MTG Salvation

I don't anyone would might. I'd think we'd encourage it, so that you can get caught up. Anything to help relieve stress. We're a patient bunch here lol. Take as long as you need.

No rush, as always. Very glad to hear that things are going, well...somewhat well. The art looks great, and the news about the chapter likewise. But, like always...no rush. No fuss. Life's requirements come first lol.

As for sticking around. Quality like your writing is hard to come by. Its worth waiting for.

Well, now that we have an idea of how busy you are, I'm quite sure we can afford to wait. Other commitments come first. No rush on our end. I'm also fairly sure your other readers will agree with me. I hope, at least.

---

Table of Contents



Before I go any further, is Jaya Ballard for me?
Is this primer for me?
If you've looked farther down the page already, you may have noticed that there are a lot of words here. I write more than I should, and I think that the overuse of spoilers looks pretty bad. To counter this, I've tried to organize things in a somewhat intuitive sense and I have provided a Table of Contents, which I heartily suggest you use. If you're only interested in seeing what people said about the deck when it was posted, or you just want to read a bunch of conversation about an old list, here is a link to the third post of the thread (second post is also me. Like I said, I write too much).



Let's meet the lady of the hour
From Matt Cavotta, the artist and the guy who originally spoiled her:

Quote from Savor the Flavor »

Jaya Ballard is a Task Mage. This is the term for a maverick wizard who works as a hired gun. There are cryptomancer task mages and auramancer task mages and healers and diviners and countermagicians. There are Swiss Army Knife task mages who can do a little bit of everything. Jaya Ballard does one thing – burn stuff!

Jaya was a bit character who showed up repeatedly in the flavor text of Ice Age block cards, almost always on cards relating to fire or destruction. She's the kind of classy lady who finds dinner and a movie boring and would much rather see something-or someone-go up in a massive cloud of flames. Her remarks sassed up quite a few cards, and I fell in love with her long before I knew her story and years before she showed up as a card.

Flash forward over a decade to the release of Time Spiral. WotC is going back and creating cards based on a number of characters who had previously only been referenced in card names and flavor text. Here, Jaya Ballard sees print as a card for the first time, as a lovely leather clad lady sporting not one, not two, but three abilities evoking some of our favorite red spells from Magic's history. So let's see what she can do.

Cost: 1RR
A CMC of 3 means that we're going to be able to recast Jaya many, many times over the course of the game. A quick glance at her abilities, which I'll hit in depth in a moment, tells us that this is going to be a very important feature of our femme fatale.

Glancing at colors, you may experience a sudden sinking feeling. Nothing but little fireballs up there, so we're looking at mono red. Considered by many to be the worst color in EDH/Commander because of the lack of drawing and tutoring capabilities, I'm here to tell you not to be afraid! Jaya can still hold her own with the big boys.

Typing: Human Spellshaper
While humans got a little of a boost with the release of Innistrad and are picking up occasional interactions, it's still not really a relevant creature type in mono red. Spellshaper is just a reference to her abilities; to the best of my knowledge, there isn't anything that interacts with spellshapers directly. So her typing doesn't do much, but there's really nothing bad to be said about it either.

Ability #1: Half of Pyroblast
Guaranteed to annoy any and all of the blue mages at the table, Jaya can take out any blue permanent by expending a card. Considering that blue is one of the best colors in the format, this ability is rarely useless at any given table. The discard is pretty steep, especially when red doesn't have much draw, but there are ways to get around it. It's such an important part of the deck that we're looking for just about any card that works well with it. Don't forget about those pesky noncreature blue permanents, as this is one of the few ways red can deal with an enchantment.

Ability #2: Incinerate
Now things are heating up. If knocking out a blue permanent didn't scratch that destructive itch, this can go quite a bit farther. Small burn spells are rarely played in EDH/Commander because they don't scale well to long multiplayer games. But next time you play, glance around the table, and see how many creatures you could put down with three damage. It's probably more than you expect, and that includes a large number of little utility generals. Being able to turn any useless card in your hand into an Incinerate takes away the disadvantages of small burn spells and leaves you with nothing but positives. Just having this on the table is pretty oppressive to a lot of decks, especially those that rely on little utility generals.

Ability #3: Inferno
So you blasted the blue mage right out of the game. That utility dude causing problems to your left? Gone. But now you've got a token swarm sitting across from you, and that dragon on your other side is looking pretty threatening. Time to bust out the big guns. Jaya's third and most powerful ability is the crowd pleasing Inferno. Six damage to everything on the table, including the other players and, regretfully, Jaya herself. Even so, this ability puts a lot of damage out very quickly, and is one of the cornerstones of the deck.

There are a lot of red legends. What's wrong with them?

There are currently 64 red legends (and 1 red general-legal planeswalker) and counting as of my writing this, which means there are a number of options for you. If you're reading this, odds are pretty good that you're at least a little interested in what Jaya has to offer, but I'm going to offer up my reasoning for staying away from some of the other popular options in case you're not. I won't talk about all of them, so feel free to ask me for opinions on specific others if you're really interested.

---

Now that Jaya's been introduced, who the hell are you and why should I listen to you?
My name is Chris. I've been playing off and on since Ice Age, and really got back into things in a serious way sometime during Alara block. After a bit of standard, I got bored with the same old same old and shifted my focus to EDH/Commander, where I fell in love all over again. I've been playing mono red in this format since learning that people thought it was bad. That view isn’t nearly as widely held anymore, in part due to better deckbuilding practices and in part due to the support red has gotten from WotC in recent years, but I still enjoy it. I live and work in San Diego, CA, where I'm an electrical engineer.

I came to Jaya after trying a few generals. I started with Kumano, Master Yamabushi in a fairly generic mono red deck. My goal at the time was to have a deck where I could freely shuffle generals between a few different legends, depending on my mood at the time. To make that work, I started slotting in support cards for each of them. One of those was Jaya. Over time, I went to Jaya as a general more and more, eventually relegating Kumano to a spot in the deck with the others full time. I've been playing Jaya for several years now, and she remains my favorite deck and my fallback when I'm not playing around with one of the others.



Alright, I'm sold on Jaya. How does a mono red control deck even work?
First off, let's get this out of the way. If you want to play a controlling mono red deck, you want to play politics. Make friends with the blue player (easier than it sounds. Just don't blow up their general with Jaya unless it's a threat) and the green player. You have very few answers to troublesome enchantments and limited ways to interact with the stack. If you try and control the entire table at once, you're going to lose. Do what you do well, and make sure you've got a temporary ally to fill in the holes.

Now that that's out of the way, let's talk play style. There are several different ways to take Jaya, and which you should go for depends on how you like to play and how your group plays. As with any deck, you should have a multifaceted plan of attack, but feel free to let a couple of those facets shine brighter than others. At the end of each section, I'll list off a few cards as examples of what you could play. More in depth explorations and explanations for cards are going to come in a bit.

Big Mana

You're playing a mono colored deck, so take advantage of that! The abundance of basic lands lets you use mana doublers to great effect, and there are a good number of them in mono red. Some are riskier than others, some might break the bank if you're not playing online, but you should almost certainly be running at least one or two of these.
I occasionally see the complaint that they don't do anything before being destroyed, and there are two responses to this. First, there's a reason for that. If you can keep a mana doubler on the board for any significant portion of time, you're in good shape to win the game. You can't let your fear of having cards destroyed keep you from running powerful cards. Second, there's enough artifact ramp available that you can easily set up turns where you can drop a mana doubler as a ritual. Even if it is destroyed, you still get a one turn boost out of it. If it lasts beyond that, it's a bonus.
Examples: Caged Sun, Gauntlet of Power, and Gauntlet of Might.

Artifact Hate

Artifacts are powerful. There's no denying that. Luckily for us, red is one of the most powerful colors for artifact hate. Because of the strength and number of our artifacts, we don't want to run sweepers as much as we want spot removal. To be more precise, we want repeatable spot removal. If you can control which artifacts stay on the board and when people need to use artifact sweepers like Oblivion Stone and Nevinyrral's Disk, you can significantly influence the pace of the game, and repeatable spot removal helps to do that.
Examples: Viashino Heretic, Vandalblast, and Shattering Spree.

Land Hate

It's no secret that this format boasts some of the most powerful lands available. The same reasons that make Strip Mine a format staple are the reasons you should have some land hate available. Whether you need to take out troublesome utility lands like Maze of Ith or big mana producers like Cabal Coffers, red has you covered. Red is also in a great position to deal with green's excessive ramp thanks to one very special card, Wake of Destruction.
The biggest issue with land hate is that some playgroups have a very negative attitude towards it. As with everything else, it's important to gauge how your playgroup is going to respond to land hate. Spot removal of powerful lands is almost universally accepted, but something like Ruination may make some people unhappy. In this deck, it's generally safe to err on the side of running it, because you can always discard powerful but situationally useless cards to Jaya.
Examples: Ruination, Dwarven Miner, and Devastation.

Stack Disruption

I know that I said you need to make a friend who can stop this stuff if you think it's going to be a problem, but there are some options. The two biggest ones are copying and redirecting spells. Because Jaya relies on activated abilities, it is generally correct to keep mana open and try and play spells and abilities at instant speed, at the last second when you can. This also lets you easily hold up mana to screw around with the powerful draw spells and removal your opponents play. It's important to remember that you're still not a blue mage. You can't actually stop most plays, just shift them in an advantageous way, and you can't redirect spells that don't target. You generally don't want too many of these effects. They're situational enough that it's better to just take the really good ones and hold onto them until you see a juicy target come up.
The other thing to remember is that these spells can be used as situational counterspells. If the blue mage tries to counter your spell, just redirect it to your redirection spell, or copy it to counter their counter. This is even more of a niche use than most of how you use these, but it can definitely save your game winning spell in a pinch
Examples: Wild Ricochet, Reiterate, and Reverberate.

