Hello Metagame people, I'm Mr.B, you might remember me for the article Caw Gates - Why a hawk always poops on my windshield every time I wash the car.
Today we are here to talk smack about a sensational midrange deck that inherited from Boros Bully and wiped its rear end with it, namely Boros Synthesizer.
Boros Synthesizer is a midrange deck that aims to generate value by leveraging Experimental Synthesizer and the two little birds below (one is actually a paragliding Kor but never mind that) that can bounce it back to hand to let us see many more cards.
At the end of the day, though, we play 8 burn spells, 4 Galvanic Blast, and 4 Lightning Bolt, which can zero out the opponent's life just like my social life zeroed out during lockdown. For an overview of how to play Synth, I'll copy-paste what was written in the article on Glitters Affinity.
Spoiler
Let's start with a fairly stock version of the deck played by Mengu (Andrea Mengucci, for those unfamiliar, you're missing out! Go look him up and apologize for your grave oversight). He recently closed a Pauper league on MTGO 4-1, losing only one close game to Dredge (there's a double video confirming it):
Boros Synthesizer
- 4 × Glint Hawk
- 4 × Kor Skyfisher
- 4 × Novice Inspector
- 4 × Thraben Inspector
- 1 × Dawnbringer Cleric
- 4 × Galvanic Blast
- 4 × Lightning Bolt
- 1 × Makeshift Munitions
- 4 × Experimental Synthesizer
- 3 × Barbed Batterfist
- 3 × Lembas
- 3 × Relic of Progenitus
- 5 × Mountain
- 4 × Plains
- 4 × Rustvale Bridge
- 3 × Wind-Scarred Crag
- 2 × Ancient Den
- 2 × Boros Garrison
- 1 × Great Furnace
- 4 × Cast into the Fire
- 4 × Journey to Nowhere
- 3 × Red Elemental Blast
- 2 × Revoke Existence
- 1 × Dawnbringer Cleric
- 1 × Relic of Progenitus
As you can see, the entire deck is a giant value engine designed to perform at its best with the 8 flyers that bounce a permanent when they enter. 8 Thraben Inspector create Clues for card advantage over the game (they are currently being tested by many players; I personally wouldn't play more than 6, but if someone of Mengucci's caliber tells you 8 is the right number, trust him, not me).
Besides the ETB effects of the inspectors, the deck also utilizes those of Lembas and Barbed Batterfist to put threats on board and dig through the deck for answers or threats, and the ability to recur with Glint Hawk and Kor Skyfisher is an incredible synergy to exploit.
Note the 3x Relic of Progenitus maindeck, the only card that allows us to win against Terror decks in G1, which would otherwise flatten us like a rusty old die (a metalworker joke, 0.5% of you will get it. Move on and don't ask questions). The deck has flexible slots, like Caw Gates, that can be dedicated to specific hate.
Dawnbringer Cleric acts as our Swiss Army knife: a wall, lifegain, graveyard hate, and a Glitter killer. Unfortunately, it doesn't make coffee, but it's getting there, so we can play it as a one-of maindeck or even more if we like flexible cards.
Destroy Evil is a maindeckable card right now. It does nothing against Mono Red but has its uses against almost the entire rest of the meta, killing Terror, a creature with Glitter on it, trolls, and Avenging Hunter from BG. Alternatively, we can play a few copies of Journey to Nowhere as removal to save our Lightning Bolts for the opponent's face. Journey to Nowhere has the upside of being a permanent, thus dodging Dispel, and synergizes with bounces that we can use to move it to a different target in the late game.
Against Mono Red, Krark-Clan Shaman, even in two copies, can be great maindeck, or you can also include Electrickery, Tectonic Hazard, and, if you want to splurge, End the Festivities. The last 3 spells can also be useful against Murmuring Mystic's bird tokens to clear the opponent's board of little birds and push through a couple of flying damage, which can be useful to close out a game.
Other flex slots can be occupied by Foundry Helix as additional removal and lifegain, which is never bad. Foundry Helix makes Synthesizer spins a bit riskier, but some players even run 2x to further increase the deck's reach. Since it's one of the very few cards in the format that removes Guardian of the Guildpact, it becomes premium in a meta full of Caw Gates.
If we want to generate more value, we can also include Ichor Wellspring, which can be bounced back to hand or sacrificed to Makeshift Munitions, Demand Answers, or Foundry Helix. Seeker of the Way is an excellent tech as it provides lifegain on its own and forces the opponent to remove it, otherwise it throws the race in our favor. Prowess allows it to survive certain removals, perhaps by bolting the opponent in response. It was widely played before the ban of Monastery Swiftspear, but now it has somewhat fallen into oblivion.
To increase card draw, you can also include a couple of copies of Demand Answers, a card heavily played in the Kuldotha version you'll see in the next section.
A super spicy tech could be to maindeck a copy of Bojuka Bog as graveyard hate; the manabase is solid enough, and an off-color land won't make us cry (until you open a hand with only 1-drops and Bojuka Bog as your only land). We can always bounce it back to hand with a Boros Garrison or a Kor Skyfisher even in later turns after playing it to get additional graveyard hate.
