I've been meaning to play an enchantment deck for a while and after looking at some commanders such as Tuvasa the Sunlit, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Geist of Saint Traft, none of them had me really interested until I looked at Thrasios and Bruse and saw how cool they would be at the helm of such a deck. I spent a few weeks brewing this deck and putting it together, then I tested it and had very good results, which made me want to share it here to see what you guys think and gather some feedback on it!
Why play this deck?
You might like this deck if...
You like enchantments. This is the main reason one would try this deck out: it's 100% an enchantment deck and plays as such.
You want a deck with multiple paths to victory. Voltron, combo, value, tokens, stax: this deck can do it all. You get to choose which way you're going to try to win depending on your draws and the commander you play first, whether it's Thrasios or Bruse.
You want to look like you're having more fun than everyone else. This deck runs a lot of enchantress effects and lots of ways to generate mana which, combined with Thrasios's ability, means your hand will almost never be empty. If the multiple value engines of this deck aren't enough, we also run many stax pieces such as Stranglehold and Aura of Silence to slow our opponents down. This combination of factors mean that this deck is very strong at playing both sides of the V-A-L-U-E game!
This deck might not be for you if...
You hate being the archenemy. This deck can be very effective and very fast, meaning I often find myself in a 1v3 situation where I must be dealt with quickly or else I win.
You want a deck that's more effective at single strategy instead of seemingly going in every direction at the same time. If you want a voltron deck, Sigarda, Host of Herons or Geist of Saint Traft might be better due to how hard they are to remove. If you want a combo deck, Estrid, the Masked is probably a better pick because of her abilies combined with The Chain Veil. For a deck with black enchantments and more mass removal, Daxos the Returned is also a good pick.
You dislike having very specific weaknesses. Cards such as Bane of Progress and Cyclonic Rift are very, very strong against an enchantment deck: they can basically shut our entire strategy off if time correctly. We are also very vulnerable to targetet land removal since most of our ramp consists of enchant land auras, making it easy for our opponents to 2-for-1 and destroy our mana base.
Why Bruse and Thrasios at the helm of an enchantment deck?
I chose to give them a try because they each have strengths that supplement each other perfectly. Thrasios is the brains, using all the mana we can quickly generate and cards such as Training Grounds and Seedborn Muse to draw us a ton of cards and/or ramp. Bruse is the muscle, being a double strike and lifelink giver in the command zone, meaning we can often deal tons of damage in a single blow with a huge Knight of the Reliquary or if we have a creature enchanted with Eldrazi Conscription, Ancestral Mask or Corrupted Conscience, while also gaining a lot of life in the process to survive until the next blow. That commander pairing also adds red to the classic Bant shell for enchantress decks, which allows us to run cards such as Curse of Opulence, Jeskai Ascendancy, Stranglehold and War's Toll.
Eidolon of Blossoms, Argothian Enchantress, and Satyr Enchanter: Draw engines for any enchantment deck. They are all tutorable and if you can get one out early, it can usually generate enough value for us to jump to the midgame very easily.
Thassa, God of the Sea: Very hard to remove enchantment with two abilities that are useful for us, especially the unblockable to win with a huge Bruse punch.
Jeskai Ascendancy: Incredible card filter engine and, most importantly, combo engine with mana dorks, Knight of the Reliquary, and Natural Emergence. That card is in the deck only because of the ascendancy, and turning all of our lands into creatures often means we can cast our whole deck with Thrasios out.
Training Grounds: Much like Seedborn Muse, this is another card that's only here to help our boy Thrasios dig through our deck faster.
Grasp of Fate: Good removal, and can also be a political card, which is really cool.
Blind Obedience: Stax and life gain in one card. This is really annoying to play against and can shut many artifact-based combos out because of the 1-turn delay.
Chained to the Rocks: Very good and very cheap, this enchantment-based removal isn't often seen in enchantment decks because they lack red. But we don't!
Ethereal Armor, Ancestral Mask, and Eldrazi Conscription: Those are our voltron auras. Getting one attached to a creature and giving it a Bruse double strike trigger is often enough to take a player out of the game, especially if the target is a commander. It's not mandatory though, as a 20 damage swing from an conscriptioned Birds of Paradise is an amazing way to tell your friends how you feel about them.
Ghostly Prison and Sphere of Safety: Since we don't run a lot of mass removal, we must have a good way to make sure we're hard to attack. Those two cards fill that role vert well, one for the early game and the other for the late game when we have 8+ enchantments on the field.
