Originally inspired by Rachmiel's Tariel deck, this deck has gone through numerous interactions until it arrived at where it's currently as, of which the most important one being card changes to be able to survive in a meta that knows what it can do.
The deck is, to sum it up, a pillowfort deck that tries to stay alive until it can cast a forked Price of Progress, something among those lines, or if that's not an option, turn it's pillowfort angle to a prison angle where we beatdown with Dawn of Hope tokens, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight herself or just wait until we've survived each and every card in our opponent's decks and they mill themselves out (it happens).
We don't want our opponents to feel our prison early, thus we, unlike most pillowfort decks, run mostly cards that subtly suggest attacking other players instead of once that explicitly prohibit them from attacking us, especially one's that prohibit them from playing magic. We want them to attack each other and make the mistake of believing they can deal with us later instead of sacrificing resources to deal with us now. We want to subtly tip off our opponents that they can attack us, but it's not worth it. We also run a bunch of trick cards, that can steal a game, generate immense value for us or keep us alive another turn.
The reason the deck is in Boros is because it's a self-imposed limitation. I feel naked without blue, but I still want a deck without it. Not running blue also allow me to run a bunch of cards that would never make the cut if I was in three colors. The deck would probably be better as Jeskai or Mardu, but I don't feel the deck needs to be stronger, this deck still has the highest winrate by far of any decks I've played & it has beaten a couple cEDH decks. Of course, this isn't a cEDH deck and it does not belong there, but it's okay at interacting with them should one show up at the tables where this deck belong. Red Elemental Blast & Pyroblast has probably won me more games than any other card in the deck, not counting Price of Progress.
Regarding the choice of Gisela, it's because no other Boros commander really adds anything to our strategy except maybe Avacyn who I'd consider trying out for a while instead of Gisela. Gisela's doubling ability is quite useful when we try to end the game, but she usually doesn't do a lot earlier in the game. I have no qualms of swapping her out if a better Boros commander would present itself.
I might try to make this into a primer eventually, but for now I'll just post the decklist along with this probably-too-long introduction. This is my current paper list, I'll post future updates & possibly a budget list at a later date. It'll have some changes soon probably, as I'm constantly testing out cards.
Wantlist
11 Plains, 7 Mountain: The bread and butter of the deck, we need to have enough basics not to be destroyed by our own Price of Progress. More plains because of the Rune of Protection cycle.
Flooded Strand, Windswept Heath: Reshuffle for a mana life is totally worth it, and can grab our Sacred Foundry to help mana-fix, even if only once. The only reason I'm not running the full suite is that I don't own them.
Prismatic Vista: Even better than fetchlands as it always gets the color you need, while still providing the 1 life reshuffle.
Command Tower: Taps for both our color for only the very slight downside of hurting us for 2 when we use Price of Progress? Sign me up!
Temple of Triumph: ETB tapped is a signficant downside, but as it taps for both of our colors, I can live with it as any form of card quality is more than welcome here.
Rugged Prairie: Just recently added this, but it should be great as trading a R for WW is great most turns, and trading a W for RR is great when we really need it.
UTILITY LANDS
Emergence Zone: Flash is great. Is it worth sacrificing a land for? Probably. I need to test this card more though, it might just be too situational.
Maze of Ith: Stop one attack a turn cycle for the cost of a land drop, a very important piece of our pillowfort. Also tough to get rid off.
Kor Haven: Almost as good as the Maze, but paying two to use it is worse than a land drop. Still a great card and a key card of the deck.
Hall of Heliod's Generosity: Makes all our enchantments even tougher to get rid of. Great land. Doesn't do a lot vs exile removal, but dodging destroy removal is great. Very low opportunity cost to run as this is better than most of the colorless suite.
Forgotten Cave & Secluded Steppe: These are borderline inclusions, ETB tapped is very bad, but the fact we can ship them late is very good.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All: This isn't low-cost inclusion as repeated lifeloss hurts really bad. But, we hate blue, so I'm sticking with it for now but it's not a definite inclusion.
Scavenger Grounds: We like our graveyard, but sometimes someone's graveyard just need to go away. It makes me tempted to run more desert. Makes me want to add the cycle deserts kind of, but the 1 mana cyclelands are already borderline inclusion.
Isolated Watchtower: I'm waiting on this card to do something, we're pretty good at cosnsistently hitting landdrops. If it doesn't start being good soon, it'll get cut.
Myriad Landscape: ETB tapped AND colorless hurts. But getting two lands from it is nice. Not good in ultra-fast metas, but we should be able to not be targeted in those metas, so it's a little bit safer.
