Commander Collection: Gatekeeper

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 RW (Boros) Tokens

Jurrane

Land (38)

• 1x Ancient Den
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Axgard Armory
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Cori Mountain Monastery
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Furycalm Snarl
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minas Tirith
• 1x Mistveil Plains
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Pillarverge Pathway  ^Flip
• 7x Plains
• 1x Radiant Summit
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Slayers' Stronghold
• 1x Sunbillow Verge
• 1x Sundown Pass
• 1x Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
• 1x Urza's Cave
• 1x War Room
• 1x Windswept Heath

Ramp (5)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Knight of the White Orchid
• 1x Smothering TitheGC
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel

Supporting Creatures (20)

• 1x Alibou, Ancient Witness
• 1x Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
• 1x Aurelia, the Law Above
• 1x Balefire Liege
• 1x Blade Historian
• 1x Boros Reckoner
• 1x Chief Jim Hopper
• 1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
• 1x Eowyn, Fearless Knight
• 1x Figure of Destiny
• 1x Iroas, God of Victory
• 1x Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
• 1x Neyali, Suns' Vanguard
• 1x Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury
• 1x Sami, Wildcat Captain
• 1x Sentinel Sarah Lyons
• 1x Sky Terror
• 1x Skyknight Vanguard
• 1x Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider
• 1x Truefire Captain

Card Draw (6)

• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Idol of Oblivion
• 1x Losheel, Clockwork Scholar
• 1x Merry, Esquire of Rohan
• 1x Tocasia's Welcome
• 1x Trouble in Pairs P

Protection (5)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Flare of Fortitude
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Teferi's ProtectionGC

Tutors (4)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor PGC
• 1x Fighter Class
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic P
• 1x Sunforger

Commander (1)

Removal (11)

• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Dispatch
• 1x Excise the Imperfect
• 1x Generous Gift
• 1x Justice Strike
• 1x Olorin's Searing Light
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Stroke of Midnight
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Wear / Tear
• 1x Winds of Abandon

Token Synergies (6)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Elspeth, Storm Slayer P
• 1x Exalted Sunborn
• 1x Mondrak, Glory Dominus
• 1x Renewed Solidarity
• 1x Warleader's Call

Combat Tricks (4)

• 1x Chance for Glory
• 1x Double Cleave
• 1x Lorehold Charm
• 1x Taunt from the Rampart

---

{W}{R} Introduction: Gold Heart {W}{R}

Show

Welcome to my primer for "Gatekeeper", my Boros multicoloured-matters deck for the EDH format, with General Ferrous Rokiric as its Commander.

I remember being absolutely blown away when I first saw gold cards in Magic (it would've been in 1995 with the release of Chronicles and Ice Age, when I was first learning to play at university). Cards that could be more than one colour! The golden printing seemed to shimmer and brought back childhood memories of shiny foil Panini football cards. Yes, I am that old.

I was immediately drawn to multicoloured cards - and always have been - so when I first saw General Ferrous Rokiric from Modern Horizons 2, I knew he was an instant build-around Commander. Boros has always been one of my favourite colour combinations so I decided to use plenty of the multicoloured cards that were sitting in my trade binder to make my second red-white deck (the first one is linked in the following section).

Deck Design

Show

There's nothing particularly clever about this list. It's looking to cast lots of multicoloured spells in order to create plenty of 4/4 Golem tokens with General Ferrous Rokiric's triggered ability. We're then seeking to win the game through combat, often by sheer numbers, with our army of Golems and other creatures.

That said, the temptation with General Ferrous Rokiric multicoloured matters builds is to stuff them full of multicoloured cards and compromise on quality. For this build, I've tried to balance them with the best monocoloured staples in the Boros colour identity so we don't just end up with a bunch of bad multicoloured spells. Just under 40% of this deck is gold cards - which is slightly on the low side compared to other Ferrous builds - but I'd rather leverage the strength of red or white staples like Smothering TitheGC, Esper Sentinel, Anointed Procession, Teferi's ProtectionGC, Chaos Warp etc rather than settle for inferior gold cards that are included simply to get more Golem tokens.

