Want to know what a face destroying Boros Equipment EDH deck looks like? Say no more. We will take you through the strategies and card picks for this super explosive Rograkh & Ardenn EDH equipment deck. The intention is to inspire you to make your own or tweak your existing one. Before we dive into the deck tech part of this primer, let’s introduce our main guys.
Table of Contents
Rograkh
When the leader of the Kobold tribe, Rohgahh of Kher Keep, chose to turn on his own people and become a brutal dictator, his son Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh decided to step up and oppose his own father in a brave display of resistance. The main takeway: Rograkh is angry and will come at his opponents out of nowhere. He is also a 0 CMC warrior with menace and trample which will make all the difference when he comes out swinging.
Ardenn
Ardenn, Intrepid Archaeologist‘s succesful expeditions to the most remote and dangerous skyclaves are a testament to his exceptional line-slinging skills. On his trips Ardenn has discovered numerous old artifacts belonging to Zendikar’s history. Also, his ability to attach any number of equipments to a creature for free is astonishing and it synergises insanely well with Rograkh’s unpredictable qualities.Game Plan
Our plan of attack is straightforward: Ardenn stuffs Rograkh with equipments and we go in for the kill. We can be explosive by using low CMC pumping equipments combined with damage multipliers and extra combat steps. To be successful however, there are various challenges to consider:
- Rograkh/Ardenn is removed
- We’re not drawing into our finishers or answers
- Our key equipments are removed
Firstly, we can focus our build on countering these challenges.
- We are protecting our commanders (i.e. Boros Charm) and run backup commanders (i.e. Puresteel Paladin and Inkmoth Nexus).
- We are running an extensive draw package (i.e. Mask of Memory) and several tutors (i.e. Open the Armory).
- We run some great equipment/artifact recursion (i.e. Mantle of the Ancients).
Secondly, we should adapt our playstyle to match our Voltron strategy. Here are some general guidelines when piloting this Boros Equipment EDH deck:
- Don’t fire your guns all at once. Wait until you have some equipments on the board, protection set up and then decide if you want to cast Rograkh/Ardenn. Consider if you want to use a backup commander first, and save Rograkh/Ardenn for a later moment. If both are removed early you’re looking at a total commander tax of 4.
- If you have the opportunity to finish someone off (which can happen as early as turn 3), take it. Before you decide to attack however, make sure to have protection or a backup plan in place because you will be targeted. This is where the Voltron strategy lacks, if we knock one person out, we ourselves are often next. Being able to overcome this weak point is exactly how we can secure our wins.
- Be patient and look at what your opponents are doing. If you anticipate a board wipe coming, wait it out and strike after. If two opponents are battling each other, let them fight it out. As long as threads to you are low, work on your equipment setup, draw, and protection.
The 98
Some cards out of the 98 will be mentioned in more than one category because they have multiple purposes. Having this flexibility is also one of the stronger points of this Boros Equipment EDH deck.
Protection
As explained, safeguarding our commanders and equipments is key if we want our Voltron strategy to succeed.
We’re running about 15 cards that enable this in several ways:
- Indestructible effects like Boros Charm and Akiri, Fearless Voyager are great against destroy effects.
- Teferi’s Protection and Robe of Stars phase out which is a really strong mechanic for us, since all equipments will phase out with the creature.
- Mantle of the Ancients and Goblin Welder in case our key equipments are removed. Although technically recursion, we ultimately run these in order to protect our gameplan.
- Koll, the Forgemaster will return our commander to hand when it dies, including sacrifice effects. This will save us a lot of commander tax and since Rograkh is 0 mana reacasting is free!
- Both red counterspells Pyroblast and Red elemental blast can protect us from blue counterspells or blue removal staples like Cyclonic Rift. This one is a little more meta dependent but if you’re often up against blue players that like to counter they are great includes.
Pumping
Since Ardenn equips for free, 1CMC equipments with big attack boosts are the goal.
