I struggled, for a long while, with Esper generals and decks. For me, Esper appeals to the control/combo side of me, and I've tried many generals to try to pique my interest. Sydri, Sharuum, Zur, etc. Nothing was particularly fun for me, despite playing fun cards. I eventually acquired a few Tundras, and since I no longer have the time for Legacy (and I didnt want to play Miracles, zzz), I decided to sell 3 of them, and keep the last for a UWx deck. After skimming through potential generals from Conspiracy like Grenzo, I came across Brago.
Luckily for me, a friend had a Brago deck he had just torn apart, and traded me most of the pieces he had for it. It started as a simple, light on stax engine with mostly value and fun ETB effects, group politic cards. It had the potential to win, but mostly just durdled and I had fun with it. But as it goes, over time, I wanted to win more. So with this new outlook on wanting to put some wins under my belt with Brago, I cut the cute stuff for more consistent, powerful cards. Lowered the curve quite a bit as well, with less big effects like off Primordials, Titans, Planeswalkers, etc, and more cards that tax the opponents or keep them from playing magic altogether.
Why should you play Brago?
Strengths
Resilient, Brago tends to pop out and immediately starts generating value as soon as you can connect with him.
Abuses triggered abilities on your own permanents: Blinking mana rocks is psuedo ramp. Blinking cantrips provides card advantage, etc.
Avoids many forms of burn and removal by having 4 toughness.
His ability is versatile and broad: It can be used to blink any non-land permanent, so you aren't forced into playing creatures or not playing creatures, for example.
Solid tutors: White and Blue contain most of the best tutors in the game, only surpassed by including Black for more general tutors. In addition, some of our permanents allow us to tutor other cards from our deck, and Brago can blink them for repeated use.
Weaknesses
Wraths: We run little ways to prevent wraths, so we rely on resource and permanent denial. Adding additional counterspells can help mitigate this weakness.
Vandalblast and other mass artifact/enchantment destruction. Play conservatively until you can lock the board to avoid being blown out by mass artifact removal.
Brago, King Eternal is a really enjoyable general that rewards you for building around his titular ability. When he connects with a player; and that isn't difficult with a Flying creature, you may exile any number of non-land permanents you control, then return them to play. This allows you to trigger the "Enter the Battlefield" and "Leaves the Battlefield" abilities of your non-land permanents. If you blink mana rocks such as Gilded Lotus, they return to play untapped! This is almost like having an extra turn every time he connects with an opponent! While we do not run these cards anymore, cards like Cloudform will return the manifested card to play face up, for free! In addition, if you blink any morphed creatures you control, they also return to play face up! Knowing the rules on Brago's ability is important to getting the most mileage out of him as a commander.
But winning the game is more than ramping and flickering cards to cantrip once a turn. We should be either using these flicker effects to damage our opponents, find an infinite combo, lock the board down, etc. The beauty of Brago is that Wizards has printed and will continue to print more and more cards that benefit this strategy!
There are many ways to build around Brago, and I will list some of the popular themes below
Voltron - Swords, Auras, etc. You can easily build Brago to be a voltron general as well, however, blinking Brago means Auras and Equipment will fall off of him. However, being able to untap your mana rocks means you can quickly play your hand and get in quick, evasive commander damage.
Stax - Given his ability to blink mana rocks, Brago is a natural for Tangle Wire/Winter Orb, given his ability to blink non-land permanents. This is the build we will focus on, sans MLD. Mass Land destruction is effective, but generally unnecessary in this build. This could always change based on the meta.
Auras - Being able to flicker Auras means you can reattach them to permanents as they re-enter the battlefield, so long as the permanent is a legal target. Mind Control effects shine here, allowing you to enhance or steal your favorite permanents.
Alternative Commanders
I find there is no incorrect way to build Brago, unless you really dont enjoy flickering. If so, I would recommend one of the following alternative commanders
Ephara, God of the Polis - Ephara plays most similarly to Brago, and in the same colors. She likes hatebears, and cards that benefit the board and draw you cards. However, being indestructible gives her added protection. She also doesnt need to deal combat damage to generate value. However, she relies on a creature hitting the battlefield under your control to generate value, so she's essentially turning each creature into a cantrip, so it forces you heavy into creatures or token generators. She also is generally built to play the traditional UW control game.
Bruna, Light of Alabaster - Plays similar to an Aura-based Brago, but being 6CMC, she isnt as quick nor as competitive. She also isnt as flexible in her build, requiring heavy use of Auras and creatures to attach to them. However, she can be a very enjoyable commander if your playgroup is casual enough!
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV - I think what makes Brago different from Augustin in that Augustin presents the idea, off the bat that this will not be a fun game. He's similar to Zur, in that aspect, that he will draw hate regardless of your build. Brago may eventually get this reputation as well, but given he doesnt scream stax or MLD, and can be built with fun Auras, Superfriends, etc. It's a close battle between which general is stronger, as both are the tip top tier of UW generals.
Roon of the Hidden Realm - Adding green to the deck, Roon is much less competitive, but gives you the ramp, recursion, and additional power of green ETB effects to abuse. However, he only can blink one creature per turn at the cost of tapping your general and paying mana. In addition, he is completely neutered by cards like Cursed Totem. I find him to be more of a casual commander, similar to Bruna, given the high amount of mana investment to start to generate value off their commander. However, Roon decks tend to operate strongly independent of their general.
Jenara, Asura of War - Jenara is typically built as a voltron general. Adding green does grand you options and mana fixing for the voltron strategy as opposed to Brago. You can easily build Brago to be a voltron general as well, however, targeting Brago with his own ability means Auras and Equipment will fall off of him.
Augury Owl Improves early game consistency. When blinked by Brago, it helps us filter our next draws. This card is a flex slot for more tech pieces. Given I play in many different metas, I opt for consistency of my combos and deck over specific tech choices.
Aven Mindcensor This guy is fun to plop down when people try to fetch lands, or find answers to our board state. It is another lock piece to keep people under control. Most of the time I'm less than impressed with it, but it has saved my butt a few times.
Grand Abolisher An absolute house that should wear some Lightning Greaves along with Brago, since he will draw some immense hate. He essentially allows us to protect our gameplan/combos without fear of Swords to Plowshares or a Cyclonic Rift removing Brago or our combo pieces on our turn. An absolute MVP.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV A great way to speed up our plays, and slow down our opponents. Absolute worst case, he eats a wrath or removal before our key turns. I havent yet had a chance to test him out, but he seems like a solid stax piece akin to Sphere of Resistance
Inquisitor Exarch Works like the Rishadan creatures; once we have infinite Brago Triggers, we can straight up kill players.
Recruiter of the Guard A way for us to tutor up Rishadan creatures or whatever toolbox piece we need to lock the board or combo with. This card encourages us to run more lock creatures and value cards with 2 toughness or less
Rishadan Cutpurse The Rishadan creatures are a pseudo-wincon, and a taxing effect for our opponents. Paying 1-3 mana to save a permanent is really rough, and most players cant afford it or will chuck lands and tokens to it, which fits in perfectly to our strategy. The way they can be wincons is by having Brago connect and copying his ability with Strionic Resonator with 3+ mana in mana rocks in play. This allows you to generate infinite mana to pay for the Rishadan abilities, while your opponents lose all of their permanents. Be sure when doing this you have the mana available. This is the wincon that wont win you the game outright, but will force scoops.
Sage of Epityr A one drop that allows us to dig four cards deep to help filter our upcoming draws. Brago can flicker this creature to keep your draws filtered, as a cheaper Sensei's Divining Top. It's currently used as a flex slot.
Trinket Mage Allows us to fetch fast mana, Artifact Lands, and graveyard hate.
Trophy Mage This has targets of Basalt Monolith (more mana), Static Orb (stax), or Tangle Wire (stax). This card helps us find pieces to get infinite mana or stall the game out.
Wall of Omens Placeholder to keep us gassed up with cards to cast.
Weathered Wayfarer is another way for us to avoid early, or midgame mana screw. Or even better, as a way to keep Stasis going, or finding Academy Ruins... etc.
Artifacts
Azorius Signet Helps us convert colorless mana into UW. Given we run many unfair colorless mana rocks, and run non-artifact spells, doubling up on colored mana is important. In addition, we can pull an opening hand with nothing but colorless mana and this card, and still cast our general. The signet can also be fetched off Tezzeret the Seeker if colored mana is needed.
Basalt Monolith Originally neglected due to needing Brago to untap it, but honestly, that's all we need sometimes. Makes for a great curve on turn 4 into Brago+Boots.
Cursed Totem This card completely shuts down so many infinite mana combos and synergies that it's foolish not to run it! Hits Breya, Hermit Druid, etc.
Everflowing Chalice 2 cost mana rock, that can be more if necessary. The downside being it is not blinkable.
Fellwar Stone Fair colored mana source that we can blink.
Gilded Lotus The most powerful colored mana source we can run.
1) We protect Brago from Maze of Ith, removal, and other nasty effects.
2) We enable him to have haste the turn he enters play!
However, he cannot blink himself with his own ability with these equipped due to Shroud.
Mana Crypt Some really good fast mana. Just watch the lifeloss. Enables a turn 1-2 Brago, and later on, is some great fast mana to cast our bigger creatures/Planeswalkers.
Mana Vault Some really good fast mana. Just watch the lifeloss. Enables a turn 1-2 Brago, and later on, is some great fast mana to cast our bigger creatures/Planeswalkers.
Mind Stone A cheap mana rock that can be a cantrip in a pinch.
Mox Opal Moxes are always appreciated as a blinkable permanent, especially one this cheap and one that produces colored mana.
Mycosynth Wellspring One of my more questionable additions, but it allows us to play low land hands. Combined with Brago's ability to blink non-land permanents, this nets us a basic land to hand each turn. In addition, it allows us to fix our mana if we're missing U or W sources. I've been so impressed with it.
Pithing Needle The biggest boon of running this is a cheap way to deal with Maze of Ith. It's fetchable off Trinket Mage. It can be reset by Brago flickering it. It can also be used to shut down other problematic activated abilities.
Prismatic Lens A cheap mana rock that provides color fixing.
Sol Ring Iconic fast mana, allowing an early Brago play or just some powerful ramp.
Static Orb An extremely backbreaking stax piece that will slow your opponents to a crawl. Only being able to untap two permanents a turn means it will be difficult for your opposition to stop you, all the while you slow down the game until you can find an infinite combo. Brago, when he connects, can easily break the parity of this effect.
Strionic Resonator Allows Brago to go infinite with some mana rocks, and double up on powerful blink abilities. With Parallax Wave, stacking the triggers correctly allows you to exile all of your opponent's lands.
These are used for two important purposes.
1) We protect Brago from Maze of Ith, removal, and other nasty effects.
2) We enable him to have haste the turn he enters play!
The tradeoff compared to Boots here is costing a mana to equip them, but Brago can blink himself to be untapped after attacking and dealing combat damage. However, again, these will need to be reequipped.
Talisman of Progress One of the best 2 cost mana rocks, it allows us to make X for Eldrazi Displacer, as well as produce colored mana, albiet at a loss of life. I rate this mana rock highly as a bounce target, given most of our mana rocks produce just colorless, which limits our plays on our second main phase.