Retreat to Coralhelm: Incredible with Knight of the Reliquary, where you can get all your lands into your graveyard, resulting in a huge knight and a bunch of tapped creatures for your opponents because of fetchlands. This interaction will be explained more in a further section. It's also quite good on its own since you can untap your dorks with every land drop or scry if you need to find a specific card.
Bear Umbra: Incredible protection aura and mana-generating engine. I always love to play this card and it's very good in this deck.
Natural Emergence: In there only for the Jeskai Ascendancy combo. With the bounce clause, at worst it's a 4 mana re-usable draw engine with an enchantress effect on the field. I might end up replacing it with Kamahl, Fist of Krosa for the land animating effect. It also has a trample ability on his own and is an easily tutorable creature, but it's harder to set up the combo because it costs more mana.
Stranglehold and War's Toll: Those two red stax pieces weren't well known in my playgroup before I started playing this deck, and now everyone hates them. They are both very solid cards thet can shut down entire strategies on their own, making them very good tutor targets against specific decks.
Corrupted Conscience: I just love this card so much. Stealing a creature is a very good effect, but you can also simply use it on a 5/5 to eliminate an opponent on the spot and out of nowhere with a Bruse double strike trigger.
Enchanted Evening: This makes us an incredible amount of mana with Serra's Sanctum out and draws us even more cards with Eidolon of Blossoms, especially with fetches. There are some combos out there to win on the spot with this card, such as Aura Thief or Cleansing Meditation. I purposefully avoided those combos while building this deck, but I might end up giving them a try later.
Fires of Yavimaya: Both effects are useful here. The haste means we can activate Knight of the Reliquary the turn it enters the battlefield, or swing with a huge Bruse right away. The +2/+2 also becomes 4 additionnal damage with the double strike trigger.
Shielding Plax: More protection for our poor commanders who don't have hexproof.
Aura of Silence: More artifact hate. It's also good against competing enchantment decks!
Chaos Warp: Probably my favorite removal spell because it hits anything and I love random effects like this. Since our deck is mostly permanents, we can also use it on our own stuff for some exciting surprises.
Swan Song, Arcane Denial, and Muddle the Mixture: My biggest nightmare while playing an enchantment deck is Cyclonic Rift, so all those cheap and useful counterspells can prevent this card from bothering us if need be. Since our commanders don't have hexproof, we also need some protection from instant removal if we go for a voltron strategy.
Crop Rotation: An extra copy of Serra's Sanctum. If we already have it on the field, a mana fixer or an unblockable giver with Rogue's Passage. It also has the very narrow use of giving Knight of the Reliquary up to +2/+2 with a fetch land if we need a little stat boost.
Blasphemous Act: Our only mass removal spell. I like it because of how cheap it is. Bear Umbra can also save one of our creatures from it.
Replenish: Incredible recursion effect that can sometimes end games on the spot.
I won't discuss every land choice because the land base is still being worked on. I don't own all the fetches and duals, and I have multiple other decks, so it might seem sub-optimal, but it doesn't really matter as my playgroup isn't hardcore competitive or anything. Also, most of our ramp also fixes our colors, so we mostly just need green mana and 1 or 2 sources of fixing to get started. I will still discuss some land choices:
Serra's Sanctum: Incredible mana generator. I have to find ways to get in into play as soon as possible. The extra mana can always be converted to extra cards with Thrasios!
Rogue's Passage: It isn't that expensive considering all the mana we can generate in this deck, and we are always looking for extra unblockable effects to take our opponents out with huge Bruse-powered swings!
This section is a work in progress. I'll update it as I play with and work on the deck more. It should include some subsections such as:
Starting hand and mulligan
Early, mid, and late game strategies
Additional tips
Synergies & Combos
The Beefy Knight of Coralhelm?
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Those two cards can put all Fetchlands, Forests, and Plains from your library into your graveyard, adding one mana per non-fetchland put into your graveyard this way and getting an additionnal Retreat to Coralhelm trigger for each fetchland put into your graveyard this way. You don't have to get all your lands this way and can end the chain whenever you want. I generally end with Rogue's Passage to kill a player, or Serra's Sanctum for extra mana if I need it. Here is how it works:
1. Have Knight of the Reliquary, which can be activated, on the battlefield with Retreat to Coralhelm and at least one Forest or Plains.
2. Tap the Knight to sacrifice a Forest or Plains. Search your library for any land (another Forest or Plains for as long as you want the chain to keep going).
3. The new land entering the battlefield wil cause Retreat to Coralhelm to trigger, untapping the Knight of the Reliquaty.
