Sideboard Guide

Stompy:

+2 2 Standard Bearer, +1 Circle of Protection: Green, -3 Palace Sentinels

Stompy plays enough 2-toughness creatures that Electrickery isn’t very good. Standard Bearer makes blocking their 2/2s more bearable by shutting off pump spells, and while the Circle of Protection is mana-hungry, it’s invaluable in the late game. Palace Sentinels is an easy cut in this matchup, as the extra card draw is a bit extraneous and they have a good chance of stealing the crown.

Boros Monarch:

+2 Gorilla Shaman, +2 Electrickery, -3 Journey to Nowhere, -1 Lightning Bolt

Gorilla Shaman destroys artifact lands and Clue tokens, which merits boarding it in. Electrickery helps you win the Battle Screech fight, which lets you get through blockers. As most of your spells gain the card advantage the mirror revolves around, some of the one-for-one removal has to go. Every creature they run has 4 toughness or less, and Journey to Nowhere doesn’t finish off your opponent, so it’s sent to the sideboard. Lightning Bolt is the smallest burn spell, as Firebolt will eventually do 4, so it gets cut.

Tron:

+3 Pyroblast, +2Relic of Progenitus, -1 Firebolt, -4 Lightning Bolt

In this format, Tron is mainly blue, making Pyroblast an easy card to board in. As the deck plays flashback cards, Mnemonic Walls, and Pulse of Murasa, Relics are a no-brainer. Journeys stay in over the weaker burn spells, since many of their creatures have 4+ toughness and Ulamog’s Crusher is a real concern. Firebolt represents more points of burn to the face and can kill a 4-toughness creature or two Mulldrifters, so it gets the nod over Lightning Bolt.

Izzet Blitz: +1 Circle of Protection: Red, +3 Pyroblast, +2 2 Standard Bearer, -3 Palace Sentinels, -3 Thraben Inspector

Circle of Protection: Red is amazing against them past the early game, and Pyroblast counters their disruption and card advantage while stopping Nivix Cyclops. Standard Bearer keeps Mutagenic Growth, Artful Dodge, and Temur Battle Rage at bay while saving your more important creatures, and your life total, from burn. Palace Sentinels is, once again, clunky, and a liability against random Augur beats that you’d otherwise want to take. Thraben Inspector isn’t too hot either in the face of a 20-power trampler, and it’s not great at attacking.

Delver:

+3 Pyroblast, +2 Electrickery, -4 Thraben Inspector, -1 Lightning Bolt

Pyroblast is a no-brainer to board in, but if another card will do the trick, use it instead. The unconditional effect is something worth holding onto, just in case the top of their deck holds a nasty surprise. Electrickery kills every Faerie in the deck as well as unflipped Delvers, making it a superior choice to Lightning Bolt, and Thraben Inspector is the worst attacker of the bunch and doesn’t have flying for blocking. Note that sideboarding is the same against both the mono-blue version and the version splashing red for Lightning Bolt and Skred.

Burn:

+2 Lone Missionary, +1 Circle of Protection: Red, -2 Battle Screech, -1 Firebolt

Lone Missionary counters a burn spell and can be recurred with Kor Skyfisher. The Circle is to seal the deal once they start topdecking and to counteract the effects of Curse of the Pierced Heart. Firebolt doesn’t kill Thermo-Alchemist or Keldon Marauders, and it’s trivial to keep your crown so Palace Sentinels stays in over Battle Screech as your clunky four-drop of choice.

Bogles:

+2 2 Standard Bearer, +1 Circle of Protection: Green, +2 Lone Missionary, +1Electrickery, -3 Palace Sentinels, -3 Journey to Nowhere

Since you don’t have much meaningful interaction, this match is a race. Standard Bearers discourage your opponent from playing Auras, and the Circle fogs huge attacks. Lone Missionary is at least a body and some lifegain for stalling, and Electrickery can shoot down an unprotected hexproof creature or a chump-blocker made by Khalni Garden or Cartouche of Solidarity, making them better than Journey to Nowhere. The Sentinels are a liability in the face of giant trampling idiots.

