1. Boros Legion

Aurelia, Leader of the Boros, beater extraordinaire and extreme buffer of your creatures.

Now for our top beginner deck - The Boros Legion! It has a winrate of 53.05% through its aggressive gameplan and wide array of combat tricks. If you like fast, cheap creatures with room to grow, then the Boros will welcome you. 

What is great about this deck

• Has removal and combat tricks to swing games in their favor
• Low-cost creatures that can grow as the game goes on
• Creatures have flying or first strike, which makes blocking them incredibly difficult

How This Deck is Played

• Turns 1-4, flood the board with creatures. Ideally, you want to follow the curve as best you can. So at 1 mana, you want to play Goblin Banneret or Healer's Hawk. At 2 mana, you want to play Boros Challenger or Sunhome Stalwart, and at 3 mana you want to play a 3 mana creature etc. This way you're using mana as efficiently as possible, but you're also creating the most efficient threat on each turn.  
• One of the best strengths of this deck is its abundance of combat tricks, so it's important to guess how your opponent will block.

  • For example, if you have a 1/1 and your opponent has a 2/2, you can attack with your 1/1. If they don't block then you get 1 point of damage into your opponent. If they do block then play Sure Strike to remove the opponent’s creature.
      
• Remember, you want to do combat first, and then play creatures in your main phase 2. While it’s important for other decks to do this, it’s even more important when you’re playing the Boros Legion. This way you can see what your opponent will do during combat before you commit to playing anything. If your opponent blocks in a way you don’t like, then you still have mana open for an instant. Otherwise, if they don’t block or you’re happy with how the combat phase goes, you can now play a creature on your second main phase.

  • Going to combat first can also affect how your opponent will block. For example, opponents may not risk their biggest creature if they know you have an equally large creature on the board. If you go to combat first, they're more inclined to block with creatures because they don't know you have a bigger creature in your hand.  
  • The exception to this rule should be if you have a haste creature to play. Since they have haste, it's more important that they join the combat phase when you reach it.
      
• Keep an eye on your creature’s abilities. While you should flood the board with creatures, sometimes it will be more worth it to use your mana to play a creature’s ability instead. This way, you can conserve the cards in your hand, while also building a strong board state. Be aware, that this deck also lacks card draw, so conserving the cards in your hand will be even more important.

  • Cards like Boros Challenger and Legion Guildmage have abilities that can affect how your opponents will block and can be used to force bad trades on your opponent without the need for a card to be used.
      
• As a reminder, First Strike damage will always be done first. Once blocks are declared, you can use this to your advantage by dealing damage to your opponent’s creature through First Strike, then dealing direct damage to it with an effect like Shock. That way, when First Strike resolves, their creature gets killed before it gets the chance to kill your creature. This is a great way to take down large creatures you wouldn’t have been able to deal with otherwise. 
   

Cards

Creatures (24):

3 Healer's Hawk
1 Light of the Legion
2 Roc Charger
2 Sunhome Stalwart
3 Goblin Banneret
1 Legion Warboss
1 Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice
3 Boros Challenger
2 Legion Guildmage
2 Skyknight Legionnaire
1 Swiftblade Vindicator
1 Tajic, Legion's Edge
2 Truefire Captain

Spells (11):

2 Lava Coil
2 Sure Strike
2 Justice Strike
2 Integrity // Intervention
1 Response // Resurgence
1 Act of Treason
1 Tectonic Rift

Lands (25):

10 Mountain
10 Plains
4 Boros Guildgate
1 Sacred Foundry

You may also be interested in:

• The 10 Best MTG: Arena Decks
• MTG Arena Guide, Tips and Tricks
• MTG Arena Best Packs To Buy – A Guide for Beginners and Intermediate Players
• MTG Arena: Best Ways to Get Cards
• Top 15 Best MTG Arena Mythic Rares
• MTG Arena Ranking System Explained
• The Best Singleton Decks in MTG Arena