Spoiler Highlight: Boromir, Warden of the Tower on Legacy

Greetings my Legacy friends! The biggest Fantasy franchise in the world has entered the Magic universe and its launch is approaching. With that, spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth begin to flood the network like the sea flooded Beleriand and players are buzzing with the possibility of playing as beloved characters from the Lord of the Rings stories.

Since the hype is high, let's discuss a card that drew my attention to Legacy: Boromir, Warden of the Tower!

Boromir, Heir of Denethor, Captain of Gondor, joins the endless roster of White creatures with effects that give your opponent a headache by restricting their ability to play the game normally. It's a respectable squad with names like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Elite Spellbinder, Archon of Emeria, Containment Priest, Ethersworn Canonist, Anointed Peacekeeper, Peacekeeper, Sanctum Prelate, just to name the most played.

But is his ability that useful?

On the one hand, the initial comparison is with Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, who while a star in Vintage, sees very little play in Legacy. This weighs against Boromir, as not only does Lavinia cost less, she can still be used as fuel for Force of Will. But in Legacy, 2 Colorless and 1 White Mana in decks with access to Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors is generally easier to play than a multicolored card, especially when many of these decks are mostly monocolored.

Modern Horizons 2's most iconic cards are a constant presence in the format, and this greatly expands the list of widely played things that are locked by Boromir: Force of Will, Daze, Mishra's Bauble, Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Mox Diamond, Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis, Dread Return, Lion's Eye Diamond, Rift Bolt (if suspended), Fireblast, Force of Negation, Force of Vigor, and of course Fury, Solitude, Endurance and Grief (sorry Subtlety, nobody plays you).

And look, we haven't even commented on its second ability, capable of protecting your board from sweepers, and keeping that crucial creature alive that you need to live a little longer. Not the reason to use this member of the Fellowship, but it is a nice bonus that adds extra value to an already very useful card.

And speaking of the Ring, it's important to remember that in addition to protecting your creatures, sacrificing Boromir adds the Emblem The Ring Card // The Ring Tempts You Card. It's not a big deal if your deck isn't focused on it, but it's a little icing on the cake. Eventually, your Ring-bearer manages to connect the last points of damage and your opponent's Murktide Regent cannot block it.

Gondor Calls for Help!

Okay, we're talking about the ability, but where can Boromir be helpful?

First, you need to understand that, although quite relevant, his ability to lock cards without mana cost is linked to the Metagame where he is located and in Legacy it is quite common for local Metas to be very different from one store to another. Boromir thrives in environments crowded with 0-cost Artifacts, despite their usefulness against the cards I listed above. Decks like 8-Cast and Storm don't want to see this character's face at all, and even decks with few artifacts like Stompy can simply get stuck without access to Chrome Mox or Lotus Petal.

Imagine this situation, for example: you cast a Boromir on the play on turn 1. Your Reanimator opponent looks at his hand with Grief and Lotus Petal that was ready to go off on turn 1.

Formats with more Control presence tend to be much less concerned with it, even if they lose access to Force of Will. That's a consideration. Overall, there's a significant portion of decks affected by his ability, so even in an unknown metagame, he has a good chance of being well-positioned.

That said, let's see where it fits in. Like all good disruptive fellows, the first deck to look at is good ol' Death & Taxes, but this is a deck where the 3 mana spaces are most contested. On the other hand, it is a deck with more use for its activated ability. In particular, the lists with Yorion, Sky Nomad have plenty of space to fit some Boromir, Warden of the Tower.

But right now, the two decks where I really think our hero searching for redemption can shine are White and Boros Initiative.

But wait, White Initiative? Didn't this archetype pass away with the White Plume Adventurer ban? Well, my friends, the rumors about the end of the last deck to challenge UR Delver's dominance have been a bit exaggerated.

Both the Mono-White and RW versions have frequently appeared in Legacy tournaments, a testament to the power of one of the most broken mechanics to ever grace the format (and it's a format second only to Vintage when it comes to broken stuff. Spoiler: Initiative is also strong in Vintage.)

Returning to the point, these two decks make use of 2W cost creatures that spoil your opponent's plan and Boromir is yet another alternative for these decks, probably vying for place with Anointed Peacekeeper or Archon of Emeria. A Boromir, Warden of the Tower on turn 1 is just overwhelming against a lot of stuff in the format.

One does not simply walks into Mordor without a Decklist!

Obviously, the format will still accommodate itself to incorporate the new cards (and we haven't even seen all that will be released) but it helps to give a north to know where and how to assemble lists with the new addition. Below are some suggestions for archetypes.

Boros Initiative

With the banning of the main Initiative card, many players chose to incorporate Red to use the Caves of Chaos Adventurer as a redundancy piece of the ability.

It is one of the decks that has better sustained itself in the format and is well-structured to quickly fit a 3 mana threat in the first turn. I think it's a very friendly environment for our new friend.

White Saga Initiative

There are currently two strands of the Mono-White Initiative running on the format. The first one is very similar to the Boros list above, more consistent because it's monocolored, but less explosive because it only has access to 4 Initiative Creatures – Seasoned Dungeoneer.

For a change, then, I chose to highlight the second strand, which has Urza's Saga as its base.

Yorion Death & Taxes

With 80 cards, it's clear there's a place for Boromir in Yorion Death & Taxes! But of the 3 archetypes, this is the one I see the least potential in it because it doesn't have the explosion offered by Sol Lands or Mana Artifacts.

Still, Boromir helps against two of this deck's biggest enemies: Fury and Supreme Verdict. As a bonus, with any equipment, a Ringbearer is virtually unblockable after the first step.

With spoiler season still going on, Boromir was one of the cards that caught my attention right away because he already has decks he can call home. Who knew Minas Tirith was right there in The Initiative Card // Undercity Card?

See you next time!