Affinity:

+2 Gorilla Shaman, +1 Circle of Protection: Red +2 Standard Bearer, -2 Battle Screech, -3 Palace Sentinels

Gorilla Shaman attacks their artifact-based mana and incidentally kills off Flayer Husks while your removal deals with their brute squad. Since one of the ways you can lose is an Atog-Fling combo out of nowhere, Circle and Standard Bearer come in to hedge against that particularly disheartening way to lose. Battle Screech isn’t great at blocking and Affinity doesn’t go as wide as the format’s other aggressive decks, so it gets the boot, and Palace Sentinels is an easy cut against aggro decks.

Elves:

+2 Electrickery, +1 Circle of Protection: Green, -3 Palace Sentinels

This is the matchup Electrickery is for. If you can, play around cards like Wrap in Vigor and Magnify by casting it when they’re tapped out. Palace Sentinels comes out as in most aggressive matchups, and the Circle of Protection: Green isn’t fantastic but at least answers Timberwatch Elf and stalls out the game. Pyroblast only hits Distant Melody so it stays on the bench for this matchup.

UB Control:

+3 Pyroblast, +2 Relic of Progenitus, -1 Firebolt, -4 Lightning Bolt

Pyroblast against blue decks isn’t rocket science, and Relic of Progenitus can keep Gurmag Angler, Archaeomancer, and flashback spells at bay. The main use for Pyroblast is to make sure Palace Sentinels resolves, as they have very few ways of stealing the crown. Journey to Nowheree answers Gurmag Angler and Stormbound Geist, so they stay in over Lightning Bolt . Note that the sideboarding is the same for the Mystical Teachings and the Ghostly Flicker versions.

Conclusion

Boros Monarch will be a Tier 1 deck for the foreseeable future. Like the Caw-Blade or UW Delver lists that terrorized Standard in years gone by, it combines the disruption and endless card advantage of control with beaters and burn that wouldn’t look out of place in Zoo. Its myriad synergies and relative power are second only to Tron, but balanced with the ability to race. Adaptable and consistent, Boros Monarch is in my opinion the best deck in Pauper.


                                            ***CRITIQUES***
[–]DromarXINV 24 pontos 1 dia ago
Boros Monarch is an aggro-control deck

No it's not, it's solidly a midrange deck. Delver is an aggro-control deck

Electrickery is okay vs Stompy depending on their list (some run Ledgewalker and Vault Skirge in addition to Quirion Ranger which makes it a solid option). COP: green isn't that great of a sideboard card vs them because they usually bring Gleeful Sabotage in vs you to kill Journeys (and lands) anyways.

Palace Sentinels can be a huge liability vs Delver decks. Not only is it a 4 mana spell (which are very prone to being picked off with counters) but they're frequently the aggressor and can make tempo plays that let them steal the monarchy. I'd strongly consider boarding some out especially on the draw.

Don't think Standard Bearer is worth it vs Affinity. Yeah it stops Fling or TBR shenanigans but they have plenty of Galvanic Blast to get around that, and if they're just beating down with 4/4s then it's a 2 mana chump blocker. COP: Red on the other hand is tough for them to kill and blanks Atogs from attacking you which SB does not so I do agree with bringing that in (have often used that strategy myself vs Affinity).

Prismatic Strands is another very strong inclusion for the sideboard.

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[–]nerd2thecoreI'm Alex 10 pontos 1 dia ago
Came here to say this - Boros Monarch is most definitely not an aggro-control deck.

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[–]filthyc4sualElves :D 9 pontos 1 dia ago
I think he means aggro-control as in midrange, and he would classify Delver as a tempo deck.

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[–]feelsbadmanosslothQuirion Ranger 11 pontos 1 dia ago
Aggro control is what we used to call midrange before we started using midrange.

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[–]DromarXINV 5 pontos 1 dia ago
"Aggro-control" and "tempo" are the same thing - cheap efficient threats backed by disruption/tempo elements like counters and removal. Cards like Palace Sentinels fly in the face of this definition (it doesn't disrupt, nor is it efficient), and even Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk do as well since in reality they are 3 and 4 mana value creatures (a hallmark of midrange) in this deck 90% of the time.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 2 pontos 1 dia ago
I mean aggro-control in the vein of the Caw-Blade decks from Scars standard. They were playing cheap creatures that generated card advantage, a phrase which here means avian buddies and a living battering ram, while also chipping in for damage. Boros has the cheap threats that also provide card advantage, and simply swaps countermagic for removal. Since Caw-Blade is the deck I most associate with aggro-control (that or UB Faeries), I consider its cousin Boros monarch to be aggro-control.

