MTG Salvation

After no victories and many stalled out games, I put Brago, King Eternal in the Commander's chair and placed Ephara, God of the Polis in the 99.

And I've found that Brago is strong.

And I cut Ephara. :/

And now I'm trying to make this deck Competitive.

I run a quite different list with a higher creature count, an overall lower curve and some taxing/hatebears, but since the overall direction seems to be similar enough, I'll try to give some suggestions.

First off I dont' really see the point in Serum Visions when you could run Ponder or Preordain.
Actually I found card draw besides Ephara's own ability not really needed when you take full advantage of her, especially since Ephara (like all the gods) is incredibly hard to get rid of. So I'd consider cutting it and other draw options completely.
For filtering, a Top could do a lot of work and you might also consider Trinket Mage to fetch it (could also get Sol Ring or Bauble).

I also highly recommend Cloudstone Curio and as you're already going for a bit of a blink theme, Venser could fit in nicely.

Hey, cool stuff. Check out my primer if you haven't

Suggestions:
1) Authority of the Consuls seems largely superfluous. There're creatures that do those things, some of which can be grabbed with Ranger of Eos. It's really a tempo card though, that isn't likely to be relevant in this format.

2) Seal of Cleansing is another card that I'd expect to be a creature.

3) Given your high ratio of sweepers I would strongly consider some more token generators. Token planeswalkers, Mobilization, Heliod, etc. Also some ways to tutor for them.

Some good stuff in there though!

Thank you both for your analysis, I applied that to my deck and made the following changes:

I shifted the deck away from blue control with some creatures to a whole mess of creatures. Not too many quality blink targets but that's because I wanted to go with a strategy of "I don't care if things get Wrathed", especially since I use a lot of Wraths myself.

With that in mind, I went with 'low effort tokens'. Moonsilver Spear and Captain's Claws are Equipment that tokens can use to make more tokens. I save all of my mana to play creatures during my opponents turns as I usually just swing with a dork to produce a dork, drawing me a card. Even at 4 mana to Equip, it's worth it just for a sizeable flying defender. Emeria Angel is in here for the same reason and the Sun Titan fulfills the same option. I removed Heliod, God of the Sun from my Daxos the Returned EDH for being too slow, which should have been an indicator for this deck. He gets cut from the next update.

Three creatures of note: Brimaz, King of Oreskos, Geist of Saint Traft and Thraben Doomsayer. These guys come down before Ephara but generate a creature on the turn that she comes out, instantly drawing us a card. The turn you play her sucks.

As I shifted the manabase away from Blue, I swapped Islands for Plains and added a Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx which should really be more than a $7 card. Invest in them now, as they seem to be great in any permanent based strategy. Even with all of the Artifacts and tokens, it still generates a lot of mana. Moving to Plains also enables Emeria, the Sky Ruin far more and justifies Kor Cartographer even more. An untapped Fellwar Stone is more important to me than the tapped, colored Sky Diamond. Ideally, I want a Thought Vessel because my hand would frequently bloat above 7 cards.

The other Equipment, Sword of War and Peace and Sword of Feast and Famine are just to increase the threat quality of my tokens.

With the thought of increasing the quality of my threats, I cut the very slow Heliod, God of the Sun in favour for Cathars' Crusade. So while I may have limited my token quantity, I think I've vastly improved the quality. Using Sacred Mesa during everybody's turns means that the non-summoning sick Pegasuses are huge, have drawn me cards and have paid the Pegasus tribute.

Haven't draw Vat yet, but it seems pretty bonkers to me. Play value creatures during other peoples' turns to draw cards, or just go with my 'token' strategy and just use that in my main phase for a free attacker. I just never had a time when I wanted to blink most of my stuff, as they were tokens, so I cut Brago. I made the decision to cut him over Galepowder Mage because the Mage slides the target on attack, meaning I can use it to punch through. Brago required me to connect, which might be a problem if I can't even punch through.

