While it wasn’t the sole focus of last Monday’s huge MTG Modern changes, Boros Energy was certainly a key target. The deck had been riding roughshod over Modern for months, after all, with a meta share of over 25%. With two cards from the deck all catching the ban hammer, it certainly seemed like Boros Energy’s time as meta tyrant was over. On paper, that is.
In practice, the deck has simply adapted and evolved. The banned cards have been subbed out, and in some cases unbanned cards have been subbed in. The Modern format is in a state of flux right now, so it’s too early to make any definitive statements. Based on early results, however, it seems that Boros Energy escaped the bans relatively unscathed.
MTG Energy Decks Live On In Modern
To give Monday’s MTG bans their credit, they have at least diversified Modern Energy as an archetype. Pre-bans, Boros Energy was fairly homogenous. Some lists included spicy tech picks, but the core was very consistent each time. Now, there are a number of different variants, some even dipping into black for some Mardu action.
The vanilla pre-ban version does still exist, of course. The deck may have lost Amped Raptor, Jegantha, and The One Ring, but it still has plenty of staples left after that. Cards like Phlage, Guide of Souls, and Galvanic Discharge are more than capable of holding their own.
On top of that, players have found good substitutions for the banned cards in their lists. Static Prison lost a lot of stock with the Amped Raptor ban, but Chained to the Rocks is a fine replacement. The deck has also started dabbling in powerhouse red three-drops like Seasoned Pyromancer and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker.
These substitutions work just fine due to the nature of Boros Energy as a deck. At its heart, Boros Energy is really just a pile of powerful, aggressive red/white cards. Sure there are some Energy synergies, but a lot of the best cards in the deck, Ocelot Pride, Ajani, etc., don’t interact with Energy at all. Some of the new post-ban variants are even going by ‘Boros Midrange’ instead, which emphasizes this point further.
While not completely dominating events like before vanilla Boros Energy is still showing up a lot in Modern Leagues and Challenges, often in the upper echelons. This isn’t too surprising, really. The deck did lose access to its beloved One Ring, but so did the rest of Modern, so it still feels very strong.
Spicy New Variants
By themselves, the now less-numerous vanilla Boros Energy decks wouldn’t really be a problem. Since the bans MTG players have been experimenting with other Modern energy builds, however, the majority of which keep the deck’s core cards in circulation.
I mentioned Mardu Energy earlier, and this is one of the more popular variants. The black splash here is fairly minor, all things considered. It allows the deck to run Orcish Bowmasters and Fatal Push, as well as a copy or two of Chthonian Nightmare as a value engine. Other than that, it’s business as usual. Mardu Energy has been taking plenty of names so far, with multiple 5-0 League finishes and Modern Challenge wins already. Given he deck is 90% classic Boros Energy, this isn’t surprising.
More surprising are the numerous Energy decks giving Splinter Twin a go. Just like in 2016, players are adding a Twin package to powerful existing decks and seeing how it works out. Boros Energy is one such deck. Thanks to Village Bellringer, there’s no need to splash blue for the usual Splinter Twin targets, and having an explosive combo finish available is a nice boon for a deck like this, which can often end up locked in grindy games. It may sound far-fetched, but this Energy variant is putting up good results so far.
We’ve even seen some Boros Energy decks that cut out even-cost cards entirely and run Obosh, the Preypiercer as a Companion. This is a pretty smart move; without Amped Raptor and The One Ring, Ajani is really the only even-cost card the deck is married to. Ditching that powerful Planeswalker in favor of a pricey extra card in hand sounds silly, but just look at Jegantha. This version of the deck is very new, but has already achieved multiple 5-0 finishes.
A Problem Unsolved?
As you can see, Modern Energy decks remain very popular even after the recent MTG bans. Before the bans, most players would’ve referred to the deck’s meta share as ‘problematic.’ Is this still the case now? Did Wizards undershoot and miss the mark here?
Honestly, it’s hard to say. Boros Energy is powerful, certainly, but it’s also the kind of good-stuff Midrange deck that tends to exist in some shape or form in most formats. Consequently, it isn’t the kind of deck you can really ‘kill’ via bans in the traditional sense. It doesn’t hinge on one card, but rather a critical mass of powerful individual cards. Banning one of those cards in Amped Raptor clearly hasn’t done much to its performance, so perhaps more bans are necessary? Maybe Phlage or Ocelot Pride needs to go next?
Interestingly, Wizards has said it’d be open to this. During Tuesday’s Weekly MTG, Carmen Klomparens and Dan Musser talked about how they approached the deck in the bans. Klomparens said that “something we were fairly worried about was overnerfing the Boros Energy deck.” This makes perfect sense in the context of the other huge format changes made in the update. With so many other decks getting powered up, totally crushing Energy likely would’ve felt unfair.
That said, it could well prove necessary yet. The numbers right now aren’t too alarming, but things are still settling down. If it bubbles back up to its previous dominance, Wizards may need to act again.
“I don’t think it’s a non-starter for us to keep attacking Energy if it looks like the deck is still too strong. This isn’t us saying we’re unwilling to take further action against it.”
Carmen Klomparens
This is reassuring to hear, and it may well prove necessary in time. While the new twists on Energy are interesting, players will likely grow tired of the same old core before long, if they haven’t already.
