Tuesday Night Takeover
Monica Rambeau // Photon, Living Light
EDH July 24, 2026

Monica Rambeau // Photon, Living Light Spellslinging Tokens

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Commander Overview

After a big delay, I am finally back and brewing up some Marvel decks! While Marvel certainly isn’t my favorite IP in the world, there is a ton of really fun commanders to mess around with. One that has stuck out to me since spoiler season was Monica Rambeau. A fairly unassuming Boros commander that is actually pretty good. While it certainly is not a commander present at higher power tables, it is perfect for the bracket two to three range and is a fun take on a typical Boros deck. Having both a spellslinger and a token strategy in the deck allows us to deal with opponents’ threats while amassing a huge board properly; flipping Monica is not great for our opponents and absolutely perfect for us. While this is not the fastest deck in the format, when we get going we can be very tough to stop. If you are into some going-wide fun, then this is certainly the deck for you.


Bracket 2 Boros Spellslinger Tokens
Command Zone

Monica Rambeau

Legendary Creature — Human Hero
$283.13

Creature 19

1 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar $2.23
1 Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon $4.77
1 Aziza, Mage Tower Captain $0.27
1 Cosmogrand Zenith $4.95
1 Enduring Innocence $3.82
1 Feather, the Redeemed $0.98
1 Jacked Rabbit $3.40
1 Leonin Lightscribe $0.52
1 Monastery Mentor $0.54
1 Ogre Battledriver $0.26
1 Pinnacle Monk $1.38
1 Prismari Pianist $0.33
1 Stirring Hopesinger $0.33
1 Storm-Kiln Artist $1.31
1 The Vision and Scarlet Witch $63.44
1 Thundering Raiju $0.55
1 Voice of Victory $17.38
1 Welcoming Vampire $3.74
1 Young Pyromancer $0.30

Instant 24

1 Abrade $0.43
1 Akroma's Will $14.61
1 Big Score $0.37
1 Call the Coppercoats $7.45
1 Chaos Warp $0.33
1 Erode $5.52
1 Flare of Duplication $1.57
1 Flare of Fortitude $3.59
1 Flashback $3.42
1 Flawless Maneuver $20.88
1 Frontline Rush $0.30
1 Generous Gift $0.78
1 Grand Crescendo $3.40
1 Legion Leadership $0.41
1 Lorehold Charm $0.23
1 Olórin's Searing Light $6.65
1 Path to Exile $0.98
1 Restoration Magic $2.15
1 Riot Control $0.30
1 Secure the Wastes $4.64
1 Swords to Plowshares $1.24
1 Unexpected Windfall $3.36
1 Untimely Malfunction $8.33
1 Will of the Mardu $2.96

Sorcery 13

1 Angelfire Ignition $0.69
1 Crash Through $0.17
1 Damning Verdict $11.47
1 Disrupt Decorum $4.23
1 Forth Eorlingas! $3.43
1 Hex Magic $1.50
1 Honor $0.26
1 Hop to It $0.17
1 Impolite Entrance $0.41
1 Past in Flames $4.21
1 Practiced Offense $1.14
1 Season of the Burrow $2.57
1 Tempt with Vengeance $0.33

Artifact 3

1 Arcane Signet $0.61
1 Sol Ring $1.60
1 Staff of the Storyteller $0.45

Enchantment 6

1 Aligned Heart $0.30
1 Assemble the Legion $0.37
1 Darksteel Mutation $0.70
1 Impact Tremors
1 Oath of Eorl $0.33
1 Resourceful Defense $0.34

Land 34

1 Arid Mesa $28.89
1 Battlefield Forge $0.29
1 Clifftop Retreat $0.23
11 Mountain $0.18
16 Plains $0.11
1 Rugged Prairie $0.31
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Spectator Seating $6.43
1 Sundown Pass $2.21

Tokens Used 14

Citizen
Elemental
Elephant
Gnome
Goblin
Human
Human Knight
Human Soldier
Monk
Rabbit
Soldier
Spirit
Treasure
Warrior

EDH BRACKET

1
Exhibition
2
Core
3
Upgraded
4
Optimized
5
cEDH
Bracket 2 // Core

The average current preconstructed deck.

