Last weekend Theagent002 went 5-0 in an MTGO League with a Boros Control deck that caught my eye. The basis of the deck is to lock the opponent out of the game from multiple angles and take over the game with all the best white planeswalkers – Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Ajani Vengeant, Gideon Jura, and Nahiri, the Harbinger!

The reason this deck doesn't run any Lightning Bolt, Path to Exile, or Wall of Omens is because it runs Chalice of the Void and wants to cast it for one or two, locking out many of the opponent's spells without locking itself. It's also a board-wipe deck, running three Anger of the Gods and three Wrath of God, so it doesn't actually want to kill the opponent's first creature very often. It would rather play Chalice of the Void or Blood Moon to lock them out of future resources and then sweep the board, leaving them in a difficult spot to recover from. At that point, the deck's Planeswalkers take over the game.

Simian Spirit Guide is a poor man's Chrome Mox here, but it accelerates into turn one Chalice of the Void for one or turn two Blood Moon. It can also cast Planeswalkers a turn sooner. Leyline of the Void can also protect Planeswalkers from burn spells, since burn spells have to target the player in order to get redirected to the Planeswalker, and can keep them from getting stripped from our hand via discard spells.

The other cool interaction with this deck involves Boom/Bust. You can target your own Flagstones of Trokair, which replaces itself, or you can target Arid Mesa and then sacrifice it in response. These are two ways to effectively Sinkhole the opponent. It's generally best to target a basic land with this effect because Blood Moon turns off all their non-basics and killing their one basic can often take the opponent off an entire color for the rest of the game.

The primary win condition is going ultimate with Nahiri, the Harbinger to find Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, but winning with Gideon Jura or Elspeth, Sun's Champion is also common.

Boros Control by Craig Wescoe
Main Deck
Sideboard
1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
4 Simian Spirit Guide
Creatures [6]
3 Ajani Vengeant
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
2 Gideon Jura
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Planeswalkers [10]
3 Anger of the Gods
4 Blood Moon
3 Boom // Bust
4 Chalice of the Void
2 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Wrath of God
Spells [19]
4 Arid Mesa
4 Flagstones of Trokair
2 Mountain
8 Plains
4 Rugged Prairie
3 Sacred Foundry
Lands [25]
Deck Total [60]



4 Crumble to Dust
2 Defense Grid
2 Ghostly Prison
2 Rest in Peace
3 Shining Shoal
2 Stony Silence
Sideboard [15]




View a Sample Hand!


Solitaire this Deck!

Click for full deck stats & notes!
I made a few small changes, but the list I'm using is essentially the same as Theagent002's. I cut the fourth Boom / Bust for a Brimaz, King of Oreskos since it survives Anger of the Gods, applies pressure, and protects our planeswalkers from attackers. I also changed the sideboard a bit, adding Rest in Peace to combat dredge and Ghostly Prison to combat Merfolk and all the other decks that go wide. To make room, I cut the Sulfur Elementals because I made a decision several years ago to pretend that card doesn't exist. I'm also unsure what it's for – Lingering Souls?

Sideboarding – What Comes In?

Defense Grid comes in against any Counterspell deck – Jeskai Control, Grixis Control, even Delver of Secrets decks that sideboard into counters.

Rest in Peace comes in against Dredge, Living End, Melira Company, and Reanimator, but also comes in as a value card against decks running Tarmogoyf, Eternal Witness, or other graveyard shenanigans.

Stony Silence comes in against Tron, Affinity, Lantern, and any deck reliant on artifacts. I also bring it in against Merfolk because AEther Vial is one way a game can get away.

Crumble to Dust comes in against Tron, Valakut, and any creature-light deck where we want to board out our wraths.

Ghostly Prison comes in against any swarm deck. Keep in mind they can attack our Planeswalkers freely, so it should only be relied on to buy time, not to protect Planeswalkers. In hindsight, these should probably go back to being Celestial Purge and Zealous Conscripts (whose main purpose is to answer Nahiri, the Harbinger).

Finally, Shining Shoal comes in against Infect, Burn, Death's Shadow, and any deck that looks to end the game quickly with damage before we have time to set up. It's basically a Lightning Bolt that gets around Chalice of the Void.

Sideboarding – What Comes Out?

Boom/Bust is generally the least important card and can often come out any time we need to make space. Same with Brimaz, King of Oreskos.

Blood Moon comes out against mono-colored decks.

Anger of the Gods comes out against any deck not running little creatures (Jeskai Control, Ad Nauseam, GR Tron, etc). Wrath of God often comes out against the same decks.

Leyline of Sanctity comes out against pretty much any deck that doesn't run black for discard or red for Lightning Bolt, unless targeting us is part of their game plan for another reason.

Chalice of the Void can come out any time it's not back-breaking, especially on the draw. Turn one Chalice of the Void on the play off Simian Spirit Guide provides lots of free wins.

This deck's power level has surprised me in testing, and I'd almost forgotten how fun it is to Wrath an opponent and take over a game with Planeswalkers. I can only imagine how frustrating this deck must be to play against!