Pioneer: Boros Monument - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Boros Monument is a new Pioneer deck that emerged during the transition from Aetherdrift to Tarkir: Dragonstorm season. The archetype utilizes Monument to Endurance with various creatures and other permanents that discard cards from their controller's hand to trigger the artifact's abilities, generating a mix of card advantage, recurring damage, and even ramp when needed.

The mix of micro-interactions with an efficient beatdown plan puts Boros Monument in a good position in the current Metagame — it's challenging to answer everything it does due to how it attacks from multiple angles, which has translated into results in Challenges over the past two months.

In this article, we dive deeper into this new deck with a Sideboard guide for the top matchups in the Pioneer Metagame!

This is the standard Boros Monument list that has been putting up results in Challenges since the start of the Tarkir: Dragonstorm season. Originally, some players tested Tersa Lightshatter and Phyrexian Dragon Engine as extra copies of Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, but it became clear that they were not necessary.

The Sideboard is flexible and should include cards for the games expected in the current Metagame. The selection of fifteen cards in this list considers a broad scenario such as a Challenge or ranked games, but the numbers may vary depending on the moment — cards like Wear // Tear are present today because Cori-Steel Cutter is part of the hype at the moment, but they may be replaced in the future as well.

Playing with the Deck

Boros Monument behaves like an aggressive Midrange focused on the interaction between its cards rather than their individual value. The first turns are composed of casting cards that establish the necessary “setup” to start the synergies, preferably with a recurring discard outlet in the second turn and Monument to Endurance in the third — Marauding Mako in the first is also an option, but taking advantage of this turn to interact with the opponent using Burst Lightning is also an option.

With Monument to Endurance in play, our strategy involves extracting the most out of it each turn: the artifact does not limit the number of triggers, discarded cards or in which turns they trigger, so we can use Seasoned Hallowblade and Guardian Of New Benalia to discard cards and use the Monument's triggers.

Having more than one Monument on the board is where we start to really generate value as we establish card advantage with triggers and, consequently, we gain more tools to discard and deal damage. Therefore, copying it with The Mycosynth Gardens or finding the second copy may be the priority when stabilizing the board, but we can easily win games without needing it as long as we establish pressure with our creatures and damage spells.

In many ways, this deck is a bit like Pauper's Madness Burn. It's not as aggressive as more dedicated archetypes, but it attacks from so many angles that it's difficult to answer all of them easily, and even if the opponent includes all the possible answers against the different lines we use, we can always go for the beatdown with our creatures and win the game playing the fair Magic.

Maindeck

Monument to Endurance is the focal point of this list. The way its abilities work, we have very few restrictions on getting value out of it with any card that allows us to discard at any time, guaranteeing six damage every turn cycle without counting potential combat damage and other ways we have to speed up the clock.

Multiple copies of it stack up and easily win the game, so we use The Mycosynth Gardens as numbers 5-8 for Monument to Endurance, despite the relatively high cost required to copy it.

Marauding Mako also benefits from the same interactions as Monument to Endurance. Although it loses effectiveness as a creature as the game goes on, it is possible to cycle it from hand in longer games.

The recurring discard outlets.

Both Seasoned Hallowblade and Guardian of New Benalia have a low-cost and decent body, and can discard cards from hand to protect themselves from removal and/or enable Monument to Endurance and Marauding Mako one or more times per turn with no additional cost.

Fear of Missing Out offers cheap looting with an efficient body, and its extra combat ability can be used with the right creatures. Plus, since we have several distinct categories of permanents, it's easy to enable Delirium in this list.

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker is one of Pioneer's most efficient staples, and its ability to filter hands combined with its interactions with Fear of Missing Out in longer games makes it a more efficient choice over Tersa Lightshatter.

Ox of Agonas as a one-of provides a way to replenish your hand repeatedly in longer games, and a 5/3 body for that "draws three" does more than enough to merit a few slots. One in the maindeck seems like the ideal number, since we don't have eight cards in the graveyard very often.

To expand the amount of interactions with Seasoned Hallowblade and Guardian of New Benalia, we use Fiery Temper as a pseudo-Lightning Bolt. It is complemented by Burst Lightning, which deals with smaller creatures early in the game and can help close out games after Monument to Endurance drains the opponent's life.

Sheltered by Ghosts can be considered a flexible slot, but in the current Metagame where Mono Red Lynx remains one of the best decks, having ways to hold the early game while interacting with the opponent's board is essential — as a bonus, a Marauding Mako with many +1/+1 counters enchanted with it can seal games against Aggro.

We're running a full set of the main untapped duals that Pioneer offers. Since we have four lands that only generate colorless, we need to maximize the consistency in access to colors, greatly limiting the amount of utility lands we can have, so we're only including one copy of Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance.

Other utility land options include Den of the Bugbear and Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire, as well as a copy of Geier Reach Sanitarium to increase the number of interactions with Monument to Endurance.

Sideboard

The Wandering Emperor is a multipurpose card which can be used in any game where we know the game will go long. It works against Mono Red Lynx as another removal that provides blockers, against Midrange as another attrition tool, and can also be used in Control games.

Ox of Agonas offers more breathing room in long games and our opponents don't tend to side-in graveyard hate against us, making it a solid option for a recurring threat.

Torch the Tower is a cheap removal against any archetype with smaller creatures. It is especially effective in Izzet Phoenix and Rakdos Prowess matchups.

Get Lost deals with bigger threats, Unholy Annex, Artist’s Talent, and the many Planeswalkers available in the format today, such as Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Kaito, Bane of Nightmares.

Rending Volley is a cheap answer to Greasefang, Okiba Boss and has utility against Mono White Tokens lists. If this archetype gains more popularity, however, it’s possible that Fry or Lithomantic Barrage could become more appropriate options, as they deal with Elspeth, Storm Slayer, Beza, the Bounding Spring, and Yorion, Sky Nomad.

Portable Hole also works against Aggro decks with low-mana creatures, as well as dealing with other troublesome cheap permanents like Witch’s Oven.

Rest in Peace is the best answer we have against graveyard-intensive decks. It counters Ox of Agonas, but since we only run one copy of it as the only graveyard interaction we have, it's natural for it to be a side-out in games where we want the enchantment.

High Noon offers a clean answer against Lotus Field and can be used in Prowess games. I don't particularly like it against Rakdos since they can play around with the mice package, but Izzet variants—which occasionally appear in ranked games—suffer considerably more when they can't dig deep with their cantrips while triggering Cori-Steel Cutter for the lowest possible cost. It's also a pertinent side-in against Izzet Phoenix.

Wear // Tear serves as one of the flexible Sideboard slots, being a clean answer against the various artifacts and enchantments available in the current Metagame.

Mono Red Lynx

IN

OUT

Rakdos Demons

IN

OUT

Mono Black Midrange

IN

OUT

Izzet Phoenix

IN

OUT

Rakdos Prowess

IN

OUT

Jund Sacrifice

IN

OUT

Mardu Greaefang

IN

OUT

Azorius Control

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!