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[–]DromarXINV 4 pontos 1 dia ago
I think you have your definition mistaken, since aggro means aggressive creatures, not creatures that generate value (SFM and Squadron Hawk in Caw Blade or Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher in Boros - none of these cards are really that aggressive). Goblin Guide, Delver, Wild Nacatl are aggro cards.

A better example of a Standard aggro-control deck was UW Delver which had cards like Delver and Geist (efficient threats - aggro elements) backed by disruptive spells (Vapor Snag, Gut Shot, Mana Leak - control elements). Or your other example, UB Faeries, would also be a better deck for that term. Spellstutter Sprite, Vendillion Clique, Mistbind Clique are pretty quintessential aggro-control cards as they both disrupt and add a clock.

Caw Blade and Boros Monarch were/are midrange decks that (in theory anyways but not in reality for Caw Blade) typically lose to hard control decks but can out value the aggressive strategies.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 2 pontos 1 dia ago
Thank you for your feedback. The next primer will take it into consideration, and will likely just reference the similarities between Boros and Caw-Blade. I would argue that Vapor Snag isn't a control element, as it ignores the card advantage that is control's main currency. Rather, in keeping with Delver's tempo status, it is a tempo card. Your statements on nomenclature are appreciated; I don't want anyone put off by poor usage.

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[–]DromarXINV 3 pontos 1 dia ago
You're right that Vapor Snag is "tempo" more so than traditional control. In the sense of aggro-control the control term is often used interchangeably to represent cards with disruptive effects, which can include both cards associated with traditional control (counters, spot removal) and tempo effects (vapor snag falls into this realm). Basically the core principle of aggro-control is cheap efficient threats backed by disruption to keep the opponent off balance/defend your threats which is why I would put Vapor Snag in the second category even if by definition it's not really a "control" card.

Perhaps a more descriptive title would be "disruptive aggro" but "aggro-control" or "tempo" is the term people usually use for those kind of decks.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 2 pontos 1 dia ago
Thank you for the explanation.

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[–]SLC-Frank 3 pontos 1 dia ago
Yep. COP:Red more of a sideboard card against affinity than burn. Feel like stock Boros is pretty good against burn, but you absolutely must deal with Atog/Fling in Affinity, and Standard Bearer is not going to do it.

That said, Standard Bearer is good against elves because it shuts down their best reuseable combat trick, Timberwatch Elves, and any other pump spells they might play. Way better card in that matchup than COP:Green, IMO.

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[–]DromarXINV 3 pontos 1 dia ago
Yeah I certainly agree with that, Elves doesn't have any way to deal with SB usually either other than a Longbow (which might make Coalition Honor Guard attractive specifically there, but I tend to prefer the 2 mana option when playing against Stompy and Hexproof).

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[–]GiveItSomeThought3 3 pontos 1 dia ago
I second the inclusion of prismatic strands in the 75. If you choose to run a build that fits [[seeker of the way]] in the main, I'd argue it's maindeckable, it makes for a strong combat trick in addition to protecting the Monarch and buying you time to find your outs.

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[–]MTGCardFetcher 1 ponto 1 dia ago
seeker of the way - (G) (SF) (MC)
[[cardname]] or [[cardname|SET]] to call

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 6 pontos 1 dia ago
Thank you for the input. This is the list I submitted for the UOL Pauper League, and it's taken me to the top 8, but I wouldn't call it anything close to perfect. That said, I feel confident in a large majority of the card choices and sideboard plans, and after the League I plan on updating the deck and its sideboarding strategy. When I overhaul the deck, I'll take your suggestions into account.

As a more general response, I'd recommend putting something positive at the beginning or the end of critical evaluations. Letting someone know what they did right before tackling areas of improvement makes criticism easier to swallow for most, and a barrage of complaints without any indication of benevolent intent doesn't come off as constructive, but rather aggressive.

