually achieved by being super telegraphed, or by being directly related to someone else's attempt to win and turning it back on them.
Minimize complexity. It's annoying to deal with someone taking 30 minute turns every game. By minimizing my own playtime, everyone has more time to focus on their own stuff and also reduces my threat profile. This also makes my life easier because I want to be able to play optimally even when I'm up until 3:00 AM and just barely functional. It's just easier to not need to track Smuggler's Share triggers or shuffle my library with tutors and fetches. Also, the easier your gameplan is to understand, the less threatening you appear. People see what you're doing, decide you're not a threat, focus on the immediate threats, and then lose to you in the 1v1.
Minimize attention. This deck is intentionally invisible. I try to minimize the number of effects that call attention to my board, whether those are powerful staples, repeatable triggers, or frustrating stax pieces. The less attention I draw from my opponents, the fewer removal spells get sent at me, the fewer attacks come at me, and the more likely people are to cooperate with me until the endgame. All of those combine to set me up to be a powerhouse in the final stages of the game without making anyone upset afterwards. Notably, this isn't about trying to win out of nowhere; aikido cards can be surprises but the real trick is building a board that's weak enough to not be the threat while being strong enough to defend itself and eventually grind out a win. You want them to remember having a fun game with you afterwards, not feel like they never stood a chance. You should be looking for things that have a high effectiveness-to-threat ratio; underrated cards that reliably have more impact than they draw attention. This point ties into all of the other ones, but is a primary metric I use when evaluating cards in my list.

Commander Choice: Show

Aikido lists are typically helmed by Queen Marchesa, giving access to almost every aikido card. My list started out this way as well, with a major focus on giving out +1/+1 counters for a more successful Deflecting Palm. As time went on, I kept finding myself wishing there were more cards that gave out counters because I couldn't reliably find them each game and I really wanted more versions of the effect. Eventually I realized that I could have access to it every game by dropping black and running Noble Heritage in the command zone instead. I was wary for a long time because it meant giving up staples like Inkshield, Rakdos Charm, Delirium, Backlash, Batwing Brume, and Vampire Nighthawk, but eventually I bit the bullet and locked in Noble Heritage + a red commander and I'm incredibly happy with the results. (If you're interested in the original idea, you should definitely check out the Discord in the Required Readings category below.)

Noble Heritage is excellent as pillowfort, intel, politics, scaling, and priming other players' creatures to be aikido'd, all in the command zone. It makes everything you want to do better, while giving you a ton of information to adjust how you're playing, such as giving you warnings about whether you can tap out to develop or if player 3 is gearing up to attack you. To accompany it, almost all of the red background commanders can be viable options. After playtesting a lot of them, my favorite is Ganax, Astral Hunter, even though people usually get confused when they see him. Ganax's flying is more relevant than people give credit for, whether playing defensively against flying creatures or as being a consistent proactive win condition as a 5 mana 7/8 (and usually bigger), easily swinging for commander damage kills against anyone who isn't properly prepared. His treasure generation isn't the primary factor, but it's kept me alive more often than I would have expected. Baeloth Barrityl, Entertainer is the obvious choice everyone asks about, so I'll go a bit deeper into why I prefer Ganax: Baeloth is far more threatening to a table which leads to him being targeted and killed off more often than Ganax has been. That's a major downside when one of the biggest strengths of the deck is consistently letting Noble Heritage give out stats and give you intel before people swing at you. It's one of those situations where the card that is "stronger" can potentially end up being weaker if it affects how people perceive your list. Forced combat works mechanically well with aikido, but arguably goes against the philosophy of not interfering with your opponents because people hate being goaded. It's highly threatening to their game plans, so they will kill Baeloth or they will kill you ASAP to make it stop happening. By removing that aspect, I've had more success at flying under the radar and building up to the game I want to see happen while using a "worse" option. Baeloth also lacks the same natural evasion and ability to block flying that Ganax offers, which is more relevant at casual tables than I think people give credit for. Note that I don't think Baeloth is a "wrong" option; a lot of people love playing goad and I think he's great at it. You'll need more protection than I run in my list but it's definitely viable and more mainstream than my variant. Livaan, Cultist of Tiamat is probably my second favorite due to Livaan's lower cost making her easier to keep on the battlefield, plus her ability leads to some fun combat manipulation and feeling like an arms dealer. I think she may actually be the most in line with aikido ideals because she doesn't have the easy proactive wincon since she has no evasion, which forces you to play the passive and reactive playstyle instead of just swinging in with an 11/12 flyer. My biggest complaints when testing her were that I didn't get much use out of her ability except for the last turn of the game, I lost the easy ability to swing in for commander damage kills, and I kept wishing I had a flyer to block creatures from chipping me down. I'm a sucker for Ganax's inevitability. Karlach, Fury of Avernus is cool, but far too aggressive for what I'm going for. First strike is nice, but it's not as reliable as flying for keeping your commander alive and attacking. There's also an argument for Wyll, Blade of Frontiers, who's very cheap and a Human, which could be beneficial for certain kindred cards if you wanted to build around them.

Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser: Probably the other best Boros commander. The draw is very useful and the goad/can't block can be quite strong. I don't run her as commander because (hot take) I think Noble Heritage is better, as well as people dislike being constantly goaded, which conflicts with my goal of making sure everyone has a good time. Nelly is a great draw engine but doesn't pad the board the same way Noble does, which makes it less likely to get a good Deflecting Palm off. She also doesn't have Voltron as an easy win condition, which removes a major proactive aspect of the deck.

Aurelia, the Law Above: If I could swap Ganax but keep Noble Heritage, I would probably run Aurelia. Flying and vigilance are the best keywords for this deck, and haste would help add a bit more punch for commander kills. The attack triggers are a bit inconsistent if you're not running goad and this deck can't always get three open attackers, but it happens enough that she fits in the 98. A list focused around Aurelia would probably look very different from this one, with mass goad and more attacking creatures.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight: I like Gisela. She's just super expensive and takes a long time to ramp out. She's also not quite as subtle as Noble Heritage; people may use her boost, but they will definitely target her or you if they think it's in their best interests to do so. A lot of the time when I see someone else drop her, that's a sign I need to swing at them because they basically just doubled their life total while halving everyone else's and the game balance just swung dramatically in their favor.

Aikido Color comparisons:

Boros (RW): Fundamental aikido. You can build an aikido list without these colors, but they are the heart and soul of the playstyle. Pros: Easier manabase, more room for utility lands, allows for color pip intensive cards like Phyrexian Vindicator and Truefire Captain, lower threat profile as Boros had a pretty poor reputation in Commander. Cons: Harder to find some basic effects like card draw, loses powerful aikido staples like Inkshield.

Mardu (RWB): The classic, Boros plus black to cover its weaknesses and add more tools. Pros: Black adds draw, removal, and a lot of strategic or political cards to the pool. Cons: less consistent manabase, typically less proactive gameplan since you don't have a wincon built into the command zone.

Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis (RWUG): Dubbed "4c Turbo aikido" by its creator, the goal is to draw and ramp everyone at the table for faster and smoother aikido games. Pros: Ton of draw and ramp, tons of card options. Cons: I've tested the deck and almost always felt color screwed, plus it can be risky to feed cards into combo players.

The Second Doctor & Donna Noble (WUR): A lot of people who like the spite lines move into Jeskai for the counterspells, draw, and clones. It's definitely a viable option and there's some fun lists in the aikido Discord. I personally prefer sticking with the two colors, having the proactive voltron wincon as an option, and avoiding blue makes the deck a bit more novel and subtle as a control list.

Colors: All in all, anything can work, but it's really hard to not use White, pretty hard to not use Red, then Black and Blue both have different complimentary strengths for the archetype, and Green is more utility than aikido with a few exceptions.

Really anything can be built with aikido philosophies so you can play anything you enjoy, but you'll probably be best off with something that doesn't immediately make everyone want to kill you for whatever reason.

Deck Theory: Show

The deck focuses on analyzing how opponents will respond to the cards you play and slowly growing your odds of winning each turn. If someone isn't going to target you, then objectively they should take the counters to increase their odds of winning. If they do and another player doesn't, the person who hasn't taken the counters loses winrate because their opponents get a combined +6/+6 (numbers obviously variable based on number of players) per turn and are likely to be killed off quickly. Then when it's just you and the people taking your counters, the odds are that their creatures have outscaled their lifetotals and you can kill them with an aikido turnaround card.

