Introduction
Brion Stoutarm is the GOAT of flinging damage. Play my version of Brion for a fun night of damage slinging on edge of life.
Why should you play Brion?
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You're not afraid to One Shot Knock Out an opponent.
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You like to play impactful creatures.
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You want an Aggo/Voltron deck that plays like control.
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You want to win using the 'weak' color combination.
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You want to kill your opponents with their own cards.
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You think of the graveyard as your second hand.
Why shouldn't you play Brion?
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If you want to play a lot of creatures
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If there are a lot of creature-less decks in your meta
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OHKO threats may make you an archenemy.
History
Oldest deck I have. Took apart for awhile and then reconstructed at the start of my singleton challenge. It used to play Act of Treason. Repeatable effects are stronger therefore welcome Preacher and friends. Also, there has been just enough impulse draw released in red to gas up our engine.
We can't rely on our opponents having worthy martyrs for the cause however. So we must play our own Serra Avatar and Hamletback Goliath effects. As I've been going through the singleton revisions, I've found a large number of low cost creatures that function similarly. I'm testing Immolating Souleater currently and if it is successful be on the look out for some big changes.
Finally, we need to be able to protect and recur our pieces. White has great recursion options for creatures and artifacts. Red has great recursion options for artifacts. Between the two, our deck becomes a resilient value engine long into the end game.
Card Choices
Convert
Instead of playing removal for creatures, this deck gets to play "Convert" effects. Flavorfully, disciples of Brion will convert non-believers into martyrs for our cause. Brion can then Fling them at whomever is ahead, fuel the fires of engines, or build our side of the board. Taking someone's general is crippling against certain decks. A lot of the best cards that do this for us sit on the board and are re-usable!
Important Note: Be respectful of your opponents and their cards. This means if you're playing against someone new, let them hand their cards to you on resolution of your trigger.
Preacher - The inspiration for the flavor behind this primer. Doesn't end until we want it to. Note - the ability continually checks if preacher was tapped so it is a non-bo with our untap effects.
Bazaar Trader is used on our converted brothers to override the "end of turn" clause and keep them under our control permanently.
Treasure Nabber - This guy works great with Bazaar Trader but often times he just borrows mana rocks and ramps us. Combo's with Trading Post
Captivating Crew - Repeatable Act of Treason! This card is amazing in our deck.
Helm of Possession - Our martyrs understand the meaning of sacrifice. Our new converts are always happy to prove their loyalty.
Evangelize - 9 mana to buyback but flavorful. This is an easy cut if you want to improve the deck. Probably for a tutor.
Zealous Conscripts - Convert on a stick. This guy can take ANY permanent. Goes infinite with Kiki-Jiki. I don't play this combo in the deck but I'm happy to steal it from someone else.
Conquering Manticore - Convert on a flying stick.
Might Makes Right - Our Martyrs are strong. Strong enough to convert the heretics to join our cause.
Molten Primordial - Convert everyone.
Repeatable effects are better than 1 time effects, I haven't cut the following 2 cards yet because they offer unique effects.
Word of Seizing - Split second and can grab any permanent, tech to fight combo decks.
Debt of Loyalty - Notably missing the 'until end of turn' clause. Also only works if the creature regenerates but allows us to steal the best creature off of most board wipes.
Frenzied Fugue - Shared custody of a permanent. Works well on mana rocks, end of turn draw effects, and scary threats.
Martyr
We can't rely on the other planeswalkers to bring us suitable Martyrs. So we have some of our own to inspire them.
False Prophet - This heretic is an escape button to reset the token player. Doesn't exile himself so he can be recurred.
Serra Avatar - One of the best martyrs in the deck. This will often threaten a kill the turn it comes down.
Phyrexian Processor - Serra Avatar #2 but costs more mana to play and activate. Only pay as much life as you can afford to lose.
Evra, Halcyon Witness - Serra Avatar #3 and the most mana intensive. Doesn't require you to buy into it with life and is more recurrable.
