"I can call an army to my side in the blink of an eye. Best not blink."
My first attempt into UW territory was to play Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in a deck that was all about taxing spells, effects, combat, and pretty much anythingthatanyonewantedto do. It was really good at putting everyone in a bind and slowing the game to a crawl while not locking the game up entirely, but I found that being the fun-police in a game pretty much makes you the “bad guy” and that once a crack in the armor appeared I was ganged-up upon until dead. Not a fun place to be.
That leads me to a few years ago while I was investigating Bant commanders and I was looking at potential things to run in a Roon of the Hidden Realm deck when I came upon Brago, King Eternal and decided that I had finally found my Azorius commander instead.
There are many ways to go with Brago. Blinking Palinchron or Peregrine Drake to untap lands, blinking your Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, or Basalt Monolith to generate tons of mana and negate their drawbacks, playing Winter Orb and Stasis and ignoring them with blinking mana rocks or Teferi, Temporal Archmage, or even going full-on LD with Armageddon and/or Land Equilibrium. It seems like there is no shortage of mean things you can do with Brago, but I was pretty sure I wanted to avoid most of them. I did not want this to turn into GAAIV 2.0.
So I tried to focus on the value permanents with ETB or LTB effects, focusing on resource accumulation, card advantage, and removing threats without denying anyone the ability to deploy their threats. This makes me much less of an immediate threat to the table, and it gives me some leverage to focus removal on a specific player to reign them in without punishing someone who is struggling to catch up. The deck still has plenty of ways to destroy your stuff and control the game, but my opponents actually feel like they are playing and I rarely have someone just scooping to my board out of frustration.
After some playing with the deck, I finally decided on a shell I liked. I’ve recently updated it, so here is the most current list.
4/12/2017:
-1 Pilgrim's Eye - This is nice to have, but not as good as the other land searchers
+1 Twilight Shepherd - This was a nice find from going through my C14 Pre-cons
-1 Phyrexian Metamorph - There are complications with using this along with mass-blink due to timing issues
+1 Stalking Leonin - Cheap early beater that I can use to exile creatures, then blink to reset it and do it again.
So there you have it; my current (perilous) foray into Azorius territory. It fits into a category of decks that I have that I would consider "semi-competitive", in that I wouldn't necessarily play it in an unknown game or a game where we are all specifically playing our "fun decks", but its not so over-the-top as to be only playable in a tournament or in a cutthroat meta. Card choice explanations
So the deck definitely breaks down into categories very well, and it helps to explain what the deck does by going through each category and how each card fits:
These are all in the deck to 'blink' cards in and out of play to take advantage of whatever 'enters the battled' or 'leaves the battlefield' triggered abilities they may have. They were all selected either because they can be used multiple times (no Vanish Into Memory, Felidar Guardian, or Restoration Angel, although these are all fine cards), or in the case of Ghostway and Eerie Interlude they can blink multiple things at once as well as possibly saving my creatures from Wrath effects.
You need to protect Brago and find a way to get him through battle unscathed. Swiftfoot Boots lets you keep Brago safe from targeted removal and lets you swing in right away. The Swords are in their mostly because they grant protection from whatever colors our opponents may be running (except white, but there wasn't room to run Sword of Light and Shadow which would be a fine addition).
The one area that I think we can improve on is the raw card advantage package, but in all honesty the deck is really ALL card advantage. I list Recruiter here because he can get any one of 18 different creatures in the deck, and with a blink effect online he becomes a tutoring engine. It's easy to be temped to run big-time draw engines like Arcanis the Omnipotent, Consecrated Sphinx, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Mystic Remora, or even smaller effects like Wall of Omens, Thalakos Seer, or Merchant of Secrets, but its also easy to overdo it.
Sometimes you just need to delay things in order to buy time, but sometimes you also need to save one of your own guys or you need to use its ETB ability and you don't have a blinker handy. It's also worthwhile to note that the first three creatures are also Wizards, so they in turn can be bounced by Riptide Laboratory for additional shenanigans.
Sometimes your stuff gets killed and you want to use it again, and this suite of cards goes a long way towards being able to recur practically everything in the deck. Archaeomancer is also a Wizard so it can be reused with Riptide Laboratory, Reveillark can recur 22 out of the decks 35 other creatures (including Brago, King Eternal, so letting it go to the graveyard is sometimes an option), and Sun Titan can recur a host of cards including Fetchlands, Strip Mine, Jace Beleren, or a key piece of equipment. I will also note that Karmic Guide is an excellent option that I currently don't run.
Each one of these can go a long way towards defeating any one particular strategy and serve as catch-alls when needed. If your metagame is more combo-oriented rather than creature oriented, feel free to replace Stonehorn Dignitary and/or Linvala, the Preserver for more counterspells.