The deck also includes a Sunforger - Mistveil Plains package, with various types of tutors to find each card. We're not an Equipment deck and therefore don't go all-in on a Sunforger theme (unlike this deck in my collection), but it's one of the best combos we have in Boros colours and we can gain a lot of efficiency by tutoring for (and then casting for free) red and/or white instants at optimal times during the game. Additionally, we run various cards that synergise well with artifacts as the Golem tokens we create with General Ferrous Rokiric are artifact creatures themselves.

The result is a fun, versatile midrange build that works well at most low to medium-powered EDH tables. It doesn't run any infinite combos or do anything particularly degenerate but it can hold its own against a variety of opponents and is definitely capable of winning games.

All That Glitters

Show

Here is a full list of all the multicoloured cards we're running, along with the reasons they've been chosen.

• Alibou, Ancient Witness: Gives haste to all the Golems creatured by General Ferrous Rokiric and has a useful direct damage ability to take out problematic creatures or to deal directly to opponents. Plus he's an artifact creature himself which goes well with our artifact synergies.
• Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice: A reasonably-costed flying threat that can either boost her own stats or power up our other creatures. She also gives trample and vigilence so a good all-round card.
• Aurelia, the Law Above: Murders at Karlov Manor was kind to us. Boros has traditionally been weak for card draw so we get a new creature with a relevant ability that allows us to draw cards, stapled on to a 4/4 body with flying, vigilance and haste. A great addition to this deck.
• Balefire Liege: Makes all our Golems 6/6 when it's in play (and boosting our other red and white creatures), so it's worth including for that reason alone. Plus its Lightning Helix-type triggers are useful for direct damage or lifegain.
• Blade Historian: Giving all our attacking creatures double strike can end the game quite quickly. Fantastic card for this list.
• Boros Charm: Amazing multi-mode staple in our colours. We mainly want it to make our permanents indestructable and dodge boardwipes but giving a creature double strike can be handy too. Or there's 4 damage to a player or planeswalker but that's usually less relevant.
• Boros Reckoner: We're using it for "fair" reasons (ie. it's not included as part of any nasty combos) but it discourages attackers or blockers in combat and its first strike activated ability will often be relevant.
• Chance for Glory: A variant on my favourite Magic card design of all time: Final Fortune (or Last Chance). Great for that last-ditch wave of attacks to win the game, which sometimes happens.
• Chief Jim Hopper: My new favourite card for this deck. A friend made me an awesome custom version of it as a birthday present, as my real name is Jim. Card draw is a bit thin on the ground in Boros colours so the Clues he creates are just what this deck wants, as well as giving us more artifact synergies. I love it.
• Deflecting Palm: We're not an aikido deck but occasionally this will catch someone with their pants down. Fun when it does.
• Double Cleave: One of the modes from Boros Charm gets its own card. Good for combat tricks or taking out an opponent.
• Duergar Hedge-Mage: Enchantment and/or artifact removal on a stick. Not much more to say other than we'll usually fulfill both its conditions later in the game.
• Eowyn, Fearless Knight: This card has won games for me. Exiles any creature with power greater than hers when she ETBs and then gives all our legendary creatures (which is most creatures we run) protection from the exiled card's colours until end of turn. Works really well as a finisher when we're ready to deal the final alpha strike.
• Fighter Class: Mainly included because it tutors for Sunforger. I'm not sure I've ever used its other levels.
• Figure of Destiny: A nice little one-drop and a useful mana sink later in the game. If we have enough mana to evolve it into its final form, it's a pretty hefty attacker.
• Iroas, God of Victory *list*: A great combat-focused card and another staple for this list. Effectively giving all our creatures menace and preventing all damage to our attackers is huge. Run it.
• Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer: One of the main reasons we're running various artifact synergies (including lands like Ancient Den and Great Furnace). It's not hard to trigger metalcraft with the Golems generated by General Ferrous Rokiric, which then gives all our creatures a significant power boost.
• Justice Strike: Decent spot removal for a creature. Not much more to say.
• Lorehold Charm: I love this new card from Secrets of Strixhaven. Three very relevant modes for EDH that can be useful in the early or late game. I'd go as far as to say it's a new staple for our list.
• Merry, Esquire of Rohan: We're not an equipment deck so we won't usually be triggering his first strike ability but his real value is in his card draw potential, as we run plenty of other legendary creatures.
• Neyali, Suns' Vanguard: Gives all our Golem tokens double strike which is worth the investment in itself. Its exile ability is the icing on the cake and another helpful way of drawing cards in this deck.
• Olorin's Searing Light: Takes out the most powerful creature from each of our opponents. Very rarely a dead card. If we have spell mastery, that's a bonus.
• Phlage, Titan of Fire's Fury: Modern Horizons 3 was also very kind to us. Instant new staple for this list. The value it creates is insane. Plus the $$ price has come down a lot so it's a cheaper investment. Run it if you can.
• Sami, Wildcat Captain: Has just replaced Duke Ulder Ravengard. Right at the top of our mana curve - and maybe a bit too highly costed for my liking - but giving our spells affinity for artifacts is very strong in this list, as we usually have plenty of Golems in play.
• Sentinel Sarah Lyons: Has just replaced Otharri, Suns' Glory. Two relevant abilities for an artifacts deck, especially her +2/+2 team buff when an artifacts ETBs (which we can often do at instant speed when General Ferrous is around). Her battallion trigger is a useful source of direct damage too.
• Sky Terror: Included because it's a cheap evasive attacker that will usually connect for damage and is an easy way of triggering General Ferrous Rokiric. Many of our multicoloured legendary creatures are quite high CMC so it's important to have other creatures that lower the curve.
• Skyknight Vanguard: Pretty much the same as Sky Terror. The tokens it creates will occasionally chip in for extra damage.
• Taunt from the Rampart: A brilliant finisher card that causes havoc for our opponents and usually means our creatures can then sail through unopposed. One of my favourite new cards.
• Tori D'Avenant, Fury Rider: Not quite as impactful as Eowyn, Fearless Knight but still a good combat-focused finisher. The pseudo-vigilence ability is useful too.
• Truefire Captain: A bit like Boros Reckoner but with the mentor ability stapled on. Opponents won't like blocking it when it attacks and it's also useful on defence.
• Warleader's Call: Another good anthem effect and it pings opponents for damage each time we create Golems or play other creatures. The damage it deals can soon add up.
• Wear / Tear: Play both sides at once and we'll get the Golem token if General Ferrous is around. Another good removal card.