Hamletback Goliath - He's a giant and becomes bigger.
War Elemental - Don't own a copy. I'd like to playtest this and think it has great potential. Maybe replaces Phyrexian Processor
Taurean Mauler - Cheap body that grows. He's done work in the deck before and will likely find it's way back in someday.
Sunscorch Regent - Another taurean mauler effect. Haven't tried it myself but has potential.
Immolating Souleater - Pay life to make bigger and gain half of it back. When using this card makes sure to resolve each buff ability before activating the next one to avoid being blown out by removal.
Moltensteel Dragon - Pay life to make bigger and gain half of it back. When using this card makes sure to resolve each buff ability before activating the next one to avoid being blown out by removal.
Malignus - Scary creature. I don't own this one either. Could maybe cut Serra Avatar for it if trying to reduce mana costs.
Phyrexian Devourer - Don't own one. Seems like a good replacement for Evra if you don't mind exiling a chunk of your library. Could be great in decks with a sunforger package that includes pull from exile
Phyrexian Dreadnought - One drop, 12 damage and can be re-occurred to repeat. Does nothing without Brion on board and doesn't kill anyone when it comes down.
Slumbering Dragon - Discourages attacks. I may test this card in the future.
Archon of Justice - Remove a key piece of an opponent's strategy.
Mimic Vat - Take the best creature and martyr the token before it's exiled.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Replicate our best martyr. Also combos with Zealous Conscripts if that's your thing.
Hallowed Spiritkeeper - Makes tokens on death to give us some blockers. Good sideboard tech against edict decks (anything that plays gravepact)
Anger - Haste is great for our team
Reborn Hero - Great with Phyrexian Altar. Pay 1 to recur for death triggers. Not great otherwise.
Cradle of Vitality - not a martyr but makes everything bigger for the next throw.
Field of Souls - Goes infinite with Reborn hero and the altar, still need to convert someone else's Blood Artist to your team to win the game though. A good sideboard card against edict decks however.
Resurrection
Resurrection of dearly departed is a cornerstone of both flavor and strategy. Because this is a value deck, I've chosen to include repeatable effects instead of one time.
Nim Deathmantle - All star of value town. Protects our team, makes them a little bigger for the next fling.
Gift of Immortality - Cheap, repeatable, hard to remove.
Marshal's Anthem - Finisher, re-occurring multiple creatures is great
Adarkar Valkyrie - We can untap it. Protects our team.
Dawnbreak Reclaimer - Political recursion. Happens on endstep so it doesn't have to wait until your next turn is very useful to avoid removal.
Reya Dawnbringer - Very big, very slow. Very valuable if it sticks around.
Feldon of the Third Path - What's dead can never die, but rises again, as we build angry monuments in their memory!
Angelic Renewal - Not currently in the deck, but cut Reya for this and add sun titan to be more competitive. Enlightened tutor for this when you have an outlet and sun titan for a cute loop.
Karmic Guide - Tutorable with the recruiters and goes infinite with Reveillark. Not included in the 99 because my more competitive deck uses it.
Reveillark - Can recur some of the smaller martyrs like War Elemental or Tauren Mauler also goes infinite with karmic guide.
Faith's Reward - Currently in another deck but would do wonders here.
Resurrection - If I ever find one for trade I'll have to include it for the flavor.
Miraculous Recovery - Instant speed recursion is probably better
Sanctum Gargoyle - We have a lot of artifacts, need some way to bring them back.
Buried Ruin - We have a lot of artifacts, need some way to bring them back.
Sigil of the New Dawn - Protects our team from death, acts as pseudo-draw,
Untap
I want to include more untap creatures to make these effects better. Ideally, we use cradle of vitality and the untap effects to purge any nonbelievers.
Thousand-Year Elixir - Activated Ability haste is good. The ability to untap to makes it even better
Magewright's Stone - Cheap and effective
Jandor's Saddlebags - The worst of the untap effects.
Thornbite Staff - Add this to go infinite with Adarkar Valkrie and a sac outlet. Feel free to swap Magewright's stone above.