In addition to the the bounce spells, you have a wide variety of cards that can deal with non-creatures. All of these cards are good on their own, but they all go into overdrive when you have a blink effect online. Note that Reality Acid, Spine of Ish Sah, Austere Command, and Karn Liberated can also remove creatures, so your removal here is very flexible.
A good chunk of the deck is dedicated to just removing opposing creatures. This ensures that Brago can continue to get through and that you can continue the beatdown whenever the coast is clear. Note that High Market is in the deck primarily as a way to sacrifice the stolen creature prior to blinking Sower of Temptation to steal another one.
One of the things that drew me to wanting to play a blink-themed deck was the ability to play with the original Pirates of Mercadia. Just the threat of these slows players down considerably, and as they affect all opponents there is rarely a time when someone feels ganged up on when you play these. There will be some metas where these are shunned, so I would have some replacement cards to put in just in case (I recommend Knight-Captain of Eos, Nevermaker, and Slithermuse).
All of these cards are here to get bonus mileage out of all the ETB effects. Note that Strionic Resonator can copy Brago's combat damage trigger, so with a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt in play you can go infinite with Brago triggers. I usually eschew infinite combos, but this one doesn't need to go infinite and it isn't necessarily an auto-win even if you have all 3 pieces out.
EDIT:
Not a whole lot of action for Brago in Hour of Devastation, but Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign is quite spicy. I will be pulling Aethersnipe from the deck to make room.
EDIT2:
With C17 coming out, I am going to try Stalking Leonin as an interesting way to exile opposing creatures that dare attack me. After using it, I can blink it to reset it and do it over and over again. I'm pulling Phyrexian Metamorph to make room; Metamorph is a fine copy spell, but it's lack of synergy with mass bouncing stuff with Brago mkes it less than ideal. In fact, I think I would rather have Restoration Angel if I were to do it again.
-1 Lavinia of the Tenth - Lavinia's ability never quite sat well with me in this deck, but I figured that a) I needed to cut a 6+ drop for Azor, and b) with the addition of Azor I'm basically swapping one disruption ability for another.
-1 Sower of Temptation - I'm finding that I just don't ever really want to steal an opposing creature as I would rather just remove it.
-1 Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign - I liked Unesh while he lasted, but Augur is just cheaper and better in a lot of ways.
So I'm enjoying my Brago deck a lot in it's current configuration, but there are some things that I've been tinkering around with in the last few sets that are worth mentioning and I think that I'm taking some things in a different direction.
Dominaria Cloudreader Sphinx - This doesn't seem too bad given that you are getting a 3/4 flyer out of the deal, but it is just so much worse than all the other 5+ drops in the deck that I decided it wasn't worth the slot. Daring Archaeologist - I run a few artifacts that are all worth removing, so this was returning something to my hand about 30-40% of the time I played it. I'm also running 10 artifacts, 4 Legendary creatures, 3 Planeswalkers, and Brago to trigger it's +1/+1 counter ability. I think that this would be fine to run, but both triggers would need to happen much more often for this to really be good enough to want to keep long term. Fall of the Thran - I think that the versions of Brago that seek to lock up the game with Armageddon effects just got a new friend. I will personally be passing on this. History of Benalia - So blinking this would net a 2/2 every turn, but if I really wanted to go down that road I could run Blade Splicer, Cloudgoat Ranger, Knight-Captain of Eos, Oath of Gideon, etc. I decided in the end that I didn't want to turn this into a token creation deck, so I scrapped it. Naban, Dean of Iteration - There aren't enough Wizards here to make this worthwhile, but it is something to consider if you make this a Wizard tribal deck. Naru Meha, Master Wizard - There isn't a way to go-off with this and I'm not running enough cards worth copying to care too much about he ability. Oath of Teferi - So this card really got me thinking that although I run a few Planeswalkers to really take advantage of Brago blinking them in and out of play, Oath of Teferi would drive that engine into overdrive. Being able to plus, then minus a PW, blink it, then plus it again, then minus it again seems insane. Given that it already fits into my blinking theme, the question came as to how many PWs should I be running. This made me reevaluate Planeswalkers for this deck and made me really, really, really want to get on with making my Planeswalker deck. Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - This seems like a very worthwhile card to be blinking to get multiple uses of the -3 ability, not to mention that the +1 ability is both card draw and helps keep mana open to counter spells is actually pretty good. Teferi, Timebender - So I'm both more excited and less excited about this one than 'Hero of Dominaria'. The +2 doesn't do a lot for this particular deck (although it does for some other Brago decks that lock down lands and blink their mana rocks), but the -3 is strong and the ultimate is something that can be a somewhat interesting way to get lots of extra turns (versus blinking Archaeomancer to replay Time Warp every turn). With Teferi's Oath, it seems like there is some potential for abuse (play it, +2 it twice, defend it, then next turn +2 then -9 it, blink it back up to 5, +2 it twice, take an extra turn, repeat ad nauseam for infinite turns). I think I'm going to leave that kind of shenanigans out of this deck for now. The Antiquiies War - Again, I think certain versions of Brago will love blinking this, but I would have to really go in a different direction for this to be worth it. The Mirari Conjecture - I would prefer to just play more Archaeomancer effects like Scrivener or even Mnemonic Wall.
