One of the current Standard decks in the Ikoria metagame that caught my attention after checking on some of the latest decks in the tournaments in the past month is the Boros Cycling deck. I was not able to foresee this deck to be a reality, maybe because I lacked the time to thoroughly read the set spoiler. I only mentioned before that Cycling archetype will be back in this Ikoria Standard format.

This decklist was taken from a local tournament called Weekly Season XI – Episode 3 at The Gentry Magic League and was played by Quinten Cauwelier. He finished in 1st place and bested the other deck, Gate Control, in the finals. The rest of the top 8 includes Dimir Control, another Boros Cycling deck, a bunch of Mono-Red Aggro, and an Azorious Control deck.

Here below is the full decklist of the Boros Cycling archetype.

20 LANDS
6 Mountain
11 Plains
1 Raugrin Triome
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Savai Triome

16 CREATURES
4 Drannith Healer
4 Drannith Stinger
4 Flourishing Fox
4 Valiant Rescuer

20 INSTANTS and SORC.
1 Boon of the Wish-Giver
2 Frostveil Ambush
4 Go for Blood
4 Memory Leak
1 Raking Claws
4 Startling Development
4 Zenith Flare

4 OTHER SPELLS
4 Footfall Crater

Sideboard
1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
2 Cosmotronic Wave
3 Light of Hope
4 Scorching Dragonfire
2 Shock
3 Shredded Sails

As a short recap of its functionality, the deck strategy is pretty basic: cast creatures that benefit from cycling cards and beat them opponents’ life totals down while you are cycling cards. Finish them with a Zenith Flare to the dome. Cycling cards only cost one generic mana so it is likely that you get to start the engine as early as the 3rd turn. With about twenty Cycling cards in the deck, I am pretty sure that the engine will keep on running with the trigger effects and few attacks to finish your opponent.

The deck’s companion is Lurrus of the Dream-Den which is a late-game card advantage and lets you return your two-drop creatures that were dealt with in the early turns.

I will be trying this deck once the tabletop gaming is allowed in our local game store. For now, I will check on its gameplay on various streams of Magic Pros on Twitch or replays on Youtube.

That is a wrap for now. Until the next blog post.