Umbral Mantle - Pay three to untap, feel free to swap for Jandor's saddlebags
Sword of Paruns - Another equipment, feel free to swap in.
Mana
Being in Boros we have access to white which is the second best ramp color after green. Anything that generates mana advantage is included here.
If we can reach 8 mana, with Brion on the field then Serra Avatar can be played with mana held up to sacrifice her to kill a player. At 11 mana we can do the same with Evra. I'm playing the fast mana rocks to reach that number as soon as possible.
Draw
Oreskos Explorer - Lands to hand = draw
Wheel of Fate - Play as much of your hand as possible before suspending this.
Reforge the Soul - When this is in your deck you don't want to hold back on playing your good cards too much.
Wheel of Fortune - Currently in a different deck but would be good here. Cut one of the other wheel effects for it.
Magus of the Wheel - We have recursion to make the most of him. Play out your hand before using.
Inheritance - Replace with skullclamp if you want a better effect. Because we have so much mana potential, this card is playable here.
Vance's Blasting Cannons
- We usually only play 1-2 spells / turn so this almost never flips.
Staff of Nin - Repeatable draw adds up. We can reach 6 mana quickly and have ways to recur artifacts.
The Immortal Sun - Cost reduce so it also counts as a mana advantage engine. Draws cards every turn, anthem for the team to make everything hurt just a little more, and incidental hate. Always a great card.
Well of Discovery - Strategy with this is to play out your hand.
Other options
Land Tax - One of the best white draw spell. Not currently in this deck because it's in another.
Skullclamp - Combos well with Ashnod's altar, more suited to token decks and currently in a different deck of mine.
Well of Lost Dreams - Gave my copy away to a friend's lifegain deck. Will eventually pull another copy into here.
Stolen Strategy - Red card advantage. Could cut staff of Nin for this.
Enduring Renewal - We have enough recursion to utilize this but need to have the right pieces in hand or on board before playing it. Could include with ways to sacrifice permanents.
Wipe
Sometimes the board is too threatening or clogged. It's important to have ways to reset it. We have ways to protect or return key pieces. I'm not going to list every possibility, my choices are largely based on what are available and fit the deck.
Removal
Convert effects are our primary removal, a couple more options never hurt though.
Archon of Justice - Remove anything on a stick. The existence of humility prevents me from moving more of our spells to creatures.
Wear / Tear - 2 for 1 on threats is always good
Return to Dust - Well of Discovery wants us to play on our turn and this gives us a 2 for 1 when we do.
Vandalblast - Ideally this is never played on one but sometimes you just need to stop shenanigans.
Tutors
I'm not really playing any but if you need more consistency in your life consider the following:
Weathered Wayfarer,
Land Tax,
Expedition Map - Add these and a better land package first.
Sunforger - Boros Staple. Would have to rework the deck to find room for a package. There are a couple of red instances that double the power of a creature that should be an auto-include, strongly consider Malignus if perusing that route.
Enlightened Tutor - Finds Expedition Map and Sunforger to find everything else. Can also find any of the sacrifice outlets.
Steelshaper's Gift Stoneforge Mystic - Finds Sunforger to find enlightened tutor
Idyllic Tutor - Finds enchantment outlets and smothering tithe.
Lands
I'm probably running too many basics, if you want to be competitive, include the fetches, duals, filter lands, check lands, etc. We also don't have a lot of double mana symbols in the list which helps the deck run off of 1-2 sources of each color. Signets are really important for early game fixing.
Upgrades
Strategy
Play Brion, play a
Serra Avatar,
Fling to kill, experience a
Miraculous Recovery, and repeat.
This tends to be more of a control deck. Instead of countering spells we want to be able to steal the best of anything else that is played. Even without Brion on board to sacrifice it, steal a utility creature and attacking into a creature that it trades with or find someone to block and kill it. When possible we'd rather borrow our opponents Rhystic Study than destroy it.