Hand Disruption

While red is never going to be on the same level as black when it comes to hand direction, it shares a powerful tool with blue. Wheel effects have the double purpose of drawing you cards and shredding the hand of anyone who's been trying to sculpt the perfect hand to roll over the table. If you can use these immediately after playing out your hand, it's some of the most powerful card draw available. Because our general is a spellshaper, we've got the advantage of having recursive cards and other things that interact with the graveyard, so discarding a few spells is rarely as painful as it could be.
Examples: Wheel of Fortune, Reforge the Soul, and Chandra Ablaze.

Big Damage and Win Conditions

Like any good control deck, you need a way to finish things off, and red excels at one of these beyond all others: big damage. Whether you're going for the x spell or dropping an enchantment then beating in, you probably want a few options to capitalize on everything else you're doing. This is pretty broad, and depends a lot on how you want to play it and what else you're running. Some of these are a bit of a risk, but you can generally capitalize on them better than your opponents.
Examples: Comet Storm, Repercussion, and Furnace of Rath.

So I get mono red control. How does Jaya fit into this?

Jaya is the glue that holds this all together. You generally want to drop her in early once if you're facing blue players or especially aggressive decks. Even the promise of a destroyed permanent or burning out a little guy is enough to dissuade people from targeting you a lot of the time. When she's inevitably dealt with, let her sit in the command zone for a while while you build up your board. You want one of two things before you even think about playing her again: a way to give her haste or a way to protect her.

The second time she comes in, you want to guarantee that she's going to be able to blow something up or cause some damage. The other thing implied there is that you need to have developed your mana to the point where you can generate a pretty significant amount. If you can't almost guarantee an activation, don't rush her out again. You're a controlling deck and you're sitting on a pretty big life buffer, so take advantage of it.

End game, you have a few options. You can try to blow everyone out at once, generally with a damage doubler and an x spell or Repercussion. This isn't terribly common, because all of the parts are threatening on their own and tend to draw removal, so you probably don't want to rely on this. Another option is to try and get an overwhelming mana advantage, generally by getting a doubler to stick. If you can replay Jaya and Inferno every turn, it's going to be difficult for anyone relying on creatures to get you, and the decks not relying on creatures are hopefully close enough to dead that decent chunks of damage every turn can finish them off. The last common approach is similar to the second one, but involves Jaya either being indestructible or pro-red. If she doesn't kill herself with her infernos, you're able to pull off a lot of damage with a lot less mana. Which of these approaches you take is almost entirely dependent on how you draw, because red is not the color for tutors. While that's going to annoy some people, I think most of the people still reading this are in the camp that thinks it makes for a more interesting game.

Of course, the most powerful times are when you get to mix and match these approaches. If you can get Akroma's Memorial and Repercussion to stick, you're pretty much guaranteed a win. This kind of situation is ridiculously rare because of the high profile of everything involved, but it's a ton of fun when it happens.

---

You've been singing Jaya's praises and talking about cards all this time. What actually goes in the deck? Alright, here's the deal with included cards. Everyone knows or can easily find out what mana rocks are good-you don't need me to tell you that. If anyone really wants my take on something specific, I'm egotistical enough that I will happily type out a long response to you in a message or in the thread, but I don't think it's necessary here.

What I will do is explain general categories that need emphasis, as well as unusual choices, different uses for common cards, fun strategies, and everything that makes this deck into what it is. I'll also show you which cards I run in my list through the use of bold text, so you don't need to scroll down to the decklist every time. So, without further ado, we have:

1) Creatures Creatures in Jaya Ballard's employ are in a curious spot. Red has some quality creatures and you can do some dangerous things with them. The trick is that they have a very short life expectancy in this deck if things are going as planned. You might eat the occasional wrath, but it's far more common for Jaya to get fed up and send her little army to hell all on her own. What this means is that you want them to fall into a few categories:

1a) Who don't mind being dead:

Squee, Goblin Nabob – I'd be willing to bet anyone who has played mono-R has either run or considered this little guy. Once you get him, he's harder to get rid of than the cockroaches/Kher Keep kobolds (I am rocking the alliteration right there). He's possibly the best card in the deck short of Jaya herself. Drop him on the field to carry equipment, chump block, or sacrifice himself to the greater good, toss him to Jaya to fuel a pyrotechnic show, or discard him for any other reason you desire. As long as you remember to pick him up on your upkeep, he survives anything but GY hate and exile effects. My favorite play in this deck and possibly the game is to Gamble for Squee. You just can't lose. Also fits in with a goblin package, if you'd like to give that a shot.

Anger – Again, not exactly an unfamiliar card, but terribly useful here. Jaya's propensity to blow herself up means that you can expect to replay her several times in a game, which in turn means haste is a great things for her to have. You've always got a handy discard outlet in Ms. Ballard, as well as several sac outlets if you feel the need to burn some mana.

Firewing Phoenix – Self recursion at its most elegant. Firewing doesn't do a whole lot on its own, but it comes back to hand whenever you need it to and is a half decent beater. It's also easily available due to it's recent printing and low demand, so it might be a good budget option.

Kuldotha Phoenix – This bird may not ever make it back to your hand, but it's frequently handy to have a hasty beater when you're trying to close out games. Metalcraft is laughably easy to turn on, seeing as this is a mono-R deck.

Magma Phoenix/Skarrgan Firebird – While there are many more phoenix than these two, these are my phoenix of choice. These guys have a similar function to Squee in that they can be used repeatedly as fuel for Jaya's blasts, but they can do so much more. Magma makes a nice mini sweeper if Jaya can't come out to play, and Skarrgan can close out games if you drop him bloodthirsted. I like these over the other phoenix because they can be returned at any time, as long as you have mana (and can fill Skarrgan's super easy condition).

Shard Phoenix – Another phoenix which can return to your hand without passing through play first. It's certainly worth consideration, but only being able to return it to your hand during your upkeep is a pain. The pyroclasm can actually do a lot of damage to some decks, which means this is worth considering, but the upkeep restriction has kept it out for me so far.

1b) Who do something when they come into play or die:

Dualcaster Mage – The creature version of Fork/Reverberate. It’s a fairly powerful effect, but really relies on holding mana up to shine. Being a creature also doesn’t help this deck much. There aren’t many ways to take advantage of it, and there are a couple times where it’s actually a liability. I would stick with the instant options unless you’re also running Imperial Recruiter.

Godo, Bandit Warlord – Another one of the elusive red tutors. He only finds you equipment, but that's hardly a terrible restriction. Grab Grafted Exoskeleton for a one shot kill, grab Skullclamp for some draw power, grab Sword of Fire and Ice for some draw power alongside protection from Jaya, grab Basilisk Collar for sniping creatures and gaining life. Life is hard when you can only tutor up equipment. His only downside is that he's a little spendy at six mana for a 3/3, but beggars can't be choosers.

Hoarding Dragon – This selfish beasty has the distinction of being one of the few tutors available to mono-R. As you may have noticed if you've glanced at my list below, it's not uncommon to run very heavy amounts of artifacts to fill in the holes in red's gameplan. Being able to grab any of these is a wonderful thing. You want to be somewhat careful when playing this guy. If he gets exiled or bounced, you're out an artifact, so he's best to play when you have a sac outlet available. If you just need a dragon on the board, you can always fail to find if you're worried about not getting your artifact, or go with the much better plan of grabbing a mana rock: something that will benefit you, but isn't terrible to lose.

Imperial Recruiter – One of the two holy grails for broke mono-R players, this guy is excellent if you have or are willing to proxy him. Grabs you your Welder, Jaya if she gets tucked, Squee, and any other little dudes you feel need to be in the deck. All of that said, you still want to be running a little toolbox of options, or he’s going to underperform.

Tuktuk Scrapper/Oxidda Scrapmelter/Manic Vandal/etc etc etc – There are a multitude of dudes in red who will come in, ruin an artifact for you, and go about their day. Artifacts are common enough that they'll almost always have a target, but I generally view these as too small of an effect. There are better options for busting up your opponent's artifact party. The exception is if you go for some goblins, when you probably want Scrapper as a bullet.

Siege-Gang Commander – Another goblin who can do some fun things, including saccing off any goblins you may have before you light the world ablaze. Good if you're running support goblins, kind of mediocre otherwise. This deck doesn't do anything especially broken with creatures or tokens, and they tend not to live long once you get going.

Solemn Simulacrum – It comes in, it ramps. It dies, it draws cards. It's an artifact, so it plays well with Goblin Welder and Trading Post. He's just a very solid role player. He does a couple things that the deck needs and is fairly easy to interact with while he does it.

Wurmcoil Engine – Leaving bereaved children behind upon death is tragic in life but great on a card, and Wurmcoil is probably the best of those cards. It also provides some lifegain, which is appreciated in a deck that burns itself frequently.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker – Yes, yes, not actually an etb creature. But given his strong feelings on the matter, worth mentioning here. Kiki is one of the best sources of mono-R card advantage, and mine is really not the deck he'd like to be in. Because of Jaya, there's a heavier focus on using and abusing activated abilities for profit and less of an immediate impact upon entering play thing going on. If you build Jaya to take advantage of etb effects (which is perfectly reasonable, just not the direction I went), then you want Kiki for sure. If you choose to include a goblin theme/toolbox, also perfectly reasonable, then you want Kiki for sure. If you want to set the world ablaze, turn after turn, then Kiki is a little thin skinned for you. If you want a one shot copy effect, you're better off with Heat Shimmer, which can hit opposing creatures.

