"Myself and Glix worked on this Expertly Designed Brago list I am presenting to you today. You will need your reading glasses because this is a extensive and lengthy read. A lot of Brago deck lists come short of this one, and most people have failed to find the best and most effective cards to use with Brago. A lot of time was put into searching for cards that all did the samething, or would interact with Brago and other cards well. Many people missed many cards, and made lots of numerous mistakes you'll learn about as you read. I also invented the idea of playing Rishidans in competitive EDH, as well playing them in Brago and Riku my lists were the first lists to feature this idea for competitive edh. they hAlso I have a lot of replays where Brago wins even turn 2. I have many replays where Brago shows off the power of having multiple threats and locks. In just about every video I show off the deck's ability to do often have godly starts.
Okay lets go over Brago's effect once more:
When Brago, King Eternal deals combat damage to a player, exile any number of target nonland permanents you control, then return those cards to the battlefield under their owner's control.
So basically, we want nonland permanents that we can "flick" with brago: That would include things like Mana Vault, Sun Titan, Tanglewire, Mystic Remora and Parallax Wave because Brago does reset cards with Vanishing counters/Cumulative upkeep.
Because we're able to untap our permanents that means we can run things that keep permanents from untapping such as Static Orb, Stasis, or Embargo which work amazingly with Brago.
Then we run U/W stax cards to help push card advantage i.e. Armageddon, and Rishdans, then we have tutors, and draw engines for refilling our hands to keep the game going.
Brago does not run Spot Removal because this deck is designed for multiplayer formats, and Spot Removal is only good for 1vs1 formats. Thus our creature removal reflects such: Cyclonic Rift, Frost Titan, Luminate Primordial, Lavinia of the Tenth, and Parallax Wave. Also we use Stasis/Static Orb + Tanglewire, and we use Rishidan Flicking to run them out of permanents.
Then we have the meta gaming cards that help Brago battle other Tier S decks like Hermit Druid, Azami, or Zur. Those cards include: Cursed Totem, Aven Mindcensor, Trinisphere, Relic of Progentius and others.
Finally, we have our win condition: Felidar, and then 2 backup win conditions one is to win with combat damage. All of this is done after first locking your opponents out of the game. Then of course you can also do the infinite trigger combo with Strionic Resonator. But it requires that you have at least 2 colorless mana that is flickable with Brago.
Why the deck runs 28 lands? First of all you must realize this deck doesn't get mana screwed or nor color screwed. Thanks to the way the deck is designed, and plays out, you get most of your mana from artifacts, and you rarely need more than 2-3 lands. The reason is because Brago untaps artifact mana.With all the artifact mana, and the very low CMC curve of the deck you really don't need more than 28 lands to run the deck effectively. It does fine with 28 lands and Deveri can run fewer lands and function amazingly.
- The deck has 4 basic lands, then everything else is nonbasic lands.
- The lands are carefully hand picked out, and added with experience, you're looking at a really fine construction of lands. There's very low chance of color screw in this decklist.
- Ultilty lands are important, but theres only 4, Oboro is in here because of the interaction with mass land destruction, homeward Path is in here to deal with Bribery, and Creature Steal effects. Cavern of Souls is in here obviously to help resolve brago against Counterspells. The others make extra colorless mana such as Mishra's Workshop and Ancient Tomb.
Note: I do not run: Strip Mine, Wasteland, or Maze of Ith because these lands are useless and are not strong enough lands. They only destroy 1 land, or stop 1 creature at a time which is useless in a multi-player format like EDH. They have to be abused with other cards in other to be strong enough. Also those lands cause color screw as well.
Fetchlands are important for deck thinning and to help us get that nice Tundra/Hallowed Fountain starts. We have our gold lands that make multiple colors of mana. Then we have one particular gold land that is a EDH land staple, and that is Gemstone Caverns which if you're not going first (you can also choose not to go first) you just plop it into play discard a card like you would Mox Diamond, to help you get Brago down quickly.
Some very nice interactions include:
Brago + RishidansBrago + Tanglewire, Static Orb, Stasis, Embargo, Parallax Tide, and Lavinia of the TenthArtifact Mana + Mass Land Destruction, Artifact Mana + Winter Orb/Rising Waters/HokoriArtifact Mana + Brago + Tapped Locks
Cards that give Brago problems: Single Target Removal (such as spot removal) most people would run lightening greaves, and swiftboots which I do not run. Because they do not deal with the issue of spot removal which is instant most of the time. It only takes one removal spell to end the game for you and allow the combo player at the table to win. So I included: Steelshaper's Gift. Stoneforge Mystic, and Enlighted Tutor here for helping us get the answer to spot removal quickly and efficently. Neurok Stealthsuit is the answer we use for spot removal like that, but also we can recast Brago as well, sometimes recasting ends up being too slow for beating the combo decks.
Also cards like Maze of Ith, and blockers with Flying give brago issues too. Tsabo's Web is the answer I use to beat lands like Maze of Ith, as well as lands like Strip Mine which can be annoying to deal with. Also, another tutorable equipment Whispersilk Cloak, stops all of these problems except for instant speed single target removal spells.
Counterspells are another problem for Brago, and we can tutor Cavern of Souls with Expedition Map (which is tutorable with our artifact tutors too) Also when playing against counterspells we simply keep recasting Brago, and casting other threats until Brago Sticks, then we follow up by playing multiple locks in succession.Grand Abolisher and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir are our other cards we use to stop counterspells and they are extremely effective answers to counterspells.
Brago doesn't have very strong artifact removal because it's a artifact based deck itself, so the best solution was to use Kill Switch in which all their artifacts become tapped and stay tapped while Brago untaps our own artifact. Another one of the many beatiful interactions in this Brago deck. (Update) Now i've taken out Kill Switch for Imi Statue.
How the deck plays: Usually you want to keep hands of draw or a tutor + mana rocks to give you the best starts. Or you can keep hands with rocks and locks. The idea is to play mana rocks into brago, then do multiple locks. The strongest locks that you can do with Brago is Tanglewire + Winter Orb + Stasis or Brago + Stasis finishing them off with like Trinsphere. Playing the deck requires some practice, as you must learn to use the threat and locks you have in order to end up locking your opponents out. You also must anticipate removal and counterspells to a degree all while making sure you play a fast game in order to beat combo decks this means ramping quickly and playing tutors for things like Tanglewire to buy time.
Examples of hands to keep:
2 Lands, 2-3 Mana Rocks, 1 Draw Spell1 Land, 3-4 Mana Rocks, 1 Lock/Stax Spell3 Lands, 1 Mana Rock, 1 Draw Spell2 Lands, 2 Mana Rocks, 3 Lock/Stax Spells
(Note: If a certain combo deck is at the table keep hands that have cards like Cursed Totem/Relic of Progentius/Trinisphere or Tutors to quickly get them. For example you see a Karador/Arcuum/Hermit Druid deck, etc)
Decks that Brago beats: Beats Tier A-B decks with 70% win average or higher. And does fairly well vs some of the Tier S decks. It also does really good against 5c Stax.
Decks that Brago loses to: Prison Deveri, and some 5c Midrange Combo decks like 5c Splinter Twin Combo or 5c Omni Combo, and some fast Tier S combo decks such as Glory Druid. Has a extremely poor win average against Prison Deveri and while Brago does fair vs combo decks, it has yet to beat Deveri very much.
Thanks for reading and have fun locking your opponents out!
Special thanks to Glix for his hand in building, play testing, critiquing, and designing the deck with me."
