MTG Salvation

Built a Ezuri, claw of progress deck a couple of days ago, but it's boring and I don't even enjoy playtesting it so it's getting scrapped. Decided to revisit Brago, King Eternal instead after seeing it on MTGGoldfish's most recent Commander clash and watching the interactions with the Manifest enchantments Lightform and Cloudform. I've built Brago before shortly after he came out, but I never got the chance to play it and Brago had gained a fairly negative reputation at the time, so I eventually scrapped the deck.

At the moment, I'm really just looking for weird and unique cards like the Manifest enchants. Not really looking to build a competitive deck, but would rather just play around with weird stuff. Thinking about building this in a more Enchantress style with a fairly low creature count. Anyone have any weird cards that would benefit from repeated blinking?

I don’t know if many of these are much of a secret, but Reality Acid, Act of Authority, Spine of Ish Sah, Rishadan Cutpurse, Rishadan Footpad, and Rishadan Brigand make for a formidable removal suite once you get a blink engine online.

My most out of the ordinary card that I run in my version is Stalking Leonin where you can reset the ability to use it multiple times over the course of the game.

I made an energy E Brago deck, as there are lots of ETB for gaining energy. The problem was that there was only really one good payoff card in Aetherworks Marvel.

A newish card I would add to Brago is Mu Yanling.

As far as weird stuff I don't really have anything. But on the subject of Manifest, the cards you exile with Brago are turned face-up once they come back into play. So it is quite powerful as you can cheat big permanents into play.

Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist allows you to do this trick as well.

Mastery of the Unseen and Jeskai Infiltrator are other Manifest cards you could use.

You could potentially look at a sub Morph/Megamorph theme as well, as you can play them for 3 and Brago can bring them into play face-up, but you wont get the effect that a lot of them have because often the say "when turned face-up". But you might get a few undercosted creatures out of it.

None of the above are secrets, duh. Yet, all of them are great ofc.

Aside from the Cloudform/Lightform interaction i'm a big fan of Ancestral Knowledge (just put the shuffle on top of the stack, then arrange your library to your likings), Shimmer (how popular are B and G in your meta?), Vedalken Plotter (basics for utility lands seems like a great deal) and Wu Spy.

Other than that, if you're going enchantress i'd certainly go for Darksteel Mutation, Deep Freeze and Imprisoned in the Moon as they allow you to stall enemy commanders heavily.

Pithing Needle, Sorcerous Spyglass and Gideon's Intervention do work wonders as well.

I like Archaeomancer+friends and a powerful sorcery. Most would take Time Warp. But there are a lot of cards you could use instead.
Silence?

Quote from Forgotten One »

I don’t know if many of these are much of a secret, but Reality Acid, Act of Authority, Spine of Ish Sah, Rishadan Cutpurse, Rishadan Footpad, and Rishadan Brigand make for a formidable removal suite once you get a blink engine online.

My most out of the ordinary card that I run in my version is Stalking Leonin where you can reset the ability to use it multiple times over the course of the game.

Yeah, most of those seem fairly staple. Don't own many of them though. I'm definitely going to fit Reality Acid, Spine, and try and get an Act of Athority. I like the Rishidan pay/sac creatures, but I can't say they have guaranteed slots in the deck as a lot of people greatly dislike taxation cards.

As far as Stalking Leonin goes, I'm probably not going to use it in this deck. Seems pretty good in Karador, Ghost Chieftain and the like though. I'm really failing to understand how the "Use this ability only once" is even attempting to be relevant.

Quote from darrenhabib »

I made an energy E Brago deck, as there are lots of ETB for gaining energy. The problem was that there was only really one good payoff card in Aetherworks Marvel.

A newish card I would add to Brago is Mu Yanling.

As far as weird stuff I don't really have anything. But on the subject of Manifest, the cards you exile with Brago are turned face-up once they come back into play. So it is quite powerful as you can cheat big permanents into play.

Tezzeret, Cruel Machinist allows you to do this trick as well.

Mastery of the Unseen and Jeskai Infiltrator are other Manifest cards you could use.

You could potentially look at a sub Morph/Megamorph theme as well, as you can play them for 3 and Brago can bring them into play face-up, but you wont get the effect that a lot of them have because often the say "when turned face-up". But you might get a few undercosted creatures out of it.

Yeah, as much as I like the Energy counters theme I was really disappointed at how few half-decent cards WotC made that actually uses those energy counters.