Possibly the scariest one drop you'll ever see.

1c) Who have fun activated abilities:
(I know that this seems counter intuitive to the board wipe plan and what I just said about Kiki Jiki, but bear with me)

Tapping:
Deal Broker – The first true looter to be printed that mono-R lists can play, I like this more than the red looting because it’s basically always correct to use (barring an empty hand). Either you’re going to get something better than the weakest card in your hand, or you’re going to dig past a card you didn’t want. The fact that it’s on an OK body for the cost is a nice upside.

Feldon of the Third Path – Very powerful and very unusual for mono-R. I don’t run him here, because my list is very hostile to creatures. If you’re playing a list that uses Jaya more as spot removal and goes a little heavier on creature effects, he’s very powerful. He is very soft to GY hate, which is something fairly rare for this color, so be aware of that.

Goblin Welder – A beautiful, beautiful little goblin. See all those mana rocks? Look again. Your mana rock is now Akroma's Memorial. You've played Spine of Ish Sah? You've got a Basilisk Collar once more and your laser is fully charged. This guy is absolutely worth his fragile little weight in gold, because he reuses all of those wonderful artifacts for you at minimal cost. There are enough mana rocks here that you can afford to toss one or three to get back the fantastic stuff you ditched earlier in the game. He's probably the most compelling reason to run a goblin package, just so you don't look ridiculous when you have four tutors for a single goblin, because he's absolutely worth it.

Grim Lavamancer – Small burn effects are surprisingly good in EDH, but generally not worth a card. This guy dodges that problem by only using resources you've already spent. Jaya typically has no problem loading the yard, so he's a source of repeated shocks. The downside is that he's only situationally good, due to his fragile body.

Humble Defector – I haven’t actually tried this guy out yet, but he seems to have potential. Most often, he’s going to be a Divination that dies in the next board wipe. There are a couple rules things that should go along with including him. First, he doesn’t need to be on the field for his ability to resolve. That means you can tap him to draw, then respond to the ability by sacrificing him. Second, you can’t sacrifice something you don’t control. That doesn’t come up often, but it is important to be aware of if you’re also running Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker, because it means the token copies won’t die at the end of the turn if you draw cards with them.

Mad Prophet – A looter in red is a beautiful thing, even more so when it has haste. Prophet plays nicely with the recursion to draw cards, and filters cards out if you don't have recursion handy. Keep in mind that the discard is part of the cost. You can't use this on an empty hand, but it does play nicely with Rings of Brighthearth.

Stuffy Doll – Not really included for the tap ability, but worth mentioning at some point. This is a solid, hard to remove defensive piece that won’t offend 2/3 of the other players at any given table and adds some bonus damage to Jaya’s inferno. Also a surprisingly good equipment carrier in a creature light deck.

Viashino Heretic – Nukes artifacts for damage. What more could you ask for? Currently out of my list because I had more than enough hate most of the time and there were a few times I wanted to lose my own Spine without the pain of tearing it out. He tends to be too low profile for most people to blow spot removal on, so he frequently does a lot more damage than his little mana cost suggests.

Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker – Gotcha! I stuck him up with his friends in the etb section, as you already know if you've been reading top to bottom.

Non-Tapping:
Burnished Hart – In a deck that loves having lots of mana and in colors that don’t ramp well, this is a nice inclusion. It also provides two triggers for Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle late in the game, which is one of the most common ways I close out games. Be wary of keeping hands that rely on this guy early to really get moving, because canny opponents will remove it before you can use the ability if you don’t have mana up to immediately sac it.

Hoard-Smelter Dragon – One of my favorite artifact eaters. Sure, he's expensive, but he hits hard and you can destroy as many artifacts as you have mana, a resource which is generally plentiful in this deck. If you're in a faster, more combo-y meta, this is not the right choice for you. Then, if that's the case, this deck is probably not the right choice for you. Go pick a blue general.

Kumano, Master Yamabushi – He may not be the most powerful creature out there, but he's got a special place in my heart. He can come down and be spot removal all day long. If your opponents let him stick, he can be spot removal for several days. Kumano and a stack of mana also makes a great rattlesnake, and he gives reanimator decks fits. Sadly, those are also the decks most like to be in the colors packing spot removal, but you can't win 'em all. Plays very well with Basilisk Collar and other deathtouch equips.

Magmaw – An underrated sac outlet first and an expensive source of direct damage second, this guy plays well with a number of other cards in the deck. Sac off your army before nuking the board, sac off Spine when you need something precise, sac off Hoarding Dragon when someone goes for the bounce, sac off one of Capricious Efreet's permanents for a jank Viindicate, sac everything you can reach when you need those last few points of damage.

Rimescale Dragon – Only useable with a snow mana base, but does some fun things if you've got it. He's one of the better controlling creatures in red if you can get him to stick. Sadly, that's kind of a tall order when he costs this much and screams for attention, but you can get a couple turns of respite later in the game when resources are running lower and you've got bundles of mana.

Scourge of Kher Ridges – Sometimes Jaya doesn't stick, or you also want to beat some face with a large dragon. Scourge is perfect for those times. He shares the downside of being horrendously expensive and flashy with Rimescale, but clears the board much more reliably and doesn't lose all his hard work when he dies. The ability to selectively clear the ground or the sky is also a big plus and makes him very difficult to block.

Steel Hellkite – While it doesn't really interact the same way with activated ability stuff, it's a solid beater with the ability to send troublesome permanents to kingdom come. Red doesn't do subtle enchantment answers, so you sometimes need to wipe out large swaths or permanents to make things work, and that's what this does. It's also a dragon, and while that doesn't matter for gameplay I do take some satisfaction from a red deck full of firebreathing dragons. I'm still a 6 year old at heart.

1d) Who are so awesome that it doesn't matter if they don't fit in a-c:

Capricious Efreet – In addition to being a tricky fire spirit, this gentleman offers red one of its few options for targeted permanent removal. Choose one permanent of yours and one you want dead, then sac yours to one of your multitudinous sac outlets and watch as theirs is destroyed at random. This guy does something for you that few other cards can do and does it with the style of using a completely overlooked card. He has some hefty downsides, like the fact that he needs to survive around the table and a fairly high CMC, but you can generally catch someone by surprise at least once, and then he forces people to burn removal on a creature that they would generally prefer not to.

Charmbreaker Devils – Yes, random recursion is a pain. No, you might not be running that many instants and sorceries (those artifacts take up a lot of room). But think about it. Did you fill your deck with terrible cards? Damn right you didn't. Everything these guys recur is gas. Having fewer options also just works to make them more reliable. If the only instant or sorcery you've played is Chaos Warp, that means you get a Chaos Warp every turn. These guys also double as respectable beaters if you can clear a path for them.

Kozilek, the Great Distortion/Kozilek, Butcher of Truth/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre – Card draw/Vindicate and enormous threats. Each survives Jaya’s inferno and ends games quickly. The GY shuffle trigger is both a positive and a negative. There’s a lot of GY interaction, so you have to be careful with when you discard either of the old ones, but they can also be used to protect your yard from hate.

Magus of the Moon – Outside of those weird games where ¾ people pull out mono-R (which has happened to me, oddly enough), Magus is a beast. Generally better in the highly developed metas where people are running all the fetches and duals they can get their hands on, he can more or less shut players out of the game. This guy can prompt quick scoops from people who he annoys, but before you feel guilty about that you need to remember something. You're playing mono-R in a format where red is the whipping boy. If someone wants to cry about how their expensive mana base got shut down by a defenseless 2/2, it might be time to introduce them to the wonders of basic land.

Tyrant’s Familiar – I’m including this guy here to warn everyone that he’s a trap. It’s a powerful effect, but Jaya is frequently used to inferno the board and that will kill him if it kills her. He’s not really needed in a deck built around Jaya’s inferno anyways, but he’s an inclusion in the set that might get people into mono-R and it’s not immediately apparent on looking at the card.

2) Artifacts Remember what I said earlier about not going through every card in great detail? That's this section. I'm assuming you have some idea of what artifact ramp you like, and it's pretty much all worthwhile here. Your goal is 7 mana, so anything that gets you to that or above is probably worthwhile. Even so, I'm a generous fellow, so I'm going to list off some options for you:

Basalt Monolith
Coalition Relic
Coldsteel Heart
Commander’s Sphere
Darksteel Ingot
Fire Diamond
Gilded Lotus
Grim Monolith
Mana Crypt
Mana Vault
Mind Stone
Sol Ring
Thran Dynamo
Unstable Obelisk
Wayfarer's Bauble
Worn Powerstone

While there are more options, those are probably the best of them. Individual notes: the Monoliths are better if you have Braid of Fire, Basalt can be used for infinite mana with Rings of Brighthearth, Bauble is solid for putting a land into play, the damage from Mana Crypt actually can stack up here, Unstable Obelisk is also a pricey Vindicate, and Mind Stone/Commander’s Sphere effectively cycle late game. One thing to keep in mind is that you're in this for the long haul, so hitting your land drops is more important than explosive ramp. The fact that you can toss any late game rocks to Jaya means it doesn't hurt you that much to load up on these if you want, but they’re less vital here than in some decks. On to other, more exciting artifacts!

Akroma's Memorial – Yes, I am seriously advising you to run this in a deck that has roughly ten creatures the way I built it. It does everything you need it to. It gives haste. It protects your board from your sweepers, which also means Jaya can explode turn after turn. It makes your finishers extremely tough to block profitably, if at all. If you have access to this, run it. If you don't, get access. It's absolutely worth it.

