While doing research on the Mono Red deck archetype for GRN Standard, I found out in a few of their builds that they are splashing White to utilize the Boros spot removals like Justice Strike, Conclave Tribunal and the legendary Tajic, Legion’s Edge. I have also found an old Boros build that is based on the RIX enchantment Path of Mettle. It got me interested again as I have recently bought two copies of the card from a Fire Sale of a fellow MTG player. I have also read on PV’s article about the card and did more research on reference lists. I did some build comparison of their brews to that of the top deck versions of the recent MTGO Competitive Standard league results and came up with the decklist below.

Creatures
4 Runaway Steam-Kin
4 Fanatical Firebrand
4 Goblin Chainwhirler
2 Tajic, Legion’s Edge
2 Relentless Raptor
4 Rigging Runner

Spells
2 Experimental Frenzy
2 Justice Strike
2 Heroic Reinforcements
3 Shock
3 Path of Mettle
4 Lightning Strike

Lands
2 Stone Quarry
13 Mountain
1 Plains
4 Clifftop Retreat
4 Sacred Foundry

Sideboard
1 Experimental Frenzy
2 Deafening Clarion
3 Lava Coil
2 Conclave Tribunal
2 Banefire
1 Justice Strike
3 Rekindling Phoenix
1 Dire Fleet Daredevil

Runaway Steam-Kin is the only creature in the deck that cannot trigger the Path of Mettle but it still be relevant enough to pressure opponents and do you more casting options with its mana. Experimental Frenzy is its best friend and your late game can be very explosive with the two. The two copies of Heroic Reinforcements auto trigger the Path and gets you deal lots of damage given that you’ve curved out your one and two drops.
The sideboard might not be final but the card choices might just be the right one to deal with the current metagame. Let me know what you think of this build by hitting the comments on the box below.

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