Think:

"I will not lie to my clients."

... or...

"I won't date someone who doesn't want kids."

A non-negotiable is not the same as "a strong preference."

This isn't "I like to exercise in the evening" or "I try to avoid processed foods." A non-negotiable is something essential.

You know, like Ultima in Standard White control decks.

Which is why I'm so consistently flabbergasted by misguided cheatyfaces with Day of Judgment or Split Up. Have they never heard of United Battlefront?

The Pinnacle Starcage Dilemma

Pinnacle Starcage is arguably the best card from Edge of Eternities. We talked about it a bunch a couple of weeks ago.

The only problem is that Pinnacle Starcage is a non-bo with Ultima.

I was playing a lot of Control (I know, surprise surprise) because Consult the Star Charts is also the best card in Edge of Eternities. I once had 24 cards in my deck and 12 lands in play. I cast a Consult the Star Charts, took another Consult the Star Charts with one of my two - TWO - non-draws, and only after the second cast during that poor opponent's end step did I realize how much Demonic Tutor-ing I had just done.

Wow that was powerful!

Anyway has some distinct incentives with the new set. But a couple of glaring drawbacks also. The mana base I could actually swallow. There have been plenty of Standard formats where Blue-White's Restless Anchorage + Meticulous Archive could be considered an excellent duo of dual lands. Not compared to what some others in the format have available, but historically and in the abstract.

The bigger issue was just that I wanted a fast card to help me not get run over while I waited to have Ultima online; and Pinnacle Starcage was not it. It's kind of embarrassing having to wait until almost nine mana to cast your Wrath because you have to make the Robots first.

On the subject of mana, that's where my current project actually started.

Wow is this thing ever entering the battlefield untapped, I thought.

Wow are we rich. I have a near-perfect mana base and I'm playing neither Sacred Foundry nor Inspiring Vantage.

Emphasis on NEAR-perfect.

I'll let you look at the deck and see how you can improve the mana:

Boros Control | EOE Standard | Michael Flores

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Twinmaw Stormbrood
• 2 Overlord of the Mistmoors
• 3 Beza, the Bounding Spring
• 4 Enduring Innocence

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Elspeth, Storm Slayer

• Instants (9)
• 2 Ride's End
• 3 Lightning Helix
• 4 Get Lost

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Ultima

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Seam Rip
• 4 Caretaker's Talent

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Carrot Cake

• Lands (25)
• 4 Plains
• 1 Cori Mountain Monastery
• 4 Elegant Parlor
• 4 Sunbillow Verge
• 4 Demolition Field
• 4 Fountainport
• 4 Sunken Citadel

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Feldon's Cane
• 1 Seam Rip
• 4 Soul-Guide Lantern
• 2 High Noon
• 2 Abrade
• 3 Mazemind Tome
• 1 Ultima

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It's a little prickly, right?

I don't really want a basic Mountain but I could use maybe one Sacred Foundry. My Discord workshopped this a little but haven't come out with any answers that I like. Mostly it doesn't make sense to me to cut a Red-producing land for a different Red-producing land. I do think Elegant Parlor is a little superior to Sacred Foundry here because we're only working with 25 lands and not 26 or 27.

I was kind of thinking of cutting an actual Plains; but going below 4 basic lands in a deck with 4 Demolition Fields seems pretty foolhardy.

This deck started with the mana, but in practice has only ever activated Cori Mountain Monastery maybe twice in hundreds of games. Which is not never, but it's not exactly the super exciting one-sided Howling Mine of my dreams or anything.

This deck plays out more-or-less like its Mono-White near cousin, but with a few Lightning Helixes; which, to their collective credit, have been great.

The day I first started tuning this deck, there were a lot of Konas in Standard, so having another way to kill one before it could get its nasty triggered ability online seemed pretty useful. It also kills Fear of Missing Out, Vivi Ornitier, and basically any aggressive creature with value, especially early.

News Flash: Lightning Helix Good

I liked this card (in particular its Omen half) enough to keep Red in the deck for it. But I did once - one time - gain life against a stupid Dimir opponent, make a giant what is that? Duck? Goose? And no, they never attacked with their silly 1/1, 2/2, or 2/3 flying creatures ever again.

The presence of Twinmaw Stormbrood and Lightning Helix let me ease up on my Beza numbers a little. But anyway I don't know that you "need"-need four Beza right now, due to there not being any Cori-Steel Cutters to catch up against. Still, if you can live to turn four it can be a powerful card. The fail state of "Loxodon Hierarch" is not bad at all and even the jumbo Striped Bears can be annoying for the opponent.