4. Keep going for as long as you want. Don't forget to tap the land you searched for previously to float one mana before sacrificing it again to start over.
5. [BONUS] If you grab a fetchland, you will get an additional Retreat to Coralhelm trigger, because you then sacrifice it to grab another land that will keep the chain going. I usually use those extra triggers to tap my opponents' creatures for a free swing with the Knight.
6. End the chain with either Serra's Sanctum or Rogue's Passage, depending on what your next step is. You will usually have enough floating mana to cast Bruse and put his trigger on the Knight at this point, which will be huge due to all the lands that are now in your graveyard. One swing with double strike can generally take a player out.
Natural Ascension!
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Jeskai Ascendancy is so useful in this deck, it should have a section of its own. I will list some more interactions it has below, but lets start with the Natural Emergence combo. Here is how it works:
1. Have both enchantments in play. This means that Jeskai Ascendancy's first trigger now untaps all your lands because they are 2/2 creatures as well.
2. Tap all of your lands to float mana.
3. Cast a noncreature spell, the cheapest if possible, which shouldn't be hard considering how many 1 cost enchantments we use in this deck.
4. Jeskai Ascendancy will trigger, giving all your lands +1/+1 and untaping them.
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 for as long as you can cast noncreature spells, using the Ascendancy's second filter trigger to keep casting noncreature spells. You generally only need a few noncreature spells to reach absurd amounts of mana, which you can in turn spend in Thrasios' ability to draw more cards and keep going. At one point, this will be an infinite engine that draws your whole deck and makes your lands into huge creatures that can then become unblockable with Thassa, God of the Sea.
The last two are particylarily interesting because of all of our Enchant land auras that make a land tap for more than one mana. Dryad Arbor is a creature that can itself be enchanted because it's also a land, and Arbor Elf can repeatedly untap a Forest that's enchanted to generate the mana we need. By chaining enough cheap noncreature spells, we can have very explosive turns that end up with beefy creatures and possibly a huge attack let by a 10/10 Dryad Arbor to which Bruse granted double strike.
Each time I remove and add new cards to the deck list posted in the original post, I'll list them here as well as in a new post in the thread. If the changes aren't explained here, they probably will be in the post.
So, one small change for today as I traded a Karmic Justice and I wanted to include it in the deck to use as protection against land and mass enchantment removal, which this deck is very vulnerable with. This card should make opponents think twice before using Bane of Progress or Austere Command against this deck, or using Beast Within on an enchanted land or the Serra's Sanctum.
The Shielding Plax was removed because I found it situational and not super useful, and I often found myself preferring to cast other stuff when I had the choice.
I've been meaning to play an enchantment deck for a while and after looking at some commanders such as Tuvasa the Sunlit, Sigarda, Host of Herons and Geist of Saint Traft, none of them had me really interested until I looked at Thrasios and Bruse and saw how cool they would be at the helm of such a deck. I spent a few weeks brewing this deck and putting it together, then I tested it and had very good results, which made me want to share it here to see what you guys think and gather some feedback on it!
You might like this deck if...
I chose to give them a try because they each have strengths that supplement each other perfectly. Thrasios is the brains, using all the mana we can quickly generate and cards such as Training Grounds and Seedborn Muse to draw us a ton of cards and/or ramp. Bruse is the muscle, being a double strike and lifelink giver in the command zone, meaning we can often deal tons of damage in a single blow with a huge Knight of the Reliquary or if we have a creature enchanted with Eldrazi Conscription, Ancestral Mask or Corrupted Conscience, while also gaining a lot of life in the process to survive until the next blow. That commander pairing also adds red to the classic Bant shell for enchantress decks, which allows us to run cards such as Curse of Opulence, Jeskai Ascendancy, Stranglehold and War's Toll.
