While the Red/White Boros decks are often effective and versatile across numerous Magic: The Gathering formats, the same cannot be said about Boros in the Commander format. Unfortunately, time and time again, Boros has received the short end of the stick when it comes to commanders, lacking in areas such as ramping and card-drawing capabilities.
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However, all is not lost for Boros, and there are still numerous viable commanders within the traditionally aggressive color combination. So we're going to talk about the best that Boros has to offer in the realm of commander potential. With no further deliberation, here are our Strongest Boros Commanders in Magic: The Gathering.
Updated on May 21, 2023, by Ryan Hay: Leaning heavily into very aggressive playstyles, Boros decks reward your faster playstyle with extra combat steps, tons of equipment, and a healthy dose of board control with Stax-like effects. Many of the most popular Boros commanders also have synergies with heavy artifact builds and building an army of tokens. Two new commanders have joined the ranks of the strongest Boros commanders, the team-up duo from Amonkhet, Djeru and Hazoret, and the recently desparked equipment-wielding Nahiri, Forged in Fury.
A simple yet effective commander that allows you to easily establish a threatening board presence, General Ferrous Rokiric is a legendary Human Soldier who incentivizes the use of many multicolored spells. An efficient 3/1 that uniquely has protection from monocolored, making it difficult to remove from many cheap removal spells, General Ferrous Rokiric states that whenever you cast a multicolored spell, you create a 4/4 Golem token.
While they may lack abilities, 4/4 creatures should not be taken lightly, as even a small number of these tokens can threaten an opponent's life total. By simply chaining together several low-cost dual-colored spells, this commander can allow you to amass a dangerous offensive force, allowing you to take over the game.
The third iteration of Innistrad's protector, Avacyn, Archangel Avacyn serves as a testament to how far the card game has come since the earliest days of Magic. Owning the same stats, abilities, and mana cost of the iconic Serra Angel, Archangel Avacyn possesses numerous additional upsides and capabilities that make Serra Angel appear as a relic in comparison.
Possessing Flash, Archangel Avacyn bestows all your creatures with indestructible until the end of turn, a very powerful defensive ability that one always has access to due to her role as commander.
Additionally, if a non-Angel-controlled creature dies, Archangel Avacyn transforms into Avacyn the Purifier, buffing up her power and toughness and dealing three damage to each other creature and player as a mini-boardwipe. These abilities can be recycled by using white's ability to flicker, giving her more means of protecting your creatures, even if Avacyn had already transformed.
A 3/3 Giant Soldier with double strike and vigilance, Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas is a commander who grants you an experience counter each time you cast a creature spell with converted mana cost five or greater. If there's an ability that Boros is associated with, it's double strike. This ability allows a creature to deal both a first strike and standard combat damage.
Kalemne has the added bonus of getting +1/+1 for each experience counter you have, synergizing well with her double strike. Due to experience counters being on you rather than Kalemne, this means that these buffs will stick around even if Kalemne is killed and recast. Just be aware that the nature of Kalemne's ability is very mana intensive, so prepare to pack a lot of mana rocks into your deck.
One of the biggest weaknesses of Boros is its difficulty when it comes to drawing cards. As a Dwarf commander with vehicle synergies, Depala is able to partially circumvent this weakness. Upon becoming tapped, Depala allows you to pay any amount of mana. Then an amount of cards equal to the amount of mana that was paid is revealed from the top of your library, and all Dwarf and Vehicle cards revealed this way are put in your hand.
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This lets you dig through your deck when your hand is low on cards, ideally finding key Dwarves and Vehicles for your strategy. Few Boros commanders are able to draw cards as easily and readily as Depala, earning her a spot on this list.
Two elements that are often associated with red and white are direct damage and life gain respectively. Firesong and Sunspeaker are a commander who marries these two attributes, serving as a hybrid life-gain and burn commander that feels authentically Boros. Providing all red instants you cast with lifelink, spells like Blasphemous Act are capable of gaining tons of life for very little mana when cast into a creature-filled board.
At the same time, it is often ill-advised to play instants and sorceries in a commander deck that do little more than gain life. However, Firesong and Sunspeaker add additional value to these cards, dealing three damage to the target creature or player whenever a white life-gain spell is cast. If a mono-red burn deck may seem a bit too linear, or if a mono-white lifegain deck may appear too defensive, perhaps Firesong and Sunspeaker is just the commander for the job.