Other Key Cards

Show

Between our land base and the gold cards listed above, we don't have much room for anything else. However we run a few other cards across various categories that synergise well with our strategy. They are as follows.

Removal
White is the undisputed king of versatile removal options in EDH. There are very few scenarios where I wouldn't run Path to Exile or Swords to Plowshares, and Dispatch is even better if we have more than three artifacts in play. Alongside those we have Stroke of Midnight, Generous Gift, Excise the Imperfect and Chaos Warp to care care of pretty much any permanents. All of these removal cards can be tutored with Sunforger. Finally we've also got Winds of Abandon, which can be a one-sided boardwipe if its overload cost is paid.

Card Draw & Tutors
Good card draw options in white or red used be rarer than a snake's knee but things have changed over the past few years. Esper Sentinel and Losheel, Clockwork Scholar are great for artifact-centered strategies like ours. Same goes for Tocasia's Welcome and Idol of Oblivion in a token-centric build. Trouble in Pairs is one of the strongest cards printed in white over the past few years. We'll usually have at least one creature with 4+ power so Bonders' Enclave is a solid extra option. I'll add War Room too as it generally has a home in all my mono and two-colour decks. It's nearly always useful to tutor for Sunforger and Mistveil Plains package so Stoneforge Mystic, Enlightened TutorGC and Fighter Class are included for the former, and Urza's Cave plus some of the white/red fetchlands for the latter.

