Color identity: Red & White

 This is going to be the first of a series of articles that I will hopefully continue and eventually cover all 27 color identity options. Today Red and white, one of my favorite color combinations, will be the focus of conversation.

RED & WHITE

It's difficult reflect on red and white with out bringing up the boros legion. Boros came along and combined the popular tournament archtypes of white weenie and sligh to become the go to color combination for aggressive creature combat. This is actually really difficult to translate into a powerful commander deck due to the inherent weakness of aggro in the format in general. That being said, if there is one color combination that can bring aggression to the table, I would say it's Boros. To do so, we probably need to shy away from what makes Red/White popular in the 60 card formats. 

Combat is red/white's main focal point, but that is far from the only thing that it's capable of. Board control is fairly strong in red/white with white's Wrath effects and red's damage based sweepers. Both colors excel at targeted removal since white can shore up red's only weakness in the removal category (enchantments). Both colors also have some strong synergy with artifacts, white being the main manipulator of equipment and red loving to use them to fuel spells.

Where Red/White tends to fall short is in mana acceleration, which they have to rely on artifacts if they want any access. Even worse is it's lack of card draw. Red has recently become better at drawing cards, but to do so it generally needs to discard a card first. Again Red/White needs to look to artifacts to shore up this weakness.

Tribes:

There are three tribes that jump out at me as being good tribal options if one was to play tribal commander and looking for a R/W option.

Giants were chosen to be the R/W tribe of Lorwyn and were given a few tribal toys to play with in that block. While there are obviously many giants outside of this color combination, R/W includes more than enough to support a tribal deck effectively.

Soldiers, while primarily a white color tribe can be played quite effectively as a tribe for R/W. Soldiers are a combat oriented tribe themselves and what better home is there for them than the combat focused color combination of R/W. Also a bunch of soldiers running around properly represents much of The Boros Legion.

Angels may seem like a strange recommendation for a R/W tribe at first, but lately there have been more and more angels with red in their casting cost. White is the obvious color for an angel tribal deck, and there are 4 Legendary angels and 2 non legendary ones who join the party when red is added to the mix. Plus there are 4 options for an on tribe commander. Yes of the 9 commanders for this color identity, 4 of them are angels.  

Commander Options:

Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran- Argus was once my favorite commander for red/white. I find his only real downside was the lack of being able to utilize white creatures to good effect. Pumping up power is WAY more important when attacking than pumping up toughness is. This means that the red creatures are better than white creatures any time Agrus is in play. For the same reason artifact creatures suck in his deck. Even with this deck construction obstacle, the deck was fun to build and play. He is a solid choice for a commander, though I personally believe there are better options now.

Razia, Boros Archangel- The other ravnica boros legend. While quite iconic, (she was the first ravnica guild leader) I found that she didn't play well for me as a commander. At 8 mana, she is very expencive, and she doesn't make a big splash when she hits play. That being said, a very flavorful deck could easily be build around damage redirection.

Brion Stoutarm- Brion likes a different type of deck. In fact there are many players who would hate you out for playing Brion as your commander. His ability to one shot, or close to one shot players with help from cards like serra avatar make players not want to give you the chance to do so. But if there is a table where they don't realize this potential power, or if you could convince your friends that you won't pull such a move, he can make for a really fun commander for a "fair" deck. At certain points in the game it's likely that an aggro deck will stall out. At this point Brion just starts flinging his friends at your friends.  

I feel brion is the strongest option for a R/W voltron commander. The reason for this is "Lifelink". Once you start being an aggressor in a voltron deck other players start attacking you. As long as they aren't planning to win via commander damage (or poison or some other silly way) gaining life is a very good way to stay alive. He is also the cheapest commander option and since voltron commander get killed/recast a lot this could be important. Also his strengths are generic enough that you don't have to force yourself into a smaller niche than voltron already is. You can chose to pump him with spells, counters, equipment, or enchantments not having to focus on only one.
 

Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer- Was one of the first commanders that tried to knock Argus from the throne of my R/W commander deck. He failed to do so for me. His strength is also his weakness. The color of the creatures may have no longer been an issue, but now the deck needed to be comprised of a lot more artifacts. Also because his ability was so swingy one of two things would happen during a game. He would either come into play and be ignored because I'd have no chance of getting metal craft, or my opponents would save targeted removal to kill him as soon as I'd play him. Between the deck construction restrictions and the way games played out with him at the helm, he never really worked for me.

On the other hand, I have seen moderate success for other players running Jor Kadeen as a commander for their equipment based voltron decks. I personally would rather use Brion, even with the hate he draws, but I wouldn't look sideways at anyone who would chose to run him as their voltron commander.

Basandra, Battle Seraph- Basandra is a very solid angel. She fits R/W very well, taking their strength in combat and focusing on it. I've seen some very strong decks based around her.

One option to go is forcing opponents into the red zone. Sometimes players tend to not want to attack in multiplayer games. In that case Basandra can come along and force some action to happen. Generally if you build your deck to do this you want to fill your side of the board with reasons why you are the wrong choice to be the defender.