Battlebond Sea of Clouds - I'm going to try these out in my two-color decks to see how they play out, but I have a suspicion that they are going to be another solid dual land. Spellseeker - I don't run enough targets for this, but I'm going to remember this for the future in case I ever get to that point. Toothy, Imaginary Friend - So Toothy is small to start off with, but with Brago and the other blink effects this can grow consistently while drawing me tons of cards. Because Toothy will be back in play while it's leaves play trigger is still on the stack, it will get as many +1/+1 counters back on it as it had when it left play. This is a very worthwhile card to have in the deck.
Core Set 2019 Lena, Selfless Champion - So I know I didn't want to turn this into a token-making deck, but this has a lot of potential to spit out a lot of tokens to at least make me think twice about that. Militia Bugler - Being able to fetch at least 20 different cards seems like something worthwhile to check out, but in the end it is just not worth it (and so much worse than Recruiter of the Guard that its sad) Suncleanser - Seems like an interesting potential hate card. Salvager of Secrets - Another potential spell recursion card. Meteor Golem - Expensive, but powerful if you get to blinking this.
So in the end, I'm going with the following
+1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - I'm not going to get crazy with planeswalkers in this deck, but Teferi really helps out with what the deck wants to do with the repeatable targeted removal and card draw.
+1 Meteor Golem - I'm loving repeatable targeted removal.
+1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend - I'm really liking the synergy between Toothy and Brago.
+1 Sea of Clouds - Another dual land to help the mana.
-1 Linvala, the Preserver - I dislike that the triggers are conditional and this is the worse of the 6+ drops I run.
-1 Stonehorn Dignitary - This was beginning to feel out of place and unnecessary
-1 Wrath of God - With the addition of even more pinpoint removal, I'm less inclined to want to run as many Wraths as I have, so I'm cutting it down from 3 to 2.
-1 Island - Pulled for Sea of Clouds
Commander 2018 Boreas Charger - I tinkered with this for a bit given that it has a "leaves play" and not a "dies" trigger, but overall I was not impressed. You really need "ramp" cards to be more proactive than this. Coveted Jewel - I admit that I was tempted to try this out, but seeing it in action in other people's deck made me think otherwise. It can be potentially nuts, but its not like the deck has a hard time generating card advantage. Echo Storm - Making copies of Panharmonicon sounds legit, but in the end I decided that I just didn't have enough good targets for it.
Guilds of Ravnica Dream Eater - Getting to set the top 4 cards of your deck, dumping cards you don't need into the graveyard, putting cards that you might actually want in the graveyard where they can be recurred via Reveillark, Sun Titan, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, or Archaeomancer, and bouncing an opposing non-land permanent, and getting a 3/4 flyer is tons of value and well worth the 6 mana
Ravnica Allegiance Angel of Grace - I was excited to try this, but the more I thought about it the more it didn't make any sense given the timing of most of my blink effects. Deputy of Detention - Definitely worth a look, but in the end I think I prefer to bounce opposing permanents over Oblivion Ring-type effects. I will say that this is a nice option if you face a lot of token decks. Dovin's Acuity - Gaining some life in addition to drawing a card is a nice touch. Forbidding Spirit - I liked the idea of this except that I already had pulled Stonehorn Dignitary for not really fitting what this deck wanted to do. I don't blame Brago players for wanting to play this, but I ended up passing. High Alert - Interestingly enough, there are 12 creatures that have a higher toughness than power (versus 3 that have a higher power), so the deck would get some benefit from this. Maybe if I was running Wall of Omens and other walls in a more control-ish shell, but it would need to do more to justify a slot. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade - So even though this has no real synergy here, it does provide some significant disruption to some problematic strategies. If I get a copy I might try it out in the future, but I'm not interested in going out of my way to get one. Lumbering Battlement - This seems like it could be good, but the more you really think about it the less it makes sense (unless I'm trying to protect my stuff from a Wrath effect, but I have a few spells that already do that). I would rather run Restoration Angel if I'm just trying to get additional mileage from ETB effects. Smothering Tithe - This is a great card, but I'm only going to play it in a few places that really need it. This isn't one of them. Warrant//Warden - Having a creature removal spell that can be played as a proactive threat if need be makes this a nice card from a flexibility standpoint. In the end, it just misses the cut for me.
So overall, since last time I updated this thread, the changes have been as follows:
+1 Dream Eater, -1 Spine of Ish Sah - Spine is a fine card, but I wanted to remove a 6+ drop and Spine has less synergy in the deck as creatures do because a lot of my non-Brago blinkers only blink creatures.