Shrieking Drake is the most efficient 'Gate' creature even if it doesn't have Flash. I cut a one drop for it, though I think incidental lifegain is useful in EDH to not just random slapped out of the game with surprise attacks. Though I do think I might see a future without a Soul Warden. The Drake while I have some sort of flash setup is great as a one blue draw spell that can also bounce a more valuable creature.

Haven't won any games with Ephara yet, but I like what she does. With how new the deck is and the total changes I've made, I don't have a obvious problem yet.

The new mage from Aether Revolt looks promising, and a further reason to include Cloudstone Curio.

Simple changes in regards to lands. Tolaria West brings my 'land count' down to 36, which is the average amount for 6 ramp cards. It still says 37 Lands, but as I figure Tolaria West is a 3 mana Instant that searches up my Emeria, the Sky Ruin or Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. Just happens to be disguised as a Land. I cut Prahv because I never have 6 lands open plus Prahv. And the majority of the time, the answer was Flash in a creature or create a token to block the threat.

Helm of Possession to continue my theme of 'my creatures don't matter'. If I make tokens, then sac them to the Helm to get my opponent's best creature, that's a solid play. I cut the Gearhulk because no matter how much I thought it would work out, it never did. I just had too many Creatures, Enchantments and Artifacts in play. With my Commander being an Enchantment, I wouldn't want to sacrifice them but then it meant getting rid of superb Enchantments. If I wanted to keep recurring the Gearhulk, that meant letting the rest of my creatures die. This deck goes wide, not tall. I need lots of bodies.

I'd recommend Conjurer's Closet. Gives you repeat ETB and card draw.

If I cut Brago, King Eternal, I think Conjurer's Closet is also something I don't think I can abuse.

Here are the most recent changes. Yeah, that's right. MFing Sun Titan got cut. I need to lower my curve and I don't have many things that I want to 'get back'. Most of my deck is just drawing cards to get an overwhelming board state. Galepowder also got cut because I have a lot of tokens that he would just Exile on my side of the board. After cutting Brago, he was bookmarked in my mind for the next cut.

Ramp is so important in Ephara just because you spend a turn casting her because she's so important, yet she won't be a creature for a while and effectively does nothing the turn she comes down. So these two 'mana rocks' trigger card draw, the Familiar for spell reduction and the Atlas to plop lands into play when my hand gets big.

I don't know if it is a statement of bad deck building or having a cohesive whole, but I am finding some of the 'power cards' to not be useful. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir just makes people come at me because I lack enough of a Prison to stop them, is that really worth playing so my few creatures can become Instants? I'm not sure. Also, with the amount of tokens this poops out, I am finding Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx underwhelming. Who knew I would ever say that? Winding Canyons is also being a questionable pick, as it is too mana intensive for me, and provides only colorless, to properly take advantage of it.

I swear I am not on drugs. Yup, I cut Nykthos. Just too many times my tokens don't have mana costs, never providing me mana. I've had two games where I had Tolaria West in hand and decided that Emeria, the Sky Ruin was the correct choice both times. I never even got to 7 Plains. I just rather have a land that gives me colored mana. That's also why I cut the Canyons, too expensive for what it did and didn't provide me with coloured mana. As much as I'd want one more Plains for Emeria, I'm shoring up my Blue as it felt a little lacking in all my games.

Also, while the Walking Atlas got totally murdered in one of my games, I definitely would've had a better game if it stuck. That is a deceptively useful card!

Yeah, Nykthos really only works if you're playing mostly permanents and mostly one color. My version of the deck is designed to activate Ephara regularly and tends to put around 7-8 mana out of Nykthos most times, but because yours is mostly tokens and fewer pips overall I don't think it's very good.

Winding Canyons is a card I cut early -- the mana cost was always just too high.

The colored mana demands of wanting to cast Ephara on turn 3 most of the time really dictate the manabase of the deck; there's room for about 3-4 colorless lands with 37 lands, any time I've had more I was unhappy.

re: Conjurer's Closet

While it's really good with helm of possession, my overall opinion is that it's too slow of a do nothing card. Cards that cost 5 mana in this deck (because of the inability to ramp super hard) have to provide value on their own.

re: Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir

Some of the bombs in this deck really do attract a lot of attention. I've considered cutting this guy specifically many times, but giving your dudes flash is just super strong for me because I've got 37 creatures. In your deck I think it's fine to cut him.

