Legends Legends - Boris Devilboon
Boris Devilboon by Jesper Myrfors
Welcome back to Legends Legends! This week we're summoning a Boris Devilboon Commander deck straight from the deepest pits of Hell.
Boris Devilboon is (was?) the right-hand wizard to Ramses Overdark, who was eternally annoyed by Boris's confusing predictions and the "little friends" he would summon to harass him. Ramses kills Boris, and then resurrects him, turning Boris into the all-powerful Zombie Wizard we see today.
This Boris Devilboon Commander deck looks to go wide with a ton of little tokens that we'll turn into fodder for the rest of our spells. The challenge lies in building a decidedly Selesnya-coded strategy into a Rakdos identity deck. Let's draw up our summoning circles and get started!
General Thoughts
Boris Devilboon is a five-mana 2/2 Zombie Wizard with a four-mana activated ability that taps him to create a 1/1 Minor Demon token. The token counts as a Demon, but don't worry, Minor isn't a type: the token can order its own drink at the bar.
Poor old Boris has less than 40 decks listed on EDHrec, and it's no surprise as to why: his abilities don't make any sense! Boris suffers from the same illness as the rest of the legends from Legends: he's overcosted to cast and way overcosted to activate. He's from a different time when tapping out to stick a 2/2 didn't spell the end for you right there and then. To really capitalize on Boris's abilities, we'll need to play against his restrictive mana cost and activated ability. We'll play into the Demon creature type via anthem effects or otherwise and use our cheap and weak Demons as sacrificial fodder for our big guns. Finally, Boris has several wicked four-card combos that're a nightmare to set up but hilarious to pay off.
Boris's Little Friends
Boris's Minor Demon tokens are affectionately referred to as his "little friends" in the lore, and I think that's just adorable. Imagine this rotting husk of a wizard fawning and giggling over a bunch of little nasty dudes made of "rotting flesh, tar, and offal".
Boris Devilboon's Minor Demon tokens are a tough sell. We're looking at a nine-mana investment before we can pump out even one, so we need to make sure that those Demons are worth it. Many of the following cards will be your priority tutor targets!
Our number one card in this deck is Mana Echoes. This enchantment's triggered ability adds an amount of colorless mana to your mana pool whenever a creature enters the battlefield equal to the number of other creatures it shares a type with. We'll use Boris's ability in conjunction with Mana Echoes to continuously add mana as he creates tokens, untapping him with Magewright's Stone or Thousand-Year Elixir, then making more Demons and more mana.
Once we've assembled a menagerie of nasty little Demons, we can buff the whole squad with the anthem from Raphael, Fiendish Savior or turn them into direct damage with Goblin Bombardment. They also make excellent fodder for our Viscera Seer, Ashnod's Altar, and Skullclamp. Plus, with such consistent access to a cheap Demon, we can run Mark of the Oni as some light removal for our opponents' commanders.
We're thin on token-generation in Rakdos, so to go wide we're running the only populate cards available to red: Determined Iteration and Ghired's Belligerence. While Determined Iteration will usually only clone that 1/1 Minor Demon token, the additional ETB/LTB trigger is well worth it.
Finally, to cheapen up that activated ability, we've got Heartstone, which further combos with Thornbite Staff and Mana Echoes.
Boris's Big Friends
The little friends are really just here to pave the way for our big friends. Several large Demons make their homes in this Boris Devilboon Commander deck, from classics, like Lord of the Pit and Rakdos the Defiler, to powerhouses of advantage, like Vilis, Broker of Blood and Rune-Scarred Demon.
That said, there are a few medium-sized Demons we'll want to cast before Boris. Herald of Slaanesh is important for turning those fresh Demon tokens into immediate attackers, and Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is one of our most important Demons, as it acts as a repeatable tutor for fetching up our key combo pieces. I've found Balor also tends to hit the field before we cast our commander, as well.
One special pet card of mine gets a slot in this deck: Din of the Fireherd. This expensive sorcery rarely sees play, but it synergizes very well with the multicolor tokens that Boris creates.
Boris's Dead Friends
Those little black-and-red Minor Demons make an excellent consistent source of fodder for our sacrifice outlets, and with the classics like Goblin Bombardment, Blood Artist, and Zulaport Cutthroat, each of those tokens should get us a Lightning Bolt's worth of damage before it dies.
Ashnod's Altar works amazingly well when Mana Echoes is on the field, letting us sacrifice a newly created Demon for even more colorless mana to stretch to reach those expensive Demon creatures or drop a big Exsanguinate.
Notably, Lyzolda, the Blood Witch gets exponentially better if we have regular access to a black/red creature to sacrifice, so she's been selected as one of Boris's finest arcane apprentices.
A few other non-Demons make appearances in this list, as well. Mahadi, Emporium Master and Smothering Abomination are just too good not run in a sacrifice-heavy deck, and Crypt Ghast really helps deal with our lack of mana ramp.
Boris Devilboon Combos
Let's take a look at these convoluted combos Boris Devilboon has in store for us. There are several different combos, but they use many of the same constituent parts. Carefully examine your hand and determine what combo pieces you're missing, then use our five tutors to dig up the rest.
The first is Thornbite Staff, Elemental Mastery, and Ashnod's Altar.
Note that this combo works with any free sacrifice outlet, including Viscera Seer or Goblin Bombardment.
Next is Mana Echoes's interaction with Boris. In a similar vein to our Ashnod's Altar combo, we're looking to generate infinite mana by activating Boris and summoning a Demon. With at least three other Demons on the field, we'll add three colorless mana. If we can untap Boris just once with either Thousand-Year Elixir or Magewright's Stone, we'll have an infinite loop set up where, as long as we can make colored mana with an Energy Refractor, we can keep activating Boris all day and night, making and killing Minor Demons to our heart's content.
Budget Options
All in all, this Boris Devilboon Commander deck has a budget of about $230. That's pretty cheap when you compare it to our Rasputin or Hazezon lists, but still a little much to purchase all at once.
One of the easiest ways to shave some cost off of this deck is downgrading our tutors: swapping out Demonic Tutor is a whole $30 still, while a Diabolic Tutor will be undeniably slower but still get the job done.
The next most expensive cut is a hard one. Thornbite Staff and Mana Echoes are around $20 and $30 each, respectively. Unfortunately, since these cards are so key to our combos, cutting them can drastically change the direction the deck goes in. If you want to hold off on these two, use some filler aristocrats synergy cards, like Mayhem Devil and Morbid Opportunist, or lean into some generally good Demons, like Overseer of the Damned and Havoc Demon.
Boris Devilboon Deck List
Wrap Up
This is one of the more simplistic Boris Devilboon Commander builds. It takes a tried-and-true aristocrats and tokens strategy and staples it onto a Rakdos commander, but that's not all Boris is good for: other Devilboon decks could focus on an all Imps strategy to play off of the small creatures theme, or change the pay-off from Mana Echoes and Ashnod's Altar to Fireballs and Torment of Hailfires.
What are the best ways to go wide in Rakdos? How would you build Boris Devilboon? And where can I get some funky little Minor Demon Tokens? Let me know in the comments!
Thanks for reading! Check back next week for another Legends Legends!