+1 Dovin's Acuity, -1 Jace Beleren - Both fill a similar role, and although I can potentially get more cards off of Jace, it is much more vulnerable to just being attacked to death and I like the added lifegain option.
I like Dovin's Acuity also, especially for the life gain because I run Ancient Tomb and Hall of the Bandit Lord and Mana Crypt. Some games, I've been low on life without taking attacks.
However, I wouldn't replace Jace Beleren. With an active Brago, Jace draws twice the cards. Why not cut some of your high-cmc cards first? Even Wall of Omens would be better to get the card-draw snowball rolling even earlier.
Spreading Seas as another card that gets around Maze of Ith?
I like Dovin's Acuity also, especially for the life gain because I run Ancient Tomb and Hall of the Bandit Lord and Mana Crypt. Some games, I've been low on life without taking attacks.
However, I wouldn't replace Jace Beleren. With an active Brago, Jace draws twice the cards. Why not cut some of your high-cmc cards first? Even Wall of Omens would be better to get the card-draw snowball rolling even earlier.
Spreading Seas as another card that gets around Maze of Ith?
Somebody else made a similar point to me about Little Jace (also noting that even if Jace soaks up some combat damage, it is effectively gaining me life). I'm going to probably add it back in at some point, and I can totally see replacing Sphinx of Uthuun (even though ETB Fact or Fiction attached to a 5/6 Flyer is kinda amazing) or Azor, the Lawbringer (even though a Sphinx's Revelation stapled to a 6/6 flyer is also kind amazing). Sometimes, cheap and simple is better.
I had not considered running Spreading Seas. I'm less of a fan of non-creature stuff to blink given that most of the blinkers I run can only blink creatures (with Brago, King Eternal and Venser, the Sojourner being the two that can), so I don't want to go too overboard in this direction. However, I like the idea of giving the deck some more early action given that the deck is pretty top-heavy.
Thanks for the input. I'm going to try some things and let you know. Do you have a link to your Brago list somewhere?
I built my Brago list to win via out-valuing, out-tempoing. It is still fairly high power, but it lacks stax pieces you might see in some Brago builds. It's not geared towards winning against Flash-Hulk Turn 2 non-sense, but it can put up a fight in almost every meta.
I just had to build with these things mind:
1. Back to Basics, Blood Moon, etc.
2. Turn 2 Smokestacks
3. People playing T1 land, T2 land + Signet, T3 Armageddon (with nothing else). I decided to play blue 100% from now on against that guy.
4. Playing Rishadan Port to go 100% beating a Maze of Ith
My first attempt into UW territory was to play Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in a deck that was all about taxing spells, effects, combat, and pretty much anything that anyone wanted to do. It was really good at putting everyone in a bind and slowing the game to a crawl while not locking the game up entirely, but I found that being the fun-police in a game pretty much makes you the “bad guy” and that once a crack in the armor appeared I was ganged-up upon until dead. Not a fun place to be.
That leads me to a few years ago while I was investigating Bant commanders and I was looking at potential things to run in a Roon of the Hidden Realm deck when I came upon Brago, King Eternal and decided that I had finally found my Azorius commander instead.
There are many ways to go with Brago. Blinking Palinchron or Peregrine Drake to untap lands, blinking your Mana Vault, Grim Monolith, or Basalt Monolith to generate tons of mana and negate their drawbacks, playing Winter Orb and Stasis and ignoring them with blinking mana rocks or Teferi, Temporal Archmage, or even going full-on LD with Armageddon and/or Land Equilibrium. It seems like there is no shortage of mean things you can do with Brago, but I was pretty sure I wanted to avoid most of them. I did not want this to turn into GAAIV 2.0.
So I tried to focus on the value permanents with ETB or LTB effects, focusing on resource accumulation, card advantage, and removing threats without denying anyone the ability to deploy their threats. This makes me much less of an immediate threat to the table, and it gives me some leverage to focus removal on a specific player to reign them in without punishing someone who is struggling to catch up. The deck still has plenty of ways to destroy your stuff and control the game, but my opponents actually feel like they are playing and I rarely have someone just scooping to my board out of frustration.
After some playing with the deck, I finally decided on a shell I liked. I’ve recently updated it, so here is the most current list.