Just to visualize the idea that people should be taking the counters, let's look at an average turn. Example one: Beginning of your upkeep, you have Noble Heritage, Ganax, Astral Hunter, Boros Reckoner, and a Firemane Commando. You obviously take your own counters, boosting your winrate slightly. Player 2 can choose to take the counters or ignore them. Looking at your board, it's going to be difficult to do anything meaningful. They can swing everything at you, but Ganax, Astral Hunter will usually be big enough to kill something important, Boros Reckoner can either kill something small or redirect a lot of damage from something big, and then they'd lose out on the free card from Firemane Commando. If they choose not to take the counters, they can push some damage at you, but it'll come at a cost, which then leaves them vulnerable to the other two players. It's usually in their best interest to go ahead and take the counters and pressure the other players a bit and deal with you last with all the free resources they've accumulated in the meantime. So Player 2 goes ahead and takes the counters. Player 3 now faces the same decision, but with a second opponent who's also advanced their board state. They're going to start feeling the pressure to take the counters just to keep up the board state enough to fight in combat. Player 4 then faces the same problem. Each player's best option is to just take the counters and fight amongst themselves, which in turn gives you freedom to survive into the late game with a higher life total and the resources you've accumulated.

Similarly, if you're in a game where people refuse to work with you, you're going to continue growing your board state for free every turn. You need to play more defensively, but with enough pillowfort tools, you can grind people out with fliers, unblockable, and burn as you keep developing your resources.

There's also a major focus on player psychology. This deck is intentionally invisible. It doesn't draw attention to itself. It doesn't interfere unless necessary. It doesn't have locks or powerful value engines. It doesn't force anyone to do anything. It's not the strongest at the table. It's not running combos, it's just playing down fair or underrated magic cards. Additionally, the instants are almost entirely reactive, meaning people don't notice you unless they're going for chip damage (which is fine) or a lethal, which you can punish in a spectacular fashion.

Normal group hug has everyone drawing cards, but that helps control and combo far more than creature-based decks. By rewarding board presence exclusively, we subtly shift the balance towards decks that use creatures as their win condition and help prevent them from stalling out. Encouraging damage as a win condition also makes it easier to kill someone with a turnaround card later once they've been beaten down a bit. The ability to give out so many total stats makes it an excellent king-slayer build, as any player who becomes archenemy has to deal with you giving out stat boosts and having interaction to pick apart their win conditions.

The longer the game goes on, the better of a position you'll be in. Noble Heritage is most impactful when you can force a board stall, where everyone is just sitting there and slowly growing, but not gaining massive amounts of life. If you're running them and have a Crawlspace or Ghostly Prison effect out, people are encouraged to buff one creature up to be huge, and if they attack with it, it's easier to punish than an army of tokens.

The deck can be proactive with its own large creatures, which helps a lot when there's a combo or stax player you need to help rush down. If the game stalls out, the spite creatures plus the flying creatures can usually wear someone down by swinging at them for a few turns. Unblockable cards like Rogue's Passage are also very useful once you've established your board and you need to chip away at someone or sneak in commander damage.

Gameplay Tips: Show

The deck is assuming that games will last from 7-15ish turns. It's geared to a environment where you won't be punished for tapping out for the first few turns of the game, so it's dense on lands and incremental advantage, rather than pure early tempo and answers.

Mulligan: I recommend keeping a hand with at least 3 lands and a white mana source by turn 2. The deck can function even if it starts with a hand of 7 lands, but it has too many non-games if you keep a hand with 2 or fewer. A perfect hand would be 3 untapped dual lands, a ramp source, at least one reliable source of draw, and some removal or spite creatures just to have on hand. Muliganing for a hand with 3 lands and a ramp source is probably the best balance between card advantage and early consistency.

Early game: The ideal early game is developing into Noble Heritage + Ganax as soon as possible. Typically, that looks like T1: Land, T2: Noble, T3: Ramp, T4: Ganax. Or it could be T3: 3 drop, T4: 3 or 4 drop, T5 Ganax.

Midgame: Midgame is having Ganax on the field and being free to develop more flexibly. With Noble Heritage, you have a lot more information about who's looking to attack you or not, which means you can decide whether you want to hold up mana for interaction or tap out to develop more onto the board. You want to be in a position where you're strong enough that people don't want to bother trying to get free damage on you, while being weak enough that people don't try to remove your stuff or kill you off. If you have opportunities, try to spread around a bit of commander damage, prioritizing anyone you'd struggle against in the 1v1, whether it's a combo/control player, or a lifegain deck that's harder to kill with burn damage. You also want to be sure to not overcommit into wipes, so you don't always need to drop redundant effects if you have an extra in your hand.

Late game: Someone is gearing up to win. Either they've already eliminated a player or two, or they're about to. By this time you'll probably have developed your hand and have a lot of aikido effects available. Ideally anyone left is at low enough life that you can kill them with either a redirection effect or a full swing-out. Do whatever it takes to sneak in damage against the person who's winning without dying yourself, ideally backed up by a fog effect to stay safe even if you're fully tapped down. If it gets down to a 3 player game, I'll almost never kill the third player unless I can guarantee it'll lead to a win; make the winning opponent spend their energy and resources on trying to eliminate both of you.

Very rough wincon breakdown: Voltron- 60%. A remarkable number of decks can't handle a flying beater.

Aikido- 30%. Aikido handles hyper aggression as well as gives you freedom to attack with protection in your hand. Never underestimate the power of Gideon's Sacrifice + Mogg Maniac in a 1v1.

Beatdown- 10%. There's a lot of generic flying creatures that can chip out damage, or you can swing in with a redirection creature if someone's low enough and they have to take some damage either way.

Good matchups:

All Aggro and Midrange: You help them kill everyone else and then either beat them down in the air or redirect their damage back at them.

Bad matchups:

Heavy control: You want creatures on the board and you don't want your spells countered. Ideally kill them before it gets into a 1v1. Giving out +1/+1 counters baits them into having to use their wipes early and more often than they really want to because the board is too dangerous for them to ignore.

Combo: Depends on the actual combo. If it's "deal a billion damage" or "target player loses the game", you're probably fine because you can redirect it. Anything else is probably playing on an axis you can't touch. Usually they have a mediocre board state, so kill them off and keep some removal on hand. Usually I'll send normal creatures at the combo player and my commander at the late-game threats to spread normal damage and commander damage.

Angels: Angels specifically lean towards large flying and vigilant beaters with lifegain support. Flying and vigilance make it hard to damage them, and lifelink makes it hard to burn them down. I usually try to get in a few hits with my commander early and hope I draw into wipes, damage prevention based fogs (to block lifegain), or sources of unblockable.

Counters synergy: If someone gets extra value from putting counters on their cards (like Fathom Mage), they can race ahead of the other decks by you enabling them. Be willing to remove some of their extra value pieces.

Shalai and Hallar: This deck gets a special shout-out as pairing a vigilant flyer with counters synergy. You'll help them kill the table off very quickly, but you need some way to get damage into their life total before you lose. Creature removal is very relevant here.

Reviews: Show

Lists inspired by this one:

semaJ's Noble Dragon Aikido - Be the Final Boss - Includes primer with video about Noble Heritage.

William's 3 am - Includes primer with game logs.

Baptiste's Angels & Dragons - Aikido Blink - A blink focused list with a lot of interesting ideas.

Merakon's Boros Aikido - Includes primer with change log.

If you want your list featured, definitely let me know! I'm usually hanging out in the aikido Discord and I'm excited to chat. Just ping @ mrfrank135 or look for my name in the welcome banner of primers.

"I've gotten a few wins now with [your] boros aikido deck. Return the Favor does so much work."