  • No Mass Land Denial
  • No Chaining Extra Turns
  • No 2-Card Infinite Combos
  • No Game Changers
  • Few Tutors

How to Play the Deck

Playing the deck is pretty easy, we spend our early turns setting up and preparing to get out Monica, once they are out we start spellslinging as much as we can, we aren’t a deck that is going to cast ten spells in a turn but with a decent amount of tokens on our board and our flipped commander we can start running over our opponents very easily. While it may take some time to get there, once we do, we are very hard to stop. This deck does suffer from the same fate that most Boros decks do: if we get stopped a ton, we can have a lot of trouble but we do have built in ways to protect ourselves with cards like Cathars' Crusade and Akroma's Will allowiing us just to be bigger than our opponents and not have our stuff die in combat. I would say this deck is suitable for an intermediate player, and not a deck I would give to a brand new player; it can be quite cumbersome counting up all of the counters and tracking all of them.

Synergy’s in the deck

We have two main packages within the deck our spellslinging and our token package, Monica is the biggest synergy piece for our spellslinging package since they not only buff themself but buff our entire board, we also have cards that help a lot like Storm-Kiln Artist which not only gets pretty big but is passive mana generation which allows us to cast more. As our board gets bigger we can get a lot of value out of cards like Crash Through which can ensure we hit really hard, especially if our opponents dont have a ton of blockers.

Phases of the Game

Early-Game: The best thing we can do in the early-game is amass an early board, this not only helps when we do get out Monica and flip her it helps to make aggressive opponents think twice about attacking us, cards like Hop to It or triggering a Cosmogrand Zenith is a great way to build up our board and get ready for the mid-game.

Mid-Game: The mid-game is where we start to snowball, and we snowball very hard. If we can combine something like Cathars' Crusade with Monica, we can get our board huge extremely quickly. Whether it be our normal creatures or the tokens we create off of cards like Secure the Wastes or Grand Crescendo, we can get big very quickly; we don’t have to be super aggressive in the mid-game, but we will push damage when we can.

Late-Game: By the time the late-game rolls around, we should have a pretty formidable board. We can really enter one of two modes: if we are big enough, we can be aggressive, and if we are not as big, we can use our legion of creatures to chump block as much as we can to save damage. Either option works, but since we are Boros and tend to lean a lot more on the aggressive side, we typically are always attacking. Just be as aggressive as the situation allows and do your best not to overextend yourself; outside of stuff like Riot Control, we are rarely preventing combat damage outside of blocking.

Card Breakdowns

Ramp

Ramp isn’t a huge part of our deck but with cards like The Vision and Scarlet Witch and Storm-Kiln Artist you can produce a lot of extra mana that lets you spell sling and buff up your board, while we aren’t a deck that focuses heavily on cantrips we can spell sling and buff our board quite a bit on a turn with cards like Crash Through and Legion Leadership which can not only buff our whole board but helps a lot. We of course are running Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, which both help a lot in getting Monica out earlier and flipping them earlier, but they are by no means required.

Card Draw/Card Advantage

Always a bit of a struggle in Boros, but we are better positioned to draw more cards than most Boros decks. Cards like Big Score and Unexpected Windfall are absolutely perfect for this deck since we can get card draw and mana production, which allows us to keep buffing up and have more mana to do it. While not strictly card draw and more card advantage, I have had a ton of great plays off of Hex Magic; being able to draw a new hand without losing the old one is extremely strong and can be a great follow-up piece to a big turn where we were buffing up our board.

Removal

Removal through combat is pretty much the best way we remove things since, on average, we are a lot bigger than our opponents. But we do have some strict removal pieces that can be quite helpful for our deck, like Erode, Swords to Plowshares, and Path to Exile, which are cheap and premium pieces of removal that give our opponents minor benefits while helping us a lot. With cards like Past in Flames and Flashback in the deck, we are easily able to recur these spells as well, not only buffing up our board if we have a flipped Monica.