But Beza alone is not what makes the strategy.

What makes the deck unique is the availability of the mana base. The twin "Enchantress"-style anchors are not exactly new...

The overlap between many token makers and Elspeth, Storm Slayer is something you'll definitely want to experience before these cards rotate someday in the future...

But really, it's just the context of Standard that makes Boros a contender.

When I started working on it, Dimir was still contending to be the boogeyman of new Standard, and this deck does a great job of out-lasting Dimir's small creatures and relatively narrow routes to card advantage. I started with four copies of Overlord of the Hauntwoods, but they were clogging up my hand too much. And anyway, with even a single three-mana enchantment, I never had problems overwhelming little Dimir.

On the other hand, if the opponent is a Riverchurn Monument combo-control deck, you're cooked. If they're any other kind of control deck you will frustrate them to the point of rage quit in the first four turns.

Having four copies of Fountainport is a luxury that most Control decks aren't really set up to fight. That you can start activating yours on the third turn thanks to an unprecedented four copies of Sunken Citadel is another thing entirely. These four Citadels, secretly, are Red sources that let you support the splash without dipping too deeply into the very available pool of dual lands. I mean how rich are we?

Oh, and you have to get to play with Ultima.

So, what's the deal with our non-negotiable?

On recent success, it's hard to argue with Izzet Cauldron in Standard. But in power level and synergy, just as an obvious deck, I think it's hard to argue with Azorius Artifacts. The deck was already not just good in Standard, but a Control killer.

Azorius Artifacts is a tremendous beneficiary from the last couple of sets. It gets to play with the much-discussed Pinnacle Starcage, and in a way that should make every other deck jealous.

Pinnacle Starcage really is that good. And for Control decks, if they're not worried about blowing it up with their sweeper [but see the title of this article] they can actually play it. Azorius Artifacts, uniquely, gets to put this card into play with United Battlefront; which is very much like casting your Wrath of God with a Collected Company.

Here's the thing: The incentive to Azorius Artifacts, and the synergy of Pinnacle Starcage, don't stop there.

As we said, Azorius Artifacts was already on the short list of potentially performing decks. But it also just got Cryogen Relic as another new tool; and importantly, a cheap artifact that can speed through or smooth out its draws. Cryogen Relic, somehow and inexplicably, is actually pretty good at getting removed from the battlefield by Pinnacle Starcage (I mean how does that track?) ... But with a Repurposing Bay, can become either the Starcage or the AA deck's primary threat card:

Okay now here's the real thing. The difference that makes the difference as it were. You know what else you can get with a Repurposing Bay? Or make with a United Battlefront? (But probably not cast naturally unless you have a lot of Starting Towns?)

What ends up happening in a lot of games is that the Artifacts deck acquires a second (or third) Simulacrum Synthesizer on some turn and starts making 7/7s or 8/8s or 10/10s. You're like "No problem. I can chump block the one without summoning sickness and slow the rest of them down with this Day of Judgment" or "All I have to do is live through this turn and I'll finish them off with the burn cards in my hand" or the equivalent.

The Fire Crystal makes it so you don't have a next turn. The Constructs it makes? They are increasingly large and none of them are summoning sick! It has become notoriously easy to turn Azorius Artifacts from a kind of Fortress / Prison deck into a Combo killer in one Red card!

The deck's closing speed went to zero thanks to Final Fantasy. You kind of have to prevent them from hitting critical mass or you're not going to have a chance to catch up.

That's a big reason Ultima is a non-negotiable.

You need a sweeper anyway; and Ultima also saves you from Cacophony Scamp triggers, opposing Enduring enchantment creatures, and your own Get Lost Maps. In this matchup it's not exactly the end of the game, but it will usually deal a crippling level of damage to the opponent's board position (and if it doesn't, you probably shouldn't cast it). Here are the "problems" with Ultima against AA:

1. They are often one United Battlefront from getting back into the game.
2. If you don't play it, you're not even eligible to worry about (1), above.

I've never seen anyone recover from the second Ultima, but yes; it sucks that Azorius can come back from the first.

But even in a world defined by Vivi Ornitier currently, it makes me happy that this deck (both decks really) can exist, and compete at high levels.

Personally, my strong preference in Standard is for White control decks right now, and of these, Boros is the most rewarding to play. Not for nothing but Seam Rip can remove Proft's from play and also target Agatha's Soul Cauldron; and that Agatha's Soul Cauldron is an artifact is yet another reason why Ultima is so good in Standard right now. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised if you try it out!

LOVE

MIKE