"won 3 out of 4 with [your] Boros aikido this week. One game was Selfless Squire in response to a massive Crackle with Power. Rogue's Passage got squire through to win the game on my following turn. Other two wins were Martyrdom effects onto Boros Reckoner typed dudes in response to massive armies of tokens swings. Getting Mangara, the Diplomat and Monologue Tax on the board in one game felt so good. Having Noble Heritage in the command zone feels like cheating. This deck is the epitome of final boss energy. You just get left alone until its a 1v1 and you're always gonna be set up with so many ways to take the win from there. Aristocrat decks are the only thing I'm struggling against. Those decks usually seem vulnerable to Ganax attacks. But Ganax is never faster than a 3 turn clock."

"Noble Heritage is the mvp of the deck for sure. If everyone takes the counters, I know I'm safe to tap out and build my board state. Once someone stops taking counters, thats when I to start hold mana open to reflect damage and who I need to be prepare to reflect it to. Theyre basically declaring on my upkeep that theyre attacking me next turn or trying to win the game soon. That information at that time is so valuable. you really cooked with this list. It's been hard to enjoy playing any other deck."

"so, instead of incentivizing the board into killing each other via carrot and stick, you just incentivize the italian spiderman standoff and benefit from people going grow tall due to how you made your deck? Make sense that stuff like Rite of the raging storm doesnt give any benefit to the strategy, or duelist heritage, and that you have pillowforts to make the stall happen for you from a creature damage point of view"

"seems like your tools against go wide is to have martyr effects, which still works with go tall. And seems like the board is threatenign enough to be at least somewhat active in taking out combo / aristicrat players, but its still the same weakspot for aikido as for marchesa. Good stuff man, managed to get a different spin on aikido thats mostly similar in a lot of how it plays out, but still ends up being different enough to be fun and 'new'"

"2 wins with [your] boros list this week. Game 1 against dimir rogues, abzan tokens and some sort of jund grave robbing beatdown. I played only 4 spells: Orzhov Advokist , Brash Taunter, Truefire Captain and a Banishment. Banishment took out a card from an abzan tokens deck that was close to doing enough incidental drain to kill me in 2-3 turns. Otherwise opponents got greedy with +1 counters, bashed each other to single digit life totals with Rogues gettin taken out first. Then the remaining two realized that swinging into my spite creatures or blocking them would kill them both. Game over. Second game against esper Urza, orzhov Bats, and izzet goad was the default curve of Noble Heritage into 3cmc mana rock into Ganax then set up spite combo and wait for the win."

"It's not just fun for me. I've been told its fun to play against several times already. You give away a little bit of resources which everyone loves while building your own board. You don't really disrupts others game plans unless they are aggressing towards you. And you know when to prepare for the aggression when they dont take the counters."

"Yeah ive been playing it for a few months now, really fun and its got a really good win rate too."

"played a few commander games, and then a few King games. It was interesting: Ganax can hold its own in most situations, as long as its not removed, you can threaten commander damage kills so easily. You need very little enablers, flying is great. for the commander games people just keep taking counters lol, but I only ended up winning 1/3 due to two infinite combos. I will say that it does feel weaker than Queen Marchesa, as Marchesa really is just so universally good. Her card itself provides so much effect, and black allows for three big Aikido cards, Backlash, Delirium, Inkshield. But ganax for sure feels more fun to play than Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis, I actually do something each turn (usually flying at someone with Ganax lol) I also notice that its mana is definitely slower than Queen Marchesa, even with all the ramp and parasite cards. I really want to run Sunforger, but the Mana cost seems just too high, even in late game."

"Update on the deck you inspired (Ganax). Currently have 6 wins and 7 losses. It's hilariously fun to play and flies so low to the ground. Most wins are commander damage finishes, as you stated in your primer. Some of the new cards like All Fates Scroll, Enter Avatar State, and Redirect Lightning are great."

"So I've now tried every flavor of aikido with my playgroup. Feels like [your] boros build suit's me and my group best."

"In a game last night, I’m on Boros aikido while one player is going to off sac’ing lands, draining the table and putting counters on hearthhull. He tries to dig for one more spell to finish off me and the other remaining player. I activate Brash Taunter to fight a 23 power hearthhull and then return the favor the trigger to dome both players for 23 and win."

Intentional Exclusions: Show

Sunforger: This is a Sunforger deck minus the actual card because it's such a dramatic change to the gameplay. Sunforger makes you archenemy and removes the "wow" factor when you're tutoring your answers every turn. I'm also lazy and don't like shuffling commander decks.

Duelist's Heritage: Great card but I want to minimize the number of decisions I have to make and I want to avoid blatantly picking on someone, especially if they're behind on board already. I want my buffs to be my opponents' choice, not my own when I can.

Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon: Great effects but I don't want to be the bad guy.

Teferi's ProtectionGC: Too meta and I have enough fogs and redirections to usually be able to skip a fog without an aikido theme, even one of the best ones ever printed. Plus, if I save my board, I immediately become archenemy and I'd prefer to win a little bit more subtly than that.

Boros Charm: See above about board wipes, but also I want to avoid introducing infinite loops with the spite creatures.

Blasphemous Act and Star of Extinction: I want to try to minimize board wipes and rely on pillowfort tools instead. Damage based wipes like these will win the game, but winning out of nowhere just makes people remember you as a combo deck and makes them need to kill you in future games.

Agitator Ant: People are way less likely to take these counters. If you're the only one taking them, you start to grow above the rest of the table and become the threat. It's also much worse for player 4 than player 2; people committing to attacking is much more difficult than them committing to NOT attacking you because so much can change over a turn or two.

Disrupt Decorum and Taunt from the Rampart: Goad is a board wipe and a win condition that makes people irrationally angry. I don't need to force people to attack if I can encourage them, and I prefer playing subtly if I can. Still, would be great inclusions

Olorin's Searing Light: It's very close to being on theme, but I don't like how it blasts everyone. If someone's working with me and taking the counters, I don't want to betray them by blasting them unprovoked. It's also harder than I expected to turn on the spell mastery.

Blazing Sunsteel and Fiendlash: There's two ways this deck goes accidentally infinite: the first one is a creature that doesn't die when it takes damage, and something that allows it to damage itself repeatedly. Example combos are Blazing Sunsteel + Brash Taunter, Boros Reckoner + Fiendlash + Boros Charm, Brash Taunter + Fiendlash + Gideon's Sacrifice, etc. I'm pretty sure I've removed all of the loops from this list, but it's been intentional and a lot of work.

Furnace of Rath and Dictate of the Twin Gods: The second way this deck goes infinite is a way to keep doubling damage infinitely. So, same requirement of a creature that doesn't die when it takes damage, but slightly more flexible, like Furnace of Rath + Phyrexian Vindicator + Gideon's Sacrifice or Spitemare + Boros Charm + Furnace of Rath

Crescendo of War: I adore this card. I've added it and cut it like 5 times. It's an incredibly fast clock and adds a lot of risk to a table. The reasons it's staying out of the list are that it's too likely to just hand a win to the token player with dozens more creatures than you, and the fact that it's just unnecessary to introduce so much risk when you can just take it slow and develop further.

Trouble in Pairs and Esper Sentinel: These cards are super staples. They draw a lot of cards and a lot of threat/attention. They would definitely make my list better, but I don't want to increase the threat level that much.

Smothering TitheGC: "Do you pay the two?" is super annoying and draws a ton of attention and aggro. Strong, but not what I'm going for.

Mangara, the Diplomat and Aerial Extortionist: Solid draw engines but I'm lazy and don't want to track triggers.

Sol Ring: This is a casual deck that tries to play slightly slower than other casual decks. Sol ring leads to explosive starts that I don't really want. Be the change you want to see in the world!

Most two mana rocks: Two mana rocks are great, but they actually compete with the slot for Noble Heritage. I've decided to slot in 3 CMC rocks instead for the additional utility they have attached. There's an inherent value in having cards cost less mana to play, so there's obviously merit in running them, but this way lets my list condense more effects into fewer slots.

Ill-Tempered Loner : I'm too lazy to track day/night and the flip side goes infinite with Brash Taunter.

Screaming Nemesis: A nuclear answer to a casual problem. It would definitely be a strong card, but it would draw way too much fear and aggro from anyone who actually wants lifegain in their lists. Not worth the attention in my list.

Coalhauler Swine: Too expensive and doesn't even keep me from taking the damage. Not what I'm looking for.

