Over the past month, two archetypes in Modern seem to have solidified their status as the decks to beat. Obviously, Bant Nadu remains a force to be reckoned with. However, Boros Energy has also been putting up rather staggering numbers, especially over the last week. If you’re looking to play Modern in the near future, you’d better have a plan to fight against these Energy shells.
Seeing the rise in Energy decks in the metagame, one player took it upon themselves to brew up a Boros midrange deck designed to reliably beat the menace. The deck features removal, grindy elements, and some neat Arena of Glory synergies that can help you close the game in short order. A neat legendary Detective even makes an appearance, too! Let’s take a closer look at what this deck is trying to accomplish and the major role Arena of Glory plays.
Prolonging the Game
- Mana Value: 1RW
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 6/6
- Text: When Phlage enters the battlefield, sacrifice it unless it escaped. Whenever Phlage enters the battlefield or attacks, it deals 3 damage to any target and you gain 3 life. Escape- RRWW, Exile five other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its escape cost).
At a baseline, this Boros shell functions as a midrange deck that is heavily slanted towards beating small creature decks. As you might expect, Phlage, Titan of Fire’s Fury is a key piece of the puzzle. Casting it for three mana is very reasonable, and it can easily run away with the game once Escaped.
Seeing playsets of Phlage and Lightning Bolt isn’t too surprising, but where things start to get interesting is with the presence of Firebolt and Pyroclasm. These certainly aren’t the most versatile cards, but they do a great job of keeping Ocelot Pride and Guide of Souls in check. Pyroclasm in particular is strong against Energy decks, as it cleanly answers Ajani, Nacatl Pariah and the Cat token it makes when it enters. Pyroclasm is a decent card against Bant Nadu as well, dealing with Springheart Nantuko tokens all at once.
Another solid tool this deck has access to in the Energy matchup is High Noon. High Noon is great at slowing the opponent down, while completely shutting down Amped Raptor as a value engine. The fact that High Noon hoses Ruby Storm and Prowess shells is just icing on the cake. It even pairs nicely with Reprieve, since the opponent can’t replay the spell they cast during that turn.
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Shutting the Door
- Mana Value: 2RW
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 2/4
- Text: Double Strike, Vigilance. Whenever Agrus Kos, Spirit of Justice enters the battlefield or attacks, choose up to one target creature. If it’s suspected, exile it. Otherwise, suspect it. (A suspected creature has menace and can’t block).
With such a high volume of early-game disruption, this deck still needs a good way to close the game before the opponent can recover. Fortunately, this is where the Arena of Glory package comes into play. Arena of Glory is a heck of a Magic card. Getting to give a burly threat Haste (or two, if you manage to split up the two red mana you generate among multiple creature spells) can be the difference between winning and losing. In this deck in particular, Arena of Glory creates some big swings.
We mentioned Phlage already as a big bomb that aggro decks are hard-pressed to contend with as the game goes on. Well, what if you got to attack with it right away the turn you Escape it? You get to Lightning Helix something (including your opponent) when it enters, attack immediately, then Lightning Helix something again. This likely paves the way for Phlage to connect in combat for another six points of damage. If the opponent isn’t careful, this sequence could result in them taking 12 damage to the dome in one turn.
Likely the most exciting card in this deck to pair with Arena of Glory, though, is none other than Agrus Kos, Spirit of Justice. Agrus Kos is a four-mana mythic rare from Murders at Karlov Manor that has never really found a home in Constructed. The problem with it in most decks is that you need to trigger its prominent ability twice to actually exile an opposing threat. If you Suspect an opponent’s creature when Agrus Kos enters, then the opponent kills Agrus Kos before you get an attack in, you didn’t accomplish a whole lot.
This is where Arena of Glory comes in clutch. With it, you can play Agrus Kos and attack in the same turn. In this way, as long as you find a window to get a hit in, you get to exile even the largest of creatures your opponent plays. This is a great tool to fight opposing copies of Phlage, Murktide Regent, and beyond.
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Preparing for the Metagame at Hand
- Mana Value: W
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 1/1
- Text: First strike, lifelink. Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city’s blessing for the rest of the game). At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, create a 1/1 white Cat creature token. Then if you have the city’s blessing, for each token you control that entered the battlefield this turn, create a token that’s a copy of it.
As we mentioned, this deck is clearly dedicated towards beating Energy variants. A good mix of cheap removal and haymakers to take over the game with make the matchup quite strong. These cards also line up favorably against Prowess, and the presence of High Noon can make the Storm matchup a breeze when it shows up.
The biggest issue this deck runs into, though, is when the removal package is weak. Firebolt and Pyroclasm in particular are very mediocre if the opponent doesn’t have good targets at the ready. Decks like Jeskai control are largely unaffected. Strategies like Gruul Breach can simply sneak an Emrakul, the Aeons Torn into play and there’s little that this deck can do to stop it.
Even in the case of Bant Nadu, which is a deck that has a lot of small creatures, the namesake card lines up well against the removal out of big Boros. Sure, you can get rid of Nadu, Winged Wisdom by playing and attacking with Agrus Kos or aiming two burn spells at it, but you’ll trigger Nadu multiple times in the process.
As such, this deck isn’t high up on our list of recommendations unless you expect a ton of Energy decks in your vicinity. If you expect to play against small creature decks a lot and are tired of losing, though, this deck is a sweet option. We like seeing Agrus Kos get some love, and we suspect we’re not alone, either (no pun intended).
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