A 4/4 with lifelink for four mana, Brion Stoutarm allows you to pay one mana and tap him in order to sacrifice a creature, dealing direct damage to an opponent of the user's choosing equal to that creature's power. You'll want to load your deck up with creatures with high power or a power that can grow like Serra Avatar, whose power equals your current lifetotal.
Due to Brion himself being the source of this damage, this means that his lifelink is also gaining you that much life, making the ability a repeatable, strictly better variation of Fling. Brion decks will often try to create large creatures and closeout games without needing to attack, simply hucking said creatures at opponents in order to become victorious.
The Boros God of Theros, like many other entrants on this list, Iroas, God of Victory only really cares about one thing: attacking. Sharing the same indestructibility and devotion clause as all other Gods of Theros, Iroas has the benefit of being quite difficult to remove from the board, making his benefits often a constant once it hits the board.
Iroas provides two major buffs to your ranks: Menace, making your creatures much more difficult to block, and damage prevention when attacking. This mitigates nearly all risks when attacking as long as Iroas is on the battlefield. As with other entrants on this list, Iroas pairs well with Commander Players who seek a heavily combat-based deck in which they are able to regularly attack their opponents.
Easily among the most underrated Boros commanders in Magic, Zirda, the Dawnwaker allows you to make use of powerful activated abilities. A 3/3 Elemental Fox for three mana, Zirda reduces the cost of all activated abilities you activate by two mana. While this effect can't reduce the activation cost of abilities below one mana, this can allow you to garner massive degrees of value from already powerful cards.
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While Zirda notably allows Basalt Monolith to produce an infinite amount of mana, it allows you to use potent cards like Walking Balista and Captivating Crew to take over a game. It should also be noted that Zirda synergizes with a wide variety of card types, as Zirda's ability reduces the equip costs of artifacts, opening the door to a wide range of potential build options.
When making the decision to play a Boros in Commander, there is a very strong chance that you will be building an aggressive, combat-focused deck. Aurelia, the Warleader is a commander who is capable of doubling your combat capabilities. Upon attacking for the first time, Aurelia untaps all your creatures. This in itself is a strong tool, allowing you to more freely attack without worrying about leaving untapped blockers.
However, that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Aurelia's abilities. After untapping all of the creatures, Aurelia creates an additional combat step, allowing you to attack will all of their creatures yet again. Aurelia is a great commander choice for aggressive Boros players who love to repeatedly deal combat damage to their opponents.
Yet another Angel, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is a simple yet effective Boros commander with similarities to the previously mentioned Aurelia. Aurelia takes the very concept of damage and swings it in your favor, doing so by doubling all damage received by opponents and creatures they control, while simultaneously halving damage taken by her controller and other creatures they control.
This effect is very flexible, working well with both creature decks and burn decks alike. You can even take this effect further with a ton of red cards that also multiple the amount of damage you deal like Furnace of Wrath and City on Fire.
Printed in Strixhaven, Hofri Ghostforge is a powerful commander option that can be used to lead decks of a variety of archetypes, from Spirit tribal to Boros aristocrats. For five mana, This Dwarf Cleric provides all Spirits under your control with +1/+1, trample, and haste, fueling all creatures of that type with solid aggressive benefits. While this anthem effect is nice, Hofri's second ability is where the card truly shines. This is because whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, it's exiled, and you create a token copy of that creature.
Not only does this effectively provide each of your creatures with an extra life, but it also allows any creature, regardless of its type, to eventually benefit from Hofri's anthem effect. As creatures that are Spirits by default are able to make use of this anthem immediately and when they return as a token copy, Hofri can make for a great aggressive Spirit commander.
Perhaps one of the most undervalued and underrated commanders within the Boros color identity is Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero. Once a primary protagonist within Magic's lore, up until the most recent batch of Commander decks, Gerrard had previously only been depicted in the underwhelming Gerrard Capashen.
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For four mana, Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero is a 3/3 Human Soldier with first strike, who, upon dying, returns all creatures and artifacts that had been put in your graveyard within that turn. This is a very flexible and interesting ability, effectively converting every board wipe into a one-sided affair, and potentially doubling the user's returns with sacrifice outlets such as Ashnods Altar, as long as Gerrard is ultimately sacrificed as well.
Alibou, Ancient Witness is a legendary artifact creature that allows you to convert your artifacts into direct damage that can be used to take out your opponent's creatures or to throw them directly in your opponent's face, while also smoothing your next card draw.
