Inpromptu Deckbuild #3: Combatshaping

So, another challenge has been issued.

This time around, I was given the Boros Battleshaper. A decent rare, sees a bit of use in EDH (that I have seen) but never really made a splash in Standard. Looking at the CMC, its no real wonder why; its PAINFULLY expensive. But, what if we were to build around it? Well, I think you might be surprised.

One, you take your battleshaper. Seven mana for a 5/5, he's a decent body, but look at the potential in that ability. You can literally determine whether your opponent attacks into your wall of meat, or if his creatures are too scared to block your 7/7 swinging into his face. He's got the potential, but at the staggering cost of 7 mana I can see for a fact that he needs a slow deck to be built around him. I could go for control, Boros has quite a suite of control in this standard, but the combat-based ability of the Battleshaper makes me want a decent creature line up. What deck does slow/beefy? Mid range.


Midrange in mind, as an archetype it needs its bombs. Red/white isn't the bombiest of colours, so I'm thinking of splashing some green, and making this a Naya setup. Keeping within the colours at the moment however, I am excited at the major Boros bomb to be revealed recently (as of last Monday, in fact); Iroas, God of Victory is an excellent mid-game bomb (As early as turn 3 if you ramp into him) and he himself shapes combat. Your attacking creatures will be unable to be damaged by blockers, and each of them cannot be blocked by just one creature. If your opponent has two blockers left? Your entire field is Unblockable.

Splashing out into and keeping with the combat-heavy gods, it's hard to NOT be persuaded by Xenagos, God of Revels. A decent turn 4 play w/ ramp, He can double the power of your incredibly big creatures, ripe to take out your opponent's forced blockers, or straight past the ones that can't block. The addition of haste also makes any play after he hits the field VERY tense for your opponent, as he may just be staring down a 14/11 Iroas with haste.

Stemming out from the gods, the battleshaper presents an interesting opportunity; in being able to force combat in your favour, he can force potent bombs through to your opponent's face, or at least force to attempt chump blocks in the absence of double blocking your onslaught. As a result, I'm leaning towards Giant Adephage as a bomb to close out with. With the right setup, the Adephage can swing for 14 on the turn he's out with Xenagos, which can be sped up to turn 5 in the right condition. If you shape the combat right, at least some damage will go right to the face which, due to the Adephage's effect, produces a copy of the giant beetle, making your next combat hit hard. With Selesnya in the colours of Naya, some token shenanigans could be in order. Another non-God (But might as well be) is the ever-popular Polukranos, World Eater. In a deck that desperately wants ramp as much as this one does, Sooner or later you're going to have enough mana to make him truly Monstrous. And hey, he's removal on a creature, what's not to love?

Speaking of ramp, there are two stand-out entries at this point. First, the Sylvan Caryatid. This guy sees 4-of play in every green deck in Standard for a reason. 2 Mana for a 0/3 hexproof wall is fair enough... Then you make that wall able to tap for ANY colour of mana. Not just green. ANY colour. It's a triple-colour deck's dream. My one regret is that you can only carry 4 in a deck. I must say though, as much as the Caryatid's fixing is nice, it's not quite the ramping power of my other choice for ramp; Meet Xenagos, the Reveler. He does more than create interesting time travel paradoxes when he and his God Form are on the field at once, I assure you. His +1 ability is the main reason I chose him, he ramps. Hard. He makes the 7 drops viable by just being there. Dropping a creature on Turns 1-3 then him causes him to almost pay for himself on entry, then just create value from there. His 0 creates a creature, synergising with his god form; want to break a wall? Throw 4/4 hastes at it until problem is dealt with. I'm assuming unless your opponent has no idea of how to deal with planeswalkers he won't let you get near your ultimate, but if, for example, you were to make his combat so it was impossible to touch Xenagos until he ults, well... Enjoy your free creatures and lands, this deck runs very few noncreature nonlands.

Of course, this strategy is nice, but we need to get there. So we may well need a few early beaters. With the size of the creatures coming down in subsequent turns, my good friend Experiment One will have to make an appearance. He's quite frankly too nuts in most green archetypes to not, a mid game threat with an early game cost. A choice that may give me flak is the inclusion of Wayfaring Temple. Why did I include this? Well, for 3 you get a */* that gets bigger as your field grows. That's nice and all, Crusaders of Odric are routinely seen as end game bombs in my local meta. But, say if you were to get the opportunity to get a free shot at the opponent's face with this monster, you get a populate. An extra token (which is not as small as it sounds, potential targets include Giant Adephage tokens and tokens from Voice of Resurgence) and that makes it even bigger as a result. The potential to stomp your way to victory is pretty attractive, in my opinion. As previously mentioned as well, Voice of Resurgence makes a play in here as well. My reasoning? Well, for one, this card is nuts. Like, super nuts. Guaranteed at least one token whose P/T mirrors your Wayfaring Temples. Add onto the fact that it discourages any Red/Black/Blue/Any deck with instants from doing anything during your turn, is amazing. Psychological Warfare. As I close out the token-heavy section of the build, I feel the need to mention that with every token that hits the board, Xenagos (Planeswalker) becomes more valuable, due to that +1 ability of his.

Now that we have our creatures out of the way, how about some other ways to shape combat? The obvious place to go is combat tricks, but with big enough creatures the only trick I feel is relevant to put in is in defense: Pay No Heed. A white instant reprinted in the Core Set, it nullifies all damage one source would do. Most likely the only creature your opponent attacks with that turn, because he's forced to. This can turn already awkward situations into demoralising losses for your opponent, all for one white mana.

When you see the decklist, you may note there is a one-of on the board: Assemble the Legion. This is a card that I see all the time as a pseudo-sideboard card: If you see it ever, you've stalled out way too long, and this is something to help you end it. To its credit, it does that very well; the exponential growth in field makes Xenagos more valuable, gives you chump blockers, and makes your Elemental tokens/Wayfaring temples bigger. I can only see a one-of of this card being useful, but that's just my opinion!

Thats it for this deckbuild, the full link to my decklist can be found at here if you would like to check it out/give it a try. For now though, see you next time.