Tangle Wire One of the fun cards to abuse with Brago's ability, as he can continuously reset the Fading counters to hurt your opponents pretty hard. Playing this early is key. Also great after a mass board wipe (like Cyclonic Rift)
Thought Vessel Colorless 2 CMC mana rock, that occasionally has an upside.
Tsabo's Web This shuts down Maze of Ith with the added benefit of drawing cards each time you blink it.
Voltaic Key Untapper for our bigger mana rocks under stax effects, to activate metalcraft, etc.
Winter Orb Slows the game down to a crawl. Luckily our gameplan allows us to circumvent the disadvantage of this card.
Sorceries
Fabricate This guy find us the Boots we need early, as I have played too many games lately with the new mulligan rule screwing over otherwise solid hands. We need more consistency rather than options at this point. Otherwise, it can be used to find Tangle Wire, Winter Orb, more mana rocks, etc.
Reshape Turns our bad artifacts into better ones. I cant believe I didnt see this before. Transmute Artifact is also on the list as a second copy of this.
Steelshaper's Gift A way for us to more consistently find our greaves for Brago
Windfall A hard mulligan on our opponent's keepables early, and later, a way to refill our hand.
Lands
I will list out the nonbasic lands with alternative uses to just producing mana or fetching other lands below
Academy Ruins Helps us recover artifacts other players destroy. I dont get much use out of it, but it's worth having
Buried Ruin Can be used to return an artifact in a pinch, especially when someone tries to exile your graveyard
Command Beacon Because sometimes our general gets killed, alot. In fact, even with some Boots on him, you'll probably still always like to have this as an option when the commander tax, in spite of all of our fast mana, becomes too obnoxious to hardcast.
Ghost Quarter Spooky land that removes Mazes. Despite being able to fly, he cannot solve a Maze.
Strip Mine In all seriousness, Maze of Ith stops Brago cold if he isn't wearing Boots. We need ways to deal with it. In addition, it also helps that it takes care of other pesky lands like Cabal Coffers when we're trying to shut down our opponents' mana base.
Temple of Enlightenment A weaker piece of our landbase, but it allows us to improve our consistency and draws.
Enchantments
Act of Authority Replaced Oblivion Ring for the reason that it exiles the artifact/enchantment forever. The downside? Double white in the mana cost is slightly prohibitive, as well as the fact Oblivion Ring can deal with Planeswalkers and creatures. We never [probably] will use the second effect on the card, since we can blink it each turn.
Aura of Silence Slows our opponents down considerably as they attempt to play their mana rocks/sacrifice outlets. Can be used to kill pesky artifacts and enchantments if necessary.
Grasp of Fate This one is a bit tricky. It's akin to a mass Oblivion Ring effect, hitting each opponent. Now, this is a card you may not want to blink each turn. Its best use is blinking a few problem permanents, and leaving it sit until more opportune targets present themselves.
Land Tax Nearly required in white decks that lack green, it helps us hit the lands we need to cast the cards we need. Commonly we can get really hurt by lacking enough white or blue mana symbols early in the game, and this coming down turn one fixes that. Even better, with the new mulligan rules really hurting many decks' consistencies, this card turns a one land hand with itself into a keeper.
Mystic Remora Brago, by blinking this permanent, removes the drawback. As it stands, your opponents will not be paying 4 for each non-creature spell they play. So it's U to continously draw cards.
Oath of Jace This allows us to draw a massive amount of cards each turn, pitching lands and other worthless cards. While it may not always be useful to blink this, it's worth considering. The second ability is gravy, allowing us each turn to know if blinking it is worthwhile, and moving more important cards up top to be drawn.
Parallax Tide Allows us, with Brago, to exile and return our own lands to play so we can have more colored mana each turn. In addition, with Strionic Resonator, it allows us to exile all of our opponent's lands each turn.
Rhystic Study "Would you like to play 1 for that?" Effecient card advantage, as well as a tax on our opponents. Works exceptionally well with land denial
Spreading Seas Allows us to deal with Maze of Ith and other problem lands, without removing them. It also draws us cards each time we blink it with Brago.
Stasis We're "That guy". Has the added benefit of synergy with Brago and other spells which allow us to untap lands and permanents. Make sure to play this smart, unlike me, and keep Brago untapped. You LOSE your untap step unless you sacrifice it.
Stupefying Touch Cantrip that helps us hose powerful activated abilities!
Planeswalkers
Tezzeret the Seeker This walker is one I will probably never replace. Many planeswalkers work really well with Brago in more casual builds, such as Jace the Mind Sculptor, Teferi, Temporal Adept, etc. The issue you run into is that planeswalkers in EDH tend to need to be protected against multiple opponents, which means their impact needs to be immediate. Tezzeret the Seeker does this well, as he can tutor an artifact to the battlefield for his activation. If blinked by Brago, he can activate again during your second main phase. Since Brago untaps your artifacts with his ability, we will rarely utilize his + ability. Being able to tutor an artifact to the battlefield is just so good with this deck, particularly when multiple combo pieces can be fetched this way and avoid countermagic. Teferi finds artifacts, like our stax pieces, graveyard hate, and ramp. There is absolutely no reason to use his ultimate unless for some reason you can find an easy lethal with it. I've not yet had this scenario pop up.
Instants
Cyclonic Rift Helps us reset the board if we cant maintain the stax lock or if we need to out tempo our opponents. The thing to remember with stax decks is that you're using stax and tempo cards to keep our opponents playing magic at a slower rate than we are while we dig for our win conditions. Given how powerful this card is when overloaded, I see no reason not to include it in this list and it will probably not be cut unless hitting the overload becomes too problematic.
Enlightened Tutor Ideally used to fetch a combo piece if we have the other pieces required to win the game on the spot in our hand. Otherwise, it can be used to grab fast mana like Mana Crypt or Grim Monolith, or stax pieces, like Stasis.
Paradoxical Outcome This card can serve a few purposes, one of which is a way to generate alot of card advantage and dig for combo pieces or answers. It allows us to reset our fast mana which is always a solid strategy. Lastly, it can be used to save us from board wipes.
Swan Song No one sees it coming, and it's great for stopping a counterspell on Brago, an opposing Cyclonic Rift, etc.
Swords to Plowshares A cheap, efficient way to remove problem creatures and generals. Spot removal is sorely needed in this deck. It replaced Reality Acid, as Acid was only good if we were already ahead with Brago and nailing triggers.
Brago, King Eternal is, on the surface, a pretty easy deck to pilot. The tricks come in knowing how to manipulate the stack to save your permanents(abusing Parallax Wave), what to tutor for off Tezzeret the Seeker's -2 ability, etc.
So what is the gameplan? As we discussed above, this is a stax deck. Stax is essentially denying resources, whether that be the typical land denial, or even creature/enchantment/artifact denial. Stax decks are notoriously slow, they dont win quickly like combo decks, and require you to interact with the board. If your opponents have complained that you dont interact enough, play Brago with stax elements to shut them up! The goal of the deck is to either hit the ground running with mana rocks and stax pieces, or we eek out value slowly through permanents that generate value on resolution. We then blink them with Brago to double up on the value, typically untapping our artifact mana and lands to break the parity of our stax effects. The biggest downside to this deck is Brago's converted mana cost, and the fact he needs to connect to a player to blink your permanents, as opposed to just attacking.
Opening Hand and Mulligans
With the change to the mulligan rules, stax and combo decks were hurt pretty badly. Without the ability to sculpt hands with multiple fast mana pieces as well as a stax piece, most stax generals were killed off from the competitive scene for losing too much consistency. Luckily, Brago wasn't hurt as badly as most decks, as having a way to break stax parity in the command zone, as well as only being two colors, means consistency can still be maintained. What I did was I added more mana rocks and ways to draw cards/filter our draws.
So ideally, you want at least two mana sources, with at least one of each U and one W producing sources, so you can cast Brago ASAP. In addition, having permanents to blink is also ideal, particularly mana rocks (Mana Crypt, Fellwar Stone, etc) and creatures that allow us to draw cards, tutor for cards, or filter our topdecks (Sage of Epityr, Trinket Mage, etc). Also be keen on looking out for tutors like Tezzeret the Seeker, Reshape, Enlightened Tutor, etc.
Early Game
Like most other stax decks, we want to see some early fast mana and set up a stax lock. While Brago is our commander, he is not necessary to win. He just allows us to break the stax parity.
When playing Brago, you have two routes to choose at the start of a game
Play stax pieces, mana rocks, and Brago, utilizing Brago to break the stax parity. Cards like Lightning Greaves help Brago get online and break the parity faster. This means we will become archenemy, so be sure to keep the target on your stax pieces and Brago so that your combo pieces can slip under the radar.
Tutor for one or more combo pieces and win. If your opening hand contains a combo piece, and a tutor, we ideally want to chase this plan. You want to find as many mana rocks as possible and stay under the radar until you can win.
We want a blue and a white source so we can cast Brago on time, and we'd ideally like some other permanent to blink for card advantage like Sea Gate Oracle. This accomplishes a few things:
Fast mana allows us to more quickly cast Brago
Fast mana can be blinked by Brago for a second use in Main Phase 2.
Greaves allow us to cast Brago the turn he enters play, as well as protecting him from early removal. Swiftfoot Boots are better, despite the equip cost, as time goes on, so Brago can block as well.
The card advantage engine that can be blinked helps refill our hand so we can take advantage of the fast mana we played earlier.
You should NOT be casting Brago unless you have a reason to. This applies to all phases of the game. You ideally want a source of Haste, and mana rocks/creatures/artifacts/enchantments of value to blink to develop a board state and eventually, lock it down if you choose to lock the board.
Midgame
If we cant win outright with our combos, we need to lock the game down with stax pieces or find those combo pieces now. The reasoning for finding our stax lock pieces, is that we need to lock the board down before our opponents can remove Brago, clear our board, win, etc. This is pretty self explanatory if you're familiar with stax: If you dont lock the board and maintain it, your strategy becomes incredibly weak and will falter, losing you the game. Stax is primarily used as a way for us to stall the game until we can find one of our many infinite combos to win.
In conclusion, the midgame is entirely spent continuously trying to find those combo pieces while distracting the board with Brago, while locking it down, and finding that win condition.
Endgame
Here, we grind the game out underneath our stax effects, or just combo off if we can find Strionic Resonator. Through Brago's ability, we break the parity of the effects, allowing us to choke our opponents out. We tend to use our general + Strionic Resonator to make infinite mana/exile everyones lands/make infinite creature tokens/etc.
Stolen from cobblepot on tappedout.com
Parallax Tide and other objects that have two separate exile and return abilities can be exploited with some simple use of the stack. If the return ability resolves before its corresponding exile ability, there will be nothing to remove and when the enters ability resolves the target will be permanently exiled.
The easiest way to make this happen is to hit with Brago and activate Parallax in response so your stack looks like this:
Now you've got the return trigger ready to resolve with nothing to return. Then when you let the exile activations resolve, their targets will be exiled forever.
Footpad for Exarch seems reasonable. Half the mana cost for the same basic effect: wins the game with Strionic and Brago. Trophy Mage is a test slot to find stax pieces.