Glacial Chasm: Interesting card. Keeps us alive for a few turns when we play it. Can make us live through a Price of Progress that would otherwise kill us. Not sure it's impactful enough for us to run though, but only more testing will tell.
Strip Mine: Wonderful card. Get rid of opposing strip mines that'd go after our Maze of Ith, gamewinning or massively impactful lands, grab it from a Tempt with Discovery to get rid of the best land they fetch.
Wasteland: Strip mine #2 as we never really want to go after other people's basics.
ARTIFACT MANA
Sol Ring: You could make an argument for this being bad as it makes our starts more threatening, but in reality it doesn't play out like that. If you're worried about it (like a T1 Fetch-->Shock-->Sol Ring-->Signet when others only play a land), you can just slow-roll it.
Talisman of Conviction, Boros Signet & Marble Diamond: Marble Diamond will be the new brawl signet, but two mana for one mana of either color is good enough, even if we don't really care about ramp.
ARTIFACTS
Sensei's Divining Top: One of the best card quality cards in the game, and with the lack of great card quantity engines, this is what we get (not that I'm complaining). That being said, if you're slow at using it, don't run it! You'll attract unnecessary ire from your opponents. In general, we want to have instant speed interaction at the top to effectively have it in our hand.
Thaumatic Compass: Pulls double duty, helps us hit land drops early and then morphs to another piece of the pillowfort late when the land drops aren't as important. It's also super unassuming, no one bats an eye at it. Great card.
Endless Atlas: One of the best card advantage engines we got. The downside isn't an issue really, we run more than enough basics.
Bloodthirsty Blade: Testing this out right now, will update later.
Crawlspace: Has been in the deck since it's beginning. It's kind of nice to have as it's obnoxious to go-wide strategies, but not amazing as it doesn't do anything about big creatures. This might get cut in the future, but for now it's still good enough to be in the deck.
Pendant of Prosperity: Testing this out right now, will update later.
Norn's Annex: Psychological Warfare! This has also been in the deck since the beginning. People don't like paying life, especially not if there's a rune of protection waiting for them if they pay the life Scales down as opponents get more skilled, which is the worst kind of scaling. It's nice to have, but honestly, it's one of the more cut-able cards in the deck. Worse vs white decks for obvious reasons.
ENCHANTMENTS
Land Tax: Amazing. Never miss a land drop again, unless you're on the play or everyone else also does it. Don't do silly things like missing a land drop early to activate this, the real power of this card is to stay on the level of other players, not getting lands into our hands/out of our deck.
Authority of the Consuls: Phenomenal. The lifegain this card can provide is great, for the small, small cost of one mana. Opponents creatures entering tapped is just gravy, but it's certainly useful at times. Oh, and it's non-symmetrical. Wonderful.
Soul Snare: This card does not do what you think it does. It's not a 2-mana removal, it's a 1-mana fend-off large creatures your opponents doesn't want dead. Be very careful about cracking it as it's a very useful deterrent when on the board, but also don't be too conservative about it as opponents will see through it. Use it when the time is right, and otherwise enjoy your 1-mana inverse Ghostly Prison
Island Sanctuary: This + Endless Atlas or Dawn of Hope and very little things can attack you. I'm a bit afraid it'll draw too much hate, but that hasn't been my experience with it so far. Don't play it if people can attack you this turn, as they probably will.
Rune of Protection: Green & others: Staple cards of the deck. Makes people not want to attack us, and if they do, we can just remove the damage. No one playing a color? Just cycle it away! Playing against battlecruiser decks? Monocolor? They'll struggle to get through this, and any deck that wants to do player removal instead of enchantment removal is going to struggle to get through. Not great against go-wide strategies though.
Dawn of Hope: Breathtaking. Chump blockers, card draw and lifegain, all in one! This card can, from our perspective, dominate games, and no one will notice. It costs a lot of mana, but that's not a big deal as we can spend it as we wish. This is the strongest card advantage engine in the deck and no one cares about it. Just wonderful.
Stony Silence: Shuts down fast decks that needs to be shut down. Not sure if it's actually good enough to be in the deck, but here it is, I'm testing it out for now. It hits a few of our cards, but we can live with that.
Rest in Peace: Extremely impactful card, and if it wasn't for how poorly some graveyard decks are built to combat this, I probably wouldn't run it. Not great vs our deck, so if it doesn't hate anything out, don't cast it. That being said, some games with this card devolves whether this can stick or not. When we have other players spending resources to keeping it on the board we're doing great. Be wary of decks this is obnoxious to but doesn't get shut down by it, as they might disproportionately target you for playing this card.