I actually have kept him in for a completely separate reason; I occasionally run across Possibility storm and Knowledge Pool and I love the ability to combo people with their own cards.

re: One more!!

You may want to consider playing Intruder alarm if you're playing Thraben Doomsayer. It's a deceptively strong card and can actually power out some huge turns (by repeatedly untapping mana dorks or wandering atlas), and serves as a combat trick.

And there's the infinite tokens combo of course.

No guarantees it's good but it's something I always had on my radar if I went more token heavy. Doomsayer was always amazing on his own.

I realized I never wanted to cast the Dust Elemental because it would accidentally wipe out a token or bounce itself. Crusader enables me to close out the game, synergizes with Captain's Claws and Moonsilver Spear tokens and is a Flash Creature. I'm sad that a 6/6 Flying Fear guy didn't get much milage but this deck's value is holistic rather than good stuff.

Speaking of goodstuff over holistic, Teferi just cost too much Blue, drew too much hate and wasn't that impressive. Repel Intruders puts bodies onto the board, counters a dangerous creature and that draws me a card. They're also expendable which is part of the theme/power of this deck, unlike Teferi.

Desertion was too costly, same problem as Teferi. I needed more answers, so I'm using Reality Shift. Exiling creatures is quite required in my meta with very dangerous, fast decks.

Terminus is a Wrath that doesn't destroy, which is required versus some of my opponents. Also, since it has Miracle I can easily use it on someone else's turn for one white. Day of Judgment was cut because the other Wraths offer something that I like.

I never got to 7 Plains and I rarely have a creature that I want to return. My Selesnya EDH deck can easily take advantage of Emeria, so Emeria got cut for a Plains. With no nonbasics that I want to search up, I cut Tolaria West for a basic Island.

Hey, how has Faerie Artisans been? Haven't gotten to play since I added it

I've noticed in a lot of my games that my hand would go over seven, so Thought Vessel keeps the ramp the same but now lets me keep all of those excess cards.

Faerie Artisans have actually been great but not in the way I suspected at all. Instead of cloning all of these creatures, it makes people stop playing creatures and instead swing out Wraths. As my strategy with this build is to be fine with Wraths, it has been OK. I think Faerie Artisans are great and should be a strong contender for any Blue creature-based strategy.

But now onto the bad news... I am getting aggravated with Ephara. I cannot win any pods with her. I can durdle all day, but eventually I run out of Wraths and my opponents big guys outnumber me. I was tempted in cutting a bunch of creatures for Instants and use Talrand, Sky Summoner and Docent of Perfection when I realized I was then putting more creatures into play that need to stand around and wait before I can actually start playing the game.

Repeatedly, many of my opponents have said upon facing it that this is a just like a Brago, King Eternal deck which I've got to say I was tempted to go in that direction. Right now I'm thinking of putting Brago in the chair, placing Ephara in the 99 and change this deck up. Right now it doesn't quite do anything well and that is disappointing.

Switch from Ephara to Brago.

Cloud of Faeries untaps my lands, which makes it great for Brago's trigger. It also flies for pokes or just chumping a dragon. This all comes for free, while Burnished Hart costs mana and is more expensive.

Archaeomancer enables my Control strategem, grabbing back my Instants and Sorceries that protest my board. While DEN is a great card, it's great for combo and a lot of the time I wouldn't want to just keep using its activated ability, even if it could generate infinite mana. This is a cut to lower my curve.

Riftwing Cloudskate bounces any permanent and be suspended on Turn 2 to curve well into Brago. Also, it flies which is great for offense and defense. The Plains cut was because I upped my manarock count to 10.

Whirler Rogue is parity with Faerie Artisans on mana cost but the reason of the cut is control versus random. The Artisans could get me all sorts of creatures and I could Blink them to keep the tokens, but I didn't know or count on what that was. Whirler gets me more flying defense or offense but also makes my creatures unblocked, such as my Commander.