Protection

Our board snowballs so quickly that our opponents are typically pretty interested in stopping us; because of that, we need protection. Flawless Maneuver is a great and almost always free way to protect our creatures from board wipes or even a bad combat. Akroma's Will is another great option that is a bit modular, as it can be used offensively or defensively, but is a great option if we need to keep our board. One of my favorite protection pieces in the deck is Flare of Fortitude; there is truly nothing more satisfying than free-casting this after no-blocking a huge board!

Utility / Support

Let’s highlight some of my favorite cards in the deck! Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon is one of the best “snowball” pieces we have in the deck and, after just a few turns, can turn into an avalanche. Whether it’s Anim Pakal putting on the counters themself or getting the assist from Monica, we can produce a ton of tokens. With a flipped Monica, we can become truly unstoppable. Anim Pakal and all of our other token production works extremely well with Ogre Battledriver, which can allow us to attack even wider and hit even harder. Thundering Raiju was a very strong card that I got a lot of value out of. While it can be underwhelming in the early-mid game if we have a big buffed-up board, Raiju can be a huge finisher and a great way to take out low-health opponents; the fact that it triggers on attack and not after dealing damage is truly wild. It makes this card a great finisher option for the deck.

Mana Base

We have an extremely simple manabase in the deck; it mostly consists of basics and some good dual lands like Spectator Seating and Sacred Foundry as well as some other helpful stuff like Arid Mesa to fetch them out and ensure we get all of our colors. In all of the games I tested, I had no trouble with the manabase and found it worked well.

Win Conditions

Our main win condition in the deck is combat; Monica and the snowball she provides are the best way we can win. We do have some non-combat methods to end games like Thundering Raiju, but these are not consistent and not something we can always go for.

Strengths of the Deck

We can be very hard to stop when we get going.

We have a bit of the best of both worlds going on: we have a big board of creatures, and we can buff them up so big that we are very good at combat.

Weaknesses of the Deck

General struggles of Boros: it can be hard if we get consistently stopped.

Decks that don’t care about creatures or combat can be tougher matchups.

Deck Testing/Matchups

I tested this deck against three different decks

Game 1: Vs Butterbur, Bree Innkeeper. Matchup Record: 3-0

This was a very good matchup for our deck. Butterbur can get a lot of life off the food tokens that they generate, but with our ability to get a lot bigger than them and go a lot wider than them, this was not a tough matchup for our deck. They have a better presence in the early game than we do, but we can beat up on them once we get going.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Cathars' Crusade and Crash Through.

Game 2: Vs Ragost, Deft Gastronaut. Matchup Record: 2-3

This matchup really comes down to speed. Ragost can go off and create infinite loops pretty easily, and that can be troublesome for us since we don’t have a ton of ways to stop them, as a lot of their combos are not creature-based; although if they are, we can interact with them pretty well. Ragost can go off at really any time, so always be aggressive towards them and exercise caution.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Enduring Innocence, Grand Crescendo and Practiced Offense.

Game 3: Vs Namor the Sub-Mariner. Matchup Record: 3-2

A good but very interesting matchup for our deck. They go pretty wide with the tokens, but they don’t get as big as we do, which gives us the advantage in this deck. Never underestimate this deck. They can come hard and fast and a little unexpectedly. Always watch out for mass removal or cards like Aetherize. It can be pretty tough to deal with, but if you stick to the gameplan and hit them hard, it should be perfectly fine.

Cards that worked really well in this matchup:
Flare of Fortitude, Monastery Mentor and Aligned Heart.

Conclusion

Thanks so much for reading to the end! I hope you all enjoyed it. Monica Rambeau is an awesome commander who truly feels like a Boros powerhouse. Spellslinging in a deck without blue does feel very weird, but overall it is a lot of fun. While I am not the most excited about the Marvel set, I did enjoy this deck a lot and can’t wait to jam even more games with it.

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