Over the past few weeks, the Standard metagame has become relatively stable. A mix of Jeskai Convoke, red aggro, black midrange, Temur Prowess, mono-white tokens, and Domain make up the top tier, with a handful of other decks like Azorius Oculus, Simic spells and Azorius Glyph rounding out the next tier.
Almost every recent big event has been dominated by these strategies, with outliers few and far between. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as Standard has plenty of diversity at the moment. Nonetheless, we haven’t seen quite as many successful brews emerge as we were hoping since the release of MTG Foundations.
That being said, a couple days ago, one player had a breakout performance with a very odd Boros Discover deck. Making top eight of a 74-player Magic Online Standard Challenge, this shell’s sudden surge is quite intriguing.
This deck is capable of winning out of nowhere, so knowing the ins and outs of how the archetype functions is essential. To start, we need to look at what the Discover package brings to the table.
Cascading to Victory
- Mana Value: 3RW
- Rarity: Mythic Rare
- Stats: 4 Loyalty Counters
- Card Type: Legendary Planeswalker- Quintorius
- MTG Sets: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Card Text: Whenever you cast a spell from exile, Quintorius Kand deals 2 damage to each opponent and you gain 2 life. +1: Create a 3/2 red and white Spirit creature token. -3: Discover 4. -6: Exile any number of target cards from your graveyard. Add R for each card exiled this way. You may play those cards this turn.
Similar to Discover shells we’ve seen pop up in Pioneer, this deck is heavily built round Quintorius Kand. There isn’t the same level of combo theme here, as Spark Double is not a Standard legal card. Regardless, this deck is able to get a ton of mileage out of Quintorius by reliably “Discovering” into more cards with Discover.
In the whole deck, there are only three cards that have a mana value of four or less. Geological Appraiser is the archetype’s sole four-drop. In the three-drop slot, you’ll find Etali’s Favor and Imodane’s Recruiter. The odds are in your favor that if you use Quintorius Kand’s -3 ability, you’ll hit Etali’s Favor or Geological Appraiser and get to Discover again. From there, if you’re lucky, you’ll hit Etali’s Favor once again.
Each time you successfully cast one of these cards you Discover into, Quintorius Kand’s static ability will trigger and drain the opponent for two. While the chain will obviously end once you hit Imodane’s Recruiter, this only pushes damage further by buffing your team and letting you attack for a big chunk of damage right away.
The whole point of this strategy is to generate value with all of your Discover cards while you simultaneously have the ability to turn the corner quickly. Of course, in order to maximize Imodane’s Recruiter and make sure you don’t get run over, you need some plays to make in the early part of the game.
Making Early Plays
- Mana Value: 4RR
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 7/6
- Card Type: Creature- Dinosaur
- MTG Sets: The Lost Caverns of Ixalan
- Card Text: Trample. When Trumpeting Carnosaur enters the battlefield, discover 5. 2R, Discard Trumpeting Carnosaur: It deals 3 damage to target creature or planeswalker.
This may sound tough with so many expensive cards in the deck, but fortunately, many of them have alternate casting costs. For example, both Virtue of Loyalty and Autonomous Assembler, despite have a mana value of five each, can both create a board presence on turn two.
This is especially important when you have access to Etali’s Favor in your deck. Not only is Etali’s Favor a decent follow up to one of these 2/2s, but you really want to have a creature in play when you cast Quintorius to ensure that if you exile Etali’s Favor off the -3, you have a legal target.
Speaking of solid cards to follow up these creatures with, Steel Seraph is another card with Prototype that is an excellent three-drop. Steel Seraph’s ability to grant Lifelink is a huge boon versus red aggro shells. Beza, the Bounding Spring excels in these spots, too.
Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Trumpeting Carnosaur. Trumpeting Carnosaur is an awesome card to hard cast in grindy games. At the same time, in games where you need to prevent opposing threats from getting out of hand, discarding it is totally reasonable. If you ever manage to Discover into Quintorius when you cast Trumpeting Carnosaur, your opponent is in a world of trouble.
An Impressive Finish
- Mana Value: 6
- Rarity: Rare
- Stats: 5/4
- Card Type: Artifact Creature- Angel
- MTG Sets: The Brother’s War
- Card Text: Prototype 1WW, 3/3 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.) Flying. At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature you control gains your choice of flying, vigilance, of lifelink until end of turn.
Overall, this deck’s incredible performance is nothing to scoff at. Boros Discover made very little noise at all up to this point. This begs the question: is Boros Discover merely a flash in the pan, or does it really have what it takes to compete?
In all likelihood, Boros Discover may have too many flaws to be a particularly strong archetype choice in most instances. More particularly, the aggressive matchups are far from ideal. This deck has little recourse against a fast start from Jeskai Convoke involving Gleeful Demolition or a quick mono-red draw using Monstrous Rage
Steel Seraph helps a bit in these spots, but that’s only if it doesn’t get removed on site. The reality is, the small bodies that Virtue of Loyalty or Autonomous Assembler add to the board don’t do enough to stave off early pressure.
On the flip side, though, if you know you’re running into nothing but slower black midrange decks, Boros Discover is a great choice. All your cards generate value. You have tons to spend your mana on, including casting your Prototype creatures at their normal mana values. These creatures even have the upside of dodging Go for the Throat.
Quintorius is a house if you can keep the board relatively clear, and Imodane’s Recruiter closes games in a heartbeat. All you need is time to execute your gameplan. So, Boros Discover still has value as a metacall despite its weaknesses. There’s plenty of room to innovate within the archetype as well, so if you’re looking for something different to try out in Standard, consider giving this deck a shot.