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[–]DromarXINV 2 pontos 1 dia ago
Any aspect I didn't post specific advice on can be extrapolated into a general agreement with your thought process so I don't really see a need to comment explicitly each time. Even then I did specifically mention agreement of the COP:Red plan vs Affinity while also providing critique for the choice of siding in SB so it's not like there was no positive feedback provided.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 3 pontos 1 dia ago
I'd suggest structuring your comments with positive stuff as the first (first impressions being so important) and last things, with the disagreements in between. I'm not going to demand a certain structure from you before I listen to what you're saying (in fact I'll be re-reading your comments when it comes time to write a new primer), but it's useful to know how to phrase constructive criticism. Not everyone will listen to insensitively-structured critique, even if, as in this case, the critique is valid.

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[–]Where_The_Sauce_At [score hidden] 17 horas ago
I just want to say that U Delver is a tempo deck, and UR Delver is closer to "Aggro-control" but id still call it midrange.

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[–]daphex2 [score hidden] 16 horas ago
Pretty sure strands is a maindeckable card right now. Fog effects are very strong in this format.

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[–]DromarXINV [score hidden] 16 horas ago
You could certainly maindeck it depending on meta

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[–]Kor_SetSTH -1 pontos 1 dia ago
Midrange and tempo being subsets of the same hybrid concept (aggro-control) is hardly a radical position.

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[–]Sauceman87 7 pontos 1 dia ago
Thank you thank you thank you! I LOVE reading these types of primers. I love the engine Boros Monarch runs and I have a very similar list that I haven't played much. I'll be playing it more as my "tier 1" deck, since I just don't like Tron much.

Just out of curiosity, I'm working on a site with articles and whatnot, and I'd LOVE to have primers with recent writeups along this line. Would you be okay with me adding this writeup to the Primers tab, giving you full credit of course?

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[–]DiamondCommando 3 pontos 1 dia ago
Hey Sauceman This article is the first of many to come from our group called UOL. If you would like, I can have them send them to you or inform you when they come out.

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[–]Sauceman87 2 pontos 1 dia ago
Yeah sure! Once I have my site up, I'll message you and see if we can collaborate a bit. I love adding resources and outbound links to other sites - a sort of hub, so to speak. If you have a group that's going to be releasing primers and whatnot that could definitely help with content. Thanks for the heads up!

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[–]DiamondCommando 2 pontos 1 dia ago
No problem.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 1 ponto 1 dia ago
Go ahead!

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[–]Oderus-Urungus 6 pontos 1 dia ago
Thanks for making this nice write up on one of my favorite decks in Pauper.

Heres another article on it as well. I top 8d the Pauper Challenge 4 times with it haha.

https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/deck-of-the-day-boros-monarch-pauper/

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 1 ponto 1 dia ago
Congratulations on your impressive performance with the deck!

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[–]daphex2 [score hidden] 16 horas ago
What is your current 75?

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[–]FilterJoe 3 pontos 1 dia ago
Great writeup! I love playing Boros Monarch.

Some builds of Boros Monarch include 2x or 3x Seeker of the Way. Have you tested Seeker of the Way? If so, what did your testing reveal that caused you to drop them?

The version I'm using drops 1 Palace Sentinel and 1 Prophetic Prism to make way for 2x Seeker and is otherwise the same as yours. I haven't tested enough to have a great feel for the tradeoffs, but my thinking is that:

Opening hand with 2 Palace Sentinels is bad. You never need more than 1 of them and with all the card draw you usually get one quickly enough. So therefore I'd rather have 2 than 3.

In the late game, I have a board flooded with so many Alchemist's Vials and Prophetic Prisms. The vial is sometimes useful at any stage of the game. But the Prisms (beyond the first 1 for bounce) typically don't help towards the end of the game.

Very curious what you have to say about this.

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[–]DromarXINV 5 pontos 1 dia ago
Seeker of the Way is the real deal but I think it works better in the Tokens version than the Monarch version or a hybrid of the two. I'd never cut Prism from this deck, the mana fixing is more important than the utility of the vial.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 2 pontos 1 dia ago
I didn't test Seeker because it doesn't draw cards. The competitive advantage of this deck is its ability to combine pressure with card draw, and including a creature that just beats down and gains life didn't seem like a worthwhile inclusion.

