Ajani, Nacatl AvengerAjani, Nacatl Avenger | Art by Chris Rallis

Welcome back to 60 to 100, a series where I take beloved decks from 60-card formats and convert them to Commander.

Modern RCQ (Regional Championship Qualifier) season kicks off in less than a month, and that's got me spending a lot of time thinking about the format. Outside of Magic Online and the odd casual game at my local game store, the RCQ season is the only time I get to play Modern in paper.

For quite some time now, Boros () Energy has been one of the format's boogeymen, and I had a pretty strong distaste for it as a result. However, piloting the deck on Magic Online has done the improbable! Playing with Guide of SoulsGuide of Souls, Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah, and Phlage, Titan of Fire's FuryPhlage, Titan of Fire's Fury satisfied a part of my brain that I didn't even know I had, so, in this installment, I'll be building Boros Energy as a Commander deck! My hope is that I can use this deck to satiate my newfound desire to cast Ajani, Nacatl Pariah once the RCQ season is over.

The Source Material

Boros Energy is an incredibly versatile deck, capable of overwhelming the opponent with early aggression or sitting back and grinding out long games with inevitable threats, like Phlage, Titan of Fire's FuryPhlage, Titan of Fire's Fury and Goblin BombardmentGoblin Bombardment. The trick with this deck is that, unlike many aggressive decks in other formats, nearly every card in Boros Energy is a must-kill threat by itself. That leaves the opponent with only two options: spend mana and cards removing each threat as they're deployed, or win so fast that the value generated by Boros Energy's creatures doesn't matter. Neither of these plans are easy.

Removal spells simply aren't that impressive into the deck's top end threats. Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah actively wants other cats to die, and killing Ajani does nothing to answer the 2/1 token he brought to the battlefield with him. Similarly, Phlage, Titan of Fire's FuryPhlage, Titan of Fire's Fury makes many of Modern's removal spells look embarrassing. If you can't exile this Elder Giant, it'll come back over and over again. One of the most impactful plays Boros Energy has up its sleeve is escaping Phlage and casting it off mana from Arena of GloryArena of Glory, giving it haste. Assuming Phlage is neither removed nor blocked, that's 12 damage out of nowhere!

Choosing a Commander

This choice was fairly easy. Starting every game with an Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah effectively in the opening hand is incredibly powerful. In Commander, opponents will often be too busy casting their Arcane SignetArcane Signets on turn two to worry about removing Ajani. From there, all I have to do is find a way to flip him and this deck gets off to the races!

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah wasn't the only legend I considered to lead this deck, however. My initial build was lead by The Jolly Balloon ManThe Jolly Balloon Man, as it was my friend's build of that commander that inspired this article in the first place. The Jolly Balloon Man build of the deck had a heavy focus on playing Imperial RecruiterImperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the GuardRecruiter of the Guard and copying them with Jolly Balloon Man's activated ability to fetch out critical creatures like Ocelot PrideOcelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah. In the end, I decided that The Jolly Balloon Man's reputation would likely make him a magnet for removal from the beginning of many games, and relegating him to the 99 would make that a little less likely. Plus, frequent readers of my articles should know how much I love two-mana commanders!

Key Cards for Boros Energy

This deck makes a lot of tokens, and Ocelot PrideOcelot Pride is both an incredible enabler and an incredibly payoff for just that! Each turn, this Cat simply asks that I gain life, and in return I'll get at least a CatCat token. Once I have the city's blessing, I'll get a copy of every token I created this turn. In every scenario, that's a lot of Cats! If an opponent wishes to disrupt this engine by killing Ocelot Pride, they'll receive a rude awakening when their act of hubris flips Ajani.

The Jolly Balloon ManThe Jolly Balloon Man and Jaxis, the TroublemakerJaxis, the Troublemaker push Ocelot Pride's ability to make copies of tokens even further, as both of these creatures can make token copies of any creature I'd like! This can combine with tutors, like Ranger of EosRanger of Eos, Recruiter of the GuardRecruiter of the Guard, and Imperial RecruiterImperial Recruiter, to create a burst of card advantage, or build a removal engine by copying FuryFury, SolitudeSolitude or Witch EnchanterWitch Enchanter.