Deck updated through Ravnica Allegiance, 2/8/2019
1 Brago, King Eternal
Creatures - 36
2 Mistmeadow Witch
2 Knight of the White Orchid
2 Stoneforge Mystic
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Aether Adept
3 Reflector Mage
3 Sea Gate Oracle
3 Vendilion Clique
3 Rishadan Cutpurse
3 Stalking Leonin
4 Angel of Finality
4 Archaeomancer
4 Riverwise Augur
4 Kor Cartographer
4 Solemn Simulacrum
4 Venser, Shaper Savant
4 Glen Elendra Archmage
4 Rishadan Footpad
4 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
5 Mulldrifter
5 Cloudblazer
5 Prosperous Pirates
5 Reveillark
5 Rishadan Brigand
6 Azor, the Lawbringer
6 Deadeye Navigator
6 Duplicant
6 Triskelion
6 Sun Titan
6 Sunblast Angel
6 Twilight Shepherd
6 Dream Eater
7 Angel of Serenity
7 Luminate Primordial
7 Sphinx of Uthuun
7 Meteor Golem
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Path to Exile
2 Counterspell
2 Momentary Blink
3 Render Silent
3 Ghostway
3 Eerie Interlude
4 Cryptic Command
5 Mystic Confluence
Sorceries - 3
4 Rite of Replication
4 Supreme Verdict
6 Austere Command
Enchantments - 3
3 Reality Acid
3 Act of Authority
3 Dovin's Acuity
Artifacts - 9
0 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
2 Azorius Signet
2 Swiftfoot Boots
2 Strionic Resonator
3 Sword of Fire and Ice
3 Sword of Feast and Famine
4 Panharmonicon
5 Conjurer's Closet
Planeswalkers - 3
5 Venser, the Sojourner
5 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
7 Karn Liberated
Lands - 36
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
1 Port Town
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Nimbus Maze
1 Mystic Gate
1 Sea of Clouds
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Windswept Heath
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Dust Bowl
1 Strip Mine
1 Reliquary Tower
1 High Market
1 Emeria, the Sky Ruin
8 Island
9 Plains
4/12/2017:
-1 Pilgrim's Eye - This is nice to have, but not as good as the other land searchers
+1 Twilight Shepherd - This was a nice find from going through my C14 Pre-cons
-1 Phyrexian Metamorph - There are complications with using this along with mass-blink due to timing issues
+1 Stalking Leonin - Cheap early beater that I can use to exile creatures, then blink to reset it and do it again.
3/5/2018:
+1 Riverwise Augur
+1 Prosperous Pirates
+1 Azor, the Lawbringer
-1 Lavinia the Tenth
-1 Sower of Temptation
-1 Unesh, Criospinx Sovereign
6/29/2018:
-1 Linvala, the Preserver
-1 Wrath of God
-1 Stonehorn Dignitary
-1 Island
+1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend
+1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
+1 Meteor Golem
+1 Sea of Clouds
2/8/2019:
+1 Dream Eater, -1 Spine of Ish Sah
+1 Dovin's Acuity, -1 Jace Beleren
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Mystic Remora
1 Hinder
1 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Vanish Into Memory
1 Restoration Angel
1 Felidar Guardian
Card choice explanations
So the deck definitely breaks down into categories very well, and it helps to explain what the deck does by going through each category and how each card fits:
Blinkers
These are all in the deck to 'blink' cards in and out of play to take advantage of whatever 'enters the battled' or 'leaves the battlefield' triggered abilities they may have. They were all selected either because they can be used multiple times (no Vanish Into Memory, Felidar Guardian, or Restoration Angel, although these are all fine cards), or in the case of Ghostway and Eerie Interlude they can blink multiple things at once as well as possibly saving my creatures from Wrath effects.
Land Search
Pilgrim's EyeSince we are not a green deck, we have to find different ways to ramp. Note that Knight of the White Orchid and Kor Cartographer can get Plains cards (as opposed to Basic Plains), so they can fetch Tundra, Hallowed Fountain, and Prairie Stream.
Equipment/Evasion
You need to protect Brago and find a way to get him through battle unscathed. Swiftfoot Boots lets you keep Brago safe from targeted removal and lets you swing in right away. The Swords are in their mostly because they grant protection from whatever colors our opponents may be running (except white, but there wasn't room to run Sword of Light and Shadow which would be a fine addition).
Drawing Cards
The one area that I think we can improve on is the raw card advantage package, but in all honesty the deck is really ALL card advantage. I list Recruiter here because he can get any one of 18 different creatures in the deck, and with a blink effect online he becomes a tutoring engine. It's easy to be temped to run big-time draw engines like Arcanis the Omnipotent, Consecrated Sphinx, Azami, Lady of Scrolls, Mystic Remora, or even smaller effects like Wall of Omens, Thalakos Seer, or Merchant of Secrets, but its also easy to overdo it.
Bounce
Sometimes you just need to delay things in order to buy time, but sometimes you also need to save one of your own guys or you need to use its ETB ability and you don't have a blinker handy. It's also worthwhile to note that the first three creatures are also Wizards, so they in turn can be bounced by Riptide Laboratory for additional shenanigans.
Recursion
Sometimes your stuff gets killed and you want to use it again, and this suite of cards goes a long way towards being able to recur practically everything in the deck. Archaeomancer is also a Wizard so it can be reused with Riptide Laboratory, Reveillark can recur 22 out of the decks 35 other creatures (including Brago, King Eternal, so letting it go to the graveyard is sometimes an option), and Sun Titan can recur a host of cards including Fetchlands, Strip Mine, Jace Beleren, or a key piece of equipment. I will also note that Karmic Guide is an excellent option that I currently don't run.
