Pauper: Boros Bully (2025) - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Boros Bully is a historic Pauper deck based on the interaction of looting effects with Flashback cards like Battle Screech and Rally the Peasants. Over the years, more efficient white cards came out and made White Weenie a competitive option with a similar game plan, making Boros Bully obsolete in its category.

After the recent bans and the rise of blue archetypes, Tarkir: Dragonstorm brought Mardu Devotee as a one-drop that made it easier to splash into white decks, allowing White Weenie to return to the origins of Boros Bully, adding red cards to the Sideboard while maintaining a solid and efficient game plan in Game 1.

This is the version I've been using in Pauper for the past few weeks. Unlike in the past, Boros Bully is now much closer to a White Weenie with a splash for point cards than an aggressive Midrange with a go-wide plan that can explode in the combination of Battle Screech with Rally the Peasants.

Basically, this plan is easily answered today and most of the interactions we would run like Lightning Bolt do not solve the main threats in the Metagame today, while White Weenie offers a straightforward plan, with quality creatures and a clock that we can amplify with Rally the Peasants for the same explosive potential that we have in the old lists.

Maindeck

Mardu Devotee was the card that made me try this variant. In addition to being a one-drop with an efficient ETB, it filters mana to generate or without difficulty during the game, allowing us to have a mostly Mono-White list with only small splashes of for specific cards. Its inclusion also improves Shattered Landscape, which we use to search for a basic Mountain when necessary.

Lunarch Veteran provides the life gain needed to hold off the current Metagame's Aggro while being a one-drop that requires two removals to neutralize.

Thraben Inspector and Novice Inspector are essentially the same card, but with different names. Both offer, in addition to more one-drops, a token that can be turned into extra draws, or fodder for Makeshift Munitions.

Raffine's Informant provides card advantage with cards that we can cast for the Flashback cost, such as Battle Screech, Prismatic Strands, and Rally the Peasants. It allows for the most explosive openings with Screech, or the possibility of free protection against cheap red sweepers with Strands, and has a decent body for its cost.

Squadron Hawk guarantees up to three draws with its ETB effects, and one of the main win lines in some longer games involves stringing them together and casting Rally the Peasants for lethal damage.

Militia Bugler also offers card advantage. Since we focus on a go wide plan and finishing games or controlling the board with Makeshift Munitions, we only run two copies of it, but we can increase that number if needed. I have been considering whether I want Summon: Choco/Mog in this slot.

Battle Screech offers up to four tokens with a single card, and playing it twice is one of our main tools for longer games, while discarding to take advantage of Flashback on turn three is a common line with Raffine’s Informant.

Rally the Peasants has the flaw of not increasing the toughness of creatures, unlike Guardians’ Pledge, but being able to reuse it from the graveyard opens up space for more proactive attack lines, or even some sudden lethal attacks with four creatures and six mana to cast it twice, totaling 20 damage.

Prismatic Strands offers protection in Aggro mirrors, against Burn and also against red sweepers that would deal with your creatures.

In addition to the basic lands, we have a set of Shattered Landscape as an untapped land that we can, in some cases, used to search for an extra source of red mana. With Mardu Devotee, we can filter the colorless mana to generate or when necessary, or even generate to pay for Cycling.

Boros Garrison allows us to reuse Shattered Landscape in longer games to cycle it while guaranteeing both and to pay for the cost.

Wind-Scarred Crag is a one-of with a reusable ETB with Boros Garrison while granting access to both colors. It can be replaced with another land of your choice.

Sideboard

Dust to Dust and Gorilla Shaman are our main tools against Affinity and Jund Wildfire. Both can attack the opponent's mana base, but Dust to Dust also resolves two creatures on the opponent's board with a single card, commonly played against Myr Enforcer and Refurbished Familiar.

Electrickery is great against Faeries, White Aggro, and also against archetypes such as Elves. There are other options that do similar effects for less mana in this slot, but instant speed matters against Faeries.

Pyroblast deals with the blue decks of the current Metagame, including Mono Blue Terror, Faeries lists, and also against archetypes with predominant blue cards, such as Mnemonic Wall or Ghostly Flicker on Ephemerate Tron.

Destroy Evil is a modal card that works in games against Mono Blue Terror, Gruul Ramp, and also as a counter to Armadillo Cloak or Ethereal Armor such as Bogles.

Standard Bearer and Coalition Honor Guard also play into the Bogles matchup and against the occasional Infect and other archetypes with pumps and auras. Honor Guard also works as a way to direct two or more Burn spells against it potentially “gaining” four or more life.

Synthesizer Burn

IN

OUT

Mono Blue Terror

IN

OUT

Grixis Affinity

IN

OUT

Elves

IN

OUT

Mono Blue Faeries

IN

OUT

Bogles

IN

OUT

Gruul Ramp

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!