Aura of Silence: In theory a tax piece, in practice a sorcery disenchant for 3. Not great, but I want to try it out a little more before cutting it. I'm worried about both modes being suboptimal.
Nevermore: Need to stop something before it goes on the stack? This is your go-to card. Haven't been great in practice though, so on the verge of being cut.
Story Circle: Unlike the runes, this will always be useful, but the increased cost of one is actually kind of ow the turn it comes down. But a make-your-own-rune is worth the extra mana.
Karmic Justice: Keeps opponents off our lawn. We hate mass destruction, and this makes opponents think twice about it as we can just destroy their lands if they do so.
Ghostly Prison: This makes it slightly more annoying to attack us! That is 100% the intended purpose, it will never fend off a determined attacker, but that's not why it's here, it's to fend of all the undetermined one's, slightly tipping them off to attack another player instead...
CREATURES
Weathered Wayfarer: For the longest time I thought it said basic land, and it'd still be an auto-include to keep hitting land drops. It's even better than Land Tax on the play, as you can crack a fetchland (land goes to GY, fetch trigger on stack) and you can active it while having one land less on the battlefield.
Wall of Omens: Cheap, replaces itself, and prevents a bit of incremental damage that could be sent our way. Not very exciting, but that's not what the deck is about.
Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker: She's brilliant, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. No one wants to attack into her, but no one cares enough about her to spend resources to get rid of her. She's a perfect fit for the deck, adding a price to attacking us rather than preventing it.
Cavalier of Dawn: Testing this out right now, will update later.
INSTANTS
Path to Exile & Swords to Plowshares: 1 mana instant to exile something with no questions asked. Amazing. We can hold them off until we really need them. Their downsides are almost upsides here, as opponents will feel less bad about having their creature gon.
Red Elemental Blast & Pyroblast: Another amazing duo of cards. Blue mages giving you trouble? Say no more! These cards win games by helping keep blue combo in check a bit. Granted, we need some help from the rest of the table, but these are still amazing.
Scout's Warning: Any card that's cheap and replaces itself is always worth looking into. The effect isn't amazing, but the cost is virtually zero, and we can do some cute tricks with it, not only with Gisela, Blade of Goldnight herself but also with Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker or Cavalier of Dawn. It has earned it's slot.
Fork & Reverberate: Snag some utility from a draw spell or the like and getting double damage from Price of Progess are just two things these cards can do. They're pure magic and you'll notice tons of things to do with them when you're playing. Fantastic utility cards.
Shattering Pulse & Allay: Want to eat your cake and keep it too? Now you can! Remove that pesky artifact or enchantment that needs to be dealt without losing the ability to deal with pesky artifacts or enchantments. They might look weak, but that's just how they look
Deflecting Palm: It's a very narrow win-con, and one of the remains from the original deck interaction that had many more of these. This was one of the better ones, but nowadays, it's barely getting by as it's too narrow to warrant inclusion. I like the card enough to keep it and hey, might keep us alive another turn, so how bad can it be?
Wear // Tear: This might not do enough to warrant a slot as I'm starting to feel I have a bit too many of these effects... still, it's a decent card when we need it, but it's worse than Shattering Pulse/Allay here.
Generous Gift: Catch-all removal is great. Catch-all removal at instant speed is even better. Catch-all removal at instant speed that gives them something to feel less bad, and that something hopefully not coming our way? Now we're talking. Broad removal is best removal.
Settle the Wreckage: Testing this out right now, will update later.
Magmaquake: The best of it's kind as simultaneously wiping planeswalkers being a major upside as we're not well equipped to deal with those. I need more testing to make sure I want the effect at all though.
Electrodominance: Cheating casting costs is always fun, and the damage can easily be enough to pick off 1-2 players with forks or Gisela, or it can function as a removal spell for either a player or planeswalker. It's never amazing, but never bad.
SORCERIES
Faithless Looting: We run a lot of situational cards, so being able to filter those away in the case we don't need them is fairly good. Not a great card, but you take what you get when you're in RW.
Vandalblast: 5 mana destroy all artifacts we don't control is great. Hates on mana, utility artifacts or any obnoxious pieces that needs to go away.
Recoup: Card quality and card advantage in one. Allows us to reuse boardwipes mostly, but that's good enough.
Shards of Sanity: We take what card advantage and card quality we get. By the time we want to use this, pitching a land isn't a big deal, making this a sort-of 2-for-1.