Chaos Warp and Tibalt's Trickery: I've been burned a few too many times to rely on these. I don't feel like I need chaos warp with my removal package already. Tibalt's has more upside as a counterspell, but also more risk by guaranteeing a hit for the opponent. Most of my stack interaction is covered by redirection spells like Return the Favor, but it could be a good fit in the right meta.

Lapse of Certainty and Reprieve: As a player, I'm bad about knowing what to counter and what to not, so these typically sit in my hand until I die. These don't even effectively counter their spells, usually meaning you'll just need to deal with the spell again on the next (or same) turn. They have their merits, but it's not necessary in my meta yet.

Frontier Warmonger, Frenzied Saddlebrute, and Skyboon Evangelist: These cards were underwhelming for me in practice. People don't remember effects like these because they're not their cards and they didn't prepare for them. It also doesn't help to remind people every combat about you existing and incentivizing people to attack each other. The more you politic, the more people will notice that you're trying to manipulate them, and some people respond poorly to that, so I find it's better to just let people do their own things without all the fancy incentives. I've had much more luck with just +1/+1 counters just because they're easier for people to handle on their own.

Crawlspace: This card is fascinating because it both over and underperformed for me. The people most affected by it saw it as a very threatening card and went out of their way to remove it or remove me. But it also lead to weird situations where I had a lethal punish if someone had completely swung out, but not if they only swung one or two, and I couldn't capitalize on them. I ended up trimming it for more space in the list.

Take the Bait and Windshaper Planetar: These cards haven't played well for me in this deck. People usually don't attack you until you're the last one left and then they're usually just expensive fogs. For take the bait, you can do some fun tricks with things like Brash Taunter and Phyrexian Vindicator, but usually there's better ways to capitalize on an attack. There's a tech where you can use it when an opponent attacks another opponent and give them a free combat, but that's a bit more aggressive than I like to play.

The Ozolith: Saving counters is obviously strong. The problem is that it makes you the obvious threat. If everyone gets wiped and first thing you do is cast a 12/12, people are going to target you. I believe there's value in letting people reset you if they feel like they need to instead of feeling like an inevitable threat they can't deal with.

Arcbond: This card basically only exists as a combo piece. The most common effects I can see happening are arcbond + lifegain creature: gain hundreds of life. Arcbond + spite creatures: do a ton of damage to everyone. Arcbond + indestructible spite creature + damage redirection (like Gideon's Sacrifice): infinite damage. Arcbond + indestructible opponent creature + full turn redirection effect (like Comeuppance): infinite damage. It's a powerful combo piece, but I'm trying to stick to just playing "fair" magic when possible.

Volcano Hellion: This card is way too good at just killing someone, especially when pairing a spite creature and a damage redirection effect so it doesn't cost you any life. This deck is intentionally slower, telegraphed, and reactive and this card is none of those things.

Humble Defector and Yes Man, Personal Securitron: These cards require targeting a player to give it to them. If you give it to a friendly opponent who's taken Noble counters, the protection means they can't give it back to you. It's an awkward bit of anti-synergy.

Insurrection: Slightly too good at winning the game in slow metas. It's a bit anti-climactic to be on the receiving end of, plus it's a proactive wincon without any telegraphing.

Budget, Cuts, Upgrades, and Personalization: Show

Budget: My list aims to be on the cheaper side because that's the way I prefer to build my decks, plus most of the cards here are non-meta filler. However, there are a few cards I've splurged on because they're fun and play well. If you want to trim the list further, sort the list by card price and just start trimming from the top. No card is mandatory, they're just good at what they do and can easily be replaced by something that appeals to you more.

Cut watchlist: Channel Harm: 6 CMC for a card that can be fizzled with a single removal spell is sketchy. I've debated dropping it for Sunforger to keep the redundancy, but I still think Sunforger is above rate for what I'm going for in bracket 2.

Potential cut filters: Show

Upgrades: If you're looking for a stronger list, definitely check out the cards in the Intentional Exclusions section and see if anything interests you. In general, I think the easiest upgrades are Sunforger, better draw engines like Trouble in Pairs and Esper Sentinel, pumping up the manabase, replacing the 3 mana rocks with cheaper versions, and adding in the combos I've intentionally kept out.

Personalization: The deck is very flexible and there aren't any cards that are 100% necessary to the list so you can trim most parts and replace them with ones you prefer. My list is HIGHLY personalized and there's a reason for every card in here, but obviously my thought processes may not match up with yours. If anyone brews any variations of this list, I'm always happy to see how people make it their own and get ideas. If you end up brewing your own, let me know and I'll plug it in the Reviews tab so other people can check it out. I've been constantly brewing and tweaking this list for multiple years now and there's always room to adjust it further.

New card watchlist:Black Panther, Most Dangerous, Heroic Sacrifice

Every single card choice: Show

This has been a lot of work to set up but I'd really like to flesh it out at some point; maybe breaking each card down by each design goal but I'm not sure how to format that without it becoming a huge mess. As a warning, there's a decent chance it's outdated if I've made any adjustments recently.

Instants: Show

Bolt Bend: One mana, spell or ability, single target. Not the best version of the effect, but it's hard to compete with Deflecting Swat. Spell redirection effects are incredibly good, whether they're winning the game against Door to Nothingness and Aetherflux Reservoir, or just being a 1 for 2 when someone tries to remove one of your creatures. Bolt Bend works really well with Ganax giving a treasure when he enters, since you can protect him almost right away (they can cast removal in response to the Noble Heritage trigger before he's big enough).

Boros Fury-Shield: I love the flavor on this card because I think offensive shields are really cool. This one has quite a few techs; The card doesn't care about how much damage was prevented, meaning you can burn someone before damage is dealt, or if you use priority correctly, you can let the creature do damage, then cast fury-shield after combat to deal damage. This is most useful when you block with a spite creature/aikido card and then double up the damage, or you can let someone kill one of your opponents and then burn them too. Note it doesn't specify it's a creature in combat with you, so it can be used to mess with other people's combats as well. Honestly probably my favorite card in the list and it's won me a lot of games.

Channel Harm: The 5th damage redirection spell. This is primarily here for redundancy, but I think it's good enough to deserve the slot. Obviously you want to pair it with a spite creature, but it's always nice to have in hand to fog and kill some dangerous creature if you're having a really bad game. Worth noting that it's easy to fizzle because it has a single target when it's resolving and if the creature dies before the spell revolves, the whole spell fizzles and you don't get the fog.

Comeuppance: Frankly, I don't like this card much. It looks like it's on theme but it's really just a reactive fog/boardwipe. The thing is that I need answers to wide board states and that's exactly what this card does. I've only used this as a damage reflection tool once or twice but it's always good to have on hand as a retaliatory fog if you need it.

Deflecting Palm: The fundamentally most on-theme card in the list. As a tangent, most Boros cards are designed as red cards with a white supporting identity, so they're typically designed as very aggressive with some synergy between the pieces. Deflecting Palm is an example of a white color identity supported by red; a defensive card that retaliates with an equal violence. Notes and techs: doesn't reflect commander damage, but it doesn't target so it gets around shroud/hexproof/ward. If you're playing with damage manipulators like Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, you can apply the effects in the order you most prefer. So you if you're taking double damage, you can double and then prevent, or if you're taking half, you can prevent without halving.

Deflecting Swat: Back off the gamechanger list and back in the deck! Spells and abilities, any number of targets. I'd run this card even without the free casting. The fact that you can cast this for free as long as you have Noble Heritage out as well makes it crazy good. I think it's worth splurging on, but the deck's fine if you don't want to buy a copy. I recognize that it's a bit borderline if it was put on the GC list, but it's a card that's directly part of the core theme and I think it's appropriate.

Excise the Imperfect: An incredibly underrated removal spell. I think most people don't know it exists because I never see people running it. Exile is great and in this list, a big creature with no keywords is almost entirely useless so you really don't need to worry about it.

Generous Gift: Super flexible removal that gives the other player a 3/3 that's irrelevant 99% of the time. Always good to have on hand for emergencies and it can even hit dangerous lands.

Gideon's Sacrifice: 1 CMC wincon. Obviously pairs best with spite creatures, but it can be a generic fog in a pinch. The card's great.

