Alena & Livio: Tactical Nukes
I've not had a serious partner deck before and so with all the new partners spoiled in Commander Legends I decided to make one myself. At first I was swamped with all the options but after watching the Command Zone's episode about the new Commanders and what Alena could do I immediately in my mind paired her with one of my pet cards that I never got working but find very cool nonethess: Serra Avatar (who got an upgraded new version in Soul of Eternity). That put me in Boros and with my late tendency to try and apply Occam's Razor to every deck and it's colors I needed to find a white partner. Enter Livio, who not only is white but also has the flicker ability to make sure we can use Alena's ability on an avatar every turn. This begs the question though, what do to with lots and lots of red mana.... convert it to damage of course! So this is a Boros deck who's main plan is NOT winning through the red zone (though it definitly can!) but instead aims to blow players up with one or two shots of damage.Alena & Livio: Tactical Nukes
Approximate Total Cost:
So the main premise of the deck is to get Alena out, play either Serra Avatar, Soul of Eternity or Evra, Halcyon Witness and tap her for a lot of red mana then proceed to use Comet Storm, Jaya's Immolating Inferno or Devil's Play to burn one or more opponents to crisps. The X category also contains Ghitu War Cry and Captive Flame which allow you to increase the power of any creature you control so you can stomp someone for a lot, and then throw them at an opponent with Fling, Kazuul's Fury // Kazuul's Cliffs or Brion Stoutarm. Chandra's Ignition and Rupture can outright win you the game on the spot if you time it right (and have the highest life total in case of Rupture) and Ghitu War Cry/Captive Flame will let any creature be able to do an avatar impression before using these.
But what if you are at low life? Then the Avatar's aren't that big: for that there is some lifegain in the deck. Depending on the boardstate, a well timed Brightflame can easily gain you 100+ life on the spot. True Conviction makes it hard not to gain lots of life and awakens the true Timmy in me when paired with an avatar. Wall of Reverence can help you back up fast combined with an avatar or power pump. Heliod's Intervention is primarily meant as removal but can double up as lifegain if needed and Resolute Archangel will simply put you back at 40 in one go. This lifegain in turn can also be weaponized with the by now classic use of Aetherflux Reservoir (which also gains you some life) and Volcano Hellion.
Volcano Hellion is best used in conjunction with Stuffy Doll, Boros Reckoner or Brash Taunter. If you have a higher life total then an opponent: BANG he's dead. If you have True Conviction out or you soulbond it with Nearheath Pilgrim as it enters the battlefield it will have lifelink so it will not hurt you at all. The other three cards also work wonders as damage doublers to opponents with your Rupture or Chandra's Ignition.
Horizon Stone and Leyline Tyrant open up something that is only very recently available in Boros and that is saving mana. If you can produce a lot of mana but not enough to blow everyone out, then just save it up and do it next turn! The Tyrant will also quickly be a big threat to blow up: whoever points their removal at it will be in for a LOT of pain..
Then the other stuff: there's a few blink cards included, mostly as a backup to Livio and as a cheaper or repeatable way to do it. This will allow for more explosive turns where, if you can give Alena haste, you might be able to tap Alena for mana, blink it, tap her again, blink her, tap her again. Magewright's Stone, Puppet Strings and Thousand-Year Elixir also allow you to untap Alena for extra uses. Boros has little to no way of tutoring for creatures so I included Ring of Three Wishes and Planar Portal. These are expensive to use but it's all we have to work with. Martial Coup is a nice board wipe: wiping and being left with god who knows how many token can also be an easy set up to win the game if your opponents can't answer a horde of 1/1's. Warstorm Surge and Stalking Vengeance double up on the damage equal to power theme and the latter is also a good removal detterent and gives you double use out of your Fling effects. Lastly, Feather, the Redeemed makes an appearance: she will provide you free buyback on the blink spells, is an evasive body to get in for lots of damage and if you pick her as one of the targets of Comet Storm or Jaya's Immolating Inferno you'll get the card back if you need it.
All in all I can't wait to take the deck out for a spin. I know the landbase is a little less then optimal but I only have so much dual lands and they're all in use at this point. Since this is only a 2 color deck it does not matter as much anyway.
So what do you think? My only concern up front at this point is a lack of card draw. Which I know is a common problem for Boros but still. If you would have any tips on what card draw I could put in and what to cut for it that'll be great.
Zacama
