“The task at hand is the only one that matters.”
Art:Tiana, Ship's Caretaker
by Eric Deschamps
Table of Contents
Today’s Featured Commander Is:
Tiana is a super sweet Boros commander who is a great way to fight against the artifact and enchantment hate in the format. Beyond that, we have a bunch of creatures that only get better when we enchant and equip them. We have weaknesses like most Boros decks, like a lack of card draw and stack interaction. I have had a ton of fun building and testing this deck, and in many of the testing games, I had many great mid-late game wins. Without further adieu, let’s get it!
The Deck:
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Tiana, Ship's Caretaker Big Buff Auras!
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Why Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker?
Tiana is a key part of our deck. While we often don’t use them as an attacker or blocker, we want them out because they make artifact/enchantment hate / any removal for equipped/enchanted creatures pretty much null and void. Tiana is a little expensive at Five Mana, and it can definitely make us susceptible to removal and artifact/enchantment hate in the early game. When looking at all of the strengths and weaknesses, Tiana is an awesome commander who is strong and fun.
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! I also highlighted some of my favorite cards in the deck!
Creatures:
We have a ton of awesome candidates to receive a bunch of our buffs, like Champion of the Flame
and Tenth District Legionnaire
. Some of my favorite creatures are Spellgorger Weird
and Pyroceratops
, which get huge buffs from all our auras/equipment and can be very strong whether we buff them up or not. Transcendent Envoy
and Starnheim Courser
are two game-changing cards since they reduce a large majority of the deck. Since we don’t have a ton of card draw, we can use monarch creatures like Crimson Fleet Commodore
and Crown-Hunter Hireling
, which are both strong for their abilities but also offer us great targets for all of our auras since they are naturally very well-stated.
Instants:
We have some strong instant speed removal like Abrade
, Crib Swap
, and Generous Gift
, these are all great ways to deal with a variety of opponents threats for not a ton of mana. Big Score
and Unexpected Windfall
are the biggest draw sources in our deck, and since they all produce treasure tokens, they can help us get ahead on mana. Riot Control
is a great card against aggressive decks but can be strong against any deck that threatens us through combat.
Sorceries:
Coronation of Chaos
is a very strong card that I often use when we are about to go for the win it is also great when our opponents have big threats since they get goaded as well. Settle Beyond Reality
is one of my favorite pet cards in PDH since we can re-ETB / protect one of our creatures and exile opponents for only five mana. Recommission
and Remember the Fallen
are very strong pieces of recursion for the deck and are mostly used for non-aura/equipment as well as creatures that we want to recur.
Artifacts:
Tiana is a priority in the deck, so we have some mana rocks we can use to get closer to that goal of getting her out ASAP, like Arcane Signet
, Boros Signet
and Bonder's Ornament
which are all cheap and strong. We have some strong evasive equipment like Haunted Cloak
and Whispersilk Cloak
, which allow us to do absolutely huge damage. We also have some strong utility equipment like Greatsword of Tyr
, a very underrated PDH card that does a ton for only two mana. Beamtown Beatstick
is a cheap piece of equipment that makes our creatures harder to block, and the biggest benefit is the mana ramp through treasure tokens it provides.
Enchantments:
We have some enchantments that interact strongly with Tiana, like Flamespeaker's Will
and Mortal Obstinacy
since we can sacrifice and blow up an artifact/enchantment, and with Tiana out, we can recur at the next end step! We also have a ton of auras that we can lock down our opponents with, like Caught in the Brights
, Dreadful Apathy
, and Planar Disruption
which are all cheap and strong ways to lock down opponents creatures/commanders and is very effective against other combat decks. One of my favorite enchantments is Temporal Isolation
since, for the most part, it makes it unblockable a large amount of the time and allows us to get huge hits in. We also have All That Glitters
and Ethereal Armor
, which are huge damage dealers and are the primary way to hit our opponents big.
Land Base:
We have a pretty typical Pauper EDH landbase, but the biggest strength of our landbase is that we can draw cards through, and that supplemental card draw is very strong for the deck. We are running thirty-five lands, but we don’t have that high of a casting cost among permanents so in the mid-late game with an established board, it is almost always correct to use cards like Desert of the Fervent
and Hidden Volcano
to get cards. Beyond that, we have some basics and Boros duals to help round it out. In the testing games, I found that the land base was consistent, and I had no issues with flooding.
Strengths of the Deck:
- Can easily recur auras and equipment
- Totem armor makes us very strong against some removal
- Can easily one-shot opponents
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Weak to creature hate
- Weak to aggressive strategies since we often don’t have a turn 1-3 board presence
- Weak to commander hate
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
There are no infinite combos or loops within the deck. We win the game by buffing up various strong creatures like Champion of the Flame or Pyroceratops while having the ultimate piece of backup in Tiana, Ship's Caretaker who can be a great way to fight through removal since we can recur our aura’s and equipment combine that with a few outlets of totem armor and we have a very strong deck.
Conclusion:
Tiana Ship’s Caretaker is a very fun Boros commander who does what many Boros commanders do: be absolutely awesome at interacting with auras and equipment. We have the same weaknesses as pretty much every Boros deck, but since we have strong recursion, we can fight through many of those weaknesses. This deck is a ton of fun and one I have enjoyed very much. Thanks for reading to the end and for all your support!