Protection
We're a creature-based deck that aims to win through combat so removal and boardwipes are our Achilles heel. To counteract this, we run Teferi's ProtectionGC, Flare of Fortitude and Flawless Maneuver, as well as Boros Charm mentioned above. Just like our removal cards, each of these protective spells can be tutored with Sunforger if needed.

Ramp
Ramp is one of the Boros combination's weakest areas. Thankfully things have improved a bit with recent sets and the release of Smothering TitheGC as one of white's strongest staples. We also have Knight of the White Orchid and a few mana rocks to help us accelerate throughout the game.

Other
If the game is going to plan, we'll be making plenty of Golems with General Ferrous Rokiric. Anointed Procession, Elspeth, Storm Slayer, Exalted Sunborn and Mondrak, Glory Dominus are therefore auto-includes as they double the number of tokens we generate, as well as kicking Smothering TitheGC into overdrive. Renewed Solidarity is a brand new staple and is perfect for our game plan, as it allows us to build a critical mass of Golems even more quickly.

Gameplay

Show

I've found this to be a nice simple and straightforward deck to play. Our list doesn't feature any complicated combo lines and most of the decisions we need to make are pretty easy. Cast General Ferrous Rokiric, play multicoloured spells to create Golems and start swinging. Use your removal and board control cards to remove anything that prevents our Golems connecting for damage. General Ferrous can be quite hard to remove as most single-target destroy/exile effects are monocoloured but, as a creature deck, we have to be careful of overextending as we're vulnerable to boardwipes.

It's been argued - reasonably - that the big difference between General Ferrous and Talrand, Sky Summoner token decks is that mono-blue has lots of cantrips to trigger Talrand for a low cost (and usually replacing themselves by drawing a card) whereas Boros doesn't have any multicoloured cantrips that offer the same efficiency. Because of this, I'd argue we rely on combat tricks (which Boros is very good at and has a pool of relevant multicoloured cards) a lot more than cantrips to gain efficiency and generate Golem tokens to force us the advantage in combat. In this list, Boros Charm, Double Cleave, Fight to the Death, Justice Strike and Olorin's Searing Light are all capable of fulfilling this role.

Because of this, while the temptation can sometimes be to fling all your multicoloured spells at the most relevant targets in order to max out on Golems, in practice I've found it's usually a good idea to hold some back in case we're forced to be on defence. Instants in particularly should be used tactically, especially when blocking if it means we get an extra Golem or two at an opportune time. We're not a tempo deck like Talrand, Sky Summoner so we want to be on the front foot, but that doesn't been throwing everything out indiscriminately.

Power Level

Show

I categorise decks in my collection according to four tiers of power, from 1 (most powerful) to 4 (least powerful):

Tier 1: Higher powered decks with fast mana, free spells, and infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors.
Tier 2: Well tuned decks which may have infinite combos or instant wins that are searchable with tutors, but not many fast mana sources and/or free spells.
Tier 3: Reasonably well tuned casual decks that are capable of powerful plays. May occasionally have infinite combos or instant wins but don't generally use tutors to find them.
Tier 4: Lower powered or linear decks, weak enough to play against other casual decks.

This list is a textbook example of one of my Tier 3 decks. While it's pretty well tuned and features optimised card choices in most categories, it plays fundamentally fair Magic and doesn't do anything degenerate with infinite combos or instant win conditions. It's a great deck to play at most low to mid-powered tables and is usually quite fun to play both for its pilot and its opponents. It's the sort of deck I'd be happy to bring out against an unknown pod that wants to play a fair game of casual EDH.