Furthermore, the only significant synergy Seeker has in the deck is being able to gain life when you cast an artifact or a removal spell, and Radiant Fountain with bouncelands or Skyfishers already pads your life total.

I've liked 3 Palace Sentinels, as I can discard extraneous copies in the cleanup step often enough, and they're important enough in any non-aggro matchup that I want to draw one as often as possible. They also enable the inclusion of air, such as the Prophetic Prisms.

Lategame Prisms aren't too much of an issue because by then you'll have the crown, or a few cycling lands, or Skyfisher effects, and you'll be able to power through the flood with card draw.

Boros Monarch is so powerful in part due to how each piece synergizes to draw more cards than its competition. Cutting pieces of your engine (say, Palace Sentinels) for a brute squad strikes me as a disservice to the deck.

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[–]SlushyFTK 2 pontos 1 dia ago
I feel like seeker synergizes with the rest of our deck well enough to include it. There are very few cards in our deck that don’t trigger prowess in one way or another and the lifelink helps to put us ahead in races.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 1 ponto 1 dia ago
I'll test a Seeker build before the next primer. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

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[–]FilterJoe 2 pontos 1 dia ago*
Note that one advantage of having Seeker in the build is that you then free up a couple sideboard spots as Lone Missionary is no longer needed. Can use for prismatic strands, for example.

I think you may be getting more discussion than usual for a primer because the Boros Monarch concept has only been around a few months. It's not yet clear which build is best. I sure don't know!

But we're only talking about differences of at most 5 cards between builds. Some go with 2 Palace Sentinels, some with 3. Some include some Searing Blazes instead of Firebolt. And there's the Seeker of the Way possibility.

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[–]GiveItSomeThought3 4 pontos 1 dia ago
Thank you for your writeup especially because it's the pauper deck I play in paper locally. At first when learning about pauper, it took a short while to distinguish the difference between this Boros Monarch build compared to the Kuldotha Tokens build.

I'm curious to hear do you play mtgo mostly, have any stores hosted paper events in your area, and if either is the case how has this version of Boros played out for you in your meta?

Personally I've opted for Mathonical's 3 Seeker/3 Searing Blaze build as it helps me overcome other aggro decks, Delver Tempo decks, and a particular mirror match at my LGS. That said, I'm still tinkering with the sb and can't cut battle screech nor prismatic strands from the 75 completely.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 1 ponto 1 dia ago
Thank you for taking the time to comment; I'm glad my primer was helpful to you.

I play on a testing site called untap.in, which is similar to Cockatrice in that it has no rules engine. I don't have the money for MODO to be perfectly honest.

I'm not a fan of the Seeker builds, but I've gotten enough people telling me about them that I'll give them a try and add a section on them in the next primer.

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[–]G_AdmiralICE 3 pontos 1 dia ago
I really appreciate the effort you put into the sideboard guide. Having played Pauper back around Zendikar/SOM days, I've long appreciated the Kor Skyfisher - Prophetic Prism interaction. So I feel like I grok the maindeck.

I'm not as familiar with the current metagame (haven't played Pauper recently) and the interplay between the different decks. So the sideboard is a bit of a guessing game. That's where this type of primer really shines. It answers so many questions. Thanks!

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 1 ponto 1 dia ago
Thank you for the praise. My sideboard guide isn't gospel or infalliable, and I've already been challenged on some of my decisions, so I'd encourage you to experiment a bit with the board yourself. I'll be posting an updated primer after the UOL Pauper tournament is finished, incorporating new lessons learned from the event.

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[–]RiMEdge 3 pontos 1 dia ago
Beautiful write up

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] 1 ponto 1 dia ago
Thank you for the high praise! I'll be addressing other users' suggestions/critiques in an improved primer sometime in the future, akin to a 2nd edition textbook.

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[–]RiMEdge 2 pontos 1 dia ago
Boros Monarch is a close deck to my heart. Played it when it was Kuldotha Buros and loved the evolution. This write up is a good start to anyone interested in the archetype. Like anything in life no list is perfect and it's impossible to prepare for every outcome but this list is pretty close to where you wana be.