Jaxis and The Jolly Balloon man both offer convenient ways to flip Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah, as making a copy of Ajani and then sacrificing it to the legend rule counts as a Cat dying. The concept of Ajani getting his spark after watching himself die is a little odd, but it seems to work well enough for him.

Using premium removal spells to flip Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah isn't the best feeling, although I will admit to using Galvanic DischargeGalvanic Discharge against my own Cat WarriorCat Warrior token a handful of times to get the job done. Broadside BombardiersBroadside Bombardiers, Gut, True Soul ZealotGut, True Soul Zealot, and Goblin BombardmentGoblin Bombardment all provide an easy way to sacrifice a Cat and squeeze a little additional value out of it in the form of damage along the way! Broadside Bombardiers and Gut, True Soul Zealot being three-mana plays gives this deck the potential for some really sweet curve outs!

Goblin BombardmentGoblin Bombardment is a powerhouse in the Modern version of Boros Energy. For only two mana, I get an enchantment that dares the opponent to spend resources removing my creatures. Often, all it takes is an Ocelot Pride sitting in play for a turn or two to put a lethal amount of material on the board. In Commander, one damage per creature is a little less significant, but it gets made up for as a political tool. Often, I can use this enchantment to ward off board wipes simply by threatening to kill the player that casts it with their spell on the stack.

So, where's the energy stuff? Isn't the deck called Boros "Energy"? Boros Energy is staggeringly low on cards that use energy counters, especially after Amped RaptorAmped Raptor got hit by the ban hammer in Modern. Guide of SoulsGuide of Souls, just like in the Modern version of the deck, is my primary energy generator. This can be a pretty sizeable failure point for the deck's energy payoffs, but I've included enough recursion and protection that I'm not too worried about not being able to get energy when I want it.

Unstable AmuletUnstable Amulet acts as a really sweet card advantage engine in games where Guide of Souls gets to sit around and do its thing. The card it exiles even sticks around until the next time Unstable Amulet is activated, which all but frees it from the feels bad scenarios that other impulse draw effects can run into.

Wrath of the SkiesWrath of the Skies is a very sneaky board wipe. First, with enough energy, it can simply be cast for to sweep the board. At the other end of the spectrum, I can pay way more mana into it than I need and save the excess energy counters for later!

How Does This Boros Energy Deck Win the Game?

The most natural way to win a game with this build of Boros Energy is to burn out the table with Impact TremorsImpact Tremors-style cards as it goes about its usual business of making tons of tokens! Ocelot PrideOcelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl PariahAjani, Nacatl Pariah's planeswalker side can do this job well enough all by themselves. Add in the copy effects and mass token generation spells, like White Sun's ZenithWhite Sun's Zenith, and getting the table to zero will be a simple endeavor.

This deck can also secure wins by getting into the red zone with a little help from Lightning RunnerLightning Runner or Elspeth, Storm SlayerElspeth, Storm Slayer. Lightning Runner is a phenomenal energy payoff that, with the help of copy effects, can close games out in very short order with the wide board presences this deck wants to develop. Elspeth, Storm Slayer both assists the deck in going wide by doubling tokens and acts as a great payoff for doing so with her +0 ability to buff the whole board and give all creatures flying.

Boros Energy Commander Deck List

Conclusion

This deck was a blast to build and test! My original intention was to build the deck for Bracket 2 (Core), but The One RingThe One Ring is an inclusion that I'm married to due to Boros Energy's role in getting the card banned in Modern. Because of The One Ring's game changer status, that forces a shift up to Bracket 3 (Upgraded). It ended up working out just as well, as I believe the deck's focused game plan and density of tutors will enable it to hang in Bracket 3 just fine.

This deck came together in a perfect storm. My friend's The Jolly Balloon ManThe Jolly Balloon Man deck lined up perfectly with my giving Boros Energy a shot to create the inspiration for this installment of 60 to 100. However, when I first picked up this series in early 2025, Boros Energy was among the first decks I prepared, alongside Bant Company which ended up being the first installment of the series to be published here on EDHREC. I ended up shelving it in favor of Jeskai Twin and it took a whole year to get back to! In the end, I'm really happy I was so patient with it, as this build is infinitely better than the one I cooked up last year.