I've yet to test things, but Brigand isn't necessary. It's too costly for its effect and we dont need 3 Rishadan creatures. 2 is plenty in most scenarios. My safest pick is to keep playing for early game consistency. I like to play around with 32-34 lands. I hate taking mulligans, as I tend to go to 4-5 typically and it sets me back bigly. In addition, there havent been many new cards from newer sets worth trying in a build this competitive.
I now have a copy of RotG, so it's time to run it. I may reinclude mentor of the meek, but I really wanna make room for Thalia next. Sage has been a flex slot.
I want to test PO as a way to reset our fast mana and draw a bunch of cards. It can also help save our board in a pinch. Jace has been alright in the few games I've landed him. I've never felt he was anything more than a way to help me dig deeper (which I want Ancestral Knowledge in here to do over Jace) or to bounce problem creatures. Plus with how fragile planeswalkers are in general, he typically doesnt generate a ton of value before being picked off. Tezz 1.0 will always be our #1 walker and the baseline for what we expect.
Pithing Needle enters, thanks to a helpful suggestion by a fellow MTGsalvation member, as a way to deal with Maze of Ith without resorting to subpar choices. Geddon has never come up as a good play, and it may come back to the deck, but as it stands, we rarely brick and feel like "geddon would help here". We usually combo off or lose before it's relevant. It has the added synergy of being able to be reset by Brago, or hitting a multitude of other problematic permanents.
Ok well, I wanna add Sage back in sometime for testing, but Statuary is a priority. It turns all of our artifacts, the boots, stax effects, etc, all into mana rocks.
Treachery is one of those fun cards I personally get a ton of enjoyment out of, but when I need to make a competitive deck better, I look at two of three things
Does this make my deck faster/more consistent?
Does this help me achieve my wincons?
The card is too above curve for the deck, and clogs my hand.
Since this definitely fits all three, it can be safely removed. Ghost quarter is different. My meta has less Maze of Ith lately, and for now, I'm gonna test sans Maze. I run so many colorless lands it's tough to make cuts, and I wanna hit my colors, so I cut the weakest colorless land. In addition, since Treachery was cut, Pilgrim can only tutor up Spreading Seas, which while it isn't totally useless, it's slow and subpar. So we put in a placeholder for now, a card that is innocuous and draws us cards.
This pains me to do, but Teferi costs alot and does little for how fast we want this deck to be going. His best scenario is already being ahead on mana rocks/board, and being a force multiplier. My biggest troubles are hitting an early, consistent Brago with Greaves. Gift helps to fix this.
Found that kismet is incredibly difficult to cast, and awkward to use. It helps with a Stasis lock, but since Stasis lock isn't our primary goal, but a helpful lock, this piece had to go. Sphere comes in as another artifact for Mox Opal, and I'd also like to get an Inventors' Fair to also synergize. But most importantly, Sphere is an efficient taxing piece, particularly alongside Rhystic Study.
Helm and Rest were added as another wincon, rather than just burning our opponents out via infinite with Resonator. They replace both impersonators. They performed well, but honestly dont help our gameplan much. We also need more removal that isnt contigent on Brago, so Reality Acid is removed for Swords to Plowshares. Finally, Seat was removed for another dual land.
Pains me to do, as there are plenty of other possible cuts that are equally as viable, but Dispacer is a huge mana investment that doesnt win us the game or get us closer. It just helps us get there, somewhat, and when we need a mana dump. I just dont think it's what we're looking for. It hasnt tested well, and I'm not a fan, especially when we are looking to add more and more mana rocks to the deck.
So more dramatic changes. Mox wasnt doing me any favors except the occasional early Brago, and I havent been impressed with it. I cant even blink it. It's no better than a Lotus petal for what its usually used for. It is replaced by Prismatic Lens, again, for more mana sources and color fixing, without disadvantage.
Expedition Map for Etherium sculptor to help the early game or while under stax effects. Map was ok for early color fixing or ramp, but it was extremely slow with no huge priority targets.
Master of Waves for Armageddon. Master of Waves has never worked out and here's why: whenever I ever get a board worth abusing with Brago, and land master of waves or similar creatures, it gets wiped before I can really hurt people. Geddon helps us close out games in a real way.
Finally Meekstone for the final cutpurse. Meekstone doesnt really do much except draw hate and doesnt stop them from slamming you in the first place.
Both Embargo and Kismet draw hate, but Embargo keeps things tapped down and helps me secure the board without wiping it, keeping mana rocks tapped down, creatures tapped down, and gives my opponents' one chance to make their new spells worthwhile. The lifeloss worries me, but we should combo kill before them.
Explorer again leaves for Land Tax. It's just better
Open the Armory comes in to find boots early. Mother of Runes is replaced as her purpose was to be a very clunky, but similar effect.
Sea Gate Oracle was underperforming. While it does help me dig, it's expensive, and a creature, and Stupefying touch comes down a turn earlier and has the added ability of neutering combo creatures!
Blind doesnt do enough in EDH. What we really want is another Kismet effect like Frozen Aether. But I also need a way to find Cyclonic Rift or a tutor to win at whim.
Oreskos comes in for Prism since they do pretty much the same thing. It's also a stand in for Land Tax at the moment.
Reflector Mage for Displacement Wave, as it'll hit more relevant targets, with the downside being the sorcery speed. However Brago's untapping can make up for that. Mage also would hit one dude at a time, and while sometimes that can be helpful, it merely slows down specific strategies. And those strategies are usually running Boots to prevent this one.
Arbiter for Karn, as I'm aiming for consistency at the moment. I'll keep Karn as a maybe to see how my current wincons work out. Arbiter reduces the cost of our spells and further taxes our opponents!
You know what's important? Getting Brago out with Haste. You know what's more important? Hitting land drops and not getting color screwed. Happening too much lately and I'm sick of it. Prism also comes in to help with this, as well as a cantrip engine much like Touch is. I've yet to test Touch, but it's not hurting me in my meta so much to run it yet.
WW comes in as another way for us to avoid early, or midgame mana screw. Or even better, as a way to keep Stasis going, or finding Academy Ruins... etc. Mulldrifter is just too slow for its effect. It's effect can be replicated on other permanents for better effect.
Battlesphere has been too slow or a dead card for me. While I can see him returning, for now, let's try out the most broken planeswalker to ever be printed to help us with removal, card advantage, etc.
Mentor replaces Lavinia as more card draw. For 2 mana, when Brago and him reenter play, you can draw two cards. Preeeety solid. Lavinia is being thrown to the maybeboard since her effect mostly is great while we are ahead. Plus, with our current strategy, we either completely lock them down, or were not in control of the board. She doesnt do much more than what our effects normally do except by shutting off mana rocks under Winter Orb.
Loxodon comes in as another lock piece, replacing Spine. Spine was replaced functionally by Karn. Karn is much more easily removed, but Spine wasnt a wincon in and of itself like Karn can be, and many times clogs hands due to many ineligible targets.
Stupifying Touch replaces Wrath of God, at least for now. I wanted to replace it with Sunblast Angel, but I am unsure of how key that would really be. I need to test and see how consistently I can tap down their dudes to see if it's worthy of inclusion. Any card CMC5+ needs to be significant. Back to Touch, it's card draw, while shutting down strategies like Hermit Druid, Mayael, etc, who have powerful activated abilities. Worst case, it's a tech piece that cantrips, and we need card advantage. UWx decks lose steam fast if they're focused without a stream of card draw.
Flickerwisp, otherwise a solid choice, gets removed for Muddle. Muddle serves two important purposes: tutoring out Strionic Resonator, Cyclonic Rift, etc, but also in a pinch, a counterspell to stop, say, an opposing rift.
Per the other post, Bident for Windfall, a proper way to refill our hands and force mulligans.
Dupe was another tech piece that usually ends up doing nothing, or I dont want to see him. For the one out of ten games he's incredibly useful, I'd rather lock down some lands and get my stax online, which along with mana rocks, is something I struggle with as well. The deck needs to focus on its gameplan, and all of these cute side plans and tech pieces dont help that!
Yeah, a more casual card, but I'm finding I'm still never seeing my Greaves or Boots to get Brago online, and then keep up the pressure and still have gas. In removing many of the chaff, alot of my cantrips also got cut, so I think adding more gas in should work wonders. Bident is a stand-in until I find something better. While skyship can find me key things, it's incredibly costly as expected, and isn't helping me yet. Perhaps after more tweaks. edit: I mean to add Windfall in its place, but I only have one copy at this time and it's in Mizzix.
Crypt - It came up so rarely that I'd not only have this, but had a graveyard to hate that would have changed the course of the game. If we're using this, we're probably losing. Or we have Tezzeret out, and we should be winning.
Reshape - Turns our bad artifacts into better ones. I cant believe I didnt see this before. Transmute Artifact is also on the list!
Neurok Stealthsuit - Turns out this can work, but it's not what I want at this time.
Expedition Map - This I like, as Academy Ruins is a high priority target, as well as being useful at fetching out other key nonbasic lands like Strip Mine or Ancient Tomb
Cloud - Wasn't on par with other untappers or effects in the deck, being largely just a wasted card. I wont miss seeing it cut for better cards.
Stealsuit - Back to the maybeboard. Just isn't solid enough for me to warrant keeping it in at this time. The lack of Haste is the biggest downside.
Tower - Doesnt come up enough to warrant the mana screw it puts me through.
Venser for Karn. Venser has never really been played or needed, but he provides great utility when he is. However, being so niche, he is going back to the Maybeboard. Karn provides us immediate removal and is a huge threat to the board, particularly if we can ultimate him.
Oath of Gideon has been subpar. I figured the tokens would be a fun theme and having extra loyalty on my walkers is useful, but not useful enough. It will sit in the maybeboard as well for now. It is replaced by Fabricate, to find us the Boots we need early, as I have played too many games lately with the new mulligan rule screwing over otherwise solid hands. We need more consistency rather than options at this point.
Oreskos will be replaced with Tithe eventually, or another card like Oath of Gideon. But for now, I'm feeling the hurt of the new mulligan rule, especially since I cant keep solid 2 lands, 2 rock hands anymore.
Tamiyo, while she seemed incredible here, just clogs up my hand. For now, I'd rather have an overcosted Demonic Tutor to grab one thing at a time, also giving me plays for my second main. I still feel as if we need a Fabricate in here, as finding the early Lightning Greaves is key. In addition, more mana rocks, as I find more underperforming cards.
I still struggle against single target removal effects and no amount of excess card draw and cute effects will prevent that, but only help once we're ahead. We have plenty of draw effects now and ways to further blink those, so I think I'm fine dropping these. Stealthsuit is another way to protect Brago, and at instant speed if necessary, with the biggest drawback being he cant blink himself. Lens helps us ramp and filter mana, and finally Abolisher. I've been wanting one for months and finally got one via Pucatrade. He will help even further if we are missing Boots.
4/29/2016
Removed: Render Silent
Removed: Island
Added: Gilded Lotus
Added: Rishadan Footpad
Prid3 pointed out that Render Silent wasnt going to completely ruin a combo player's game. I was mostly using it to stop Kharador, but the deck has gotten stronger locks sicne then. With all of the land stax we run, time to add some powerful colored mana effects. Gilded Lotus comes back in.