Colossus Hammer is an absolute all star in this deck, but Ogre’s Cleaver and Greataxe are not bad either. From there on our equipment’s attack boosts get less, but casting multiple smaller pump effects will achieve the same thing eventually.
Damage Multipliers
Double strike is essential for us to reach commander lethal damage. Besides that it synergises really well with combat damage triggers like Prying Blade and Mask of Memory.
We run equipments that give double strike, but some creatures that do so as well. Those creatures can function as backup commanders because they automatically have double strike when on the board. Note that cards like Jeska, Thrice Reborn and Two-handed Axe don’t technically give double strike, so pairing them up with cards that do give double strike will stack and can be very deadly.
Extra Combat Steps
These can be used solo or combined with our damage multipliers for quadruple damage.
Seize the Day is an amazing card and can really take our opponents by surprise. 4CMC for an extra combat step is a standard rate, but then being able to do this a second time for 3CMC is really bonkers. Raiyuu and Aurelia are great too and it is nice to have some extra bodies on the board.
Haste
Being explosive and unpredictable means we need haste.
We’re running about 7 haste enablers. Most of them are cheap 1 or 2CMC haste equipments except for Slayers’ Stronghold. There are some bigger multipurpose equipments that provide haste like Kaldra Kompleat.
Evasion
Rograkh has menace and trample built in which is already very effective to get our damage through. At times however we need some extra measures to deliver our knock out.
Since protection from a color makes Rograkh unblockable to creatures from that color, we’re running two of the Swords. We’re also running Commander’s Plate which is an absolutely amazing 1CMC equipment. If we’re fighting a big badass creature with a lot of toughness, Kaldra Compleat is our answer. This will exile anything that blocks your attacker. If we have double strike or an extra combat step, the thread will be removed on the first swing and we can go full face after that.
Ramp
Ramp is important for us because 1. it enables us to do explosive things later on and 2. we should be able to pay commander tax if needed.
Of course we’re running all the signets and talismans, but equipments are excellent at ramping too! Dowsing dagger is my favorite ramp card in this deck, so much so that I will sometimes tutor it up early and try to have it transformed on turn 3 or 4 with Rograkh. Land ramp is the best ramp we can get, followed by artifact ramp. In this deck I’m not a fan of discount effects like Foundry Inspector since our ramp should enable us to pay commander tax.
Tutoring and Drawing
Tutors play a fundamental role in our strategy for finding finishers like Colossus Hammer or Two-Handed Axe.
There are some great equipment tutors like Open the Armory and Godo, Bandit Warlord. The more tutors we run, the more consistent we get.
Equipments that draw us cards like Mask of Memory or Rogue’s Gloves pair great with double strike. Sram, Senior Edificer works well when casting our low CMC equipments. Esper Sentinel has become a white staple which does live up to its hype.
Honorable Mentions
Each of these cards have unique effects that work great in this Boros Equipment EDH deck.
- Inkmoth Nexus is a land that can turn into a 1/1 insect with infect and flying. This means we only need to pump it to 10 for a knock out, perfect our aggressive and unpredictable strategy or if our Rograkh has been removed.
- Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar will make our pumped up creature deal damage to the whole table, unfortunately it doesn’t count as commander damage but doing damage to multiple opponents in a Voltron deck is unique and awesome.
- Assault Suit has an insane potential in Voltron decks. For example, when we pump up Rograkh and swing at someone, than at each opponent’s upkeep we can give Rograkh to them until the end of their turn. This means that Rograkh will potentially swing four times during one turn order! The politics that this card can provoke are really fun too.
Closing Thoughts and Full Deck List
This primer doesn’t touch on the land base of the deck, but building a two color mana base is not rocket science. You can use this tool to optimize any multicolored EDH mana base and this guide to find some good two-colored boros lands.
If you check out the deck on Moxfield you can group by ‘Tags’ in order to sort the deck by the categories discussed in this primer.