Following the one-two punch of the recent major bans and the release of The Hobbit, Magic’s Standard format is effectively wide open. In this new environment, a range of interesting brews, now free from the shackles of their banned overlords, are seeing success. Boros Tokens, for example, is a speedy MTG strategy that’s starting to make moves in Standard, spurred on by the unlikeliest of legendary Hobbits.
Boros Tokens In MTG Standard
Since The Hobbit dropped last week, Boros Tokens has been putting in a serious shift, landing several 5-0 League finishes on MTGO. This is largely down to Belladonna Took, who provides card advantage to combat the typical Tokens problem of overcommitting to the board.
To make good use of Belladonna, you need to be making at least two tokens a turn, ideally three. Boros Tokens achieves this with cards like Hop to It, The Last Ronin’s Technique, and Song of Totentanz, which can hit these goals single-handedly. Other cards, like Frontline Rush and Voice of Victory, can get you the life and card draw at least, which is good enough in many cases.
In addition to Belladonna, Boros Tokens runs a couple of other key payoffs to reward its rapid-fire token generation. Political Triumph is essentially a cheaper, single-use Belladona you can stagger out over multiple turns, offering great selection and an inevitable buff. Warleader’s Call really brings the deck together, however, buffing all of your tokens and pressuring your opponent with its constant pings.
Though it has some resilience thanks to the card draw from Belladonna and Triumph, this is very much an Aggro deck at heart. It sets up early, clears the way with Stadium Headliner and Erode, then pushes for an early win.
Strengths And Weaknesses
While the Standard metagame is still very much developing post-Hobbit, some key decks are already emerging, against which Boros Tokens has considerable game. Dimir Excruciator is probably its best matchup, since it lacks early board presence to hold off your token assaults. Board wipes like Day of Black Sun and Deadly Cover-Up don’t come online until it’s too late, either, meaning you can often swarm in for a quick win.
Jeskai Spellementals, another solid meta player at the moment, is more of a mixed bag matchup for Boros Tokens. In games where it doesn’t draw its cheap removal early, you can run Spellementals over before it can establish any kind of board presence. When it does draw these cards, however, Prismari Charm in particular, you can quickly find yourself on the receiving end of a game-ending Sunderflock.
Unfortunately, the Jeskai and Four-Color Control decks in Standard right now are extremely tough matchups for Boros Tokens. While grindy elements like Belladonna and Warleader’s Call help, this deck simply has too much early removal and board wipes for you to handle. Add in lifegain from both Jeskai Revelation and Together as One, and your chances of eking out a win here are slim.
Overall, while it’s not a meta-breaker by any means, Boros Tokens still looks to be a deck with a solid spot in the new Standard metagame. As things continue to develop over the next few weeks, this is a list well worth keeping an eye on.
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