If instead we want additional lifegain from the manabase, we can play a copy of Kabira Crossroads (or Radiant Fountain, but no one has been hipster enough to put it in the deck).
Alternative Lists
Recently, players have started including 4x All That Glitters to leverage the deck's natural inclination to play artifacts and get some extra free wins against some non-interactive decks that struggle to block an evasive creature (like combo decks such as Walls or Altar). Having some free wins was, in my opinion, what the deck was missing, so we wouldn't have to grind out every single game from behind.
Alternative Lists
Recently, players have started including 4x All That Glitters to leverage the deck's natural inclination to play artifacts and get some extra free wins against some non-interactive decks that struggle to block an evasive creature (like combo decks such as Walls or Altar). Having some free wins was, in my opinion, what the deck was missing, so we wouldn't have to grind out every single game from behind.
Boros Synthesizer
- 4 × Glint Hawk
- 4 × Kor Skyfisher
- 4 × Thraben Inspector
- 2 × Novice Inspector
- 4 × Galvanic Blast
- 4 × Lightning Bolt
- 1 × Electrickery
- 1 × Foundry Helix
- 4 × All That Glitters
- 1 × Makeshift Munitions
- 4 × Experimental Synthesizer
- 4 × Lembas
- 2 × Barbed Batterfist
- 1 × Ichor Wellspring
- 4 × Mountain
- 4 × Rustvale Bridge
- 3 × Plains
- 3 × Wind-Scarred Crag
- 2 × Ancient Den
- 2 × Boros Garrison
- 2 × Great Furnace
- 4 × Relic of Progenitus
- 3 × Cast into the Fire
- 2 × Arashin Cleric
- 2 × Electrickery
- 2 × Revoke Existence
- 1 × Dawnbringer Cleric
- 1 × Foundry Helix
Winner
(Editor's note: Psst. See?! Only 6 Thraben)
The other path taken by deckbuilders is a kind of return to the past, playing 4x Kuldotha Rebirth and Goblin Bushwhacker (or Rites of Initiation as an alternative). This version is much more aggressive, although it can still play as a midrange deck like the classic version. Some even play our favorite furry Lara Croft, Goblin Tomb Raider, to push the accelerator even harder.
Boros Kuldotha
- 4 × Glint Hawk
- 4 × Kor Skyfisher
- 4 × Novice Inspector
- 4 × Thraben Inspector
- 2 × Goblin Bushwhacker
- 4 × Galvanic Blast
- 4 × Lightning Bolt
- 2 × Demand Answers
- 4 × Kuldotha Rebirth
- 1 × Makeshift Munitions
- 4 × Experimental Synthesizer
- 4 × Ichor Wellspring
- 4 × Ancient Den
- 4 × Great Furnace
- 4 × Rustvale Bridge
- 4 × Wind-Scarred Crag
- 2 × Mountain
- 1 × Plains
- 4 × Pyroblast
- 3 × Cast into the Fire
- 3 × Tectonic Hazard
- 2 × Flaring Pain
- 2 × Relic of Progenitus
- 1 × Gorilla Shaman
Finalist
Strategy
So, as mentioned before (can you tell I need to hit a certain character count for the article?), the deck is a midrange that aims to generate value with the enter-the-battlefield effects of its artifacts and creatures. We want to lower the opponent's life total and then finish them off with burn spells. Never underestimate the possibility of winning when the opponent is above 10 life. It's happened to me multiple times to bring an opponent from 12-13 life to 0 with a combination of Makeshift Munitions and Lightning Bolt/Galvanic Blast.
Against all decks, we need to be patient and trust the deck's ability to show us the burn spells to close out the game while we generate value with Experimental Synthesizer and all other enters-the-battlefield effects.
I strongly advise against sacrificing the first Experimental Synthesizer from the battlefield; instead, I would always keep it in play, awaiting the arrival of Glint Hawk or Kor Skyfisher. A Synthesizer paired with a hawk or a kor lets us see up to 4 cards; similarly, a Lembas, between scry and draw, can also show us 4. With Scry, we should try to remember what we put on the bottom of the deck. We can always shuffle as desired by sacrificing the Lembas for life or for Makeshift Munitions or other effects.
Against Terror.decks, we need to try to resolve a Relic of Progenitus and keep the opponent's graveyard clean to delay the arrival of the big snakes to our butts. If we play Glitter, we can push the accelerator and start attacking with a pumped-up hawk to finish quickly. In this configuration, the deck has so much card advantage that it hardly suffers from the 2-for-1 that removing a creature with Glitter on it can cause. Except for certain matchups (in which I'm sure the opponent has no removal), I tend to sideboard out some copies (or even all) of Glitter to bring in specific matchup cards, giving the opponent as many dead cards as possible (like Destroy Evil, which is a white card without Glitter on the field, or even Annul is really bad, and they'll try to hold it for a Glitter that isn't there).