Mentor of the Meek draws cards and could draw a lot more than Ephara, especially with the Artifact mana that Brago brings. Hell, Brago himself counts for Mentor's Draw requirement. Mentor is a body while Ephara could be? Another uncertainty that I cut.

Basalt Monolith and Vessel of Endless Rest are just mana rocks. Monolith for how much colorless it generates, Rest for some graveyard control but also any color. That surprisingly mattered. I got rid of the Swords because they cost too much mana, especially since I frequently had to keep re-equipping creatures.

Arcane Denial and Duplicant are solutions, except it's hard for Brago to have a creature that can counter on demand. While I like the Duplicants' Exile, I got a Primordial that does that much better. Denial's card draw is also good, digging me deeper into my own deck. With an Archaeomancer, it gets obnoxious.

Act of Authority gets rid of things guaranteed, it can even be given away in a pinch if Brago isn't able to Blink it. Diluvian doesn't guarantee anything and is very costly.

Peregrine Drake provides me mana, hence it was what made me comfortable cutting an Island. It is stupid in this deck.

Panharmonicon is perfect for this type of deck, especially for turns when a creature enters play to fork its abilities and then Brago attacks to Blink it for a repeat. Haven't had Magical Christmasland yet with this, but I know it's not far off. Sword costs mana to provide value every turn while Panharmonicon just sits there providing tons of value.

Good use of the Rishadan stuff I just found those a few weeks ago, been finding cuts for them in my deck. I'd be running Venser, Shaper Savant over Riftwing CloudSkate (He's a faux counter which is renewable to help out with the Arcane Denial slot - great counter btw) and re-evaluating the usefulness of colourless creature removal (exile) in Duplicant.

You do have a good point about the curve with the Cloudskate, but, for me (strictly opinion here), I like having multi-use or ability on all, if not, most of my slots in EDH. Just so that when getting it in an opening hand or a later draw the card is usable in a couple of places or in different ways. The choice is ultimately yours and hopefully it works for you, you've got some interesting cards in here and I want to see how you shape the deck.

Nevermaker can cause a softlock if my opponent lacks a way to dig, I'm fine with neutering a topdecking opponent. Nevermaker also flies which is good for random attacks and blocks, but more importantl it comes down a turn easrlier than an Unsuspended Cloudskate. While Cloudskate hits any Permanent, I'm probably fine with the Nonland clause on Nevermaker.

Cutpurse's 1 or sac didn't really have that strong of an impact - the Reflector Mage's banning in Modern should be a testament to its strengths, though I suspect the fact that people are running multiple copies is the reason in Modern. Still, returning a creature and keeping them off of it for a turn can be huge.

Luminate Primordial's Life Gain actually was a problem. There were games that slipped away because I just couldn't do enough General Damage; also indiscriminate popping of one creature per player meant that sometimes there still would be a problem. In comparsion, Angel flies which is a superior blocker. If I choose to return 2 dead creatures from my graveyard, I can fuel a Forbid indefinitely. If there are multiple problematic creatures, I can get rid of them and return them to my opponent's hand. It is also possible to still Exile them permanently due to the 'Nightmare' wording if I'm willing to use an Instant Speed trick on the Angel.

Mulldrifter draws me cards and blocks, it was the most similar I could find to Sun Champ Elspeth. She gives blockers, her ult can help you win the game but she's got a Wrath in her package that doesn't hit most of my creatures. Blinking her for 6 Soldiers a turn is great and it synergizes with Knight-Captain of Eos. It was a difficult choice but I went with the 'card maker' in Elspeth and similar mana cost.

Stonehorn Dignitary protects me for a turn, I want to abuse ETB more with the Guardian. Though if the meta shifts to be aggressive, I could see the Rhino returning.

I never knew why Sojourner Venser was a big deal, I just knew he was popular in Brago. After trades I sat down and read his abilities and it's insane! Make Brago unblockable, get blinked, then slide something for more value. Once you've got a way to get through unblocked, you can double your slides. And if you're really ahead, go for that ultimate. I cut Conjurer's Closet because of similar mana cost and effect, yet the Planeswalker is leaps and bounds superior.