I really love Mu Yanling's art. It's pretty fantastic. The card on the otherhand is not so fantastic. She does make Brago unblockable and draw cards, but she's a 6-drop. I may try to pick up a copy, but it's definitely not going to be through buying the product she's in. There's no way in hell my lgs didn't price-hike it.

Unfortunately for the Manifest and Morph mechanics, Lightform and Cloudform are really the only one's I find interesting. I'm considering Zoetic Cavers cause ramp. I'm honestly going for a deck were almost everything has some amount of blink value, so I'm not even using things like Worn Powerstone and I'm trying to avoid things that are more efficient to just play them as is rather than morph or manifest. With most morph cards needing to be turned face-up to proc their abilities, I'll probably never use them... at least not in Brago. Still need to make Animar Morphs eventually.

Quote from NoNeedToBragoBoutIt »

None of the above are secrets, duh. Yet, all of them are great ofc.

Aside from the Cloudform/Lightform interaction i'm a big fan of Ancestral Knowledge (just put the shuffle on top of the stack, then arrange your library to your likings), Shimmer (how popular are B and G in your meta?), Vedalken Plotter (basics for utility lands seems like a great deal) and Wu Spy.

Other than that, if you're going enchantress i'd certainly go for Darksteel Mutation, Deep Freeze and Imprisoned in the Moon as they allow you to stall enemy commanders heavily.

Pithing Needle, Sorcerous Spyglass and Gideon's Intervention do work wonders as well.

Oh, I forgot about Shimmer; used to love messing with people with it. Vedalken Plotter is a card I enjoy using with any sort of recursion, though I avoid playing it if anyone is using the same colored sleeves as anyone else. Ancestral Knowledge is fairly staple. Only started playing again recently, so I haven't had the chance to pick up Darksteel Mutation, Deep Freeze or Imprisoned in the Moon yet. There's a lot of cards I need to pick up copies of.

This does remind me that Declaration of Naught and Ixalan's Binding are things I need to consider.

Writ of Passage is a nearly uncounterable way to get Brago to connect
Spreading Seas is mana disruption that draws cards
Parallax Tide is more mana

Quote from cryogen »

Writ of Passage is a nearly uncounterable way to get Brago to connect
Spreading Seas is mana disruption that draws cards
Parallax Tide is more mana

I keep forgetting about Parallax Tide. Almost wondering if I should run Ankh of Mishra as a possible win condition.

I run Meddling Mage and Act of Authority in my build.

The Meddling Mage/Pithing Needle/Sorcerer's Spyglass cards are so good in Brago since they can get reset. A lot of decks are built in ways that they cannot function without their commanders.

Curator's Ward is a new card that works well with Brago.

how does Ancestral Knowledge work? doesnt the ltb trigger after the etb?

When it comes into play, you do the thing. You flicker it with Brago, you shuffle. It comes back in, you do the thing again, hopefully alongside Oath of Jace or Mulldrifter or Tsabo's Web or whatever happens to draw cards in the particular build of Brago you're playing. Then those draws are guaranteed to hit for MP2, where you've saved some mana/untapped some mana rocks and can play the cards you've chosen.
Brago also cheats on cumulative upkeep, so you're never really forced to sac the card.

Quote from Chairwolf »

When it comes into play, you do the thing. You flicker it with Brago, you shuffle. It comes back in, you do the thing again, hopefully alongside Oath of Jace or Mulldrifter or Tsabo's Web or whatever happens to draw cards in the particular build of Brago you're playing. Then those draws are guaranteed to hit for MP2, where you've saved some mana/untapped some mana rocks and can play the cards you've chosen.
Brago also cheats on cumulative upkeep, so you're never really forced to sac the card.

Quote from Chairwolf »

When it comes into play, you do the thing. You flicker it with Brago, you shuffle. It comes back in, you do the thing again, hopefully alongside Oath of Jace or Mulldrifter or Tsabo's Web or whatever happens to draw cards in the particular build of Brago you're playing. Then those draws are guaranteed to hit for MP2, where you've saved some mana/untapped some mana rocks and can play the cards you've chosen.
Brago also cheats on cumulative upkeep, so you're never really forced to sac the card.

The first part is not really accurate. Abillities does not go on the stack in the middle of effects, such as Bragos abillity. Thus, after having triggered both the leaves and the enters play effect, you get to pick the order they should apply in (i.e. you can pick to shuffle first or shuffle after)

Brago (as well as Daretti and Atraxa) consistently come up in the discussion for Transmogrifying Wand.

Quote from Bismuth Von Pherson »

Brago (as well as Daretti and Atraxa) consistently come up in the discussion for Transmogrifying Wand.

Definitely going to try to get a couple of these when they release.