Retro Magic - Boros Rally and Rout Magic the Gathering Event Deck Review

by ElspethFTW, Gaming Successfully Staff

 When the Gatecrash Boros "Rally and Rout" Event Deck was first released, I was convinced that it was the best Event Deck ever. While some preferred the inclusion of Thragtusk in the Simic counterpart to this deck, Thrive and Thrash, this Event Deck had money cards up the wazoo. The inclusion of Clifftop Retreat and Silverblade Paladin officially made this deck worth the $25 MSRP price. While the Paladin isn’t worth much anymore, there's still plenty of value left to be had.

As for the list itself:


MANA BASE:
3 Boros Guildgate
1  Clifftop Retreat
8 Mountain
10 Plains
1  Slayers’ Stronghold

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The Clifftop Retreat is a great inclusion, as is the Slayers’ Stronghold is a nice inclusion, as well. Three copies of Boros Guildgate is also quite welcome for the mana fixing, as they weren’t going to throw in the Sacred Foundry after throwing in two other rare lands. It’s a pretty solid mana base here if you add in Sacred Foundries.

CREATURES
1 Ash Zealot
4 Boros Elite
1 Champion of the Parish
4 Doomed Traveler
2 Firefist Striker
2 Lightning Mauler
1 Silverblade Paladin
3 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Spark Trooper
2 Sunhome Guildmage
1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
2 Truefire Paladin

This is where the bulk of the value for this deck comes in. Ash Zealot is a fantastic card which has seen tons of Standard play and has even worked her way into Modern. In Modern, Ash Zealot’s punishing of cards being cast from the graveyard hoses Snapcaster Mage, one of the most powerful cards in the format. It also messes up people trying to recast creatures such as Bloodghast and Gravecrawler from their graveyard.

A playset of Boros Elite is fantastic. Who doesn’t want a 3/3 for 1 mana? Most of the time, in aggressive decks, that’s what she was. Without the Battalion activation, though… not so good.

The inclusion of Silverblade Paladin was just amazing. Double strike with any aggressive deck is extremely powerful. Sadly, the Paladin has basically disappeared from Constructed after his rotation from Standard. He barely shows up on the fringes of Modern, but still finds a home in some Commander decks.

Spark Trooper is an interesting card. He’s a 6/1 with trample, lifelink, and haste. Yes, this guy has LIFELINK. So who cares if this guy gets blocked? He’s pretty much an automatic 6 life for you every time he swings. He’s gone at the end of combat, but really, this guy is more than worth his 4 mana cost. The Trooper did see some solid play towards the end of his time in Standard, but now only sees play alongside Gisela, Blade of Goldnight and other red/white Legendary Creatures in Commander.

Thalia was a fantastic sideboard card for awhile in Standard, and she’s a beauty in Modern and Legacy. She makes all non-creature spells cost 1 colorless mana extra. She wasn’t such a fine main boarding option during her later times in Standard at the time, especially if you were running a Boros deck. You would mind paying 1WR for Boros Charm, 2W for Gather the Townsfolk, 1R for Pillar of Flame, and 2R for Searing Spear. Still, she was a hoser in control match-ups. Now, she’s still an all-star card in Death and Taxes decks in both Modern and Legacy.

Champion of the Parish is a great card and the build of the Event Deck works fantastically with him. He’s going to get really big, really fast. The Champion is just a really solid card all around. Especially when you considered that you have the Doomed Travelers and Boros Elites for one-drops alongside him, you could be bashing through your opponent's lines really, really quickly. He still sees some play in Modern alongside Norin the Wary in some very quirky Boros decks; those decks have never won major events but they have won some minor tournaments here and there.

Some of the other creatures are certainly worth mentioning. Firefist Strikeris an interesting card. His Battalion ability reads that if you attack with him and at least two other creatures, you can target a creature and have it unable to block for that turn. Not a bad card, but I think there are better options. Lightning Mauler has a Soulbond option to give a creature haste, which isn’t bad. Skyknight Legionnaire is an old Ravnica throwback, a 2/2 flyer with Haste (the author actually prefers the old artwork, as well as the Arena Foils).

The last couple of creatures, Sunhome Guildmage and Truefire Paladin are interesting, as well. I find the Paladin a bit better than the Guildmage. The Guildmage has an ability for 1WR that gives all of your creatures +1/+0 until end of turn. As it’s a mana ability, you can potentially use this a couple times in a turn to deliver the final blow. However, his second mana ability for 2WR to put a 1/1 soldier token with haste on the board is over-costed in my humble opinion. He's useful as the head of a Pauper Commander deck, however.

However, the Truefire Paladin is a nice little uncommon. He’s a 2/2 Vigilant for RW, and his mana abilities are strictly better than the Guildmage’s honestly. His first ability gives him +2/+0 until end of turn for just RW. His second ability, which also only costs RW gives him first strike until end of turn. I definitely like this guy, but he was a bit slow for Standard. (Likewise, he makes for an aggressive leader for Pauper Commander.)

NON-CREATURE SPELLS
2 Boros Charm
4 Gather the Townsfolk
4 Pillar of Flame
3 Searing Spear

You’ll certainly want to be running 4 copies of  Boros Charm, but the other spells here are good options. Four copies of Gather the Townsfolk interacts quite well with the Champion of the Parish by activating his ability twice. If you decide to focus on the Champion, Gather the Townsfolk is for you.

Pillar of Flame and Searing Spear are pretty standard removal/burn cards that you pretty much have to sideboard at the very least.

Sideboard
3 Bonds of Faith
3 Electrickery
2 Oblivion Ring
2 Skullcrack
2 Thunderous Wrath
3 War Priest of Thune

This was a pretty solid sideboard here for the Standard meta at the time. Thunderous Wrath and its Miracle ability could always pull a win out of nowhere. Skullcrack was the perfect answer to Thragtusk, and continues to be very strong card in Modern. Electrickery is a nice option against token-heavy decks or decks that love to throw out a lot of 1/1 creatures.

Oblivion Ring is standard white removal, which has since been replaced in Standard by the functional reprint Banishing Light - which can only target opponent’s things. War Priest of Thune offers a great way to exile nasty enchantments. Bonds of Faith is the only card here I’m not too thrilled with. It’s an Enchantment that gives a creature +2/+2 but it has to be a Human; otherwise, it can’t attack or block. I’d ditch these in Constructed, as there are far better options to consider for pumping your creatures quickly and cheaply.

"BANG" for Your Buck?

This deck gave you more “bang for your buck” than most event decks I’d ever seen before it. The Golgari event deck during Return to Ravnica was also very solid at the time. However, the Vampire Onslaught deck from Magic 2012 is still the best value Event Deck ever, due to the Verdant Catacombs and two Bloodghast. Both of them are huge Modern and Legacy cards, especially the fetch land, Catacombs. (Verdant Catacombs wasn't quite to the price point that it is now.) Still, Boros Rally was probably the second-best ever at the time

If you were running Boros at the time that Innistrad block was still in Standard, it was definitely worth buying at least one copy of this event deck. Many people just bought them out for the Clifftop Retreats, Champion of the Parish, and Silverblade Paladins for Naya Humans. Is it worth buying now? It does have Ash Zealots, 2 Boros Charms, Clifftop Retreat, Champion of the Parish, 2 Skuillcracks, and Thalia, but that’s about it for value.

If the Silverblade Paladin  is ever worth more than $2 again, it’s worth a buy. But if you just want to buy it just to play the deck, you’ll make most of the value back easily. Just remember that the majority of the cards aren’t in Standard, anymore, so don’t try to play it at your FNM unless it’s Modern.