Armillary Sphere/Expedition Map/Journeyer's Kite – These give us a rare source of card advantage. Expedition map can be used to set up additional sources, such as Valakut or Kher Keep, as well. Keep in mind that these turn into Jaya fuel late game, so you should always have a card to toss. Kite and Sphere also play nicely with Scroll Rack, if you’re running it.

Basilisk Collar/Loxodon Warhammer – When you're doing as much damage as Jaya can pump out, lifelink turns from a nice perk to an obstacle for your opponents. Collar is my favorite, because it also hands Jaya a sniper rifle, but they both have advantages and disadvantages.

Batterskull – Another source of lifelink for Jaya as well as a threat that “lives” through sweepers. Batterskull is a solid way to make use of late game mana, and the fact that it can save itself at instant speed means it plays well with some of what Jaya already wants to do. Equipping her with a gauntlet effect out also makes her a three turn vigilant clock that survives her own inferno, so she turns into an extremely potent threat. Swing then nuke before blocks to gain a lot of life, clear out blockers, and represent a general damage kill.

Caged Sun/Gauntlet of Might/Gauntlet of Power/Extraplanar Lens – You may have noticed that mana is a commodity in short supply here. You always want more of it to fuel your big, flashy, fiery plays. These guys give it to you in spades. Obviously, Might might be a problem if you have any kind of budget, but you want it in here if you have it. Extraplanar Lens I am not a fan of, just because it's more often a ritual than a doubler. On the plus side, your snow manabase means you frequently get to keep all the fun for yourself.

Codex Shredder – A colorless, instant speed Regrowth that occasionally screws over topdeck tutors and plays mind games when people use Sensei's Divining Top and plays nicely with all of the other artifact and activated ability support in the deck. Don't let the 5 scare you off if you want the effect – remember that this is a late game deck that thrives on having too much mana.

Coercive Portal – Most of the time in a four player game this is a colorless Phyrexian Arena. The only time it blows up without your agreement is when you’re way ahead on board. It’s still going to backfire occasionally, but a tie going to card draw means it happens less than you might expect.

Crawlspace – Decent defensive card. Its big problem is that it only protects against the things that Jaya already handles well: large groups of small creatures. A couple big guys can still come in every turn. Still not bad, especially in conjunction with Maze effects or a sturdy blocker like Stuffy Doll.

Crucible of Worlds – There are quite a few synergies here. The best and brightest is being able to discard lands to Jaya without losing the ability to play them. Add in the fetchland advantage of always hitting your land drops in a control deck, and this is a shoo-in. If you play any mass LD, this is also absolutely necessary, but you probably already knew that.

Darksteel Plate/Magebane Armor – The ability to let Jaya survive her own blast will lead to significantly fewer headaches during your games. Being able to set her off repeatedly without replaying her closes out games extremely quickly. These aren’t as good as pro-red options like Swords of X and Y or Akroma’s Memorial, but they’re still solid inclusions.

Distorting Lens – This turns Jaya’s red blast into Vindicate. The big issue with it is that it’s a one and a half card combo that’s difficult to find in a deck with limited tutoring and draws a ton of attention your way. It’s worthwhile as enchantment removal, but that’s really the only card type that mono-R has trouble with that can’t be dealt with with less flashy options.

Ensnaring Bridge – Mostly a possibility because of the increased number of playable planeswalkers, this also does a good job of shutting down creatures that survive Jaya’s inferno. It is a little more high profile than I would like (stopping all attacks, not just the ones aimed at you), but that’s because it’s very good at what it does.

Gorgon Flail/Gorgon’s Head – Another way for Jaya or Kumano to remove any creature threat. A little narrow for my taste as you already have pretty good creature control, but YMMV.

Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots/Thousand-Year Elixir – When your general has an activated ability with t in the cost, you need haste. Greaves are still the most cost-effective way of doing that. Boots are nice, but you're not going to be targeting all that much most games. There's no shame in running both of them, though. Elixir doesn't offer protection, but it does let you double up on Jaya's abilities with sufficient mana and cards.

Loreseeker’s Stone – Card draw. This would be a lot better if I didn’t put so much emphasis on keeping cards in hand for Jaya’s abilities already. Between phoenix and basic lands, I frequently have a full hand and this is pretty overcosted.

Memory Jar – Kind of wheel. This is a powerful digging tool and there’s some artifact synergy in mono-R to go along with it. Jaya encourages enough GY interaction that discarding some of what you draw isn’t going to be particularly painful.

Mind's Eye – This is another card that should need no explanation. Red doesn't draw cards. Mind's Eye does. You want Mind's Eye in here. There are a number of other artifact drawing sources available, but Mind's Eye should be the first on the list. The others can all supplement it.

Rings of Brighthearth – This little gem makes the deck sing. You're playing good cards. This makes them broken. Copying fetches and Thawing Glaciers is ramp. Copying Top draws you cards. Copying Goblin Welder is dirty. Copying Jaya is borderline broken. There are enough activated abilities here that you don't want to be caught dead without this in the deck, and you would really like some ways to tutor it out. And the best part? You still run fine without it. It's the best kind of card – hugely useful, but not essential.

Sensei's Divining Top/Crystal Ball/Scroll Rack – Topdeck manipulation. If you can't have card quantity, take card quality instead. Shuffle effects on lands make Top and Rack solid cards here, and Crystal Ball is a fantastic lower budget option. Just don't get caught in the trap of needing to Top every turn to keep drawing anything useful. Sometimes it's better to take a bad draw, pitch it to Jaya, then Top when you're going to see more than one new card.

Staff of Nin – Extra card draw, and the mana cost isn’t too prohibitive in a deck aimed at the long game. The ping can be nice too, because it gives you a little more reach with Jaya’s burn.

Sword of Fire and Ice – This card is fantastic, and is well worth running if you have one or the means to get it ($40 as I’m typing this, which is a little mystifying to me). It protects Jaya from herself, speeds up any combat based clock through the buffs and burn, and, most importantly, draws you extra cards.

Sword of the Animist – This might seem like an odd choice in such a creature light deck, but it does some work. It curves out with Jaya in a couple ways, either coming down a turn before her or coming down and equipping a turn later, which can give you something to do with her early if you don’t have other plays. You can grab it with Godo, Bandit Warlord late for some fairly explosive ramp and multiple Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle triggers late. It’s also just value on whatever random creature you happen to have.

Sword of War and Peace – This offers similar benefits to Fire and Ice, but missing card draw really does hurt it in a direct comparison here. It is fantastic at closing out games and lifegain is not an insignificant effect, particularly in a list that burns itself a lot.

Tatsumasa, the Dragon's Fang – Because big swords are sometimes cool. The actual reason is that this takes Jaya to a high enough toughness to survive her own Inferno, makes her into a three turn clock by herself, and serves as a threat even when the board is clear. Don't get the token bounced, because you always want to get your sword back.

Torpor Orb – While Jaya does encourage some etb creatures, the deck is creature light enough that this isn’t too painful. The format, on the other hand, hates this card. There are still decks out there (though less than there used to be) that will get shut down by this and be unable to remove it, because all of their removal is on etb creatures.

Tower of Fortunes – Red doesn’t get great draw and this is very pricey, but it’s actually not terribly costed per-card. There are enough cards dedicated to getting lands on the board and making mana that this is a perfectly reasonable inclusion as late game card draw.

Trading Post – Kind of a swiss army knife of an artifact. It can be a pseudo-Maze of Ith, artifact recursion, card draw, and lifegain, however rare that may be. The first ability is actually not terrible with the existing GY and recursion themes, but you can probably find something better to do with those cards.

Tormod's Crypt – The basic single shot GY hate card. This is something that every EDH deck should have due to the power of GY strategies in the format. I went with this over Relic of Progenitus because I'm interested in holding on to my own yard. It's easily reuasable enough with Goblin Welder and Trading Post anyways.

3) Enchantments If your group is anything like any of the ones I've played in, they don't run enough enchantment hate. I see people get blown out time and time again by a stack of powerful enchantments, and there are still people out there who think that a single use of Terastodon coupled with Krosan Grip and a Beast Within is going to protect them. Show them they're wrong. A lot of these are win conditions, so you don't need to go into them too heavily – pick four or five of your favorites and go to town.

Blood Moon – There are more than a couple people reading this that will have started thinking about mono-R for no reason beyond this card. If you really need it explained, you may want to work on your fundamentals, but I'll summarize anyways. You need mana to cast spells. Specifically, you generally need colored mana to cast spells, and to consistently cast spells in a deck with multiple colors you generally need mana fixing of some kind, which generally comes in the form of dual lands. Blood Moon says no. No, your Underground Sea will not give you access to two colors. No, your Maze of Ith can't save you from the dragon. It's inexpensive and difficult to get rid of for a lot of decks, and can completely shut people out for turns at a time. It's also less nasty than destroying all lands if you're group doesn't roll that way, because there's still a light at the end of the tunnel.

Braid of Fire – Your mileage may vary with this one. It comes down early, produces a bunch of mana over the course of the game, and has no downside other than timing restrictions now that there's no more mana burn. It lets you nuke with Jaya more quickly, plays well with Mana Vault and monoliths, tutors out lands with Journeyer's Kite, and generally doesn't afraid of anyone. It's also not nearly high profile enough for people to blow removal on until you've already gotten a few turns of use out of it. I rarely have a game where I don't appreciate having it, but it's not really essential to anything in the deck if you're looking for space.

Caverns of Despair – One of the many possible defensive options available in mono-R. This is somewhat theory at the moment, as I've not seen it often while running it. It should help protect me (and any planeswalkers) from my more creature heavy opponents. The downside is that it also slows down everyone, rather than just diverting attention from me. I'm cautiously optimistic, but will have to try it out for a while to be sure.