Less pointless draw and protection, more stax. This is mostly due to the fact Brago is mostly unblockable anyway in this format, and most creatures cannot kill him with abilities to begin with. If we need to draw more cards, I can add in Wall of Omens or other cards that do the same. In addition, the Auras make it so that Brago cannot blink himself without losing the Aura to another creature, or sacrificing it.
Per Gatherer:
5/29/2014 If you exile an Aura this way, the player who will control it when it enters the battlefield chooses what it will enchant at that time. That player may choose any player or permanent that Aura could enchant. However, the Aura can’t enter the battlefield enchanting a permanent that enters the battlefield at the same time.
Winter Orb is a card I should have been including since the beginning due to Tezzeret being able to find it. Kismet is really rough for opponents to deal with. If it works out, I may drop something else for Frozen Aether.
The only downside here is missing out on targets for Heloid's Pilgrim, but that's fine! We still have 3 very powerful Auras.
4/11/2016
Added: Heliod's Pilgrim
Added: Aura of Silence
Removed: Nevermaker
Removed: Llawan, Cephalid Empress
So the decision here was to remove a few silver bullets for speed and more lockdown/removal. Aura of Silence has an immediate effect, and can be used to remove problems if they arise. Pilgrim fetches Protection for Brago, as well as Treachery (AND I LOVE THAT CARD). Adding more auras will only get better with time.
Nevermaker is... ok. It's nowhere near as good as Reality Acid and it costs 1 more. While one could abuse it with additional flicker effects... it just isnt what I want right now. Putting a permanent on the top of its owner's library is great and all... but it merely slows them down for a turn. Or if it has a relevant ETB/LTB effect, we allow them to abuse it further. Llawan was a fun tech piece when everyone was playing UG, but now I see more colorless decks/BG decks. While it could make another appearance (as it's effect is DEVASTATING, I'd rather have more tutors and more stax pieces that arent silver bullets to scenarios that dont always occur.
3/25/2016
Removed: Torpor Orb
Added: Strionic Resonator
Torpor Orb helps shut down decks that could otherwise utilize ETB creatures to ruin our day, but Resonator helps me go infinite or create such an unstoppable board that honestly, maybe more power is worth it. I also have been including more ETB creatures lately, so it's gotten to be more of a double edged sword.
Was confused on the ruling for Master, it is abusable by Brago, so it's back in. Council's Judgement is a non-permanent, and with the Manifest cards and Brago's ability, I prefer permanents! I also have enough artifact/enchantment hate now I think. Stream is for Oreskos Explorer/Fetches to find!
Obvious and easy upgrade, just a $10 upgrade. It does exactly what the Drake did, with the benefit of taking any juicy creatures our opponents' control. Drake was always ok, and both suffer from board wipes ruining my fun.
I feel like this is a huge mistake given the awesomeness of 3/3 first striking golems as attackers and blockers, but brigand is worth testing as a way to close out games faster.
Ramp replaces protection. I just need to acquire Prairie Stream now. Propaganda almost never comes up, but it may make another appearance.
Cant abuse the exile of O Ring, so it was a simple temporary removal spell. Now, we can have a strictly better version that hits all players. Easy change.
Turns out budget beats out mythic rarity. 2/1's are nice, but battlesphere deals damage to the dome really hard, and continues to amass tokens as blockers, attackers, or just to buff his direct damage. Waves's issue was a rules one: the original elementals die when he flickers. While increasing the curve does suck, we have the mana rocks for him (EDIT: TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG HERE
We have enough hate now, time to keep people down, and gain some life while were at it. Lowers the curve a good bit as well.
2/13/2016
Removed: Burnished Hart
Removed: Mnemonic Wall
Added: Mother of Runes
Added: Sea Gate Oracle
I want more blinkable creatures. Hart is also pretty iffy. In running more draw in the deck as of late, I shouldnt need this. Mother is another way to protect my own creatures, particularly Brago. As pointed out on Salvation, I have few targets for the Wall, and Archeomancer is stricly better (besides not having a big butt). But as I want to phase out Instants/Sorceries, it's not that great. Was mostly used to recover my Tutor or Rift. Oracle gives me more draw and filtering, especially early on.
2/10/2016
Removed: Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Added: Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Finally got my hands on one! Well, I mean both of these are hard to find in trade binders now. But Tamiyo works much better than Elspeth here. She mostly made soliders and I never made it to her ult. It's okay. Getting there was the difficult part. With Tamiyo I can draw cards, and then tap down mean permanents on the same turn! Incredible compared to just generating 1/1's or buffing Brago slightly. Her emblem is not necessarily any easier to hit, but her +1 helps get there, and gives us incredible inevitability outside of a mass exile. She is more costly, but that's fine. She's overall too synergistic.
2/5/2016
Removed: Disenchant
Removed: Ichor Wellspring
Removed: Plains
Added: Strip Mine
Added: Spreading Seas
Added: Tormod's Crypt
I love disenchant. but i now run enough artifact/enchantment hate. If i needed more, Aura of Silence is a possibility. Seas Works much much better than Ichor Wellspring as a blinkable target, turning off problem lands like Maze of Ith, Urborg, Cabal Coffers, etc. Only thing is Tezz cant find it, but really, that wasnt an issue to begin with Strip Mine to deal with Maze of Ith and friends.
Prior to keeping track on tapped out:
Removed: Calciform Pools
Removed: Sensei's Divining Top
Removed: Jace Beleran
Added: Duplicant
Added: Command Beacon
Added: Ghost Quarter
Need more lands, and another way to quickly cast Brago if he gets killed too many times. Top doesnt do much here, I want raw cards, rarley do I wanna spin the top turn after turn when I could be digging instead. I feel top is best in decks with ways to abuse it and we dont here. Much like Fetchlands, it's something I cram into every deck until I realize its just a waste, convincing myself it's good. I need more ways to deal with Maze of Ith and friends. The pools were downright useless without ways to untap them repeatedly, as putting aside two lands for a few turns to come out ahead on one important turn never, ever came up. I have Oath of Jace and other ways to blink to draw cards that dont draw as much attention and cause hate. He's also difficult to cast early on. Duplicant further helps me deal with the rising amount of big mana Eldrazi decks. (JACE MAY COME BACK)
Less pointless draw, more stax. This is mostly due to the fact Brago is mostly unblockable anyway. If we need more cards, I can add in Wall of Omens and friends. The unblockable effect has never been useful to me. Winter Orb is a card I should have been including since the beginning due to Tezzeret being able to find it. Kismet is really rough for opponents to deal with. If it works out, I may drop something else for Frozen Aether.
The only downside here is missing out on targets for Heloid's Pilgrim, but that's fine!
gromgrom this is a deck I have been building for a bit now and I am very excited to see how to keeps going. I have a question for you I see no mass land destruction are you just not going that far into it or was it just not needed with all the stax?
Doesn't blinking Grasp of Fate just release all the things exiled with it?
The card works differently than Oblivion Ring. There is not second trigger to stack, if I read it right.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
gromgrom this is a deck I have been building for a bit now and I am very excited to see how to keeps going. I have a question for you I see no mass land destruction are you just not going that far into it or was it just not needed with all the stax?
You know, it's a question I ask myself the more I tune the deck: Does it need Geddon? I personally want to shy away from it, given my Daretti deck goes and does exactly that, so this is more Stax-Lite to that effect. While we have ways to exile all of their lands via Parallax Wave + Brago + Strionic Resonator. This desk more or less aims to land a Stasis/Winter Orb and then control the game from there. A different form of stax. I enjoy all flavors, and play the Grave Pact creature based attrition with Meren.
@gromgrom I can very much understand making a great deck but wanting it to be different from your others for sure. On mobile right now so I can't look and ask all the questions I want but I do have one. Have you tried thought knot seer? With stronic and 2+ rock you get inf blinks and turns him into a win condition (exile all your opponents decks)
@gromgrom I can very much understand making a great deck but wanting it to be different from your others for sure. On mobile right now so I can't look and ask all the questions I want but I do have one. Have you tried thought knot seer? With stronic and 2+ rock you get inf blinks and turns him into a win condition (exile all your opponents decks)
Well thank you! Yeah it was nothing against your suggestion as that is ONE of the BEST suggestions honestly to improve it, and i'm trying to shy away from it
I have not, mostly because he would be best when i can go infinite, although it would be a good way to strip hands of cards to stop me!
@gromgrom I can very much understand making a great deck but wanting it to be different from your others for sure. On mobile right now so I can't look and ask all the questions I want but I do have one. Have you tried thought knot seer? With stronic and 2+ rock you get inf blinks and turns him into a win condition (exile all your opponents decks)
Well thank you! Yeah it was nothing against your suggestion as that is ONE of the BEST suggestions honestly to improve it, and i'm trying to shy away from it
I have not, mostly because he would be best when i can go infinite, although it would be a good way to strip hands of cards to stop me!
I did not take it personal at all but I very much understand where your coming from (trying to build a traitor King deck but it keeps feeling to much like Meren).
Thought knoght is good for a few things as you can semi team up with one person giving them the card draws while you strip a common enemy's hand apart. Also lets to eat up some stuff you might otherwise not have an answer for before it hits play the win condition is just icing.
Trinsphere have you played around with it any? Really cramps blues style to a halt an shuts down storm in their tracks. I feel this one is a meta call for sure (aka it's great in mine)
@gromgrom I can very much understand making a great deck but wanting it to be different from your others for sure. On mobile right now so I can't look and ask all the questions I want but I do have one. Have you tried thought knot seer? With stronic and 2+ rock you get inf blinks and turns him into a win condition (exile all your opponents decks)
Well thank you! Yeah it was nothing against your suggestion as that is ONE of the BEST suggestions honestly to improve it, and i'm trying to shy away from it
I have not, mostly because he would be best when i can go infinite, although it would be a good way to strip hands of cards to stop me!
I did not take it personal at all but I very much understand where your coming from (trying to build a traitor King deck but it keeps feeling to much like Meren).
Thought knoght is good for a few things as you can semi team up with one person giving them the card draws while you strip a common enemy's hand apart. Also lets to eat up some stuff you might otherwise not have an answer for before it hits play the win condition is just icing.
Trinsphere have you played around with it any? Really cramps blues style to a halt an shuts down storm in their tracks. I feel this one is a meta call for sure (aka it's great in mine)
I've not thought to include Trinisphere yet! I will have to add that to the list, as it really helps us maintain the lock once we have winter/static orb/statis down!
Yeah Trinisphere really helps hold that lock in place once you got and even helps shut down "free" spells. I see your not running man-o-war or creature Venser either. I do not even use them to bounce opponents creature most of the time but my own manfisted sorcery's and instants to my hand after I blink the lightform/mistform back into place to get another card. Hokori dust Drinker really helps you have fun while no else does too by giving you another land lock out but its on a creature and you can't tutor it up like you can winter orb.
Not gonna lie I like the wellspring in your deck and I think its worth trying out in mine as another way to ramp.
Yeah Trinisphere really helps hold that lock in place once you got and even helps shut down "free" spells. I see your not running man-o-war or creature Venser either. I do not even use them to bounce opponents creature most of the time but my own manfisted sorcery's and instants to my hand after I blink the lightform/mistform back into place to get another card. Hokori dust Drinker really helps you have fun while no else does too by giving you another land lock out but its on a creature and you can't tutor it up like you can winter orb.