Disruption
Each one of these can go a long way towards defeating any one particular strategy and serve as catch-alls when needed. If your metagame is more combo-oriented rather than creature oriented, feel free to replace Stonehorn Dignitary and/or Linvala, the Preserver for more counterspells.
Non-creature Removal
In addition to the the bounce spells, you have a wide variety of cards that can deal with non-creatures. All of these cards are good on their own, but they all go into overdrive when you have a blink effect online. Note that Reality Acid, Spine of Ish Sah, Austere Command, and Karn Liberated can also remove creatures, so your removal here is very flexible.
Creature Removal
A good chunk of the deck is dedicated to just removing opposing creatures. This ensures that Brago can continue to get through and that you can continue the beatdown whenever the coast is clear. Note that High Market is in the deck primarily as a way to sacrifice the stolen creature prior to blinking Sower of Temptation to steal another one.
Pirates!
One of the things that drew me to wanting to play a blink-themed deck was the ability to play with the original Pirates of Mercadia. Just the threat of these slows players down considerably, and as they affect all opponents there is rarely a time when someone feels ganged up on when you play these. There will be some metas where these are shunned, so I would have some replacement cards to put in just in case (I recommend Knight-Captain of Eos, Nevermaker, and Slithermuse).
Copying Stuff
Phyrexian MetamorphAll of these cards are here to get bonus mileage out of all the ETB effects. Note that Strionic Resonator can copy Brago's combat damage trigger, so with a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt in play you can go infinite with Brago triggers. I usually eschew infinite combos, but this one doesn't need to go infinite and it isn't necessarily an auto-win even if you have all 3 pieces out.
EDIT:
Not a whole lot of action for Brago in Hour of Devastation, but Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign is quite spicy. I will be pulling Aethersnipe from the deck to make room.
EDIT2:
With C17 coming out, I am going to try Stalking Leonin as an interesting way to exile opposing creatures that dare attack me. After using it, I can blink it to reset it and do it over and over again. I'm pulling Phyrexian Metamorph to make room; Metamorph is a fine copy spell, but it's lack of synergy with mass bouncing stuff with Brago mkes it less than ideal. In fact, I think I would rather have Restoration Angel if I were to do it again.
Azor, the Lawbinger - This card is awesome at shutting down opposing Sorceries and making a good Sphinx's Revelation impression in the meantime.
Crafty Cutpurse - I like some of the potential combos with this with things like Baffling End, Hunted Lammasu, and Hunted Phantasm (too bad Terastodon and Varchild's War Riders are out of color), but I don't see that working out in a deck like this.
Prosperous Pirates - Getting two treasures a pop goes a long way.
Riverwise Augur - Getting a Brainstorm every pop goes an even longer way.
Tempest Caller - Nice synergy with Sunblast Angel, but otherwise kinda meh compared to other options.
So in the end, I wanted Azor, the Lawbinger, Prosperous Pirates, and Riverwise Augur to have a long term home in the deck. The three cards I had to cut were as follows:
-1 Lavinia of the Tenth - Lavinia's ability never quite sat well with me in this deck, but I figured that a) I needed to cut a 6+ drop for Azor, and b) with the addition of Azor I'm basically swapping one disruption ability for another.
-1 Sower of Temptation - I'm finding that I just don't ever really want to steal an opposing creature as I would rather just remove it.
-1 Unesh, Criosphinx Sovereign - I liked Unesh while he lasted, but Augur is just cheaper and better in a lot of ways.
Dominaria
Cloudreader Sphinx - This doesn't seem too bad given that you are getting a 3/4 flyer out of the deal, but it is just so much worse than all the other 5+ drops in the deck that I decided it wasn't worth the slot.
Daring Archaeologist - I run a few artifacts that are all worth removing, so this was returning something to my hand about 30-40% of the time I played it. I'm also running 10 artifacts, 4 Legendary creatures, 3 Planeswalkers, and Brago to trigger it's +1/+1 counter ability. I think that this would be fine to run, but both triggers would need to happen much more often for this to really be good enough to want to keep long term.
Fall of the Thran - I think that the versions of Brago that seek to lock up the game with Armageddon effects just got a new friend. I will personally be passing on this.
History of Benalia - So blinking this would net a 2/2 every turn, but if I really wanted to go down that road I could run Blade Splicer, Cloudgoat Ranger, Knight-Captain of Eos, Oath of Gideon, etc. I decided in the end that I didn't want to turn this into a token creation deck, so I scrapped it.
Naban, Dean of Iteration - There aren't enough Wizards here to make this worthwhile, but it is something to consider if you make this a Wizard tribal deck.
Naru Meha, Master Wizard - There isn't a way to go-off with this and I'm not running enough cards worth copying to care too much about he ability.