Fervor/hammer of Purphoros – Haste is really good for Jaya, but not always helpful on the rest of the board due to the low creature count in the deck. It’s obviously something that gets better as you get more creature heavy, and still one of the best permanent haste options available. Hammer has a little more utility, but is more vulnerable to hate.

Furnace of Rath/Dictate of the Twin Gods – Just go read everything I said about Gratuitous Violence again except for the bits about only affecting you. These have the other little benefit of speeding up the game. It's pretty hard for a stalemate to stay when everything hits twice as hard.

Gratuitous Violence – Now we're getting into win con country. Doubling damage is a ton of fun! You probably know this already, because you're looking at a mono-R primer. You know what's more fun? Just doubling the damage you're doing. The other beautiful, beautiful thing about this is that it doesn't say the word “combat” anywhere on there. Suddenly, Jaya is doing 6 damage for two mana. Twelve damage to everything and everyone when you feel so inclined. There's almost nothing that survives that without some significant help.

Outpost Siege – Probably only ever used for its khans mode, this is about a mana off of a red Phyrexian Arena. Plays very nicely with topdeck manipulation, for obvious reasons. Very much worth using. Remember to play lands revealed by its ability where possible, because you lose them otherwise and you can always toss any in your hand to Jaya or just lay them down a turn or two later.

Repercussion – The best win con in the deck, hands down. Blockers are now useless. Token decks are running for the hills. Other decks are shifting around nervously when Jaya is on the board. As long as you're aware of sac outlets, both yours and others, this can finish out a game in a hurry. It also functions as a combo piece! Blasphemous Act can easily kill a player with this down, and Furnace of Rath does some horrendous things. Remember, it doubles damage to the creature, then it doubles again hitting the player. That means Jaya can do 24 damage per creature controlled. Just try and sac her off before that resolves – she hits you too.

Stranglehold – All that time complaining about a lack of tutors in mono-R, and there's finally an answer of sorts. Rather than trying to catch up to everyone else, drag them down to your level. Remember to work on a very haughty “Ah ah ah” and finger wag before you play this, because people will need to be reminded.

Vicious Shadows – A lot of similar stuff as with Repercussion. Wraths become deadly, Jaya can finish out a game in no time flat. The downsides of this are that it's very expensive, which makes it difficult to drop it and blow the board in the same turn without some serious ramping, and that it's dependent on what your opponents are doing. You're not pumping out and saccing creatures, and you don't need wrath protection. If your opponents play into it, it's good. If they don't, it's bad. It's excellent when it works and pretty mediocre the rest of the time.

4) Planeswalkers Walkers are one of the places red has gotten some pretty significant support in the last few years. The newer options play nicely with a lot of what Jaya is doing and the fact that you have near constant access to a board wipe means they can be protected fairly easily. That makes them a very useful inclusion and occasional win condition in a deck like this.

Chandra Nalaar – She's coming first here because I feel like they should be in chronological order. She's not the worst card in the world, but she's generally going to be a slow, expensive piece of spot removal. Still kind of fun to include as long as you don't expect too much from her, but unlikely to help you win many games.

Chandra Ablaze – The middle of the timeline is the star here. Her mini wheel ability screws up the players sitting around sculpting their hands, her burn ability is actually playable with the cards you don't mind discarding, and it's not impossible to get her ultimate off if you're keeping Jaya on the board. 95% of the time, you're going to drop her, wheel, then lose her, but that last 5% can be a lot of fun.

Chandra, Flamecaller – Mostly here on the strength of her 0, which is guaranteed card advantage and decent filtering. Both of her other abilities are situationally useful, but the expectation is that she’s going to be wheeling the majority of the time.

Chandra, the Firebrand – The only thing that's even remotely tempting here is her second ability, and this is just not the place for it. If you must copy spells, use one of the many instant speed options to open up instants for copying, not telegraph the play to everyone, and occasionally grab something from your opponent. Neither of her other abilities are worth it, so avoid this one.

Chandra, Pyromaster – Her zero ability is the big draw, though that's not going to stop me from dinging people in a pinch. Maybe there are seven toughness creatures on the board. The zero ability is solid enough to consider her regardless of the other stuff, though there are enough options that she’s not an auto-include. Remember to use it before your land drop if you’re going to use it at all, so you don’t waste a land off the top.

Daretti, Scrap Savant – Mostly good for his plus ability, but the other two are no slouches. Jaya is already looking for a lot of ways to keep cards in hand, so there should be plenty of fuel to loot and a reasonable number of ways to play out of the yard. Being able to grab a destroyed Gauntlet at no mana cost if he survives a turn is a great thing as well. Also note that you discard up to two, so you can toss one and draw one, or just tick him up and keep your hand if you have no other use for him.

Karn Liberated – The savior of mono-R and mono-B decks tired of having to wipe the board to get rid of that one Doubling Season as well as the Mirrans, slightly (I think? I kind of didn't pay any attention to that storyline), Karn will surgically remove any troublesome permanent for you. He generally follows that by getting his big silver head caved in, but, like most walkers, he can be extremely influential if you can protect him for a couple turns. Expensive as he is, you probably want Karn in your deck.

Koth of the Hammer – He's almost entirely a personal call if you're making a deck like this. He's got some very strong points selling him, he's fairly flexible, but he doesn't really do anything particularly well. His biggest pluses are the ritual effect and his ability to make creatures to swing with post board wipe. If his ultimate goes off it should put you way ahead on the board, and it’s a fairly attainable one.

Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker – Mostly a threat that lives through Jaya’s inferno, but he’ll occasionally help to bring down an enormous creature. His ultimate is powerful and plays well with a lot of what this deck wants to do, but it’s unlikely that you’ll see it go off and he’s pretty mediocre outside of that.

Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded – I'll let you in on a secret. As of the time I'm writing this, I still haven't tested him (and really don't intend to). He seems fringe playable. Jaya already wants to include cards that don't mind being binned, so the random downside isn't quite as serious as it might be in other decks. His problem is that neither of his minus abilities are (a) likely to go off or (b) very good. They're both hugely dependent on what your opponents are doing, and they're forecasted at least two turns in advance. Add in that the way you're most likely to protect him is to keep the board clear of creatures, and you're not looking at much damage coming from him. Conditional card “draw,” but don't look at him as anything beyond that and even that's pretty bad.

Ugin, the Spirit Dragon – He’s a lot like Karn in that he provides answers for permanents mono-R traditionally has some trouble with. He’s also a nice source of constant damage, can remove pro-red guys without damaging your numerous artifacts, and his ultimate is reasonably attainable and very powerful in a deck with this kind of permanent density. He’s more or less a snap include.

5) Instants Quite the useful category of cards for any control deck. For any deck, when you get right down to it. But especially useful here. Jaya spends a lot of time holding back mana and cards to try and hit the ones who swing in, so instants play well with that strategy, as well as some of the other powerful cards in the deck. *cough* Braid of Fire.

Arcbond – Kind of difficult to evaluate. It’s obviously hilarious with Repercussion and a reasonable way to clear out larger creatures. It’s also nice as an instant speed wrath if you or someone else blocks. It may just be overkill, but it definitely has potential.

Chaos Warp – For the mono-R players of the world did lament their lack of spot removal, and lo! did Wizards hear their pleas. Three mana instant speed spot removal of any troublesome permanent with a better than GY effect and negligible downside. It stops recursion strategies and forces them to burn a tutor or their store of luck to replay the card you didn't want to see. Yeah, you're sometimes going to flip an Ulamog or (rarely and hilariously) the card you hit in the first place, but that's the breaks. Those stories frequently turn out better than the ones that ended with you controlling the game anyways. An aside – both of those things have happened to me in games. Hit some creature threat and flipped an Ulamog, hit a Primeval Titan to see him come off the top. That will get a table laughing in a hurry.

Comet Storm – The burn spell of choice for the discerning red mage. It's the ultimate in customizable removal. It takes utility dorks early, big threats late, and players at the very end. You can shape it to fit whatever fiery needs your current situation calls for. While there are other instant speed Blazes, none of them can really match up to Comet Storm.

Commune with Lava – This is basically an instant speed X cost draw spell for mono-R, which is great for this deck. Note that you get two end steps with this before you lose access to the cards. You can eot it and get one turn to play out whatever you hit, or you can main phase it and you’ll still have access to the cards the following turn.

Dangerous Wager – If you're running out your hand or only have recursive cards, then this is basically an instant speed draw two with no downside. If you're not doing that on a regular basis, stay away. WotC has given red enough love recently that this is quickly becoming outdated.

Fault Line/Starstorm – Instant speed sweepers. I've always found Jaya did a better job of this, but scaling them up can help hit big guys and Fault Line can be a finisher in a pinch as long as you're sitting on the highest life total. Definitely superior to their sorcery speed counterparts, though.

Fissure – Unconditional creature and land removal. Expensive, yes, but this is an effect that is rarely see outside of black. Better in some builds than others, but certainly worth considering.

Lightning Bolt – Somewhat maligned in this format, Bolt is still a removal powerhouse. There are a lot of small utility creatures that can be hit by this, and it goes to the face or kills walkers in a pinch. Jaya has a repeatable version, but she’s not always on the table and you’ll still want to kill things a fair amount of the time.

Reiterate/Wild Ricochet/Fork/Reverberate – These are all lumped together because of their similar uses. You definitely want to run at least one or two of these (I go for Reiterate) because they can answer anything from spot removal to Decree of Pain (I've had a game where one player reiterated a Decree, then I did the same to draw the cards). They can also be used to piggyback onto early ramp or timely tutors. Be careful about including too many. While they can do some fun stuff, you don't want to be sitting on mana every turn just so you don't miss your chance. Some people have a lot of success including every effect of this type they can; I'm just not one of them.