Legion Leadership : I'm actually on the fence about this one because it's actually too good at enabling the voltron wincon. I want to intentionally keep my proactive wins to be very telegraphed, but this shaves a turn or two off the kill counter and might make people more wary in future games. However, it's incredible for enabling aikido kills as well. Cast it on the opponent's biggest creature and they get double power for easier aikido kills, plus it gives them first strike so you can Deflecting Palm it before the rest of their board can damage you. I don't count it in my land slots because I'd really prefer to not play it as a land. (Just to demonstrate why it's on my watchlist, normally the fastest I can kill a player is the curve of 2: Noble, 3: Ramp, 4: Ganax, 5: 7 commander damage, 6: 9 commander damage, 7: 11 commander damage lethal. With a power doubler in the list it turns into 4: Ganax, 5: Legion + Wild Ricochet/Return the Favor lethal. I don't want to delete people out of nowhere.)

Make Your Move: Generic flexible removal. It hits basically everything you're worried about. Actually feels better than the other removal spells a lot of the time because it doesn't give them a token.

Martyrdom: One of the few cards that's easier to play in person than digitally. Incredibly strong effect if you want to minmax damage on your creatures' blocks and send everything else into a spite creature to win. 3 CMC is still very affordable for winning the game.

Mirror Strike: Fun card that lets you kill people with commander damage or infect. Good to have on hand. Also weird tech, it lets you get a trigger from Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser when someone damages themselves. A little costly for how narrow it is, but being one of the few cards that can save you from voltron makes it very valuable.

Pyrrhic Strike: New flexible removal card. Usually going to be worth blighting, though what you blight depends on the board state.

Reflect Damage: A dramatically underrated card that's on the reserved list if that matters to you. This card is amazing for killing voltron players because it redirects the damage back to them and doesn't target, so it gets through shroud. This is also a really funny way to just murder someone who casts Blasphemous Act or Wheel of Misfortune. I think it's worth the 5 mana casting cost, though I understand if people don't want to run it.

Return the Favor: Spell redirect and copy effect that hits abilities too. It's really good at protecting your stuff or stealing wins. Highly recommend.

Settle the Wreckage: Fog wipe #2. Super funny to use in metas where people have bought into the greed of running few to no basic lands. It's a very solid card.

Stroke of Midnight: Highly flexible removal. Basically Generous Gift #2 though it can't hit lands. Always good to have in hand.

Untimely Malfunction: Spell redirect that hits abilities and has two other effects stapled on for only 2 mana. This card's great. Redirection, removal, and potential unblockability are all effects I want available every single game.

Wyll's Reversal: Spell and ability redirection with any number of targets. This card is almost guaranteed to copy because an average game will have you with a 7-11 power creature at all times.

Creatures: Show

Angelic Sell-Sword: Flying, vigilance, card draw, plus chump blockers that can buff lifelinkers or other evasive creatures. Solid card, if slightly aggressive.

Aurelia, the Law Above: Flying, vigilance, draw, burn, and lifegain. Basically everything you could ask for in a single card. I'm a little hesitant that it might draw attention or aggro during the combat phase, but so far it's been mostly fine.

Boros Reckoner: One of the coolest looking spite creatures. These are in the list as rattlesnakes; creatures that sit there looking scary and discouraging people from swinging at you because it'll cost them. They're also combo pieces with the damage redirection spells like Gideon's Sacrifice. People scale their creatures up with Noble Heritage, which makes it hurt even more when they swing into a spite creature. For Reckoner specifically, I don't think I've ever used the first strike mode but it can be useful against lifelink or deathtouch. Being able to send the damage at any target is very useful, especially if you're running the infinite damage combos.

Brash Taunter: The strongest reckoner creature. This thing consistently wins games. It will easily block a creature each turn and at the end of your opponent's turn, you fight one of: the biggest creature on the board, a small utility creature that needs killed off, or your own lifelink creature. It's an excellent way to break the board stalls that this deck usually develops.

Donna Noble: Generic spite creature. I usually pair with a chump blocker of some sort or Ganax to make it more punishing to block him. She's on the cut watchlist because she's one of the last cards that can potentially set up infinite combos if I throw in a source of indestructible. Ex: Donna + Boros Charm + Boros Reckoner is infinite damage to each opponent.

Dragonhawk, Fate's Tempest: Flying dragon draw engine. Almost always flips 2-5 cards. I'll usually go ahead and cast whatever I can, but turning uncast cards into burn is an excellent way to drive lifetotals down to make it easier to aikido someone.

Firemane Commando: Mix of draw, politics, and pillowfort. I usually don't like sharing draw with my opponents, but this is a good way to do it because it rewards behavior that benefits you.

Ganax, Astral Hunter: The commander! I go pretty in-depth up in the Commander Choice heading, but Ganax is just here because I love Noble Heritage and I wanted a red partner with flying. I used to only run Wrathful Red Dragon as my only other dragon, but WoTC has been printing more dragons with card advantage, so it never hurts to keep an eye out. Notably, I'm never going to add a card just because it's a dragon; it needs to be a card I would be adding because it's good for the gameplan. I'd love to swap Ganax for something with flying, vigilance, and like 3 CMC, but I'll take what I can get.

Nelly Borca, Impulsive Accuser: Nelly's a great draw engine. She also incentivizes and rewards aggression against your opponents. I'm not a huge fan of how aggressive goad is, but the unblockable aspect of the Suspect is a great way to get damage in.

Phyrexian Vindicator: My favorite spite creature. It's really strong, blocks fliers, and doesn't go infinite as easily as most indestructible spite creatures because it prevents the damage, preventing it from ever triggering twice with effects like Donna Noble or Blazing Sunsteel. It's also the primary reason I'm so heavy on basic plains, but it's absolutely worth the investment.

Selfless Squire: Honestly not my favorite aikido effect because there's no guarantee you'll ever hit anyone with it. I have a few sources of unblockable so that definitely helps. This is in for the same reason as Comeuppance; it's an excellent answer to a wide board state that you can't handle with a normal deflecting palm.

Spiteful Sliver: Generic spite creature. Really funny when you're up against a sliver deck with old slivers that buff it up as well. I'm always paranoid I'll queue up against a Sliver Overlord someday.

Spitemare: Generic spite creature. I like how this one can target anything, including other creatures and itself if you're running cards that let you combo off with it.

Witch Enchanter : Removal or land. You can always find a use for one of the sides.

Wrathful Raptors: Generic spite creature. 5 mana is starting to push the effect, but big enough to be a normal blocker and trample can be a fun way to make people make tough choices if you're buffing it up-- do they take the hit or block it and take the burn anyway? Does pair with Bonehoard Dracosaur, but I'm not running it anymore.

Wrathful Red Dragon: Flying spite creature that's also a dragon. My third favorite spite creature on this list due to its ability to block flying, plus obvious synergies with Ganax and the handful of other dragons.

Artifacts: Show

Agility Bobblehead: Color fixing and unblockable. There's the tiny bit of synergy with Intelligence Bobblehead but it's not really relevant. The real upside is being able to sneak in commander damage against blockers in a locked up board state. The fact that haste creatures can block can be relevant on occasion, but there's not a ton of flying haste creatures around. Just watch out for Swiftfoot Boots and family.

All-Fates Scroll: It's hard to crack this for cards, but that's honest probably a good thing. If I'm floating 8 mana, I probably need more cards. Otherwise I'm hanging on to it for the mana. Usually draws 5+ when it goes off.

Altar of the Pantheon: Noble Heritage is a legendary enchantment, so you gain one life per turn with this and it fixes colors. It doesn't seem like much, but I'm a big fan of incidental lifegain in a list where one of the primary wincons is forcing people to attack you for a lot of damage. It's not unreasonable for this card to gain you 10 life over the course of a game. People might occasionally remove Noble Heritage, so just be sure to not accidentally cheat by gaining life if it's not on the field.

Blitzball: Ramp and draw two. A little awkward that you can't always choose to sacrifice it right before the start of your turn, but it's a ramp + divination that can be turned on by your opponents hitting each other as well. This card takes a bit of self-control as well; there's a lot of stages in the midgame that you can sac to draw but you'll be better off keeping it on the field because you still need mana. It's usually fine to crack if you haven't gotten your land drop or have nothing else to spend it on, but I'd prefer to spend 6 to draw and not lose the rock in case it's necessary later. The more I play it the more I like it.

