An Analysis of Boros Draft Archetypes

The Boros Draft Archetypes

Welcome back! This is the ninth installment of the Current History of Draft Archetypes. The impetus for this series is that I was interested in how often certain archetypes really show up and what kind of variance there tends to be, so I dug in, looked up old draft formats, and crunched some numbers.

I think looking over the archetypes reveals interesting patterns, telling us what tools are most useful in a designer's belt and letting us predict what could be around the corner. It's also a great way to highlight some interesting evolutions and developments over the years. 

Summary of caveats:

• I include all premier sets from Return to Ravnica through Bloomburrow.
• I included most, but not all, supplemental sets released during that time.
• I only included sets with a two-color archetype in the analysis of that color pair. No three-color/five-color draft themes included.
• My research on determining an archetype was either a direct statement about the color pair's theme, looking at the gold card in the set, or occasionally looking at some articles talking about the set if it couldn't otherwise be determined.
• Sometimes a theme is part of two categories (Artifact Sacrifice); I make the final call on a case-by-case basis which it's more representative of, but also try to address that in the notes.

The Color Pair

White is the number one creature color, focused on low-curve aggro backed up by the highest number of combat tricks in the color pie. It can pivot to a slower, controlling strategy with its pinpoint removal under certain conditions, but not usually while paired up with red. Red is the fastest color in the game, also focused on low-curve aggro backed up by damage spells to either clear the way or finish off the opponent. 

Together, they have struggled for a while to solidify an identity, usually just combining forces to curve out as quickly as possible. Sometimes they've gone for tokens, and sometimes they try to do burn, or both. The identity really started bubbling up in Scars of Mirrodin block, however, when they tried to find a solution to aggro's problem with the late-game. Red-white found a unique way to pull itself higher: Equipment. Equipment ensures its small creatures don't get outclassed as quickly, turning them into persistent threats throughout the game. 

The colors' shared keywords are first strike and double strike, the latter of which especially incentivizes the use of power-boosting cards, be they pump spells, Auras, or Equipment. These are especially aggressive keywords, although first strike has become modified in recent sets with a rider to ensure it's not being used defensively, a la Boros Recruit or . With that in mind, I suspected aggro and Equipment to be fairly widespread but still found some surprises within the data.

With that, let's begin!

Wildcard Archetype: Aggro

Turn creatures sideways. You know it, you love it. Boros loves it more than anyone else. Aggro is the most popular throughline of the red-white color pair. I'll note here and now that these thirteen sets are purely aggro, with no consideration for set mechanic, creature type, or card type. 

Theros

Journey into Nyx

Khans of Tarkir

Fate Reforged

Magic Origins

Shadows over Innistrad

Eldritch Moon

Core Set 2019

War of the Spark

Core Set 2020

Midnight Hunt

Crimson Vow

Brother's War

I've noted in other analyses that the Wildcard tends to get masked in other forms, such as how several blue-black graveyard strategies were found underneath a keyword like surveil or escape. The problem with doing this with aggro is that it is less of a strategy and more of a playstyle, like control, tempo, or midrange. Most of the red-white strategies are aggressive. It's hard to tell at the level of analysis I'm doing, but I can't imagine more than two or three of the archetypes have been anything else.

Within the framework of aggro, there is some wiggle room. It mostly involves curving out and attacking immediately, but there are some different styles. There's "go-wide", which relies on at least a little bit of token-making (Theros, Journey into Nyx, M19) The other, common variant is "Voltron," which involves building up one singular creature with spells to make them a game-ending threat (Magic Origins).

There has been the smallest seed of an unnamed mechanic attached to aggro in recent memory, which relies on counting the number of attacking creatures. In Crimson Vow, there was a "duet" mechanic, which triggered whenever you attacked with exactly two creatures. Similarly, Battalion (whenever you attack with three or more creatures) has returned a few times without a name. The "3 or more" variant works well for incentivizing a high number of attackers and genuinely committing to the red-white way. It's had over a decade to pick up steam but hasn't in the way that Power 4 did. I'm curious as to why, but don't yet have any designers to interview. 

Set Mechanic Archetypes

It's long been the wisdom at Wizards of the Coast that every set needs at least one new mechanic, a way to excite players. This is a great chance to "re-flavor" a color pair and give them a slightly shifted identity in the form of a unique, set-specific mechanical hook. For red-white, these have almost all been different to incentivize attacking.