In terms of WotC's power brackets for EDH, this is definitely a Bracket 3 deck. It's far more optimised than the average precon and runs a three game changer cards in Teferi's ProtectionGC, Enlightened TutorGC and Smothering TitheGC. But it falls short of Bracket 4 for the reasons mentioned above and I'm really happy with where it sits in terms of power level. In fact it's one of my favourite "fair" decks to play in Bracket 3 pods.

Budget

Show

As a casual deck, the budget for this build is somewhat high as the combined value of its cards is about $550 on Card Kingdom. That's mainly because it runs quite a few higher powered white staples like Esper Sentinel, Smothering TitheGC, Teferi's ProtectionGC and Anointed Procession. However they aren't strictly necessary for the deck to work and you can easily substitute them for other cheaper cards. The price has also been pushed up by including all the Plains-searching fetchlands so we can find Mistveil Plains as a recursion engine for the instants we cast with Sunforger.

The Ten Game Take

Show

After playing ten games with each of my decks I'll share its win percentage over that time, together with feedback and learnings from my experience so far.

This was the second of my 40 decks to reach ten games (I try not to play favourites and ensure each gets an airing fairly regularly). From those 10 games the deck's overall win percentage was 50%, as it won 5/10 matches (although one of these was a two-player game while we waiting for other people to join our pod). That's well above average for the typical Commander deck as, assuming 4 players in each pod, statistically each player should be winning about 25% of the time.

Although I don't keep detailed notes on the games I've played, from memory this deck competed against mostly other bracket 3 builds, with a small number of bracket 2s. We match up well against other mid-power lists but a fast start is critical as we're most effective when we're dictating the terms of the game and taking the attack to our opponents. I've found that we don't play that well from behind: if we struggle to keep up with other players then we're probably not going to win. We also have difficulties if General Ferrous Rokiric is repeatedly targeted although his hexproof from monocoloured spells definitely helps.

Unsurprisingly, all of our wins came from overwhelming opponents with a critical mass of creatures, usually Golems. Cards that were particularly useful in these games included Blade Historian and Neyali, Suns' Vanguard, as giving them double strike makes them very difficult to deal with and able to present lethal damage very quickly. Although low CMC creatures like Figure of Destiny, Sky Terror and Skyknight Vanguard might look underpowered, they fulfill a critical role in this deck by allowing us to generate Golems very quickly when General Ferrous is in play. The same goes for our cheap removal and combat tricks such as Double Cleave, Justice Strike and Wear / Tear, that aren't the most effective cards in their own right but become significantly more powerful when creating a 4/4 Golem is basically stapled on to their effects.

Upcoming Changes

Show

Until some new multicoloured Boros cards get released, this deck is now in pretty much its final form (other than to swap in Sentinel Sarah Lyons for Otharri, Suns' Glory). I'd say this list represents a good mid-powered example of what you can do with a General Ferrous Rokiric multicoloured-matters build and I hope you have fun with it.

Thanks for reading this primer :) Feel free to leave any questions in the Comments section below.