Not gonna lie I like the wellspring in your deck and I think its worth trying out in mine as another way to ramp.
I used to run many of them. Now it's mostly Reflector Mage and Lavina. I'm still trying to figure out the right amount of creatures and the configuration. Oreskos may get dropped for more Man o War effects. I was mostly trying to lower the curve and make it faster and faster Many times I found bouncing creatures not incredibly strong, or there werent many targets. Really was more about having more relevant effects during most games.
Wellspring is great to find lands, and synergizes with the Oath of Jace that lets us pitch the excess lands. Alternatively it'd be great with MLD.
Why field cute value cards like Unquestioned Authority when things like Neurok Stealthsuit and Whispersilk Cloak are what the deck actually needs? If Brago is connecting with people then you're easily winning and you don't need to worry about drawing a couple of extra cards along the way. It's removal, not creatures, that you need to worry about.
Why field cute value cards like Unquestioned Authority when things like Neurok Stealthsuit and Whispersilk Cloak are what the deck actually needs? If Brago is connecting with people then you're easily winning and you don't need to worry about drawing a couple of extra cards along the way. It's removal, not creatures, that you need to worry about.
Thank you for the post Prid3! I loved your Daretti stax list in the original thread, and I'm sorry the posters there werent receptive to it.
You're right about Render Silence. It was mostly a throw in as a glorified cancel to stop combos off the Kharadors in our meta. I havent really cared for it. I was testing the Rishadan Brigand. He did pretty well for me so far. In addition, the cute stuff like Unquestioned Authority were removed, I just forgot to update the list above.
Per above, I want to avoid MLD unless it's off of combos, since my Daretti deck already does that. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll start trying to acquire those.
Thank you for the post Prid3! I loved your Daretti stax list in the original thread, and I'm sorry the posters there werent receptive to it.
Honestly I don't know if I ever checked back in the threat after posting it. That was a rough shell that I was considering and my final list deviated significantly from what I proposed at the time. I mostly just wanted a "permanent" place to store the deck and if someone happened to suggest a cool card for the deck then hey, free bonus. I typically play very competitive decks which don't resonate well with most people but my meta is competitive so it's not a big deal to me. I had to drop the deck after Partial Paris was dropped since no more turn 1-2 Darettis.
My bad, I thought I read through your entire OP but I guessed I missed the part when you said MLD was banned.
Thank you for the post Prid3! I loved your Daretti stax list in the original thread, and I'm sorry the posters there werent receptive to it.
Honestly I don't know if I ever checked back in the threat after posting it. That was a rough shell that I was considering and my final list deviated significantly from what I proposed at the time. I mostly just wanted a "permanent" place to store the deck and if someone happened to suggest a cool card for the deck the hey, free bonus. I typically play very competitive decks which don't resonate well with most people but my meta is competitive so it's not a big deal to me.
My bad, I thought I read through your entire OP but I guessed I missed the part when you said MLD was banned.
Ahh, no worries. They didnt take kindly to it. It's why I've really not posted much to it anymore since the topic and posters are more concerned with the 75% valuetown Daretti as opposed to stax and MLD.
While MLD isnt banned, it's looked down upon and I want to only keep one deck with it, Daretti, at this time. However that may change if the meta keeps powering up.
Thank you again for your suggestions. If nothing else, you make me reevaluate things better than other posters due to the power level you play at and your experience with it. (no offense to other posters)
Ahh, no worries. They didnt take kindly to it. It's why I've really not posted much to it anymore since the topic and posters are more concerned with the 75% valuetown Daretti as opposed to stax and MLD.
Oh I don't hold it over anyone but I mean if I'm facing turn ~4 win decks then I need to fielding one myself or I'm just boned. I understand that's not everyone's cup of tea but that's fine. To each their own.
Thank you again for your suggestions. If nothing else, you make me reevaluate things better than other posters due to the power level you play at and your experience with it. (no offense to other posters)
For what it's worth this is the Artifact-base of my current Brago deck. As you can see I go way deeper on mana producing Artifacts to really abuse the heck out of Brago and to ensure I have access to "limitless" mana on each of my turns. Might give you some ideas to change some numbers to get more bang for your buck. Basically your current deck has too many lands and too few rocks since rocks are strictly better when you have Brago blinking them and (for example) a Winter Orb in play.
EDIT: Also it probably goes without saying that Skyship Weatherlight is an over-costed "Demonic Tutor" since the idea is to fetch one card then blink it as needed. I assume that you gathered as much but just for anyone else who was curious. Those cards might seem "bad" and in a normal deck they would be but with Brago + mana rocks you have tons of mana to fool around with, especially once you find something like Grim Monolith. Diabolic Tutor is decent when you get an unlimited amount that only cost you 1 card total and no one else can cast their spells.
Ahh, no worries. They didnt take kindly to it. It's why I've really not posted much to it anymore since the topic and posters are more concerned with the 75% valuetown Daretti as opposed to stax and MLD.
Oh I don't hold it over anyone but I mean if I'm facing turn ~4 win decks then I need to fielding one myself or I'm just boned. I understand that's not everyone's cup of tea but that's fine. To each their own.
Thank you again for your suggestions. If nothing else, you make me reevaluate things better than other posters due to the power level you play at and your experience with it. (no offense to other posters)
For what it's worth this is the Artifact-base of my current Brago deck. As you can see I go way deeper on mana producing Artifacts to really abuse the heck out of Brago and to ensure I have access to "limitless" mana on each of my turns. Might give you some ideas to change some numbers to get more bang for your buck. Basically your current deck has too many lands and too few rocks since rocks are strictly better when you have Brago blinking them and (for example) a Winter Orb in play.
EDIT: Also it probably goes without saying that Skyship Weatherlight is an over-costed "Demonic Tutor" since the idea is to fetch one card then blink it as needed. I assume that you gathered as much but just for anyone else who was curious. Those cards might seem "bad" and in a normal deck they would be but with Brago + mana rocks you have tons of mana to fool around with, especially once you find something like Grim Monolith. Diabolic Tutor is decent when you get an unlimited amount that only cost you 1 card total and no one else can cast their spells.
Damn man! Thanks for posting that for me. I'll be sure to pick up/proxy a few of those cards in since theyre currently in Stax Daretti. Just worry about hitting those early lands haha!
Updated the OP with better card descriptions, a maybeboard, mulligans and opening hands, and reformatted many sections. (THERE'S A TABLE OF CONTENTS TOO)
I still struggle against single target removal effects and no amount of excess card draw and cute effects will prevent that, but only help once we're ahead. We have plenty of draw effects now and ways to further blink those, so I think I'm fine dropping these. Stealthsuit is another way to protect Brago, and at instant speed if necessary, with the biggest drawback being he cant blink himself. Lens helps us ramp and filter mana, and finally Abolisher. I've been wanting one for months and finally got one via Pucatrade. He will help even further if we are missing Boots.
Tamiyo, while she seemed incredible here, just clogs up my hand. For now, I'd rather have an overcosted Demonic Tutor to grab one thing at a time, also giving me plays for my second main. I still feel as if we need a Fabricate in here, as finding the early Lightning Greaves is key. In addition, more mana rocks, as I find more underperforming cards.
Are you currently running Teferi, Temporal Archmage? He is an absolute HOUSE in Staxx, and pretty dang awesome in Brago Staxx. I am unsure of your current and most updated list, but playing Rishadan Footpad, Rishadan Brigamd,as a combined team compliment Staxx quite well. I love tons of rocks like Prid3, but then again I also play Armageddon as well and Parallax Wave. If you need to just protect Brago, and I think neurok stealthsuit is your best bet as you already seem to know lol.
Are you currently running Teferi, Temporal Archmage? He is an absolute HOUSE in Staxx, and pretty dang awesome in Brago Staxx. I am unsure of your current and most updated list, but playing Rishadan Footpad, Rishadan Brigamd,as a combined team compliment Staxx quite well. I love tons of rocks like Prid3, but then again I also play Armageddon as well and Parallax Wave. If you need to just protect Brago, and I think neurok stealthsuit is your best bet as you already seem to know lol.
Teferi is in the decklist posted in the main post.
I am curious, however, if there's any particular reason that Karn Liberated isn't in the list. He's pretty absurd.
Are you currently running Teferi, Temporal Archmage? He is an absolute HOUSE in Staxx, and pretty dang awesome in Brago Staxx. I am unsure of your current and most updated list, but playing Rishadan Footpad, Rishadan Brigamd,as a combined team compliment Staxx quite well. I love tons of rocks like Prid3, but then again I also play Armageddon as well and Parallax Wave. If you need to just protect Brago, and I think neurok stealthsuit is your best bet as you already seem to know lol.
Teferi is in the decklist posted in the main post.
I am curious, however, if there's any particular reason that Karn Liberated isn't in the list. He's pretty absurd.
Mostly wanting to keep the curve low. I cut Tamiyo, the Moon Sage for that reason. Where Teferi immediately can generate me value,
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage requires a specific board I can take advantage of, or if I'm already ahead. I can commonly get hands and draws without my relevant tutors for my fast mana, so I'm still working out those kinks. Karn is a house, I agree, and I have a copy! He is on the maybeboard, even if he isnt in the OP.
It would seem that Oreskos Explorer would provide quickly diminishing value off of repeated flickering, assuming that you plan to play the fetched lands. A Scroll Rack could turn him into a pseudo-Parfait card advantage engine, but it's not likely you'll have both on board. I guess neither is really bad by themselves, just sort of, eh, low-impact. Hmm.
Another option is vanilla-but-efficient Tithe, giving similar initial value as the Explorer for one less mana. Great in the opening hand to smooth mana problems. Later in the game it's not so good, but neither is the explorer. Being an instant, there's some niche cases where you can Tithe in response to cracking a fetch (one less land for you, temporarily). Speaking of: more fetches?
Cursed Totem? This might be a meta call, but I tend to see a lot of elf-driven decks, which are more than happy living with orb / staxy effects on board. The only affected creatures in your list are the Eldrazi Displacer and Mother of Runes (and she's in a test slot anyway, right?).
Back to Basics looks viable with your manabase. Also likes more fetches.
Has Oath of Gideon been useful for you? It looks marginal. Also, is Venser, the Sojourner worth the 5 mana? He seems kind of win-more from the comfortable vantage of my armchair. Curious as to how he's performed for you.
I've been playing with your list, gromgrom, and it performs amazingly well. I currently run a budget Brago build and have been wanting to upgrade it, and I have to say this will be my starting point.
After playing several games with it I'm not sure how I feel about Skyship Weatherlight. It sounded like a neat idea when I first saw it, but even with all the mana ramp I feel like it takes quite a long time to get to where I want to prioritize using it. Generally speaking, cards like this I want to use on the same turn casting them, because (and this was my experience in testing this build) they don't tend to stick around long, and hardly ever more until the table wheels back around to me. For Skyship that usually turns into an 8 mana investment for one card, not including if I really need to cast that card. I had at least two games where Krosan Grip resulted in a card being stuck in exile, which was unfortunate.
I've been considering running Tamiyo's Journal and Fleeting Memories as a companion to it. Clues for draw that could be a tutor every other turn doesn't seem bad, at all.a
Table of Contents
Introduction
Why Brago?