Oath of Teferi - So this card really got me thinking that although I run a few Planeswalkers to really take advantage of Brago blinking them in and out of play, Oath of Teferi would drive that engine into overdrive. Being able to plus, then minus a PW, blink it, then plus it again, then minus it again seems insane. Given that it already fits into my blinking theme, the question came as to how many PWs should I be running. This made me reevaluate Planeswalkers for this deck and made me really, really, really want to get on with making my Planeswalker deck.
Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - This seems like a very worthwhile card to be blinking to get multiple uses of the -3 ability, not to mention that the +1 ability is both card draw and helps keep mana open to counter spells is actually pretty good.
Teferi, Timebender - So I'm both more excited and less excited about this one than 'Hero of Dominaria'. The +2 doesn't do a lot for this particular deck (although it does for some other Brago decks that lock down lands and blink their mana rocks), but the -3 is strong and the ultimate is something that can be a somewhat interesting way to get lots of extra turns (versus blinking Archaeomancer to replay Time Warp every turn). With Teferi's Oath, it seems like there is some potential for abuse (play it, +2 it twice, defend it, then next turn +2 then -9 it, blink it back up to 5, +2 it twice, take an extra turn, repeat ad nauseam for infinite turns). I think I'm going to leave that kind of shenanigans out of this deck for now.
The Antiquiies War - Again, I think certain versions of Brago will love blinking this, but I would have to really go in a different direction for this to be worth it.
The Mirari Conjecture - I would prefer to just play more Archaeomancer effects like Scrivener or even Mnemonic Wall.
Battlebond
Sea of Clouds - I'm going to try these out in my two-color decks to see how they play out, but I have a suspicion that they are going to be another solid dual land.
Spellseeker - I don't run enough targets for this, but I'm going to remember this for the future in case I ever get to that point.
Toothy, Imaginary Friend - So Toothy is small to start off with, but with Brago and the other blink effects this can grow consistently while drawing me tons of cards. Because Toothy will be back in play while it's leaves play trigger is still on the stack, it will get as many +1/+1 counters back on it as it had when it left play. This is a very worthwhile card to have in the deck.
Core Set 2019
Lena, Selfless Champion - So I know I didn't want to turn this into a token-making deck, but this has a lot of potential to spit out a lot of tokens to at least make me think twice about that.
Militia Bugler - Being able to fetch at least 20 different cards seems like something worthwhile to check out, but in the end it is just not worth it (and so much worse than Recruiter of the Guard that its sad)
Suncleanser - Seems like an interesting potential hate card.
Salvager of Secrets - Another potential spell recursion card.
Meteor Golem - Expensive, but powerful if you get to blinking this.
So in the end, I'm going with the following
+1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria - I'm not going to get crazy with planeswalkers in this deck, but Teferi really helps out with what the deck wants to do with the repeatable targeted removal and card draw.
+1 Meteor Golem - I'm loving repeatable targeted removal.
+1 Toothy, Imaginary Friend - I'm really liking the synergy between Toothy and Brago.
+1 Sea of Clouds - Another dual land to help the mana.
-1 Linvala, the Preserver - I dislike that the triggers are conditional and this is the worse of the 6+ drops I run.
-1 Stonehorn Dignitary - This was beginning to feel out of place and unnecessary
-1 Wrath of God - With the addition of even more pinpoint removal, I'm less inclined to want to run as many Wraths as I have, so I'm cutting it down from 3 to 2.
-1 Island - Pulled for Sea of Clouds
Commander 2018
Boreas Charger - I tinkered with this for a bit given that it has a "leaves play" and not a "dies" trigger, but overall I was not impressed. You really need "ramp" cards to be more proactive than this.
Coveted Jewel - I admit that I was tempted to try this out, but seeing it in action in other people's deck made me think otherwise. It can be potentially nuts, but its not like the deck has a hard time generating card advantage.
Echo Storm - Making copies of Panharmonicon sounds legit, but in the end I decided that I just didn't have enough good targets for it.
Guilds of Ravnica
Dream Eater - Getting to set the top 4 cards of your deck, dumping cards you don't need into the graveyard, putting cards that you might actually want in the graveyard where they can be recurred via Reveillark, Sun Titan, Emeria, the Sky Ruin, or Archaeomancer, and bouncing an opposing non-land permanent, and getting a 3/4 flyer is tons of value and well worth the 6 mana
Ravnica Allegiance
Angel of Grace - I was excited to try this, but the more I thought about it the more it didn't make any sense given the timing of most of my blink effects.
Deputy of Detention - Definitely worth a look, but in the end I think I prefer to bounce opposing permanents over Oblivion Ring-type effects. I will say that this is a nice option if you face a lot of token decks.
Dovin's Acuity - Gaining some life in addition to drawing a card is a nice touch.
