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Main » Articles » The Logical Conclusion to Where All Your Dream-Dens Come True

The Logical Conclusion to Where All Your Dream-Dens Come True

Michael Flores
Posted on April 21, 2020
 Reddit

1. Modern

I received a head-scratching (and especially at the time, puzzling) message request on Twitter last week:

After doing a little research, I had a series of conflicting reactions...

  1. Elation at Boros being on top again!

  2. Bewilderment at the seeming non-progress of the technology, and

  3. Frustration at having no good thing to tell Remi (at least at the time)

If you look at this deck, which was the big winner of last week's Modern Super Qualifier:

Boros Burn | Modern | coert, 1st Place Modern Super Qualifier 4/12/2020

... I think you'll see what I mean.

At the time, it seemed to me a deck out of time.

There was a time, of course, where playing a handful of two-mana spells but never cresting three was the height of Boros technology. Yes to Inspiring Vantage (but no to Stomping Ground and especially Wild Nacatl) was old hat.

... But for mid 2020? The curve to me seemed high. And of course, while this was no Atarka's Command dinosaur, I once wrote a whole article about why I hate Skullcrack. It's a deck that is almost 4x10 with 20 lands (almost); no extra Lightning Helixes to round out its sideboard BUT Skullcracks three and four.

What is a little more useful to talk about for this build might be what is not present. Rather than an eclectic tenner of every different way you can kill a creature in their sideboard - every Chained to the Rocks and Searing Blood - coert went with a heavy trio of the simple Staple Path to Exile. But no Grim Lavamancer anywhere. Yet... Four copies of Kor Firewalker.

Kor Firewalker

I think we'll dwell here a moment. Though coert's deck is not the MOST up-to-date take on Modern (for obvious reasons being 4/12 at the time) I think Kor Firewalker will likely re-ascend to a level of importance we haven't seen in maybe three or four years for the format.

But for 4/12, I think I'd summarize in one word: Context.

The deck coert played wasn't designed to rip up Affinity and Humans; or take Death's Shadow at an angle. This is a deck that - and this might seem comical coming from me - kind of simply respects the core Boros Burn game plan. It's not the fastest deck, but built this way, with no not-hasty 1/1 for r, is about as fast as you can make it. It doesn't want to melt into a comfortable easy chair mid-range play against [other] creature decks. If it's legitimately interacting, it mostly wants to dominate the mirror sideboarded.

I've always been the type to say that if you expect a lot of Merfolk, a lot of Dredge, the right play is simply to not play. Because there is no amount of angling you can do to make your Burn deck both capable of competing against them and worth sleeving up. Take the weekend off! The same is not true of the metagames where you can predict a lot of Humans, Affinity, and Death's Shadow. When you see them coming, you can really floor the pedal and tear up the top tables.

Looking at the rest of the Top 8, we see a format that wasn't any of those three once-hyper-popular archetypes. A couple of Urza decks. Race-able; very race-able. Bant Control. Solid on the fundamentals. Big Gruul and Goblins. Very exploitable... More powerful than Boros maybe... But also extraordinarily vulnerable to the wrong draws. Underworld Breach. Easy on the play. Only. One. Dredge.

So... Context. To answer Remi now, I'd echo my happiness at Boros posting such a good top finish, and congratulate coert at not going crazy in any particular direction on their sideboard, given the diversity and winnable angles RE: the rest of the Top 8. Through the Top 16 we see largely more of the same. You have to dodge the Ox of Agonas chap, maybe... But every Ice-Fang Coatl is your friend and there are a ton of decks that flat-out never beat an Eidolon of the Great Revel with Red on the play.

This deck, wonderful and congratulatory as its Super Qualifier win are, is not even close to the most interesting thing to say about Boros in Modern right now, though. We'll get to that in Part III.

For what it's worth, the next Super Qualifier, won by a Flickerwisp White Weenie deck would probably have been meat to the right Boros player... But was flanked by Nourishing Shoal at the two and Amulet of Vigor at the eight... And you know how I feel about that and that with Modern Red Decks.

The next one after that, though? Part III, like I said.

2. Pioneer

One of the most striking - and recent -- performances at a Super Qualifer came from Pioneer just a few days ago:

Boros Burn | Pioneer | LalauWBA, 1st Place Pioneer Super Qualifier 4/18/2020

LalauWBA's innovations were many.

First and foremost... This is a Boros deck!

Somewhat reminiscent of a Modern Boros deck of the last few years, LalauWBA's is a departure because most performing Pioneer Red Decks have been Mono-Red. Not just that, we haven't seen an overabundance of low-to-the-ground types; rather a mix of weird Eldrazi and Torbrand nonsense mucking up the middle, top, and taller top of the curve.

But here we see a deck that - barring a little card power at one and two - is a squint away from coert's. Soul-Scar Mage was already popular in the more Prowess-driven Modern decks, and Ghitu Lavarunner and Viashino Pyromancer were of course tag team partners from last year's Standard. All together, they represent more than enough Wizards to support a certain POTENTIALLY undercosted Lightning Bolt variant.