• Gatecrash: Battalion
• Dragon's Maze: Battalion
• Battle for Zendikar: Rally
• Amonkhet: Exert
• Hour of Devastation: Exert
• Guilds of Ravnica: Mentor
• Theros Beyond Death: Heroic
• Ikoria: Cycling
• Modern Horizons 2: Modular
• Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur's Gate: Myriad
• March of the Machine: Back-Up
• Wilds of Eldraine: Celebration
• Murders at Karlov Manor: Battalion
• Modern Horizons 3: Energy
• Bloomburrow: Valiant

Quick note here that THB and MKM are distinct in that they do very clearly use a mechanic but without actually naming it directly. I chose to note it as a set mechanic in spite of that, because in both cases it was very evidently a callback to mechanic, even being set on the same plane. Worth arguing about, but I'm landing with it here.

The keywords I least believe will return in some capacity are rally, modular, cycling, myriad, back-up, and celebration. These were usually built for the needs of a set or were received poorly (or in rally's case: both). Myriad might pop up on some future designs in Commander products, but I don't see another non-reprint Commander draft product using it in the next five years. (I do hope to see back-up again soon, but it's an odd mechanic and had a specific "teamwork" flavor that doesn't fit with just any world.)

Exert and energy were both tied to a singular world. Energy has since broken out and become more planar-agnostic in a way that I hope allows it show up more (a hope which Mark Rosewater has also expressed). Exert is less fortunate, but I think the interesting decisions it creates and the innate ability to make combat more rewarding means it is more likely than not to return in a future set.

I have talked previously about Battalion having a real chance at long-term usage due to fitting in easily with most sets (especially when unnamed) and how it naturally fits with what red-white wants to do. I haven't yet talked about Heroic, which would've been my second pick, if not for the arrival of valiant. Heroic, unbounded as it was, proves a little too fiddly/all or nothing. Valiant provides a "fairer" once per turn stream of value while working with more of the card types. I want to be cautiously optimistic when I say I think it could be an uncommon mainstay of the archetype, being able to work with combat tricks, Auras, Equipment, and various weird abilities.

Creature Type Archetypes

I came into this analysis with my own biases; it's why I did it. I wanted to check on what was true or not. One of my baseline assumptions was that red-white was the most likely to have some form of "creature type matters". As time went on, I thought that without the "Innistrad bump" (the phenomenon by which our frequent visits to Innistrad have caused the ally colors to have their "creature type" matters draft archetypes heightened), Boros might at least be in the running but might only be in the top three.

I was close, but shockingly off: Boros has had nine draft archetypes centered around a creature type.

• Ixalan: Dinosaur
• Rivals of Ixalan: Dinosaur
• Modern Horizons 1: Slivers
• Throne of Eldraine: Knights
• Core Set 2021: Dogs
• Zendikar Rising: Warriors
• Kamigawa: Neon Dynasty: Samurai
• Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth: Humans
• Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Mercenaries

Quick summary of my thoughts here. Dinosaurs, Knights, and Mercenaries were all very specific plane-tied executions that I do not think will return, if there is a future visit. Dogs, Slivers, and Humans could return in the future, but it's only kind of likely based on current information. 

Lastly, the slam dunks. Next time we return to Kamigawa, Samurai are basically guaranteed. They're popular and resonant and tied to a now-very-beloved plane. Warriors are the planar-agnostic version of Samurai. They have been in red-green and white-black, but I think that red-white makes the most sense for this creature type, and it's where they were most recently. The mechanical throughline of Equipment also works well to this end. 

Card Type Archetypes

You already know it's mostly Equipment, but let's take a look for the full picture.

• Magic 2015: Aura
• Oath of the Gatewatch: Equipment
• Kaladesh: Vehicle
• Aether Revolt: Vehicle
• Dominaria: Aura & Equipment
• Commander Legends: Equipment
• Kaldheim: Equipment
• Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: Equipment
• Phyrexia: All Will Be One: Equipment

The affinity for Equipment started in red and white actually started back in 2003, with release of the original Mirrodin block. Equipment has been a recurring theme throughout the years, something I talk about here. It didn't seem like an actual draftable theme until in recent years. Of the nine draft archetypes listed, six are Equipment (with one of those six being a blend). Equipment has always been cool and resonant, but it wasn't until Wizards divorced artifacts from inherent colorlessness that they could properly push the card type without risk of burning entire formats. They have shown up plenty before and will definitely show up again.

