Overview:

This Boros deck leverages Nelly Borca's goad mechanics to force opponents into combat while protecting itself with pillow fort effects. The strategy focuses on incremental value through forced attacks, damage amplification, and occasional big threats. While it has some synergistic elements, it lacks fast combos, consistent tutors, and high resilience to disruption.

Primer:

Core Strategy: The deck aims to control the board by goading opponents' creatures while building defensive enchantments like Ghostly Prison. Key wincons include damage multipliers (Fiendish Duo, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight), combat tricks (Duelist's Heritage), and value engines like Etali, Primal Storm. The gameplan unfolds in three phases:

1. Early Setup (T1-4): Deploy mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet), establish goad enablers (Shiny Impetus, Vengeful Ancestor), and set up card draw (Tome of Legends).
2. Midgame Pressure (T5-7): Activate Nelly's card draw engine through forced combat, deploy damage amplifiers, and recur value with Sun Titan.
3. Endgame: Close with overwhelming combat damage using pumped creatures or redirected damage via Brash Taunter.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 3 lands and early ramp
• Prioritize T2-3 goad enablers over reactive spells
• Avoid hands without early board impact

Key Tips:

• Use Take the Bait to create chain combats after goading
• Pair Deflecting Palm with opponents' pumped creatures
• Recur key enchantments with Sevinne's Reclamation

Weaknesses:

Critical:

• No deterministic win conditions
• Relies on opponents' creature-based strategies Moderate:
• Weak to flying/reach threats
• Limited stack interaction (only 3 counterspell-equivalents) Minor:
• Slow graveyard recursion
• Some mana base enters tapped

Most Important Cards:

• Fiendish Duo
• Brash Taunter
• Disrupt Decorum
• Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• Ghostly Prison
• Windborn Muse
• Duelist's Heritage
• Sun Titan
• Etali, Primal Storm
• Boros Reckoner

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 4/10

• Goldfish win possible T8-9 through combat damage
• No fast mana or combo acceleration

Resilience: 5/10

• Moderate recursion (Sun Titan, Sevinne's Reclamation)
• Vulnerable to enchantment removal on key pieces

Consistency: 5/10

• 7 tutors for lands/artifacts but only 3 creature tutors
• Redundant goad effects but limited threat redundancy

Interaction: 4/10

• 12 targeted removal spells (mostly sorcery-speed)
• Minimal counterspells/protection

Rating Justification:

This deck sits between Casual/Precon (4.0) and Focused Casual (4.5). While it has better synergy than a precon with its goad theme and damage multipliers, it lacks the speed (T9-11 wins vs T8-10 benchmark) and interaction density of optimized casual decks. The absence of infinite combos and reliance on opponents' board states prevent it from reaching optimized tiers.

Power level: 4.0 - 4.5