But why Boros? The only White card in the main at all is Boros Charm; and if you assume a bunch of Red Decks (and I do), or at least Spirits... You might actually want more Shocks.

The answer is not shocking per se... But the context is:

Lurrus of the Dream-Den

Here we see the first Companion creep into Pioneer and it's enough to not only bend the mana of one of the most storied archetypes of the young format... It does so with relatively little synergy. Um... Boros Charm? That's it?

Lurrus not only makes an appearance - but a tournament-winning appearance - with basically no dedicated playmates! If you want to dial back to the days of hasty 1-drops facilitating Spectacle, maybe you'd consider a Fanatical Firebrand? LalauWBA didn't.

The only thing coming even close is Ash Zealot. Which isn't so much synergistic, but aware of the fact that other people would be trying to break Lurrus of the Dream-Den, perhaps more specifically.

In this first wonderful foray into Pioneer Lurrus is mostly just an eighth card. LALAUWBA mucks up their mana for the right to someday cast a card not-in-their hand, probably taking 1-2 damage to do so, and avoiding a little flood. Once on the battlefield the big combo is probably something like running a Viashino Pyromancer at whatever the opponent has (getting two one way or another)... And that's it. Remember what I said about Kor Firewalker before? That's not an option for Pioneer, but if you imagine Red Decks are going to be on top (and, again, I always like to), Lurrus and its lifelink are a welcome pairing.

For free, that is.

3. Modern Again

To close out, let's return to where we started: Boros Burn in Modern.

And while I might not have had the best reason for a resurgence in call-it "classic" Boros a week ago, the printing of Lurrus of the Dream-Den obviously changes matters for Boros in Modern versus Pioneer. For one thing, the White lands are better and freer. For another, we actually get a Kor Firewalker payoff at ww (assuming everyone knows what we know). And most importantly? There are actual payoffs!

Another week. Another Super Qualifier. Here is one of the first swings with Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths in the mix:

[MATTHEWFOULKES from https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/modern-super-qualifier-2020-04-19]

Lurrus Burn | Modern | MATTHEWFOULKES, 5th Place Modern Super Qualifier 4/19/2020

Relative to coert's build, I have to say I like every main-deck decision that MATTHEWFOULKES made. Basically we see the addition (or return, depending on your perspective) of Grim Lavamancer in place of Skullcrack (which we've long established that I hate) and the replacement of Rift Bolt with Mishra's Bauble. Grim Lavamancer is obviously better in this build given the departure of Rest in Peace; with its replacement a princely combo with Lurrus.

If it's me, I think I cut a land for Mishra's Bauble, but it's important to note this is one of the first swings with Lurrus of the Dream-Den in the archetype. Lurrus plays the same role here as in the Pioneer deck (eighth card and all that) plus gets the re-buy synergy with Mishra's Bauble.

Which brings us to what I can only call:

The Logical Conclusion to Where All Your Dream-Dens Come True

Now THIS build is so hot off the presses it's not even listed anywhere. Padawan Roman Fusco got it off of his bud Jessy Samek, who at the time of this writing is 7-1 and playing a win-and-in. So either we'll see another Boros triumph... Or at least a reasonable non-Top 8 finish later this week if Jessy is unsuccessful in the final round of Swiss:

Lurrus Burn | Modern | Jessy Samek

On the details? I have to say I love this build. Four copies of Lightning Helix - versus no copies of Skullcrack main deck - show an awareness of where the format is going. Again, we have a legitimate reason for Boros mana to accommodate Kor Firewalker in the sideboard.

But more than any of that? This deck does a better job of breaking Lurrus of the Dream-Den than any of the builds we have seen to this point.

In the main there is the Mishra's Bauble package for card drawing. AND we have Seal of Fire! Remember Seal of Fire was a card I ended up really liking at the end of last year, particularly as a Spectacle catalyst, but here it's a phenomenal machine gun-like combo with Lurrus out of the sideboard. Between Seal and Bauble, this is exactly where I would have liked to start with Lurrus.

But.

That's.

Not.

All.

As with the MATTHEWFOULKES build, Jessy played Tormod's Crypt in place of Rest in Peace in the sideboard. While Rest in Peace has always been a cute anti-Tarmogoyf measure, Red Decks have never really cared about Tarmogoyf... And Pascal Maynard's favorite Lurgoyf has never been why you sideboard either card. Tormod's Crypt can come down more quickly - especially on the draw - and can trigger Prowess without interrupting your otherwise proactive deployment of threats. That it gives good combo with Lurrus is great justification to make the switch given the relative leverages of a single Tormod's Crypt versus a single Rest in Peace in most circumstances. But here? The choice is clear.

If it's me? Eidolon > Skullcrack in the sideboard (but you probably saw that coming). When we shave the one land from Jessy's deck, we can even fit in at least one of the MATTHEWFOULKES Grim Lavamancers to get even more payoff.

LOVE

MIKE

TAGS articles, constructed, analysis, modern, decklist, michael flores, pioneer, 04212020, companion, lurrus of the dream-den

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