Skred – Obviously, only if you're running a snow manabase. This scales well with game state, taking out utility guys early and big threats late. It's also extremely inexpensive. A solid removal option.

Shattering Pulse – Repeatable artifact removal. There’s not much more to say about it than that. It’s a solid card.

Volcanic Offering – Most of the time this is going to be a 4-for-1 in a multiplayer game, which is pretty good for 5 mana. Only hitting things you don’t control means there’s really nowhere for this to go wrong.

6) Sorceries Generally inferior to instants and always aware of it, these are still necessary sometimes. There are some good ones, some ugly ones, and some that most decks other than mono-R never play, and we're going to learn about all of them.

Mass land (and other permanent) destruction – Boom/Bust, Decree of Annihilation, Jokulhaups, Obliterate, Apocalypse – These effects really don't benefit you. Jaya is mana hungry enough that you don't want to be set back this far, and most other players will appreciate that. There's not a good way to win immediately after casting these most of the time, so you're better off leaving them for other decks.

Quakes – Earthquake and Molten Disaster – Generally inferior to instant speed versions, especially the ones that hit flying creatures. You shouldn't be desperate enough to run these over something like Starstorm. The exception to this is Rolling Earthquake, because there aren't enough creatures with horsemanship for that part to matter and the player damage can be helpful.

All is Dust – Great at dealing with things Jaya can’t, whether that’s huge creatures or enchantments. Mono-R generally leans artifact heavy enough to unbalance this a little, which is nice.

Aftershock – Flexible spot removal with a little tiny downside. This is a really solid card, though four is still a lot for spot removal. It’s an excellent budget option as well.

Blasphemous Act – Don't be afraid of that CMC, because you can pretty much ignore the first number in a multiplayer game. The highest cost I've ever actually paid for this is somewhere around three mana, and there are rarely creatures on the board that can survive this kind of beating. Use it along with Repercussion for extra credit. Add Furnace of Rath for hilariously large amounts of damage.

Faithless Looting – Another one that plays nicely with recursion. Looters work well with recursion, red needs what it can get, etc etc. This is the same song that's been playing for the whole primer. Flashback on top of the low cost is nice.

Gamble – Do you see what this is? UNCONDITIONAL TUTOR. Add in the recursive bits from the creatures and you've got yourself a party. Generally best used when you have a full hand (haha!), your back is up against the wall, or you're going for Squee.

Incendiary Command – While none of the effects are fantastic on their own, slapping them all into a Swiss army knife makes the card pretty playable. It's not the best possible card, but being able to filter with an extra effect is generally pretty good. Amazing in the rare occasions where you can screw up someone's game winning last card in hand, too.

Mana Geyser – This is a bit of a pet card for me, but you can generally hold it until it's going to jump you into something obscene. This beast is something you want to use earlier rather than later, though it's best when you can take out a player or two with the mana it provides. Waiting until it's one on one is just stupid.

Mogg Infestation – Single player red wrath that brings all of their creatures into well under burn range and doubles the number. Great way to get pesky high toughness creatures down to something more manageable and can leave a player more or less cold to another player's evasive creatures.

Past in Flames – This is an excellent card, and you should likely be running it. It both enables recursion and is a recursive card on its own. Even if you only get to cast one or two things out of the yard with this, that's one or two more than you would have had otherwise, and you should only be running high quality instants and sorceries. This isn't going to act like it would in a legacy combo deck, but it's a solid role player.

Reforge the Soul – I'd happily play another Wheel if it cost six, only drew three cards, and had no miracle cost. This is basically an auto-include.

Rekindled Flame – It's a recursive piece that you can use with Jaya, but it's got a pretty specific condition that you don't control. It's not a great card outside of that, so you're probably better off passing on this one.

Ruination – Nasty card, super effective. Definitely better in a more developed meta. If everyone you know is playing mono-colored decks or mostly basic lands, skip on this one. If you want to wipe the smug smile off the face of the player who spent 4 turns fetching ABU duals, this is the card. Remember, don't use this stuff if your group isn't cool with it, and you can always use it as Jaya fuel if you need to.

Scrap Mastery – The artifact spin on Living Death, this is an extremely powerful card. While I’m not built specifically to take advantage of it, there are a lot of high profile, frequently destroyed artifacts in my list, and I’m happy to trade my remaining mana rocks for those a lot of the time.

Shattering Spree/Vandalblast – Early game, these answer fast mana like Sol Ring. Late game, they nuke every mana rock and probably a number of other strong permanents. Artifacts are a big deal in this format, so something that destroys everything your opponents have got while leaving yours alone is wonderful.

Wake of Destruction – Pretty much the same as Ruination, but aimed at the mono-colored players. This is most useful for putting green players in their place after they ramp every basic out of their deck. Again, it's either not included or Jaya fuel if your group doesn't swing this way.

Wheel of Fate – Inexpensive draw 7, but you forecast the move four turns in advance. Most players have time to clear important stuff out of their hands before this goes off. Remember that suspend casts when the last counter comes off, so your last chance to use your current hand is the turn when you remove the second to last. With the printing of Reforge the Soul, there's not much reason to run this anymore.

Wheel of Fortune – Much better than Fate up there. In a perfect world, you only cast this when you have nothing else or only recursive elements in hand, and your opponent's all have grips full of combo pieces. The world isn't perfect, but this is still an all star and is basically the best mono-R card draw out there.

Wild Guess/Tormenting Voice – Single shot card draw/filtering. If you can use it in conjunction with something recursive, it’s obviously much better, but it’s still worthwhile to turn a bad card into two other cards.

7) Lands So, lands. Pretty much the cornerstone of any deck, and frequently under-appreciated. Never underestimate the power of your manabase, especially in a format like this one where you can play all the broken stuff you want, in very small quantities. The first decision you want to make when it comes to your domain is how cold you want it to be. Using Snow-Covered Mountains over their balmier cousins opens up quite a few options for you with almost no downside, so I'd heartily recommend it. For color concerns, you can get away with about a dozen lands that don't tap for red. Just remember that every mountain you cut means a land that won't work with your mana doublers.

Fetchlands – Arid Mesa, Scalding Tarn, Bloodstained Mire, and Wooded Foothills – If you're running Crucible of Worlds and/or Rings of Brighthearth, you probably want these. Shuffle effect if Jaya gets tucked, guaranteed land drop with Crucible, ramp with Rings, tiny downside. Avoid their tempo killing siblings Terramorphic Expanse, Evolving Wilds, and friends, though; the upside isn't good enough for cipt.

Land-D – Strip Mine, Wasteland, Tectonic Edge, Dust Bowl, and Ghost Quarter – Generally a good thing to have. I rank them in roughly the order listed, though everything after Strip Mine and Wasteland is up to you to decide. Don't be a dick about it with Crucible unless your group is into that sort of thing.

Buried Ruin – As you may have noticed, mono-R tends to go for artifacts. Lots of artifacts. Powerful artifacts. This little gem gets them back at the low cost of one land and a couple mana, and is absolutely worth it. Be smart about when you use it, because you only get a single shot unless you have Crucible (seeing a trend, here? Crucible really is that good).

Dark Depths – Not really a land in play. This is mostly mentioned here because Thespian’s Stage is also in the list, and land based interactions are a little easier to put together in mono-R than other combos due to having Crucible and Expedition Map. It’s also not out of the question to just pay it down over a couple turns with all of the big mana stuff in the list. It’s a big threat that survives all of your creature hate, though Marit Lage is unlikely to stick around long in a multiplayer game. Removing blue players quickly is the name of the game if you want to run him, followed by white players. The other little synergy here is that it’s a snow land, so you can grab it with Scrying Sheets.

Deserted Temple – Kind of a personal preference. It works really well with Thawing Glaciers, Kher Keep, and Mazes, and that's about it. If you feel especially synergistic and lucky enough to draw two specific cards in a deck with few tutors, this is for you.

Flamekin Village/Hall of the Bandit Lord – Haste on a land. Village is better than Hall here, because there are limited creatures coming in and tapping for colored mana is a significant upside, to say nothing of preserving your life total a bit. There’s enough focus on mana that the additional cost isn’t a dealbreaker. I just assume that it’s always a cipt land, because I don’t believe I run any elementals and I’m not going to shoehorn any in for this.

Forgotten Cave/Smoldering Crater – These depend on whether or not you're running snow lands. If you are, dropping the basic density reduces the effectiveness of a couple very powerful cards and the upside is probably not worth it. If you aren't, having the option to pitch excess lands late game to something other than Jaya can be a useful option.

Geier Reach Sanitarium – Looting for your opponents is not really desirable, but this deck is built to loot well and the utility of putting filtering in your mana base outweighs any concerns about improving the quality of your opponents’ hands. If it’s really a bad plan, just don’t activate the ability.

Glacial Chasm – Kind of a defensive piece, kind of a combo piece. It’s mostly good for its ability to protect you from Jaya when you get low on life. Crucible makes the downside to it less noticeable, and there are a few reasonable lifegain options in the list.

Haunted Fengraf – At some point while building mono-R, you may have noticed that the color doesn't get much creature recursion. This solves that nicely. The random seems bad, but you have to remember that this is a very creature light deck, and a number of them come back to your hand on their own. This is rarely actually going to be random, and the only downside is that it's colorless.