Auras have appeared twice, once in Magic 2015 and once as paired with Equipment in Dominaria. I would only expect to see Auras return to red-white (in any capacity) in an enchantment set or one with the modified keyword. Auras have innate card disadvantage issues that make them hard to balance and work around. (If token Auras become more common, it could happen, but it very much feels like an if.)

The other card type on the list is vehicle, which is a fun innovation that plays incredibly similarly to Equipment, being something which allows your small creatures to hit harder. When the Vehicle draft archetype returned in Neon Dynasty, it was in blue-white (allowing red-white to focus on Equipment that set and click in with red-green modified). We have the upcoming "Death Race" set, and the similar "mount" mechanic was just seeded in green-white. I would expect vehicles to make a return, though I don't know whether they'll overlap with green-white mounts as red-white or go for a different color pair. 

Other Archetypes

Thanks to the prevalence of "core aggro", there are truthfully only three sets in current history where the red-white archetype doesn't fall into one of the previous buckets. What I find interesting is how they all represent three distinct possible evolutions of the color pair.

Strixhaven: Graveyard

Dominaria United: Modify

Lost Caverns of Ixalan: Self-Tap

Strixhaven: School of Mages represented an exciting experiment: a red-white archetype which wasn't aggro. The graveyard archetype was built for the Lorehold college, a history department. It relied on using cards from your graveyard and triggering whenever cards left your graveyard. This was of mixed success but remains beloved in some circles. We are returning to Strixhaven soon, and I expect another crack at it there. Control is too distinct from Boros baseline to be a regular thing, but I do think it provides a nice breath of fresh air for enfranchised players.

Dominaria United had the unnamed "modify" mechanic, which just counted if a creature's power was more than its base power. I talked about this with the GW article which had something like it in LCI. It has slightly broader synergies than just modified. It synergizes well with things like the red-green "power 4" mechanic. I'm not sure if it's genuinely as exciting as modified, but this could represent a future for red-white as aggro's clear and clean mechanical hook.

Lastly, the "self-tap" archetype in Lost Caverns of Ixalan was an aggressive strategy, but one which could accrue value closer to a midrange one. As the name suggests, some creatures could tap others for boosts and others would give you incidental value when tapped. I think this is playing into the future, as that sounds very much like it would work well with mounts and vehicles, but I'm unsure as to whether or not it will actually return in force.

Final Analysis

Alright, with the deep dives out of the way, let's pull back a little bit and look over the broad numbers a bit.

• Card Type: 18.3% (9)
• Creature Type: 18.4% (9)
• Wildcard (Aggro): 26.5% (13)
• Set Mechanic: 30.6% (15)
• Other: 6.1% (3)

Additional information: Equipment has been the most popular card type, Dinosaur has been the most popular creature type, and Battalion has been the most popular set mechanic. Notable that Equipment only started in earnest halfway through this chunk of time with Dominaria (2018) but now accounts for 12% of draft archetypes in a pretty big surge. I expect its percentage to rise a little over time.

As we can see, set mechanics are actually the most populated category, something I wasn't fully expecting. A few of them have been aggressive mechanics, triggering off different ways to attack or some such, but it's still an interesting thing to keep in mind.

Compared to midrange in Golgari (13%) or control in Dimir (6%), the 26% aggro rate in Boros is pretty large. I view this as why Boros has been specifically criticized for its repetitive draft archetype theming- it generally lacks a mechanical hook beyond "curve out and attack". I think creating more hoops and relying on the ones established can help it going forward, but I'm also not sure if it's genuinely a problem which needs to be worked on. Public perception of a color pair is one thing, but how it plays is another. At the end of the day, if it's fun, it's working. Complicating it just so that it has a specific, cohesive identity could just be ticking a box, and no one actually wants that.

That being said, I do think battalion and modify could be used in more sets. It's a simple hook that's fun to pull off and works with a lot of different set structures!

Conclusion

Boros is a simple color pair which likes simple things: attacking. It's been maligned in the past for this love of the red zone, but I think that Wizards has given it some interesting twists and focused on card flow issues such that it has a little more dimension. The focus on Equipment has been a huge boon for the color pair, and excitement for it really reshaped how it could be played (especially with innovations like reconfigure). 

I can see it change subtly, but there is no reason for it to dramatically change gears and become a control color for any length of time. Familiarity is important to drafting, and red-white is a cozy pair of socks in that regard.

Get ready to draw a card and put a land on the battlefield, because next time is the last color pair: Simic!