Bonder's Ornament: Ramp with draw attached. Everyone thinks this card is awful, so no one runs it, so you don't need to worry about giving draw to anyone else. Mana sink cards like this make it easier to hold up mana for interaction without wasting it.

Boros Locket: Ramp when you need mana, draw whenever you're flooded. Not amazing, but it's usable and I actually like it as a casual card quite a bit. If you can't afford to sac it at the end of someone's turn, you probably still need to keep it around for the mana. If you're floating 4+1 mana with nothing to spend it on, that's the best time to sac a mana source for more options.

Commander's Sphere: It's generic ramp that can sac for a card without tapping it. Probably one of my first swaps if I find anything more interesting, but it's a reliable card and rarely feels dead.

Dragon's Hoard: Honestly this one's not that spectacular. You can draw a card for basically free whenever it's out and you cast your commander. I like being able to stack ramp and draw whenever I can, and it's usually not a bad idea to have extra draw if you're in a situation where your commander is getting killed off frequently.

Intelligence Bobblehead: Ramp, draw, and fixing. Not great, but usable. Occasionally combos with Agility Bobblehead and becomes kind of okay.

Lantern of Revealing: I used to have a strong bias against this card, but it's alright. The deck wants more mana and ramp is occasionally better than a straight draw if your hand is full with lands.

Mana Geode: Ramp and card filtering for no additional cost. It's not amazing or anything, but it rates slightly above Commander's Sphere and company because it doesn't get sacrificed for the additional effect, which matters when you need a lot of mana to keep the deck chugging along. The more I play this, the more I appreciate the card filtering with no cost other than being 3 mana and not needing to juggle the order I tap things as strictly.

Pristine Talisman: Ramp and lifegain in a single card. Nothing mind-blowing, but incremental advantage like this really adds up over time and keeps you fighting against poor matchups, like group slug or aristocrats. Currently the only colorless rock, which is a red flag (pun not intended) for me when my lands are slowly leaning more towards colorless utility and rocks help me color-fix.

Sonic Screwdriver: Ramp and utility. Primarily used for unblockable, but the scry is a decent mana sink if you're holding mana for interaction. I don't really use the untapping ability, but you might be able to pair with the other ramp cards for something like extra life or draw.

Enchantments: Show

Lands: Show

Bonders' Enclave: Land drop that is also a draw engine. Running 40 lands isn't difficult if you're slotting in utility lands. This is one of the more efficient draw engines here, being a good way to turn excess mana into cards.

Clifftop Retreat: Dual land that basically always enters untapped. Good for budget and color fixing.

Command Tower: Affordable untapped dual land. Obviously it's in the deck.

Conduit Pylons: Card advantage on a land that enters untapped and doesn't cost mana, plus filtering if necessary. Adding untapped scry/surveil lands played way better than I was expecting and I've rarely had issues with color fixing thanks to the rocks and low color requirements of the list and ability to filter.

Cori Mountain Monastery: Card advantage on a land that makes colored mana. This card will basically enter untapped because I run a ton of Plains. Not ideal as a mana sink, but at least it lasts until your next end step.

Crystal Grotto: Untapped, scry, color fixing. Feels good to play.

Gallifrey Council Chamber: Free surveil on a land. No aliens or changelings in this deck so it doesn't produce colored mana, but theoretically it could be relevant someday.

Hidden Grotto: Untapped surveil land with filtering. Filters cards and filters mana.

Mountain: Basic land. This deck isn't super red heavy so I don't run very many mountains, but I want a few on hand in case I run into effects that care about basics.

Needleverge Pathway : Untapped dual. Only one color at a time, but it's flexible enough to give you what you're missing.

Plains: Basic lands! People are too greedy nowadays (sometimes including me). Basics are great and save your life if you ever run into cards that care about them. Never underestimate getting blown out by a Settle the Wreckage or a Winds of Abandon.

Rogue's Passage: Land that also gives evasion. This deck can lead to some pretty serious board stalls, so unblockable effects are good to keep the game progressing forward if no one is willing to commit to attacking you.

Rugged Prairie: Color-fixing untapped dual. A little awkward to play with, but I like how it can turn one color into two pips of the other color, so I can turn a Mountain into 2 white mana if I need to.

Rumble Arena: Colorless scry and fixing effect.

Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep: It's basically a mountain with relevant extra text. First strike can be good offensively, defensively, and as an aikido tool. Buffing an opponent's creature makes it easier to Deflecting Palm without dying if they're attacking with their whole board.

Slayers' Stronghold: Vigilance, haste, and a power boost. Usually a way to swing with Ganax and keep him around as a blocker if you're worried about being hit while you're vulnerable.

Spectator Seating: Untapped dual land. Not much else to say. Technically can enter tapped late game, so drop it early and enjoy the show.

Sunbillow Verge: Untapped dual that's super consistent. Even if it wasn't, it still has white as the primary color, which is exactly what I'd be looking for.

Sundown Pass: Untapped dual land. My normal mulligan strategy involves muliganning any hand without at least 3 lands, so this will always be on unless someone does something weird like using Strip Mine against you turn 1.

Sunscorched Divide: Dual land that also filters colorless lands.

The Grey Havens: Untapped scry lands. Theoretically can tap for colored mana but it hasn't been relevant yet.

War Room: Land when you need mana, cards when you have nothing to spend it on. Pretty good draw source, and 2 life is a small price to pay.

Witch's Clinic: Good chunk of lifegain for minimal opportunity cost. A bit aggressive, but a lifesaver when you need it.

Zhalfirin Void: Untapped scry land. Plays better than I expected.

Archive: Show

A place for me to keep cards I've written a summary of and then trimmed from the list.

Aerial Responder: I really like the combination of Flying/Vigilance/Lifelink in this list. They scale well with +1/+1 counters and are a great way to win midrange slug-fights by attacking in the air, draining some life, and sticking around to block the counterattack. Aerial is one of the better versions because of how cheap it is to drop down, letting you get the effect off early or holding up mana later in the game. Also note you can fight one of these creatures with Brash Taunter to gain life in an emergency. - This one was a tough cut because I really like how it plays. There's just a limited number of slots you can fit in a deck and I decided to rotate it out.

Angel of Invention: Angel is in the list because of the synergy between the keywords, Noble Heritage, and the general gameplan. The +1/+1 aura doesn't really do anything, but it's nice as long as you remember to track it. I typically choose to give it +2/+2 instead of the tokens just to accelerate the lifedrain, but I have chosen the tokens before in matchups where I need sacrifice fodder or chump blocks. - Trimmed because it's a bit slow and the aura is a bit of mental load to track.

Ao, the Dawn Sky: Flying, vigilance, and card advantage if it dies. Also a dragon, but it's a great card to buff up and use both aggressively and defensively, while getting a card or two if it's killed. It would be best in a list with a lot of 2 mana ramp spells, but getting any card is upside. I'm most likely to choose ramp or draw, depending on what's in the 7 cards I'm looking at. -Trimmed when playing with ratios and looking for more impactful cards.

Aura Blast: I like this card. Cantripping removal is really good, especially when both modes are worth around two mana to begin with. It can be narrow but it's usually not; in a 4 player game, it's very likely that someone has at least one enchantment in play, and of those enchantments, there's good odds it's a value engine or wincon that you really want gone. In general, I'd say that enchantments have the highest ratio of danger vs difficulty to remove of all permanent types, so it's useful to have on hand, and is an excellent sunforger target. I don't like the default art, but I'll proxy until wizards reprints it. - Trimmed because I needed more slots and it is a bit narrow.

Arch of Orazca: Card draw on a land. One of the least efficient versions of this effect, but being able to hit your land drop, hold up mana for interaction, and then turn that mana into draw is very useful here. I've dropped it before to improve my color fixing a bit, but more draw is always appreciated. - Trimmed to make room for scry lands which get me card filtering without spending 6 mana.

Arid Mesa: It's a fetch land. Not necessary in this list at all, but being able to colorfix and choose between untapped mana (basics) or extra utility (Elegant Parlor) is useful. I've intentionally excluded any untapped duals just for the optics of wanting to be non-threatening. People aren't as scared of you if you fetch a basic, and grabbing a tapped land is still lower threat than grabbing a Plateau. - Trimmed to reduce threat, save 1 life, and because shuffling annoyed me.