A card not to be underestimated is Barbed Batterfist, which, when bounced by our birds, puts many bodies on the battlefield. Playing Batterfist on turn 2, bouncing it on turn 3 with Glint Hawk, and replaying it leaves us with 7 power on the board divided among 3 bodies, one of which is evasive. Then we can always move it to a Kor Skyfisher to teach the opponent the 3-times table, Delver-style.
Matchups
As always, let's start with the good ones, otherwise we'll get depressed immediately. However, having many answers in the sideboard, all matchups improve from G2 onwards (if we play the right cards).
Playing 8 instant burn spells, we tend to do well against Glitter Affinity. As with Caw Gates, the trick is not to die to a random Myr Enforcer beatdown. Post-side, the matchup improves because we bring in artifact hate, taking out useless stuff like Relics. Another non-negative matchup is against Mono Red, given that we have mass removals galore in the Sideboard, combined with the ability to create many blockers early in the match and (if we play them) some cards that gain us life.
We also fare well against Grixis Affinity as we can generate more value than them while simultaneously playing evasive threats and burn spells that can zero them out before they stabilize. We're also well-positioned against Mono W, Bogles, Mono B Control, Elves, and Dredge, as we have many answers both maindeck and sideboard.
We have many 50-50 or at most 45-55 matchups (which improve post-side), including UB Faeries, Mono U Tempo, Walls Combo, Altar Tron, Goblin Combo, as we have answers both maindeck and sideboard if we want. Plus, we can have aggressive starts to put slower decks that need more setup in difficulty. These are still matches to play carefully, and at the first mistake, we risk being punished like a masochist at their "book club's" BDSM night.
The matchups where we're not doing so well are BG Gardens, UB Terror, while those where we truly feel like drinking from a highway toilet bowl are UWx Familiars, Jeskai Ephemerate, Caw Gates, and Orzhov Blade, which out-value us, and we can't keep up. Izzet Terror with its combination of 2-damage Wraths, Lightning Bolt, and Skred kills our board whenever it pleases, while Mono B Burn cheats us with lifegain and is inconvenient to deal with because it's much faster than us, somewhat like RB Madness.
Sideboard
So, for sideboard options, we should consider: graveyard hate (if we don't play it maindeck), small board wipes (for Mono R and similar), and specific artifact hate.
Being a midrange deck, like Caw Gates, our matchups tend to improve post-side because we can remove a whole series of less useful cards in favor of specific hate for the matchup.
Color Hosers: We have Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast, excellent cards for Terror decks. They give us an answer on the stack to Tolarian Terror and Murmuring Mystic, but also removal when they are on the board. With Synthesizer, they don't work perfectly, but they are too important not to play. If desired, we can play acolytes with protection from black and red, but I don't see them as too necessary.
Removals: The removal package can be customized with Destroy Evil to have more instant-speed interaction that also kills Mystics and Glitter, staying outside of the various blue blasts mentioned earlier.
If we don't play them maindeck, we can also include a few copies of Journey to Nowhere, which dodges color hosers, exiles, and can eventually be bounced back to hand if the opponent sacrifices the creature in response to the target or if it's revealed by a Synthesizer on an empty board.
Krark-Clan Shaman can be used both maindeck and sideboard for Mono R, Elves, and all go-wide decks that don't fly. If we want an instant-speed wrath, we have Breath Weapon/Fiery Cannonade (which, however, kills our entire board too). Still looking at red, we also have End the Festivities and Tectonic Hazard for creature-based matchups, along with Electrickery, which is excellent as it's an instant we can hold in hand, for example, when the Mono R player is attacking with a board buffed by Bushwhacker.
Artifact Hate
Ctrl+C - Ctrl+V from the Gates article: we play white and red, we have a ton of possibilities available, here's a short list: Dust to Dust, Cast into the Fire, Smash to Dust, Gorilla Shaman, and Revoke Existence. Choose your favorites and move on. In this deck, my favorites are Revoke Existence and Cast into the Fire, a step below I put Gorilla Shaman which works better on Affinity lands than on anything else. Dust to Dust is very slow and the fact that it costs 3 mana is heavy for Synthesizer.
Random Hosers
Circle of Protection: Blue, if resolved, is almost unbeatable against Mono U. It blanks the big serpents and gives us time to find burn to close the game. Flaring Pain against opposing fogs is pure gas; I recommend it in a meta of Caw Gates and turbo fog if we're playing one of the more aggressive builds. Against more aggressive decks like Kuldotha Red, we can play Arashin Cleric to gain life and block tokens.
Graveyard Hate
Relic of Progenitus is the best card in the deck against Terror.decks. Like Mengucci, I would play at least 2 maindeck plus others in the side to reach a playset. Alternatively, there's Bojuka Bog played maindeck, but it should still be paired with the relics. Nihil Spellbomb, Tormod's Crypt, and Faerie Macabre are cards we can consider, but given how the deck is built, I find them all inferior to the first two options.
And this, ladies and gentlemen, was Boros Synthesizer explained poorly. The deck is super fun and leads to interactive and close games. See you at the next installment of this Pauper article series. In the meantime, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below or drop by our forum for a chat about your favorite formats.