Mentor of the Meek cost mana to make me draw cards, though it had some potential. A Grey Ogre body isn't going to make an impact, so instead I rather opt for an Enchantment that should be difficult to remove. Granted, I've added Planeswalkers to the deck for Oath of Jace's Scry effect but I'm here just for the Draw 3. If I'm behind, I can find an answer and pitch the rest. If I'm ahead, I can dig and sculpt a great hand.

Curse of the Swine frequently was cast for X being 4-5, which is the same amount as an Overloaded Cyclonic Rift. I rather keep mana open for other shenanigans than tap out to Swinify a few creatures. This also resets my opponent's board states which is just amazing.

I was deciding between Vessel of Endless Rest or Darksteel Ingot, the Ingot got a pass because of Indestructible though I am still liking the graveyard hate that Vessel had. In its place is the amazing Gilded Lotus.

Ash Barrens doesn't really net us card advantage, just going to find a single land. With the amount of permanents that have mana costs, Nykthos can get crazy especially with the Peregrine Drake and Cloud of Faeries.

Restoration Angel basically does the same thing as the Felidar; except it Flies, has a bigger body and has Flash. Felidar's Permanent clause is a lot more flexible but I find Flash to be more than worth it. That lets me sit with mana open, faking or ready with a Counterspell. Ideally, I'd like to keep the Felidar in but I don't know what to cut.

I love the Parallax cards (Wave,Tide). Repeatable removal for creatures or protection from mass removal and another way to ramp is quite powerful. Also, if you like peregrine drake and cloud of faeries, might I suggest treachery, as it is a free control magic and ramp with Brago. I think the Rishadan pirates are good but really only in a Staxx type build since they work extremely well in tandem with resource denial like Staxx. If you like equipment stoneforge mystic is excellent as a repeatable equipment tutor with Brago. Lastly, I don't see strionic resonator, which is a bit odd. Strionic resonator and a 2 mana producing rock creates infinite blink triggers (and if you have the parallax cards or reality acid that's game over).

I do want to add in the Parallax cards but they're in a more oppressive version of the deck, which I am not certain I want to play.

Treachery might not be a bad idea just for the random stealery, compounded with all of my Staxing effects.

I moved away from Equipment with this build because I got tired of always re-equipping, if I were to go with an expensive tutor it would be Recruiter of the Guard.

The lack of the Strionic Resonator is intentionally, I don't have a way to Infinite Combo someone so I rather not durdle with an Infinite. Brago's turn already take long enough and I'm not that selfish.

Here are some recent changes I made: I got rid of the Wellspring in favour of Tsabo's Web because I like the Web's effects much more. If someone has a Maze of Ith or just random utility land, I've cut them off from that mana/resource. It's also not too bad versus 'bad decks' - this is a meta call where it screws good decks over and leaves the inexperienced players untouched. With the inclusion of the Web, I cut both of my Cycle lands as they wouldn't untap from the Web.

I placed Evolving Wilds in the place of the Blue Cycle Land because it does the same thing: puts a basic into play tapped. The difference is that this fetches either colour as I need, like Terramorphic Expanse but it's also something I can abuse with Sun Titan. By already running both basic searchers, I decided to add in Emeria as a way to recur my creatures in addition to Sun Titan/Angel of Serenity. I find that with all of the ETB fetch bodies I got, plus Clones in addition to the recursion from Sun Titan, it is easy to get 7 Plains. Or just a ton of land. Overall, I feel like these changes are just tightening up the deck synergistically.

Lastly, I realized I should run Tezzeret the Seeker because I can have him put my Artifacts into play for value, then when I blink him he ramps me by untapping tapped Artifacts. To me, Coastal Piracy is the obvious cut because I don't often attack with lots of creatures. Tezzeret would bring me immediate, impactful permanents while the Coastal Piracy occasionally draws me cards. The Scrying off of Oath of Jace is also nice.