Most of our threats are mana sinks. This means, we play one and then utilize it every turn and only play another one after it is dealt with. For example Cradle of Vitality allows us to fling a creature with Brion, play 2 and make another creature bigger. Then we fling that one. This is great with untap effects. Every fling grows our threat. Add in a recursion effect and it has to be dealt with or you will win the game.
The early game is all about ramp for us. Build up fast as we can start winning the game at 8 mana. Playing Treasure Nabber, Dockside Extortionist, or Smothering Tithe in the right meta can make for quick games. If you have a wheel in hand, play out everything you can as fast as possible and refill.
If you don't have a wheel and don't draw one while playing out your ramp in the early games, the next best option is one of the slower, impulse draws like Vance's Blasting Cannons
. If you have this one, be careful not to flip it as the card advantage is more important to us. If you happen to draw another one of our impulse enchantments, don't be afraid to hold onto it in case the first one is destroyed.
Bazaar Trader is a great early game play that allows our mid-game to be nothing but repeated removal spells. Oresokos Explorer is another good play to smooth out our land drops into the mid-game. If you have an untap effect, play it during the early game whenever you have open mana on your turn. It will pay off in spades in the mid game.
Going into the mid-game, we need to decide if anyone went crazy in the early game. If so, some kind of board wipe may be warranted before things get too out of hand. If we are even with the board or slightly ahead, we'll want to play Brion out and start using our convert effects to interrupt our opponents game plan. If Bazaar Trader is on field, be aggressive!
When we have the mana to play and utilize it play out some our 3-4 mana cards like Mimic Vat Sigil of the New Dawn or Nim Deathmantle here to protect the team as we transition into the late game. Target the player with the most life or try to stay on even footing with them as this will enable our big game ending plays. Unless someone else is in a winning position of course.
Late game - The late game for us starts when we have around 8 or 9 mana. Hopefully you've managed to play Brion and untap with him. At this point we can play Serra Avatar or Phyrexian Processor and threaten a player kill. Doing so will also double our life. Usually need to play down some of our bigger card draw pieces or recur an earlier piece for the yard.
A winning end game state usually looks like 1 resurrect effect, one creature to sacrifice or a repeatable steal effect, and Brion. Also, be on the look for synergies within your opponents decks because we can win with them!
Don't be afraid to play some of the resurrection effects into an empty board as they allow more confidence to play out the rest of your hand.
Synergies
Captivating Crew + Dawnbreak Reclaimer
is a combo in which you gain 4 mana to steal and sac your opponents creatures every turn with the upside of bringing back everything that died. This works the same if they give you back a Molten Primordial or Conquering Manticore. Note that any 'Until end of turn' effects that are created here will apply until the end of the next turn. This can be relevant if you need a blocker the turn immediately after yours.
Go for forth and spread the word!
Comments, suggestions, criticisms, grammar corrections, and ratings are all welcome!
When recommending cards, please remember that this deck is part of a 32 deck singleton challenge. I do want to include as many cards in the primer as may fit. Ultimately each card will only be included in the deck that I feel is best for it. Also, please keep in mind that the deck is based around a network of synergies; combo-related cards should be useful outside of their combos.
32 Singleton Disclaimer
I've been playing magic for over a decade. The past 8 of which has been strictly EDH. My commander decks follow a rule of highlander between them. This means that other than basic lands no two of my commander decks will share any card. To make it interesting I am also doing the 32 deck challenge. Which is one deck of each possible color combination.
Therefore the cards I choose to include here are highly dependent on what cards are available and which deck I think can utilize the card to its fullest potential. I also want each deck to be consistent and powerful enough to sit down at any focused table and have a fun game.
I will include a section in every primer with upgrades for the deck that I would likely make if it wasn't singleton or cards that I cut to make it singleton. Please let me know if you have any experience playing these in your local group and how they work out for you!
An advantage to having so many decks is that it's extremely difficult for a meta that I enter to adjust to any one deck. Each game against my pool is guaranteed to be unique.