1 Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
1 Thrasios, Triton Hero
Artifacts (1)
1 Sol Ring
Creatures (12)
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Eternal Witness
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Arbor Elf
1 Eidolon of Blossoms
1 Argothian Enchantress
1 Satyr Enchanter
1 Sun Titan
1 Knight of the Reliquary
1 Seedborn Muse
1 Thassa, God of the Sea
1 Clever Impersonator
Enchantments (37)
1 Exploration
1 Burgeoning
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Wild Growth
1 Overgrowth
1 Fertile Ground
1 Training Grounds
1 Grasp of Fate
1 Blind Obedience
1 Chained to the Rocks
1 Curse of Opulence
1 Ethereal Armor
1 Mystic Remora
1 Rest in Peace
1 Sterling Grove
1 Stony Silence
1 Ancestral Mask
1 Enchantress's Presence
1 Ghostly Prison
1 Retreat to Coralhelm
1 Bear Umbra
1 Natural Emergence
1 Stranglehold
1 War's Toll
1 Corrupted Conscience
1 Enchanted Evening
1 Sigil of the Empty Throne
1 Sphere of Safety
1 Leyline of Anticipation
1 Rancor
1 Fires of Yavimaya
1 Karmic Justice
1 Eldrazi Conscription
1 Smothering Tithe
1 Dawn's Reflection
1 Aura of Silence
1 Chaos Warp
1 Chord of Calling
1 Eladamri's Call
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Swan Song
1 Arcane Denial
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Crop Rotation
Sorceries (5)
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Wargate
1 Idyllic Tutor
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Replenish
Lands (35)
1 Command Tower
1 Serra's Sanctum
1 Canopy Vista
1 Polluted Delta
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Wooded Bastion
1 Bountiful Promenade
5 Forest
1 Botanical Sanctum
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
2 Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Windswept Heath
2 Plains
1 Flooded Strand
1 Temple Garden
1 Steam Vents
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Tropical Island
1 Brushland
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Mountain
1 Rogue's Passage
1 Mana Confluence
In no particular order:
Those two cards can put all Fetchlands, Forests, and Plains from your library into your graveyard, adding one mana per non-fetchland put into your graveyard this way and getting an additionnal Retreat to Coralhelm trigger for each fetchland put into your graveyard this way. You don't have to get all your lands this way and can end the chain whenever you want. I generally end with Rogue's Passage to kill a player, or Serra's Sanctum for extra mana if I need it. Here is how it works:
2. Tap the Knight to sacrifice a Forest or Plains. Search your library for any land (another Forest or Plains for as long as you want the chain to keep going).
3. The new land entering the battlefield wil cause Retreat to Coralhelm to trigger, untapping the Knight of the Reliquaty.
4. Keep going for as long as you want. Don't forget to tap the land you searched for previously to float one mana before sacrificing it again to start over.
5. [BONUS] If you grab a fetchland, you will get an additional Retreat to Coralhelm trigger, because you then sacrifice it to grab another land that will keep the chain going. I usually use those extra triggers to tap my opponents' creatures for a free swing with the Knight.
6. End the chain with either Serra's Sanctum or Rogue's Passage, depending on what your next step is. You will usually have enough floating mana to cast Bruse and put his trigger on the Knight at this point, which will be huge due to all the lands that are now in your graveyard. One swing with double strike can generally take a player out.
Jeskai Ascendancy is so useful in this deck, it should have a section of its own. I will list some more interactions it has below, but lets start with the Natural Emergence combo. Here is how it works:
2. Tap all of your lands to float mana.
3. Cast a noncreature spell, the cheapest if possible, which shouldn't be hard considering how many 1 cost enchantments we use in this deck.
4. Jeskai Ascendancy will trigger, giving all your lands +1/+1 and untaping them.
5. Repeat steps 2 - 4 for as long as you can cast noncreature spells, using the Ascendancy's second filter trigger to keep casting noncreature spells. You generally only need a few noncreature spells to reach absurd amounts of mana, which you can in turn spend in Thrasios' ability to draw more cards and keep going. At one point, this will be an infinite engine that draws your whole deck and makes your lands into huge creatures that can then become unblockable with Thassa, God of the Sea.
While Natural Emergence is only in this deck to enable this combo, Jeskai Ascendancy is also very useful when combined to creatures that tap for mana such as Birds of Paradise, Knight of the Reliquary, Arbor Elf and Dryad Arbor.
The last two are particylarily interesting because of all of our Enchant land auras that make a land tap for more than one mana. Dryad Arbor is a creature that can itself be enchanted because it's also a land, and Arbor Elf can repeatedly untap a Forest that's enchanted to generate the mana we need. By chaining enough cheap noncreature spells, we can have very explosive turns that end up with beefy creatures and possibly a huge attack let by a 10/10 Dryad Arbor to which Bruse granted double strike.
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Each time I remove and add new cards to the deck list posted in the original post, I'll list them here as well as in a new post in the thread. If the changes aren't explained here, they probably will be in the post.
1 Shielding Plax
1 Karmic Justice
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
1 Shielding Plax
1 Karmic Justice
The Shielding Plax was removed because I found it situational and not super useful, and I often found myself preferring to cast other stuff when I had the choice.
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Are you still playing this deck ? Still uptdatin?
I have rebuild rafiq, after year. But i was looking for more and thugh about Bruse/UG.
And you were here !