Bandit's Haul: Ramp and card draw. I feel like I may not have enough cards to consistently trigger this, but even a single draw is pretty decent. - Trimmed because the counters were inconsistent and a bit annoying to remember to track. Still had some fun synergy with stuff like Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep.

Bilbo's Ring: Evasion and card draw on a single card at the cost of a ton of mana. Also gives a slight bit of protection. Playtesting this card but so far it's been okay. Still worried about it being either too threatening or not impactful enough, which is an interesting combination. - Only good when I'm winning. Not great when I need to draw and keep a blocker, or need draw to make sure I'm getting mana.

Bonehoard Dracosaur: Card advantage with flying and first strike. I'm still a little hesitant on impulse draw, but seeing two cards is incredible for hitting land drops. It's also a dragon that makes its own treasures and chump blockers. Solid engine. - Trimmed while looking for cards that had more reliable impact the turn they came down and this can flip a lot of cards I don't want to play yet.

Boros Garrison: Virtual card advantage; play this and get two lands. Best case is pairing with the scry/surveil lands or MDFCs for extra value. It's really slow, so I can understand if people trim it but extra value is really useful when you fit it in. - I still like this card but I'm getting to the point where my hand is usually pretty full and playing a tapped land that doesn't clean out my hand can be very awkward.

Cursed Mirror: This card is really flexible. I don't feel bad dropping it on turn 3 as ramp, but later game you can use it to be a beater or copy a good ETB effect. I'm usually looking for ways to get extra draw or lifegain when this enters, but it's just generally useful. - Trimmed because my current manabase struggles with having a red on turn 3 to play it in the first place and I wanted more consistency.

Demolition Field: Everyone should run some form of land removal to deal with the incredibly powerful lands that are floating around. This deck is usually floating mana anyway, so it's not hard to pay into when you need to. It's also a source of color-fixing if necessary. I also love it as a tech piece against the increasing number of people who skip basics entirely to run MDFCs and utility lands. - Trimmed only because there's not a ton of power lands in bracket 2 and I can't afford to run too many colorless lands.

Destroy Evil: Efficient and flexible removal against the two permanent types that are usually the most dangerous. Not very flashy but it will probably save your life. - Trimmed for Pyrrhic Strike

Elegant Parlor: Fetchable card selection land. I like to squeeze as much card draw and filtering as I can into the list since my commander doesn't cover that for me. This is intentionally my only fetchable dual land because I think it lowers my threat profile a bit to fetch either a tapped dual or a basic. The price has shot up pretty quickly from when I've bought it, so maybe it's higher profile than I was expecting. I cut my fetchland and then cut all my tappedlands for colorless untapped versions instead.

Field of Ruin: Demolition Field #2. Ramping your other opponents isn't ideal, but it can be really useful in niche situations, like if one person is racing ahead and you need other people to catch up to fight them, and it's always funny when someone doesn't run any basic lands. - Cut because ramping other players isn't ideal, and having colored lands helps.

Ghostly Prison: Plays well with the list. It reduces chip damage in the early game and drains the interaction mana from attackers late game. This list has fewer answers to wide boards, so this is an excellent tool to buy time as you're digging through your deck. It's especially helpful to slow down anyone who refuses to cooperate with you and is trying to focus you down. - Another trim that feels kinda crazy because it's part of the core inspiration for the list, but given the choice, I'd rather try to find a card that's a good blocker that also digs deeper into my deck, like Aurelia, the Law Above instead of a card that is 100% a stall tactic against a specific type of deck. Still not 100% sure I shouldn't put it back in.

Liquimetal Torque: The only 2 CMC rock at the moment. Turning things into artifacts is decent politically and it pairs well with the removal in the list that hits artifacts but not everything. - Trimmed because it's colorless and I trimmed about half the synergy pieces.

Mariposa Military Base: Arch of Orazca 2.0. I never have it enter tapped because there's no point, but I'm looking forward to the day I actually run into someone using aggressive rad counters being flabbergasted that I'm running a card that benefits from them. Colorless lands that draw cards are very flexible, but you can't let them take too many colored slots, they have to be more of a supplement taking the place of non-land cards. - Swapped for the scry lands that give almost the same advantage without costing mana to activate.

Metropolis Reformer: Spite creature if you squint. Flying, vigilance, lifegain and hexproof. Solid defensive beater, but don't actually expect it to ever gain you more than a few life; it'll probably die in a wipe or eat removal. Still synergizes with damage redirection, but I'd rather kill someone than gain 50 life. The more I play this card, the less sure I am about it. It has a bunch of parts that make it look like a good fit but none of them are actually the stuff I need. Flying plus vigilance is good, 3 mana is good, player hexproof is good, lifegain is good, and spite synergy is good, but but none of them are good enough that I'd run the card individually. It's just here because it has 5 pseudo-synergistic pieces and I haven't convinced myself that it should be cut yet. - Trimmed to tighten my focus on achieving my gameplan.

Minas Tirith: I'm not sold on this card yet. It's pretty cheap mana-wise, but you can't hold the mana for interaction because you can only attack on your own turn (obviously), which means you can't put mana into it later. I'm testing it for now, but it's relatively low opportunity cost vs a Plans at the moment. - I wasn't using the draw often enough, which makes it worse than a basic plains because they turn on a few other synergies.

Mogg Maniac: Spite creature. Cheapest one still puts in work when paired with synergies. - Trimmed for Black Panther, Most Dangerous, a 3/3 body is just less vulnerable and can actually pick off a token or survive a ping for 1 more mana.

Nexus of Becoming: Draw engine that triggers the turn you drop it and lets you cheat mana. I'm a bit torn on this for being a 6 mana investment and being kind of hard to track in paper, but anything that's ramp and draw on a single card is good enough to stick around a while. -Trimmed for Boros Locket. 6 mana is fine but it encouraged flooding the board and didn't leave me mana to work with on the turn I dropped it. Not a bad card, but the consistent 3 mana ramp helps smooth the deck more.

Orzhov Advokist: Redundancy and duplicate of Noble Heritage. I wish there were more versions because things start to get out of control when you're adding +16/+16 to the board every turn. - It feels crazy but trimmed because it's purely a redundancy piece for something I'm reliably getting from the command zone each game. I'm better off filling my slots with the other roles I'm missing, like ramp or draw.

Palantir of Orthanc: This card is way more fun to play than I expected. Think of it as a political burn engine rather than a draw spell; it lets you turn your library into a resource each turn for no additional mana cost. If you get people giving you draw, that's just a bonus. My usual method is to assume people will choose to mill me, especially the first 1-3 turns. Send lands to the bottom, keep spells on top. If you know you'll get the draw, you change that as time goes on, but with an average MV of around 3, you'll almost always get good value if it sticks for more than a turn or two. Some consideration for if it's fun to be on the other side of, but making the effect their choice does help a bit. - Trimmed because one of my friends said it wasn't fun for him. I have enough options that I can fill it with something else, even if I really enjoy playing it.

Patriar's Seal: Ramp and utility. This is one of the least useful ramp cards, but it colorfixes and can save your life by untapping Ganax or some other big legendary for a blocker if you need one. I'll probably swap it if I see another rock I like better. - Didn't do anything my deck really needed. Card advantage is so much more impactful.

Redirect Lightning: Newer card so I don't have a ton of playtest experience yet but my experience with Bolt Bend is that 1 mana redirects are incredible. 5 life hurts, but I'm already trying to include incidental lifegain so the effect is usually going to be worth it. Plus you have the option to just pay 3 if you have it. Love the flavor text too. - Cut because I kept feeling like I had too many singe target redirect effects. 1 mana is nice but the 5 life is more than I want to pay, especially if it keeps sitting dead in hand compared to the more flexible options. I'll probably pull it back in if I end up in a more interaction-heavy meta.

Riot Control: Still testing this card out but it's been a good addition. Fog and lifegain on a single card leads to some pretty big swings and can buy you multiple turns for 3 mana. Lifegain in general helps a lot in poor matchups where you're too low to survive chip damage and can't set up a good aikido. - Trimmed to play with ratios; the card's basically Time Stretch but a little less thematic than the pure turnaround cards.