Another option I've seen quite successful is taking control of combat via creature abilities rather than spells. Once combat starts, everything that can happen is already seen on the battlefield. This means that there are no surprise spells coming from your opponents hand when you sink resources to make sure your side wins the combat.

Gisela, Blade of Goldnight- Gisela is amazing, but still didn't take the reins as commander of my R/W deck. Instead, I built her a new one (yes, I have multiple R/W commander decks built). Her deck is built around manipulating damage. This is not the only way to build the deck, but when I go for a theme I sometimes go over board. She plays great in a normal Boros flavored deck that runs a few things like pyrohemia and flamebreak for the fun of it.

She is really, really strong. Most games I've seen with her as a commander came down to can the other players keep her off the battlefield. If she stays around the controller wins, it's really that simple. 

An interesting thing to note:  when she came out I wrote an article for her (one of the first on this site). It has more hits than any other article I've written by almost double (and still gets viewed almost daily).

Aurelia, the Warleader- The new commander in town does not disappoint me in the least. She has replaced Agrus as leader of his old deck (which is fitting as she is the new leader of the boros legion). The first thing I saw when she was spoiled was how well they work together. Agrus comes out turn 5, turn 6 she follows, and together they swing for 24. To make magical christmas land even better turn 7 Gisela can follow and together they can deal 80. Follow that up with Razia's purification and hope no one has any removal and mana they want to leave floating.

With her in command of my Boros Legion, I've been able add some mono white creatures that felt left out under Agrus's watch, such as Mirran Crusader, Silverblade Paladin, and Hero of Bladehold. More freedom in deck building and a strong, yet fun ability when playing makes her the perfect option for commander for my Red/White deck.

Red & White, The Boros Legion, is a powerful color identity which should often find itself dominating the combat phases of the game. I hope you enjoyed this article and I will try to write more soon. As always I'm looking forward to hearing your comments.

Update: 8/2017

So, it's been over 4 years since I made this article, yet it remains my most viewed article every week (Thank You!).  Since January 2013 there have been a few additions to my favorite color identity.

Adriana, Captain of the Guard- This gem of a commander was brought to us in our second Conspiracy set. Adriana is everything that Argus Kos always wanted to be. It's not difficult to match the +2/+2 capability he has and she has the possibility to give an even larger bonus. Extra attacks per turn are perfect in this deck making her work well with Aurelia. She also does well as a token commander with her ability to pump the team. If she was a soldier, she would replace him in every deck I build. That being said have the option to have a RW knight commander is a plus as well. This is the review I posted when she was first revealed.

Akiri, Line-Slinger- One of the two RW partner commanders. Alone she is begging for use in a artifact heavy deck, maybe an equipment based voltron deck. She is cheap and can potentially have a high attack, but she is too vanilla. First Strike and Vigilance add to her allure, but the artifact requirements are just too heavy to make her really work as a commander, alone. She is a partner though, which means she isn't limited to just commanding RW or she can work with our other RW partner.

Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder- Here is our other Partner commander. He is much more open ended (who doesn't like doublestrike and lifelink?). He is the default partner if you want to add red/white to your color identity. Frankly he is better that Akiri in most decks that are based around her. He is open ended enough that he can command nearly any deck theme. The only issue I have with him is that his creature types are a let down. He has no profession creature type, literally anything would be better here soldier, warrior, townsfolk?

Anax and Cymede- 3 mana for a 3/2 First strike/Vigilance creature is already a really strong option as a commander. They are a soldier, and they are very good at commanding soldiers. When building around then you can just use them as a solid creature option or you can focus on their ability by adding spells that can target them repeatedly. I've also seen a very fast voltron pump deck based on them.

Anya, Merciless Angel- Anya is a solid Legendary angel, but I don't feel she is strong enough to take over command from other powerful RW angels that she would compete with. I'd run her as one of the 99.

Depala, Pilot Exemplar- I don't feel that dwarves nor vehicles are a viable strategy for commander. That being said, if you want to try them out then this is your commander.

Iroas, God of Victory- This commander is surprisingly open ended. He fits really well in both an aggro and a control shell. Preventing all damage attacking creatures deal doesn't just cover combat damage making pyrohemia (a personal favorite) a great card to combo with this commander.

Munda, Ambush Leader- Allies could possibly make the list of tribal options, but even then this commander isn't good. a 3/4 for 4 mana even with haste doesn't make the cut to me. When you play another ally you can look at the top of your deck and put any allies back (opposed to in your hand like all the other abilities like this) is pretty lame. I don't even think I would put it in the 99 of a 5 color ally deck.

Tajic, Blade of the Legion- Indestructible is a very powerful keyword for a commander. It allows you to throw out tons of mass removal and not worry about losing your key creature. The rest of his abilities make him very fun to build around. Here is a post based on Tajic.

Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas- My overall favorite R/W commander. She is currently leading Sun Titan, Inferno Titan, and a horde of Giants around my battlefields, but she is capable of so much more. Doublestrike and Vigilance are two of the most powerful keyword abilties. It's easy to build a strong voltron deck based around her, even throwing in a few 6 mana controlling creatures like duplicant.

10 new R/W commanders in the past 4 years. Hopefully they keep giving us cool legendary battlefield dominators. Until next time, may your opponents constantly fear your attacks.