Alternative Commanders
Decklist
Card Options
Strategy
Changelog
Why should you play Brago?
Brago, King Eternal is a really enjoyable general that rewards you for building around his titular ability. When he connects with a player; and that isn't difficult with a Flying creature, you may exile any number of non-land permanents you control, then return them to play. This allows you to trigger the "Enter the Battlefield" and "Leaves the Battlefield" abilities of your non-land permanents. If you blink mana rocks such as Gilded Lotus, they return to play untapped! This is almost like having an extra turn every time he connects with an opponent! While we do not run these cards anymore, cards like Cloudform will return the manifested card to play face up, for free! In addition, if you blink any morphed creatures you control, they also return to play face up! Knowing the rules on Brago's ability is important to getting the most mileage out of him as a commander.
But winning the game is more than ramping and flickering cards to cantrip once a turn. We should be either using these flicker effects to damage our opponents, find an infinite combo, lock the board down, etc. The beauty of Brago is that Wizards has printed and will continue to print more and more cards that benefit this strategy!
There are many ways to build around Brago, and I will list some of the popular themes below
1x Azorius Signet
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Cursed Totem
1x Everflowing Chalice
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Helm of Obedience
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Mind Stone
1x Mox Opal
1x Mycosynth Wellspring
1x Pithing Needle
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Sol Ring
1x Sphere of Resistance
1x Static Orb
1x Strionic Resonator
1x Swiftfoot Boots
1x Talisman of Progress
1x Tangle Wire
1x Thought Vessel
1x Tsabo's Web
1x Voltaic Key
1x Winter Orb
Instant (8)
1x Cyclonic Rift
1x Enlightened Tutor
1x Muddle the Mixture
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Paradoxical Outcome
1x Swan Song
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Whir of Invention
1x Tezzeret the Seeker
Land (33)
1x Academy Ruins
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Ancient Tomb
1x City of Brass
1x Command Beacon
1x Command Tower
1x Flooded Strand
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Inventors' Fair
5x Island
1x Marsh Flats
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Nimbus Maze
5x Plains
1x Polluted Delta
1x Prairie Stream
1x Reflecting Pool
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Seachrome Coast
1x Skycloud Expanse
1x Strip Mine
1x Temple of Enlightenment
1x Tundra
1x Windswept Heath
Creature (13)
1x Augury Owl
1x Aven Mindcensor
1x Grand Abolisher
1x Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
1x Inquisitor Exarch
1x Recruiter of the Guard
1x Rishadan Cutpurse
1x Sun Titan
1x Trinket Mage
1x Trophy Mage
1x Wall of Omens
1x Weathered Wayfarer
1x Act of Authority
1x Aura of Silence
1x Grasp of Fate
1x Land Tax
1x Mystic Remora
1x Oath of Jace
1x Parallax Tide
1x Rest in Peace
1x Rhystic Study
1x Rising Waters
1x Spreading Seas
1x Stasis
1x Stupefying Touch
Sorcery (5)
1x Fabricate
1x Open the Armory
1x Reshape
1x Steelshaper's Gift
1x Windfall
Strategy
8/5/2017
Removed:
[card]Rishadan Footpad
Inspiring Statuary
[/cards]
Added:
[card]Inquisitor Exarch
Trophy Mage[/cards]
Footpad for Exarch seems reasonable. Half the mana cost for the same basic effect: wins the game with Strionic and Brago. Trophy Mage is a test slot to find stax pieces.
7/25/2017
Removed:
Rishadan Brigand
Added:
Plains
I've yet to test things, but Brigand isn't necessary. It's too costly for its effect and we dont need 3 Rishadan creatures. 2 is plenty in most scenarios. My safest pick is to keep playing for early game consistency. I like to play around with 32-34 lands. I hate taking mulligans, as I tend to go to 4-5 typically and it sets me back bigly. In addition, there havent been many new cards from newer sets worth trying in a build this competitive.
5/11/2017
Removed:
Sage of Epityr
Added:
Recruiter of the Guard
I now have a copy of RotG, so it's time to run it. I may reinclude mentor of the meek, but I really wanna make room for Thalia next. Sage has been a flex slot.
3/5/2017
Removed:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Added:
Paradoxical Outcome
I want to test PO as a way to reset our fast mana and draw a bunch of cards. It can also help save our board in a pinch. Jace has been alright in the few games I've landed him. I've never felt he was anything more than a way to help me dig deeper (which I want Ancestral Knowledge in here to do over Jace) or to bounce problem creatures. Plus with how fragile planeswalkers are in general, he typically doesnt generate a ton of value before being picked off. Tezz 1.0 will always be our #1 walker and the baseline for what we expect.
2/4/2017
Removed:
Added:
Pithing Needle enters, thanks to a helpful suggestion by a fellow MTGsalvation member, as a way to deal with Maze of Ith without resorting to subpar choices. Geddon has never come up as a good play, and it may come back to the deck, but as it stands, we rarely brick and feel like "geddon would help here". We usually combo off or lose before it's relevant. It has the added synergy of being able to be reset by Brago, or hitting a multitude of other problematic permanents.
2/1/2017
Removed:
Sage of Epityr
Added:
Inspiring Statuary
Ok well, I wanna add Sage back in sometime for testing, but Statuary is a priority. It turns all of our artifacts, the boots, stax effects, etc, all into mana rocks.
1/29/2017
Removed:
Added:
Treachery is one of those fun cards I personally get a ton of enjoyment out of, but when I need to make a competitive deck better, I look at two of three things
Since this definitely fits all three, it can be safely removed. Ghost quarter is different. My meta has less Maze of Ith lately, and for now, I'm gonna test sans Maze. I run so many colorless lands it's tough to make cuts, and I wanna hit my colors, so I cut the weakest colorless land. In addition, since Treachery was cut, Pilgrim can only tutor up Spreading Seas, which while it isn't totally useless, it's slow and subpar. So we put in a placeholder for now, a card that is innocuous and draws us cards.
1/25/2017
Removed:
Added:
I'm hoping these creatures to increase consistency and lower the curve to make up for dropping two lands.
1/10/2017
Removed:
Teferi, Temporal Archmage
Added:
Steelshaper's Gift
This pains me to do, but Teferi costs alot and does little for how fast we want this deck to be going. His best scenario is already being ahead on mana rocks/board, and being a force multiplier. My biggest troubles are hitting an early, consistent Brago with Greaves. Gift helps to fix this.
12/22/2016
Removed:
Kismet
Added:
Sphere of Resistance
Found that kismet is incredibly difficult to cast, and awkward to use. It helps with a Stasis lock, but since Stasis lock isn't our primary goal, but a helpful lock, this piece had to go. Sphere comes in as another artifact for Mox Opal, and I'd also like to get an Inventors' Fair to also synergize. But most importantly, Sphere is an efficient taxing piece, particularly alongside Rhystic Study.
11/26/2016
Removed:
Added:
I got sick of waiting for affordable reprints, so we put proxies in
11/22/2016
Removed:
Jace's Archivist
Added:
Stupefying Touch
This hoser was needed, as my meta is moving toward powerful activated abilities. In addition, it isn't as slow as JA.
Removed:
Seat of the Synod
Phyrexian Metamorph
Reality Acid
Clever Impersonator
Added:
Adarkar Wastes
Swords to Plowshares
Rest in Peace
Helm of Obedience
Helm and Rest were added as another wincon, rather than just burning our opponents out via infinite with Resonator. They replace both impersonators. They performed well, but honestly dont help our gameplan much. We also need more removal that isnt contigent on Brago, so Reality Acid is removed for Swords to Plowshares. Finally, Seat was removed for another dual land.
9/24/2016
Removed:
Eldrazi Displacer
Added:
Thought Vessel
Pains me to do, as there are plenty of other possible cuts that are equally as viable, but Dispacer is a huge mana investment that doesnt win us the game or get us closer. It just helps us get there, somewhat, and when we need a mana dump. I just dont think it's what we're looking for. It hasnt tested well, and I'm not a fan, especially when we are looking to add more and more mana rocks to the deck.
8/26/2016
Removed:
Added:
So more dramatic changes. Mox wasnt doing me any favors except the occasional early Brago, and I havent been impressed with it. I cant even blink it. It's no better than a Lotus petal for what its usually used for. It is replaced by Prismatic Lens, again, for more mana sources and color fixing, without disadvantage.
Displacement Wave for Mind Stone. I have enough hate in the deck, and this will remain a maybe.
Expedition Map for Etherium sculptor to help the early game or while under stax effects. Map was ok for early color fixing or ramp, but it was extremely slow with no huge priority targets.
Master of Waves for Armageddon. Master of Waves has never worked out and here's why: whenever I ever get a board worth abusing with Brago, and land master of waves or similar creatures, it gets wiped before I can really hurt people. Geddon helps us close out games in a real way.
Finally Meekstone for the final cutpurse. Meekstone doesnt really do much except draw hate and doesnt stop them from slamming you in the first place.
Removed:
Added:
Both Embargo and Kismet draw hate, but Embargo keeps things tapped down and helps me secure the board without wiping it, keeping mana rocks tapped down, creatures tapped down, and gives my opponents' one chance to make their new spells worthwhile. The lifeloss worries me, but we should combo kill before them.
Explorer again leaves for Land Tax. It's just better
Open the Armory comes in to find boots early. Mother of Runes is replaced as her purpose was to be a very clunky, but similar effect.
Sea Gate Oracle was underperforming. While it does help me dig, it's expensive, and a creature, and Stupefying touch comes down a turn earlier and has the added ability of neutering combo creatures!
8/17/2016
Removed:
Blind Obedience
Added:
Mystical Tutor
Blind doesnt do enough in EDH. What we really want is another Kismet effect like Frozen Aether. But I also need a way to find Cyclonic Rift or a tutor to win at whim.
8/8/2016
Removed:
Added:
Oreskos comes in for Prism since they do pretty much the same thing. It's also a stand in for Land Tax at the moment.
Reflector Mage for Displacement Wave, as it'll hit more relevant targets, with the downside being the sorcery speed. However Brago's untapping can make up for that. Mage also would hit one dude at a time, and while sometimes that can be helpful, it merely slows down specific strategies. And those strategies are usually running Boots to prevent this one.
Arbiter for Karn, as I'm aiming for consistency at the moment. I'll keep Karn as a maybe to see how my current wincons work out. Arbiter reduces the cost of our spells and further taxes our opponents!
On the watchlist are Sea Gate Oracle and Mother of Runes.
7/24/2016
Removed:
Added:
You know what's important? Getting Brago out with Haste. You know what's more important? Hitting land drops and not getting color screwed. Happening too much lately and I'm sick of it. Prism also comes in to help with this, as well as a cantrip engine much like Touch is. I've yet to test Touch, but it's not hurting me in my meta so much to run it yet.
7/23/2016
Removed:
Mulldrifter
Added:
Weathered Wayfarer
WW comes in as another way for us to avoid early, or midgame mana screw. Or even better, as a way to keep Stasis going, or finding Academy Ruins... etc. Mulldrifter is just too slow for its effect. It's effect can be replicated on other permanents for better effect.
7/20/2016
Removed:
Myr Battlesphere
Added:
Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Battlesphere has been too slow or a dead card for me. While I can see him returning, for now, let's try out the most broken planeswalker to ever be printed to help us with removal, card advantage, etc.