Sejiri Shelter : This one's been in and out of the list are few times, but I like it as a bonus mana source to smooth the worst-case scenarios as well as potentially protecting a creature or letting me squeeze in that last hit I need to win. - Back out to pull myself up to 43 actual lands; I feel like the game goes smoother with a basic mountain filling in.

Smash: I really like cantripping removal. The biggest problem is that there's not many good versions, especially in Boros. Smash is a good blend of always being able to have a target if you just need the card, and most of the time you can pick off something valuable, like an Aetherflux Reservoir, a Sword or Boots that are getting in your way, or even just a Sol Ring. Also combos with Liquimetal Torque, but I ran this card even without that synergy. - Trimmed because it's reliable, but pretty low impact. Just because you're going 0 for 1 doesn't mean that it was a meaningful exchange.

Spinerock Knoll: Card advantage on a colored land. Entering tapped isn't ideal, but I've been playtesting it and it's been decent so far. I'll usually choose whatever card I feel like in the moment except for an aikido card, since you can't trigger it when you'd normally want to. My inclination is usually draw > ramp > removal > spite > whatever's left. - Trimmed because it's pretty slow and not the most reliable. I'd rather have a basic mountain to have the mana and avoid nonbasic hate.

Temple of Triumph: Tapped dual with card filtering strapped on. I think temples are pretty good, especially in a list that needs as much card advantage as it can get its hands on. - Trimmed for untapped colorless scry lands instead.

Topple the Statue: See above about Smash, but almost strictly better. This card does the same thing about being cantripping removal but can occasionally tap down a blocker to let you get in lethal commander damage, or do other niche things that no one ever expects. - Also trimmed to try to find cards with a bit more impact.

True Love's Kiss: Cantripping removal. I trimmed the other versions because they were pretty narrow, but any removal that draws is good and one that's flexible and exiles is very solid. 4 mana is starting to push it, but it's surprisingly good, especially if you're running Sunforger. One of my favorite parts about this card is the narratives it can make; only true love's kiss is strong enough to break the power of The One RingGC after all! - I still really like this card but I cut to trim my instant count. I have a lot of removal and they compete with aikido cards for slots in my hand and I was running a bit higher than I need in my current meta.

Visions of Phyrexia: Draw engine with some ramp attached. I like this for being able to hit my lands, or turn things into powerstones to play my ramp or draw cards with my mana sinks. Worth noting that this will make a powerstone the turn you play it unless you've cast a spell from exile that turn already. - Trimmed because it's usually coming out on turn 5 and it's pretty slow, with it having pretty high odds on flipping a card you can't drop.

Wild Ricochet:I've gone back and forth on this card because it's disappointed me a few times. 4 mana and not hitting abilities puts it at the bottom of my list, but when Deflecting Swat got put on the Game Changer list, it's the closest replacement. Ricochet does have some niches in letting you copy spells without targets, so you can steal a win off a big Exsanguinate or Torment of Hailfire. - Swat came off the GC list so this goes back into the backup list.

Required Readings: Show

Miscellaneous Musings: Show

A category for random thoughts that don't really fit into a normal category yet.

I really like this deck. It's a fun exercise in brewing something that's fun to play against while also being fun to play and trying to win. It's been good to play with randoms, though I've been frustrated a few times by games that are dramatically against the power level I was expecting, like people winning turn 4-5 in bracket 2. In general, I feel like I actually have better odds against playgroups who know me because they let their guard down a little bit more because they trust I'm not pulling any shenanigans other than defensive tricks, so they are a little bit more willing to take counters and leave me alone

Deck composition: I'm staying in the 40 lands range because it's right around the ratio of having 4-5 lands in 12 draws. It's also the same ratio as 24 lands in 60 card lists. There have been times where I've got a dozen lands in my hand, but I'm a person who would much rather be flooded than screwed. Running this many lands gives me a very reliable early game that lets me get into my commander and a draw engine ASAP. I'm usually in the 10-13 ramp source category as well, to maximize the amount of time my commander is on the board. One of the most fun things for me is to have Noble triggering each turn, and ramping it out means more turns of fun. All the mana also helps me recast everything for those games where Ganax gets killed 4-5 times and I'm just waiting to play the game. I'd love more draw engines, but I'm very picky about what I like to run, and that doesn't leave me many options. I don't like sharing draw if at all possible, so that knocks out most of white's hug effects. I also don't like keeping track of triggers, which knocks out the other half of white's good draw. Red political draw is cool, but usually not scaled for commander, so there's not much point. Rummaging and looting don't leave you card positive, which kinda sucks. Impulse draw isn't my favorite, but it's actually really good for consistent land drops, which is honestly half the reason I want more draw anyway. I'm also sticking to impulse draw that rewards you even if you don't cast it, so flipping an aikido instant isn't as bad as it could be. It's hard to slot in lands, ramp, removal, draw, and then all the actually fun aikido tools, but I've been trying to play with the ratios to get everything to fit and play well together and I think it's in a pretty good place right now. I hope they release a few more situational boros dual lands that aren't super staples so I can slot them in without feeling bad if I play against precons.

The deck's definitely gotten more aggressive over time, which I have mixed feelings about. I enjoy swinging in with vigilant fliers and getting my handful of attack triggers to draw cards, but I feel like it may be losing some of the aikido ideal. It's something I'm going to keep an eye on, but so far I don't think it's a problem.

Bingo/Achievements: Show

In the aikido Discord people like to make up fun mini achievements related to the deck and their playstyles. I've compiled a few of my favorites here, tailored to this deck. I've decided to archive achievements that aren't achievable with this list anymore if I cut the relevant card but all of these are doable and the older ones are below in the Archive header. (Reviewed 09/12/2026)

"I'm the Captain Now": Win a stack battle against a blue deck that goes at least 5 spells/abilities deep. - ✓
"Get Down Mr. President": have a Selfless Squire with 50 or more counters. - ✓
"Double-tap": Use Boros Fury-Shield after combat damage. - ✓
"False Start": Use Legion Leadership 's first strike to aikido someone whose normal combat damage from other creatures would otherwise be lethal. - ✓
"Must've Been The Wind": Settle the Wreckage an opponent with 5 or fewer basic lands in their deck. - ✓
"Rebuff the Wicked": Use Reflect Damage to kill a player with their own Blasphemous Act. - ✓
"Me First": Copy a 'win the game' ability.
"Friendly Fire": Kill a player with 21+ commander damage from their own commander. - ✓
"High Five": Deflecting Palm an opponent's Deflecting Palm.
"Clutch": Win a game with 1 life remaining. - ✓
"I Trained My Whole Life for This Moment.": Defeat someone trying to kill you with their Aetherflux Reservoir. - ✓
"GG!": Have an opponent compliment you after they lost. - ✓
"Sneaky": Give an opponent's creature unblockable to hit another player.
"Damned if You Do...": Kill a player by attacking with a spite creature that they can't block without dying. - ✓
"Trust Fall": Convince a player to block a spite creature with everything they have so you can direct it towards another player. - ✓
"Clenching": Use an instant-speed draw/impulse to topdeck a way to win the game when facing lethal. - ✓
"Really?": Cast either of your commanders 4 times in a single game. - ✓
"It's Free Real Estate!": Win a game without ever missing a land drop. - ✓
"Thanks!": Set up an infinite combo using tools an opponent controls. - ✓
"Invisible": Win a game without being attacked or hit by targeted removal until the 1v1.

Archive: Show

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91% Casual

Competitive

Revision 220 See all

(1 week ago)

+1	Daredevil, Man Without Fear	maybe
+1	H.E.R.B.I.E. Scout Unit	maybe
+1	HULK SMASH!	maybe
-1	Mountain	main
+1	Surveillance Room	main

Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 1 year ago Achieved #6 position in Commander / EDH 1 year ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Primer 1 year ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	6 days
Exclude colors	UBG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 19 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.30
Tokens	Elephant 3/3 G, Human 1/1 W, Incubator, Mercenary 1/1 R, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Treasure
Folders	Cool deck, Commander decks, Decks, Pillowfort, Have fun, Want to try, Interesting Decks
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