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BMoor's Magic The Gathering Deck Garage
Boros Rampage

May 11, 2006

Hey, I’ve been working on a Boros-theme deck for a while, but I’ve never
been satisfied with the way it worked. It always seems to go slower than it
should. Anything you could do to help it would be greatly appreciated,
budget isn’t a problem, and if you could keep this Standard-legal, that
would be nice. Thanks.

Boros Rampage

Lands: 22

7 Mountain
6 Plains
4 Sacred Foundry
2 Boros Garrison
3 Sunhome, Fortress of the Leagion

Creatures: 21
4 Boros Swiftblade (RW)
2 Firemane Angel (3RWW)
1 Razia, Boros Archangel (4RRWW)
3 Skyknight Legionnaire (1RW)
3 Sunhome Enforcers (2RW)
3 Frenzied Goblin (R)
3 Boros Recruit (R)
2 Loxodon Gatekeeper (2WW)
2 Goblin Fire Fiend (3R)

Artifacts: 2
2 Sunforger (3) equip (3)

Other: 13
3 Master Warcraft (2R/W R/W)
4 Lightning Helix (RW)
2 Rally the Righteous
2 Brightflame
2 Char

Well, this deck looks pretty good as is.  You have plenty of solid creatures, a good healthy amount of removal, and a decent mana base.  You have a strategy in mind and all of your cards are geared towards that strategy.  These are the principles on which good decks are built.  Having said that, there are a few questionable card choices in here.  I'll smooth all that out, and speed the deck up so you can get your beatdown on faster.
 
First, the one card that jumps out at me and yells, "I shouldn't be here.", which coincidentally is a creature who looks like he'd do a lot of jumping out and yelling at people.  Goblin Fire Fiend.  This creature is just plain bad.  It shouldn't be played unless you have no other options, and I assume you do.
 
Next on the chopping block is Loxodon Gatekeeper.  This deck wants to be the beatdown, and Gatekeeper is best utilized in a control deck.  You don't want your lands coming into play tapped, even if it means your opponents' lands do too.
 
So what to replace them with?  I recommend 2 Boros Guildmage and 2 Wojek Embermage.  Boros Guildmage is a fine 2/2 for two mana that doesn't care what color mana you spend for her, and her abilities are fairly useful as well.  Wojek Embermage is great reusable removal, even if he may take out a Goblin once in a while.  He can also do nasty things to combat math, where he essentially represents a potential +1/+0 to a good percentage of your team.  And since both of these creatures aren't as dependant on a certain color of mana as the creatures they replaced, plus the Guildmage being two less mana than either the Fire Fiend or the Gatekeeper, this should speed you up a bit.
 
Speaking of speeding you up a bit, there may yet be a few more ways of accelerating this deck.  First, I'd recommend dropping Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion to one copy.  Double strike is great, but this card counts as a spell as much as a land half the time.  Add in two more Boros Garrison, or perhaps just another Mountain and Plains if that's too many bouncelands for you.
Also, I'd like to see you add in a few copies of Carom.  It's a neat surprise that can save your creature and destroy another, it's cheap to cast and can be fetched with Sunforger, and it draws you a card.  But what would it replace?  I want to say Brightflame, but Brightflame is a great card, if an expensive one.  Making it Carom would make the deck faster at the expense of less raw power.  I'll leave the decision up to you, since it's your deck, but it's something to think about.
 
I also wish I knew offhand whether, if you use Sunforger's ability to play Fiery Conclusion, if you have to sacrifice a creature or if the Sunforger takes care of that for you.  Something to look into, because if you don't have to sacrifice, Fiery Conclusion would be excellent in this deck.  Better than Carom, probably.
 
That should just about do it.  As I said, this deck was pretty good before I ever laid eyes on it.  I have no doubt that this will do fine for you.  Best of luck!

 
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