Inventors’ Fair – Tutoring in the manabase is a big deal. The incremental lifegain is nice upside, but no one has any illusions about why this is included. A grindy dream if you find Crucible of Worlds with the first activation.

Kher Keep – Another solid effect with low opportunity cost. Pumps out a steady stream of chump blockers or clamp fodder, and tapping for colorless is not really a problem when you only have one other option.

Maze of Ith – This is in the land section, but it's actually a spell. Not tapping for mana in a deck that spends as much as this one is a pretty serious offense, but it is a fantastic defensive land if you don't just want to burn everything to the ground every time (in which case, why are you looking at this deck?)

Mouth of Ronom – The first of the snow options. Direct damage seems pretty inefficient when you consider the rest of the deck, I admit. Why go for four to one target when you could burn a couple more mana and nuke the world? It comes back to low opportunity cost. You can drop this, then you have an out if you need to snipe a single creature and none of your other options are around.

Myriad Landscape – Ramp on a land. The restriction of getting two basics of the same type obviously doesn’t matter in a mono-colored list, and this is excellent. It plays nicely with Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, Rings of Brighthearth, Crucible of Worlds, and doesn’t really cut down on your mountain count for anything other than Scrying Sheets (if you’re playing snow). This is an excellent land for the deck.

Mystifying Maze – Defense land! I actually prefer this one to Maze of Ith here because it taps for mana and can knock equipment and auras off. Watch out for 187 effects.

Petrified Field – I like having some kind of recursion in the manabase, given the option, and the lands in this deck are powerhouses. Fun trick with Rings of Brighthearth: by the time that trigger resolves and you can pick new targets, this is in the yard and a valid choice. Embrace the grind.

Reliquary Tower – Did you look at this general? See all those little fireballs in the corner? See how it says “Discard a card” three times in her Oracle text? No.

Scrying Sheets – The other snow option, and really the best reason to go that way outside of Skred. If you're using this in combination with Top as an expensive, land only draw engine instead of doing something else, I hope you get a papercut while doing it, because even mono-R shouldn't have to stoop that low. You want to hold mana open often enough with Jaya that you can toss a couple extra into this thing blind to help you hit land drops or push through pockets. I don't actually want you to get a papercut, but really, use this when you've got open mana and not at the expense of other plays.

Temple of the False God – Mana costs get pretty high here, and we're headed for the late game, every game. This is among the least painful ways to accelerate a little bit.

Terrain Generator – Ramp if you're lucky, instant speed or extra Valakut triggers in the late game. Opinions on this guy vary, but I've never had a problem with it.

Thawing Glaciers – Another way to keep hitting land drops that works beautifully with Rings and Deserted Temple. Super tasty flavor if you're running snow basics as well. Once this starts, you're guaranteed to hit every land drop, and you can toss it to Jaya once you feel comfortable with your manabase.

Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle – If you played standard or followed any kind of coverage while ZEN and Primeval Titan were both legal, you probably know something about how powerful this guy is. It's significantly worse when you only get one and don't have green ramp, but free bolts are nothing to complain about.

Vesuva/Thespian's Stage – These are generally safe includes. They can be a mountain, if you're desperate, another Valakut if you've got someone smiling down on you and your luck (the best reason), someone's Reliquary Tower if you somehow draw a million cards (Windfall, maybe?), or whatever else it needs to be.

Wastes – Exclusively here for ease of casting Kozilek, the Great Distortion. There’s probably enough colorless mana production in the utility lands and mana rocks, but having a fetchable colorless source makes it more or less a sure thing. This basically fills a utility land slot for this deck.

Introduction
UPDATE: So I held off editing the main post because I'm lazy I was pretty sure the Commander Rules Committee will end up repealing their announcement about the tuck rule. It's been MONTHS, and everyone seems to have settled on it staying gone... so HOORAY! THE WITCH IS DEAD! Anyway, as anyone who has read this primer before knows, getting your commander tucked is a lot more crippling to this deck compared most others. That's not a problem anymore.

Also, Tragic Arrogance came out with Magic Origins, and it's probably the most relevant addition to the strategy in years. It will be replacing Spectra Ward, which is fancy and everything, but not really all that powerful. - Mark, 7/30/15

How time flies! Avacyn Restored came out over two years ago and I made this deck not long after then. My heartfelt thanks go out to everyone who has contributed their suggestions and experiences, and I'm so happy that a lot of people out there have taken this commander and staved many opponents' faces in with it. With this writing comes the largest batch of changes in the decklist ever. Partially, that's because M15 gave us a whopping THREE new cards to play with! The bigger reason is I've decided to share some of the more expensive cards among my decks. Anyway, much of the general philosophy behind the deck (and, therefore, the text in this primer) remains the same. If there are any inconsistencies between the list and the text, I apologize in advance. I'll try to weed them out bit by bit in the following weeks.

Why Bruna?
From the card text alone, I think it’s pretty obvious that you’ll be winning games by getting a lot of quality auras on Bruna and sending her in the general direction of your opponents like a very, very pretty freight train, Voltron-style.

Having white/blue as her color identity provides you with the means to protect her (shroud auras, totem armor, countermagic) and yourself (defensive auras, …countermagic), which a lot of other Voltron Commanders are short on. More importantly, white and blue have a few cards that prevent your opponents from meddling during your turn. Three Dreams and Intuition are in these colors, so that's cool.

You’d enjoy this deck if:
-You like putting the fear of God into your opponents because you can eliminate a player out of nowhere without resorting to some infinite loop that wipes the entire table.
-You like how aura effects interact apart from making your dudes bigger.
-You like to play with auras, generally, and would like for them to be more appreciated instead of being considered one of the worst card types (if not the worst outright).
-You used to enjoy Uril, but you can’t get over how easily he gets Hinder’d.
-You thought you’d like Zur, but then your friends complained about how annoying he is.

This deck might not be for you if:
-You just can’t get over how using lots of auras can feel like shooting yourself in the foot.
-You can’t get over using Read the Runes and Tunnel Vision instead of Sphinx's Revelation and Rhystic Study.

PROs
Bruna has the crazy ability to take all the auras in play, in your hand, and in your graveyard. No need to pay for them. No three CMC limit. Just turn her sidew—OH RIGHT, she has vigilance. Bruna’s ability extends to your graveyard, so the main weakness of auras—that they die along with the creatures they enchant, thus risk massive card disadvantage—is mitigated.

CONs
What I would give to trade Bruna’s vigilance and flying for hexproof and haste! A good part of my efforts goes into getting Bruna attacking as soon as possible and protecting her from Doomblade and its ilk. Her cost is also somewhat problematic (she’s one of the more expensive Voltron Commanders), but six isn’t that big of a number in this format, right? There’s also the issue of needing to have a lot of auras, which are considered by many to be the worst cards in Magic because of the card disadvantage thing I mentioned. Thankfully, Bruna gets around this rather well.

Mass land destruction could be a kick in the gut, but when has it never been so? The deck tries to prepare for this with mana rocks, land tutoring, and countermagic, but that can only do so much.

My personal reasons for playing Bruna are relatively shallow: I already have a relatively developed W/U card pool and I love the art.

Pedigree
Bruna hails from a prestigious line of enchantment-based Commanders, which in turn hails from a broader line of Commanders who want to have stuff attached to them and charge into the red zone. We’ll just discuss the enchantment-based ones. I also already mentioned that Bruna is not exactly better than either Zur or Uril. Picking her is all a matter of preference.

Zur the Enchanter – Zur is considered by many to be one of the most insufferably broken Commanders in the format. Being in the notorious Esper colors is bad enough, but Zur is able to tutor a Necropotence directly into play, which fills your hand with answers. Forever.

In my opinion, Zur’s only weakness is he’s TOO powerful. The person running him can easily find himself the target of the entire table the moment he declares his Commander. Still, a good Zur player fending off three opponents isn’t exactly unheard-of.

Uril, the Miststalker – Uril is the Timmy player’s dream. He has inherent protection against those mean control players and their targeted removal, grows bigger with each aura you put on him, and is conveniently in the colors of Runes of the Deus and Shield of the Oversoul: two of the most un-subtly awesome auras available. His weakness: mass removal, especially of the Hallowed Burial variety.

Bio
I’m Mark. I’m 27 31, and I live in the Philippines. I used to play Standard, but had to quit because of school. Even when I was playing, I constantly felt bad about needing to replace my deck because of the rotations and back then, my LGS played Standard almost exclusively.

Years later, some friends introduced me to Commander. I actually didn’t want to try it at first, but they eventually convinced me to cobble together a deck from their pool. I picked the first legend that seemed plausible: Grand Arbiter Augustin IV. I think they mildly regret that whole affair.

Anyway, that's the intro stuff. Let's get on to what you came here for:




Typical Game Plan
Mulligan Concerns
As you draw your opening hand, be on the lookout for ways to draw and ramp. Starting with a few lands and only auras might not be a good idea because they’d just end up doing nothing. That said, the deck contains a lot of card draw so I rarely find myself in a situation where I’d really need to mulligan--the deck naturally operates as though almost each card in it has cycling.

Opening Play
The plan for the first few turns is to establish a mana base. Ideally, this would involve playing some mana rocks, or pushing a few land drops ahead with Walking Atlas. It’s very important to not miss any land drops, so if you have any looting spells, don’t hesitate to cycle auras so you can draw into lands. Bruna can get those back later, anyway.

Don't be afraid to play Bruna early if you can sense that your opponents are lacking in removal or if you have countermagic in spades. Otherwise, don't rush her in because cards like Hinder and Spin into Myth exist. Instead, play one of the other creatures in the deck and enchant it with an aura or two. Most of the time, even something as innocent as Weathered Wayfarer can turn into a beast when you stick some good auras on him.