---

All My EDH Decks

{W} Giada, Font of Hope {W}
S(i)erra Sidewinder: Mono-White Angel Tribal

{U} Orvar, the All-Form {U}
Clone Zone: Mono-Blue Shapeshifters Combo

{B} Sidisi, Undead Vizier {B}
Swamp Thing: Mono-Black Midrange Combo

{B} Ayara, First of Locthwain {B}
Black Diamond: Mono-Black Aristocrats Combo

{R} Torbran, Thane of Red Fell {R}
Red Force: Mono-Red Group Slug

{R} Rionya, Fire Dancer {R}
Firebird: Mono-Red Storm/Tokens

{G} Titania, Protector of Argoth {G}
Timber Terror: Mono-Green Land Sacrifice

{W}{U} Grand Arbiter Augustin IVGC {W}{U}
Control Freak: Azorius Control

{W}{U} Elminster {W}{U}
Crystal Wing: Azorius Skies & Scry

{U}{B} Oona, Queen of the Fae {U}{B}
Dreamcatcher: Dimir Faeries Tribal

{U}{B} Narfi, Betrayer King {U}{B}
Ice Breaker: Dimir Snow/Zombies

{U}{B} Lord of the Nazgul {U}{B}
The Black Gate Opens: Dimir Spellslinger

{B}{R} Rakdos, Lord of Riots {B}{R}
Steamin’ Demon: Rakdos Life Loss

{B}{R} Juri, Master of the Revue {B}{R}
Pandemonium: Rakdos Sacrifice

{R}{G} Wort, the Raidmother {R}{G}
Barnstormer: Gruul Conspire

{W}{G} Sigarda, Font of Blessings {W}{G}
Stampida: Selesnya Humans Tribal

{W}{G} Captain Sisay {W}{G}
Legendia: Selesnya Legendary

{W}{G} Sythis, Harvest's Hand {W}{G}
Diamondback: Selesnya Enchantress

{W}{B} Daxos the Returned {W}{B}
Curse of Novgorod: Orzhov Constellation

{W}{B} Kambal, Consul of Allocation {W}{B}
Oblivion: Orzhov Lifegain & Lifedrain

{W}{B} Eriette of the Charmed Apple {W}{B}
Flight of the Wicked Witch: Orzhov Auras

{U}{R} Firkraag, Cunning Instigator {U}{R}
Dragon’s Fury: Izzet Dragons/Goad

{B}{G} Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons {B}{G}
Scorpion Express: Golgari Deathtouch

{B}{G} Nath of the Gilt-Leaf {B}{G}
Outlaw Run: Golgari Elves/Discard

{W}{R} Bruenor Battlehammer {W}{R}
Steel Force: Boros Equipment

{W}{R} General Ferrous Rokiric {W}{R}
Gatekeeper: Boros Multicoloured

{U}{G} Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres {U}{G}
Toxic Garden: Simic Infect

{W}{U}{B} Tivit, Seller of Secrets {W}{U}{B}
Steel Vengeance: Esper Artifacts

{W}{U}{B} Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign {W}{U}{B}
Riddler’s Revenge: Esper Topdeck

{U}{B}{R} Marchesa, the Black Rose {U}{B}{R}
Revenge of the Mummy: Grixis Dethrone/Combo

{B}{R}{G} Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire {B}{R}{G}
Dragon Wagon: Jund Dragons Tribal

{W}{R}{G} Pantlaza, Sun-Favored {W}{R}{G}
Raptor Attack: Naya Dinosaurs Tribal

{W}{U}{G} Galadriel, Light of Valinor {W}{U}{G}
Vapour Trail: Bant Flicker

{W}{B}{G} Karador, Ghost Chieftain {W}{B}{G}
Hair Raiser: Abzan Reanimator

{W}{B}{G} Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant {W}{B}{G}
A Long-Expected Party: Abzan Lifegain/Combo

{W}{U}{R} Kykar, Wind's Fury {W}{U}{R}
Storm Runner: Jeskai Tokens

{W}{U}{R} Hinata, Dawn-Crowned {W}{U}{R}
Phantom’s Revenge: Jeskai Control

{U}{B}{G} Yarok, the Desecrated {U}{B}{G}
Boomerang: Sultai ETB Triggers

{W}{B}{R} Kaalia of the Vast {W}{B}{R}
Abyssus: Mardu Angels & Demons

{U}{R}{G} Omnath, Locus of the Roil {U}{R}{G}
Boulder Dash: Temur Landfall

{U}{R}{G} Eshki, Temur's Roar {U}{R}{G}
Thunder Striker: Temur Power Matters

Date added	3 years
Last updated	4 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.08
Tokens	Clue, Copy Clone, Eldrazi 10/10 C, Elephant 3-3 G, Golem 4/4 RW, Human 1/1 W, Incubator, Phyrexian 0/0 C, Soldier 1/1 W, Treasure
Folders	Commander decks I like, Commander