Forcing your opponents to play around Archangel Avacyn whenever you have the mana available to cast her is a huge win. Having the ability in your command zone does remove the element of surprise since your opponents are aware of Avacyn's potential arrival, but it's still powerful and useful. I've had tremendous success with Boros Charm and Rootborn Defenses in past decks, turning board wipes into one-sided blowouts in my favor. Making all your creatures indestructible at instant speed is a highly potent ability in Commander, where boards are routinely swept away with cards like Wrath of God every few turns. With Avacyn 3.0 at the helm, we can finally try something outside of Boros Aggro, like Boros Control. Best of all, none of her abilities care about being aggressive in combat. Her abilities on both sides are very potent in Commander, maintaining your established board presence while clearing away your opponents'. She's loaded with interesting abilities on both sides that support multiple themes, including Blink, Sacrifice, and Burn. Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas was a cautious step in the right direction, encouraging decks led by her to go Tall instead of going Wide, but the commander herself is on the weak side, and she does not provide enough incentive for the playstyle she promotes.Īrchangel Avacyn changes things up for us. Not only does Boros not get a variety of strategies to choose from that the other guilds enjoy, but their only strategy is a weak one. In my review of Kalemne when she was first spoiled, I vented my frustrations about Wizards only providing a single style of play for Boros decks - dumping your hand on the board and turning all your creatures sideways - which suffers from being an unoptimal method of playing multiplayer. We've finally got a strong Boros commander that for once isn't preoccupied with being hyper-aggressive in combat. While not single-handedly fixing all the issues with the color combination, Avacyn brings a truckload of value to the table and lets us play Boros in a way that has never been previously supported. I've always had a soft spot for the Boros guild, which has always been the weakest color combination in the Commander format. She's so cool that I couldn't wait until her official release before coming up with brews and game plans. To kick off the series return, I wanted to talk about a card I'm very excited about, Archangel Avacyn. Hey, folks! It's been a while, but I'm back with more Budget Commandergoodness.

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