Acidic Soil: A worse backup Price of Progress. Get Gisela, Blade of Goldnight or Glacial Chasm onto the board to break the symmetry for the win.
Day of Judgment & Wrath of God: The gold standard. Cheap and effective, any boardwipe costing more than this should come with an upside.
Hallowed Burial: Bottom of the library is way, way better than GY so we absolutely want to pay an extra mana for this effect.
Rout: Or the option to keep it until the last minute, and possibly not cast it at all. Worth the extra mana for that flexibility.
Winds of Abandon: Or the option to use it as spot removal, coupled with exile! Feeding into their mana isn't a big deal, especially since it makes Acidic Soil & Isolated Watchtower better!
Terminus: Or the possibility that it costs 1, at instant speed with Sensei's Divining Top and puts creatures to the bottom of library!
Incite Rebellion: Or doubling as a wincon! This card is so great, double duty cards are the best.
Descend the Sinful: Or exiling and possibly giving us an angel. This is barely worth the extra two mana though and it's the worst boardwipe we got.
Aven Mindcensor: A worse, but cheaper Stranglehold that can also poke planeswalker and effectively counter the first tutor. We don't care enough about tutors to run two effects of this, but if you really hate tutors you could run both, the card should be okay.
Dualcaster Mage: This is a good card. I'm just not sure I want 4 fork effects though, and the body isn't good enough for me to care about it over Reiterate's buyback. It might get added back in the future though.
Forcefield: I wish. That price tag though. I might get one eventually if it doesn't skyrocket again, but for now it's stuck here.
Overmaster: If blue players ruin your day, this is pretty decent.
Richochet Trap: Good in blue-heavy metas. Not good enough for open one's or blue-light ones, I think.
Rune of Protection: Artifacts: Not as good as the other one's, but it's playable. I keep cycling this away, never playing it, so I'm not running it.
Silence: For blue-heavy metas, incase you want to fork your Price of Progress in peace.
Stranglehold: Somewhat oppressive, but against effects that are generally disliked. If you don't like those kind of effects this is a card you can run. I don't think the effects are both common and good enough for us to waste a card slot on this though.
Wild Ricochet: This is great in theory, and I want it to work. It's the kind of card I'm expecting to eventually give a second run, but after so many games in the deck, it's almost always a 4 mana fork.
Comeuppance: 4 mana narrow Deflecting Palm that only works for noncreatures? No thanks, that's awful, since palm gets used on creatures in 90% of cases. 4 mana narrow removal? Sure, we could blow someone out but we tend to not have huge armies coming our way as most of our deck is built to prevent that. If the palm mode was better, or if it had an entwine cost, I could see myself running it, but as it stands it's a worse Settle the Wreckage which I'm not too sure about to begin with.
Finale of Promise: This is a worse Recoup as we usually get a sorcery and an added instant would just be a minimal effect.
Fury Storm: Sometimes being triple fork lategame doesn't make up for being a four mana fork early game. I wanted it to be good, but it wasn't.
Knight of the White Orchid: We don't care that much about the ramp, and when it doesn't ramp, this card is awful. We tend to be good enough at hitting landdrops that this card is only good early, and only when on the draw.
Mind's Eye: YMMV, but in my experience this gets blown up real fast. We don't want people to throw removal our way (less removal for our opponents stuff) & 8 mana for 3 cards... no. If this doesn't get blown up it's really good though.
Past in Flames: This is too expensive, there are cheaper cards that does it better, like Recoup or Shreds of Sanity and I don't want too many copies of this effect.
Peacekeeper: We don't want our pillowfort cards to prevent our opponents from playing the game, in which case they throw all their attention at us. This card does exactly that and it is fairly easy to remove, meaning we just spent two mana for some attention. No thanks.
Silent Arbiter: It's like peacekeeper, but less intrusive. It has been in the deck, but again, we don't want to prevent our opponents from playing, we just want them to not throw their gameplan in our face.
Smothering Tithe: Do you pay 2? Do you pay 2? This is an obnoxious cards to play against (hence we don't want it) & we don't care that much about the mana it'd provide.
Solemn Simulacrum: The era of sad robot is in the past. It has no real synergy with the deck. If it had, I'd run it as it's not a bad card... it's just not good enough to make the deck. I don't like tapping out, and I don't like dead draws lategame.
Sphere of Safety: It feels a bit win-more with us having an average of 2-3 enchantments on board when it would come down. Ghostly Prison is good, but I don't want to spend 5 mana for it. Pass
Tectonic Reformation: There are theoretically situations where this card is great. In practice, I just never cast it and 2: Draw a card certainly isn't good enough for the deck.