7/15/2016
Removed:
Lavinia of the Tenth
Added:
Mentor of the Meek
Mentor replaces Lavinia as more card draw. For 2 mana, when Brago and him reenter play, you can draw two cards. Preeeety solid. Lavinia is being thrown to the maybeboard since her effect mostly is great while we are ahead. Plus, with our current strategy, we either completely lock them down, or were not in control of the board. She doesnt do much more than what our effects normally do except by shutting off mana rocks under Winter Orb.
6/30/2016
Removed:
Added:
Loxodon comes in as another lock piece, replacing Spine. Spine was replaced functionally by Karn. Karn is much more easily removed, but Spine wasnt a wincon in and of itself like Karn can be, and many times clogs hands due to many ineligible targets.
Stupifying Touch replaces Wrath of God, at least for now. I wanted to replace it with Sunblast Angel, but I am unsure of how key that would really be. I need to test and see how consistently I can tap down their dudes to see if it's worthy of inclusion. Any card CMC5+ needs to be significant. Back to Touch, it's card draw, while shutting down strategies like Hermit Druid, Mayael, etc, who have powerful activated abilities. Worst case, it's a tech piece that cantrips, and we need card advantage. UWx decks lose steam fast if they're focused without a stream of card draw.
Flickerwisp, otherwise a solid choice, gets removed for Muddle. Muddle serves two important purposes: tutoring out Strionic Resonator, Cyclonic Rift, etc, but also in a pinch, a counterspell to stop, say, an opposing rift.
6/27/2016
Removed:
Prismatic Lens
Added:
Talisman of Progress
Does the same thing as lens, but more efficiently. Sadly though, at a loss of life.
6/24/2016
Removed:
Added:
Per the other post, Bident for Windfall, a proper way to refill our hands and force mulligans.
Dupe was another tech piece that usually ends up doing nothing, or I dont want to see him. For the one out of ten games he's incredibly useful, I'd rather lock down some lands and get my stax online, which along with mana rocks, is something I struggle with as well. The deck needs to focus on its gameplan, and all of these cute side plans and tech pieces dont help that!
6/18/2016
Removed:
Added:
Yeah, a more casual card, but I'm finding I'm still never seeing my Greaves or Boots to get Brago online, and then keep up the pressure and still have gas. In removing many of the chaff, alot of my cantrips also got cut, so I think adding more gas in should work wonders. Bident is a stand-in until I find something better. While skyship can find me key things, it's incredibly costly as expected, and isn't helping me yet. Perhaps after more tweaks. edit: I mean to add Windfall in its place, but I only have one copy at this time and it's in Mizzix.
Crypt - It came up so rarely that I'd not only have this, but had a graveyard to hate that would have changed the course of the game. If we're using this, we're probably losing. Or we have Tezzeret out, and we should be winning.
Reshape - Turns our bad artifacts into better ones. I cant believe I didnt see this before. Transmute Artifact is also on the list!
Neurok Stealthsuit - Turns out this can work, but it's not what I want at this time.
Expedition Map - This I like, as Academy Ruins is a high priority target, as well as being useful at fetching out other key nonbasic lands like Strip Mine or Ancient Tomb
Cloud - Wasn't on par with other untappers or effects in the deck, being largely just a wasted card. I wont miss seeing it cut for better cards.
Stealsuit - Back to the maybeboard. Just isn't solid enough for me to warrant keeping it in at this time. The lack of Haste is the biggest downside.
Tower - Doesnt come up enough to warrant the mana screw it puts me through.
6/8/2016
Removed:
Added:
Venser for Karn. Venser has never really been played or needed, but he provides great utility when he is. However, being so niche, he is going back to the Maybeboard. Karn provides us immediate removal and is a huge threat to the board, particularly if we can ultimate him.
Oath of Gideon has been subpar. I figured the tokens would be a fun theme and having extra loyalty on my walkers is useful, but not useful enough. It will sit in the maybeboard as well for now. It is replaced by Fabricate, to find us the Boots we need early, as I have played too many games lately with the new mulligan rule screwing over otherwise solid hands. We need more consistency rather than options at this point.
6/5/2016
Removed:
Oreskos Explorer
Added:
City of Brass
Oreskos will be replaced with Tithe eventually, or another card like Oath of Gideon. But for now, I'm feeling the hurt of the new mulligan rule, especially since I cant keep solid 2 lands, 2 rock hands anymore.
5/29/2016
Added:
Removed:
Tamiyo, while she seemed incredible here, just clogs up my hand. For now, I'd rather have an overcosted Demonic Tutor to grab one thing at a time, also giving me plays for my second main. I still feel as if we need a Fabricate in here, as finding the early Lightning Greaves is key. In addition, more mana rocks, as I find more underperforming cards.
5/14/2016
Removed:
Added:
I still struggle against single target removal effects and no amount of excess card draw and cute effects will prevent that, but only help once we're ahead. We have plenty of draw effects now and ways to further blink those, so I think I'm fine dropping these. Stealthsuit is another way to protect Brago, and at instant speed if necessary, with the biggest drawback being he cant blink himself. Lens helps us ramp and filter mana, and finally Abolisher. I've been wanting one for months and finally got one via Pucatrade. He will help even further if we are missing Boots.
4/29/2016
Removed: Render Silent
Removed: Island
Added: Gilded Lotus
Added: Rishadan Footpad
Prid3 pointed out that Render Silent wasnt going to completely ruin a combo player's game. I was mostly using it to stop Kharador, but the deck has gotten stronger locks sicne then. With all of the land stax we run, time to add some powerful colored mana effects. Gilded Lotus comes back in.
4/21/2016
Removed: Unquestioned Authority
Removed: Traveler's Cloak
Added: Winter Orb
Added: Kismet
Less pointless draw and protection, more stax. This is mostly due to the fact Brago is mostly unblockable anyway in this format, and most creatures cannot kill him with abilities to begin with. If we need to draw more cards, I can add in Wall of Omens or other cards that do the same. In addition, the Auras make it so that Brago cannot blink himself without losing the Aura to another creature, or sacrificing it.
Per Gatherer:
Winter Orb is a card I should have been including since the beginning due to Tezzeret being able to find it. Kismet is really rough for opponents to deal with. If it works out, I may drop something else for Frozen Aether.
The only downside here is missing out on targets for Heloid's Pilgrim, but that's fine! We still have 3 very powerful Auras.
4/11/2016
Added: Heliod's Pilgrim
Added: Aura of Silence
Removed: Nevermaker
Removed: Llawan, Cephalid Empress
So the decision here was to remove a few silver bullets for speed and more lockdown/removal. Aura of Silence has an immediate effect, and can be used to remove problems if they arise. Pilgrim fetches Protection for Brago, as well as Treachery (AND I LOVE THAT CARD). Adding more auras will only get better with time.
Nevermaker is... ok. It's nowhere near as good as Reality Acid and it costs 1 more. While one could abuse it with additional flicker effects... it just isnt what I want right now. Putting a permanent on the top of its owner's library is great and all... but it merely slows them down for a turn. Or if it has a relevant ETB/LTB effect, we allow them to abuse it further. Llawan was a fun tech piece when everyone was playing UG, but now I see more colorless decks/BG decks. While it could make another appearance (as it's effect is DEVASTATING, I'd rather have more tutors and more stax pieces that arent silver bullets to scenarios that dont always occur.
3/25/2016
Removed: Torpor Orb
Added: Strionic Resonator
Torpor Orb helps shut down decks that could otherwise utilize ETB creatures to ruin our day, but Resonator helps me go infinite or create such an unstoppable board that honestly, maybe more power is worth it. I also have been including more ETB creatures lately, so it's gotten to be more of a double edged sword.
3/3/2016
Removed: Council's Judgement, Plains
Added: Master of Waves, Prairie Stream
Was confused on the ruling for Master, it is abusable by Brago, so it's back in. Council's Judgement is a non-permanent, and with the Manifest cards and Brago's ability, I prefer permanents! I also have enough artifact/enchantment hate now I think. Stream is for Oreskos Explorer/Fetches to find!
2/20/2016
Removed: Peregrine Drake
Added: Treachery
Obvious and easy upgrade, just a $10 upgrade. It does exactly what the Drake did, with the benefit of taking any juicy creatures our opponents' control. Drake was always ok, and both suffer from board wipes ruining my fun.
2/19/2016
Removed: Return to Dust
Removed: blade splicer
Removed: Propaganda
Removed: Oblivion Ring
Removed: Master of Waves
Removed: 2 Plains
Removed: 1 Island
Added: Myr Battlesphere
Added: Seachrome Coast
Added: Temple of Enlightenment
Added: Glacial Fortress
Added: Grasp of Fate
Added: Oreskos Explorer
Added: rishidan bridgand
Added: Blind Obedience
I feel like this is a huge mistake given the awesomeness of 3/3 first striking golems as attackers and blockers, but brigand is worth testing as a way to close out games faster.
Ramp replaces protection. I just need to acquire Prairie Stream now. Propaganda almost never comes up, but it may make another appearance.
Cant abuse the exile of O Ring, so it was a simple temporary removal spell. Now, we can have a strictly better version that hits all players. Easy change.
Turns out budget beats out mythic rarity. 2/1's are nice, but battlesphere deals damage to the dome really hard, and continues to amass tokens as blockers, attackers, or just to buff his direct damage. Waves's issue was a rules one: the original elementals die when he flickers. While increasing the curve does suck, we have the mana rocks for him (EDIT: TURNS OUT I WAS WRONG HERE
We have enough hate now, time to keep people down, and gain some life while were at it. Lowers the curve a good bit as well.
2/13/2016
Removed: Burnished Hart
Removed: Mnemonic Wall
Added: Mother of Runes
Added: Sea Gate Oracle
I want more blinkable creatures. Hart is also pretty iffy. In running more draw in the deck as of late, I shouldnt need this. Mother is another way to protect my own creatures, particularly Brago. As pointed out on Salvation, I have few targets for the Wall, and Archeomancer is stricly better (besides not having a big butt). But as I want to phase out Instants/Sorceries, it's not that great. Was mostly used to recover my Tutor or Rift. Oracle gives me more draw and filtering, especially early on.
2/10/2016
Removed: Elspeth, Knight-Errant
Added: Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
Finally got my hands on one! Well, I mean both of these are hard to find in trade binders now. But Tamiyo works much better than Elspeth here. She mostly made soliders and I never made it to her ult. It's okay. Getting there was the difficult part. With Tamiyo I can draw cards, and then tap down mean permanents on the same turn! Incredible compared to just generating 1/1's or buffing Brago slightly. Her emblem is not necessarily any easier to hit, but her +1 helps get there, and gives us incredible inevitability outside of a mass exile. She is more costly, but that's fine. She's overall too synergistic.
2/5/2016
Removed: Disenchant
Removed: Ichor Wellspring
Removed: Plains
Added: Strip Mine
Added: Spreading Seas
Added: Tormod's Crypt
I love disenchant. but i now run enough artifact/enchantment hate. If i needed more, Aura of Silence is a possibility. Seas Works much much better than Ichor Wellspring as a blinkable target, turning off problem lands like Maze of Ith, Urborg, Cabal Coffers, etc. Only thing is Tezz cant find it, but really, that wasnt an issue to begin with Strip Mine to deal with Maze of Ith and friends.
