Finalist, brawl championship GP Richmond!
Retired.
This is my first shot at a brawl deck. Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir was my go to "fun" EDH deck, but I think I may end up switching to Raff. My favorite play style is draw-go, even in EDH. Raff opens up white, which is my second favorite color.
The goal of this deck is to wait through the turn cycle, counter or remove any problems, and if you have mana left, play a creature or draw spell. Raff enables the draw go-player to cast win conditions at instant speed, which is such a powerful addition. You are never shields down.
This is a tough task in a multiplayer game, so the trick is to use your counters/removal only when you are directly threatened. This will keep you from wasting cards, and have the benefit of having the other players hesitate in targeting you while you have open mana.
I decided to only use independently powerful creatures in this deck, because they can often be used a a two for one (a flash 'removal' spell that doubles as a powerful permanent).
I don't play standard, so I don't know a lot of the cards in a vacuum. I put in some nods to the Scarab God, because he sounds like a real pain (the one card that can't be played as an instant). I was also considering some graveyard hate, but it felt way too narrow in the end. The deck can also be built around artifacts and maybe the Antiquities War and other payoffs, or to sub out the immortal sun with planeswalkers. In the end, I felt the sun was basically a hard to remove 'planeswalker' that worked better than Gideon, Teferi, and Jace at a multiplayer table. I may work on the variant versions as well. Let me know what you think.
4/11: Cataclysmic Gearhulk out, Approach the Second Sun in.
4/29: Approach of the Second Sun, Skysovereign, Weatherlight out; Blackblade Reforged, Catactlysmic Gearhulk, Slaughter the Strong in
More sweepers have been strong, and Approach was under performing.
8/20: Cancel, Nimble Obstructionist out; Syncopate, Deep Freeze in. Also considering subbing it Kefnet for Thaumatic Compass. The pros are that Kefnet is sometimes a good defender who doesn't die to much (including urza's blast). The compass is also a good card advantage Mana sink that becomes a defender in it's own right. It also costs less all around. I'm making the switch for now, but an still testing.
8/25: Thaumatic Compass out, Treasure Map in. After some testing, the cost of compass was a little high even though it's flip is a bit better. The deck prefers a cheap Mana sink.
8/27: Censor, Farm, Seal Away, Settle the Wreckage, Skywhaler's Shot, Syncopate, The Immortal Sun out, Invoke the Divine, Karn, Karn's Temporal Sundering, Nexus of Fate, Teferi, Tezzeret, Thaumatic Compass in. Planeswalkers have more impact than the Sun. Removing one for one removal for better FFA performance. Reversing this change will be better for 1v1.
8/31: Essence Scatter, Karn, Teferi, Tezzeret out, Anticipate, Immortal Sun, Mirari Conjecture, Chaos Wand in.
9/6: After Richmond the format is going into lame duck time. Here are my thoughts on Raff post rotation.
Not having azorius hurts, but we'll get our goodies later.
The deserts and cycling lands worked very well in the draw go template. They will be missed. Might need to play a graveyard hate spell too.
The new surveil counterspell is better than disallow.
The two Mana instant draw spells and pull are the biggest holes right now. The jump start draw spell will go in, but these are big losses. If they reprint Sphinx's rev (probably not) we won't see it until the next set. Another option I'm using more of the two Mana artifacts that let you dump Mana each turn for a scry your draw effect.
The gearhulks aren't such a big loss. Cataclysmic is more of a sweeper, so settle is there most obvious substitute. For torrential, it's more of card advantage/threat. Teferi or azor might be a good sub.
Cast out is another loss for the flash. Binding is a more powerful card, but can't be flashed. I'll probably replace it with Seal Away. Blink might make the cut as a for Mana card advantage neutral way to kill a planeswalker (with a counter).
I still think we're in good shape. We didn't lose any true core cards. Raff's power is very modular, so he doesn't rely on any parasitic cards. We'll have counters, removal, draw, and finishers. Season to taste.