Grasp hits anything and everybody, make it a much better card than the Relic-Warder. Warder effectively hits Artifacts and Enchantments but dies much easier due to being just a 2/2. Grasp stops whatever is the most threatening thing on each opponent's side - it will also get informal allies if I blink away an ETBer or by removing a threatening player's piece.

I have a current problem of not being able to close out a game if we go really late. It's making me even consider Equipment on Brago to speed up the Commander Damage, which is currently 11 turns. Or perhaps I should just go with Call for Unity as a way to pump Brago up to a reasonable clock. Assuming it sticks, it turns Brago into a 6 Turn Clock from 11. Plus it makes the rest of my guys bigger if I can rush down the clock. It's a Blinking version of Cathars' Crusade.

I also want a Tezzeret the Seeker so I start assembling oppressive Artifacts quickly, like Tangle Wire or just generally putting creatures into play.

I am currently contemplating cutting Body Double because it is expensive mana-wise but also because it would be a lot more beneficial in my Sidisi deck. I am also thinking of replacing Fiend Hunter with Detention Sphere so I can deal with token swarms from Omnath, Locus of Rage or just generic Zombie/Soldiers/whatever.

I also want to improve the mana base, removing a lot of the ETBT Lands. I have had a few slower starts because I had a tapped land versus anything else.

So right now, early and mid game Brago does great. The problem is when I'm pushed to go late. I guess I should throw in that Strionic Resonator to go Infinite with my guys.

I also had issues closing out games with Brago. He has the issue alot of the C15 commanders have where they want to build a giant board and snowball it, but a single wrath tends to ruin your lead. I think adding Strionic Resonator, like you were postulating, is a great idea. I took too long to come around to it but its fantastic. I even included a ton of tutors to help find it haha. Tezz 1.0 is also an amazing walker and I'd keep him in over any other walker just due to having 2 tutors a turn.

While my build is competitive and staxy, go ahead and take a look for ideas. The link is in my signature. Hope some ideas help!

That's the conundrum I currently face. My Brago is by far my most competitive deck, so when players sit down with serious stuff I switch to Brago. The problem is that I don't want to make him too fine tuned where only Competitive EDH is the only time I should play him. I would like to randomly use him, as there have been times where I was surprised by the table's resiliency against Brago. But putting in a Winter Orb or the like would kick it up to another power level and I'm against going that ham.

Quote from Tev »

That's the conundrum I currently face. My Brago is by far my most competitive deck, so when players sit down with serious stuff I switch to Brago. The problem is that I don't want to make him too fine tuned where only Competitive EDH is the only time I should play him. I would like to randomly use him, as there have been times where I was surprised by the table's resiliency against Brago. But putting in a Winter Orb or the like would kick it up to another power level and I'm against going that ham.

I also had this issue and I think it's just due to UW having such underwhelming creatures for beatdown in EDH, especially ones that synergize with Brago. You either focus on UW beaters that dont benefit from being blinked (except to untap them), or you play Mulldrifter and stuff like Sea-Gate Oracle. You're not alone man. It's a struggle. Brago is great at super casual circles especially with voltron (swords) and the like. But I think he has no midrange, 75% build where you dont combo or stax to win. I could be wrong, but I didnt win a single game until I added in combos.

Well, that's the crux. If you want 'competitive' then it's got to cost 4-6 mana for your finishers, yet the finishers Brago would like to use are 7+. That's why I don't think cEDH would use Myr Battlesphere or Angel of Serenity. Maybe, maaaaybe they would use Sun Titan. Otherwise, nice big finishers are either 6+ CMC or you skirt the entire 'turn sideways' angle with the solution being combo off.

In Red, Black and Green there are tons of scaling finishers that you can set it and forget it. For example, a simple Managorger Hydra, Taurean Mauler or Yahenni, Undying Partisan is a 3 mana creature that can carry a game to victory. Though they wouldn't be something that Brago would use, perhaps a Phyrexian Oblierator-type creature would make sense in Blue/White which doesn't exist. Their big threats are large, otherwise white is efficient weenies and blue is text-based small guys.