A 4/5 Golem that provides all gives your other artifact creatures haste, when Alibou attacks with one or more artifact creatures (including Alibou), you deal X damage to any target and scry X, where X is the number of tapped artifacts under your control. This means that by simply using mana rocks, a player can dig through their deck for key cards and deal substantial direct damage.
A great option for an equipment-based commander, Akiri, Fearless Voyager is a well-rounded commander that can offer both card draw and protection to your creatures.
A 3/3 Kor Warrior for three mana, when you attack an opponent with one or more equipped creatures, you draw a card, meaning Akiri can reliably provide an additional card for your second main phase.
While removal is normally a death knell for equipment decks, for one white mana, you can unattach a piece of equipment from a creature you control, providing that creature with indestructible until the end of the turn.
Wyleth, Soul of Steel is a commander that is comparable to the previously mentioned Akiri. However, Wyleth trades out the ability to protect equipped creatures for the flexibility to synergize with aura spells as well as the ability to draw more cards per turn. Combining the two turns Wyleth into a Voltron powerhouse, capable of utilizing the best of both auras and equipment to refill your hand.
A 2/2 Human Warrior with trample for three mana, whenever Wyleth attacks, you draw a card for each aura and equipment attached to it. This can allow a Wyleth deck to potentially draw a progressively large number of cards on each of their turns.
A splashy and unique commander option for decks looking to utilize a high number of legendary creatures, Cadric, Soul Kindler is a Dwarf Wizard for four mana that allows you to ignore the "legend rule," enabling you to have several copies of a single legendary creature at once. This is key, as whenever you cast a legendary permanent, if you pay one additional mana, you can create a token copy of that permanent.
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While that token gains haste and is sacrificed at the end of your turn, these temporary tokens can provide a great deal of additional value, allowing you to potentially double up on great abilities that would normally be relegated to one instance on your board. Additionally, as this ability doesn't require the legendary permanent to be a creature, Cadric can be used to boost the value of your Planeswalkers, allowing it to serve as a unique Boros Super Friends option.
Introduced in the Lorehold Legacies preconstructed commander deck, Osgir, the Reconstructor is an excellent Boros commander that is capable of providing mana ramp in a unique manner. A 4/4 Giant Artificer with vigilance, for one mana, Osgir can be used to sacrifice an artifact, providing a creature with +2/+0 until the end of the turn.
This is key, because once an artifact is in your graveyard, if you pay an amount of mana equal to that artifact's mana value, Osgir can be tapped to exile that artifact, creating two token copies of it. This means that Osgir can be used to create additional copies of mana-generating artifacts like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet to provide Boros with some potent mana ramp.
With Djeru and Hazoret as your commander, you can jam as many legendary creatures as you want into your deck, potentially casting them for free when Djeru And Hazoret attacks. When this legendary team-up card attacks, you get to look at the top six cards of your deck and exile one legendary creature from among them. You can then cast that spell until the end of the turn. Since it's casting and not putting the creature directly into play like another Boros powerhouse Winota, Joiner of Forces, you get to take advantage of cast triggers like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's.
You'll want to build your deck around getting Djeru and Hazoret out as quickly as possible, attacking the turn they come out, and keeping them safe through your combat step. You'll also want a few ways to take additional combat steps and reliable ways of giving your creatures haste so you can swing out with those free legendary spells you've been dropping.
Perhaps the best equipment commander to ever be printed, Nahiri, Forged in Fury gives you free cards for every equipped creature you attack with while becoming cheaper to cast the more equipment you commit to the board. With affinity for equipment, you get to reduce Nahiri's cost by one generic mana for each equipment you control. This ability helps get around Commander Tax too, making later castings of your commander cheaper and cheaper the more equipment you have.
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Nahiri then rewards you for going wide with your board and slapping a piece of equipment on each creature you can. When an equipped creature you control attacks, you get to exile the top card of your library and can play it this turn. If it's an equipment, you get to cast it for free. Even with only a few creatures, Nahiri effectively gives you extra card draws to help dig for answers or more equipment to take over the board.
What is there to say about Feather, the Redeemed that hasn't already been said? By and large the most powerful Boros commander available, Feather completely obliterates Boros's card advantage problem through her ability to recycle instants and sorceries you cast that target your own creatures by putting them back in your hand.
When paired with spells like Expedite, Feather can create a powerful card draw engine in a color combination that often looks high and low for efficient means of card draw. Since you return the cards you cast back to your hand during each player's end step, you can repeatedly protect Feather with spells like Gods Willing, and Shelter.