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[–]FiftyThree11 [score hidden] 20 horas ago
Have you considered running Seeker of the Way and Searing Blaze? I see a lot of lists on MTGtop8 with three of each, so I I tried it out myself. It's awesome, and it helped lead to a 3-1 at my local pauper event. It pivots the deck towards a more aggressive nature that isn't so much about pumping out tokens.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] [score hidden] 18 horas ago
I'll try an aggro-slanted list next time I get to test.

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[–]DagsJ [score hidden] 18 horas ago
I am not a big fan of Seeker of the Way. The card is very good and works well in the Boros Monarch shell. To me it comes down to running Palace Sentinel or Seeker and I'd rather play Sentinel. Keeping the Monarch seems too good.

Searing Blaze seems like too cute of a card. Boros Monarch isn't going for the fast kill and even though Blaze is a great card, there are a fair number of matchups where the card does nothing. I would rather have the flexibility of casting spells like Galvanic Blast, Bolt, or Firebolt without the condition that I need the opponent to have a non-hexproof creature to use a 2 mana spell on. If the creature has 4 toughness or better, Searing Blaze, with the landfall trigger, ends up being a 2 mana lightning bolt to the face. I just don't see how blaze makes the deck any better.

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[–]FiftyThree11 [score hidden] 17 horas ago
You can still run a 2-of for Sentinels, although what you're compromising on is the lack of things like Battle Screech or a main board Prismatic Strands. To be fair, Searing Blaze is the first thing I'd board out when reaching for Pyroblast on game two, although it makes for a great way of managing their threats in game one.

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[–]DagsJ [score hidden] 17 horas ago
I think a lot of it is personal preference. If anything I would take out a Firebolt and go down a Sentinel for two Seeker of the Way but I like having the redundancy of Sentinel with 3 copies of the card. Realistically, Seeker is a more proactive card and I like playing Boros Monarch in a more reactive way. The deck feels like it rewards you for being able to turn the corner in a match since a lot of the time you are spending your first three turns setting up the lands and getting a few artifacts down.

Again with Blaze it just seems like too cute of a card for the deck. I'd rather be doing something else with two mana that isn't dependent on a landfall trigger and a creature having an opponent for maximum value. But again, its all personal preference.

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[–]DagsJ [score hidden] 18 horas ago*
I run Boros Monarch and have a couple of variants with my maindeck and sideboard:

1 Cenn's Enlistment over the 2nd Firebolt: The deck already has plently of removal and burn. Cenn's Enlistment turns late game top deck lands into active draws with enough mana.
2 Journey to Nowhere and 1 Oblivion Ring over just 3 Journey to Nowhere: Gives the deck a little extra reach against decks that use enchantments/artifacts for one more mana compared with just using Journey to Nowhere.
1 Prismatic Strands over a copy of Alchemist Vial: Helps keep the Monarch if you get a Palace Sentinel down for a turn. Usually, keeping the Monarch for an extra turn is enough to help you get back into the game. Strands also has a zero costing flashback so it can fight through counterspells. Strands also leads to blowouts as well.
Sideboard looks more or less the same for me. I'm not the biggest fan of COPs. I've been running Kor Sanctifiers as my ultimate reach for artifact or enchantment destruction. I have another Prismatic Strand in the side instead of the 2nd Lone Missionary as I don't find Burn to be a difficult matchup and Strands gives me more play in other matchups.
Overall I have been very impressed with the deck. My hardest matchups seems to be aggro decks on the draw game 1 when I don't know what the deck is and Tron decks just seem to eat me alive. The deck feels like it has game against almost anything out there so I never feel like I am truly out of it. Palace Sentinel is such a good card to hedge against decks that aren't trying to be proactive with creatures. Tons of different lines with the deck. Tons of card advantage. I would recommend this deck to anyone who doesn't want a ultra linear deck in the Pauper format.

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[–]ZenTheGlomper[S] [score hidden] 18 horas ago
Well stated! I have a few ideas on how to fight Tron, but it's a control deck and we're a midrange deck so it's naturally tough. I'll be examining the card choices you suggested and refining the deck at the first opportunity.