Prior to keeping track on tapped out:
Removed: Calciform Pools
Removed: Sensei's Divining Top
Removed: Jace Beleran
Added: Duplicant
Added: Command Beacon
Added: Ghost Quarter
Need more lands, and another way to quickly cast Brago if he gets killed too many times. Top doesnt do much here, I want raw cards, rarley do I wanna spin the top turn after turn when I could be digging instead. I feel top is best in decks with ways to abuse it and we dont here. Much like Fetchlands, it's something I cram into every deck until I realize its just a waste, convincing myself it's good. I need more ways to deal with Maze of Ith and friends. The pools were downright useless without ways to untap them repeatedly, as putting aside two lands for a few turns to come out ahead on one important turn never, ever came up. I have Oath of Jace and other ways to blink to draw cards that dont draw as much attention and cause hate. He's also difficult to cast early on. Duplicant further helps me deal with the rising amount of big mana Eldrazi decks. (JACE MAY COME BACK)
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Recent changes:
-1 Unquestioned Authority, -1 Traveler's Cloak
+1 Winter Orb, +1 Kismet
Less pointless draw, more stax. This is mostly due to the fact Brago is mostly unblockable anyway. If we need more cards, I can add in Wall of Omens and friends. The unblockable effect has never been useful to me. Winter Orb is a card I should have been including since the beginning due to Tezzeret being able to find it. Kismet is really rough for opponents to deal with. If it works out, I may drop something else for Frozen Aether.
The only downside here is missing out on targets for Heloid's Pilgrim, but that's fine!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
The card works differently than Oblivion Ring. There is not second trigger to stack, if I read it right.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
You're right! I was reading it incorrectly ala Act of Authority. Thank you, I shall correct it.
You know, it's a question I ask myself the more I tune the deck: Does it need Geddon? I personally want to shy away from it, given my Daretti deck goes and does exactly that, so this is more Stax-Lite to that effect. While we have ways to exile all of their lands via Parallax Wave + Brago + Strionic Resonator. This desk more or less aims to land a Stasis/Winter Orb and then control the game from there. A different form of stax. I enjoy all flavors, and play the Grave Pact creature based attrition with Meren.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Well thank you! Yeah it was nothing against your suggestion as that is ONE of the BEST suggestions honestly to improve it, and i'm trying to shy away from it
I have not, mostly because he would be best when i can go infinite, although it would be a good way to strip hands of cards to stop me!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
I did not take it personal at all but I very much understand where your coming from (trying to build a traitor King deck but it keeps feeling to much like Meren).
Thought knoght is good for a few things as you can semi team up with one person giving them the card draws while you strip a common enemy's hand apart. Also lets to eat up some stuff you might otherwise not have an answer for before it hits play the win condition is just icing.
Trinsphere have you played around with it any? Really cramps blues style to a halt an shuts down storm in their tracks. I feel this one is a meta call for sure (aka it's great in mine)
I've not thought to include Trinisphere yet! I will have to add that to the list, as it really helps us maintain the lock once we have winter/static orb/statis down!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Not gonna lie I like the wellspring in your deck and I think its worth trying out in mine as another way to ramp.
I used to run many of them. Now it's mostly Reflector Mage and Lavina. I'm still trying to figure out the right amount of creatures and the configuration. Oreskos may get dropped for more Man o War effects. I was mostly trying to lower the curve and make it faster and faster Many times I found bouncing creatures not incredibly strong, or there werent many targets. Really was more about having more relevant effects during most games.
Wellspring is great to find lands, and synergizes with the Oath of Jace that lets us pitch the excess lands. Alternatively it'd be great with MLD.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Where's the other Rishadan critters, Fabricate, Embargo, Parallax Wave, Consecrated Sphinx and Luminate Primordial?
Why field cute value cards like Unquestioned Authority when things like Neurok Stealthsuit and Whispersilk Cloak are what the deck actually needs? If Brago is connecting with people then you're easily winning and you don't need to worry about drawing a couple of extra cards along the way. It's removal, not creatures, that you need to worry about.
Why no Grand Abolisher + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir to deny counterspells when you go for your big Armageddon plays? Render Silent doesn't help you win counter wars since they can respond while the spell is still on the stack. It's a glorified Cancel and has nothing on cards like Silence, Mana Drain and Force of Will.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Thank you for the post Prid3! I loved your Daretti stax list in the original thread, and I'm sorry the posters there werent receptive to it.
You're right about Render Silence. It was mostly a throw in as a glorified cancel to stop combos off the Kharadors in our meta. I havent really cared for it. I was testing the Rishadan Brigand. He did pretty well for me so far. In addition, the cute stuff like Unquestioned Authority were removed, I just forgot to update the list above.
Per above, I want to avoid MLD unless it's off of combos, since my Daretti deck already does that. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll start trying to acquire those.
- Render Silent + Rishadan Footpad
- Island, + Gilded Lotus
Need more mana rocks for all of our winter orb effects!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Honestly I don't know if I ever checked back in the threat after posting it. That was a rough shell that I was considering and my final list deviated significantly from what I proposed at the time. I mostly just wanted a "permanent" place to store the deck and if someone happened to suggest a cool card for the deck then hey, free bonus. I typically play very competitive decks which don't resonate well with most people but my meta is competitive so it's not a big deal to me. I had to drop the deck after Partial Paris was dropped since no more turn 1-2 Darettis.
My bad, I thought I read through your entire OP but I guessed I missed the part when you said MLD was banned.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Ahh, no worries. They didnt take kindly to it. It's why I've really not posted much to it anymore since the topic and posters are more concerned with the 75% valuetown Daretti as opposed to stax and MLD.
While MLD isnt banned, it's looked down upon and I want to only keep one deck with it, Daretti, at this time. However that may change if the meta keeps powering up.
Thank you again for your suggestions. If nothing else, you make me reevaluate things better than other posters due to the power level you play at and your experience with it. (no offense to other posters)
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Oh I don't hold it over anyone but I mean if I'm facing turn ~4 win decks then I need to fielding one myself or I'm just boned. I understand that's not everyone's cup of tea but that's fine. To each their own.
1x Mox Opal
1x Chrome Mox
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Azorius Signet
1x Coldsteel Heart
1x Talisman of Progress
1x Thought Vessel
1x Prismatic Lens
1x Mind Stone
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Sky Diamond
1x Marble Diamond
1x Grim Monolith
1x Basalt Monolith
1x Coalition Relic
1x Thran Dynamo
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Expedition Map
1x Tsabo's Web
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Neurok Stealthsuit
1x Strionic Resonator
1x Winter Orb
1x Cursed Totem
1x Static Orb
1x Imi Statue
1x Trinisphere
1x Tangle Wire
1x Whispersilk Cloak
1x Skyship Weatherlight
1x Ring of Three Wishes
For what it's worth this is the Artifact-base of my current Brago deck. As you can see I go way deeper on mana producing Artifacts to really abuse the heck out of Brago and to ensure I have access to "limitless" mana on each of my turns. Might give you some ideas to change some numbers to get more bang for your buck. Basically your current deck has too many lands and too few rocks since rocks are strictly better when you have Brago blinking them and (for example) a Winter Orb in play.
EDIT: Also it probably goes without saying that Skyship Weatherlight is an over-costed "Demonic Tutor" since the idea is to fetch one card then blink it as needed. I assume that you gathered as much but just for anyone else who was curious. Those cards might seem "bad" and in a normal deck they would be but with Brago + mana rocks you have tons of mana to fool around with, especially once you find something like Grim Monolith. Diabolic Tutor is decent when you get an unlimited amount that only cost you 1 card total and no one else can cast their spells.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Damn man! Thanks for posting that for me. I'll be sure to pick up/proxy a few of those cards in since theyre currently in Stax Daretti. Just worry about hitting those early lands haha!
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Added:
I still struggle against single target removal effects and no amount of excess card draw and cute effects will prevent that, but only help once we're ahead. We have plenty of draw effects now and ways to further blink those, so I think I'm fine dropping these. Stealthsuit is another way to protect Brago, and at instant speed if necessary, with the biggest drawback being he cant blink himself. Lens helps us ramp and filter mana, and finally Abolisher. I've been wanting one for months and finally got one via Pucatrade. He will help even further if we are missing Boots.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Removed:
Tamiyo, while she seemed incredible here, just clogs up my hand. For now, I'd rather have an overcosted Demonic Tutor to grab one thing at a time, also giving me plays for my second main. I still feel as if we need a Fabricate in here, as finding the early Lightning Greaves is key. In addition, more mana rocks, as I find more underperforming cards.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Teferi is in the decklist posted in the main post.
I am curious, however, if there's any particular reason that Karn Liberated isn't in the list. He's pretty absurd.
(Also known as Xenphire)
Mostly wanting to keep the curve low. I cut Tamiyo, the Moon Sage for that reason. Where Teferi immediately can generate me value,
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage requires a specific board I can take advantage of, or if I'm already ahead. I can commonly get hands and draws without my relevant tutors for my fast mana, so I'm still working out those kinks. Karn is a house, I agree, and I have a copy! He is on the maybeboard, even if he isnt in the OP.
GB [Primer][Competitive][Stax][Combo] Meren of Clan Nel Toth 95% RETIRED
UW [Primer][Competitive][Combo][Stax] Brago, King Eternal RETIRED
BR Rakdos, Lord of Riots (75%)
G Titania - 75%
W SRAM - Welcome to the cheeri0s jam 95%
U Teferi - stax 100%
R Neheb - janky mono red eggs combo 90%
B Gonti - 50% valuetown
Another option is vanilla-but-efficient Tithe, giving similar initial value as the Explorer for one less mana. Great in the opening hand to smooth mana problems. Later in the game it's not so good, but neither is the explorer. Being an instant, there's some niche cases where you can Tithe in response to cracking a fetch (one less land for you, temporarily). Speaking of: more fetches?
Cursed Totem? This might be a meta call, but I tend to see a lot of elf-driven decks, which are more than happy living with orb / staxy effects on board. The only affected creatures in your list are the Eldrazi Displacer and Mother of Runes (and she's in a test slot anyway, right?).
Back to Basics looks viable with your manabase. Also likes more fetches.
Has Oath of Gideon been useful for you? It looks marginal. Also, is Venser, the Sojourner worth the 5 mana? He seems kind of win-more from the comfortable vantage of my armchair. Curious as to how he's performed for you.
After playing several games with it I'm not sure how I feel about Skyship Weatherlight. It sounded like a neat idea when I first saw it, but even with all the mana ramp I feel like it takes quite a long time to get to where I want to prioritize using it. Generally speaking, cards like this I want to use on the same turn casting them, because (and this was my experience in testing this build) they don't tend to stick around long, and hardly ever more until the table wheels back around to me. For Skyship that usually turns into an 8 mana investment for one card, not including if I really need to cast that card. I had at least two games where Krosan Grip resulted in a card being stuck in exile, which was unfortunate.
I've been considering running Tamiyo's Journal and Fleeting Memories as a companion to it. Clues for draw that could be a tutor every other turn doesn't seem bad, at all.a
(Also known as Xenphire)