If Bruna DOES get tucked, you're going to have to rely on your other guys to win. Thankfully, as stated in the previous paragraph, each one of your creatures can become a legitimate threat. Additionally, the deck contains enough aggressive card drawing, so force a shuffle by using a tutor effect and you stand a good chance of drawing into Bruna herself or into a continuous supply of threats.

Sometimes, you’ll get insane ramp, Force of Will, and Intuition. If you want to win more games, you may consider holding off until you can safely wipe everyone out. Sometimes you may just feel like putting the fear of god into the table and eliminate a player early. Even if the table panics into dogpiling you, maybe it’s worth it. And maybe you can still manage to wipe them all out. Depends on how gung-ho you feel.

Another thing: graveyard hate exists. The deck doesn't have any direct answers to cards like Tormod's Crypt aside from countermagic, and they can put a big dent on your plans. Discard key auras sparingly if you can help it, but I've determined by playing the deck over and over that the best solution to graveyard hate is to be continuously aware that there's always a possibility of getting your graveyard exiled.

In short, never overextend. Each one of your creatures has the potential to force a board wipe and that's one less spell to worry about when Bruna comes in later on, hopefully with haste and shroud/hexproof. Never overextend the auras in your graveyard, either. Play carefully, but always be alert for a chance to play Bruna and knock out that guy holding all the removal while he's tapped out from playing Time Stop or whatever on some other dude. Then, take out that other dude.

Late Game
If you haven’t wiped everyone out yet, you probably won’t reach the late game because it's likely that the table has panicked and dogpiled on you. If you do reach the late game, it’s probably because Bruna got neutered somehow, or you took the route good players (unlike myself) take and waited things out as your opponents spend their answers on each other while you gather enough mana and countermagic to play an utterly unanswerable Bruna. With haste.

Card Selections
Draw and Discard
The deck includes a wide array of blue cards that let you draw cards at the expense of discarding some. While this is seen to be inferior to straightforward card draw (something that blue does well already), Bruna’s ability makes your graveyard an extension of your hand. In this regard, Bruna is more similar to The Mimeoplasm or Karador, Ghost Chieftain than the other aura-based Commanders.

Notable cards: Compulsive Research, Fact or Fiction, Read the Runes, Intuition, Memory Jar, Frantic Search, Cephalid Coliseum, Windfall

Tutors
And then there are the tutors. This deck had the dubious honor of being the only deck I know of that actually uses Tunnel Vision to tutor for something. It's not in the deck at the moment, but it's great gimmick that you might want to try. There are also some land-specific tutors because Hall of the Bandit Lord gives Bruna much-needed haste.

Notable cards: Three Dreams, Enlightened Tutor, Totem-Guide Hartebeast, Intuition.

Haste Enablers
A lot of the cards serve to protect Bruna until she can attack or giving her haste so she can attack immediately (or both!). Alternatively, you can wait for your opponents to tap out and sneak Bruna in via Scout’s Warning.

Notable cards: Lightning Greaves, Swiftfoot Boots, Hall of the Bandit Lord, Scout’s Warning

Ramp and Other Lands
Bruna can get pretty mana-intensive because it would be foolish not to answer her, so her mana cost does tend to go up. Besides, Bruna does take 6 mana to cast the first time, so ramp is pretty important. It’s not always necessary to hurry into getting Bruna out, but there’s always something to do with a lot of early mana.

I actually want to prioritize basic Islands and Plains over mana-fixing duals because accelerating via Terrain Generator is more important and the deck has enough card draw to smoothen out the colors--and not everyone can afford the more expensive duals. Speaking of expensive cards, the deck would greatly benefit from Mana Crypt, and I do urge anyone who has it to include it (although I hate you forever and ever). This is no longer true for the current list, as I have sold one of my kidneys for a Mana Crypt, and shared my Azorius duals from my other deck. Still, if you're on a budget, Terrain Generator will do a lot of work with a list heavy with basics.

So far, Walking Atlas has been great. He functions as the Exploration that doesn’t care about color identity. He can wear auras, chump block, and do lots of other fun stuff small, unassuming creatures do. A neat trick is to slip Hall of the Bandit Lord in at the end of an opponent’s turn for some hasty Bruna action. Along the same vein, you can use Frantic Search to untap the Halls and get a surprise attack.

High Market and Homeward Path get a slot because it would be very, very bad for you if Bruna gets stolen.

Notable cards: Gilded Lotus, Azorius Signet, Wayfarer’s Bauble, Sol Ring, Expedition Map, Walking Atlas, Temple of the False Gods, Mana Vault, Hall of the Bandit Lord, Homeward Path, High Market, Ancient Tomb, Thawing Glaciers.

The Auras
Here are the specific aura choices I made, and the notable interactions among them:

Eldrazi Conscription, Corrupted Conscience, Battle Mastery – These three are the main kill auras. More often than not, if Bruna slams into someone with any of these on along with some others, that guy’s not getting up. Never forget that you can use Corrupted Conscience to steal an opponent’s creature.

Pariah, Unquestioned Authority – Renders you immune to creature damage. Pariah can double as creature removal in a pinch--just slap it onto someone else's creature and it'll be dead in a few turns. If it survives, that probably means nobody attacked you. Unquestioned Authority makes Bruna unblockable, too. And draws you a card, which I value over the +1/+1 that Spirit Mantle provides.

Alexi’s Cloak, Eel Umbra – Flash makes these auras invaluable to keeping Bruna alive. They serve as limited counters. It’s usually a good idea to keep these in your hand instead of discarding them because they can act as emergency “counterspells” if somebody tries to off Bruna before she gets all the auras.

Flickerform, Vanishing – Also along the lines of keeping Bruna alive, this time against mass removal and similar kinds of non-targeting nastiness. You can attach these to enemy creatures too, as somewhat expensive removal. Flickerform on Totem-Guide Hartebeast, Heliod's Pilgrim, Boonweaver Giant or Auratouched Mage is pretty awesome, too, because you get to recycle their enter-the-battlefield abilities.

Vow of Duty, Vow of Flight – Aim your opponent’s guys at other players! Bruna can absorb these later for a damage boost. It kinda irks me that the two vows that are available to Bruna provide abilities she already has, but the +2/+2 has been relevant at times. A Vow of Hexproof would be nice for the next Commander product, but I'm happy with the ones we have now. Vow of Duty is especially strong because it gives so much incentive for your opponent to attack with the enchanted creature.

Spectra Ward, Steel of the Godhead – These are generic good auras that provide a pump bonus, lifelink, or unblockabilty. Fliers are common enough in Commander that Bruna can benefit from being unblockable reasonably often (although not often enough to warrant Robe of Mirrors. Ew. If anyone has tested Rogue's Passage with success, please tell me about it.

Other Creatures
While the deck does mainly rely on Bruna, I’ve included some creatures that can function as smaller versions of her in case she gets tucked (or I just need a blocker). Note that a reasonable amount of pump auras plus Corrupted Conscience can still kill anyone out of nowhere. Pariah and Unquestioned Authority can turn any of your creatures into a little forcefield against attackers.

Notable cards: Totem-Guide Hartebeast, Auratouched Mage, Sovereigns of Lost Alara

Countermagic
Ideally, I would like to limit Bruna’s counterspells to ones that can be cast for free, since I want to be able to cast Bruna, and then attack with her. Forbid is exceptionally good in the deck, though, because you can just pitch a couple of auras and expect Bruna to get it back.
Notable cards: Misdirection, Pact of Negation, Forbid, Force of Will


Notable Exclusions
Mesa Enchantress, Kor Spiritdancer – These seemed to be obvious inclusions, and they actually were part of the deck when I put it together for the first time. However, I quickly realized that I almost never cast my auras. They also pale in comparison to the card drawing that blue already provides.

Umbra Mystic – I noticed that protecting Bruna from being targeted or countering spells is usually more effective than just protecting her from being destroyed at the cost of a marginally useless creature taking up a slot, but I cut the Mystic out mainly because a lot of the effects that remove Bruna don’t go through the “destroy” route. She’s still a very good card, though. I might test with her in place of one of the redundant auras from time to time.

Flux, along with every other draw X then discard X card ever – There are lots. I can make an entire deck with ONLY these cards. I’d like to believe I narrowed out the best (I did play with Ancestral Memories, though). Any suggestions would be welcome. You can also play Three Wishes, since it does something the deck wants to do AND you get to play with both Three Dreams and Three Wishes in one deck!

Sigil of the Empty Throne – This was one of the cards I originally wanted for the deck. As I already mentioned, I find myself actually casting enchantments very rarely, so I never pursued this card.

Faith Healer - I've seen this being used as a life engine, taking advantage of Bruna resurrecting boatloads of enchantments with each combat step. While I think the interaction is cute, by the time Bruna's doing that, your opponents should already be dropping like flies.

1v1 Gameplay
Bruna does really well on single player matchups, although I don’t think I’ve fought a deck that’s specifically tuned for 1v1. I suspect to have trouble with faster, even more aggressive decks, but I’m sorry to say that I really don’t know and can give very little input other than try to ramp Bruna out and hope to have counters for their counters.

There always is the chance of getting hit with Bojuka Bog, Relic of Progenitus, or whatnot. Most of the time, it doesn’t really cripple you because there are always more auras in your deck. It may be a good idea to take it easy on discarding key auras if there’s a chance of a graveyard nuke.


Conclusion
Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoy reading through my rambling and I would love to get some suggestions to make the deck better.

PS: So, the forums has a like function now. I know it probably doesn't mean much of anything, but in a blatant plea for validation, please like this post if it's not too much trouble (and if you do like it, of course).