Forbidding Spirit - I liked the idea of this except that I already had pulled Stonehorn Dignitary for not really fitting what this deck wanted to do. I don't blame Brago players for wanting to play this, but I ended up passing.
High Alert - Interestingly enough, there are 12 creatures that have a higher toughness than power (versus 3 that have a higher power), so the deck would get some benefit from this. Maybe if I was running Wall of Omens and other walls in a more control-ish shell, but it would need to do more to justify a slot.
Lavinia, Azorius Renegade - So even though this has no real synergy here, it does provide some significant disruption to some problematic strategies. If I get a copy I might try it out in the future, but I'm not interested in going out of my way to get one.
Lumbering Battlement - This seems like it could be good, but the more you really think about it the less it makes sense (unless I'm trying to protect my stuff from a Wrath effect, but I have a few spells that already do that). I would rather run Restoration Angel if I'm just trying to get additional mileage from ETB effects.
Smothering Tithe - This is a great card, but I'm only going to play it in a few places that really need it. This isn't one of them.
Warrant//Warden - Having a creature removal spell that can be played as a proactive threat if need be makes this a nice card from a flexibility standpoint. In the end, it just misses the cut for me.
So overall, since last time I updated this thread, the changes have been as follows:
+1 Dream Eater, -1 Spine of Ish Sah - Spine is a fine card, but I wanted to remove a 6+ drop and Spine has less synergy in the deck as creatures do because a lot of my non-Brago blinkers only blink creatures.
+1 Dovin's Acuity, -1 Jace Beleren - Both fill a similar role, and although I can potentially get more cards off of Jace, it is much more vulnerable to just being attacked to death and I like the added lifegain option.
However, I wouldn't replace Jace Beleren. With an active Brago, Jace draws twice the cards. Why not cut some of your high-cmc cards first? Even Wall of Omens would be better to get the card-draw snowball rolling even earlier.
Spreading Seas as another card that gets around Maze of Ith?
Somebody else made a similar point to me about Little Jace (also noting that even if Jace soaks up some combat damage, it is effectively gaining me life). I'm going to probably add it back in at some point, and I can totally see replacing Sphinx of Uthuun (even though ETB Fact or Fiction attached to a 5/6 Flyer is kinda amazing) or Azor, the Lawbringer (even though a Sphinx's Revelation stapled to a 6/6 flyer is also kind amazing). Sometimes, cheap and simple is better.
I'm not a fan of Wall of Omens, but I would reconsider cards like Council of Advisors or Merchant of Secrets as they can pick up a Sword and swing.
I had not considered running Spreading Seas. I'm less of a fan of non-creature stuff to blink given that most of the blinkers I run can only blink creatures (with Brago, King Eternal and Venser, the Sojourner being the two that can), so I don't want to go too overboard in this direction. However, I like the idea of giving the deck some more early action given that the deck is pretty top-heavy.
Thanks for the input. I'm going to try some things and let you know. Do you have a link to your Brago list somewhere?
I just had to build with these things mind:
1. Back to Basics, Blood Moon, etc.
2. Turn 2 Smokestacks
3. People playing T1 land, T2 land + Signet, T3 Armageddon (with nothing else). I decided to play blue 100% from now on against that guy.
4. Playing Rishadan Port to go 100% beating a Maze of Ith
Here's my current decklist:
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Arid Mesa
1 Tundra
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Prairie Stream
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Glacial Fortress
1 Command Tower
7 Island
7 Plains
1 Riptide Laboratory
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
1 Ancient Tomb
1 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine
1 Rishadan Port
1 Command Beacon
Mana Rocks
1 Mana Crypt
1 Chrome Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Azorius Signet
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Wall of Omens
1 Spreading Seas
1 Meddling Mage
1 Trinket Mage
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Man-o’-War
1 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Reflector Mage
1 Cloudform
1 Lightform
1 Dovin's Acuity
1 Clever Impersonator
1 Archaeomancer
1 Venser, Shaper Savant
1 Sower of Temptation
1 Master of Waves
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Cloudblazer
1 Riftwing Cloudskate
1 Lavinia of the Tenth
1 Treachery
1 Angel of Serenity
Planeswalkers
1 Jace Beleren
1 Jace, Architect of Thought
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Venser, the Sojourner
1 Karn Liberated
1 Elspeth Sun’s Champion
1 Teferi, Hero of Dominaria
1 Path to Exile
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Land Tax
1 Momentary Blink
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Act of Authority
1 Catastrophe
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Blue Spells
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Counterspell
1 Mana Drain
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Forbid
1 Release to the Wind
1 Cryptic Command
1 Opposition
1 Force of Will
1 Pact of Negation
1 Temporal Manipulation
1 Time Warp
Artifacts
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Expedition Map
1 Pithing Needle
1 Scroll Rack
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Umezawa’s Jitte
1 Sword of Feast and Famine
1 Sword of Light and Shadow