39-10 with Boros Energy, Rank #32 mythic update
Hey everyone, a few days ago I made this post about my day 1 experience with Boros Lurrus Energy, and my hopes for the archetype. I've continued to grind the deck, and my winrate is up to 80% and I'm rank #32 mythic right now (untapped for proof)! I've made quite a few changes to the list, so I'll include a writeup below.
I recorded a few matches with the deck if anyone wants to see. I tried to explain every single one of my decisions, as there are many decision points when piloting this deck and timeless is an incredibly skill-testing format. I'm not absolutely not perfect with the deck, but if we all put our heads together, maybe we can make this a tier 1 strategy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHUlYrz8QuI&ab_channel=KoraeTimeless
Current Decklist: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3mc59sRyYE-bniQ660wGSQ
Changes made to the decklist:
- 4x Ocelot Pride - This card is CRAZY. The "White Ragavan" comparisons are 100% correct. This is a card that can snowball out of control when played on turn 1 and not blocked. When played after a Guide of Souls, it will always generate a token. In the current build, I'm hitting the city's blessing quickly and copying up my Ajani tokens as well. I've found that this deck is at its best when you have a hand full of aggressive 1 and 2 mana creatures that overwhelm your opponent while generating some amount of value. This deck now has six(!!!!) creatures that can generate value and snowball quickly - Ocelot, Ragavan, and Guide of Souls for 1 drops, and Ajani, Phelia, and Amped Raptor as 2 drops. All six of these cards allow you to get way more than 1 or 2 mana's worth of value, and provide that value QUICKLY! No need to durdle or do any setup, all of these cards are providing value the moment they come down or the first time they attack.
- DRC and Bauble OUT! - Dragon's Rage Channeler is an incredibly high quality card, and Bauble is fantastic with lurrus, but I found that this deck's best hands revolved around having a redundant density of creatures and removal. Cutting DRC and Bauble for more aggressive 1 drops and removal spells seems to be the correct play here. Which is kinda wild, since DRC itself is a 1-drop that can become a 3 power flyer. However, we're not building around delirium, we're not playing a density of noncreature spells, and if baubles get cut, DRC should go too.
- Up to 4 copies of Ragavan! "but Ragavan is a bad card and dies to bowmasters!" Correct, but we're hitting such a density of aggressive one and two drops that I don't care about the fragility of any of them. We're hitting our opponent hard, and we're hitting them fast. If they're using their lightning bolt on ragavan, then that's one less removal spell for our other creatures that can take over the game and snowball out of control. Hands with multiple one drops (Ragavan, Ocelot, and Guide of Souls) can absolutely overwhelm your opponent by presenting multiple must-answer threats both on turn 1 and turn 2. This effect is compounded by also playing "must answer" 2 drops like Ajani and Phelia. Hands that can curve out with these creatures are insane.
- Jolted Awake cut - I don't think this is a bad card, in fact this is a great card that I will think about forever when building a deck with the other energy cards. However, its a card that synergized more with DRC than with our aggressive plan. I'd rather a copy of Jolted Awake in my opening hand be another creature or another removal spell.
- Swords to plowshares to the sideboard, Static Prison to the maindeck - as other people pointed out, Static Prison is great. The energy upkeep on the card is pretty trivial when you're trying to end games FAST, and this is permanent removal that can answer anything. Losing the instant speed interaction from Swords to Plowshares is the only thing I miss, but permanent removal is so much better.
- Lightning Bolt! We're now playing lightning bolt as another removal spell that can also act as reach. I'm incredibly happy with this card in the deck. Having another redundant removal spell allows your to crash through with your creatures and close games out quickly. This deck was definitely missing some reach before, and having access to lightning bolt's burn damage can help us knock the last few points off of our opponent's life totals. Having 10 maindeck removal spells helps us guarantee a hand with at least 1 (and ideally 2) in the first few turns.
- Aether Hub out - I was really missing having access to a surveil land, and opening hands with Aether Hub were very awkward. Since I cut Bauble, I also decided to add an extra land. So there's now 3 more fetches, a surveil land, and a Den of the Bugbear instead of 4 Aether Hubs.
- Sideboard: The sideboard is still very much in flux and subject to change. I agree with commenters in the last thread that Pithing Needle is probably better than flute in this deck. I've tried out Powerbalance and it seems like a really spicy inclusion for mirrors and other Lurrus matchups, but I'm not sure if its optimal (sure is fun tho). I'm 110% open to suggestions as the metagame settles. Its really difficult to build a sideboard before the format is figured out.